Matt and Becky’s Mini Adventure

Our 13th Month Journey At A Glance.

Sitting at home four months after landing back at Heathrow our epic, epic journey seems like a lifetime ago. If you have been following our blog for the duration you will be aware of some of the amazing experiences we were fortunate enough to live during our thirteen month trip around the world. We ended up visiting some 15 countries during which we met so many amazing people, some of whom we now count as close friends. Just a few of the things that will live with us forever include…

Cycling 2,500 miles across Spain and France. Trekking in the Nepalese Himalayas. Being petrified on the two day jungle walk in the Chitwan National Park Nepal but actually seeing wild rhinos upclose. Defying death riding on the roof of buses with a group of Monks in Nepal. Four weeks of non-stop travelling around India with a couple we met on a busy station concourse in Varanasi. Running away from a ’stampeding’ elephant in Thailand and leaving the wife behind :-0. Driving around the remote hills outside Pai on a little scooter and then rafting for two days through a deserted jungle. Travelling for up to six weeks with an amazing group of people we met on our first day in Laos. Crawling through the tunnels and firing an M16 at Cuchi Tunnels in Vietnam. The amazing diving live-aboard off the Andaman Coast in Thailand. Sonkran (Thai New Year) on the island of Phi Phi. Wine tasting with style in Singapore. The 12,000km road trip around Australia including swimming with Whale Sharks, countless wildlife, great people and meeting up with old friends. The stunning scenery and action packed adrenaline rush of New Zealand (plus the conception of our forthcoming baby). Meeting amazing people through our language school in Santiago. The most Southern City in the World and the phenomenal Perito Merino Galcier in Argentina. The stunning Iguazu Falls on the Argentine/Brazilian border.

Of course we have so many wonderful memories which will be helped to be kept alive through the blog we dedicated so much time to maintaining, and just some of the 15,000 plus photos we took. I can truly say it was a once in a lifetime experience which I hope will remain with us and build on the common bond Becky and I already share. If anybody out there has even the slightest urge to pack everything up for a year and see just a little bit more of what is out there, do it! There are simply no excuses, just things to work around.

Landing back at Heathrow on a Saturday morning last September I had just over 24 hours before I was back at the airport and flying to Holland for work.  I spent a week there and then returned for a couple of days before going to Norway, back again and then back to Norway. In October, I was offered the opportunity to go to Brazil on a four week commissioning project…this turned into seven weeks and I walked away with a permanent job which I am now on standby to start. My new role is an Electronics Technician based onboard the Noble Dave Beard semi-submersible drill ship off the coast of Brazil. I will be working a rotation of 30 days away and 26 days at home. This is going to be tough for Becky and I and we’ll have to take each trip as it comes, but the job and opportunities are exciting and it’s the best way I know how to support my growing family. I am currently awaiting my permanent work visa and will begin my first 30 day rotation imminently.

The rig I was and will be working on in Brazil.

Rebecca applied for one job, attended one interview and got it! However, being the efficient service that the NHS is she had to wait six weeks to start. She is now working in Endoscopy at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and enjoying to varying degrees the different challenges to A&E it offers. Rebecca is now 27 weeks pregnant and so far everything seems to be going incredibly well (touching lots of wood). I was fortunate enough to be present for the 12 week scan and was moved at the images we saw of our baby.

Our baby at 12 & 20 weeks!!!

Unfortunately I was in Brazil for the 20 week scan, but with modern technology had the images within hours and again was assured everything was exactly the right size, shape etc. Becky is due on the 19th April and when we returned from travelling we never thought it would be possible to settle back in to life and actually find a permanent abode before this date arrived. However, with the fortune of some well timed work opportunities and some hard work and sacrifice on both our parts, we are in a position to buy a house and had an offer accepted on our potential new home at the beginning of this week. The property is vacant and without a chain, so we are hopeful of a smooth process.

Hopefully, this will be our new home.

So four months after returning although the experience feels like a lifetime ago we still relive moments everytime we pick up the blog or glance back at some of our photos. We are settling into jobs, buying a house and getting ready to raise our baby in this crazy world. I guess for now that’s our lives in a nutshell, but this is merely the end of a chapter and with possibly one the biggest events of our lives on the horizon a new Mini Adventure is soon to begin…

Our route around Chile, Argentina and our brief trip in to Brazil. August to September 2009.

I think you can appreciate the fact that we were a little confused when we touched down in Santiago after a ten and a half hour flight, five hours before we’d even taken off! Uhm…me to…flight left Auckland at 1650 on Friday, just over ten hours later we touch down in Santiago at 1210 the same day!?! The flight with Lan Chile was one of the best. The plane must have been brand new with ultra comfy seats and the best in flight entertainment. With this and a couple of sleeping pills we were there in no time.

I’d sorted out another Couchsurfing host in the hope I could restore Becky’s faith in the project. Unfortunately he was at work until 2000 so we had to entertain ourselves for the afternoon. When we finally met our host, Patrick, he turned out to be the nicest guy, extremely hospitable and easy-going and just the person to show us a bit of life in the city and that there were some amazing Couchsurfing hosts out there. Strangely we had a mutual friend in Houston…a very small world indeed! Arriving at his flat, all we felt like doing was crashing but Patrick’s energy was soon transferred and off we went on a late night trip (late bearing in mind we’d just got off an overnight flight and not slept properly in two days) to a tapas restaurant which served the most delicious food, including possibly the best white chocolate cheesecake ever! You HAVE to check out Pata Negra if you ever find yourself in Santiago. The following night we were taken to a fancy dress party hosted by the Language School we had signed up to attend for the following two weeks. We were completely unprepared, although Patrick was not…. he spent the evening dressed in a toga and once suitably intoxicated, took to flashing vehicles and trying to get stray dogs (that is not a metaphor) onto the bus and back to the flat. We left Patricks suffering from sleep deprivation, but thoroughly entertained by our first few days in the city and hopefully having made a friend for life.

We did our best to get thoroughly lost crossing the city on the super cheap metro & bus and after walking a couple of miles further than we needed to with our heavy backpacks we arrived at our homestay arranged by the language school. We were going to be based in the same place for a full two weeks! This is double the amount of time we had spent in a single place for over a year!!! Adriana and Felipe were lovely and there apartment was really, really nice. Although on the 15th floor the Chileans don’t seemed to have discovered double glazing yet and it was pretty noisy 24 hours a day. For reference; noisy enough that you couldn’t hear the TV with the window open. They were lovely and fortunately for us spoke amazing English! It was whilst staying with them that at 4am on the 18th August 2009 we discovered that Becky was pregnant! I know, why 4am, but if you gotta pee you gotta pee. Needless to say that was the end of sleep for that night and a few after that, as we discussed our options and got very excited and scared about the big decisions that were now required. We decided we would head home a little earlier than planned in order to find work and be in a developed, English speaking country for the three month scan. I invested a stupid amount of time into trying to find a job for when I returned home and Becky fired off one application and got it! It was a shame to miss out on the elevated Salt Plains and animal sanctuary in the remote Jungles of Bolivia but probably not the best place to be whilst in your first trimester.

Phillipe and Adriana with family (Spanish Lesson Homestay). The impressive view of Santiago by night from Patrick's roof.

Unfortunately the inadequately named ‘morning sickness’ kicked in around this time and impacted on the rest of our time in South America. We spent two weeks living with Phillipe and Adriana whilst we studied with the lovely people at Escuela Fronteras. Our Spanish was virtually non-existent when we arrived and although over the two weeks we picked up a lot, we have failed to use it enough and so it’s pretty much back to where we started! However, if you were ever looking for a Language School in Santiago we would recommend them without hesitation. Some of the friendliest people we met on our trip and we still keep in touch now.

As mentioned, the plans for the remainder of our trip altered after finding out that Becky was pregnant. We brought forward our return to the UK and instead of journeying north into Bolivia, we took a bus across the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. A region famous for its wine, sadly not fully appreciated by both of us, although, at 40p a litre the Argentinians also produce the worlds cheapest beer (Matt fact not necessarily true),  which helped with the wife’s morning sickness…well, for me at least . After a fairly unproductive day in Mendoza, we continued on another overnight bus to Cordoba. This turned out to be just another dirty, polluted city which didn’t really inspire us an Becky felt incredibly nauseous, so we spent most of the day figuring out the best way to spend our last three weeks. We came up with the plan of getting to Buenos Aires and jumping on a plane down to the most southern city in the world, Ushuaisa. Spend a few days there and then get on another plane to El Calafate to see the remarkable Perito Merino Glacier and then the complete the triangle by flying back to Buenos Aires before starting our journey north into Brazil. This took a little time to sort out but now we had a plan and a purpose which felt good. The following day we jumped on another night bus, this time to Buenos Aires and then transferred directly to the domestic airport for the first of our three flights.

We had a lovely time in Ushuaia and were really lucky with the weather. We arrived in a snowstorm to a back drop of the Beagle Channel and snow-covered mountains, a beautiful sight and then the following days when we were out enjoying the scenery the clouds cleared and we were told this was the first time they had seen blue skies in months. We treated ourselves to a stay in the most luxurious hotel we could afford and generally blew the remainder of our budget undertaking all the usual activities you do whilst pregnant…dog sledging and skidoo riding (high powered, fast, snow mobiles) but I guess if you can skydive whilst pregnant…We also did some more cautious sight seeing with a great afternoon spent cruising the Beagle Channel by boat, riding an old steam train to The End of The World and taking a days private guided tour up to the lakes and local villages surrounding Ushuaia. Three days passed really quickly and we were sad to leave the most comfortable place we had stayed in over a year but it was not all bad as we were off to El Calafte to continue our whistle stop tour of Patagonia.

Us on dog sleigh in the beautiful mountains around Ushaia, Argentina.

El Calafate is in the middle of nowhere! Flying in, with views for tens of miles in every direction, the landscape is bare. Looking on a map its apparent there isn’t anything else for hundreds of miles around it.  The new airport has purely been built to bring in the phenomenal number of tourists who come to stare in awe at the amazing Perito Merino Glacier. One hundred square miles of ice with a front over 3 miles wide and an average height above the water of 75 meters, it is an impressive site to say the least. We stood and watched it for hours, listening to the ice creak as it constantly moves and then every so ofetn a large chunk of ice falls off the front of the glacier and a mini tidal wave spreads across the lake accompanied by the ‘boom’ generated from the impact with the water. Obviously, after four hours of watching the glacier and shooting over one hundred pictures of mini collapses, my camera battery dies moments before the biggest ice fall of the day when a whole section dramtically seperated from the main glacier and thundered into the lake. Gutted! There are also some very cool tours you can do which enable you to walk on and explore the glacier by foot. Unfortunately this was not an activity they would let pregnant people do (hence our four wait at the glacier front) so maybe a very good reason to go back one day. Would recommend a visit to anyone who happens to be ‘passing’.

The Perito Merino Glacier, Argentina.

Back in Buenos Aires we spent time exploring on foot, seeing the different areas and architecture, and completing more job applications…I am happy to say that after some atrocious Argentinian cuisine (Ushuaia excluded) my faith was restored and I could return home singing their praises after we splashed out on a good quality restaurant and enjoyed the nicest bit of beef I think I’ve ever had. Due to our appalling Spanish we managed to order enough food for four which I washed down with a great bottle of Malbec but the outcome was a substantially increased heart rate as my body struggled to process the cow I had just eaten! We could easily have spent more time in Buenos Aires as it is a very attractive city, although our hostel left a lot to be desired. Our room could only be accessed through a communal dorm and there were invariably people in there sleeping at all hours of the day. We would stumble around in the dark trying to unlock our door, then we’d have to repeat the process in reverse when you wanted to go the bathroom as this was back out in the hall. Due to poor plumbing, low standards of hygiene and housekeeping and the walk through a dark communal dorm room, the bathroom was only a place you went in emergencies. Our room wasn’t a lot better, with two old dirty bunk beds, boarded windows and bare floors, none of which had been cleaned in my lifetime, it’s only plus was we had the room to ourselves. Definitely the worse place we had stayed since India and even competed with some of those.

We took a 16 hour overnight bus up to Puerto Iguazu on the Brazilian border to visit the very impressive Iguazu Falls from the Argentine side. Sixteen hours on a bus normally isn’t that appealing but one things the Argentinians have got right is the different levels of comfort they offer on their buses (similar to India with it’s trains, Argentina has at least six different classes to choose from and over 50 different bus companies). This is probably because they know how shite their roads are and covering a distance it would take an hour in most other countries takes four in Argentina. However, the buses were amazing. Had this been the beginning of our trip I think we have been more budget conscious and travelled in one of the lowest classes…but it wasn’t! So out with the credit card and the best seat we can get please. On this 16 hour journey this was a fully reclining seat (180 degrees into a bed) which included a personal TV with a choice of films, waiter service with complimentary food and drink and a toilet that was a lot nicer than our last hostel! Travelling on buses here was something you looked forward to.

We arrived at Iguaza just before lunch and after a pretty reasonable nights sleep we decided to dump our bags at a hostel and head straight for the falls. We spent about four hours exploring the falls which wasn’t quite enough time as they are huge! With 275 falls concentrated in a 1.5 mile stretch of river, it’s an impressive sight! We took a speed boat ride to the base of the falls where these crazy drivers get as close as they can simply to drench the screaming tourists. This was another activity you weren’t meant to do when pregnant…oops.

One section of the impressive Iguazu Falls. You can just see the speed boat on the way back from the base of the falls in the bottom left hand corner.

The following day we took another bus across the border and up to Sao Paulo to visit Becky’s friend Michelle and her family. Sao Paulo is vast and in order to get across the city from the bus station to Michelle’s, we took the Metro. Unfortunately we arrived at rush hour and the Metro was very busy. The train was full and I honestly thought you could not fit anymore people on. Then we came into a station where there were people fifteen deep on the platform waiting to board. I thought to myself they’d just wait for the next train as this one is full. I was even more surprised therefore when the doors opened and it was the strongest scrum I have ever been against. We were literally picked up off of our feet and driven across the carriage an jammed into position as people literally fought to squeeze on. Pinned in position still with our massive backpacks on adrenaline going, several stops later a lot people disembarked and the train went back to full, not bursting. A scary experience but again one that we survived and can exaggerate further and further for years to come! We made it to Michelle’s without being mugged, pick-pocketed or conned and stayed with her for a couple of days, meeting her son Matteo for the first time and very briefly her husband Charles.  By this time we were so close to the final leg home that we were a little preoccupied, but we got some relaxation time in and had a lovely couple of days until Becky managed to pick up a bug (probably following a swim in the not-so-clean pool) and so unfortunately she finished the trip feeling rubbish and I panicked about the her and the baby.

After a bumpy & sleepless ride home at the back of the plane, we arrived home to the UK to a tedious wait at the baggage carousel (brightened up by getting to watch a guy get dragged off by customs) whilst they went through all our bags on the plane. Finally two and a half hours after landing we made it through to arrivals where we were greeted in one of the nicest ways possible, Mum and Dad complete with banner!!! It’s good to be back!

Arriving back at Heathrow after a mammoth year to the nicest greeting you could wish for!

We’d like to say a very big thank you to all of you who have been reading our mammoth blog and keeping up with our adventures, especially to those of you who left messages, as they entertained us and kept us going when we were far from home. I think a special thank you is necessary to Graham who hasn’t missed a blog yet and who’s messages made us smile as he followed our Mini Adventure!

Brasil & Home

Brasil and Home (15.09.09 - 19.09.09). Our final three days of an epic once in a lifetime trip concluded with a visit to friends in Sao Paulo before returning home to T5.

7 Photos

Argentina

Argentina (31.08.09 to 15.09.09). Including; Mendosa, Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, El Calafate, Buenos Aires (again) and Iguaza Falls.

37 Photos

Chile

Chile (14.08.09 - 31.08.09), including Santiago and Valporiso.

30 Photos

Our 4,500km route around New Zealand.

Flying into Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand you could start to see the breathtaking landscape that we would be afforded over the coming weeks, as snow capped mountains peaked through the clouds for as far as the eye could see.

As we had little idea of what we were going to be getting up to in New Zealand we thought another couch-surfing session would be a good way to start, in the hope that a ‘local’ might be able to help out with some suggestions. They say you should be careful what you wish for - our host had an incredible knowledge of his home country and was able to give us numerous suggestions of places to visit but this came at a price. Initially it was fish and chips in his car followed by an hours walk through a deserted pitch black forest. Strange but tolerable. We then returned to his home and he continued to talk at us for another couple of hours. Irritating but bearable. However, when the topic of conversation turned to how he had been in the vicinity of three unsolved murders over previous months, that he was a suspect in one and then started to dress up in the clothing he had been wearing on the nights of the murders and bragging about how the police didn´t have a clue who had done it, surprisingly we began to feel a little uncomfortable!! I mean you would think that most people would realise such a conversation or even confession, was not the best way to make strangers in your home feel at ease. That night we slept with a bag against our bedroom door whilst at the same time wearing all of our clothes to bed as the place was so, so cold and pretty filthy. Needless to say we weren´t murdered that night which we were pleased about, but did wake up to the news than an earthquake had occured south of New Zealand which measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale. Becky and I both realised we had felt this or one of its aftershocks the previous evening but hadn´t realised at the time what was making the walls move or why we felt off balance and nauseous!

With all that said about our host he was kind enough to invite us into his home and provide a VERY detailed account of places we should try and visit. After the first nights scary topic of conversation a relative amount of normality returned. However, the fact that he was a little different did hasten our efforts to locate a vehicle in which to travel around the country and being low season there were some very good deals open to us. We ended up settling on a bright orange ‘Spaceship‘ - a toyota people carrier - for a mere $20 a day (that’s about eight pounds), too good to pass up on!! It was a little more cosy than our Australian van but easier to keep warm and we didn’t have the worry of selling it! The rear of the car had been converted to a bed with storage beneath, there was a two ring gas hob which swung out on an arm from the side of the car (downside being you had to cook outside in the cold ) and it had a DVD player, luxury!

'Phoenix' and Becky at Waihi Gorge near Geraldine. Our favourite campsite in New Zealand.

The sudden change in temperature on arriving in Christchurch was quite a shock and required us to take a trip to some of the local charity shops to stock up on some bargain winter clothing (Jo you´ll be pleased to see from the photos I now have something different to wear). Thankfully the rental company provided us with a double duvet and two hot water bottles which were a life saver and actually made it pretty warm in the car overnight!

With no fixed route decided upon for the South island we initially headed north for Kaikora, THE place to be if you want to swim with dusky dolphins or spot a whale. Driving up the coast in the sunshine we were overwhelmed by the beauty of this country and could have stopped every few minutes to take pictures, it’s an amazing place. Kaikora is a small town with a mountainous backdrop and being snow-covered at the time, the view was even more spectacular. Looking for a place to stay that night we were checking out a few spots along the coast and suddenly realised the huge lump that we had mistaken for a rock metres from us, was in fact a huge fur seal. That’s when we started to notice all the other lumps and backed off!

We rose bright and early to go down to the Dolphin Encounter Centre to find out if the trip would be running. It was!! Kitted out in full wetsuits we were taken down to the boat where despite low cloud they were hopeful that they would be able to spot a pod or two. Visibility soon improved as we motored away from the coast and a pod was soon spotted so we hurridly got our hoods, boots , gloves, fins, masks and snorkels on and sat on the rear deck awaiting the signal to go in. A blast from the boat’s horn and we were in the water, the shock of the cold initially distracting from the dolphins racing by. Our instructions had been to make as much noise as possible, to swim round in circles and to dive down all to attract the attention of the dolphins as we were there to entertain them! For the spectators on the boat it must have been amusing to see and hear our efforts. The dolphins (approximately 200 of them!) were certainly interested and to make eye contact with them and attempt to keep pace as they circled you was amazing and a challenge! We had four opportunites in the water with them and although the cold was definitely getting to everyone by the end (it was about 8 degrees celsius) it was an experience that was right up there with our whaleshark swim! We also got to see a variety of types of albatross, a fur seal and a sperm whale (from a distance!).

On our return, the skipper of the boat suggested that if we headed a little further up the coast we could see a seal colony. We liked the idea and followed his directions. The seal pups had swum/crawled their way up a small river that joined the sea, to the point where a waterfall had formed and they were playing in the pool below. Amazingly a large number were also to be found in the surrounding vegetation and as we arrived at the pool, one particularly inquisitive creature dragged itself over to us and started chewing on Becky’s trousers, after which it moved onto my shoes then onto the next person that showed up! It was a little difficult to know what the best thing to do was? Surely this level of human interaction wasn´t good for these pups?

Very friendly seal pups just North of Kaikoura.

Hundreds of photos later and we found ourselves heading south again, stopping briefly to pick up a crayfish for dinner, locally caught and something we felt we should try - at $40 for the one we won’t be getting another in a hurry! We drove a slightly different route through some more incredible scenery getting tail-gated numerous times (as was to become the norm whilst in NZ) as the kiwis like to get past you even if you’re doing the speed limit only to sit just in front of you, a very annoying habit!

Woke to a beautiful morning and rather than continue south we thought we’d make a diversion inland to a hot springs (Hanmer Springs) - very appealing in the freezing temperatures! The pools ranged in temperature from 29-41degrees celsius and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours dashing between them and sitting enjoying the mountainous backdrop. To top the morning off we had a round of mini golf (I won…just!). Made up our minds about which direction we were going to travel in and got on the road heading south once more.

Drove through the Canterbury Plains west of Christchurch, enjoying the views enhanced in the sunshine until we reached Waihi Gorge where we stopped for the night. On arrival there was already some frost on the ground and this increased as the evening went on. There was one other van at the site with a guy travelling on his own and he was trying to light a fire to warm up. We offered some assistance but after 30minutes of failing to get anything of the soaking wet wood to light we gave in, admired the fantastic stars over a drink and headed back to the relative warmth of the van. More work required on our fire-lighting skills! The morning highlighted again what an amazing spot we had chosen to camp in and we would later decide it was the best campsite for scenery of our entire time in New Zealand and that is saying a lot!

Next stop was Lake Tekapo up in the mountains south west of Christchurch.  New Zealand is a country made up of lakes and mountains but this was possibly the most beautiful we saw during our trip, helped by the fact that we had crystal clear blue skies creating an excellent contrast against the snow capped mountains. Tekapo is also home to the Mount John Observatory and by pure chance we had timed our visit to coincide with no moon, clear skies and the presence of a film crew (which meant there was a reduction in the cost of that evenings tour). It was an extremely cold evening perched 1,029m above sea level but well worth it. Never before have we seen skies like it. The tour was informative and we were fortunate enough to get excllent views of Saturn and Jupiter (rings and moons included) through large telescopes and several strong shooting stars. The film crew was a little annoying in parts with their bright camera lights at inappropriate times but it was still an amazing experience.

So lucky with the weather at Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand.

Leaving Tekapo for Mount Cook National Park we popped in to a glacier fed salmon farm for some fresh fillets for lunch. Unfortunately after leaving there, the weather deteriorated and made the trip up to Mount Cook dangerous and given that visibility meant the view would have been non-existent from the top, we continued south. Stopping off in Twizel to decide what to do instead, we popped into the Tourist Information Office and after only ten minutes returned to find we had left our lights on and had a completly flat battery! Luckily a patronising local mechanic was on hand!

Given the weather forecast for the next few days we changed direction and headed back to the east coast to a place called Omaru. This is a good spot for seeing yellow-eyed penguins return to shore after a hard days fishing. We found a nice exposed hide and spent a couple of hours being frozen to the core by the strong winds. We were rewarded by distant sightings of these very cute penguins waddling ashore. At another good spot for seeing wildlife, Shag point, we were just walking along the cliff top and there was a rustle in the bushes, of course we went for a closer look and found ourselves being barked at by a fur seal! This was a good 15-20m up a reasonably steep cliff, amazing creatures!

Carried on down the coast to Dunedin (Sottish for Edinburgh apparently) which I’ve just found out is the most remote city in the world from London at 19,100 km (11,870 mi). How to make yourself feel homesick! It’s a university town so there was a good feel about it and a lot more life than places we had seen over the previous week. Plenty of old (by Kiwi standard), picturesque buildings and some of the steepest hills I’ve seen a city built on. We visited the Cadburys Factory and then discovered pizza is super cheap in New Zealand and so enjoyed a take away at our campsite for the night (the Botanical Gardens carpark). We followed the coastline around the Otago peninsula and spent a night camped out in an isolated wetland at the end of a very long unsealed road. When the rain started we were fairly convinced we might be stuck there for some time. Luckily it was no problem and we continued down and around the south-east corner of the island through the Catlins to Invercargill. There was so much rain which made the waterfalls even more impressive and we spent another wet and windy dusk on the beach, this time getting very close to half  a dozen yellow-eyed penguins. Flattened the battery for the second time! Luckily we were able to gain some assistance from a friendly local who was at home in the only house for miles! We were in the middle of nowhere. Got slightly misled when we paid a visit to the ‘Niagra Falls of New Zealand’, the guy who named it definitely had a sense of humour! After a reasonable diversion we failed to be impressed by this trickle of water across a small stream!

Carried on to Invercargill where we stopped off and setup camp in a park for the night. After we’d been approached and asked for tin foil (can anybody out there tell me the use of tin foil? I must be getting old because they laughed at me when I asked if they were making a bong!) from a group of teenagers in a clapped out old car and then others turned up and started doing doughnuts around the playground, we decided a local campground might be the better option - probably a good thing as we were badly in need of a shower!

From Invercargill we headed for Milford Sound (it’s a fjord in the south west corner of the South Island), breaking up the drive with an overnight stop aside another beautiful lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. I know, it’s tough! The onward drive from Te Anau to Milford is renonwed for being dangerous with black ice, shear drops and avalanches claiming a fair few victims in the last month alone! We heeded local advice, set out late, took it slowly and fortunately didn’t become another statistic. Through our rental company we got a good deal on a three hour cruise through the fjord and out to the Southern Ocean. It was freezing on deck but the backdrop of mountains covered in vegetation dropping straight down into the sea, lots of waterfalls and even some fur seals made it well worth it. Truly spectacular scenery. We treated ourselves to a room for the night…actually a luxury hut all to ourselves with its own bathroom, cooking facilities, tv, heating and a fabulous view of the river and mountains. Possibly the nicest place we’ve stayed on our whole trip!

Looking out from our warm and cosy luxury lodge in Milford Sound, enjoying the view of the snow capped mountains and river.

The following morning we picked up a couple of hitch-hikers, Sage & Kiel, from the place we were staying (it also had a hostel) and went on a three hour hike to one of the mountain huts you can stay at and then on to the summit of this small mountain. Obstructed views because of the cloud but still a nice walk with good company. Another five hours on the road and we reached Queenstown where our companions were converted from vegetarianism for one night only (or maybe two…) thanks to ‘Fergburgers’, THE place to eat. They do a real tasty burger!

Queenstown is the adrenalin capital of New Zealand (possibly the world!) and so I felt it was time to man up and try and overcome some of the issues my sisters have left me with from my childhood! I never thought I would do a bungee jump but for some reason the urge got the better of me and I found myself standing at the top of a 43 metre bridge (Kawarau bridge) looking down at a fast flowing river with an elasticated cord tied to my ankles thinking ‘what the f***k am I doing’! With no refunds whether you jump or not and knowing that hesitating would make it worse I went on their count of three and can only describe the feeling as terrifyingly amazing. That first moment after you’ve jumped and your stomach isn’t travelling at the same speed as your body is sickening and then it just gets better. I was trying to reach the water (hence why I am topless) but unfortunately my weight put me at the lightest end of one of four ropes they use, which meant I ended up being a metre short. Great, great fun, would most certainly do it again!

Following on from the bungee I decided we should both do a tandem sky dive. This in’t a cheap option but again one which I am so pleased we bit the bullet and did. Loaded into the plane sitting on your instructors lap, Becky was last in which meant she was first out. Unable to talk a lot above the noise, after fifteen or so minutes of climbing to an altitude of 15,000ft Becky and her instructor suddenly disappeard. The same thought went through my head ‘oh…’. My turn came and sitting in the doorway of the plane with my legs hanging out and underneath I had no control of whether I was going or not. Three, two, one…gone…falling with no resitstance from 15,000ft towards the ground! The instructor opened the drogue (a small parachute that provides stability) and signalled that I could bring my arms out and suddenly it was superb! I was freefalling and it felt great! The views were simply stunning…you guessed it, lakes and snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see. Sixty seconds later and the main chute was pulled and we were jerked up whilst the camera man carried on plummeting, just showing you how fast we had been travelling (around 200km/h I think). Under the larger canvas we enjoyed another three minutes taking in the views and simply buzzing from the freefall experience! You can watch our skydive video here.

Adrenaline purge, Queenstown. Kawaru Bridge Bungee (43m) & 15,000ft Sky Dive.

Carrying on with the adventure theme but on a slightly more constrained budget we hired a couple of full suspension mountain bikes and found some single track around Lake Wakitipu. We spent a few hours trying our best not to fall off and injure ourselves as we came bumbling down some steep, rocky and narrow tracks. With the adrenaline fix almost complete and our budget battered, we had one more activity we wanted to get out of our systems and that was a days skiing. For this we headed further north to a town called Wanaka and drove up the treacherous road from the highway to the ski lift. We met up with Kiel (our hitchhiker friend who was living in Wanaka for the season) and after a good days throwing ourselves down the mountain in a particularly shite manner, we retired to Kiel’s hostel to cook in a proper kitchen. We had the most ginormous swede you could possibly imagine (bought for $1 from a wheelbarrow left in front of one of the farms we had passed on the way from Milford to Queenstown), it took about thirty minutes to chop and then a further hour to cook and was the main meal for three of us, twice! We accompanied the main meal with Ice-cream, apple strudel and a game of monopoly, a great way to spend the evening and it was a nice change from the van.

The drive over to the west coast through the Haast Pass was very, very wet but of course spectacular as usual! The rainfall created countless waterfalls in every direction you looked and not just piddly things but massive falls, dropping hundreds of meters at a time! They say New Zealand has a place for all weathers and they’re right, we’ve been lucky enough to time it right on a few occassions now.  Arriving in Franz Josef (home to the Franz Josef Glacier) the strangest thing happened when we were in the tourist information office trying to figure out if the weather would improve enough to do a glacier walk…I started talking to some guy who I’d overheard asking about skydiving (and obviously now being a pro) and I wanted to encourage him to do it. After a few moments chatting we realised we knew each other from somewhere and it turned out we had chatted to them over six months earlier outside a bakery in Udaipur, India! We had been following a very similar route ever since.

With the rain forecast to continue we decided against the glacier walk and continued north along the coast through a very unimpressive Greymouth to a more impressive nature reserve called Punakiki or Pancake Rocks. We took a few walks along the coast, into some caves and inland through a forest before driving into the night and parking up down some deserted track near a river.

Next stop was the Abel Tasman National Park where we got this incredible deal through our rental company…free camping with use of all the hostel facilities (kitchen, lounge, log burner and scrabble), two free beers and secure parking whilst we went off walking! Great setup which we had almost to ourselves on both nights. With advice from the campsite manager we booked ourselves on the first water taxi the following morning. Picked up from the campsite and then boarded the boat at their office before being towed down the road by a tractor. One hour boat ride/tour later we were dropped off on some beach 26km north of the campsite. The walk back was stunning and we were so lucky with the weather. We utilised the time by practising Spanish from our book (not that it’s helped a lot) and before we knew it (eight hours) we were back at the campsite.

A view of one of the many spectacular bays we walked around in the Abel Tasman National Park.

Reluctantly leaving our free accomodation we headed still further north to another salmon farm. This was my day! I was going to catch a fish! Although a lot further than expected, with the guarantee of catching something I was not going to be deterred. It was pissing down with rain when we arrived and full waterproofs wasn’t enough to keep us dry. But my loyal wife knew I really NEEDED to catch a fish and so off we trudged into the rain for the shortest fishing experience ever. Cast, bite, catch, reel in! Repeated this twice. It wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped. However, the fish was filleted and smoked within ten minutes of us killing it and is without doubt the best salmon we have ever eaten so although my quest to catch a big fish STILL continues, it was worth the drive.

Next stop Nelson, for a few admin chores and yet another night camped in a Botanical Garden carpark. Our final trip in the South Island was along the picturesque Queen Charlotte Sound Drive, through the mountains, passing countless bays arriving in Picton in time for tea and cake before our ferry to the North. The crossing to Wellington was a smooth ride which took about 3 hours. We paid a visit to family friends of Becky’s where we were fed and then given a bed to sleep in, amazing! From there we moved on to Gisbourne on the east coast, a days drive from Wellington, to visit distant relatives of mine (my Nan’s, cousins, wife and daughter - bit of a mouthful). Arriving there we felt as though we’d taken a step back in time. Nancy, Cheryl and Dennis were lovely and along with the dogs Jack & Pierre, made us feel very welcome in their home but it was like stepping on to a set of some old Western. Apart from the main half mile long highstreet which has all the normal large shops and banks on, outside of surbubia there is absolutely nothing for hundreds of miles! We spent a couple of nights with them, taking the opportunity to visit their beautiful farm on the coast and see the new born lambs and calves, and then to a friends farm to see the pig that was being ‘grown’ for their Christmas dinner!

Pressured for time we left them and headed for the coast further north. Driving through a very long gorge a four wheel drive towing a car on a trailer (and we discovered after, being followed by a friend) hit black ice and jack-knifed right in front of us. We then hit the same same patch seconds later, just about managing to retain control. We stopped at the side of the road to see if they were ok when four giant men got out of their respective vehicles with leather waist coasts with the ‘Mongrel Mob‘ logo fully covering their backs! In the middle of absolutely nowhere, after the stories we had been told by Dennis and Cheryl involving the gang, guns and after nasty activities, this was not a situation we wanted to be in. We politely made our excuses (with the window only slightly lowered) and got the hell out of there. I guess Emma and Jo, I’m not quite over it yet!

Surviving that near miss we took a quick detour via Rotorua to get a whiff of the sulpher eminating from the place and then it was back to the coast and heading for the Coromandel Peninsula. The roads on the peninsula were incredibly windy which made us both nauseous and we were glad to stop overnight at a farm where we had the backpacker facilities to ourselves (another kitchen, open fire and living area).  The following morning we helped out with milking a cow and collecting the eggs from the chicken coup before going on a two hour horse riding trek. Becky got given a horse they’d only brought the day before which mine didn’t like and did not want to let pass at any point. When we got to a small section where we could canter Becky went to overtake me and my horse bucked allowing Becky a very close inspection of my horses hooves. Having been thrown off the last time I rode and then this, I think it will be a while before I try it again. However, the scenery was stunning and in the whole two hours of riding we didn’t leave the farmers property once, it was massive. My favourite comment was; “You see that hill behind the first two, where the trees start, that’s one boundary and that way you can just make out that small mountain, that’s ours”.

Beginning of a two hour ride at Coleville Farm on the Corromandel Peninsula. In the whole two hours we didn't leave the owners land!

Leaving the peninsula we headed directly for our final stop of our New Zealand adventure, Auckland. We were due to stay with an old work colleague of mine and wierdly on our way into Auckland, driving along the only stretch of motorway in the whole country, we found ourselves right next to him! Very strange. Andy, Sam and their kids Jemia, Louis and the dog Crinkle were wonderful to stay with. Spent a couple of very intoxicated evenings in their company, playing pool in their very own ‘Pool Room’ and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Left to Right: Andy, Sam, Jemia, Louis & ¡Crinkle! in Auckland. Dennis & Cheryl in Gisborne. Alison, Terry, Hamish & Alexander in Wellington.

Whilst in Auckland we also caught up with Sam, another of the guys who used to be on the lifeboat in Brighton who has been living in NZ for the last 2 years. It must be something about Lifeboat Crew but he is also an alcoholic (like Mark in Oz not me) and I particularly loved the point when he cracked open two beers for us to cover the twenty minute drive he was doing barefoot in his friends car back from the supermarket! We did have a good attempt at fishing and this time I almost caught something reasonably big. I even saw it as it jumped out the water fighting as I reeled it in. But, just as I was trying to bring it up the two metre rock we were standing on it fell off! I’ve come to accept I’m just a shit fisherman! Hopefully South America will bring more luck…

New Zealand - North Island

North Island, New Zealand (05.08.09 to 14.08.09). Wellington to Auckland including; Wellington (with Ali & Terry), Napier, Gisborne (with Cheryl & Dennis), Corromandel and Auckland (with Andy & Sam and Sam Earl).

23 Photos

New Zealand - South Island

South Island, New Zealand (15.07.09 to 14.08.09). Christchurch to Picton including; Christchurch, Kairkoura, Hanmer Springs, Waihi Gorge, Lake Tekapo, Dunedin, Otago Peninsula, The Catlins NP, Invercagill, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Wannaka, Haast Pass, Franz Joseph, Westport, Abel Tasman NP, Nelson and Picton.

71 Photos

Our 12,000km Driving Route Around Australia. 22nd April to 15th July 2009.

We left Adelaide in torrential rain with Andrew and a new passenger, Mona, a German girl. The scenery was stunning despite the rain and we didn’t make it too far before we made our first stop, a vineyard in the Maclaren Vale. Becky kindly designated herself as ‘Duty Driver’ which allowed Andrew and I to try out a good selection of the wines. Ended up purchasing a rather expensive bottle for my Birthday celebrations the next day (which made a change from our usual 4 litre/6 pounds value winebox) and then undertook a rather lengthy liquer tasting session. With no intention of buying anything it seemed a very cheap way of enjoying the effects.  Unfortuntely there were too many vineyards and not enough time to get around them all and it does become very expensive very quickly when you feel compelled to buy at least one bottle after tasting their entire selection. The views across the vineyards and rolling hills were perfect with black clouds and rainbows just adding to the beauty. Further purchases made, we continued on to the Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide, where we found a sheltered bay to spend the night.

Woke the morning of my birthday to sunshine and a view of the ocean, even spotted a dolphin! There were a number of keen fishermen up and trying their luck so I decided to join them for a bit. Being my birthday I thought maybe this would bring me a bit more luck, but no, still no fish caught. This section of the coast is renowned as a good place to spot a whale or two and we stopped off in Victor Harbour to find out where we needed to go. Turned out they had had a sighting nearby not long before we arrived. We made our way to the suggested point, on the way coming across three seals just relaxing in the water metres off the wall, a pleasant surprise! We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what we were told was a Southern Right Whale, a couple of km offshore, very exciting!

The weather was very changeable and we were subjected to heavy rain and strong winds as we worked our way round to Melbourne but we were also treated to more rainbows than you could shake a stick at…honestly, it almost became annoying. Aside from the incredible wildlife we got to see we visited a cheese factory, a whiskey distillery, several extinct volcanoes, a couple of sinkholes, forests of eucalypts, lighthouses, a wind farm, more vineyards and of course several of the mammoth statues erected by towns that really have little other reason to stop in!

Objects used by towns with little appeal to stop tourists...it worked.

The Great Ocean Road is actually very short, only 243km of the 900 or so between Adelaide and Melbourne. However, as the famous saying goes ’size doesn’t matter’! What it lacked in ‘length’ it definitely made up for in variety. One minute you would be driving along meters from a sheer 100m cliff, enjoying one of the numerous but impressive named features carved by the action of the sea and the next you would be driving up steep winding hills through alpine forests littered with koalas. It would appear a very impressive drive no matter what the weather. We awoke the morning after we’d visited this section of the coast to hear the news reader announcing the collapse of one of the features we’d visited. It’s probably wrong to admit we were disappointed not to have been around when it happened!

Melbourne was somewhere we’d been looking forward to for a while as we were going to be staying with some friends that we had met and travelled with in Laos and Vietnam and few months ago. We dropped off Andrew and Mona and headed straight back out of the city to find the suburb where Gary and Kathy lived. It was amazing to catch up with them again and they and Gary’s mum Gina, were amazing putting us up for a week, during which we enjoyed living in a house and relaxing! It was a pleasant change from living with three other people in the van; being able to situp in bed, not have to dance with someone everytime you wanted to move, shower access more than once a week and a toilet! At the time we were there swine flu had just been declared a pandemic and Melbourne had been hit pretty hard. Gary, working in a school, managed to pick up something nasty - we’re still not sure if it was swine flu - and rapidly spread it to Kathy and myself, somehow Becky managed to avoid it.

We spent a great day exploring the city with Kathy and topped it off with a game of AFL (Australian Football League) footie otherwise known as ‘Ozzie Rules’. It was great!! We were hooked! The game is fast, the rules are easy to pick up and it’s very entertaining, going on for 2 hours! It’s an excellent game to watch and would be great fun to play, definitely an incentive for living here! Some of our time was spent getting the van serviced, replacing parts and thoroughly cleaning it so that everything was in the best possible condition for sale. We had placed adverts online in Sydney and in Brisbane and got quite a lot of interest but annoyingly most people were put off even seeing it by the 500,000km on the clock! We could see stressful times were ahead, the van was our travelling fund for South America and we needed the cash!

Our departure from Melbourne was a little delayed whilst we waited for a parcel to arrive from Perth with the all the vehicle documentation. With paperwork in hand we left Melbourne after a very pleasant week with Gary and Kathy and made our way towards Canberra taking the ‘Snowy Mountain’ route. This was a really beautiful drive and as the van whined as we wound our way higher and higher we eventually came across snow, not a lot but enough to throw a few snowballs. Amazingly further down the road we came across people skiing, mainly thanks to snow machines I think!!

To think there are people sunbathing on the beach in 35 degree heat and skiing down a mountain in fresh snow at the same time in the same country is crazy but we'd seen both in less than a month.

We stopped in Canberra for a couple of days, parking up on the driveway of Becky’s great-aunt Faith and her husband Reg. They were extremely kind, ensuring we were fed and showered and filled us in on a little family history. Canberra itself is so spread out it felt nothing like the cities that we’re used to, almost a little soulless. We spent the first day exploring a nature reserve, the Deep Space Centre and our first visit to the National War Memorial (Museum) and the second morning revisited the amazing War Memorial and Parliament House.

We basically stumbled over the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve on our way to the Space Centre merely by the number of kangaroos that were visible leaping over the six foot fence by the side of the road. We saw our first ‘Joey’ in its mothers pouch which ended up jumping in head first whilst its’ mother ran away from the sound of our engine. We also witnessed a very large kangaroo complete a full 360 degree summersault after catching his feet on the top of this six foot fence he was attemting to jump…landing flat on his face! It was cruel to laugh but we couldn’t help ourselves. The Space Centre was pretty average but did offer a little information and very pleasant views over the surrounding countryside and then it was on to the most impressive Musuem of our trip to date, The Australian War Memorial. With its’ feature films and fantasticly informative and capturing displays this is a must see if you are ever in Canberra. We spent over four hours in there and it still wasn’t anywhere near enough. Finally it was onto Parliament house where we went into a live session and observed the country’s MP’s bickering over the order in which they were going to be bickering for over an hour…frustrating but quite entertaining!

Sydney was the next stop and a visit to Becky’s godmother Maggie with whom we stayed with for a week. Possibly one of the nicest houses I have ever stayed in, close to the city and in a beautiful spot, it was a treat to use it as a base from which to explore Sydney and the surrounding area. In such a big city it was great to have somewhere we could leave the van and not have to worry about finding a place to hide out each night. When we weren’t being kindly invited to drink champagne and eat seafood with some of Maggie’s friends, we visited the usual tourist spots of the Operahouse, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the parks, the Sky Tower, Bondi Beach, Coogee, the Olympic Stadium, went out to Manly on the ferry and up into the Blue Mountains for a day. For me Sydney is probably the prettiest city we have visited and my first view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House is one I’ll never forget. Both being such iconic images of Australaia you felt you had already seen them a thousand times over but ‘in the flesh’ was even more impressive. Certainly somewhere that would be nice to visit again in the future.

We went out to the Olympic Park to watch France play the Wallabies in the rugby and were entertained more by the antics of the french fans than by what was taking place on the pitch. Despite losing in a big way, the french fans were up on their feet shouting and singing and as a result were repeatedly being told to sit down by security. By the end, their group had grown and the police brought in the Riot Squad as a detterent from further mischief, when from slightly further round the stadium a French man leapt up and legged it onto the pitch dropping his trousers and making it to within metres of play before being knocked to the ground. It was hilarious, the most entertaining thing to happen all evening! Oh and France lost 22-6.

Having enjoyed the AFL game so much in Melbourne we decided to watch another, this time a university match where there were less than a hundred supporters and we were able to sit right next to the pitch. A different level of skill displayed but it was just as much fun and made me want to play even more.

A stunning sunset view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House taken from Mrs Macquaries Point.

We spent a couple of nights in the van again working our way up the coast towards Byron Bay, stopping at a couple of gorgeous spots one of which was a beautiful and secluded beach. We timed it well with the temperature climbing to the point where it was perfect for sitting on the beach and even for swimming! We also visited an area of ancient rain forest high in the hills above Bellingen and enjoyed a walk through the mammoth trees to a rather limp waterfall. Excited to be aproaching Byron and meeting up with an old friend from the Lifeboat who had migrated out here, our spirits were dampened a little when our most prospective buyer of the van informed us he had purchased another and left us worried as to whether we would see the cash in time.

Arrived at Byron Bay, our last big stop of our Australia adventure and went off to find our friends from home - Mark and Suzy (now Australian citizens!!) - living in Bangalow, just inland from Byron Bay. Unfortunately for them we turned up as they were still suffering with hangovers and entertaining visitors was definitely the last thing I’m sure either one of them wanted to do! Never-the-less Mark braced up and cracked open a cold beer for the start of a very enjoyable and relaxing week with people that had an ability to put you at ease. During our stay we failed to do as much as we would have liked as a result of our fear that we still hadn’t sold the van and our time was running out! However, we did go kayaking, get out on the rescue boat, go to a local but incredibly entertaining talent show, consume a large amount of alcohol, walk up Mt Warning (the highest peak on the East coast), visit the most eastern point of Australia, undertake various other short and long walks and generally just have a very enjoyable time.

I feel it would be unfair to Mark not to elaborate a little further on our trip out on the Rescue Boat. Mark was helmsman on Brighton Lifeboat and when they moved out here became involved and was soon appointed the ‘Boat Captain’ on the local Rescue Boat. Although offering a similar service to the RNLI back home it is an independent self funded station and operates with incredibly basic, if not ‘dodgy’, equipment in some very challenging seas. My one request from Mark during our stay with him in Bangalow, was that I get a run out on the Rescue Boat so I could return to Brighton and report back to all down the Lifeboat Station. This happened on our penultimate day in Bangalow. We got to the boat and donned our very primitive PPE which consisted of an old waterproof jacket and a Toy’s ‘R’ Us lifejacket. Malcolm would have been proud! After some very poor communications over the battered radio with the ‘control tower’ which was currently only meters away we were floating in the mouth of this incredibly narrow channel watching 3m breaking waves come crashing over the sand bar. Mark looked at me and asked what I thought and I said it was up to him, he knew the break. We sat monitoring the conditions for a few minutes and just when I hought he was going to turn around he floored the massive 300hp inboard and we were powering towards the Pacific Ocean. Timed to perfection Mark had seen a lull and after a few airborne moments as the boat was completely out of the water going over the top of the waves we were clear of the break. Unfortunately it was not all roses out the back and we were greeted a couple of times by swells around four meters high. We played around for fifteen minutes or so but then decided to head back for the harbour entrance before it got any bigger! Coming back in is even more dangerous than going out as you ride the back of the wave and hope it doesn’t disappear underneath you and you are suddenly at the mercy of the massive breaking wave behind you. Again Mark timed it to perfection and brought us back into the harbour safely with a metre or so to spare from the rocky harbour wall. With our heart rates sufficiently elevated Mark had kept his word to Becky and I and we retired for our afternoon adventure - climbing Mount Warning.

Mark took us out on his Rescue Boat at Brunswick Heads. Faced 3-4m swells and breaking surf in the harbour entrance it was very entertaining!

We cleaned and re-cleaned ‘The Beast’, put up posters around town, updated and re-updated adverts online. This generated plenty of interest but again the half a million kilometers soon put a stop to this. Eventually after a few false starts we did negotiate a sale with a very lovely Dutch couple who were moving to Australia permanently and had just arrived in Brisbane. This was a lengthy process with a five hour round trip drive to Brisbane the first time and a further four hour ‘inspection’ by the Dutch. But none the less they put a deposit on the van and allowed us to return to Bangalow with it for the weekend. In truth, other than the stress of the unknown, it couldn’t have turned out any better.

After a very relaxing week spent chatting in front of the fire, eating, drinking and going for walks, the time came to leave Mark and Suzy. They had been amazing hosts and extrenely understanding putting up with us and our van worries, thanks guys! We drove back into Brisbane and hoped the Dutch couple hadn’t changed their minds, found something better or worst case that they would not turn up at all! Luckily they were still happy with their decision. We stepped out of the van at our final destination on Monday morning, picked up our backpacks, collected a handful of cash and walked off smiling. The money was in the bank within ten minutes just in case they started chasing us down the round when the van wouldn’t start! We ended up being slightly better off finanacially than we would have been renting, but looking back on it now, renting would have saved a lot of stress.

For our last couple of nights in Brisbane we thought we’d try a spot of couch-surfing again. We had a very rapid response from a really lovely guy called Andy. After getting rid of the van we made our way over to his and met him and his two children. We were complete strangers and yet they made us feel so welcome and at home it was just a shame we didn’t get to know them better. Saw a small slice of Brisbane and even managed to meet up with another guy we’d met on our travels before heading to the airport and flying out to New Zealand after a fantastic three months insight into some of what Australia has to offer!

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Firstly thank you to all those who left a message on the last blog, it is nice to know people are still reading.

Driving into Darwin we experienced a torrential downpour, not quite what we’d been expecting! It was more humid than it would normally be at this time of year and the rain was a relief. First impressions were that it was more of a town than a city. Stopping off at tourist information we had a number of queries, few of which they seemed able to answer, amazingly - it’s not a big place like I said, you’d have thought they’d know it pretty well, but no. We parted company with our remaining passenger Christelle who was after the relative comfort offered by the hostels (showers, AC, laundry) and spent hours on the internet catching up with everything once again. It was here that we discovered that some lovely person had been using our credit card to go on a spending spree! We decided to spend our first night there in the van and after getting moved along once we found a spot where we remained for the night. The heat inside the van was incredible, similar to that in a sauna! Whilst it was cooling slightly outside, the inside was still like a furnace and due to our choice of location we felt it would be unwise to leave the van door open whilst we slept, so we made do with leaving the top windows open. Having not showered for a few days we probably smelt pretty bad already but after that night it got a whole lot worse for anyone who unwittingly came near us. We made a fantastic discovery the following day in the form of a local pool. We got hold of some two for one vouchers and went to the open air pool which is perched on the edge of a cliff top with stunning views up and down the coast and out to sea. There were also showers, bbqs and a fantastic 50m pool - perfect for a couple of smelly backpackers and all for $3.30 (about £1.60)! Why can’t we have something like this back home?! Swimming in the sea this far north sadly isn’t an option because of the crocs but that pool more than made up for our loss!

Whilst up north we took the opportunity to try some deep sea fishing, something which I had desperately wanted to do for ages. The weather was good and hot, there seemed to be an endless supply of drinks in the eski, food was provided and the company was interesting! There was an American on board who had very thoughfully brought along a large quantity of beer and was doing his best from early on in the day to get as many people intoxicated as possible - of course it would have been rude not to take advantage of this generosity (it definitely helped us take a relaxed approach to the fishing)! One more experienced fisherman caught a massive Black Jewfish (26lb) early on in the morning and the rest of us dreamed of doing likewise for the rest of the day. Sadly it was not to be. We caught a few cod and snapper between us but had to return a number to the sea due to their small size. It was not going to be the day I’d dreamed of where I’d catch ‘the big one’. Next time. At the end of the day we took a box of filleted fish back to the van to bbq and enjoy the following day, poolside! The guy who’d caught the massive Jewfish owned three very posh restaurants, one of which was in town and on discovering that we were backpackers, took pity and rang up his restaurant to arrange for a take-away for us. Extremely generous of him and it was exceptionally tasty. Thank you Jimmy Shu!

In Darwin we met two guys who were looking for a lift down to Adelaide, Henry an Englishman and Andrew an American. We agreed to take them along and the four of us left late in the day on a Friday and headed off in the direction of Kakadu National Park.

Before making it into the park we had a stop at the ‘Jumping Crocodiles’ show. A big tourist attraction, we squeezed onto a boat with hoards of others and got chased down the river by hungry crocs which were basically baited by the crew of the boat with a piece of meat dangled in the water. The croc was teased until it propelled itself out of the water making a lunge for the meat. This was repeated a number of times and was impressive to see. The commentary was provided by a guy who kept up an incessent babble for the duration of the trip which was annoying and entertaining in equal measures for example …’it’s their territory, they’ve been here for years, they love it’ …repeated numerous times until you got the point.

Wild baited crocodile showing its' agility on a Jumping Crocodile Cruise outside Kakadu National Park south of Darwin.

Kakadu is an amazing park which experiences drastic changes througout the year. The visitor centre runs a video to give you an idea of what it’s like through the changing seasons. We were there early in the dry season so the vegetation was still looking pretty green, although water levels in the falls were right down so less impressive than they would be during the wet season but we loved it. There were several places we made it up to from where you could see for miles affording beautiful views. These views were slightly tainted by the smoke from the controlled burning they carry out throughout the dry season to avoid the risk of having massive bush fires like those experienced in Victoria recently.

We had another hitch-hiking adventure to reach the Jim Jim Falls. Leaving the van at the track’s entrance we all managed to hitch a ride in two separate vehicles up the heavily corrugated track, through deep sand and water to the falls. The guy we got a lift with was taking his parents up there for the day and was happy for us to sit in the back of the ute whilst he drank beer and hurtled down the track at 100km an hour, only stopping to get another beer out of the eski we were sitting on in the back! A true Australian or is that ‘hick’? There wasn’t a lot of water coming over the falls but it was enough to make it worthwhile swimming over to sit under it for a bit to experience the icy cold of the pool below & the fear of getting attacked by a crocodile whilst undertaking this swim… we only plucked up the courage to do this once we’d seen a couple of others doing the same, so we figured we were safe aside from the risk of getting hypothermia! We got lucky on our way out of the park picking up a lift for all four of us with a lovely couple who must have seen their kids in us and taken pity. The van was where we’d left it and still in one piece, a successful day!

Me, Becky, Henry and Andrew standing in front of Jim Jim Falls in Kakudu National Park having survived our swim and just before we encounter our second venomous snake.

By chance, on leaving the park we were searching for a place to sleep for the night back out on the main road and came across a sign towards a ‘recreational dam’ and thought we’d take a look just in case. It turned out we’d stumbled across a free camping area which a number of other vehicles were already taking full advantage of. We were greeted by a guy with dreads down to his waist who asked us if we’d brought any ’solids’ with us…. we of course had no idea what he was talking about but he seemed like a friendly sort of chap! The following morning it was so beautiful that it seemed another perfect opportunity for a spot of fishing in the lake there. Again my luck was out and it was depressing to hear from our new-found dread-locked friend that the aboriginals had been there the day before and caught loads. One day it’ll all fall into place…

Near the town of Katherine we visited a place called Edith Falls where there are a series of waterfalls and pools, some of which you can swim in without fear of crocs! We clambered up to one of the higher pools and enjoyed swimming in the sunshine and underneath the small waterfall, perfect. Followed this with a visit to the Katherine National Park where we cooked up a massive bbq and walked to a lookout from where we enjoyed a fantastic view, just a shame we forgot the camera. There was time for a further attempt at fishing, this time with a lure as you can’t use bait in the national park, maybe this is where my luck would change? Rod set up, first cast performed (maybe slightly aggressive in nature) and I found myself watching my lure sail off into the distance no longer attached to thenline(it had nothing to do with the knot I’d tied). So much for a change in my luck, it was obviously not a day for catching fish. On heading out of Katherine we stopped to fill up with petrol and as we were doing so an aboriginal man staggered towards us asking for a light….???? When we declined to fulfil his request he lunged towards Andrew, fortunately for us he was extremely intoxicated and therefore a poor shot. We retreated and the lady at the petrol station appeared and yelled at him. We made our escape past the other drunks at the side of road, destination Alice Springs.

After a quick swim in a Hot Springs only 100km south of Katherine our next stop was an ‘Outback Pub’ in a small place called Daly Waters. I think the size of the place was summed up when I asked the barmaid what the population was and she started naming people and counting on her fingers, I think she stopped at 12. The pub was fun, with crazy live singers and full of old grey nomads who stopped off for the ‘beer and barra’ on their mammoth road trips north in search of the sun. Aside from ourselves there were only a handful of people under 65. The pub was ‘decorated’ with previous visitors belongings such as ID cards, flip flops (or thongs as they are known here), bras and underwear. Andrew was very excited to get rid of his old flip flops and Henry pinned some money to the wall that he had left over from Bangladesh. We actually paid to sleep in the campsite attached to the pub, the first time in a while. At $5 a head this brought our total spend on accomodation to about $130 (65GBP). Not bad for six weeks!

Andrew, Becky and Henry sitting at the bar in Daly Waters debating what pieces of attire to leave to mark their attendance

Proceeding south we took a minor detour to take in a cliff formation which supposedly looked like Churchill’s head… sad to say we never saw anything that looked remotely head shaped let alone in the likeness of Churchill! Further on in the middle of nowhere we came across ‘The Devil’s Pebbles’ and The Devil’s Marbles’ named by the aboriginals and sacred to them, they were rounded granite rock formations, small and large respectively as the names suggest. Very impressive. The backdrop of a clear blue sky emphasised the redness of the rock and also the emptiness of the surroundings. After a quick scramble on top of the rocks to obtain necessary photos and in order to ruin any good karma we had built up (apparently this was sacred aboriginal land…oops) we drove on in haste towards ‘Testicle Man’. As previously mentioned every outback town that has nothing to offer and even less to see builds something big and obvious in an attempt to lure in some money from the tourists passing through this desolate part of Australia. Aileron, 100km North of Alice Springs was no different and was sufficiently cunning to leak a rumour to the Lonely Planet that said statue actually had a time capsule in his left testicle. How could we drive straight past that?! Picture obtained, it was finally on to Alice Springs and the ‘centre’ of this large land mass.

Me on top of the Devils Marbles just North of Alice Springs in the Northern Territories.

With our first link to the modern world in a few days we replenished our supplies and went to check our emails. We were met by news that both of us had been dreading at any time but especially when you are on the other side of the planet, Granny Morrow had passed away. Without a doubt the hardest thing Becky has had to deal with on this trip, the distance between her and the family was apparent. She struggled for almost a week over the decision of whether to return home for the funeral but after consultations with most family members, made the hardest decision ever and decided to pay her respects independently from here. Dealing with this experience was made tougher by the fact that we were sharing an area three meters by two and a half with two almost strangers. Needless to say, tough times.

I doubt we are the only people who thought of Alice Springs and Ayers Rock (Uluru) as being in close proximity but here’s the newsflash, they’re not!! Most inconvenient! The rock is another 550km from Alice and the detour from the main road (the turn off being 200km south of Alice Springs) to take in Uluru and another famous sight known as Kings Canyon is a 900km round trip diversion! After two days of driving you actually end up back where you started! The temperature had dropped and shorts and flip flops had be replaced with warmer attire. It was hard to accept that this was the end of our prolonged summer. Before heading to Uluru we briefly diverted to the Western McDonald ranges just outside Alice where we went on a bit of a hike through a massive gorge accompanied by more flies than we cared for. We’d had difficulty finding somewhere to sleep undisturbed the previous night and so made the decision once we’d finished our walk to start heading south and find ourselves a rest area off the main road where we wouldn’t be moved on at 0500hrs. The following morning we diverted off the Stuart Highway and drove through grey skies and patchy rain, stumbling across the rock around midday after being stung for $25 each entry fee. It was impressive but not quite as we’d expected. Being such an Australian icon we’d seen it many times on promotional material so we arrived expecting a lot. The grey sky and light drizzle did little to bring out the redness the rock is renowned for and because of the rain we were unable to climb it, instead we thought walking round it might be a good second best… it was a long walk around a very big red rock which surprisingly is pretty much identical from every angle! Certainly not the highlight of our time in Australia to date. Visited King’s Canyon the following day and were once again slightly underwhelmed, maybe we’ve just seen too many sights. The poor weather played a big part and I’m sure influenced our opinions of the place.

The slightly underwhelming Uluru from one of the 360 degrees we viewed it from.

Following our side trip we continued south toward the Nothern Territory-South Australia border. We stopped overnight on the border where we met a lonely, cold and wet Spanish cyclist who was also travelling between Darwin and Adelaide all be it at a slighter slower pace. Given our short cycling experience we were able to empathise with this cold, wet, hungry and demotivated Spaniard. With an almost perfectly straight road, 100’s of kilometers between rest areas let alone service stations this really was a lonely place to ride and he insisted we promised never to attempt it! We were able to offer him a short period of warmth over coffee and breakfast in ‘The Beast’ before deserting him to continue on. We covered the distance he was planning to do that day in a couple of hours and saw only the odd car and one road house, we felt bad for him! Our ultimate destination on this leg was Adelaide and with the knowledge that we were now so close we only made brief stops those being at Coober Pedy (like a scence out of Mad Max) and Port Augusta(civilisation at last!!).

We spent our first night in Adelaide camped out in a dark street outside the Botanic Gardens, after which we said goodbye to our passengers. Henry departed for Sydney and Andrew went to a hostel for a couple of nights to give us some space. We spent four days in Adelaide looking around the various sights and enjoying a bit of city life. We felt like Adelaide was very homely. It’s not a big city and has wide, open streets and a lot of green space. People seem to be very active and houses are incredibly good value. You’ve got Flinders Range National Park to your north, vineyards in all directions and a sandy beach only minutes away. I mention all these atributes as we considered, for a very short amount of time, stopping, setting up home and getting some work for a while. We were both feeling a little travel weary at this point and the idea of having a house, a relative amount of normality and routine and not having to watch every penny you spend, very appealing. We soon realised this little daydream wouldn’t fit in with longer term plans and so settled on another four and half months travelling instead.

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Landing at Perth airport was a big step back in time from Singapore in all but the prices! Back in a fully western society with a thump we paid $45 to get from the airport to our friends house in South Fremantle. We were incredibly fortunate that very close friends of ours from home had emigrated out to Australia around the same time we had left on our travels and were currently living in Perth. This meant we got to see some people we know and save some money on accommodation in this very expensive country. Fantastic.

I know Nick from work and have spent a lot of time with him in the office and on various rigs and it was so nice to spend time with people you already have a friendship with. Our first weekend in Oz was Anzac day and we were taken South by Nick and Susannah to a place called Pemberton. We spent our first night at a campsite just prior to which I had managed to buy a massive 1.3Kg steak from the local butcher for only $15 (meat is one of the few things which is cheap here). Feeling very happy with myself I cooked the cow on the campsites BBQ and we enjoyed our first Australian steak with some very, very cheap wine.

The Steak!

The following day we went and climbed the Bicentennial Tree, a 75m tree that has metal rods drilled into the trunk which protrude 1m and are spaced about 1m apart. They spiral up in a clockwise motion to the top and there’s nothing to stop you falling if you slip, so by the time I got to the top my legs were shaking from the fear of falling. Coming down was worse! Continuing with the tree theme we visited the ‘Tingle Trees’, a series of bridges through the forest suspended about 50m above the ground. With not a lot to see below and it being very safe it it was not a patch on the mornings adrenaline rush.

Susannah had some relatives just down the road in Denmark who we imposed on for two nights. They live in an isolated rural ‘community’ where each household owns a share of the surrounding land and each resident agrees to abide by certain by laws. One of the bylaws prevents the residents from keeping dogs and as a result the area is filled with wild kangaroos. It was very cool looking out into the garden and surrounding land and seeing lots of kangaroos grazing. The funniest sight was watching two actually box!

Boxing Kangaroos in Denmark.

On our second morning away we visited a local beach and had our first swim in the Indian Ocean in Australia. A little apprehensive after all the shark stories, off we go with our body boards (the only ones without wetsuits) to play around in the small surf. Within ten minutes Nick alerts me to some dorsal fins coming our way and I almost had an accident! I was incredibly happy and excited when we realised they were dolphins that had also come to play in the waves.

That afternoon we attended a small concert at a local vineyard. It was very cool, surrounded by hippies, drinking, eating, dancing and enjoying the band with their whole families. From the amount of tye dye clothing present and the level of crazy dancing I expected the air to be full of the smell of marijuana and handfuls of pills to have been consumed, surprisingly I witnessed neither (just a lot of red wine).

Back in Fremantle we dedicated all of our time to finding a vehicle in which we could tour across Australia. Since arriving in Oz the weather had been significantly cooler than the last nine months and so we decided to change our initial plans of just heading straight across the Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide and instead to head North into the sunshine, to Darwin. After trawling through the free paper and the online ads we realised our options were limited in terms of what we were looking for. Pressure of time and our eagerness to get on the road led to our investment in a camper with 500,000km on the clock. What were we thinking?!? Our new home was a Toyota Hiace high-top van, complete with fridge, cooker, sink and a whole load of other useful items.

The Beast! 488,000km on the clock but it's in excellent inside and out. Sleeps four pretty comfortably and will hopefully get us around Australia without and problems.

Having gone all out and bought a van we felt we needed some assistance with fuel. We were planning on covering over 10,000km and at a fairly poor 14Litres/100km (mostly due to the height and lack of aerodynamics this offered) the cost was going to add up pretty quickly (luckily fuel is still half the price of that in the UK even in the middle of absolutely nowhere)! For that reason we put an advert online and searched the local hostels for people requesting a lift to Darwin. Incredibly rapidly we found we had a number of people interested, two of whom we met and agreed to take - Christelle and Michel both french. Excited, we said our farewells to our wonderfully tolerant and patient hosts and set off on the highway north, four adventurers in a van.

Our first stop, aside from the supermarket, was the Pinnacles. These are really old pointy rock-like structures which could have been formed in a number of ways over millions of years - they’re not entirely sure- now a tourist attraction. Chased away from this attraction by flies we headed on to find somewhere to free-camp; it turned out to be the first of many nights which we free-camped under the stars staying at only two campsites in the 20 day trip to Darwin. Having four people in the van turned out to be cosy but manageable. We took turns using the stove - whoever was the most hungry or desperate - and shared the washing up, chatted till what we assumed was late (1930) and then rearranged the van for sleeping. The routine varied little each evening, giving us some level of normality and stability for the first time in months.

We took a several hundred kilometre detour to visit Monkey Mia, part of a national park area famous for dolphins that come in to be fed. A stop off at a beautiful beach made of shells was spoilt by the presence of thousands of flies, the answer to which was apparently a head net, but we were not ready to branch into this line of headwear just yet and fought the flies as best we could, unable to escape even in the water! The national park of which Monkey Mia was a part, was not one which liked people free-camping (and the terrain was such that there was nowhere to hide a van) so we remained outside the park area for the night and headed off down a corrugated track - our first experience of unsealed roads - to a place called Eagle’s Bluff. The road was maybe 2km but we drove along it slowly and carefully, wincing at the violent juddering that would occasionally hit the van when we attempted to speed up. The night was uneventful, but the morning brought problems. We were approached whilst brushing our teeth by two dishevelled looking guys in need of assistance to get their car battery started. How could we refuse? We expected to be the ones asking for help! Once in position next to their car it took a while to locate our battery (lucky they sought help from the experts!) but it was eventually found, jump-leads were attached and after quite some revving of the van’s engine they were able to start their car. Success.

The excitement of the start to the day led us to arrive at Monkey Mia too late to see the dolphin feeding, but we were entitled to a 24 hour pass that would allow us to see this the following morning, so we had a day of relaxation and beach time which was enjoyed by all. The previous owner of the van had left a fishing rod, reel and tackle in the van and Monkey Mia seemed a particularly good place to fish. I went off with Michel (the French male passenger) and tried our luck for the afternoon. On our first cast we caught a small whiting and on our second cast we also caught something. However, as we were reeling this second catch in we observed a very large black object following our fish in to where we were standing thigh deep in the water. I pointed it out to Michel just to make sure my over active imagination wasn’t tricking me but he too suddenly looked panicked by this approaching sea monster…we ran and so did the black underwater object, luckily in the other direction! We still have no idea what it was, possibly a large ray or maybe a small shark but who knows!?! Aside from being chased we successfully caught a couple of fish and a rather large (1m), but apparently still a baby, shovel-nosed stingray, which we subsequently found out we should have put back and could not eat. That put a bit of a dampener on the day. The following morning we all attended the dolphin talk and observed about a dozen dolphins come in to be fed. They were literally centimeters away. Becky was lucky enough to be one of the very few to be selected to feed one. A complete tourist trap experience and somewhat hypocritical of the Marine Departments advice not to feed dolphins but never the less, great to see and an enjoyable experience.

Monkey Mia. Becky was lucky enough to be one of the very few who got to feed a dolphin. Very cool even if it is a complete tourist trap.

Coral Bay was the next stop up the coast. Three days were whiled away easily, participating in different activities whilst our French friends spent a lot of time on the beach. We had access to showers, toilets, drinking water and a barbeque (all for free), positively luxurious!! It was one of only a few points around the world that for a few months of the year whalesharks could be seen and swum with, something which we were both very keen to do. Although this was very expensive, the complete coincedence we were in the right place at the right time and probably would never be again, left little to be discussed. We arranged to do a days diving and snorkelling with manta rays and then another day in search of whalesharks. That company saw us coming. The dives were less impressive in terms of the coral we had seen in Thailand and even Vietnam but this was made up for by the large sea life we saw: grey nurse shark, grey reef sharks, banded eel snakes and much, much more. In between our dives we were given the opportunity to snorkel with a manta ray, a challenge because they move so fast and the visibility was very poor. Fortunately for us, the manta the boat had found was content to sit in one place for a minute and barrel roll which meant that when entering the water you were almost on top of it and had a fantastic view of it 1-2metres below. Strange but beautiful creatures. We also got to see a dugong which looks something like a sealion but we couldn’t get the same kind of view of it as we did with the manta because you’re not allowed to swim with mammals in WA. The day we spent with the whalesharks was even more exciting. Not knowing quite what to expect, 20 of us sat on the floor of the boat kitted out in wetsuit, snorkel, mask and fins and waited for the spotter plane above to guide the boat onto the first one. We were lucky enough to be in the group first into the water and 10 of us, when signaled, slid in from the back of the boat. This is timed so that you enter the water as the whale shark is approaching the stern so that you get to see this mammoth beast swimming towards you, before you choose a direction to swim so that you are out of its way. Then you follow the whale shark by swimming alongside it on either side. The excitement which bordered on panic, with everyone kicking hard, meant the water was very churned up and you often got kicked by someone else. Unfortunately the first whaleshark also came in for this treatment when a slightly less observant member of the group wasn’t being too clever and booted the poor creature on the back, needless to say it swam off (downwards) in disgust. The second group were not happy with us having been waiting patiently for their turn. Fortunately we were very lucky and we saw four whalesharks that day and one hung around for ages enabling the groups to keep switching in and out of the water. They were all incredible. Of varying sizes (huge), apparently from 3-7m, often accompanied by numerous fish and they were very curious about these groups of odd new creatures that kept appearing. An amazing opportunity which seemed unreal even at the time. Possibly one of the highlights and most memorable experiences of the trip so far!

One of the most amazing things we've done on our whole trip. Snorkeling with whalesharks out of Coral Bay in Western Australia. Very few people are lucky enough to do this let alone capture a whaleshark in the same picture as you!

Driving in the dark in parts of Australia is not advisable. In Western Australia it is particularly hazardous with kangaroos, wallabies, birds, insects and cows straying into your path along the thousands of kilometers of unfenced roads. Having slept rough for two nights in Coral Bay and hence having not driven very far, we returned from our day’s adventures to find the second battery had died and subsequently the fridge…not good. So in order to charge it a bit we thought we’d cover a bit of ground in the right direction - i think the phrase is two birds, one stone, right? It was actually one kangaroo and two birds with one van. We were driving at a reasonable speed, I spotted the roo to the left, dipped the lights, slowed and thought we’d got past it…wrong! It jumped right into the side of the van and bounced off again - it was a very large kangaroo and it made a hell of a bang. Shocked we continued only to come screeching to a halt when a bird hurtled into the windscreen, presumably chasing one of the thousands of insects in our headlights. Starting again slowly yet another bird crashed into the windscreen - we left the road at the next possible rest area, fresh out of karma from all the lives we’d taken that evening. We were however pleasantly surprised to find our road kill had inflicted fairly minimal damage to van, just a small dent and a couple of scratches to the paintwork. Hearing the noise the kangaroo had made on impact I was expecting the side door to be an absolute mess. We have avoided driving at night where possible since that experience but for some reason always seem to end up looking for somewhere to sleep and never finding it in time (this has resulted in a fair few sudden braking and swerving episodes).

We had set ourselves 18 days in which to get from Perth to Darwin which meant that we were unable to stop at every point of interest and undoubtedly missed some sights. We had a lot of ground to cover (a little over 4,000km in a reasonably straight line along the coast but by the time you added in the additional diversions to Monkey Mia and Coral Bay it ended up being closer to 5,000km) so we spent a lot of time in the van just getting from place to place. We shared the driving between Becky and I, swapping every couple of hours to reduce the chance of falling asleep at the wheel. Frequently there were occasions when we would start the day and the next turn off the road would be over 500km. Driving hundreds of kilometres in a straight line can become tedious after a while but luckily the roads in Western Australia are single carriageway, quiet and the landscape is stunning and changes fairly frequently, with the occasional bush fire to keep us alert. Other road users acknowledge your presence with a wave and people tend to stop if you’re at the side of the road to see if all is well. There is an exception to this rule of stopping but that is probably best explained over a beer!

The next section of the coast had less to offer so we headed inland for the Karijini National Park where by chance we pitched up to free-camp in a car park at the base of Mount Bruce. Here we bumped into two old guys - Brits now living in Australia - and after hearing some of their adventures decided to join them at 0600 the following morning to walk up the second highest mountain in WA. This was a very worthwhile way to spend the morning. We saw the moon descend and the sun rise over an arid landscape scarred from mining. We were buffeted by the wind and afraid of possible spiders and snakes lurking in every bush - there were some very large spiders - but the views were spectacular and it was well worth the hike. The old guys suggested after the walk we take the road to one of the gorges - an unsealed road, which according to the sign was open to all vehicles, but a challenge in our camper. The corrugations shook us badly and we crawled along at 20km, being passed occasionally by 4WDs at high speed, leaving us in a cloud of red dust. The trick is, apparently, to get up enough speed that you ride over the bumps - good in theory but more difficult in practice! We did make it in one piece to the end of the track, eventually, much to everyone’s relief! We then spent the remainder of the day exploring several gorges which are split into sections and graded in terms of difficulty, Level 6 being the hardest requiring a guide and the correct equipment. Water ran through the gorges and half the fun was getting through it - it was really cold!! We all slipped and fell at points but our French companion Christelle succeeded in imersing her whole body and bag in one pool, destroying her camera in the process. I realised after, that my uncontrolabeable hysterical laughter wasn’t the right response! Still, we had a lot of fun, got wet which constitutes a wash at the moment, came close to hypothermia and saw a stupid guy continue down a Level 6 section he shouldn’t have gone down, got trapped and had had to be rescued by a passing guide. So all was good, a must do for anyone in WA!

Summit of Mount Bruce, Karijini National Park, WA. Second highest peak in Western Australia.

A little under two-thirds of the way between Perth and Darwin on the North-West Coast of Australia is Broome. On our way across a particularly flat and baron patch of land between Port Headland and Broome we suddenly noticed just up ahead of us a very large patch of dust swirling clokwise in a vertical column. Shit, it’s a tornado! With absolutely no change in landscape for as far as the eye could see we had nowehere to hide and before long the van got knocked heavily sidewise. Luckily it dissapeared as quickly as it arrived and others we saw in the distance didn’t get any closer. Speaking to some locals later, they call them dust-devils and say they generally pose no danger but it was certainly strong enough to move the van. I think however they work on cow scale and if no cows were lifted it’s classed as zero and harmless. :-)  Broome was the biggest place we’d been in since leaving Perth and also our first encounter of Aboriginals. We spent much of the time catching up on communications with the outside world and getting a few essentials sorted - shopping, showers (our first and last in about week either side) and washing. Camped out in the car park of the local supermarket for an afternoon, we were eventually asked to leave after the sight of our washing hanging up and us cleaning the van must have just got too much for the guys in security. There were several beaches around the town but we’d just moved into salt water crocodile territory and recently visited a crocodile park so we were all a little scared about going into the sea!

Despite our bumpy ride in Karijini National Park, we decided we could play at being a 4WD again and make it up the track to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek in the Kimberly region. A 200km round trip on roads designated for ‘Four Wheel Drives Only’ was just horrendous in our little van. It took six hours to cover the 100km in! We had to get through 4 water crossings along the way, fortunately they weren’t too deep but we took precautions and evacuated the van beforehand, tested the water level by wading through, moved the odd big rock out of the way and then just hoped we didn’t get stuck or break anything! I was constantly dreading how much a tow back to the nearest outback town would have cost let alone any repairs in such a hillbilly place. The places we were trying to get to were in beautiful surroundings but we only spent a short time at each, concerned about the return journey to come. Tried the previously suggested ‘put your foot down’ technique and it actually worked for some sections, reducing the return journey to about 4 hours, but going at high speed on that surface means reduced traction and when the corrugations suddenly alter, the shaking is violent and scary, reduces the fun a bit. After completing this round trip we vowed to do no more off-road in the camper!

Happy the van survived the 200km round trip along the four-wheel drive only track to Tunnel Creek and Windjana Gorge.

Leaving Windjana we passed through a couple of small ‘interesting’ outback towns. The majority of the populations’ were aboriginals and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we had limited interaction with them. Being careful how I word this description; the majority of the people we saw were similar to those you might find in the line up for the soup kitchen on the seafront in Brighton on a Friday night with the possible addition of maybe having survived a small nuclear fallout. Hopefully this gets my point across. However, it was incredibly sad to see so many people affected by alcohol, it was simply a massive part of everyday life. Due to the issues alcohol is causing in these communities they are either dry or becoming dry towns. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help the situtaion greatly, it just means people drive for four hours plus, to the next town that isn’t dry yet. Speaking with Australians about this topic generates mixed reactions from those believeing they have a duty to do everything they can to improve the situation, to those who think the situation should just be made to go away. I’m guessing that a major improvement is not imminent.

Having passed through Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek the next place we wanted to stop was Purnululu National Park to see what’s referred to as The Bungle Bungles. Unfortunately however, this involved another 90km of ‘four-wheel drive only’ road which we had been told was simply impassable without a high clearance four wheel drive. We tried to hire a suitable vehicle in Halls’ Creek (about 150km West of Purnululu) which actually turned into quite an amusing event but resulted in no vehicle. Another example of fine ‘outback town’ organisation. To quote the lady in the motel/vehicle hire reception, ‘They might be back on Sunday but really we have no control on whether they bring the cars back or not’. Not to be deterred by our inadequate vehicle or lack of hire options we drove to the entrance of the park and flagged down any passing vehicle (there weren’t many, some stopped others didn’t) asking them if they may be able to accommodate us. Close to giving up, three hours after arriving, a lone man stopped and said he’d be happy to take the four of us into the park but that he was going hiking for a couple days and so we’d have to find a lift back out. After limited deliberation amongst the group we took the ride but in our haste didn’t go particularly well prepared for events that could and did happen.

The road in was without doubt unachievable in our van and it took two hours even in the four-wheel drive to get the 60km from the highway to the visitors centre and then a further thirty minutes for the 27km from the visitors centre to the main car park. We went our separate ways and the four of us did a quick head count of vehicles in the car park and potential rides back out of the park, we counted six. We rushed around the Bungle Bungles before shortly returning to the car park concerned that any further time spent enjoying the sights might result in failure to find a ride. We asked the few people we encountered if it was possible to have a lift either back to the visitors centre or the highway and most made their excuses and carried on. One group of three was very helpful and said they would be able to give us a lift back to the visitors centre later in the afternoon. We thanked them and said if we were still at the side of the road when they returned we would very much appreciate their help. With all other avenues exhausted we started to walk back towards the visitors centre in hope we might come across people returning from other areas of the park. This was not to be the case. Low on water and all other supplies, particularly ill-equipped we walked for two hours in the blistering heat of the day along a dirt road in the middle of nowhere in the direction of the visitors centre. A handful of cars went past, including the people who offered us a lift (?), without so much as stopping. One kind tour bus stopped and although they weren’t allowed to transport us for insurance reasons, did replenish our water supplies. Just as the thought of us having to sleep on this road for the night with no provisions other than a lighter was sinking in, we managed to wave down the last two cars leaving the car park. Even now the initial reluctance was such that we had to spell out our alternative if they didn’t kindly drop us back to the visitors centre. Thankfully they did but this was as far as we were to get that day. Still 60km from our vehicle we were incredibly lucky that the ranger and his wife at the visitors centre were magnificent. Missing her kids back home she took in four surrogates, fed us and gave us a sleeping bag each so we could sleep on the porch of the visitors centre with one eye open for the approach of howling dingos. The following morning one of their colleagues even cooked us all bacon and egg rolls before we re-started our attempts at hitching out of the park again. Within an hour we’d managed between two separate lifts to get back to our vehicle after a fun and educational adventure. An example of magnificent generosity and thoughtlessness and of course our own stupidity.

Left to Right: Wading through one of the water crossings on the road into and out of the National Park as the vans clearance wasn't thought to be sufficient. Us in front of one of the domed Bungles. Our bed for the night with complimentary dingos - Visitors Centres porch.

The next town after leaving the Bungles was Kununara where we lost Michel who went off in search of work. We crossed over into the northern territory and in doing so entered a new time zone one and a half hours ahead. We continued on to Darwin only stopping at one more spot on the way, Litchfield National Park. The park is famous for a number of different waterfalls and swimming holes. It was fairly average with only one billabong we were actually allowed to swim in, the rest were still closed due to the crocodiles. There is something quite exciting about swimming in a place where there is the potential to grabbed, dragged underwater, drowned and then eaten. We spent the afternoon visiting the various waterfalls and the following morning visiting went to ‘Terriroty Wildlife Park’. The park was very good value and we spent the morning checking out all the cool animals before we finally drove into Darwin. Over the course of three weeks we had driven around 5,000km (can’t give an accurate figure as the spedometer in the van is faulty), had some amazing experiences and met some wonderful (and some not so wonderful) people. All in all, I think we can class Stage One of Australia Road Trip a success!

We’d like to try and get some idea of how many people are reading the blogs and also it’s always nice to hear from people when you’ve been away for so long. So, if you’ve got this far and can spare a couple of minutes to leave a comment against this post it would appreciated.

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Our route around South East Asia.

Re-entering Thailand we were excited that we were now so close to our long awaited and much longed for beach time! We’d bought a through ticket for the bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok, but on crossing the border we were skeptical as to whether this was just another of the scams that operates in these parts. Amazingly it wasn’t and a mini bus picked us up and took us the whole way at high speed - somewhat unnerving! The driving appeared to deteriorate after we turned down offers from the driver to arrange onward travel… he dumped us unceremoniously at Khao San Road, Bangkok at the point where many of the buses tout for passengers. We escaped immediately and headed for the main bus terminal. This turned out to be a fairly mammoth and an impressive new set-up, more like a shopping centre. There were a vast number of ticket booths each selling tickets for different routes and for different classes of buses turning it into a bit of a mission to find the right place. We ended up with tickets for a 2nd class night bus to Khao Lak - the point of departure for our forthcoming dive trip. Having already spent twelve hours travelling from Siem Reap the idea of another fourteen hours on an uncomfortable 2nd class bus didn’t appeal greatly but a bottle of beer and a couple of diazepam later and we arrived in Khao Lak with few problems.

Khao Lak was not quite the beach destination we’d been dreaming of but it wasn’t bad! It’s on the west coast of Thailand a short way down from the border with Burma and was an area affected by the tsunamis in 2004. It appears to have recovered well, the only evidence being the tsunamis evacuation signs and siren now in place. Being end of season we had plenty of choice of accommodation and found ourselves a very nice apartment to stay in until our trip out to the Similan islands a few days later. The beach was beautiful and very peaceful so we spent several days relaxing, reading, swimming and catching up on some sleep; good preparation for our 4 days of non-stop diving!

Enjoying one of the many beautiful sunsets from the beach at Khao Lak.

The dive boat was fantastic! The trip allowed time for us to do 14 dives in a 4 day, 4 night period, all of which we managed to do - exhausting but a lot of fun! We had our own cabin which was very cosy but nice as most people were in 4 berth rooms and space was even tighter. The main deck was open to the elements and had benches and tables where we all congregated much of the time. There was an upper sun deck but most of the time it was just too hot to sit up there for long. The boat crew were amazing, preparing incredible food and helping us getting into and out of our dive kit speedily. The dive staff were all very knowledgable and enthusiastic about their work which made it all the more interesting for us. We met lots of lovely people who we will be doing our best to stay in touch with. Saw loads of amazing sea life: leopard sharks, manta rays, turtles, barracudas, trevellis, thousands of small fish, nudibranchs and some amazing coral. Basically we don’t have a bad word to say about the trip and would recommend it to anyone!

Us on one of our fourteen dives from the MV Dolphin Queen in the Andaman Sea, Southern Thailand and a view of our dive boat from the water.

Returned to dry land to be greeted by heavy rain. Said our goodbyes to the rest of the group and headed off with one of our new friends, Christine, to catch a bus down to Krabi. Arrived late but found some very basic accomodation (mattress on the floor of a wooden shell) and then headed to the night market to find food which turned out to be excellent and very cheap! Our plan was to take a boat out to Railay which is part of the mainland but is only accessible from the water. We had two options of how to get there and chose to investigate the closer option first. The boatmen of Krabi quickly fell out of favour with us when after an agreement was made regarding price & destination we were told to get off the boat and then followed and confronted by a boatman who then made as if to hit Matt! We escaped uninjured but we have no intention of returning to Krabi again. Ended up taking a songthaew round to another point from where we were able to pick up a boat to take us to our chosen destination without the threat of assault!

Railay was steaming hot and there seemed to be very few people around, but there were loads of mosquitos and loads of crickets (or something similar making a lot of noise)! The main appeal of the place is the variety of climbing available so we felt obligated to give it a go and signed up for a half day course. The area of cliff we were taken to was busy but somehow we still had plenty of opportunities to climb. Some of us were more terrified than others but it proved to be a fun morning if a little tiring on the arms!

Railay didn’t hold a lot of appeal and the three of us headed off on the ferry to one of the nearby islands, Ko Lanta. A large island, there were plenty of options on places to stay but since we were still travelling with Christine we were lucky enough to join her at a nice resort she’d booked for herself and a friend who was coming out to join her - her friend wasn’t arriving until the following day so she offered us the opportunity to share with her for free. A hard offer to refuse! The resort turned out to be right on the beach, very peaceful and it had lots of facilities including 2 pools which we had the opportunity to enjoy in our brief time there! Got sick again for no obvious reason and spent the evening throwing up so that was fun. Left Christine the following day to venture further down the island to seek accommodation that would be more within our price range and found a bungalow that was right on the beach. Perfect for a few days of relaxation but we found the whole area to be almost devoid of other people and decided that we needed to visit another island to find a bit of life!

We found this on Ko Phi Phi where we met up once again with Christine and her friend Jeannie. A much smaller and busier island it had a completely different feel about the place. We ended up next door to a field which was part of some new sewage recycling project and there was a strong odour that drifted through the town that was…different?! We took a rather steep walk up to the look out point over the island and then followed a French couple who where venturing off through the jungle to find this isolated beach. Thirty minutes later, a lot of mosquito bites and ’What was that!?!’ we made it to a very nice secluded beach on the other side of the island. We enjoyed a couple of hours peace and quiet swimming in the crystal clear turquoise blue water before Matt’s love of the jungle tipped the balance on a nice boat trip back around to the main part of the island.

From the top of the lookout on Ko Phi Phi, looking back down over the main resort area of the island.

The following day we took a trip out to do some snorkelling and cliff jumping and got very scared, but met some nice people with whom we then spent a drunken evening consuming buckets of alcohol (literally buckets filled with a bottle of spirits and a mixer) and dancing in a new and interesting manner. The hangover the following morning was bad. It so happened that this was the day that the thais celebrate the new year ‘Songkran’. Celebrations include throwing water at everyone, covering them in flour and dye and generally going a bit crazy. Having a hangover made us somewhat sluggish to respond so we were drenched by all and somehow we managed to lose 1000baht in the excitement… bit of a dampener.

Returned to the mainland to meet up with one of Matt’s friends from Brighton who coincidentally happened to be near by, before continuing down into Malaysia. It was really nice to see someone we knew for the first time in months!

Malaysia got the short straw in terms of time allocated. We took a mini bus from Thailand through to Penang. This involved one change and both drivers were equally suicidal so the journey was spent trying not to look out of the window for fear of what we might see hurtling towards us and dreaming of vehicles with seatbelts. Penang was our first stop. An old colonial city it offered numerous tourist attractions of which we were only able to do a small selection: the snake temple, the war museum and Penang hill. The Snake Temple had live venomous snakes scattered around the building (not in cages) that were supposedly sedated by the incense they were burning. Not too sure about how subdued they were we kept a reasonably safe distance. Next door was a Snake Sanctuary which exhibited a lot of the snakes found in South East Asia. This was information we appreciated when later at the War Musuem we saw several venomous snakes sleeping in the one of the buildings we were visiting. The War Musuem also had a ‘War Games’ (paintball) centre on the same site which at first sounded like fun but after a little more thought seemed a bit warped and also pretty scary considering the venomous snakes which obviously inhabited the same area. Either way, one on one paintball didn’t seem like great fun so we just enjoyed the cool museum.

In our attempt to cram in as much as possible we squeezed in our visit to Penang hill the morning we were due to catch the bus south and had a few moments of panic when the bus we were on was running late. We ended up running down the road in our flip flops (not recommended) from one bus stop to another, getting there sweaty and out of breath, relieved to find that there was one other person later than us!

Kuala Lumpar was our final stop in Malaysia. We made a very poor choice in our hunt for accomodation, settling on a guesthouse that was located over a reggae bar. We didn’t pay too much attention to the fact that there was a bar there but we should have done! It turned out that it wasn’t just a bar but a bar that turned into the local nightclub open until 3am. The noise was incredible, it felt as though we were right over the speakers! We didn’t sleep so well for a couple of nights. What made it worse was the fact that we wanted to go up the Petronas Towers so needed to be up very early. Spent much of the day in an air-conditioned mall and went to the cinema twice! Met up with some people from couch-surfing who lived in KL and spent a pleasant evening out with them returning to the guesthouse at 1am - only 2 hours of room shaking to endure!

Us at the Petronas Tower 3d video of how magnificent their company is and how environmentally concerned they are when they are extracting their oil and gas. I'm not complaining, the tour was free you just had to watch their propaganda video first.

Last stop in Asia, Singapore. We were lucky enough to have a family friend here who was prepared to put us up for a couple of days. Spent these sight-seeing, learning a little more about the history of Singapore and returning to a lovely appartment, good food and wine each evening… a very different life from usual. On our last night there we joined our host for a wine tasting evening. A new experience which we were happy to participate in!

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…At the Cambodian border crossing we were ushered off the bus and into a queue where we handed over our passports to the official present only to then be immediately directed back onto the bus which promptly drove on…. we were very confused! The only reassuring thing was that everyone on the bus had left their passports, so we weren’t alone. The bus stopped at a restaurant a few miles down the road and we waited. Thirty minutes later we were back on the bus and carried on driving away from the border! Our anxiety quickly escalated and we were just about to confront the driver as to the whereabouts of our rather important travel documents when a third person started walking down the aisle, returning them. Relief! We hadn’t handed over any money and tentatively looked inside our passports to see if we had entered legally? Luckily our Cambodian Visas had been issued and we were legally in the country for free (it should have been $20 each)! We sat and wondered how long it would be before somebody realised and stopped the bus. We completed the journey to Phnom Penh and were not apprehended (we also left the country eight days later with no request for money) so it would seem that we had got away with it but it definitely ranks as our strangest border crossing to date.

Phnom Penh was really, really hot and full of people smoking. Almost everyone at the guesthouse smoked which was very unpleasant. Budget accommodation was again available (unlike Vietnam) and it seemed they were incredibly adept at providing small square airless boxes in a mosquito infested environment for only $4 a night! It was very basic and almost unbearably hot at night, so we spent as little time in there as possible! The guesthouse put on the film ‘The Killing Fields’ every night…bit much, but having never seen it and not knowing a lot about what happened during the 1975 to 1979 mass genocide by the Khmer Rouge, it was educational.

We visited S21(Tuol Sleng), formerly a school in the centre of the city which was turned into a prison in 1975 at the start of the Khmer Rouge takeover - it was the most tragic place we’ve ever visited. It is believed as many as 20,000 people were tortured and murdered at S21 during the four year period. We followed this up by going to the Killing Fields; equally tragic but we had some issues with wandering round the mass graves where bits of clothing, bones and teeth were still in evidence underfoot…We have since read a book called ‘Survival in the Killing Fields‘ by Haing Ngor (the guy who stars in the film the killing fields) and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about what went on in Cambodia in the 1970’s.

Tower of Skulls Memorial Stupa, Killing Fields, Phnom Penh. A 17 Storey (to signify the 17th of April, the day the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh) building of human skulls recovered from the mass graves at this Killing Field.

Having wanted to participate in some voluntary work whilst travelling we thought we’d do a trial run by helping out a westerner in Phenom Penh who’s set up a charity that goes to the city dump and feeds the kids living there. The trip runs whenever they get enough volunteers as the food is bought from their contributions (and from the organisers own pockets if they don’t have enough). Fourteen of us piled into the back of a truck and went out to the dump via the market where we picked up baguettes, bananas, oranges and apples. Arriving at the dump some of the kids were already waiting and others ran out of school and chased us down the track. We were required to keep the children (& some adults) in orderly queues to ensure everyone had the opportunity to get some food and no-one would get hurt in the process. Becky set up a first aid post and the children came to get their cuts and scrapes looked at and cleaned/bandaged if necessary. We left feeling that we should have spent longer there but happy that we’d played a very small part in helping to feed a few more mouths. If you’re in Cambodia and fancy helping out check out the website.

Feeding and helping the kids at Phnom Penh City Dump.

After 4 days in Phenom Penh the difficulty sleeping in our airless box room got to us and we moved on to Siem Reap. The bus trip gave us the opportunity to see more interesting sights… a small boy munching on a fried spider. Mmmm, yummy! Fortunately we didn’t have any encounters with live spiders at these stops, we’d been told stories of local children putting live spiders on tourists for the fun of it!

Our travel westward sadly did not result in us being any cooler. It felt even hotter. Our first night there we bumped into two of the couples we’d travelled with for a time in Laos so there was lots of catching up to be done! Next morning we were at Anchor Wat by 0530 to await the sunrise along with a few thousand others, all jostling for the best position to take photos. It was impressive. We spent half the day there seeing what we thought was a lot of temples within the compound but soon found a combination of the temperature and rather similar looking wats was enough. I’m not sure if our lack of love for Angkor Wat was a product of six months sight seeing through many countries and we were less in awe than if we had come straight from the Uk, but either way six hours was enough for us even if others spend 2-5 days exploring!! That said, very pleased we’ve been, Angor Thom was very cool and if you’re in Cambodia you cannot miss it.

Angkor Wat, Siam Reap.

We only gave a short amount of time to Cambodia, booking the bus out to Bangkok a week after we’d entered the country. Our kind hotel owner suggested we book the bus through him the day before departure to ensure we got a confirmed seat. Taking his ‘friendly’ advice we booked two seats for the following day. As you can imagine I was a little displeased when the bus turned up completely full of people and baggage (both inside) and I was offered a plastic chair in the aisle at the front of the bus! After a short rant, which always makes you feel better, some poor local was demoted to the suicide chair and I clambered across the top of everybody and their bags to a cramped but slightly more cushioned seat for the very slow ride to the border…

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Getting back on the bus after crossing the border was met with resistance from the driver. We’d managed to obtain a cheaper price by requesting to go only as far as the border and he didn’t want to take us the extra 10km to the intersection where you could actually pick up onward transportation. Anyway, power in numbers and our obvious reluctance to move meant he eventually caved in and let us stay on. At the intersection we easily located a bus, the problem was finding out what the price was…after drawing on the pavement with a stone and pointing at some phrases in the guide book we soon agreed on an inflated tourist rate and boarded what appeared to be a reasonably nice coach for the short six hour skip to Da Nang. One hundred meters later the bus stopped for a refreshment break and we took this opportunity to experience Vietnamese food for the first time. The language barrier and lack of a menu in English meant that going into the kitchen and pointing at ingredients and cooking implements was the best way forward! It turned out to be pretty good and cheap, so already a step up on Laos!

Phrasebook and chalk in hand we finally agree on a price for the bus to Da Nang.

Back on the bus we descended down the other side of the hills we had ascended on the Laos side and were continually thrown out of our seats by the suicidal driver. Squeezing past an overturned lorry on a blind corner didn’t seem to change his driving habit and on we went waiting for the moment we crashed! The roller coaster ride seemed to affect the ‘locals’ more as they filled their complimentary sick bags and then deposited them in the roaming bin that had been carefully placed in the middle of the aisle. Shortly into the journey, the bins failure to defy gravity meant it toppled and sick was left to leak out over the floor. Most people didn’t seemed to be deterred by this and continued to leave their bare feet in it. Take the fast, bumpy driving, flowing vomit and add to this a rather pungent smell of cigarette smoke from numerous passengers and it made for a pretty uncomfortable journey! Never the less we arrived in one piece (amazingly) in Da Nang. Helpfully, they dropped us at the side of the road somewhere off the boundaries of our limited Lonely Planet map, so we had absolutely no idea where we were.

Due to time restrictions we still weren’t sure where we wanted to go in Vietnam and were in two minds between just staying in the south, or making a quick dash for Hanoi and the legendary Halong Bay. After much deliberation amongst our group of four we eventually headed for the train station to get ourselves booked on an overnight train to Hanoi (we weren’t that keen on a repeat of our most recent bus journey). This was not to be as it was Sunday and we were forced to wait until the following day.

The train journey to Hanoi was very slow and due to our late booking we were dispersed amongst several compartments. Unfortunately it seemed acceptable for people to smoke (Vietnamese people smoke a lot and was probably the worst thing about the country, which isn’t too bad a critique) and so we spent little time in our cabins and grouped together in an empty hard-benched, non A.C. carriage further down the train. The views for the first few hours were spectacular and surprisingly the 20 hour journey passed pretty quickly. Arriving in Hanoi the train runs right through the centre of the city with inches to spare on either side as it divides a row of shops…quite a cool scene.

View from the smokey train between Da Nang and Hue on our way Hanoi.

We spent a couple of days mooching around in Hanoi. We went and visited Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum and walked around a few museums in an attempt to find out a little more about him and the American War (AKA Vietnam War) but the descriptions were in French and Vietnamese. Unfortunately, neither our vietnamese or french was quite up to the required standard!

On the morning of Kathy’s 30th Birthday we left Hanoi for Halong Bay on a three day two night package tour. Halong Bay was as spectacular as we’d been led to believe and we were very pleased with our decision to travel North. Unfortunately the crew on the boat where we spent our first night were rather miserable. Our presence appeared to be an inconvenience - an invasion of their living room as they tried to watch TV and smoke. We had brought a couple of bottles of Vodka and Seven Up in Hanoi after first asking our Travel Agent that this was permitted. Turns out you have to pay a service fee for each drink, so we decanted the spirit and mixer into a 5 litre water bottle and asked for some glasses for our ‘water’. The crew got increasingly suspicious and one of them came and asked for a glass of ‘water’ to take a tablet with (quite cunning really). Luckily I had an additional bottle next to me which really was water (luckily I was more cunning) and so they went back to their TV confused and pissed off that we weren’t buying their highly over priced drinks or paying a service charge. The following morning they did little to improve our opinion of them by waking everyone up at 6am with a siren and then the thunderous noise of a water pump. We were not pleased!

We spent the second day and night of our tour on Cat Ba Island. Dropped off bright and early we spent the morning walking up a hill to a very impressive lookout point (getting very muddy in the process) and then the afternoon kayaking across a bay to Monkey Island. The island earnt it’s name, surprisingly, from its inhabitants. Sadly these monkeys have become increasingly aggressive due to the idiotic behaviour of the visitors. We watched a woman run fully clothed into the sea, stumbling and falling in her efforts to escape a monkey that was chasing her after she had been baiting it. :-). One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen!

Returning from Monkey Island to Cat Ba Island across Halong Bay.

On our way back from Halong Bay to Hanoi we saw a sight we haven’t seen so far, a live cow strapped across the back of a motorbike! We’ve seen some crazy stuff and people carrying all sorts of things on their scooters, a family of five, dogs in cages, windscreens, and towering stacks that you think would easily topple the bike; but until now, no live cows! I’m sad to say we weren’t quite quick enough with the camera!

We headed south from Hanoi to Hue on a sleeper bus whose beds were designed for the Vietnamese, short and slim, which meant we had a relatively poor nights sleep. Hue is a nice place to while away a little time, with fewer tourists than other cities but this is beacuse it lacks tourist attractions. There were however a group of American tanks and large artillery guns that you could crawl all over and inside. Most were as rusty as anything and had large, heavy doors that if you got your hand in the wrong place at the wrong time you would easily lose a finger. I particularly love sights like this because in Europe they be fenced off and you wouldn’t be able to get near them due to Health and Safety.

Next was Hoi An which was a quick 120km down the coast. We managed to find a really nice hotel which had a swimming pool and were happy to waste some time here. Although the hotels in Vietnam averaged $10 a night (substantially more than anywhere else we have stayed so far), you get a fair amount for your money. All come with cable TV, A.C., hot shower and the sheets are reasonably clean! Some may even throw in a towel and toilet paper!!! The old town in Hoi An was very nice and the beach 5km down the road was well worth a visit. We managed to find a restaurant next to the hotel that served beer at 40p a bottle and did a set breakfast to die for. We managed  to lose three days very easily.

From Hoi An we headed to Nha Trang alone! Kathy and Gary remained there awaiting the completion of some clothing, so goodbyes said, we continued. Spent the night on a sleeper bus, again almost being thrown out of our beds from the crazy driving and bumpy roads. We were incredibly relieved to arrive safe and well and were greeted by the most amazing sunrise over a small island just off of the sandy beach. We sat on the warm beach at 0530 in the morning and enjoyed this amazing sight as the Vietnamese were out doing their morning exercises; running up and down the road barefooted, star jumps and situps on the beach and badminton on chalk marked courts on the promenade. Very energetic. We opted to sleep for a couple of hours instead!

Greeted after a pretty awful night bus from Hoi An by this glorious sunrise over Nha Trang.

During a walk around town we found a dive shop offering some really cheap diving and booked ourseleves on a two tank dive including lunch for $30 each the following morning. The diving turned out to be really good and although the weather had changed drastically from the previous day, making it very cold, we enjoyed two easy and colourful dives to ease us back in after a three and a half year gap.

Enjoying the beach so much, we decided to spend a further day in Nha Trang and celebrated with an elaborate dinner and our second bottle of red wine in just over six months! When I say elaborate I mean spaghetti bolagnaise and garlic bread with the cheapest local red.

Our final stop in Vietnam (which was pleasing in itself as it meant we had no more suicidal sleeper buses) was Ho Chi Min City, AKA Saigon. Having survived the bus journey we were dropped off of in the centre of this crazy city in the early hours of the morning. Off we paced past the large group of tuk tuk drivers determined to find accomodation on our own without paying for a taxi or the drivers commission at the hotel. Forty five minutes later we arrived at the guest house area and got unavoidably introduced to a hotel by a random woman outside. It turned out that the street was two minutes from the bus stop and that we’d been walking around in circles! We lost our commission free crusade and walked 3 miles with our large backpacks for no reason…but we saved a couple of dollars on a tuk tuk! The guest house we chose had seven floors and no lift. Vietnamese pay tax on the width of their buildings and so they build them slim but tall. Being room 602 we had 104 steps between reception and our room!

We spent a day traipsing around Saigon perfecting the technique of walking across the road without looking and having blind faith that the millions of motorbikes clogging the streets will avoid you. The musuems were more impressive than Hanoi, at least being labelled in English, but our aim of learning more about the war and Vietnamese history was floored as the musuems simply wanted to illustrate the destruction the Americans had caused and nothing else. Unfortunately that night Becky managed to become ‘infected’ again and spent the evening vomiting violently. Luckily this time I had had a few beers prior to going to bed and she caused me little disturbance.

The following day we went to the Cu Chi tunnels, a network of underground tunnels north east of Saigon, that the Viet Cong occupied during the war and from which caused a major headache for the Americans and the South Vietnamese army. People are supposed to have lived underground for years! We saw replicas of the booby traps they used against American and South-Vietnamese soldiers and also got to crawl through a replica tunnel network which for two slightly claustrophobic people was a personal challenge. We also paid an outrageous fee to have the opportunity to fire an M16 Assault Rifle, which I thought was great fun! There was an American on our tour who managed to teach us more about the war and it history than we’d been able to establish in our two or so weeks in the country, so the day can be classed a success!

Overcoming claustrophobia we succeed in crawling the full 200m through the replica tunnel.

With only one day left on our visa and a four day, four night diving liveaboard trip now booked to the Surin and Similan Islands off the coast of Thailand only two weeks away,  unfortunately we had to pass on a trip to the Mekong Delta and headed straight for Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Exiting Vietnam was easy. However, entering Cambodia was probably one of the strangest border crossing we have been through…

With seven countries now visited and almost seven months on the road we are half way through our trip. The first seven months have provided experiences that have undoubtedly changed our perception of life and given us memories that we will bore our kids with forever. Hopefully the second half of our Mini Adventure proves just as successful and we can finally find out if we have a left over friend from the giardia or if it is simply the effects of five months on doxycycline!!!

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…Arriving at the border and expecting scams after listening to various horror stories of Laos border crossings, we were pleasantly surprised when all went to plan and we were instantly given our one month visas without any hassle. Changing some Thai baht into Laos Kip we instantly became millionaires which is a pretty cool feeling even if it does make the currency conversion ridiculous.

We joined the queue for the next bus north and three hours later we were off. With one of the weirdest driving styles I’ve witnessed we crawled our way to Luang Namtha a couple of hundred kilometers closer to China. That evening we got chatting with more whities than we had spoken to for a long time and ended up forming a group of eight for a couple of beers and some food. All shocked at the ridiculous prices and poor service offered by the ‘eco-friendly’ tourism companies in town, we decided to join forces the following morning and go on a cycle exploration of the surrounding area. This turned out to be a fantastic day pedaling through some remote villages surrounded by stunning scenery. The combination of the green padi fields mixed in with the mountains, bamboo huts and rivers was just spectacular.

Our days cycling around Luang Namtha.

Our group was reduced to six when one couple headed north and the rest of us made our way south to Luang Prabang. The journey was particularly memorable for its length - a very long ten hours - and for the vision of a small boy (?3yrs old) running around with a sharp knife in one of the many villages we passed through, mother chasing after him, but only it seemed to pull his trousers up and let him go on his way, with the knife… Different country, VERY different attitude to knives and small children!!! Our extremely cautious driver got us to our destination safely but oh so slowly and after an hour of walking around we managed to find the only reasonably priced accommodation that seemed to be on offer. Obviously there was a complimentary rodent but I guess by now this goes without saying.

Luang Prabang is a city built around tourists and unfortunately for us mainly package tourists with enough money to eliminate any inclination to barter. This has resulted in prices being relatively high (relative to neighbouring countries or ones of a similar wealth) and traders not willing to enter into negotiations. I think it is fair to say that as a whole, Laos people have the shortest attention span of any nationality I have met to date if the subject doesn’t instantly appeal to them.

Our group of six morphed back into eight when we met another couple and with economies of scale we were able to negotiate some reasonable rates for most things. We had two fantastic days in Luang Prabang, one spent at a breathtaking waterfall and the other seeing a few sights and playing with naked kids in the local river (I will explain further later on).

Tat Kuang Si waterfall was phenomenal. With three significant tiers dropping in total about 100m it was instantly impressive. Add to this the greenery, the cliff face, clear blue pools of water and a backdrop of mountains as far as the eye can see and you’ll start to get the idea. We had been given some advice by an incredible old man we’d meet up north. With specific instructions of how to find this ‘magical pool’ we walked up a waterfall and passed the ‘Danger no Entry’ signs to be confronted by the most magical sight and pool of water you could possibly ask to swim in. Entering the pool from the left was a 30m waterfall which exited from the right and dropped about 70m over the lip of the pool. You could swim from the base of the waterfall on the left to the lip of the pool on the right and stare down the face of the 70m drop. Over in the distance were green mountains for as fair as you could see!

The phenomenal Tat Kuang Si waterfall outside Luang Prabang...the photos don't do it justice!

The following day we walked around the various wats/temples and were on our way to meet the rest of the group, when a moped came around the corner at what seemed like it’s maximum speed, hit the curb and the driver flew off in to the bushes missing a head on collision with a palm tree by less than a foot! Running over we were a little shocked to see the guy get up and even more so when he took the now back to front helmet off of his head to reveal a rather ‘made up’ face (lady boy). Refusing assistance he picked himself up and after a few dazed minutes attempted to ride off on his bike for his next suicide attempt.

After our small distraction we meet up with the others who were surrounded by local children (mainly boys under the age of eight, the majority of whom were naked) on a small sandy ‘river beach’ a short walk outside the town. As soon as we entered the river for a swim the kids followed and wanted to stand on your shoulders so they could dive into the water or simply to be swung around and flung as far as you could throw them into the moving water. It was really good fun and really interesting interacting with true ‘locals’. There were moments of apprehension when the kids had dived off of your shoulders and you were waiting for them to resurface, worried they had drowned! But not surprisingly most were better swimmers than I am having grown up almost from birth in this rather fast moving river.

The bus to Sainyabuli included a very cool river crossing on an old ferry. The river was moving quite quickly and the ferry was dilapidated which created a little apprehension. After a short wait the bus simply drove on with everybody still on board and ferryglided across. Luckily we weren’t going the other way as the queue, due to the completion of the elephant festival, was over seven hours long!!! After the required debate over the fare from the bus station into town (for reasons we can only attribute to tuk tuk drivers being guaranteed trade, the bus station for every town is 5 to 10 kilometers outside, regardless of how small the village is), we started to walk which prompted several trucks to follow us and agree to our lower price. Unfortunately we didn’t make it the whole way into the centre (luckily close enough to walk) as the overloaded truck got a flat.

The first people we met in Sainyabuli told us that accommodation was rammed in town and that we’d be lucky to find a room and advised a home stay. We thought we’d try one or two places first and instantly found a communal room for eight people at a cheap price! The elephant festival was incredibly disappointing so the majority ruled and we brought a couple of bottles of whiskey and returned to the room for a night of drinking.

With one night being more than enough in Sainyabuli we went to the southern bus station where the tuk tuk driver demanded more money than we had agreed on. There was an awkward half an hour whilst we waited for the sawngthaew (a truck with bench seats in the back that is used like a taxi) to depart as he had insinuated that he would be back, with ‘others’, after we laughed at his request. Luckily his threats were never carried out and we left unharmed. The road between Sainyabuli to Pak Lai was completely unmade with one foot holes/ruts for it’s entire length and a 3-4 inch layer of dust on the surface. This made the road bumpy, dusty and very slippery. The sawngthaew got a flat tyre after an hour, but our luck was in and a bus appeared in the distance about 30 seconds later! An hour or so later, enjoying the increased level of comfort, the bus also got a flat tyre but the bus crew of 3 were clearly professionals in this department and switched the tyre rapidly whilst we sat at the roadside enjoying the juiciest pineapple ever!

Pak Lai greeted us with smiles and waves and for a brief time we thought we must be the only westerners in town. A walk down to the river to find out about boats to Vientiane and the illusion was shattered, white faces started popping up all over the place! By this stage, too much of the local dish, noodle soup and we were all craving a more substantial meal. This drove us to cooking for ourselves for the first time since leaving home! Well - we had a barbeque anyway! Avoided many of the tasty treats at the market - the charred monkey limbs and skull was tempting, but good old fashioned beef was what we were after.

One of the options on sale at the local market...

That desire satisfied for a brief time, we caught the slow boat to Vientiane. The boat was much like the buses in that you get as much stuff as you can crammed onto the roof…several motorbikes, a three seater chair and coffee table, rice, a variety of personal possessions and people. We chose to spend the journey up top as well, enjoying an unobstructed view and unlimited leg room for the remainder of the journey…a very cool way to travel! Whilst up there, shortly before him and his friends passed out for a few hours, we were offered rocket fuel out of a 5 litre oil container by some drunk fella….hospitable these locals!!

Vientiane was pretty disappointing. All eight of us stayed at the house of a girl (Lyn) we’d met in Pak Lai. It was amazing she offered really after Ryan, an English guy we were traveling with, accidentally insulted her French friend (Lucy)! Ryan was making some comment about French people not washing or shaving not having noticed, unlike the rest of the world, that this particularly French lady was quite traditional and did in fact boycott the razor (she had the hairiest legs I’ve ever seen, male or female)! He didn’t seem to notice the rest of us discreetly trying to tell him to shut up! Luckily Lucy wasn’t offended and the offer of hospitality was extended by her friend. It turned out they were both in Laos working and Lucy’s house mates were all away so she kindly offered to put us up. I don’t think in the year they’d lived there they had ever cleaned a thing, it was so dirty! I would have been embarrassed. However, it was free!

Our group split at this point and we were down to four, ourselves and the Australians, Gary and Kathy. We continued on to a place called Ban Khoum Kham, our reason for going a 7km underground cave that you get a canoe through, located an hour away. The cave was great, it took about 45 minutes to get through the entire system and at some points we had to get out and wade through the water as levels were low. Once out the other side our boatman got very excited at the sight of a snake swimming across the water - we were less excited, more scared! A short walk away there was a small village which very few ‘falang’ (foreigners) visited. All the kids came out to meet us and once Gary realised they were scared by the white man, he enjoyed waiting until they all crept up on him and then making a load growling noise so they would run away screaming. Back through the cave was a cool lagoon where we enjoyed a much needed swim to escape from the heat before getting back on the road.

Due to time limitations the next stop was a town called Pakse, over several hundred kilometers south. We knew this would mean an enjoyable day of traveling in the heat and were trying our best to keep the cost down. After a long time spent haggling with a very arrogant sawngthaew driver we decided we didn’t want to give him a penny as he was doing his best to rip us off thinking we had no other option than to use him. He was wrong, within twenty minutes of attempting to hitchhike from this hovel of a place we had a ride in an air conditioned cab for about an hour and half before we finally had to get out as our ride headed in another direction. Unfortunately our next mode of transport was to be the most miserable journey of the whole trip so far! In soaring heats, the ‘air conditioned’ bus with sealed windows was like an oven. Add to this the horrendous music and it made for an enjoyable journey! Never the less we arrived and Gary narrowly avoided punching the bus driver.

Becky and I spent the next two days alone undertaking a motorbike tour of the Bolavan Plateau surrounding Pakse. With our passport left as a deposit this time we were very anxious not to damage or lose the bike which, at the least the former, was a challenge given the obstacles that were thrown at us. Neither of us having ridden a geared bike before, getting to get grips with this took a short while and having to drive through the centre of town straight off wasn’t a particularly forgiving time to do this! With people driving the wrong way down the road towards you; pigs, dogs, people, water-buffalo and chickens all deciding to cross the road when THEY wanted to; holes in the road and the unpredictable driving habits of other vehicles…it made the experience very interesting. We spent the two days visiting waterfalls, small out of the way villages and a really fun ride down a 30km dirt track in the middle of nowhere. Successfully returning the bike undamaged meant we got our passport back and allowed us to continue to our penultimate destination in Laos, the 4000 Islands!

Our Bolavan Plateu 'expedition'.

Transport down to the islands was in demand. After asking almost every driver in the bus station it appeared that there was only one option for us, the back of a songthaew again! Greedy, greedy people, they tried to get so many of us into the truck that the load was sufficient to brake the front steering axel(if that’s what it’s called???) as soon as the driver attempted to reverse. Another vehicle was immediately ready to take the cash (& passengers) off this guys hands and thankfully it got us to the point where we were able to pick up a ferry to Don Det (one of the 4000 Islands in the Mekong).

The boatman decided to take us to his huts (despite telling him we didn’t want to) and so we were dropped at the southern end of the island. This turned out well for us as we came across a place we were happy to stay almost immediately, which surprisingly wasn’t his! Good food, nice owner and right on the river, perfect aside from the lack of a fan or air conditioning. The island runs on generators and the power is only on for four hours in the evening (hence no cooling aids) so it was very, very hot at night making it a challenge to get to sleep. We also shared our accommodation with the worlds population of insects and spent three restless nights sweating from the heat and worrying what each noise was and what insect was going to crawl on us next! Never the less the days were relaxing and were able to enjoy Becky’s birthday lounging at the guest houses’ river side restaurant and swimming in the not so clean water doing our best to avoid the fast moving seaweed and snakes!

Gary and Kathy creatively managed to find a baker on the small island of Don Dhet and walked for 45 minutes in each direction to get Becky a birthday cake (much to my embarrassment)!

Not fancying any further time in Pakse we set off early from the islands to make it to Attapeu on the same day. Attapeu is described in the Lonely Planet as the Wild Wild East of Laos and we had anticipated spending a day looking around. However when we got there it wasn’t wild, just desolate. We saw some of the first rain we had seen in a long time, knowing we must be close to Vietnam now, we decided to jump on a bus the following morning and head for the border. It was a short and windy road up to the Laos/Vietnam crossing. The scenery was beautiful and it was a pleasant journey until the bus driver knocked somebody off of their scooter as he refused to slow down whilst passing a fallen tree blocking one side of the road.

Summarising…In a country where almost every person is a millionaire (equivalent of about 83GBP), half the country drive a round in brand new Toyota Hilux’s (probably Tuk Tuk/songthaew drivers) whilst the other half are living in bamboo huts surviving on the food they harvest. The impact of tourism on the country appears to have been substantial. Never having been here before tourism was its primary industry I can’t compare the peoples attitude then to now, but it certainly seems that they are doing their best to cash in on all the whities passing through. I’m not one normally offended by this as it’s nice to see people prosper from your presence but when people take advantage and charge more than wealthier neighbouring countries charge for the same service it’s a little frustrating. Summed up; beautiful country, some nice people, been there, no need to rush back. Never the less we departed Laos easily and entered our seventh of fourteen countries…

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