Kat and Dave's World Adventure

Are you sitting comfortably? (Part 3)

2006-08-18T18:17:00.000Z

Hopefully this will be the third and final part. Enjoy.

In Argentina we drank coffee with the bohemians and artisans in the Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires,

stayed at possibly the most luxurious hostel in the world at Puerto Iguazu,

visited the magnificent Iguazu Falls,

got acquainted with a Gigantosaurus in Cordoba,

visited the bodegas in Mendoza,

learnt the delights of Dulce de Leche,

and returned to Buenos Aires for a trip round the colourful and football-fanatical area of La Boca.

In Uruguay we visited the delightful town of Colonia del Sacramento.

Finally we reached Brazil, where we supped on Caipirinhas,

visited the Rocinha favela,

met a rather clever toucan,

and added our graffitti to the walls of "Walk on the Beach".

Well, that's it. We hope you've had as much fun reading our blog as we've had having our adventure to create it.

Thanks for reading.

Dave and Kat

Are you sitting comfortably? (Part 2)

2006-08-18T16:30:00.000Z

Right, where were we? Oh yes, New Zealand.

We did some jet boating through the Shotover Canyon near Queenstown,

tramped our way through Mt. Aspiring National Park,

trekked across the Fox Glacier,

found the local marine life in Kaikoura,

cycled (or should that be wobbled?) our way round the Marlborough wineries,

visited the national Marae in Wellington,

got art-decoed out in Napier,

visited the country's largest lake in Taupo,

came over all Maori in Rotorua,

trekked across a rather snow-covered Mordor on the Tongariro Crossing,

went underground at the Waitomo Caves,

dropped in on some of Dave's relations in Hamilton,

crossed some rather wobbly bridges on our way to the Pinnacles,

stopped off for a bit of tree hugging in the Kauri Forest,

tried our hands at sand-sledging on our way up to Cape Reinga,

admired some more Maori carvings at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in the Bay of Islands,

and said hello to Sparky, the one-legged kiwi, at the Native Bird Recovery Centre in Whangarei.

In Chile, we had a brief stop in Santiago.

Next up was Peru, where Dave wasted no time in trying the local brew (La cerveza Cristal es la cerveza del Peru).

Then we ventured into the desert near Huacachina,

explored the mammoth and highly photogenic Santa Catalina Monestery in Arequipa,

climbed in and out of the massive Colca Canyon,

partied with the festival goers in Cuzco,

slogged our way along the unforgettable Inca Trail...

...to Machu Picchu,

were entertained in traditional fashion in Puno,

tried out the floating life on the Uros Islands,

got a taste for the local cuisine on Isla Amantani,

and got a view of the quieter side of life on Isla Taquile.

In Bolivia we watched the sun set over Lake Titicaca,

and took some time out on Isla del Sol.

Right then, this entry seems to be getting quite big as well, so we'll have to make a part 3.

Enjoy.

Dave and Kat

Are you sitting comfortably? (Part 1)

2006-08-18T14:38:00.000Z

Well, we've now been home over two weeks so I thought it was about time for a bit of a look back on our seven month trip with a few photo highlights.

Thailand gave us Bangkok's amazing temples,

lush beach-side accomodation on Ko Samui,

and the fantastic beaches of Ko Lanta and it's surrounding islands.

In Malaysia we saw the vast expanse of the tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands,

tried our hands at blow-pipe shooting,

trekked through the amazing Taman Nagara rainforest,

saw some mighty big towers,

and climbed a mighty big mountain.

In Singapore we had some Singapore Slings (what else?).

In Australia we fed some hungry fish in Darwin,

did a spot of sailing round the beautiful Whitsunday Islands,

took in some local "culture" in Cairns,

met the locals in Brisbane,

admired the sights on the amazing Fraser Island,

braved the rain and did some surfing in Byron Bay,

found some real culture at the Sydney Opera House,

hiked through the stunning Blue Mountains,

took some time to reflect at the National War Memorial in Canberra,

met some stars in Melbourne,

and walked through the lonely hills of Tasmania.

Next came New Zealand. We found some much needed home comforts in Christchurch,

did our first bit of "tramping" around the pristine Lake Tekapo,

visited the awe-inspiring Aoraki/Mt. Cook,

found some interesting road signs,

and found some local wildlife near Dunedin.

Now, we appear to have reached the limit for the number of photos on one post, so there will be more to come shortly.

Bye for now,

Dave and Kat

All good things come to an end...

2006-07-30T22:19:00.000Z

Oi! (That´s Portugese for ¨hi¨).

A sad day for us is about to dawn, our adventure has come to an end. Our only comfort is knowing how pleased all of you will be to see us again and be regaled with tales of our travelling daring-do.

We have been having a brilliant three days in Rio to finish off our trip. We arrived in blistering sunshine and set off for immediate exploration of the stunning Copacabana beach. It was just as well we did this as true to form with every beach we visit the bad weather turned up shortly after us.

Before the rain hit the city we did manage to visit a favela. Under the careful supervision of our guide, Marcio, we walked from the top of Rio´s largest favela, Rocinha, to the bottom. It was an eye opening experience. I never would have believed I could be so calm as men with machine guns strolled passed us (Don´t panic parents, we were perfectly safe).

Despite the favela´s dilapidated appearence it was home to all sorts of people. We visited an artist, saw an internet cafe and partied with kids at a day care centre.

The bad weather came in time for our planned beach day but, being English, we walked the length of Copacabana and Ipanema beach stopping for a coconut and to dip our toes in the water.

Today we made it up to visit JC (Christo Redentor) and, between breaks in the cloud, we got a few awesome views of the city. If you are wondering why there are no pics of the beaches or the Big Man it is because it is a bit dodgy taking anything of value with you when out and about in Rio. Ironically the favela was totally safe to take any super duper digital SLR out in (or our ordinary camera) because the men with machine guns don´t tolerate any crime except for their own drug dealing variety!

So that concludes our travel blog. We are off now to sip our last capirinhas and enjoy our last night in Rio. For those of you who may not be seeing us in the next few weeks we will do a photo catch-up of the bits we´ve missed just to tantalise you before the ineveitable slide show.

Love

Kat and Dave

Kat´s shoes after seven months of walking.

Don't cry for us we're in Argentina

2006-07-25T12:38:00.000Z

Hola Chicos,

I know, I know we haven't updated you for ages but its tricky to find the time when you are trying to explore a country the size of Argentina in two weeks!

Basically we arrived in Buenos Aires and had a few days seeing the sights before heading to Uruguay for a couple of days. Uruguay is very close to Argentina and we couldn't resist getting another stamp in our passports. We visited the very pretty town of Colonia, not a lot there but quaint rustic buildings and lots of people drinking mate (the national drink of Argentina and Uraguay).

Back in Argentina we travelled north from Buenos Aires to Iguazu where it was a lot warmer and we got our shorts out for the first time in ages. We went to visit some huge waterfalls which were very impressive but due to to a minor drought were't quite as wet as usual.

Saying goodbye to the warm weather we headed south to Cordoba where Fidel Castro was also visiting (he wasn't staying in our hostel). There was a big Mercosur conference being held in the town (kind of like the G8 for South America) but apart from that not a lot seems to happen in Cordoba.

So, moving swiftly on, we travelled to Mendoza, wine country. Despite arriving just before the weekend (when everything shuts) we did our best to do a tour of the wineries and sample some very nice Malbecs.

Our mini tour of Argentina complete we zoomed back to Buenos Aires for our last two days in here. Today we have a busy schedule, we are doing a walking tour around La Boca (non football fans - that is were Argentina's favourite team Boca Juniors play) and this evening we are going to a ballet at the world famous Teatro Colon - admitedly I'd never heard of it before we got here.

Tomorrow we fly to Santiago where we have a brief stop over before hitting Rio for a final few days. Who knows if you are lucky we might even manage a picture update for you.

Must dash.

Kat and Dave x

Fun and Frollics on Lake Titicaca

2006-07-08T16:09:00.000Z

Hello everybody! We're are now back in Puno in Peru after spending the last few days in Bolivia. We've been quite busy so here's another update for you all to enjoy.

Last time we were in Puno we did an island tour on Lake Titicaca. Our first stop was the Uros Islands, which are unique in the fact that they are made out of totara reeds and are floating. These floating islands have supported a large community for hundreds of years and there's even a school and a church on the biggest island. No one is quite sure why the Uros people decided to give up living on the land in favour of floating about on a lake, but most people think it was to escape the conquering Incas.

Here's some of the locals going about their daily lives. These ladies are busy bargaining and trading their local produce.

You will notice that the totara reeds are used quite a lot by the community. Not only are their islands made from the stuff, but they also build their houses from it, make crafts out of it and eat it. I tried a bit and I have to say it tastes a bit like celery, mmm mmm! I'm glad I don't have to live off it.

The Uros people also make boats out of the reeds, and here is a typical example, which Kat and I were lucky enough to take a ride on.

Here's the two guys that had to paddle the huge thing across the lake. It's a fine example of why we've never seen a Peruvian rowing team in the olympics, look at that timing, it's all over the place!

At our second stop, there were more people going about their everyday life, including these little cuties working hard to mill the corn for their bread.

From the floating islands, we carried on (in our proper diesel powered boat this time) to Isla Amantani. This is a real island made of stones and dirt and here we had the opportunity to stay with a local family. This is the house where we stayed. On the outside it was pretty nice. Our room was also very nice but the kitchen, where we ate and socialised with the family, was made out of mud bricks and just had a fire at one end for cooking on and a couple of wobbly wooden benches, very rustic indeed.

This is the family we stayed with and who had to put up with our lousy Spanish. We managed to communicate with them quite well and we seemed to get along together very well. From left to right we have Mary, Yolver, Milissa (the little one), Estefa and Gerado. Sorry about the quality of the photo, but we were in a bit of a rush when we took it and didn't know the Spanish for "please could you all stand over here where the light is better."

After being introduced to our family and after our first meal of soup and potatoes (a common theme when it comes to food on the island) we went for a walk up the local hill, a mere 4,170 metres above sea level. Here's Kat enjoying the afternoon sunshine on the way up.

At the top of the hill there was an old temple, but we weren't allowed access to it as the locals still used it. Instead we had to make do with the fine dry stone walling that is common on the island.

After sampling some Andean Doughnuts at the conviently placed cafe at the top of the hill, we waited for sunset.

We walked back down to the village, and after another soup and potato based meal, we went out to a local fiesta. This meant dressing up as the locals do. For me it just meant donning a poncho and woolly hat, but Kat had to wear the full lady's dress.

We partied the night away to the sounds of the local band (consisting of panpipes, guitar, drums and flutes). Dancing at altitude really takes it out of you, and after an couple of hours we had to retire to bed.

In the morning, we had a good breakfast of pancakes (cooked specially for us, the locals ate, guess what? Yep, more soup and potatoes), before we headed off to our next island, Isla Taquile, where we admired some more of the local stonework.

On Taquile, it is the local custom for men to knit, and it is considered that a man is not a man unless he can knit. Here's one of the locals showing off to the rest of us just how manly he is.

We headed down a steep hill to get back on the boat to return to Puno. At the bottom, however, Kat realised that she'd left her sunglasses at the restaurant at the top of the hill. So, with me being a good and diligent boyfriend, I ran back up the steep steps to retrieve the lost glasses, which at an alitude of 4000m or so, nearly killed me.

Back on dry land at Puno (and with me fully recovered), we went out for a trip to one of the local villages. Here we found an old Incan (ahem!) fertility temple. That's enough said about that.

We also went to see one of the oldest boats in the world called the Yavari. This boat is really quite special. It was built out of cast iron in London in 1862. The parts were then shipped round Cape Horn to a port in Peru. Then, after a 30 mile train ride, the parts were carried by mule for 170 miles through the Andes to Puno, where the boat was then assembled, a process that took six years! After several years of service the boat was left for scrap, but has now been lovingly restored by an English lady and in the future hopes to take passengers on cruises around the lake.

For our next adventure we decided to hop across the border into Bolivia. This seemed easy enough when we booked our bus ticket, but it turned out that "adventure" is really the right word to use. We had a nice comfortable coach for the first half hour, until we reached the town of Ilave. Here the town's people had decided to go on strike, which meant blocking the road off. So, in order to get through, we had to walk for about 10km, carrying all our bags through the town. On the other side we met up with the rest of our coach party, and the man in charge had managed to find us a minibus to take us to the next road block. Here we had another walk (only about 10 minutes through the picket line) to where another coach was waiting. This time, we had about an hour's ride before we got kicked off. Our bus guy again found a minibus, which took us on a cramped and bumpy ride to the border. Passing through the border itself was the easiest part of the trip, just a couple of stamps in our passports and we were through. From here we had another minibus to take us to the lakeside town of Copacabana, home of Bolivia's only beach and the entire Bolivian navy. We arrived just in time to get an awesome view of the sun setting over Lake Titicaca from our hotel window (yes, that's right, a hotel, it's very ceheap in Bolivia).

The next day we went on another island tour, this time to Isla del Sol, the birthplace of the Inca civilisation. Needless to say we found some rather nice Incan ruins.

We did a hike along the length of the island, which provided us with some awesome views. Here's one with our vessel, the Isla de la Luna and the snow-capped Cordillera Real in the distance.

On our way back into Copacabana we passed by the Bolivian naval base. Now, with Bolivia being a land-locked country, it seems a bit daft for them to have a navy, but they do, and it's on a lake. The navy obviously doesn't have much to do apart from wave at the passing tourist boats.

Back in Copacabana we spent a few days relaxing. We went to see the cathedral, which is pretty impressive. Hundreds of pilgrims come here to decorate their cars with flowers before they ascend the local hill to give thanks to the Virgen de Candelaria.

Feeling nicely relaxed we headed back into Peru, the journey this time being far more easy and straight forward - one bus from start to finish. We have a day here in Puno before we fly back to Lima and then on to Argentina. I'm really looking forward to tucking into a nice Argentinian steak and some good Mendoza wine.

That's all for now.

Dave and Kat

Fiestas, more fiestas, dead llamas and roasted cuy!

2006-06-27T21:36:00.000Z

Hello, you lucky, lucky people.

Not one but two blogs in less than a week, we really know how to spoil you.
Must be the party spirit of Cusco that has infected us. These dudes really know how to fiesta, there has been one nearly everyday since we got here. The unfornuate drawback is that all the tourist attractions shut but who cares when its party, party, party all day (and night long).

We spent quite a lot of our time in Cusco watching the parades in the Plaza de Armas. The variety of ponchos was amazing! I think this little cutie is looking forward to the day when she can wear a poncho just like her dad.

This is one of our favourite costumes. This guy was one of about twenty who came carousing through the square, knocking back cerveza, I'm sure there was meant to be some symbolism involved but it was the amount of beer they consumed on their revels which impressed us.

The locals danced from eight in the morning to sometime after midnight. I can't tell you when exactly as it was after we were tucked up in bed.

The biggest fiesta of Cusco's festival year is, without a doubt, Inti Raymi. Roughly translated as "festival of the sun" it is a celebration of the winter solstice and the coming of the dry season. Everyone walks the short way out of town to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced, by europeans at least, as "sexy woman") the ruins of an Inca fort to watch a recreation of the sacred ceremony which goes back to the 15th century. We trekked up there three hours before it kicked off to secure ourselves a good spot on the rocks, as did the rest of Cusco.

Although it is a traditional festival the interest of gringos has created a niche for incredibly overpriced tickets in a specially constructed arena around the ceremony site, which means all the locals and the cheaper backpacking type gringos assemble on the rocks behind the stands.

The ceremony began around two with the arrival of the Inca, the Sinchi and a bunch of other warriors and dancers. We couldn't quite work out what these dudes wearing rainbow coloured speedos position in the parade was. I hope you can make their stripey pants out in this picture.

The Inca himself cut a menacing figure, with lots of stamping, gesticulating and shouting in Quechua. He also had a very natty outfit.

We acquired a program to give us an idea of what we were watching. Skimming through the various tributes and offerings we came upon Act 3: Llama Sacrifice. We had noticed a pen of llamas tethered towards the back of the arena and suddenly their purpose was becoming apparent. The most auspicious llama is a black llama (apparently) and before we knew it a lively little fellow had been wrestled from the back of the pen. He wasn't totally black, so we can only imagine that genuine black llamas are too rare to sacrifice on a regular basis.

We still weren't entirely sure if they meant a "symbolic" sacrifice, as in just pretending to kill the llama, but as soon as they'd got the little chap on the block we knew he wouldn't be running home to play with all the other little llamas. It was very quick, they'd obviously done it before.

For anyone in the crowd who wasn't sure if the deed had been done, confirmation was made when the Sinchi lifted the entrails from the now still llama and offered them to the Inca. Apparently the following year's weather can be divined from reading these.

It seemed the gods were not happy with he sacrifice (perhaps the llama was not black enough) as, despite it being the festival of the sun, the heavens opened. Much to the delight of the poncho seller who had obviously made his own sacrifice to different gods.

Obviously with the llama expired the highlight of the festival was over but we stayed to see the royal procession leave the arena.

Our lovely friends, Tom and Katie, came to the end of their trip to Peru so we went out to toast their departure with wine and food. Clearly the emotion was too much for Katie and she couldn't keep her eyes open for tears.

Or perhaps she knew what was coming next. Inspired by the gruesome events of Inti Raymi we had gone out in search of our own animal sacrifice. We found it in the form of the local delicacy, Cuy al Horno - Roasted Guinea Pig. (Dave says sorry Kevin).

It was definately an experience. Probably won't be starting a Cuy farm when I get home, not enough meat on the little blighters really, perhaps we'll try capeburra next.

Thats all for now, until more culinary happenings, goodbye!

Kat and Dave

Inca Trail Adventure

2006-06-25T18:31:00.000Z

Ola amigos! Kat and I are back in Cusco after our 4-day trek along the Inca Trail, which was absolutely amazing. We started last Monday morning with our group of 16 people. We already knew Tom and Katie from our Colca Canyon trip and soon befriended Katie´s sister Sue and her boyfriend Laurie. Here´s our group at the start of the trail.

Most people had booked personal porters, but Kat and I, being hardcore, carried all our own equipment, including the massive roll-mat that the company gave us. Here´s Kat looking three times her normal width.

The first day´s walk was pretty flat and was a "training" day for the harder walk ahead. Our first night was spent at a small farming village, so not too far from civilisation. There was even a local shop...

On arrival at the village our guide, Victor, swiftly necked two pints of a local beer called "chicha" which is only brewed by rural communities and is made from corn. Here´s me trying said beverage. To be honest, I´ve had a lot better. It was very sour and rather thick with a very strange aroma.

Here we are at the first camp site. Laurie and Sue on the left, Tom and Katie in the middle and obviously us on the right.

The food we had on the trek was amazing, especially as the chef only had a couple of gas rings to cook on, and all the food, equipment and gas was being carried along the trail by the porters. Needless to say we ate very well, with two 3-course meals a day as well as breakfast and afternoon tea! Our hats really went off to Wilfredo (our chef) when he produced apple pie for us all on the third day!

The second day´s walking was a bit tougher. We had to cross the infamous "Dead Woman´s Pass", the highest point on the trail at 4,215m above sea level. It was a strenuous climb but Kat and I made it to the summit, sucking on a couple of coca sweets to help with the altitude. Here´s the gang at the top recovering from the climb.

The trail itself was pretty interesting with a lot of it being original Inca pathway. Those Incas really liked steps and here´s a fine example.

There were also some dubious looking bridges...

...and some impressive hand-carved Inca tunnels.

After lunch on day 2 it was time for the England vs Sweden game. Our guide went to massive lengths to try and find some reception on his radio, but we ended up just catching a very crackly commentary on the second half outside the door of the wardens office, which left us confused as to whether it was 1-1 or 2-2, but we knew it was a draw and we were through. Here´s Katie and Victor enjoying the news.

The third day was some more uphill. Here´s me with a nice view at the "second pass".

All along the trek there were loads of Inca ruins. Here´s Kat hiding in the ruins at Sayacmarca. The name means "Inaccessible Town" and it was very fitting as there were sheer cliffs on three sides and the only way to get to the town was up a steep staircase carved in the rock.

Here´s me at the almost circular fort of Runturacay. It was here that Victor told us about the record time for completeing the whole 44km of the Inca Trail - a mere 3 hours and 40 minutes!!! This made our 4 days look a bit pathetic.

At our final campsite, we were neighbouring the impressive ruins of Wiñay Wayna, where we encountered 2 men who had found a dead snake. Rather than running away screaming (Kat´s choice when it comes to snakes), they were going to eat it, mmm, tasty! Tom took some good photos of the snake which created a stir amongst the porters when we got back to camp, especially when Victor said it was poisonous.

On the final day, we had an immensley early start being up at 4am. We walked in the darkness through the rain forest (the edge of the Amazon) until we reached the "Sun Gate" where we were hoping to witness the sunrise. Unfortunately, Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains were engulfed in fog and cloud! We descended into the ruins, trying not to trip over the llamas that were hiding in the fog on our way.

As the clouds lifted slightly we got some better views of the amazing site. In fact the lingering mist gave it a more mysterious, "Lost City" feeling.

We were guided round the site by Victor and we stumbled on (sorry for the pun) some more rather impressive steps. The Incas really didn´t find hills to be an obstacle.

We eventually got an almost clear view of the ruins, and, after fighting off the hoards of Japanese tourists who took the easy tour bus route to the ruins, we managed to get this classic "postcard" shot.

Once we´d exhausted ourselves wandering around the ruins, we headed down to Machu Picchu Town, where there are no cars and the only way to reach the town is by train or by foot. This meant that the main street of the town was in fact a railway and the trains came quite close to the restaurant fronts.

To get back to Cusco we traveled on the train through the magnificent "Sacred Valley", although we were so tired it was a struggle to stay awake to enjoy the views. We arrived in Cusco and promptly headed to our hostel for a much needed shower and a good night´s sleep.

We had such a great time we can hardly believe it´s over. When we booked it in January it seemed a life time away. Oh well, I´m sure we´ll manage a couple more adventures before August.

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

From canyons deep to mountains high

2006-06-18T14:41:00.000Z

Buenos dias gringos y gringas, and Ola to Fernado, Leylis and Breydi (who we met in Huacachina),

We have been having so much fun in Peru we´ve been very lapse at keeping you updated so here is a mega catch up.

We only spent a few days in Lima, which was definately enough, most of our sightseeing was church-based. They have a lot of those in Lima. Here is Dave in the Cathedral. We did a guided tour and the guide was polite enough to point out that we should tip him! They are quite keen on tips here.

Also in Lima we had our first taste of pre-Columbian Peru.

We visited an ancient adobe pyramid and witnessed a kind of Peruvian time team still at work. I´m sure that guy in the hat is Tony Robinson.

Similar to Santiago we found Lima to be very smoggy. We naively thought it was just early morning fog when we first arrived! Luckily the rest of Peru isn´t quite so polution bound. Only a short bus ride away from Lima we found ourselves in the beautiful oasis resort of Huacachina.

It was roasty-toasty and we were very happy to dig our shorts out from the bottom of our bags and go exploring in the sunshine.

Huacachina is quite a young resort, there were quite a few post a-level gap year students there which meant that the most popular things to do were high adrenalin activities. Never ones to turn a good white knuckle adventure down we signed up for a bit of dune buggying followed by some sand boarding.

Here is Dave and our buggy. We were assured by the hostel owner that we had the craziest driver and he certainly was "un poco loco". I am still finding sand between my teeth.

I took to sand boarding much as I did to surfing. I am a legend. At least I was until I fell off and nearly gave my self whiplash. I was a bit more cautious after that.

After Huacachina we travelled onwards and upwards to Arequipa. A much prettier city than Lima (admittedly a lot smaller). We enjoyed walking around its cobbled streets and visiting its labyrinthian convent. Also very picturesque, lots of white wahsed walls and geraniums.

The highlight of our visit to Arequipa was a three day trek in the nearby Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It was a grueling three days but we were well rewarded by the awesome scenery and by our guide´s witty banter.

Due to the steepness of the canyon´s sides most of the paths down were very very wiggly. The path which took us out of the Canyon consisted of no fewer than 128 switchbacks (yes we counted).

The first night we stayed with a family in a tiny electricity free village in the canyon. The main occupation there was collecting the cochineal parasites from cacti to make dye. We stayed in a mud brick hut on a bamboo bed weighted down with llama wool blankets, it as very homely.

On the sceond day we hiked down to bottom of the canyon passing through a couple more small villages and over a swing bridge, which looked sturdier than some of the swing bridges in New Zealand. This is Dave with Katie and Tom, fellow English trekkers, who shared our love of beer and football.

At the bottom of the Canyon we stopped at another beautiful oasis and enjoyed splashing around before an awesome lunch prepared by our guide, Nestor.

Did I mention how mega grueling the ascent was? Well, at least I thought so. We took plenty of breaks which gave us chance to keep up with the football, which Nestor was listening to on his radio. We soon learnt the Spanish for goal is "golllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll".

By the time we reached Cobanaconde, our scond night´s stop, dusk was falling and we were all in need of showers. We celebrated our achievement with food and beer before falling into bed for a well earned sleep.

But there was no lie-in the following day as we were off to Cruz del Condor in pursuit of, you guessed it, Condors!

Luckily enough a dead donkey in the valley ensured we saw plenty. There is no way this photo will convey how big they look even when they are soaring twenty metres above your head.

We even saw some baby ones (well, juveniles) sitting on a crag just above our bus.

Thus concluded our three day adventure. Back in Arequipa preperations were in place for Corpus Christi, man they love a party in Peru. Teams from all the schools in the area made beautiful sand collages all around the Plaza de Armas, which only hours after completion were trampled by the parade as part of the ceremony.

We arrived in Cusco two days ago to discover that they were celebrating another festival. Last night a concert was held in the Plaza which drew huge crowds. We can only guess it was the Peruvian equivalent of Robbie Williams!

In Cusco we met up with Tom and Katie again who, coincidently, have signed up for the same Inca Trail trip as we have. We start the four day trek to Machu Pichu tomorrow. I am very much hoping that the walking we did in the Colca Canyon will have got me in peak condition for the trek.

That´s all for now, expect an Inca Trail blog in the next week or so.

Kat and Dave

Ola amigos from darkest Peru

2006-06-07T17:21:00.000Z

Well maybe not darkest yet but definately smoggiest. Smog seems to be a general theme in South American cities (I can confidently report this after my survey of two!).

We arrived in Santiago safe and well after our long flight from NZ. We stayed at a decent hostel and made amigos with an English guy (hello Les) and a bunch of Canadians and Americans all in Chile to teach English. I think this helped with the culture shock as we barely had to speak a word of Spanish whilst we were there and we even got lasagne for dinner!

Managing to avoid the student riots (which were conveniantly staged the day before we arrived and the day after we left) we moved on to Peru on Monday. We are staying in Lima but are leaving tomorrow to travel south. Lima is a bit like Santiago but more smelly, more smoggy, and has more dodgy areas - which we are well avoiding. We have had more opportunity to practise our Spanish and with the speed we are picking it up I have no doubt we will be fluent by the time we get back (Ahem).

Those of you who are worried about us fading away will be pleased to hear we have discovered empanadas! Basically pasties with a range of fillings. We are mostly eating ham (jamon) and cheese (queso) this has nothing to do with the fact that we don´t understand what any of the other filling words mean. Dave has been very dilligently applying himself to trying the local beers, all very lagery but their cheapness definitely enhances them. We have read in the LP about a beer brewed by tribe people called Chica made from corn which is chewed by said tribes men to start the fermentation process before being spat out. Mmmmm should wash done the roast guinea pig a treat.

For fans of those sand sledging photos you will be pleased to hear we are heading to Hucachina tomorrow where there are massive sand dunes which people "surf" down.

Sorry no photos this time, just imagine lots of smog and dodgy looking latinos.

Kat and Dave x

Last post in NZ

2006-06-02T01:32:00.000Z

Well, here we are in Auckland Airport, trying to see through the hours boredom by utilising the free internet. We handed Burpy back to the hire company this morning (that's our car) and everything was fine, whoo, unlike the two Irish girls before us who had almost written off a car and were busy settling the bill for $4000 or so.

Our flight today is the longest one of our trip, a whopping 11 hours 20 minutes, covering 6000 miles. The strange thing is, we leave here at 5.25pm and arrive in Santiago at 12.45pm, nearly 5 hours before we set off, so we have a mammoth day of 40 hours or so, that's the longest Friday ever!!

We're only spending a long weekend in Santiago before heading off up to Peru. Can't wait to hike the Inca Trail.

Only 2 months til we're back home. It feels quite strange at the moment, it feels like we're just starting again with a whole new continent, but it also feels like our trip is slowly coming to an end. Oh well, I'm sure we'll make the most of our 2 months in South America.

Bye for now.

David and Kat

2006-05-30T03:06:00.000Z

Well, here we are in the sun drenched Northland. Yes it's winter, but it's roasting hot and I'm in shorts and t-shirt again! After a very brief stop in Auckland we now have a new camera so here's a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Our first stop was at a lovely farm hostel just south of the kauri forest. For those who don't know, kauri pines are huge trees that grow only in NZ, often up to 5m in diameter and 50m high. Here's me and Kat with a specimen which is no longer standing.

We also did a guided night walk through the forest and we were lucky enough to see a kiwi in the wild. They are fantastic birds, but obviously due to the darkness, we have no photos.

Our next destination was the town of Ahipara where we stayed at a really nice, beach front, timber-made hostel called Endless Summer. From here we did a trip up to Cape Reinga, (not quite) the most northern point of NZ. On the way we stopped off at some giant sand dunes for a spot of sand sledging. Here's Kat showing how not to come to a safe stop.

Here we are at the summit of one of the dunes (before our imminent descent).

We shared our trip with a friend we made at the hostel, or rather he shared his trip with us as he did all the driving (many thanks for that Gidi). Here we all are at Cape Reinga.

The Cape is a very sacred place for the Maori people as it marks the place where their souls descend into the underworld when they die. On the way back from the Cape we witnessed some of the locals making their way home. This method of transport seems fairly typical in NZ.

We finished our day back on the beach outside our fantastic hostel watching the sun go down.

We are now in the town of Paihia (pronounced "pie here", as one bakery advertised their pies) in the Bay of Islands. The scenery here is beautiful and we went on a boat cruise yesterday. We saw some more dolphins, which was nice, but we found them too late in the trip for us to go swimming with them.

That's all for now.

Dave and Kat

Dark and soggy places

2006-05-23T01:37:00.000Z

Hello!

We had another go at uploading our photos from the Black Water experience (following in the footsteps of - we are not worthy... - Sir David Attenborough) but despite our bets efforts all the computers we try don't want to co-operate so you will just have to wait till we get back.

We are now in Auckland (though they def missed out on a tourist oppourtunity by not renaming it Orcland after LOTR) after surviving the only real stretch of motorway in the country - kiwi drivers and multiple lane roads were not designed to go together.

We did a bit more hiking in the Coromandel but due to a mishap with the camera you are spared the photos of us looking glum in the rain. Despite the rain we had quite a lot of fun sharing our hut with 35 thirteen year olds on a school trip. In a bizarre lapse of parental/teacher supervision the kids had been given the responsibility of planning their own menus and providing their own food whilst in the hut. Which meant we witnessed some entirely unsuitable food preperation. Hoardes of children feasting on mountains of sausages and lollies (thats sweets to you and me non kiwis). One child had even lugged up a cast iron frying pan to fry his eggs which were, unfortunately, all shattered by the time they reached the hut.

Right, we're off to explore New Zealand's biggest city very thoroughly mostly because our hostel is so skanky we are going to try and avoid going back there at all costs.

Bye for now.

Kat and Dave

From Thermal Parks to thermal pants!

2006-05-19T03:22:00.000Z

Hello,

The bad weather persisted in Taupo and we spent quite a lot of time playing Scrabble but things improved when we followed our noses up to Rotorua. Rotorua is the thermal springs capital of New Zealand and consequently smells very eggy (from the sulphur). We had quite a lot of thermal fun waiting for geysers to spurt and watching bubbling pools of mud before slipping into some lovely thermal spas under a twinkling star speckled sky.

This is the Pohutu geiser which can spurt upto 30m in the air.

This is some bubbling mud. Not only did it look cool but it also made interesting 'Blob-blob-blob" noises.

We also managed to get a bit cultural and saw two Maori concerts in one day. At Te Puia ( a thermal park sacred to the Maori) we were invited into the meeting house by a young warrior wearing a grass cod piece and waving a spear. Much singing and dancing ensued all accompanied by a chorus of camera clicking Korean tourists.

The evening performance was less in your face tourist-tastic and has the additional bonus of including food. We were treated to a traditional Maori hangi, where all the food is cooked for three hours in a big charcoal filled pit covered over with turf or blankets. Before we could sample the delights of the pit we were treated to an awesome performance of dancing, poi-ing, singing and demonstrations of Maori weaponary.

With the weather clearing it was time to head to the hills so we headed down to Turangi and prepared to do the Tongariro Crossing. Lord of the Rings fan's will recognise the distincive shape of Mount Ngauruhoe as Mount Doom. But instead of the lava covered terrain of Mordor a recent snow storm meant we saw a picturesque snow capped mountain and no Orks.

Because of extreme weather conditions we were advised not to do the hike on our own and instead signed up to make the crossing in a group led by an experienced guide.

This was a very good idea as we were buffeted by mega winds and were kept upright only with the help of our crampons. It was very very chilly when we stopped moving and I was glad of my thermals and gortex! Bracing ourselves against the wind we got a cloudy view of the emerald lakes.

When the wind died down we were treated to some awesome views of the snow capped ranges and got to play in lovely snow unblemished by human footprint (until ours of course).

In the summer the crossing sometimes sees 500 visitors in a day. The day we did it our group of six were the only ones to make it across (we met two couples who turned back because the conditions were too icy). This made us feel pretty proud of ourselves. So back at the hostel along with two american friends we made (Hello, Tom and Jill) we rewarded ouselves with fish, chips and beer.

Our adventuring continued with a car journey to the Waitomo Caves where we experienced the thrill of black water rafting. Exciting enough in itself but made even more so by the fact that we were following in Sir David Attenborough's footsteps; he filmed an episode for "life in the undergrowth" in the same cave system. We may have seen the same gloworms that he saw! We did get some photos taken but unfortunately the computer we are on doesn't like the CD so you will just have to wait to see photos of us in our tasty white wellies and thick black wetsuits!

We stopped off in Hamilton, New Zealand's largest inland city, to see Dave's cousin Trish and Auntie Enid (again). As before, in Blenheim, we were treated to a fantastic roast dinner with lots of veg AND yorkshire puddings!

Now we are up in the Coromandel, staying in Thames. We are planning to do a hike to the Pinnacles tomorrow so should have some more nice pics for you soon.

Thats all for now, hope you (at home) are enjoying some warmer weather.

Kat and Dave

Kiwi Catch-up

2006-05-09T03:41:00.000Z

Kia ora! We are now in the North Island in a town called Taupo, not far from the dark peaks of Mordor. But as we haven't done anything here yet (it's raining) we're going to take the opportunity to update you with our adventures up til now.

Here's the Shotover Jet in Queenstown, which, as predicted, did involve lots of screaming as our driver whisked us through a narrow canyon at 80 km/h.

In Wanaka we took the opportunity to get out in the fine weather for a bit of relaxing hiking through the Mt Aspiring National Park. Here's me doing some free-style stream crossing.

We tramped up to our luxury mountain side accommodation...

.... yes it's that small orange shed. We were treated to some pretty fantastic views and some interesting neighbours. We were woken up shortly before dawn by some Keas (mountain parrots) making off with our hut-mates' ice axes. This is a view down the path we walked up from the river. Yup it was very steep!

We left Wanaka in sunshine to head up the west coast of NZ in poring rain (apparently it does that on the west coast!). We stopped off at the Fox Glacier for a bit more hiking, this time on the ice! We got to wear crampons and use walking poles and everything! Sorry about the splodges on the picture, but it didn't stop raining all day.

It did eventually stop raining when we reached Punakaki, well long enough for us to enjoy a pretty sunset.

We stayed at a really nice hostel there where the host cooked fresh bread and muffins every morning, mmm!!! We crossed back to the east coast where we stopped at Kaikoura for some whale watching. We saw no fewer than 10 sperm whales...

... and a pod of around a hundred or so dusky dolphins.

After all that excitement we needed a drink, so we headed to Renwick in the heart of Marlborough Wine Country where we stayed at probably the nicest hostel in NZ, Watson's Way Backpackers (in case anyone is heading this way). We hired bikes and did a tour sampling many of the fine wines on the way.

We also stopped off to see my Great Aunt Enid in Blenheim, where she cooked us a marvelous feast of roast pork and many, many trimmings!

After a brief stop in Nelson for some fine beer and an even briefer stop in Picton to hand the car back, we crossed the Cook Straight to Wellington (no problems with the tsunami warning). The highlight of Windy Welly was the Te Papa Museum. We saw the awesome Lord of the Rings exhibition and the National Marae (Maori meeting place), which rather impressively was all made of chip board!

This is a close up on one of the highly decorative wall panels.

Next we headed up to Napier, the Art Deco City, which was almost completely re-built after a huge earthquake in 1931. Here's a fine example of some Art Deco architecture, with hints of art nouveau in the door surround (we got a leaflet, so now we are experts).

We also had the opportunity to get friendly with the locals. Here's me with George.

And that brings us to Taupo. It may have stopped raining now, but it going to be dark soon. Best get back to the hostel where we have some of Mac's Wicked Blondes waiting for us (that's beer by the way, and pretty good beer it is too).

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

We reach Kiwi-a-go-go-land!

2006-04-14T22:10:00.000Z

Hello,

Yes at last we reach New Zealand's fair shores, well actually we arrived a couple of weeks ago. Although New Zealand is an all round excellent country their internet connections and computing facilities leave a lot to be desired! But before you go any further scroll down to March 23rd as we have snuck in an extreme photo catch-up for our last days in Oz.

Our first stop was Christchurch which provided a welcome relief from Australia's fizzy lagers. We found the Twisted Hop, an excellent pub and microbrewery, selling english style ales, lovingly hand pulled into pint glassses at a proper temperature. If that wasn't enough they also had proper pork pies with Colman's mustard!

We also managed to get cultural in Christchurch's numerous art galleries and centres before getting merry with Dave's friend Sally who introduced us to an alcholic ginger beer.

In Christchurch we picked up a lovely shiny little nissan pulsar which has been our adventure wagon ever since. First it took us to Lake Tekapo where we saw a pretty lake and... well that was about it.

We next drove to Mount Cook which is so staggeringly gorgeous it defies description.

We went on lots of lovely walks around Mount Cook Village including one to a lake right in front of a glacier which meant there were lots of little floating iceburgs.

We made friends with a nice English couple, Gary and Sarah (who we'd already bumped in Christchurch and Lake Tekapo), and climbed a mini mountain with them.

Then we went to Oamaru where we had our first brush with penguins and we ate lots of yummy locally produced cheese. We spotted this little fella hiding in a bush right in front of us.

After Oamaru we were off to Dunedin which is actually a little bit of Scotland transplanted onto the east coast of New Zealand. We did an ace tour of the Speight's brewery (our guide was from Aberdeen) and went to watch the Highlanders (the local rugby team) at Carisbrook Stadium. We also enjoyed a pleasent train ride down a beautiful gorge and back again.

Not satisfied with the penguins we'd seen in Oamaru we went in search of more penguins. And found them living with some sheep on the Otago Penisula.

Despite the peninsula being pretty chilly we still managed to have a nice day at the beach.

We took the scenic route to Invercargill stopping off ant Nugget Point on the way.

After a brief stop in Invercargill we headed to Te Anau (gateway to Fiordland), which neccesitated lots of taking in faux scandanavian accents. We did a nice day hike round Manapouri. Curiously the first part of the hike involved hiring a row boat and crossing a river. Luckily the rest of the walk was drier.

We got some pretty awesome views from the lookout.

And some more down by the lake.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide any photos of the high point of the trip so far as they were all taken on a waterproof camera. You'll have to cope with my inadequate description because words cannot describe how awesome an experience we had.

We booked a kayaking tour on Milford Sound and left Te Anau very early to spend a good five hours on the water. I cannot emphasise how beautiful Milford Sound is and I think we would still have had a amazing day even if the Dolphins hadn't shown up.

Yes that's right, Dolphins, twenty of them, all swiming within inches of our kayaks, jumping out of the water, doing that wierd backwards walking thing (like flipper) and generally showing off for our amusement and amazement. I'm sure our guide wasn't lying when he said things like that don't happen very often. He'd been kayaking the sound since he was a boy and had never seen that many. It was simply the best experience I've ever had. Dolphins rock!

Next stop was Queenstown - the thrill seeker capital of New Zealand. We found our first thrill doing the Luge down a long concrete racetrack.

See Mum I haven't been letting Dave do all the driving.

But thats not it for thrills, tomorrow we are going to do the Shotover Jet - a speed boat ride down a narrow canyon which tries to scare the living daylights out of its passengers. It looks like there may be a lot of screaming involved.

I hope these pics have filled a small hole it may be some time before we find such resources as these again, perhaps we should have an alternative carrier pigeon blog.

Byeee!

Kat and Dave

One last post in Oz

2006-03-29T06:14:00.000Z

Hello again. Kat and I are now in Sydney airport awaiting our flight to Christchurch in New Zealand. We've had a really good past few days. We had some more fun at the athletics in Melbourne before flying to Tasmania for a few days.

We hired a car in Hobart, a pretty old, bright yellow (so Kat was pretty happy) Nissan Pulsar with nearly 220,000km on the clock! We didn't spend long in Hobart, just enough time to pick up some provisions, before hitting the "highway" to Lake St. Clair. Now, you may be imaging us driving along a road pretty much like the M1 (or similar), which is the image the word "highway" creates, but in fact, the highways in Tas are just single carriageways, with the occasional overtaking lane and a lot of roadkill (possums, wallabies, wombats and even a couple of Tassie Devils). The animals that get flattened must be pretty unlucky as the roads in Tas are very quiet. Tasmania has some other rather dodgy roads, including a major "A" road which consisted of 30km of gravel track!! (although we weren't insured to take it so we had a 100km or so detour).

We arrived in Lake St. Clair and booked into our accommodation and had a wander down to the beautiful, crystal clear lake. The next day we hiked up Mt. Rufus and enjoyed some great panoramic views of the whole area. It was a lot like hiking in the Lake District, with rugged mountains and sparkling lakes. There was even a bitterly cold wind at the top of the mountain too.

After descending the mountain, we got back into the yellow beast and set off on a 300+ km drive to Freycinet National Park. We arrived just as the sun was setting and we saw several suicidal wallabies waiting to play "chicken" with any passing vehicle. The next day we awoke to pouring rain, which kind of put a dampner on our hiking plans. The rain eventually stopped in the afternoon and we managed to hike up to the view point overlooking Wineglass Bay, which was amazing even in the dull overcast weather! We spent another night there before heading back to Hobart the next day, setting off before sunrise, avoiding yet more wallabies, to get our car back to the hire company before 10.30am. This let us have a day exploring Hobart, which is all you need really, it's not a massive city.

Can't wait to get to Kiwi Land, only 4 hours or so, whoo!

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

Extreme Photo Catch-up

2006-03-23T02:51:00.000Z

Ok, since we have finally found a computer that allows us to upload photos, prepare to be bombarded with our mega catch-up of our Australian Adventures.

Here's a picture of somewhere nearly as famous as Ramsay Street.

Did we mention how terribley cultural we were going to the Opera. Well here is me in my Opera going frock. Oh and the bridge in the background is quite famous too (it's not blurry, it's arty!).

Never being ones to miss the oppourtunity of scaling new hights here is us on Ruined Castle (a rock formation not an actual ruined castle) in the Blue Mountains.

Whilst in the Blue Mountains we visited Wentworth Falls. As its name suggests there are a lot of waterfalls there.

We also went to Canberra, which is the Capital city of Australia (not Sydney or Melbourne as it commonly thought). But it seems not many Aussies know that it is their country's epicentre as it is very, very quiet (or at least it was till we got there) . This is us celebrating St Patrick's day.

We had more reflective times as well. Here is Dave contemplaing the cost of war at the National War Memorial.

After Canberra we were away to Melbourne and you already know what fun we had there. Just to remind you here is a picture of me with Toadie!

And us at Erinsborough High.

Our final jaunt in Australia was to Tasmania where we hired a beast of a car. Here is Dave with our perky little Nissan outside our hut at Lake St Clair.

We had plenty of fun in Tas. Here's us reaching new (windy) heights on Mount Rufus...

...and Dave was quick to make friends with the locals.

Thus we conclude the report of our Australian Adventures. Stand by for a Kiwi update soon!

Bye for now,

Downunder Dave and Kiwi Kate.

So much to tell you!!

2006-03-22T04:03:00.000Z

Hello Blogspotters!

I cannot even begin to describe how much fun we are having in Melbourne, I can only hint at it, because it defies quantifying (that was a bit sciencey). We had quite a lot of fun in Canberra, visiting museums, making clay croccodiles and celebrating St Patrick's Day. Canberra is an odd city, very quiet and spread out (it reminded me of "28 days later"), but it was still fun. We are now in Melbourne where we cannot move for people and activity, it's all happening here and we have well and truly emersed ourselves in it.

We arrived in Melbourne at 6.30 am on Sunday on the night bus from Canberra. We dumped our stuff at the YHA and hurried down to the marathon course where we had lots of good cheering practise, as we yelled home Liz Yelling and just about every other athlete who passed us.

On Monday we headed to the Melbourne Museum with the sole purpose of seeing the original Robinson kitchen on display (that's Neighbours in case you hadn't realised). There was even Scott and Charlene's wedding cake still in the fridge.

In the evening we enjoyed a plesant night out in St Kilda with none other than Alan Fletcher (Karl Kennedy), Ryan Malloney (Toady) and Janet Andrewartha (Lyn Scully), oh and about two hundred other nieghbours fans. We had our photos taken with them all and we came 5th out of 47 teams in the trivia quiz, not bad indeed! Don't you like how Karl has matched his shirt to my pink T-shirt and Dave's brown one, ver considerate.

Despite the huge excitement of the night before we were up early and hot footed it back to St Kilda to watch the cycling time trails (which are not, as I assumed, heats for something else but actually an event in their own right). Despite my cycling numptyness I was guided by Dave and did plenty of cheering and flag waving. They were all super speedy and the boys looked very nice in their lycra.

As soon as we'd seen the last cyclists come in we jumped on a tram and headed back to the MCG for our first night of athletics. We could not have hoped for a better evening. Dave got to snuggle up to Kelly Holmes (unfortunately this comp won't let me rotate the photo so it would be on its side if I uploaded it). We saw England win three golds; Lisa Dobriskey in the 1500m (she just came from nowhere on the last straight and powered home - very exciting), Christine Ohuruogu in the 400m (she beat Tonique Williams the world and olympic champion quite spectacularly) and Dean Macey in the Decathalon. seeing Dean triumph over his elbow injury and beat the aussie who'd usurped him in the javelin was brillo. We also saw three bronzes go to Andrew Turner (110m Hurdles), Nadia Williams (Triple Jump) and Mara Yamauchi (10,00m). We didn't hear the aussie anthem played once all night!

Despite ANOTHER late night of action packed excitement we dutifully rose early this morning so we could leap on board the Neighbours bus an embark on a tour of Ramsay Street, Erinsborough High and Global Televison studios where neighbours is filmed. We didn't get to go in those last two but stopped outside and marvelled at them. Being on Ramsay Street was a strange experience we were kind of awestruck but at the same time surprised by how small it was. Our guide played videos of some of the best episodes on the way back which were a joy to relive.

We are going to the athletics again tonight and have printed out the words to "Land of Home and Glory". Lets hope we get the oppourtunity to sing them again. We have made a flag as well to alert you to our presence and will be waving it frantically.

Well that's all for now but we'll be back with plenty more sports related news and maybe some more photos if you are good.

Kat and Dave

Ps. I wasn't going to talk about Canberra but all this talk about competitions has made me just have to mention my own personal triumph in the YHA "Clay Day" modelling comp. Where I won second place and a bottle of wine for my creative efforts to render a croccodile in clay. If you look closely you can see his little friend, it's a duck.

Aussie Culture Lesson Number 2 - Beer

2006-03-11T02:07:00.000Z

Well, I was going to upload some more photos for your enjoyment, but the YHA insists on locking the computers in a box so we don't have access to a USB socket or the CD drive, so instead I'll rabbit on for a bit about Australian beer.

I'll start with the vessels that beer is served in. They sell midis, schooners and jugs. A midi is half a pint and a schooner is 2/3 of a pint and a jug is 2 pints. Buying a jug of beer is by far the cheapest way of drinking, but you run the risk of drinking warm beer at the end, which is not great when Austalian beer is involved. This is best avoided by sharing a jug between friends, but this does mean many visits to the bar.

The Aussies brew three kinds of beer, like we do in England. They have lager, bitter and ale. The Australian versions, however, are all very similar. The lager is as you would expect, cold, fizzy and flavourless, and the Aussies drink it by the jug full. The favourites in most bars are XXXX and Tooheys (no sign of Fosters anywhere, hoorah!). The best (not saying much) lager we sampled is Tooheys Extra Dry, which came recommended by all the Aussies we have spoken too.

All the beer companies brew a "bitter" as well, which, is nothing like a bitter. It is just a lager with a tiny bit more flavour and a little bit darker, but again served ice cold. All of them very much like the famous Vicotria Bitter (VB).

Some of the big beer companies and quite a few smaller companies also brew "ales". These are by far the best choice, but are still served ice cold and have rather too much fizz, and are still very lager-like. We have tried a few of these ales, including James Squire's Amber Ale, which (as Gordon will agree) is by far the best mass produced beer we have found (we happen to have a six pack of "stubbies" chilling in the fridge as we speak to accompany our barbie later).

We have talked to quite a few Australians about their beer and they think they brew the best beer in the world. When we tell them about our warm, flavoursome, not fizzy real ales they think we're very strange indeed. When we tell them that our favourite Oz beer is the James Squire's Amber Ale, we get a few strange looks and get told "but that's a boutique beer" whatever "boutique" means. I guess they think we're a bit poncey.

Our best beer experience however, was at the Lord Nelson Hotel Brewery Hotel at the Rocks in Sydney. This claims to be the oldest pub in Sydney and it served damn fine beer. It has its own micro-brewery, producing 5 or 6 fine ales and beers, which you can watch being brewed while you enjoy your pint (yes a pint) in the bar. We sampled the Trafalgar Pale Ale, the Quayle Ale and the Victory Bitter (not to be confused with VB), which were all full of flavour and thoroughly enjoyable.

Still, I can't wait to get back home and enjoy a good pint of Timmy Taylors, well maybe I can wait, I have got a lot of adventuring to do.

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

Opera amazing!

2006-03-08T22:32:00.000Z

Hello culture fans and blog lovers everywhere!

Last night we had an absolutely fabity fab time at the opera ( I may hasten to add in THE Opera House - yes that very famous one). We went to see Mozart's "The Magic Flute" performed by Australia Opera and Legs on the Wall ( a physical theatre company). It was a fantastic performance with great music and singing but all performed with an Aussie twist.

We knew it was going to be a bit different whent Papageno appeared pushing a barbie complete with "tubes" of lager which he proceeded to pour on the BBQ. The dialogue was updated as well, Papageno told Timino that he was "one sandwich short of a picnic basket". The boundaries between soap opera and high opera were blurred for a minute when Papagena appeared on stage looking an awful lot like Janae from Neighbours, even wearing a denim mini and Uhgs!

There was plenty to marvel at with the Legs on the Wall possee too. The musical pieces were accompanied by tumbling acrobats and dangling dancers, there were fire jugglers and water features. The costumes were sublime, the queen of the night looking radiant as she was lowered from the ceiling stood on a crescent moon with her sparkling skirts billowing behind her.

During the interval we quoffed champagne in a bar with possibly the best view in the world and hobnobbed with Sydney's cultural elite (actually we kept pretty quiet and watched them hobnob).

All in all it was a spendiferous evening and definitely one of the many highlights of our trip so far.

Bye for now.

Kat and Dave.

2006-03-08T01:58:00.000Z

Hello faithful blog fans!

We had a great time in Byron Bay, despite the torrential rain that seemed to be non-stop. In the brief dry spells we managed to walk up to the the lighthouse, well it was dry when we set off. On our way through the rainforest (it's called rainforest for a reason), Kat saw a snake, a rather large nasty looking brown one, which was probably quite poisonous, so our stroll turned into a fast tempo march to the top of the hill. We were rewarded however, by a pod of 15 or so dolphins swimming, surfing and jumping in the waves. It was a great sight and the pouring rain did not dampen our spirits.

After a brief stop at the lighthouse we reached Australia's most easterly point, which was nice.

On another day, which was fairly dry, we went surfing, so it wasn't dry for long. Kat stood up on her first attempt, after all she has the ideal surfer's body (according to a local surfer), but I took another trip to gain my balance. Pretty soon after that we were both surfing the waves and having a totally radical, awesome time!! The waves started to get a bit gnarly towards the end of the session, I even managed to surf a wave going out to sea!

Kat and I are now in Sydney, in fact we are on our 5th day here as we love it so much. We arrived on Saturday, only to discover that it was Sydney Mardi Gras, so after a quick tour of the harbour, viewing the fine sights of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, we made our way to Oxford Street to secure awesome seats on the pavement for the evening's parade. We got there at 3.30 and the parade started at 7.30, so we were pretty tired when we left at 10.30, covered in glitter with no whistle left in us.

The rest of the time in Sydney we've spent walking round the Rocks Markets, viewing a Kylie Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, soaking up culture at the Gallery of NSW, cruising the harbour and taking a stroll across the harbour bridge. Tonight, after queueing at 7.30 this morning to get tickets, we are going to see Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at the Opera House and we are both very excited.

That's all for now. We would have put some photos on too, but the computer won't let us upload anything, so you'll just have to use your imagination again.

Dave and Kat

More Oz Photos

2006-02-27T23:16:00.000Z

You can now stop using your imagination. As promised here's a few photos for your enjoyment.

After we finished snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef we enjoyed a cultural evening of Cane Toad Racing at Johno's Blues Bar in Cairns (Ben, it would be a great venue for Modeliste). It was the best $3 we've spent so far, even though our toad failed to move one inch from the starting bucket. Here's me with our toad, Plonker, plus Captain Sarcasm the thoroughly hilarious compere.

And here's our friend Daniel with his toad, Graham.

This is us and our koala, called Crumpet, at the Lonepine Santuary. The fact that a koala poos, on average, 80 times a day didn't disuade us.

Here's Kat feeding a friendly kangaroo.

This is Kat and Gordon at the Brisbane lagoon.

Here's Kat and Gordon sampling the best beer in Oz (well, that we've found so far), called James Squire's Amber Ale. To say that it's the best beer isn't going that far as the Aussies have no idea about how to make nice beer. (Mum, look at my pretty necklace - Kate).

This is me on the M5! Only joking, it's one of the main roads on Fraser Island.

Look, mermaids in Lake McKenzie. Well almost, it's Kat, Jen and Zelda.

This is Kat on the beautiful 75 Mile Beach.

This is me at Indian Head not spotting sharks.

This is Kat with a Scribbly Gum Tree. The zig-zag marks were originally thought to be Aboriginal writing (hence the name), but are in fact caused by a grub that eats the tree while it's turning into a fly.

This is me watching the thousands of Rainbow Lorikeets coming into roost at sunset on Fraser...

...and here is sunset. Beautiful!

Fun and frollics on Fraser

2006-02-27T04:24:00.000Z

G'day and greetings from upside down land!

Well, we have made it all the way down the East Coast to Byron, home of hippys and mecca of surfers, but that is not what I'm going to talk to you about today. Oh no.

Today I will mostly be reporting on our awesome adventure on Fraser Island. Fraser Island is, in essence, a jolly big pile of sand (it's reputed to have more sand than the Sahara - and there certainly was a lot of sand to see and to find its way in to every fold of clothing we possessed). We did a Cool Dingos eco-certified 4wd ranger guided tour, which meant we were shepherded round the island in a bloomin huge bus with enormous wheels by Chris, our guide, who was as enthusiastic about nature as he was about drinking. This was definately the way to see the island with minimal damage to the environment (unlike self drive tours) and useful little facts and muffins thrown in along the way.

On our first day we saw a couple of pretty beautiful perched dune lakes. The first, Basin Lake, was a emerald geen colour and home to frogs, froglets and tadpoles in abundance. The second lake was the ludicrously picture perfect Lake McKenzie which was also kind of a natural spa. The ultra fine sand was perfect for exfoliating and the slightly acidic water helped to remove any dead skin you might happen to have, leaving one as smooth as the preverbial. It was at Lake McKenzie we saw our first dingo - a lot like a dog really, which was why I was a bit slow at getting the old camera out forgetting that there were no dogs on Fraser. We also had fun trekking through rainforests learning facts about Cadbury's Flake trees and other flora and fauna like there was no tomorrow. Thankfully there was, and plenty more facts it brought too!

On day two we drove along seventy-five mile beach (actually its only sixty miles long which led Chris to speculate it was probabaly named by fishermen, ho ho) stopping off to take some arty photos of the Maheno shipwreck and the coloured sands of the Pinnacles. Next we hiked up Indian Head, one of only three rock outcrops on the island. From up here on a clear day you can usually see sharks and dolphins swimming round the point, unfortunately it was too windy to see anything through the waves and foam but we did see no less than THREE ospreys tucking into freshly caught fish. After trooping back down it was off to the Champagne Rock Pools - the only place on the island you can bathe in salt water. After such strenous exertion we were in need of some relaxation so it was off to Eli Creek, a kind of natural lazy river ride, where we hiked upstream and then floated back down on the current (collecting quite a bit of sand in my bikini as I went- that's Kat not Dave obviously). Day two was rounded off with a fairly delicious mexican buffet at the dingo bar.

Day three was a day for more lake spotting (quite easy really - they don't move). Our first lake was Lake Wabby, a barrage lake for all you lake fans, a giant green lake pinned in place by a massive sandblow. Here we had much fun catching march flies, squishing them and then feeding them to happy catfish. After such amusements we hiked over the aforementioned sandblow, no mean feat as sand is quite hard going, to rendezvous with Chris back on the beach. He whisked us off for lunch - advertised as a genuine aussie beach bbq. Another interesting aussie use of words as there was neither a beach nor bbq in sight (being held in a bar by a pool). Despite the absence of such key ingredients it was still well good and we heartily tucked into steaks, snags and salads. We finished off the afternoon and our cool dingos excertion with a dip in Lake Birrabean, another crystal clear blue beauty a bit like Lake McKenzie. We took the oppourtunity to exfoliate like loons and consequently have been asked for ID everywhere we go as we now look about 12 (tee hee hee).

Enough of this rejuvination nonsense, we are in Byron now and there is a beach out there which needs to be sat on and we are just the two intrepid adventurers to do it.

Bye for now.

Fearless Kat and Dangerous Dave.

PS. There will be more photos soon, we promise, til then use your imaginations.

Cays, Koalas and Kangaroos

2006-02-20T03:40:00.000Z

G'day possums!

Hope you are all ok. Me and Kat are having a bonza time. After sailing round the Whitsundays we returned to Cairns and spent a day snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef which was absolutely fantastic. The boat ride on the way out was quite rough and me and Kat pride ourselves on being the only people (excluding the crew) not to be sick! Our first stop was at Michaelmass Cay which was a tiny oval sand island which had formed on top of the coral reef, about 500m long and 50m wide. The coral reef around it was great and we saw loads of fish and quite a few jelly fish, luckily the non-stinging variety. The cay was also home to thousands of birds (sooty terns, lesser and greater crested terns and common noddies - that's for you Dad). The second stop was even better. The boat pulled up in what looked like the middle of the ocean, but we were in fact floating above the Hastings Reef, which was absolutely amazing. We did a snorkel safari with an aquatic "Steve Irwin" who found different corals and things for us to hold. We also found Nemo and several of his friends!!!

We are now in Brisbane, which is the biggest city we've been in since Singapore, but we're having a great time. We met up with Gordon (Kat's oldest friend) and had a couple of good nights out with him, gorging ourselves on $5 steaks, mmm mmm!!! We also paid a visit to the Lonepine Koala Sanctuary where we fed kangaroos and cuddled a koala (photo to follow). Our koala was called Crumpet, a saucy young 3 year old.

We've just booked onto a tour of Fraser Island and were given free internet, but no USB connection, hence no photos!

That's all for now.

Dingo Dave and Koala Kat

Aussie Culture Lesson Number One

2006-02-18T00:18:00.000Z

Hello,

In addition to our especially brilliant diary posts we have decided to bless you with an additional feature of the blog - Aussie Culture Lessons. So I'm afraid you'll have to wait to hear about the Reef, Toad racing and all our other fun and games and just sit patiently and listen to the lesson.

Today's Lesson: Aussie use of the word "Just".

In Ingyland we use the word "just" to suggest exclusiveness ie. I just want eggs for breakfast, meaning I only want eggs, not bacon toast or anything else. In 'stralia it means something else as is proved by our shopping experiences. We have encountered numerous shops (well at least three) which have names like "Just T-shirts", "Just Jeans" and "Just Fish" but infact sell a whole range of other items not listed after the "just" prefix. Infact we were hard pushed to find a pair of jeans in "Just jeans".

So we have summerised that "just" in 'stralian means something very different to our version of the word. So one should be very careful when visiting Oz if a 'stralain says he's like to give you "just a kiss".

More cultural enlightenment soon or maybe a diary entry.

Kat and Dave

We reach Koala-a-go-go land!

2006-02-16T00:41:00.000Z

G'day all you sheila and non-sheila blog fans,

So we have done much travelling since our last post. We conquered Singapore in a day! And very pretty and clean it was too.

We rewarded our hard day's sight seeing with a couple of Singapore Slings before hot-footing it to Oz.

Once in Oz we spent a couple of days in Darwin driving a host of diamond scaled mullets into a frenzy by offering them stale bread....

... and exhausting ourselves by going on a massive bike ride on slightly dubious bikes rented from the YHA. With that fun over we leapt back onto a plane a flew down to Cairns. From Cairns we took the Greyhound to Airley Beach where we had booked onto a boat tour of the ludicrously beautiful Whitsunday Islands.

We were sailing on a luxury Catamaran called "Kora" along with thirty other (mostly british) backpackers.

This is Dave on the fantastically white Whitehaven beach (it was so white it actually made us look jolly tanned!).

After a busy day's sailing and snorkulating we headed back to South Mole Island where we were fed and forced to particiapte in drinking games (obvioulsy Dave and I were far too boring to acquiese, so we watched instead but very much enjoyed everyone else's foolishness).

Now we are back in Cairns and it's doing quite a lot of that horrid thing which happens all the time back at home - yes it's raining. So to keep out of the rain we may do something cultural like go to an art gallery or some toad racing.

More fun and frollics soon.

Kat and Dave

PS. By the way Chris, we got your text but you'll have to do something interesting if you want to get mentioned on the literary gem that is our blog.

Free internet in airports!!

2006-02-07T13:52:00.000Z

Wow, free internet in Singapore Airport. Awesome!

Borneo and Singapore

2006-02-07T08:11:00.000Z

Hello avid blog readers!

Sorry for not making a post for a while but we´ve been in Borneo for the past week. We flew across to Kota Kinabalu from KL using Malaysia´s version of easyjet called AirAsia - the official low cost airline of Man Utd (they had a plane covered in pictures of Man Utd players). Kota Kinabalu is quite a modern city, well it was destroyed twice during the war (first by the English and then by the Americans), and it has loads of shopping malls and everything is laid out in nice straight roads. Anyway, there´s not much to do in KK so we wanted to book our trip to Mt Kinabalu, but because of bloomin Chinese New Year the travel agent was closed! They had about 4 public holidays in a row, it was very annoying. So we had to spend another night in KK before booking onto the trip up the mountain.

Climbing the Mt Kinabalu turned out to be the most expensive thing we did in Malaysia. The resort has recently changed hands and the prices have trippled to those in the Lonely Planet. Anyway, we still had a great time.

We stayed in the National Park HQ for the night before the climb. We had to book our climbing permit and insurance etc. The morning of first leg we met up with a nice Swiss couple, called Chris and Sarah, and a English guy called Tristan and his Danish girlfriend called Karen. It was quite nice to have some people to talk to and to share the cost of the guide with.

We started hiking at about 9am. We walked up through the forest, which was really cool. The clouds were lingering between the tree tops and there were some awesome plants. Some really strange green plants that hung off the branches of the trees were our favourite - they looked just like seaweed. As we got higher up the mountain the trees got shorter and the temperature dropped. It even reminded me of walking in the English moors with heather-like plants and a cold wind.

Anyway, the walk to our overnight stop at Laban Rata Rest House took about 4.5 hours, so we had the afternoon to recover from the morning´s ascent. The idea of climbing Mt Kinabalu is to get to the summit at dawn, so we had a rather early night in preperation for the 2am start the next day!!

We were woken up by the kitchen staff blarring out the Darkness at 1.45am and we eventually started the trek to the summit at around 3.15am. It was really weird walking in the pitch dark, with just the light from my head torch to guide me. The top of the mountain is a huge lump of granite, some of which was quite steep, but luckily there are ropes in place for most of the ascent. We got to the summit, 4095.2m above sea level, at about 5.45am and had a rather chilly half hour wait for sunrise. This was a little dissappointing because of the clouds but we still had some nice views across Borneo, including the huge gorge on the other side of the mountain, about 1km (or so, possibly more) deep, which was only successfully explored for the first time in 1998.

Anyway, when the sun came out we started the descent back to the rest house. It was much more enjoyable walking in the light as we could see the magnificent forms of the mountain peaks and the sheer granite slopes. After a brief stop at Laban Rata to pick up our stuff and to have a hot chocolate, we started the final descent back to the HQ. This, I have to say, was harder than the climb!! My knees were absolutely killing me by the end! Luckily (or so we thought) we´d booked into some hot springs for the night, with the aim of resting our tired limbs. Unfortunately when we got to the springs they were not what we expected. Instead of a big steaming rocky pool of water, we had rather grimey bathtubs which we filled up with hot, very sulphurous water from a trickling tap, which were not great. And to add insult to injury it pored down with rain too!!

As the springs were a bit naff we headed back to KK in the morning. We had a great breakfast of fruit from the a stall at the coach stop. We had rambutans (like a lychee but red in colour with longer spikes) and awesome little bananas (about 2 inches long) which were the best tasting bananas I have ever eaten!! We were hoping to go to see the Orang Utans at Sepilok, but because of our delay in KK we didn´t have time, which was a bit dissappointing.

We are now in Singapore, which is out favourite city we have been to (so far). It´s so nice and clean and so easy to get round. As we only had one day here we got up early this morning to pack in as much as possible. We had a boat trip along the river and around the harbour, which was great - some great views of both old and new Singapore. We went to the Asian Civilisations Museum, Canning Fort and to see the Raffles Hotel. We now having a bit of rest before going out for a curry in Little India and flying to Darwin tonight.

The next news will be from the land of kangaroos and koalas.

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

KL OK (but no dragons!)

2006-01-30T09:08:00.000Z

Hello!

Sorry for three posts in such qiock succession, but we like to keep you updated and we might not have another chance to do it in the near future as we have a busy week planned in Sabah.

We got to Kuala Lumpur a few days ago and the first thing we noticed was the heat - man it's hot here (33 degrees according to the weather, but it feels hotter than that!).

Our first little venture, after depositing our clothes at the laundry, was into China Town to try to find out when the Chinese New Year celebrations would take place, but no one seemed to know, so we hung around for a bit, looking round all the street stalls and eating some noodles and satay type stuff, which by the way was very tasty.

We were told that we could pick up our clothes at 8pm on the same day, so we went back to the laundry, but the man was very confused and our clothes had not come back yet. Me and Kat started to feel a bit anxious, as we had both kept out just one set of clothes and desperately needed some clean ones. The man told us to come back in the morning, so this is what we did. But, as it was now Chinese New Year ( a public holiday), the first time I went to the laundry it was still closed - more panic!! Things were not helped a few hours later, when the laundry was open, when less than half of our clothes had returned!!!! The man was very sorry and apologetic and spent the rest of the day hunting for our missing items, which finally turned up, much to our relief, in the evening. Me and Kat have never been so pleased to see pairs of pants and trousers!
Needless to say, we'll be handling our own laundry in the future.

After the laundry fiasco we wandered out to the Lake Gardens, where we went to the world's biggest Bird Park. This was pretty interesting. It was full of all sorts of exotic and rare birds, and also a lot of pigeons and peacocks (nice, colourful pigeons though, not like the ones in England). We wandered back to the hostel through the China Town again, expecting some big celebrations (we heard rumours of a dragon parade), but still nothing! The nearest thing we got was a couple of lion dancers and a band outside a Chinese restaurant!

Today we went for a wander to the Petronas Towers, which unfortunately is closed to visitors on a Monday, so we consoled ourselves with a mini shopping spree in the Suria shopping mall, where we discovered many shops including Marks and Spencer, Topman/Topshop and Zara - it was very much like being in the Trafford Centre!!

We spent the afternoon wandering around Little India, where we saw a nice little mosque, some lovely shops and sampled some awesome samosas and curry pasty type things - mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

Tomorrow we fly out to Borneo where we shall climb Malaysia's highest peak - Mount Kinabalu - and also see the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, awesome.

Bye for now.

Dave

PS. We found this amuzingly named coffin shop in China Town:

Taman Negar-argh!!

2006-01-30T08:20:00.000Z

Hello enthralled reader,

So we arrived safely in Taman Negara and headed to Tembeling River View Chalets where we had reserved two dorm beds. This was possibly a little unnecessary as we swiftly realised we were the only people there. There was a good reason for this - it was minky, minky, minky, MINKY with multiple capitals. We decided, charitabley I feel, to stay there for a night and it was a night of fear. Well for me anyway.

Since reaching Malaysia we have become familiar with an extremely loud, high-pitched, whirry, squealy noise. This is the noise emited by the huge (about 8cm), hard shelled, evil looking Cikada bug. Although I said we were the only people at Tembeling River View we were far from the only occupants. Millions of these bugs spent their time whizzing around, making frighteningly loud crashing noises into the side of our dorm. Plus our front wall wasn't quite finished (there was a three foot gap between roof and wall) which enable the winged critters to launch themselves into our room and thwack against our mosquito net. The little darlings liked light, it turned out, and most of the light to be found was in the unpleasant outdoor toilets which were too scary to use in the dark but too crowded to use in the light. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee.

So we moved the following morning to the delightful Ekoton chalets where we were soon joined by Andy, the Canadian we met in Cameron, and two Swedes, Anna and Erik. Using my skills and charm I managed to blag us all a three ringgit discount per person per night! Yes I know, I am truly talented.

I know you are all probably thinking that you have heard the highlight of the trip what with the bugs and all but there was way more fun to be had. If any of you come to Malaysia and don't come to Taman Negara and spend the night in a hide in the rainforest then you will miss out on what has been probably the highlight of my trip.

Anna, Erik, Andy, Dave and I provisioned ourselves with water, baked beans, pringles, tinned pineapple and several assorted boxes of children's breakfast cereal (Dave's choice) and set off fearlessly into the jungle. We were staying at Bumbun Kumbang, a hide five hours walk from the park head quarters. That may not sound far but in the heat and humidity of the Malaysian rainforest it's quite far enough actually. Setting off after lunch we arrived at around 6 ish with a few hours of daylight remaining.

We hoped this would give us time to settle ourselves quietly into the hide before any of the nieighbourhood wildlife came out to visit the salt lick. Unfortunately we were not to be the only ones using the hide that night. There was a group of seven people who had been out on a three day hike and were working their way back to the park HQ. You would have thought anyone who could be bothered to spend two nights in the rainforest with no amenities or alternative distractions would be mostly interested in what the rainforest had to offer. Apparently not. They, well the two aussies anyway, were mostly interested in being as loud and as irritating as possible so any chances of us seeing any wildlife were quickly seen off. We did see quite a lot of rats, as the smells of the other group's illegal camp stove (you are not allowed to use one within 1km of the hide) lured them in.

Now all that ranting might make it sound like I didn't enjoy myself but I did. When they were quiet the sounds of the rainforest were amazing and although we didn't see any animals we did see millions of fire flies and quite a few bats. Andy, Dave and I also went for a short walk into the forest after dark and stood listening to frogs and birds calling out to each other.

When the morning came we all felt weary from our previous days exertions so treated ourselves to a boat ride back (an adventure in itself) and a big breakfast/lunch of noodles, rice and mango juices. Mmmmm yummy.

The rest of time in Taman Negara was spent eating (we did a lot of this), drinking a variety of taste-tastic fruit juices, lazing around playing cards and preparing ourselves for Kuala Lumpur but I'll let Dave tell you about that.

More escapades soon.

Kat x

Cameron Photos

2006-01-30T08:05:00.000Z

Some lovely pics of the highlands for you to feast your eyes on...

Dave and our nissen hut.

Us in front of acres of tea bushes.

Blow pipes at the Orang Asli Village.

Dave at, aforementioned, Orang Asli Village.

Our well deserved steamboat feast.

Proper Boh and Steamboat Silly

2006-01-28T01:39:00.000Z

Hello All!!!

Sorry for not adding a post for a while but we've been very busy doing loads of stuff. To start with we spent a few days in the Cameron Highlands, which was really great because it was a lot cooler than Penang. Sorry Ash, we didn't stay at the super deluxe "Ye Olde Smokehouse" we stayed at a more modest place called "Father's Guest House" which was awesome.

We went on a guided tour of the highlands, which was excellent and well worth the money. We started off with a tour of the smaller of the two Boh tea plantations - a mere 600 acres!! Boh is the biggest tea company in Asia set up by a Scotsman in the 1920s. We learnt loads of tea related facts, shame there wasn't a tea themed pub quiz for us to take part in! Next we drove up to the top of the second highest mountain in the highlands, just 2032m, where we had some awesome views. Then we did a nature walk through the "Mossey Forest" where our guide pointed out all the medicinal, poisonous and carniverous plants. Our favourtites were the Pitcher Plants which eat flies. We also saw some real-life bonsai trees, although there were quite big (at least 6 foot tall). We then went to the tea factory to see the processing of the tea. We were told that the tea is matured for a few months to give it flavour, so we were expecting something a bit like a whiskey distillery when they mature the whiskey in big oak casks, but with tea it's nothing like that, they just use a large plastic sack! Anyway at the teashop me and Kat tried the new drink sensation that's sweeping Malaysia - a Teacino (like a capacino, but made with tea). They do two flavours, vanilla and caramel. We tried both and loved both.

In the afternoon we went to see an Orang Asli tribal village (Orang Asli translates as Original People) where we shared tea with the chief and tried our hands at blowpipe shooting. I have to say that I'm glad I don't have to rely on the blow pipe to catch my food as I was awful! We also ate some tapioca (or stick potato) which was nice and played a really hard wooden game that we just couldn't do, so we bought one to carry with us, maybe in 7 months we'll be able to do it.

We then finished the day with an off-road drive through the forest, which was very bumpy and, as there were no seat belts, very painfull! We were going through the forest for a long time and then all of a sudden we appeared in another tea plantation with nothing but tea as far as we could see. This was Boh's other plantation, a whopping 3,400 acres!

The next day we went on a forest trek with a few people that we'd met. This was pretty cool. We saw a lizard and a snake and several huge milipedes! In the evening we all went out for a Steamboat dinner. This is a chinese dish where you get a big vat of boiling soup (we had Tom Yam and Chicken) and then a huge variety of food that you cook in the soup. We had fish, cuttle fish, prawns, crab sticks, mussels, beef, chicken, tofu, eggs, noodles, a load of vegetables and the wierdest thing, some jelly fish. I have to tell you, jelly fish is awful. It has a horrible texture and a horrendous taste, I have no idea why people eat them, blurgghhh!!! But the experience was an awesome one and we had loads of fun cooking away and sampling all the different foods - we were well stuffed by the end.

That's pretty much it for the Cameron Highlands. We've also been to Taman Negara since then, but I'll leave that for Kat to write about.

We're off to explore Kuala Lumpur now. Bye!!

Dave and Kat

From the frying pan, through the fire to cooler climes

2006-01-20T09:02:00.000Z

Hello all!!

This morning we left behind sweltering hot Georgetown on a coach destined for the much cooler Cameron Highlands. We piled our bags into the coach, which wasn't too full, but when we got off again we discovered our bags had been moved and squeezed into a tiny space directly above the engine - needless to say, they got extremely hot!! When we got to our guest house (which is really nice by the way) I discovered that a lot of the plastic bags in my rucksack had melted, so I now have plastic coated underwear, sticky t-shirts, a melted tin of Nikwax, slighty dubious medicines (which were all "store below 25 degrees") and worst of all, one of the lenses in my spare glasses now has a frosted effect in one corner!!!! All Kat's stuff was fine - hmmpphhhh!!!!!

Anyway, that's enough ranting for now.

We are in the town of Tanah Rata staying in a Nissen Hut from the British occupation (think WW2 corrugated iron air-raid shelter) but its very nice inside. We start our adventuring tomorrow with a "Discovery Tour" taking in (among other things) the local tea plantations and the local Orang Asli tribal village.

I like being here in the highlands, it's so much more cooler. I can even walk around without building up a sweat!! We went for a bit of English comfort today with a cream tea at one of the tea shops, and very good it was to. My first cup of tea since leaving England.

Well that's all for now. No doubt we'll update again soon.

Dave and Kat

Photos

2006-01-19T10:26:00.000Z

Here's a few photos (sorry they're in a random order):

This is Dave in a cell at Cornwallis Fort.

This is our beach hut on Ko Samui and yes, that is the beach with the sea about 10 metres to the right.

Here is the sea at Ko Samui.

This is the beach at Hua Hin.

This is Dave at the Muay Thai.

And here's some hilariously named snacks from Thailand.

Big cannons and steep hills!

2006-01-19T09:56:00.000Z

Howdy parteners!

No we are not in the wild west we are in Malaysia (just fancied a bit of rodeo speak). We rode into Georgetown on the island of Penang yesterday afternoon (well actually we minivanned it but I'll continue the wild west theme for a bit) and saddled up at a quaint little hostel in China Town just next door to an awesome temple.

Today we did the tourist thang and saw the herritage sights of historic Georgetown and learnt all about the town's founder Captain Francis Light - he had a big sword and no-one knows what he looked like but he still has a statue! First we visited Cornwallis Fort where we narrowly avoided dressing up in Colonial dress but did see a jolly big cannon which local childless women put flowers in to help improve their fertility. After this cultural exscursion we got a bus to Penang Hill where we took a ride on the funicular railway to the top of the 800m hill on a 1 in 1.96 gradient. The view of Georgetown and its incredibly long bridge connecting it to the mainland was great but quite hazy. Next, intrepid explorers that we are, we journied back down the mountain (yeah, yeah I know it's a hill!) by foot through dense monkey infested forest where we discovered new exciting butterfly species (well they where new to us) and handfulls of malaysian tourist who, for some reason, where walking up the ludicrously steep hill despite the presence of jolly good railway alternative - loons! After negotiating this treacherous path and a quick wander round the botanical gardens (where we saw a rather large snake - eeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!) we met our most difficult challenge yet, getting back to Georgetown. We pointlessly tried to follow Lonely Planet's inadequate advice before capitulating and asking a friendly local employee of the seven-11 who gave us clear directions to the nearest bus stop, which resulted in us returning safely to the environs of our guesthouse - double hurrah!

Tomorrow we set sail for the Cameron Highlands, me hearties, where no doubt we will meet with many more adventures and hopefully a cream tea or two!

Look forward to another (possibly pirate themed) posting soon.

Lots of Love

Black-Kat and Iron-hand Dave.

PS. Here's a photo of the view of the forest on our descent.

Beaches, fish and elephants

2006-01-17T05:52:00.000Z

Hello all!

We are now back in Krabi after spending a busy few days on Ko Lanta. Ko Lanta is a lovely island with beautiful golden beaches and perfectly clear water. It's a shame that there's so much building work and "land for sale" - in 5 or 10 years it won't be as nice.

We stayed in a bungalow at a place called "Sanctuary" on Long Beach. It was a lot more sturdy than our last bungalow and the best feature was the ensuite, "rainforest" bathroom. It was awesome - it was open air and had loads of green plants growing up round the toilet and the shower (picture to follow). We were only a minute's walk from the beach, which was stunning and the water was perfect - we could even see fish as we paddled along.

For our first full day we went on a 4 island tour. When we were picked up we were quite suprised that we were the only ones in the truck. This feeling didn't get much better when we got to the peir and we were the only white people getting on. It turned out that we were, in fact, the only two people that had booked on the tour that day. It was a great day. We stopped at the first island for some snorkeling (or snookeling as it said on the leaflet), I didn't get on that well here as I couldn't see much without my glasses, but Kat had fun. The next stop was a perfect golden beach in the Marine National Park. We stopped here for lunch, and as we were the only two customers we had a lot of lunch to eat - loads of curry, sweet and sour, rice, pineapple and water melon, very tasty!!!

After lunch we went to the next stop which was the "Emerald Cave". We got in the water and were led conga-style through a sea cave to a hidden beach, which was beautifull. It was practically circular with steep cliffs on all sides and the only way in was through the cave. Apparently it used to be used by pirates for storing their treasure!!

The last stop was some more snorkeling. I got on a lot better here, the sea was so clear and there were so many fish I couldn't fail to see them!!

The second day on Ko Lanta we went for an elephant trek. This was also an awesome, albeit a very bumpy ride. It's amazing the view you get from the top of an elephant. We trekked for about half an hour through the jungle, and then we got off and walked to the waterfall and bat cave. These were cool, although not much water in the falls. We saw loads of really colourfull butterflies and dragon flies, a rather large lizard and a couple of large millipedes. The first real wildlife we've seen (the first wild animal we saw was a bloomin squirrel in Hua Hin!). Then it was back on the elephants. It was quite daunting when we went downhill as there was nothing holding us in, but it was still fun.

Well that's about all for now. We're off to Malaysia tomorrow - we're heading to Penang.

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

ps. Our new favourite food is Phat Thai, it's awesome. It's noodles with chicken, tofu, vegetables, peanuts and lime, mmm mmm!!!!

From crabs to Krabi

2006-01-13T09:50:00.000Z

Well hello folks!

We are now in Krabi staying in a clean and modern little guest house for one night before we get the ferry to Ko Lanta tomorrow. We have spent the last four nights on Samui at, the now infamous, resort Hat Lamai. Lamai is a lovely chilled out little town which is mostly geared towards tourists and travellers. Despite this the beach was still quiet and it was easy to feel like we were the only ones around... well at least for 100 metres or so. We were lucky enough to make the acquaintance of one of the loals who lived right by our hut. A little crab (nicknamed Crabi) who came out of his hole every night to snap at things and do whatever crabs like doing. We had this brillo game a lot like hide and seek that we played with him.

Appart from drink beer, eat, visit the "Big Budha" and search for phallic rock formations that we couldn't find, we didn't do an awful lot on Ko Samui, which was lush, so we were pretty chilled out when we went to get our connecting minivan for the ferry back to the mainland (due at 6.40). The minivan finally arrived at 7.40, mere minutes before the ferry was due to depart from the other side of the island. And what a white knuckle ride ensued, definately more fightening than any theme park ride. Two older tourists in the back sounded close to palpitations at the very least! But we made it to Na Thon with not a moment to spare, so the lunatic, red-eyed driver did the only sensible thing and drove like the wind down the pier, allowing us to jump on the ferry just as it was about to pull out!

We made the connection, it was all very exciting but I hope Crabi isn't missing us.

More hair curling escapades soon.

Kat and Dave x.

Muay Thai and Ko Samui

2006-01-10T07:24:00.000Z

Hello everybody!!

Me and Kat are now in Ko Samui staying in a charming little A-frame beach hut in Hat Lamai. I would upload a picture but we have a rather slow internet connection here.

We left Hua Hin 2 days ago and on our last night we went to see some Muay Thai (that's Thai boxing to anyone who doesn't know). It was in a small gym type building with a wooden seated stand up one side and a balcony and standing space around the others. We knew from the Lonely Planet that the fighters weren't proffesional but these guys were barely out of school (some even younger!!) There were 5 fights in the night. The first one was between two 13 year olds, one was the local champion and he won quite quickly. The next two fights were pretty similar but with the boys getting older by the fight. The fourth fight was the best and got all the locals very excited with much cheering. This was between two mightily tattooed 18 ish year olds who certainly packed a mean punch, kick, elbow etc etc. (Basically anything is allowed apart from head butts). This fight went through all 5 rounds with blows being exchanged to cheers from the crowd. In the last round however, they decided to stop boxing and just kind of danced around a bit. Needless to say we (and the crowd) weren't very happy with this, we wanted a knock out blow. In the end it went to the judges (boring!). But we still had a good night (and had a free beer too!).

The coach and ferry ride to Ko Samui was ok. Didn't really get much sleep on the overnight coach but got a little on the ferry.

Haven't had time to do much here yet, we wandered along the beach this morning. Planning on doing some more exciting (?) stuff tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Dave and Kat

Is that a temple or wat?

2006-01-07T04:39:00.000Z

Hello from Thailand!!!

Dave and I survived the first leg of our journey and arrived safely in Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon. We spent a couple of days in Bangkok touring the Wats (thats a temple for you non-travelling types) and man there are a lot of wats! We were staying in China Town which was a strange and exciting experience. We found it quite hard on our first night to find anywhere selling Thai food but enjoyed the sights and smells of the chinese street kitchens as we wandered on our fruitless search. We ended up eating at our hotel, which was very nice. Had an awesome rice dish that was seafood and rice served inside a half pineapple topped with some fishy candy floss type stuff - very tasty! Food has featured quite highly in our things done/things to do list. Dave has been generally braver than me, whole-heartedly tucking into rice and noodles at breakfast (traditional Thai breakie) where I am still hankering for cornflakes.

Yeasterday we got an amazingly cheap train to Hau Hin, 44 Baht each which is probably just over 60p and it was a four hour journey through some great scenery! Someone needs to mention this to Richard Branson. We are staying in a pleasant but no frills guest house in HH. The staff are very friendly and they serve cold Singha which is an acheivement in this climate. We have booked the next leg of our trip for tomorrow night when we will get the bus then boat to Ko Samui, home of the fantastic "holiday brochure" beaches.

I am very excited about the Muy Thai boxing that we are going to tonight, gauranteed violence and gore!

More soon, I expect.

Kat and Dave x.

Kat's goodbye party

2006-01-01T14:54:00.000Z

Hello Groovey Gang!

Thankyou to everybody who came to my farewell party despite the snow and wind. I had a totally brillo time. It was lovely to see everyone one last time before I disappear. Dave is now at my house and we are into the final stages of packing and panicking before the big adventure begins in T minus 55 hours! Soon regular checkers of our blog will be rewarded with slightly more interesting postings as we swap BTL for BA, Waterstones for waterfalls and marmite for mangoes (well hopefully anyway).

Look forward to thrilling you all soon.

K x

PS. Here are some photos from the party for your enjoyment.

Last night at home

2005-12-29T16:38:00.000Z

Tonight will be my last night at home for over 7 months and I know I will certainly miss it, especially a comfy bed and mum's cooking. I'm heading down to Kat's tomorrow for new year and then on to Heathrow for the start of our adventure. I still can't believe it's getting so close, it doesn't really seem real. I am starting to feel nervous though, and I have a constant feeling like I've forgotten something. Well, I've got a few days at Kat's so if I have forgotten something it'll be a quick dash into Bath or Bradford On Avon. Had quite a busy day packing. Managed to get everything into my rucksack, with a bit of room to spare. It weighs around 2 stone, so I think I've done ok. Going out for a few final drinks with my friends at the Brown Cow. Might be the last time I drink a good pint of Timmy Taylor's for a while.

Well that's all for now. I'm going back to my packing.

Laters.

Two weeks to go

2005-12-20T19:44:00.000Z

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, it's only two weeks before we go, whoo hoo!!! At this time in two weeks me and Kat will be sat in a departure lounge at Heathrow Airport nervously anticipating the call to board the plane.

I've been quite busy since I last made an entry. I've sorted out my malaria tablets (all 97 of them), I've booked our accommodation for the first two nights in Bangkok and I've ordered some emergency US$ (cash and traveller's cheques). I also tried to order some Thai Baht and some Malaysian Ringit but discovered that Thomson Holidays only order a minimum of £100 for each currency, and I don't want that much, so I'm leaving that for Kat to sort out.

It seems that the only thing I haven't been doing recently is learning Spanish. I managed about half an hour the other night, but that was the first time for over a week. Well, at least I can ask "Do you speak English?" (Habla ingles?).

Only three more days at work and then it's Christmas, yay!! Me and my friends are meeting up for our traditional Wobs Eve drinks at good ol' Spoons in Bingley, and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Well that's all for now. Merry Christmas.

Dave.

Kat's request

2005-12-11T15:51:00.000Z

After a request from Kat, you may have noticed that my profile has now changed - it's no longer my profile, it's ours. Kat wanted to be included more in the blog, which I felt was more than fair since she is coming round the world with me, so I have obliged and included her details too.

I also tried to add a photo to the profile, but I failed miserably. Can anyone out there give me a clue?

Laters.

Just a tester...

2005-12-06T19:38:00.000Z

Hello again. I though I'd better get used to how this blog works so I thought I'd have a go at uploading a picture for you all to see. Here goes.....

Now hopefully that has worked. You should now be able to see a picture of me and my lovely girlfried Kat (I'm the one on the right, tee hee hee). This was taken sometime while we were at uni together in Manchester.

That's all for now. I should get back to trying to teach myself Spanish. I planned to learn it for when we're in South America, but I haven't got very far at the moment. Only 4 weeks or so to go...eeeee!!!!!!!!!

Laters.

First post

2005-12-04T16:28:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to our blog.

This site is going to be the online travel journal for me and Kat's World Adventure, which begins on the 3rd January (I can't wait). The route we are taking is:

Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore
Australia
New Zealand
Chile
Peru
Argentina
Brazil

and then we're due back in sunny England on the 1st August.

Well that's all to start with, just setting up really. I/We will post some more info when something interesting has happened. Suppose I should say cheers to Ash for the idea of blogging our trip. His blog has been thoroughly enjoyable - http://ashworldtrip.blogspot.com

Laters.