Our long and lonely drives had come to an end, Sydney was in our sights (just about anyway, it was night time and sheeting down with rain) but more importantly we were due to catch-up with friends from home, Alex and Debs. Very exciting :)
The normal preconception for an Englishman when heading for a major city is to panic about how to drive through it and where to go. Particular attention needs to be paid when your goal is to get across the other side of the city too – all hell could break lose, we could end up anywhere! So Continue Reading »
We didn’t realise we were driving so close to the edge of the sea. It was lapping against the rocks just a few metres away from the road but in the darkness we couldn’t see a thing, save the few kangaroos who were braving it near the bitumen in our headlights. However, this gorgeous stretch of water along the east coast was to stick near us for the next part of our journey and that means beaches, sun and surfing to come!
From here on down to Sydney it’s a non-stop playground of things to see and do so we were now averaging only half the amount of kilometres per day than we had been through the vast outback (I am taking strict notes on time and distance travelled each day, where we stay and the cost, plus Continue Reading »
What’s your idea of a zoo? A cruel place of captivity? That was ours too, but then we visited Australia Zoo, near Brisbane, which seemed to be world famous the way they raved on about it. It raised our spirits for an animal living in today’s world. All the species are native to Australia so they’re living in their own climate and have all their own native grass, branches and gum tree leaves to dine on. And the rangers are so knowledgeable, proud and clearly want to teach you something new. From wombats to koalas and the python, we even finally saw our weird Cassowary. They have some very cool animals. They’re also hell-bent on promoting Steve Irwin and his family here, which is fair enough considering his dad set it up and he and his wife took it over. It’s just a little sad how they promote their children Bindi (about 12) and Robert (who’s only about 4), they’re almost like one of the animals themselves. Continue Reading »
There’s something pretty overwhelming about landing in a less developed country than the one you know. Dealing with smog, hawkers on ever corner and beggars reaching out for help from every direction. But, swing it around the other way and land in a well developed country you could be in some kind of hollywood sci-fi movie. We’ve spent the past 6 months in countries where the simplest of tasks can take a day and your list of to-dos can only extent to maybe 3 or 4 in a week. You get used to it, that’s life. It’s simply the way things work and you begin to forget what it’s like when things are easy to do, like going to the post office to mail a package home.
Landing in Darwin Airport at 2am was surreal to say the least. Clean floors, fresh smelling air and moreover voices across the tannoy that we could understand – albeit with a slight twang as you’d expect :)
Posters all the way through customs exclaiming “no wooden souvenirs” and “your boots and shoes must be cleaned or incinerated” remind you of how Australia has managed to stay resilient to the impacts of Malaria and other diseases which hound South East Asia. It was actually quite overbearing from what we were used to and we felt like we were being interrogated Continue Reading »
I’m writing this post whilst sitting on a bamboo bench looking out from our veranda into a beautiful tropical garden. The sound of birds tweeting away and the odd cockerel’s cry are all around me and the smell of humidity and sweetness is in the air. Just a short walk away is a beautiful beach where the sea laps so quietly and in such short waves you have to really concentrate to hear it. It’s not that hard though as the only other noises around you are the occasionally chatting of other tourists and a horse drawn cart clip clopping past. I think we just found paradise.
We’re on the tiny island of Gili Air, just off the north west coast of another island called Lombok near Bali in Indonesia. There was a plan Continue Reading »
