A New Chapter Begins

Beginning a new chapter of our journey on our own was both exciting and sad at the same time. While missing all of the people that we have travelled with for the last 7 months, we were glad to be in control of all of our decisions and movements to really make the time what we wanted it to be.

Our first decision however didn't quite turn out the way we had planned as we checked into the Elephant Backpackers Hostel in Sydney. Laura from our group had checked into the same hostel, and rather quickly all 3 of us had noted all sorts of strange behaviour (mostly alcohol or drug induced) that would disturb us during our stay there. None of us really got any decent sleep in the hostel that night.

Fortunately for us we stayed there only the one night as our friend Amber invited us to come and stay at her house in Bondi for a few nights. I met Amber 3 years ago while climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland and we have stayed in contact ever since. The last time we had seen her before now was at our wedding a year ago this month.

Vicky, Laura, Amber and myself enjoying a drink

During our first day in Sydney we took a walk around the Central Business District and took in some of the sights, as well as getting up close and personal with Sydney Opera House. While making our way to Amber's house the next day we stopped off at Bondi Beach to check out some of the surfers showing off their impressive skills.

That evening Amber took us down to Rose Bay which is on the opposite side of the headland from Bondi Beach, and we sat with a bottle of wine and watched an incredible sunset develop in front of our eyes. The sky went through every colour from a burning orange to a bright pink.

What an amazing sunset!

The following morning we saw some traditional British weather arrive in Sydney, just as we were beginning a nice long walk between Bondi and Coogee. As we walked along the cliffs admiring the exhibits in the "Sculptures by the Sea" exhibition we were being pelted by heavy rain, high wind and then hailstones. A couple of hours later we arrived in Coogee before catching a bus to the Central Business District to go and have a lunch date with some of the group who were still in Sydney. After lunch we went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens and found a cracking view across the water looking at the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

It was the bridge that would become the focus of our attention later that evening as we took on the famous Sydney Bridge Climb. Zipped into jumpsuits with all of our accessories clipped to us to avoid anything falling off the bridge, we took on the 1390 steps that go from the base of the bridge to the peak of the arch which sits at 134 metres above sea level. Despite the fact that the weather was still bad and that we had to endure another hail storm while on the bridge, the view from the top was amazing as we looked out across the cityscape lit up against the night sky. It was certainly worth the experience and something that we won't forget for a long time. 

Sydney harbour bridge by night

The next morning we were due to have a surf lesson, but the poor weather put pay to that and so we had to entertain ourselves within the city once more. Once the weather had cleared up Vicky, Laura and myself stocked up on provisions and headed off to have a picnic in the park near Darling Harbour. Despite being hassled by gulls and ibis for our food we had a nice little spread that we enjoyed before heading back to our respective accommodation.

Fortunately for us the sea was much calmer the next morning and we were able to reschedule our surfing lesson that we had cancelled the day before. Vicky, Laura and myself all went along as beginners and spent 4 hours during the day finding inventive ways to part company with a surf board in the rushing waters. It was great fun but also very tiring as we repeatedly battled against the waves to get out far enough to try and surf back into the beach. All of us managed to stand up a few times, but more often than not a slap in the face from a wave was the only prize waiting for us as we toppled off of our boards. 

Surf's up!

In the evening Amber and Natalie (who we met in London while she was living with Amber) took the 3 of us out for chips by the sea and a couple of drinks as for the 3 of us it would be our final night in Sydney. Laura would be flying home the next day to the UK, while Vicky and I would catch an overnight train to Melbourne where our adventures will continue....

Couldn't leave you without a picture of this iconic building...The Sydney Opera House

UK to OZ: The Finale

They say that all good things must come to an end, and that is now finally true for our (considerably smaller than when we started) merry band of travelers on our journey from London to Sydney. So now we will run you through the final 2 weeks of the UK to OZ adventure April - October 2012.

Our arrival into the final country of the  journey was late on the night of the 8th October, landing in Darwin airport after our 2 hour flight from Bali. A short minibus ride later we arrived at our campsite (for the few hours that were left of the night) and the first example of how expensive our new country would be. $47 (around £30) for a few hours of camping. Fortunately this cost is included in our travel package.

The first thing you notice having made the journey over from Indonesia is how much colder the nights are here. We have gone so long without the temperature dropping below a comfortable 25C that it was a shock to suddenly find ourselves at 10-12C most nights. Hardly freezing, but very cold when you are no longer used to it!

The following morning we boarded our new vehicle that would get us from Darwin to Sydney. A small 20 seater minibus and trailer is far from the crowd puller that our old orange truck used to be, but with only 14 people left (including Adam the driver) there was no real need for anything bigger.

The first day's drive took us to Kakadu National Park, where we were able to walk around and view some aborigine cave art before climbing to the top of a rock formation to find an amazing view out across the valley below. It was also interesting to get used to some of the wildlife that Australia would present us with; eagles soaring through the sky searching for prey, small bearded lizards darting through the grass, and spiders a little larger than any that we had seen before. A brief glimpse of fur bounding across the road was as much as we would see of a Kangaroo for the day.

At the top of the rock formation in Kakadu National Park

Despite the cold weather we were really enjoying being back in the tents and cooking our meals together, as the group had become a little fragmented all the time that we were staying in Hotels and fending for ourselves. Instead of having a rota for the evening chores like before, we all chipped in to help out every night and the atmosphere around the camp was really good.

Day 2 took our group to Katherine Gorge where we were able to go for a couple of hours hike across the cliffs along the top of the gorge. Along the cliffs where there is little shade the temperature had got up to just over 45C, a temperature we had not seen since the days of India. Again the rugged scenery was breathtaking as we gazed down into the sapphire blue river running through the bottom of the gorge. The ground around the tent that night was extremely hard to get the tent pegs into after the sun has baked it for so many weeks, but we eventually managed it and were able to get a sound nights sleep.

Katherine Gorge

Day number 3 took us to the Daly Waters pub, which is credited with being the birthplace of the Australian airline Qantas. The pub is now a bit of a tourist trap, but incredibly interesting to look around. As they are so far away from any other pub (we are talking around 100km) they are at liberty to charge whatever they like for their food and drink, but the pub is kitted out with all manner of things that people have chosen to leave behind there over the years. From foreign currency notes to football shirts and bras and knickers the bar had everything you could think of, mostly with a small message written by the person who donated them. It would have been a fitting place to leave my Dover shirt after all these months, but I was too determined to have a photo taken with it in Sydney Harbour! 

Left in the Daly Waters Pub

Another stop along the way took us to a natural hot spring where we were able to play around in the warm deep waters, while hundreds of flying foxes flew above our heads and nested in the trees. It really was something that you had to see to believe!
That night we were not so lucky with the tent. Again it was a struggle to get the pegs into the rock hard ground, however this time a night time storm put an end to our camping as the pegs were ripped from the ground and the tent collapsed down on top of us. We were forced to retreat to the minibus, as I made a mad dash through the rain in my underwear to try and secure the keys from Adam's tent.

Our fourth day of our North to South travels took us to the Devil's Marbles, a very interestingly balanced range of rock formations that nobody really knows how it was created. We took the following group photo just before we jumped back in the van to head off and find our camp site for the night.

Group photo on part of the Devil's Marbles

During our fifth day of travel we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, ending our long stay in the tropics. I tried stepping either side of the line, but it felt equally tropical on both sides...most puzzling! 
Day 6 had an early start, as we made our way from our overnight camp to Ayers Rock where we went to watch the sunrise. You really can't imagine the scale of the rock until you actually see it, and the 11km walk around the base of it after sunrise really allows your legs to get a feel for the scale as well.

Sunrise at Ayers Rock. Much colder than it looks!

After Ayers rock we made our way over to the Olgas range for a bit more walking, although by this time the heat had curbed a lot of our enthusiasm and most people only ventured out as far as the first main vantage point. 

For our evening meal we made our way back to Ayers Rock and sat with our dinner as the sun went down, capping off a wonderful day.

The following day was simply a drive day to get some more miles on the clock. Our total journey over the 13 days I am describing now was just over 6100km, so sometimes it was just necessary to hit the road and keep on trucking. Also I could note here that other than the odd toilet there was nothing worth getting out of the minibus for. Australia is a vast country and it amazing how far you can go without seeing anything other than the odd petrol station that you dare not drive past.

We spent the majority of day number 8 in the remote mining village of Coober Pedy. The town, as well as the general area of Australia, is well known for it's opal mining and there are many different mines and exhibitions that you are able to look around here. With it's quirky nature the town is quite interesting to wander around, although due to it's size it doesn't take you very long to do just that. We finally found a free wifi area in the towns library which was a bit of a shock as wifi is virtually non-existent in the outback, and where you can find it you will normally be paying around £1.50 for every 5 or 10 minutes (other than this McDonald's has been the only other place we could get online for free). We finished the day in Coober Pedy by "noodling" through the piles of excavated mine rock for tiny scraps of opal, of which we found 3 between us.

That night as we were looking for a place to camp, we managed to get the minibus bogged down in a field of sand which looked a lot firmed than it actually turned out to be. With all hands to the deck we managed to dig out some of the sand from around the wheels, and with a lot of pushing and then pulling we managed to recover first the minibus and then the trailer to an area that could take it's weight. All that was left to do was carry all of the contents of the van and it's trailer to the new campsite after we had emptied them to make them lighter!

Tim digging out the wheel of the truck

The day after we paid a visit to Lake Hart which is the largest salt water lake in Australia. With the dry weather they have had here lately the lake was completely dry, but the white crystalised salt bed that was left behind was quite a sight and could easily have been mistaken for a snowfall. We spent about an hour admiring and playing around on the salt bed before making our way back to the minibus and getting on the road again. 

Messing around on the bed of the salt lake

Day 10 was mostly noted for the spontaneous drinks session that we had around the campfire after dinner. Most of the day had been spent driving but we had bought the drinks that lunch time in preparation for the night after (when we thought we would have a party to celebrate our last night in the wild), but temptation got the better of us and we decided to open them anyway. We sat around the campfire and stargazed for quite a while (we spent a lot of time looking at the stars during these days for 2 reasons; 1) There is not much else to look at in the open desert, and 2) it is amazing to see the number of stars that are visible when you are so far away from sources of pollution. So many more than you would ever see from a town or city) before finally heading for bed.

Our eleventh day was again mostly spent on the road, with stops only to have lunch and pick up supplies for dinner in the town of Dubbo.

Day 12 began in style with a wine tasting in the town of Orange. It was only around 9.30am when we arrived at the vineyards but that did not put many (including Vicky and myself) off of trying a range of the different wines that were on offer.

Next we made our way to the Bathurst Panorama Race Track where we were able to put the minibus (trailer and all) through it's paces. A Ferrari it may not be, but we had a good time driving as quick as we safely could around there. 

The minibus on pole position in Bathurst

We set up our final campsite for our journey at Lake Lyell, and strangely everybody had a comparatively early night. 
And so the 13th day in Australia and the final day of our trip was upon us. We drove up into the Blue Mountains region where we were able to spend a couple of hours taking in the view and going for a short walk. Adam the driver had a shock though as when he went to try on a hat in the gift shop he found a large Huntsman spider living inside it!

The "3 Sisters" in the Blue Mountains range

Finally though after 7 long months on the road we pulled the minibus up at the side of Macquarie Street, overlooking Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. Emotions ran high as we all got out to have our final group photo taken, and of course begin to say goodbye to each other. It was a very strange feeling to have spent so long together with all of the group and to now be going our separate ways.

The survivors photo. In front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge before we all said our goodbyes

Our adventure is still to continue however as for the next 9 weeks we will backpack around Australia and New Zealand before heading home for Christmas. Come back soon to find out what we have been getting up to!

Indonesia: One step left to Oz

After the highs of Malaysia and Singapore, Indonesia got off to a slow start as we arrived on the island of Batam for our first night in our penultimate country on this trip (not including New Zealand that we are doing off of our own backs). 

There was very little to do in the vicinity of our hotel, and so most of the time was spent doing planning and preparation for our time in Australia. The only other task that remained was to buy some food for the very long ferry journey that we would be taking the next day.

The ferry journey is billed as being 26 hours, but they are widely known for being late. At the time of us disembarking we had been on the ferry for 32 and a half hours (and believe me it felt even longer than that!). The conditions on the boat were dreadful, with the main problem being a cockroach infestation (although at least 4 different rats were spotted in the sleeping area as well). Just in my bed alone I had 6 cockroaches that had taken up permanent residence in the framework, as well as others that frequently joined them presumably for the cockroach equivalent of a weekend break in Margate. The soundtrack for the journey mostly revolved around dodgy Indonesian TV shows that were playing from the broken TV just along from my bed, combined with crying children and the repeated "WHACK" of the girls flip flops as another cockroach got just that little bit too close! My bed had a lingering fishy smell after a food seller spilled his seafood sauce over it just as I was getting on to the boat. The only redeeming features of the journey were a beautiful sunset on the second night with nothing else but open sea in view, and knowing that we were officially crossing the equator line around midnight of the first day. 

The end of the sunset from the boat

Finally, after it seemed that we would never get off of the ferry we disembarked and set foot on Java where we would be spending the first 2 nights in Jakarta. In truth there wasn't a lot that we really wanted to see in Jakarta, and even the guide books didn't really sell it as a place to go for foreign visitors. Our time outside of the hotel and local restaurant was minimal, with 2 hours taken up by trying to find a flea market that featured on our map but was unknown to everybody that lived there! 

Yogyakarta was our next destination after leaving Jakarta, and it turned out to be the point in Indonesia where the action really picked up for us. We had booked ourselves on several side excursions from our hotel here, the first of which was a morning trip to Borobudor (a 9th Century Buddhist Temple situated just over an hour out of the city). The temple is a very impressive structure made up of 6 square layers all decreasing in size as you go up to make a pyramid shape that has had it's top cut off, and carved into the walls are many images that would have been used as the "teachings" of the religion. Although some restoration work has helped we were surprised at just how well preserved some of the original structure and carvings have been preserved. 

Borobudor temple. Notice all of the Buddhas 

After arriving back from the temple (which we had set off for at 5am) we had a mere hour to spare before our next trip which was cave and river tubing. I'm sure some of you will recall tubing as I mentioned it in the blog back in Laos, but if you have forgotten it is basically sitting in an inflated inner tube of a tyre and floating your way down a river. Compared to the Laos tubing (which was full of bars at various stages down the river) this was a very calm and relaxed tempo, with most of the time the tubes being "towed" in a group by a man swimming at the front. How guilty did we feel?! The cave that we drifted through was full of huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and in a number of places above there were bats nesting in the roof of the cave. Aside from the guides headlamp, much of the cave was pitch black, but was frequently lit up by the flashes on people's cameras. Like Laos there are a number of places where you are able to leap into the water from, and inside the cave this required scaling some of the rocks at the side before you were able to jump down. I think a great time was had by everybody!

Steph limbos under the largest stalactite in the cave

The next morning provided the group with a choice; a 20 hour sleeper bus journey or to pay extra and have two 12 hour journeys with a stop-over at Mt. Bromo, an active volcano on the eastern side of Java island. With the morning of the stop-over falling on mine and Vicky's 1st wedding anniversary, it took very little to decide that it would be an awesome way to spend our special day watching the sunrise over the spectacular volcanic landscape.

After arriving in the region of Bromo late the night before after a rather crazy journey (Note: I think of all the bad driving I have seen on this trip Indonesia seems to make me the most nervous, and this guy was the worst! We swerved in and out of oncoming traffic, overtook far too fast on blind bends, forced 2 bikes off of the road, and when we were approching a traffic jam he drove off of the side of the road and started haring down the verge shaking us about like a can of Green Giant Sweetcorn in the hands of a 5 year old! By all accounts the guy that drove the sleeper bus was just as bad if not slightly worse), and quickly made our way to bed knowing we had a 3.30am start in the morning.

For the moment of sunrise we made our way up a steep hillside a kilometer or two away from the volcano, which is widely regarded as the best viewing point to watch the sunrise from. It didn't disappoint, and we were treated to an incredible display of colours forming across the sky before the fiery ball finally poked it's head above the clouds. On a side note it was incredible to actually feel chilly again, as at the altitude we were currently occupying the temperature had dropped to a mere 10C. Day or night in the countries we have visited the temperature doesn't really drop below 25C, and so being cold actually made a welcome change.

Volcanoes behind us just after the sun has risen

After the sunrise we made our way back down to the bottom of the hill before heading across to the volcano itself. Another 30 minute walk was ahead of us to reach the summit, but bearing in mind that we were sleep deprived, it was uphill and the ground underfoot was purely volcanic ash (like walking on ultra fine black sand) it was an exhausting work. The crater that awaited us at the top though was fully worth it though, and we stood and watched as trails of steam and smoke emerged from the sulpherous pool in the middle of the crater. Much like my Birthday back in Nepal, I think this is an anniversary that will take some beating!

At the top of the crater with Walter the bear

Another long bus ride (including a short ferry ride) later we arrived at our final destination before we head off to Australia; the island of Bali. Bali in my eyes is a mixed lot. It cannot be doubted that it is a beautiful looking island, but at the same time it really is a bit of a party haven for British and Australian tourists alike. The area is hugely popular for surfers, and it is quite entertaining to sit on the beach and watch them try and ride the waves. The area in which we are staying offers a lot of cheap (or for an hour a day free) alcohol at certain times, and while we have enjoyed making the most of these offers there are always plenty of people who just push it too far. Hence by the end of the night it can be quite noisy with drunken revelers wandering the streets trying to find their way back to their hotel. 

On our final day in Bali Vicky went diving off of the North East coast of the island, while I went for a walk along the beach with Laura, Janet, Libby and Steph. Vicky had a great time diving and came back recalling all of the different fish she had seen. Meanwhile the girls and I managed to walk as far as an airport just over an hour away down the beach and stood and watched as planes swooped in over the sea to land on the runway (which literally finished in the sea).

So on to Australia next for the final 2 weeks that we will all spend travelling together. Unfortunately our good friend Jay will not be joining us in Australia having chosen to fly home, and we will miss him a lot. Good luck Jay! Anyway as we are camping through the outback for the final 2 weeks of the organised tour we will not have any internet, so don't expect to see us online for a while!