Cambridge, United Kingdom

So, to get some more ideas and help flesh out the ones we already had we went off to the Destinations Travel Show at Earl's Court in London.  

On the whole I would say my feeling was one of not being very impressed.  It was a fair bit smaller than last year and didn't have half of the things we were looking for.  We did get about a foot of brochures and I'm sure there will be useful stuff in amongst the thousands of pages, but probably nothing we could not have found via Google.

We did find out 3 useful facts though:

1. A rail card in Japan might not be the best idea as we are not really travelling that far.  I need to research more.
2. There are lots of national holidays in Japan around the first week of May, so it might be a bit dead.
3. Himeji Castle is being restored and will be covered in scaffolding.  You can still go in, but it will not be as awe inspiring as we had hoped.

Stockport, United Kingdom

Hi all, we hope you are well.

Our new blog is under Asia and Oz, on the following URL:

http://www.globenotes.com/member/andybowden/

Love to all, from Andy and Liz

Taganga, Colombia

...coming soon...

Siquijor, Philippines

Hi all, after our island hopping week and search for paradise here is a brief account of what we have been up to....

Before leaving Davao it seemed that everything we did revolved around the game of tennis. After determinedly hanging up my racket eight or so years ago I surprised myself by really enjoying getting back on court, with the help of a kind brother and some very kind local players. But tennis here is a bit different to the UK. There are ball boys here, a small gaggle of them in Rick's club, who fag your balls and keep score for a few pesos. They do not go to school, tennis is their code of conduct, they have mischievous looks on their faces and wide smiles. Tethered towards the back of the courts are fighting cocks, that are being raised by older tennis boys, the cocks cluck away in fright when the balls whizz through. Our visit coincided with an annual tennis event, it had the most variety of any event that I have ever been to. The main purpose of the event was to swear in new members and a new committee. However it started with prayers, the national anthem, then moved onto speaches, the swearing in ceremony, eating, drinking, songs, games, jokes and lots and lots of fun. The people were all friendly, making us feel extremely welcome, we loved it. We then went in search of paradise. I have just uploaded lots of photos that are far more articulate than I am at describing how we got on.

We went to the island of Bohol, by plane and ferry. We stayed at Alona beach at a budget chalet style hostel close to the lovely beach. We went on a tour of Bohol, there was lots to see. The Chocolate Hills are an unusual geological quirk, where mounds of earth project in strangely regular conical shapes, it is well worth seeing. We stopped at a river crossing where we were brave to walk a suspension bridge that deposits you into the arms of waiting local tat sellers. A river cruise at lunch time, with buffet and singer on board was great fun. We stopped to see the Tarzier monkeys, the smallest primate alive. We stopped at a few Spanish colonial churches, crumbling relics of past glories. We were glad to get back to paradise beach and enjoy a swim followed by (honestly) just a few beers. On our second day we took a small boat that took us to a nearby island where we went snorkeling in a protected coral reef area, an astonishing variety of fish in vivid colours, the best snorkeling I have ever done. Tours on these islands are personal, whereby you can influence what happens, rather than being told. Our boat men friends recommended an eatery and we became a target for tiger keen local women to sell us their stuff, we were lambs to the slaughter. We ate there, Ann helped with food preparation, eating is far too important to be left to chance, we resisted buying stuff until ready to leave and then we fled. We left for Virgin Island a picture of paradise perfection with white sands and palm trees. Our entourage included of course Annika and Germaine Annika's yaya, or nurse maid, actually she acts like the best big sister in the world, we all set off for our second stop, via two ferry journeys, to Siquijor.

Bohol is a large island, say about the size of Wales, Siquijor is a much smaller sleepier rural island, we found a great beach resort to stay at, the kitchen churned out food slowly, but when it came it was delicious. On our first full day we were lazy and enjoyed paradise's facilities, and yes we drank some more beer. On our second day we took another personalized tour and we loved swimming in picture perfect waterfalls and we swam and snorkeled and lunched at a nearby resort. Did we find paradise? We certainly swam in and saw some amazingly beautiful ocean sights but it wasn't quite paradise, I am fairly sure it does not exist, however it is great fun looking. We loved our island hopping trip, we are going to do some more in a few weeks.

For the next week or so we are going to take it easy, phew. Rick has lots cooked up and if I know him (and I do) he will have a few things up his sleeve, I will let you know what we get up to. Love to all, from Liz and Andy and Rick and Ann et al here in the Philippines.

Bogota, Colombia

Today was to be a tour of downtown Bogota. Up until now I'd only seen a fairly rundown little city, but clearly the route that the bus takes from the airport into the Calandaria area covers pretty much the grottiest part of the city.

Once I decided to head for the museums: Museo del Oro and the Donacion Botero art gallery, I got to see that behind the dodgy individuals wandering the streets lives a city bustling with youthful culture.

My first stop today was the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) which houses 5 floors of amazing golden retrieved artifacts created by the indigenous Indians since BC. Anything from tribal jewelery to mystical tokens created by shamans, this place has the lot.

It's really fascinating and some of the pieces are exquisitely designed which is remarkable when you consider the primitive tools that would have been used to created them.

Definately a must see. Plus the classy restaurant in the museum is top notch while still being remarkably cheap! I had a huge Colombian stew and beer, plus rice, salave and bread with olive oil for a measly 7 euro!

Next on my must-see list is the gallery created by the Colombian artist: Fernando Botero, called the "Donacion Botero"

Housed in a huge colonial mansion the gallery is split in two halves: One is Botero's private collection which spans artists from Dali, Renoir to Picasso plus a floor of sculptures!

The other half is Botero's private work. The works are mostly recent as he is still an active artist and he has an obsession with making everything look "fatter" than real life. Pretty comical tbh.

Wandered around Candelaria as the sun gradually set and enjoyed the company of tons of students out for a night of Wednesday revelry. The city is packed full of students as the country's main universities are found here.

My hostel seemed a lot more chilled out over the past 2 days too. Whatever noisy chick that was there on the first night thankfully scarpered!

Onward to Cartagena tomorrow at 2pm...

Bogota, Colombia

Took a rather squishy bus up to the Portal del Norte station, before transferring onto a buseta to the small town of Zipaquira north of Bogota. My destination was to be the "famous" Catedral de Sal (well I'd only heard about it a few nights earlier and thought it sounded cool: a huge underground network of chapels carved out of salt, plus the largest subterranean cross in the world)

The trip was fast, safe and fairly comfortable. Bogota's transport system seems to be very efficient (you're never left waiting for more than 5 minutes for the next bus), and I suppose with a population TWICE that of Ireland (at 7 million) in this city alone, it would have to be. Cheap too.. the whole 1.5 hour trip up north cost only about 2 euro in total. Not the safest drivers in the world though

Zipaquira itself was a quiet slightly dusty town, but it had a real "calm" feeling compared to manic Bogota, with plenty of friendly laid back people around. The population seemed to be of mostly indiginous Indian descent. It has a lovely colonial-styled central square, and a nice park around the base of the mountain housing the mines. I would consider coming back to stay in Zipaquira if I had to pass through Bogota again.

The entrance to the salt cathedral was a fair hike. I was getting breathless fairly quickly, and was surprised at how unfit I felt (it only later dawned on me that I was walking a rapid pace at around 3,000m above sea level.. no wonder!).

A bit of history: The huge mountain of Zipaquira has long been mined for salt by the indigenous Indians, who regarded salt with a religious reverence. Predictably once the Spanish arrived the Indians were enslaved and forced to work the mines at a much more rigorous pace, resulting in the death of many workers. The Spanish also brought along Christianity, so, once converted, the workers needed somewhere to pray so that God would help them survive another day. Hence the first chapels were carved at various points in the tunnel system.

I opted to go into the Cathedral without a guide, and this seemed to be a good choice as the groups seemed to have around 10 people in them, and so on my own I could get some great shots when the crowds had dispersed.

The place was amazing. Very well placed coloured lighting showed off the HUGE caverns of salt that had been carved over the centuries. I can't overemphasise the sheer size of the caverns. Each one was about the size of a concert hall. The mine is STILL in active use, except for the chapel sections, so you can distantly hear workers drilling away. Throughout the walk in the mine, hidden speakers resonate with chanting monks. It's a very surreal and enchanting experience.

The network of chapels are each designed completely differently, and each one reflects one of the stations of the cross. The chapels and pews are all directly carved into the salt, and then polished off so that it looks like marble. Yet the salt crystals sparkle and make each room glow. Sunday service is still performed here, and I'd say that it would be great to see the chapels in active use.

Once you go lower into the mine, to the end of the circuit, you enter a huge vault which is the main chapel. Carved here is the largest subterranean cross, standing some 50 metres high, about the size of the pope's cross in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Running along the pews are huge Romanesque columns semi-carved out of the rock.

At this stage I was pretty exhausted from taking about 200 photos (!) so I went to see the quirky "3D" film that featured a robot called Nacho describing the origin of the salt mines with English subtitles (and also made sure to keep reminding the viewer that this was Colombia's No 1 attraction!!). Basically, the sea once covered the Andes mountains, and eventually it evaporated leaving vast salt flats like Uyuni in Bolivia. Once earthquakes and volcanoes had their way creating the Andes mountains, some of the salt flats were compressed and pushed underground forming mountains like this one.

Before leaving I visited a stall that was selling a range of Emeralds. I didn't intend on buying any of em, but somehow I got talked into buying two small ones that were going for US$ 10 each! Normally these are priced at $30 here, and probably valued at around $150 in Ireland, so I couldn't resist. I likes me bargains

On the way back into Bogota, I heard a shooting take place in the street, but unfortunately didn't see anything bar a few police cars screeching around! Doh!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hier mal ein paar erste Eindrücke:

Wir sind gut angekommen und haben uns schon ein bisschen eingelebt. Der erste Eindruck der Stadt ist fantastisch. Wir wohnen praktisch in einem Garten auf dem Uni-Campus. Es ist - wenn nicht gerade die Katzen Revierkämpfe austragen - schön ruhig hier bisher konnten wir alles in unserer Straße besorgen. Nur 4 Blocks weiter ist man aber schon auf einer der riesigen Avenidas. Der argentinische Dialekt ist wirklich gewöhnungsbedürftig und selbstverständlich viel zu schnell, aber bisher haben wir alles irgendwie hinbekommen.

Das Wetter hat in den wenigen Tagen hier schon unzählige male gewechselt, die Temperaturen fallen aber nie unter T-Shirt-Wetter.

Bald gibt es mehr Text und hoffentlich auch schöne Fotos von unserer Reise in den Süden!

Viele Grüße,

Kaja und Andres

Bogota, Colombia

I'm heading up north to Cartagena later today on an uber-cheap 45 euro flight with a company called Aires ($COP 114,000)! I can't get over how cheap Colombia is.

I'm flying as my time is limited, but generally speaking it's advisable to fly between destinations where possible as the risk of kidnapping/robbery rises considerably once in rural Colombia.

You would think that after 3 days I would be BETTER adapted to the altitude in Bogota (2,640 m), but I seem to be finding it harder and harder to breath or partake of "strenuous" activity like walking the streets! Maybe it takes about 4-5 days to really acclimatise, but it's quite a remarkable feeling.

I thought for a while that I must be getting really unfit from eating all the starchy Colmbian food and mucho cerveca!

Anyway, I got a good feel for Bogota now (initially viewed as a tad rundown, but then I found the hidden gems), and feel ready to move on.

..later..

On arriving in Cartagena on a damn nice Aires flight, I shared a taxi with Rob and Ignacia, two fellow backpackers who were on my flight. Ignacia is from Chile and Rob nary speaks a word of Spanish (despite planning to travel S America for 12 months) so it was damn handy having her around. Coincidentally she was staying at the same hotel I was in, Hotel Toledo, which at 17 euro for a private room, is the cheapest such option in Cartagena. We later on hooked up with a guy called Mike who was staying at the same hostel as Rob (and who was ALSO on our flight!) and we all went out for food and mucho alcohol.

Ignacia knew all the cool places to go as she had been here before.

OK one of the first things that hits you about Cartagena is the price of everything. It's REALLY expensive by Colombian standards! It's the prime destination for all holidaying Colombians, so this is probably why. Designer shops such as Tommy Hilfiger line the street, and meals average around 30-40 euro in the old quarter of the city.

We had a few nice mojitos in a place called Café del Mar, which is located at the top of one of the forts surrounding the city, sitting beside the ancient cannons. The night went on late and much revelry 'twere had!

Lightning Ridge, Australia

Lorne Station Interesting place indeed! The facilities are basic at best and the amenities... Have you ever hopped into your

shower after carefully ensuring that your clothes are not going to get wet, you have your soap in hand, you stand under the running water and it all stops - yep, the water apparently goes off on a regular basis, for some reason ants like the pump that brings the water from the bore 26Km away and manage to stop the flow. We didn't know this! So, back to the van for a shower there, the water is back on.... Back I go and yep you guessed it, off it goes off again! (Not happy Jan!) That's it, we decide to bite the bullet and ask for a refund and go back to town. I think they're used to it, no questions asked and the money was back in our hands before you could cough! We booked into the Lightning Ridge Hotel Motel and Caravan Park - fairly basic but had running water! And, we met Feral, the magpie reared by a local that has a penchant for peoples toes or anything shiny - he's very tame and when you get back to the van from being out he races over to say hello. 

Car Door tour this afternoon - they have developed a series of 4 tours around town that are indicated by old car doors nailed to trees along the route, numbered and painted in 1 of 4 colours, Red, Green, Blue or Yellow. It's a fantastic and you can easily

 follow the doors from the designated starting point in town. Green first - It's a drive out to Nettletons First Shaft - sunk in 1902 it opened up the town for mining. There is a lookout of sorts out here that looks out West over the whole valley away from the Ridge. It's so green out there after the recent rains it's really hard to believe that we're officially in the "outback". There are lots of people and tailings mounds out here but not much action going on - not many opals either we're told. Blue next - this is an interesting trip that takes you through many of the areas with living quarters (homes?) along the way. Built from anything at hand there are certainly many amazing sights along the way. Red tour next - which takes you past the Astronomers monument and Amigos Castle (described later) - and other strange structures that have been built by miners in their spare time! Back to the Bowls Club for tea - the biggest bowls club in Western NSW - huge by anyone's standards!

Black Opal Tours - Picked up early by Larry from Black Opal tours (we're his only customers) for a guided 3 hour tour (I was the skipper!) around the Ridge.  We went out Amigos Castle, built by another immigrant (of which there are many here), he has built a castle from the local ironstone - very heavy and hard! He built it to keep himself busy and all by hand! The tower can only be accessed from a tunnel underneath the castle - one of many tunnels... Next the Astronomers Monument, built by a Polish immigrant who had been wrongly jailed for murder in Sydney and on release he headed out to the ridge and made Tequila from cactus and sold it! He also mined made other liquors, grew vegetables and in his spare time built the monument to honour

astronomers - he felt that they had been victimized over the years like him so he had an affinity with them. Each pillar in the monument has an astronomers name carved into it and he even built a replica of his cell in jail! He died when his still blew up one night! Larry took us out to Lunatics lookout (?) and the remnants of the largest open cut opal mine in the area - it actually shows the levels where opal can be located, if you dig down deep enough! Then, back to the office for a demo in opal cutting and how they make doublets and triplets, accompanied by a devonshire tea - great stuff. Larry took us out to the "Walk-in Mine" where you can literally walk down into a mine - no longer working - but you can see how the whole operates. Thanks to Larry, he made the tour interesting without being the overebearing guide - well done.

Chamber of the Black Hand! We booked for another night so that we could see the "Chamber". Essentially, it's an old mine that doesn't produce any more and someone has turned it into a tourist attraction by carving images into the walls of the mine. He's been at it for 12 years and still going - different thems make up the display including Hollywood, Egypt, Heroes, Animals and a few others. We were the only one again on this tour so we pretty much had the run of the place. The photo

 shows the miner building a "coffee chamber" opening later this year. As part of the "tour" we were taken down to a lower level to see the remains of a 90 year old mine - quite interesting. Our "guide" (the president of the Bowls Club) told us that there's not much opal around now and that mostly the mining is being done out at Glengarry and Sheepyard.  

After lunch it was up to the Bottle House - largely built from beer bottles and cans the "house" houses a huge collection of one mans memorabilia! He has bottles, tools, toys, stones, fossils, Avon bottles - hundreds of things in a tiny two room "museum" and each one has a story! After an hour we escaped back to the car and went up the road to Kangaroo Hill  - another museum. We should've seen the "signs" as we approached, more of the same. They had to do something for tourism to hold their licence over their claim - so, they dragged every piece of crap they could get their hands on, put it all in a shed and called it a museum - they kept their licence! There was a pile of tailings out the back that we were welcome to fossick through - I'm positive that the fine tooth comb had been dragged through the pile many times but it was a bit of fun and we did find some tiny stones with a bit of colour. Back to the Fossil Museum - very interesting and cleverly presented - lots of opalised fossils and explanations about the formation of opals and how they get valued, well worth a visit! 

]]> http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog-entry/USA/pierre-south-dakota/20059/De-rodeo/ http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog-entry/USA/pierre-south-dakota/20059/De-rodeo/#comments Travel Blogs http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog-entry/USA/pierre-south-dakota/20059/De-rodeo/ Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000 mijn reis View this Travel blog entry in full along with Photos and Maps on GlobeNotes.com

pierre south dakota, USA

De Rodeo.

Er zijn verschillende soorten rodeo. Ik kende alleen rodeo op een stier, maar je hebt dus ook rodeo te paard en rodeo met een paard vee te vangen, en nog meer.....waar ik eerder over vertelde volgensmij.

Ik heb ranchrodeo gezien: een team van vier cowboys te paard. een kudde stieren met ieder hun eigen nummer op de rug liepen in de begrensde ruimte waar ook de cowboys waren. Het was aan het team om, na het horen van één nummer stier deze te vangen met de lassos te paard. Hier zaten ook hele interessante regels aan verbonden, er waren bloody mooie paarden(&mannen....oeps, slik...mam, je hebt niets gehoord!) en er was zelfs een team lakotamannen die het erg goed deden,totaal op hun eigen manier.... Was erg gaaf. 

O er deden ook vrouwen mee ;)

't lijkt me wel wat.

in de middag ben ik naar the journey museum gegaan vol interesante weetjes over de geschiedenis van dino's, indianen en cowboys...vooral indianen.... Erg mooi.

in "de straat"van Rapid City.....een lakota sprak me aan. Door z'n onverzorgde uiterlijk zullen de meeste mensen weggelopen zijn, maar ik kon het niet laten een gesprek met 'm aan te gaan. Hij liet me zijn id zien en een prachtige stenenbeeld in het raam van een prachtige indianenwinkel....daar op het kaartje stond dezelfde naam. Nog weet ik niet of deze man een vervalste id had of de waarheid sprak.....Ik heb de strijd in mezelf om 't antwoord opengelaten en ging de indianenwinkel in waar ik een lakota van de rosebudreservaat ontmoette....een erg aardige man genaamd Frank die me vroeg of de man me had lastiggevallen. Hij moest lachen toen ik 't verhaal vertelde en we raakten in gesprek over de strijd die nog altijd een beetje heerst tussen de amerikanen en indianen. Hij heeft me doen realiseren dat zij niet zo anders zijn als wij......waar hun de oorlog hadden met de amerikanen hadden wij de oorlog met de duitsers vertelde hij me. We bedankte elkaar voor deze ontmoeting zoals iedereen hier doet.....en ik vanuit de grond van m'n hart. Ik geniet.

Na een kop thee, een dikke vette te grote brownie en het klaar maken van wat boodschappen. ontmoette ik barb die me meenam naar the firehouse (een brandweerkaserne als restaurant). Cindy (haar schoonzus, die ik al eerder ontmoet heb) kwam langs samen met kathy (haar nichtje die me graag wilde ontmoeten) om met ons te eten en samen te genieten van mijn laatste nachtje rapid city. 't was lachen, gieren, brullen. Erg gezellig.

3 february,

s ochtend vroeg met de bus terug van rapid city naar pierre.... Enigste puntje....in Vivien zou ik 4 uur moeten wachten om terug te komen in Pierre. Van de hele bustocht die drie a vier uur duurde moest ik het laatste half uur rijden dus een stop maken van vier uur.

TIjdens m'n stop, met m'n laptop op schoot, het eerste half uur vol makend met selecteren van foto's stond ik met een mond vol tanden. Paul stond recht voor me. Hij had rekening gehouden met de 4 uur wachttijd en nam me mee in z'n vet coole wagen.

In zijn lunch pauze had hij gewoon moeite gedaan voor mij om me op te komen halen! Wauw

Onderweg vertelde ik 'm dat ik graag met m meekwam naar het ziekenhuis waar hij werkt. Hij gaf me een rondleiding en liet me iedereen ontmoeten.....zelfs het hoofd van het ziekenhuis.

Dawn vertelde me laatst dat het hoofd van toerisme hier in pierre me graag wilde ontmoeten en of ik morgen mee wil gaan om meer over mezelf en nederland te vertellen in een klas vol kiddo's. Dus Ik ben benieuwt.

warmly,

iris

pierre south dakota, USA

Hi mensen,

Het toevoegen van de juiste locatie heeft een btje een probleem op de website...dus schrijf ik ze gewoon op in de blogs en moet ik er helaas een verkeerde locatie aan plakken anders kan ik de blog er niet opzetten!.

Ben overigens haast geneigt engels te gaan schrijven....om overigens jullie op de hoogte te stellen dat er ook engelse blogs op deze website te vinden zijn ivm Paul&Dawn, Barb, Cindy&Kathy die ik ontmoet heb in America.

------

Maar om verder te gaan met my journey,

Paul nam me mee naar the badlands.....een prachtig gebied tussen Pierre en Wall. Deze bergen zijn gevormd door gletsjers. 't deed me erg denken aan dinosaurierland....En wat ook later bleek.....de dinos hebben daar ook geleefd. Op één van de foto's die ik nog toevoeg is te zien......welk gevaar in zicht was.....

prairydogtown: dit is geen naam voor een stadje....maar in amerika leven prairydogs.....Deze dieren lijken op een soort honden in rat formaat. En leven onder de grond in holletjes die allemaal met elkaar verbonden zijn. (zoals wij mensen op de aardkloot) Je herkent de prairydogtown doordat in die gebieden er geen gras meer groeit op de aarde....De aarde is kaal en donker.

Wall: Erg stoer.... In wall is amper of niets te vinden....behalve één ding: het begon met één winkeltje die niet goed liep...dus hadden de eigenaren bedacht een bord buiten te hangen....free icewater zodat er meer klanten kwamen. Dit bleek ook zo en sindsdien zijn er veel winkels om heen gebouwt en is de sfeer van Cowboytown duidelijk te herkennen.

Vanuit Wall ben ik op weg gegaan naar rapid city met de bus....waar de zus van de overbuurvrouw van Dawn&Paul (ja in dit stadje kent iedereen echt niet iedereen hoor hahahah), barb genaamd, mij kwam ophalen.

En weer had ik geluk......

ipv in een motel te slapen....waar het knalletje druk was ivm de twee weken rodeo in rapid city.......mocht ik in haar prachtige huis bijna op de top van de mountain met uitzicht over de black hills, een zwembad buiten en een kamer o zo mooi...,nog beter als een hotel of motel, slapen. M'n guide van de volgende dag vertelde me dat ik in een eerste classe huis overnacht......dat was ook te merken.....maar hoe mooi 't ook was.....al was 't een paleis geweest.....ik heb genoten van haar gezelschap. dat is voor mij het belangrijkste.

-In the black hills ('t berggebied bij Rapid city) leven bergleeuwen, herten, (er leefde) zwarte beren. Wanneer één van deze dieren in de tuinen van mensen lopen....worden ze afgeschoten door scherpschutters(noem je dat zo eigenlijk?ik denk 't). Omdat er zo'n groot aantal per soort is en deze vaak, maar niet altijd, overlast bezorgen zoals het opeten van huisdieren of het kapot maken van de tuin.

Om even het plaatje compleet te maken....wanneer barb deze prachtige dieren in haar tuin staat te bewonderen.....is er vervolgens een bloedbad ontstaan. To bad.

1 januarie 2010

-Met Adventures tours Ann Tomsen, mijn prive guid voor de dag....aangezien ze eigenlijk in de winter geen tours doet en ik weer geluk had, ben ik door rapid city gereden waarna we langs Fort Hayes reden.

Wie heeft Dances with wolves gezien? Herinner je je het huis waar kevin cosner zijn orders kreeg en de captain zichzelf door het hoofd schoot? Dat heb ik gezien in Fort Hayes.

- Mount Rushmore. Weet je wel....de presidenten: Washington, jefferson, lincoln en theodore rosenvelt in de berg vormgegeven/ge-explodeert. Waarbij van de 400 werknemers niemand om het leven kwam! Op zo'n hoogteverschil met explodaties.

 Het voordeel van de winter.... Ik ben vermoedelijk de enigste tourist met mount rushmore in het wit. Ik overlaad jullie met geluk....maar dat had ik dus weer echt!!! echt! want er was een helder uitzicht en zelfs het zonnetje kwam schijnen. En de paden waren te berijden.

-Crazy Horse vond ik persoonlijk nog vetter.....

om 't verhaal/de intentie en de sfeer/energie die er rond hangt.

Crazy horse: even groot als de vier hoofden van mount rushmore, ook in een berg gevormt.

                      de vorm van een bekende indiaan te paard de strijd aangaand.

                      Er zit een geweldig verhaal aan vast......als je die wilt weten......let's have a cup of tea!

In het indianenrestaurant bij crazy horse heb ik tatanka (=buffalo) gegeten. Was een leuke ervaring

De dag was op na de black hills nog even te hebben mogen bewonderen en wat leuke feitjes te hebben gehoord en gezien.

ps. meer fotos kan je zien onder het kopje fotos ;) haha

Surfers Paradise, Australia

Naa har vi vaert i Surfers Paradise i tre dager og er ganske saa klare for aa reise videre. Etter aa ha trasket rundt i koslige Byron Bay i tre dager, sett i butikker, gaatt paa stranden, gaatt i den ene lange hovedgaten som finnes i Byron Bay og spist paa koslige restauranter, saa ble det vekket ganske store forventninger til det flotte navnet "Surfers Paradise"! Man kan vel si at vi ble en smule skuffet naar vi kom til byen og saa at det krydde av store, hoeye hoteller, masse byggearbeid, daarlig luft, mange gamle menn, osv. Byen ser egentlig ganske trist ut og det er ikke stort aa gjoere. Det foerste som skjedde naar vi kom hit var at vi ble puttet inn paa et rom med en ganske ekkel gammel mann som lo som en tiaaring og gjorde oss en smule ukomfertable, saa vi bestemte oss for aa gaa ned aa bytte rom, noe som heldigvis gikk fint! Etter dette kom vi paa firemannsrom med en hyggelig ung skotte, som var veldig festlig og enkel aa dele rom med! Ingrid er nemlig ikke med oss lenger ettersom hun fikk besoek av Kjetil paa mandagen, saa bor heldiggrisene paa hotell og koser seg! De bor i samme by, saa vi skulle faa feiret 20-aars dagen til Ingrid som var i gaar! Da ble det foerst en runde med Aquaduck, en bil som kunne kjoere paa veier og vann, som tok oss med rundt paa en times sightseeing i Surfers, og saa dro vi paa Hard Rock Cafe paa kvelden, hvor vi spiste alt for mye nachos, noe som oedla ganske mye av kvelden, ettersom vi holdt paa aa doe av metthet og ville egentlig bare legge oss i fosterstilling alle sammen, aldri igjen!!!

I dag reiser vi videre til Noosa, noe som vi tror og haaper er en mindre by, som er litt mer koslig! Vi haaper ogsa paa bedre vaer saa vi kan legge oss litt paa stranden, og faa litt mer farge paa kroppen! Det hostellet vi skal bo paa laaner ogsa ut surfebrett gratis, saa hvis det er mulighet saa tenkte vi aa bygge videre paa de surfekunnskapene vi allerede har faatt!!

Surfers Paradise, Australia

Naa er vi i Surfers Paradise, og her har vi vert i 2 netter naa. Navnet hores ganske saa idyllisk ut, men det stemmer ikke helt. Vi ble alle skuffet tror jeg naar vi kom hit. Stedet er en god blanding av veldig fancy og veldig crap. Vi kom til hostellet vaart, og fikk rommet. det var ogsaa ganske skuffende, en smule skittent, og vaar romkamerat var ikke noe serlig han heller. han var en sliten bakfull mann fra fiji, som lo som en 13 aar gammel jente. vi synes det ble litt for ubehaglig og spurte om aa faa bytte til ett mindre rom, det fikk vi! saa lise, celine og jeg bodde paa 4 manns rom med en veldig hyggelig skotte. har ikke gjort saa altfor mye i surfers, baade paagrunn av okonomiske aarsaker og paagrunn av at det ikke er altfor mye aa gjore her annet enn aa dra paa utesteder. vi kunne provd aa surfe men bolgene var litt for store for oss. vi dro paa en bil/baat som het aquaduck, som gaar paa land og paa vann. den tok en rundtur gjennom byen, saan at vi fikk litt oversikt. ellers har vi bare slappet av og ikke minst feiret ingrid som fylte 20 igaar! hun er saa heldig at hun har besok av kjetil (kjeresten), og de bor paa fint hotell. vi dro alle sammen ut igaar og spiste oss altfor mette paa hard rock, ogsaa satt vi paa hostellet vaart foor vi dro paa en koslig bar med live musikk bl.a.

denne byen er det mest skuffende stedet vi har vert hittil, men vi har ogsaa vert heldige med alle andre steder saa noen nedturer maa man oppleve! men uavhengig av det har vi klart og kose oss forde vi er veldig klare for aa komme oss til noosa, ettersom vil har hort masse bra om stedet.

Indiana, USA

I have been home now for a full week.  Most of that time has been spent attempting to organize my life here in the States.  The rest of that time has been used telling stories and reliving the adventures that Adam and I took part in while traveling.  With every story I tell and every picture I describe, I continually feel a new found sense of appreciation: appreciation for my own country, appreciation for countries around the world (especially in Europe, considering that is where we visited) and a special appreciation for the people, both young and old, who pack their bags and get out and see the world.  The one observation I took from this trip, that has been in my mind for many weeks now, is realizing how important traveling is to the people of so many countries.  On our journey, I met more travelers from Australia than any other country in the world.  Australians seem to have been hit hard with the "Travel Bug."  Good for them.  They understand "it."  They appreciate travel!      

The one item that made our trip unique and adventurous is the fact that we really had no plans.  All we had before leaving the States was a plane ticket to Scotland and another plane ticket to Germany - and of course return tickets for each.  That left us with a total of 2 weeks in Scotland and 3 weeks in Germany and the surrounding countries.  I will never forget arriving in Germany and looking at a map of Europe and right then and there planning where to go next.  Sure we had suggestions and ideas of where we might go, but nothing was set in stone until we jumped into the car, programmed the navigational system, and headed off down the road.  We were never restricted to staying in one place for a certain amount of time.  As long as we could afford to stay, we did.  When we were ready to go, we left.  When we met new people, we gave them a ride.  The spontaneous actions of this trip made it special. 

When it comes down to it, traveling is more than a plane ticket and a hotel room.  Traveling is about embracing a new culture: attempting to speak the language, meeting new people, spending the currency, eating the food, using the public transportation, feeling out of your own comfort zone, and fully understanding why and how people in another country live their daily lives.  Traveling is more than just an experience and some pictures.  Traveling is a life lesson; one that will only be fully understood and respected with more travel.  I expect to continue on with that lesson.   

So here I sit now, in my cold house in Franklin, Indiana, USA, knowing I spent 5 weeks in Europe, saw 12 cities, drove 1,500 miles, and walked through history - bringing back with me the stories to teach and pass on in hopes of inspiring others to catch the "Travel Bug."  

When I take a break from thinking about this trip, I find myself thinking about where to go next.  However, I know that this trip was possible because of so many different people.  Therefore I would like to thank the following: my Mom and Dad, my sisters, and the rest of my Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, and Cousins who always seemed to inspire me with their words or encouragement and guidance.  Thank you to my girlfriend Krissy and all of her family for their understanding and excitement while I was away.  Thank you to all those that pointed us in the right direction: Doc Howald, Sherri and Ellis Hall, Karen Burgard, Linda Arrey, Coach Marshall, and Marcia Grossnickle.  And a special thanks goes to all those that housed us, put up with us, and allowed us to be apart of their lives for so long: Tom and his family Julie, Kevin, Andy, Georgia and Mark, and Camey, Uncle Art and Aunt Carol, Tom's friend Mark and the rest of the gang at Ogstons, Goose and his family Connie, Jentz and Thilo, and his friend Simon and his girlfriend.  I would finally like to thank our new friend Ben.  Without Ben this trip would have been much less exciting and entertaining.

Thank you all and Carpe Diem!

Paul

Bogota, Colombia

As if to signify my farewell from Jeri on the 31st Jan, it started raining heavily for about 2 hours in the morning. Thankfully I had gotten the best of the weather (I spent all day of the 30th lying on the beach in the sun while the water was coming onshore. It was like being in a hot jacuzzi!). Predictably when something can go wrong it does, and I had a nasty slip on the wet stairs in the pousada, landing on my rear ribcage and making me breathless for a while. It could have been a lot worse if I'd fallen forward, but this fall made packing up quite a chore as I was aching all over. I even had to get a dune buggy to bring me the short 5 min walk to the Jardineria bus as I couldn't carry the backpack! Hopefully haven't broken anything, and it's just a bruised kidney or liver as it's still hurting fairly badly (I'm writing this on the 2nd Feb) ... so that's a damaged knee from kite surfing and bruised liver/fractured rib. Maybe I'm getting too old for this travelling lark!

There are two different buses you can get from Jericoacoara to Fortaleza, the standard (which leaves you at the Rodavario bus station) and the VIP (which leaves you at the airport). VIP is R$ 50, standard is R$ 35 and you can get a R$ 20 taxi to the airport from there. As the VIP bus was booked up, I had to get the standard, but I was assured it was the same bus, the only difference being that one dropped you at the airport. Unfortunately the difference seems to be much more than that, and the space in each seat is FAR less on the standard. When the lady in the front row put her seat down, it literally crushed up against my knees and I couldn't move. Thankfully she was nice enough to understand and the seat beside her was free so she moved into that instead! So another lesson, always get the VIP bus in Brazil if you are over 6ft tall!

Got to the airport in good time and I made sure to ask for two Fire Exit rows on my VoeGol flight to Sao Paulo, then Bogota. I also made sure to take my fleece with me as the air conditioners on South American flights are really strong! The flight had a 3 hour delayed departure time (this seems to be par for the course now), but we eventually boarded the flight at 4am for the red eye to Sao Paulo. More fun ensued: despite going out of my way to ask for a Fire Exit seat, the guy a the check in counter booked a standard seat for me. Not only that, but the seat was DOUBLE-BOOKED (I didn't think that was even possible), and some guy had a ticket for 28C as well! Oye! Never mind, I managed to kick up a fuss and wrangle a Fire Exit seat.

The flight from Sao Paulo to Bogota was much better. I got a "proper" Fire Exit row with lots of space (on these flights, there are two fire exit rows beside each other, the front one is always the one with the leg-room.) and managed to even kip off for a while, plus got nicely fed. Have to get my €450 worth at some point

Now I was heading to Spanish-speaking South America, so just as I was starting to get a handle on Portuguese it was time to forget it all and try to remember my Spanish! Several words I am constantly mixing up are:

Initial impressions of Bogota. For one, It's a lot colder than Brazil. Surrounded by the Andes mountains, the city is at a fairly high altitude plus it's above the equator so the seasons (well the "dry season" as it is here) are reversed. It's a very flat city built upon a plateau, but the horizon is dominated by sharply-rising mountains on all sides. The historical Candaleria area where I am staying lies at the edge of the mountains so has some steep roads though. Despite the surroundings, the actual city itself is nothing particularly special...

After getting cash out of the ATM in the airport, I opted to take the bus to my hostel from the airport. I had asked a taxi driver if he knew the way, but I got the similar blank look I received from the taxi driver in Salvador so I could predict how that would have turned out! It's strange that he didn't know where it was as Bogota's grid street system makes locating places very easy. Taking the bus was great as it gave me a quick tour of downtown. The downtown city looks a lot like a ghetto. Rundown buildings, people walking around in rapper-garb, traffic chaos, smog. In 30 mins I saw: a girl sniffing inhalants out of a black plastic bag while her dealer was wandering around the street looking for the next victim (he seemed high as well)... cyclist squished under a huge truck (they'd removed the body but the bike and associated puddle of blood was still there as well as a huge crowd). Driving here (let along cycling!) is literally taking your life into your own hands, the rule of the road (for there seems to be only one) is to get to your destination as quickly as possible while assuming you are the only car on the road.

Got to my hostel with little trouble though, about 5 or 6 people on the bus went out of their way to let me know where I should get off. People here are very helpful, but rather guarded and not overly friendly from the outset until they "trust" you. Just like any large city in the US for example, and no doubt people here are cautious of others due to the high levels of crime.

Got a nice single room with shared bathroom for only 13 euro a night including breakfast. Tried to get some sleep but was awoken when I heard what I thought was a cat being strangled, but it turned out to be the voices of a very annoying (and extremely loud) bunch of yanks in the lobby . "Oye gringos" I thought. I was on the verge of checking out... but found that my earplugs served their purpose pretty well!

In order to escape the onslaught of "Oh. My. Gawwwd!" and "totally sucks dude", I ventured out into the Bogota night in search of sustenance (and to prevent further damage to my eardrums). As luck would have it, I found a cosy little rock bar where I had a large Chicken crepe and chips. People in Bogota seem to love their heavy rock music. Even the bus into town was playing death metal loud. Met up with two local Design students at the bar: Catalina and her Argentinian friend (whose name escapes me). Catalina instructed me in the art of Colombian Spanish and all the slang used in place of common words. "Beunos" instead of "Beunos Dia"/"Hola". Even saying something like "Quisiera una cerveza por favor" gets strange looks, you need to just point and say "una cerveca". In Bogota manners are an unusual thing, although Catalina said that if someone comes up to you, it's best to play it safe and be nice and courteous.

She also showed her disdain for Americans (they're called Gringos here as "Americans" can be used to describe anyone from the continent of North/South America). She said I wasn't a gringo though, as I have more cop on I guess...

By the end of the night, I'd had a full meal, and ordered about 8 beers for myself and my new friends. Total price? COP$ 24,000. That's €9! Yes Colombia is hella cheap and makes a nice change from Brazil in this respect!

Bogota doesn't have too much in the way of tourist attractions apart from several museums, but the main reason for being here is to visit "El Catedral de Sal". A large underground network of churches carved out of salt!

2-3 days here before headin up north to Cartagena.

Timbuktu, Mali

Getting to Timbuktu is not straightforward; it required quite a bit of organising. The first issue was the risk of kidnapping by Touareg rebels, but everyone seemed to think this wasn't particularly likely at that time. So we set out to find out about transport. There are various types of boats that go up the river, ranging from private chartered affairs (expensive) to the public ferry (apparently a horrible experience). We wandered boldly down to the harbour and asked someone how we could go about finding a place on a pinasse. We were lucky and found the right people (members of a bizarrely named harbour controlling committee of some kind), and negotiated a spot on a public pinasse. We knew the price of the four wheel drive trip, and were able to get the price they made up down a very long way.

A pinasse is a long wooden boat, pointy at both ends and round in the middle. It has a curved roof which comes down and nearly meets the hull, leaving a narrow gap all the way round. The round depths of the boat were being thoroughly loaded with sacks of cement and rice. We were encouraged to buy a mattress to claim our spot on top of the sacks.

Since we had declined to eat the on-board rations, we had to organise a mammoth shopping expedition, which of course was much more difficult than it needed to be. In the end we made a complicated last-minute expedition to the market, having overcome the profound confusion surrounding the question of which market had fresh vegetables in it and where it was. Contrary to expectations, we found a good selection of supplies, along with two large sacks of water (each full of small plastic sachets), and a thin foam mattress. It turned out that the mattress was indeed important as it ended up defining our space on the boat, in complete disregard of what we had painstakingly negotiated.

So we made it to the boat on time and settled down in a pretty relaxed manner to recline on our mattress and look out the window. We set up our little stove in one corner and made tea to pass the time. Just as we were getting relaxed and enjoying the view and the relative peace, someone came past and pulled the tarps down all the way around the boat, closing the windows. In typical African style, not only did no-one tell us what was going on, but the guy tying down the tarps completely ignored our requests to leave our window open - he didn't even acknowledge our presence. Now we were stuck in the dark, gloomy interior of the boat which was rapidly filling up with cigarette and cooking smoke. We were faced with three days of being cooped up not being able to see.

We had to go and find the guy who was supposedly looking after us and make huge protests to explain the importance of being able to see out of the window. Only after these protests was it explained that the windows were closed because the water splashing into the boat would make the rice sacks expand. Eventually when the extent of our dissatisfaction was painstakingly communicated, he proposed to move us down to the back of the boat where the windows were still open. This was very complicated as it was difficult to walk on the sacks with the low roof, and there was a huge chasm in the middle of the boat, but we did get set up in a new location where we could breathe, and once again look out at the desert beyond the banks of the Niger. The French guys opposite us didn't protest as much, but they eventually moved to the back with us.

It turned out that cooking was our main occupation during the days of sitting on the boat. Since we had all the time in the world we invented original ways to use the available ingredients (which also gave us a rare opportunity to control our nutrition). Some of them turned out really well, including pumpkin and groundnut soup, and sangria made from bissap, rum and papaya.

This boat trip became famous for its extreme toilet, unmatched in inconvenience, physical inaccessibility and plain absurdity. Because the boat was substantially flooded, the hole in the bottom which was claimed to be the toilet was completely unreachable and the whole rear compartment of the boat had to be treated as a rather vague toilet zone (there may have been people washing in the so-called shower nearby, which shared the same swirling body of water). To get to the toiled involved climbing on ladders over the roof and to enter required dangling off a beam using awkward handholds on the cieling. As for what happened to the circulation of the water in the so-called toilet, we certainly avoided thinking about it or observing it in any way. But the whole arrangement was the source of ongoing mirth. As usual, the funniest thing is that someone had actually thought about the situation and decided that this was a sensible arrangement; they even showed us the toilet at the beginning when we were bargaining (although at that time it wasn't submerged as the loading wasn't complete).

The rest of our journey was spent playing cards and looking out at the desert landscape with undisturbed villages, or during the night, at the amazing stars. Sometimes I would climb up onto the roof to sit among the strange furniture that someone was transporting and look at the view all the way around, and I could only wonder about the mysterious, peaceful, and probably desperately poor life that must be going on in the villages along this river which brings life to the Sahel.

We arrived a day early. This is completely bizarre, but not beyond the scope of the vagueness. It's probably because the boat was running its engine all through the night. We can only imagine that the salesmen in the port overstated the likely length of the journey so they could charge us more. It's almost a pity; another night on the boat would have been much less painful than the extra night we spent on the Volta ferry in Ghana...

Mopti, Mali

The main tourist activity in Mopti, other than trying to find the one place where you can get a reasonable meal (it's the Bissap Café, by the way), is escaping all the touts. It started just metres away from the hotel, where there was some sort of association of handicapped people selling crafts or whatever, with guys out the front who would call out very aggressively/misleadingly to anyone who'd just left the hotel.

We would frequently see groups of tourists walking around with more followers than there were tourists. Actually, that probably happened to us; I'm pretty sure at one point we were being followed by one or two scarf sellers, two necklace sellers, and a random hopeful guide or two (there were only three of us).

But we don't plan to stay here very long; we just have to figure out if we can make the journey to Timbuktu.

Mopti, Mali

The trek in Dogon Country was (as expected) one of the most distinctive experiences of our trip in West Africa. Despite the fact that it's entirely touristy and everyone does it, it was an opportunity to experience life in villages and try to learn something about one of the many cultures we have passed through.

In addition, we got to spend four days talking to our guide, Gabriel. While he was clearly an experienced guide, he was also a bit rough around the edges and would tell us what he thought about all sorts of things, which could be interesting, hilarious, or quite disturbing. Jo and Hannah certainly quizzed him quite a lot about various things.

We had a lot of conversations about women, wives, and jigi jigi. Most of these issues are quite confronting for us - arranged marriages, polygamy, excision, isolation in the menstrual house. Gabriel generally seemed to think that all of these things were normal. For example, he asked us if women in western countries had to go and stay in a particular house when they were menstruating, and was pretty surprised that they don't. He insisted that there are more women than men in Dogon villages (thus making polygamy a natural state of affairs), but we could never understand why this would be the case. On the other hand he was himself a bit of an outcast as he had refused the marriage arranged for him by his father, (and apparently had been through a dreadlocks and alcohol phase), so he was surely more open-minded and worldly than your average young Dogon guy.

Finally, as the resident linguist,* it was my job to notice a few really interesting things about the way Gabriel spoke (in English). It seemed to me that almost every sentence involved the hedging expressions "try to" or "almost": for example "they will try to boil some water", so we can have tea. (Surely you either boil some water or you don't; it's not that hard). Or, "are you almost tired?" (No, I'm tired right now!). Once I started noticing this, the sheer vagueness of these statements became increasingly amusing.

Of course English was probably Gabriel's fourth or fifth language, and I can only wonder what the equivalent expressions in Dogon language would be. But this must be an insight into Dogon society. If even basic statements are this unspecific and indefinite it's no surprise that everything seems confused and vague to us, especially when we ask people for specific, concrete information.

I guess this is just another things I don't have time to investigate properly, but then this sort of thing would take years, if not a lifetime.

*Actually, I have managed very little linguistic understanding during my travels in Africa, and I certainly didn't have any insights into the Dogon language. As usual, I would have much preferred to have a resident geologist, botanist, or anthropologist.

Mopti, Mali

We set off from Bankass on a cow cart. Gabriel was very apologetic that he couldn't get a donkey (it was harvest season), but we found the cow much more amusing. It wasn't a very good draught animal, but we weren't in a hurry. The cow came with a boy who whipped it ineffectively with a switch. Halfway across the flat plains we stopped to visit our first Dogon village and saw lots of goats and women pounding millet. A lot of millet gets pounded in Dogon villages.

At around lunchtime we arrived in Kani-Kombolé and installed ourselves on the roof of the campement, where we lounged in the shade for a few hours and eventually had lunch. During this time we played a game called Wari, which is one of those games where you move piles of seeds or stones around from different holes in a wooden board, without necessarily understanding the full depth of strategy that can be involved in the game.

After we had finished lunch Gabriel offered us some of the local "millet food". This basically consisted of a lump of millet paste which you break off with your hand and dip in boab-leaf sauce. Unfortunately the boab-leaf sauce is very slimy. Why is it that things which are already unreasonably slimy are served in a way which accentuates their sliminess (by making them dribble all over your fingers, face, and whatever is in between)? I certainly haven't forgotten the banku and okra we had in Ghana. Anyway, I'm glad the millet food was a sample and not our actual lunch.

When the sun had gone down a bit, we set off again. As we walked, kids everywhere would yell out "ça va les bidons ?" ("how are you, bottles?", in other words a greeting and a demand for our empty plastic bottles rolled into one). Sometimes there were variations like "ça va les bonbons ?" ("how are you, sweets?"). Once I swear I heard "ça va les boudins ?" ("how are you, sausages?"), which gives you an idea of how little these kids understood what they were saying. Generally, all the kids in each place would say the same thing, indicating that they had all learnt the same phrase from someone without necessarily knowing what it meant (sometimes it would be offensive or just weird, but no-one really cared, and anyway any passing adult or guide would generally tell them to shut up and move away).

We slept in Teli, on the roof of a campement. It was reasonably comfortable with small mattresses and mosquito nets hanging from a sort of clothes line above the roof.

The next day, we climbed up through a crack in the cliff to the top of the escarpment. This was exciting and for the first time we could see all the way across the plains at the bottom (sadly in the process of desertification). The villages on top of the cliff seemed much smarter than the ones at the bottom. They were made of stone rather than mud, and apparently they have more than one harvest each year, because there is more water, so they are wealthier.

That night we slept at Indelou, on the roof of a building which was right next to the edge of the cliff. As a consequence it was very windy and we had ask persistently for blankets. In the evening we sat around looking at the view, and later at the stars, and drinking millet beer served out of an old motor oil bottle. The beer was really excellent, but I never completely got over the feeling that there must have been tiny amounts of oil residue. They assured us the bottle had been used thousands of times, which might or might not make a difference. But anyway, what about the first time it was used? They must have though that was ok too...

In Begnimato, one of the more interesting villages, we were shown around and met the blacksmith, various local traders, and the future hogon (traditional chief). The future hogon, not yet dressed in traditional clothes as he was serving out his waiting time which is somehow connected with the time of death of the previous hogon, didn't say anything, but looked simultaneously fairly savvy and unsure about the purpose of this meeting with foreigners. He was happy for us to take photos though, and that's the main point, isn't it?

Then we climbed down to the bottom of the cliff again. This involved some amazing views of the dunes below through gaps in the cliff. On previous days, we had been a little bit slow with each successive step, sleeping in a little bit and being a bit slow to get up after lunch, and now we had extra distance to cover. As a consequence, we were pretty tired that night and couldn't fully appreciate the drumming and dancing that was going on in the campement. We had to recover our strength for the final climb back up the following day. By this time the repetitive and vaguely unsatisfactory food was taking its toll and we weren't feeling in the strongest of form.

The food served in the campements was the source of endless intrigue. We would usually have a choice between rice, macaroni, or cous cous, and we would have long debates about which one we felt like. Of course it never made any difference, because the meal was always bland and starchy. Sometimes we would try to find out what sort of sauce we could have. At some point some false hope was created that we could get a groundnut sauce, which would have been really exciting (for one thing it would have been the only protein we'd eaten the entire time). In fact, we were always bound to end up with the same tomato-MSG sauce, with maybe a few traces of onions hanging around in it. But that didn't stop us trying, and we would sometimes have quite absurd conversations, subject to varying degrees of translation, for example: "What sort of sauce do you have?" "We have sweet potato." "Do you have aubergine?" "Yes, we have sweet potato"... this went on for several minutes. Guess what we ended up eating?

I was also getting dehydrated a lot of the time. We were drinking out of local wells, treated with tablets which I was getting quite sick of. Rehydration salts notwithstanding, the only real solution to the problem was tea (preferably with lemon and sugar). Anyway, it was clear that we would be relieved to get back to Mopti and recover.

On our last morning we visited a museum relating to Dogon culture, which was interesting and reminded me that there is a lot to learn about the Dogon people and maybe I should make an effort to do that later. Then we had to climb back up the cliff the way we had come, to get to the village at the top where a car would meet us to go back to Mopti. It was great to have a last chance to look at the scenery, but I was coming down with a fever of some kind and feeling increasingly unenthusiastic. However with some help I held it together for long enough to get to the top, and then we had our last lunch sitting around in the shade of a campement and squashed into the car to head back to town on the bumpy, stony road.

When we reached Bandiagara we realised how easy it was to organise transport and get reasonable prices for things with Gabriel around. So we were in a comfortable four wheel drive all the way back to Mopti. By the time we arrived I had a raging fever and couldn't stay for the celebratory beer with Gabriel. (I might have missed my opportunity to drop a hint about the masks he mentioned at the start). Instead I had to go and suffer through a cold shower and get into bed, and spend the rest of the evening having conversations about whether it was reasonable to assume I had malaria (I had, incidentally, missed my prophylaxis tablet a few days earlier). In the process of this, Hannah surprised everyone with her skill in stabbing my finger, but as always the malaria test was negative. In the end I took the malaria treatment and woke up the next day feeling ok.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Here is a list of the places we are planning to go, when we will be there and for how long.

02/05/2010 - Toyko - 3 Days
05/05/2010 - Mount Fiji - 1 Day
06/05/2010 - Kanazawa City - 1 Day
07/05/2010 - Kyoto - 2 Days
09/05/2010 - Nara City - 1 Day
10/05/2010 - Himeji City - 1 Day
16/05/2010 - Beijing - 4 Days
21/05/2010 - Xi'an - 1 Day
23/05/2010 - Wolong Nature reserve + Chengdu - 2 Days
27/05/2010 - Shanghai - 3 Days
30/05/2010 - Suzhou - 1 Day
31/05/2010 - Hangzhou - 1 Day
02/06/2010 - Hong Kong - 3 Days
05/06/2010 - Macau - 1 Day
09/06/2010 - Ha Noi + Hai Phong + Cat Ba Island - 3 Days
13/06/2010 - Hue - 2 Days
16/06/2010 - Ho Chi Minh City - 1 Day
18/06/2010 - Phnom Penh (cambodia) - 2 Days
21/06/2010 - Siem Reap/Angkor - 2 Days
24/06/2010 - Bangkok (thailand) - 3 Days
27/06/2010 - Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon - 1 Day
29/06/2010 - Chiang Mai - 2 Days
06/07/2010 - Kuala Lumpur - 2 Days
09/07/2010 - Borneo - 8 Days
18/07/2010 - Jakarta - 1 Day
20/07/2010 - Borobudur - 1 Day
21/07/2010 - Yogyakarta (Indonesia) - 3 Days
25/07/2010 - Bali - 4 Days
30/07/2010 - Lombok - 3 Days
02/08/2010 - Komodo Trip - 3 Days
08/08/2010 - Darwin - 2 Days
11/08/2010 - Cairns - 3 Days
14/08/2010 - Great Barrier Reef - 1 Day
18/08/2010 - Heron Island - 2 Days
21/08/2010 - Fraser Island - 1 Day
25/08/2010 - Hunter Valley - 1 Day
26/08/2010 - Blue Mountains - 2 Days
28/08/2010 - Sydney - 4 Days
02/09/2010 - Melbourne - 4 Days
06/09/2010 - Great Ocean Road - 1 Day
11/09/2010 - South Island - 9 Days
20/09/2010 - North Island (ending in Auckland) - 8 Days
29/09/2010 - Fiji - 4 Days
04/10/2010 - Vancouver - 2 Days
06/10/2010 - Vancouver Island - 2 Days
08/10/2010 - Port Hardy (God's Pocket) - 1 Day
12/10/2010 - Toronto - 4 Days
16/10/2010 - London - 1 Day
17/10/2010 - Niagara Falls - 1 Day
19/10/2010 - Montreal - 4 Days
24/10/2010 - Quebec - 4 Days
31/10/2010 - Arrive Home

The dates may change, but hopefully not by much and we will try and keep the blog as up to date as we can while on the move.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

We are just booking the final tickets and adjusting the routing slightly (Whistler has no snow in October, so we are going to London, Canada instead).

Cape Town, South Africa

Hi all, we're a having an amazing time in South Africa. Spent a week in Cape Town which was cool, a really laid back city, the scenary is also incredible. We went to an awesome beach called fish hoek where someone got attacked and killed by a shark a few days before!! Now we're just travelling around a bit further, we stayed in a hostel in stellenbosh the other night, and went on a winelands tour where we got to vist 4 different estates in stellenbosch, franschoek and paarl. We got a cellar tour, cheese tasting, lots and lots of nice wine and lunch, aswell as the most spectacular views up in the mountains. Now we're just in Mossel bay, staying in a hostel called the santos express, which is an old train which has been renovated and it's on the beach, which is awesome! We're just about to catch our baz bus to take us to our next stop called Knysna and stay in a room up in the trees, which will be interesting!

I'll keep you posted,

Lots of love

xx

Moree, Australia

25/1 Left Bendemeer after our exciting times in Tamworth headed for Tenterfield and the Sheep Dog Trials that we'd heard about. Back through Guyra (the Lamb an Potato festival was still in full swing) and arrived in Tamworth late afternoon, just in time for the open finals. It was far more interesting than expected, you start to urge particular dogs on and hope that the sheep will go in to the right pen or square - all very scientific I know but a bit of fun for us! For the very serious it was "sheep station" material and they took notes and gauged all the qualifiers. All the dogs - "BORDER COLLIES" - best dogs around, can't beat 'em!!!

26/1 Happy Australia Day! We were inTenterfield and it was shut! We had our early walk into town (from the showgrounds) and had a good look around - a lot of activity around 1910-14 - Henry Parkes was doing his thing establishing the federation! We left at about 11:00am and headed down again towards Glen Innes on our way through to Moree (this is the fastest way). The drive was through hilly country at first and then levelled out as we headed through Inverell (where we stopped for a walk around and coffee) and on to Moree - very flat country out here! We booked in  to the Gwidyr Carapark which is huge (something like 120 cabins alone!) and they have their own Artesian Thermal Pools.  OK, the pools vary from 36 degrees to 40, so we went for a swim - 40 degree day, 40 degree pool - go figure!! Anyhow, it was great - it feels like you're swimming in fabric softener while being massaged! And then you go out and jump into the "cold" plunge pool - probably @ 23 degrees!! Anyhow, great fun.

27-29/1 Rest up day (27th). Early walk on the 28th, then Rob packed a picnic lunch for us and we headed out to Waa Gorge which is part of the Mt. Kaputar National Park. We'd been advised by the Information Centre in Moree to expect some gravel roads - she neglected to tell us about the creek crossings, gates, private land and really a crappy road to get in to the park! After the bitumen

 runs out you have 19Km of gravel road to navigate - 4 gates to open and close, 3 creeks to cross (ford), cattle to avoid on the road but we eventually arrived at the very celubrious car park in the National Park! The car park is clearly defined, there is a composting toilet (byo paper) and picnic tables - a really lovely spot! We were greeted by a 1m goanna that was most unhappy to share his picnic ground with others - he stalked off in quite a huff leaving us a table clear of insects! After our lunch we headed out of the carpark towards the gorge. After about 10 minutes we came across and area forming a number of "plunge" pools in the Berrygill creek - apparently used by early aboriginals, not a lot of water about at the  moment so they didn't really offer a lot! From this point on towards the gorge the track is not maintained so it was a matter of "follow the creek bed"! This wasn't as bad as it could have been as there was a reasonably laid out track that we could follow - there were lots of birds and a wallaby joind us for a while - more curious about us I think! 25 minutes later we came out onto the base of the gorge, which was quite spectacular with sheer walls and a lava flow that went up the full length. The shape, like huge bowl, had been carved out over thousands of years and it was well worth the walk in to see it in all its splendour! We didn't venture too far in as the weather was starting to close in with lots of thunder and lightning! Back to the car and the drive back to Moree - in the wet.... We spent the next day quietly, relaxing in the thermal pools and then later out to Woolaway Wines - a so-called local producer. Turns out most of his grapes are purchased in the Hunter Valley, processed there and he just sells the end result - winery? I don't think so!

30/1 - Much excitement - we're going out to "Trawalla" - the biggest Pecan Nut farm in the Southern Hemisphere. We were picked up by Hanns tours and driven out the 40Km to the fram - you must go with a tour group. They have 70,000 trees on the fram producing about 2,000 tonnes of pecans per year. They use a lot of water to irrigate the trees and lose about 50% through evaporation! They are gradually moving to put all the irrigation underground and have found initially that the trees produce more nuts and last better

using this method. We were shown the machines that do most of the work on the farm - the "shakers" - shaking the trees to get the nuts down,  the "sweepers" - gathering the nuts off the ground for processing, the "pruners" - huge machines that go down the rows of trees and prune with 1m circular saws! And, the trees "loppers" - again huge circular saws that shape the trees to allow the light in to ripen the fruit "just right"!!. It was a very interesting tour and or thanks go out Renee and Hanns Tours.

We'd been fortunate enough to leave the van in the caravan park whilst we went on the tour. So, back to the van and we set of for Lightning Ridge. The country is incredibly flat with the occasional marker showing the high water mark when it floods - it'd be above the van doors in places - hope we don't get to see it! We were heading for Lorne Station, about 5Km  out from Lightning Ridge. We'd found it on the web and it looked fantastic - great facilities, lots of room, "pancake Sunday" and lots more. After a gruelling drive over a road not really suited to a motor home - mind you gravel roads are not its best friend! we arrived at Lorne Station. It might have been something sometime - that time just isn't now! Seems that if they want to build something they grab whatever is at hand - corrugated iron usually and they slap it together... should be an interesting stay!!! Stay tuned.

pierre south dakota, USA

Zo gaaf,

Gisteren heeft dawn voor mij gefikst dat ik een rondtour kreeg van Roger (iemand die zij kennen) in pierre. ik heb gezien:

-capitol state building (goverment)

-indian&soldiers world war memorial

-fighting stallion memorial

-een mega grote dam met het opwekken van hydro-energie. Met tipi's staand in de buurd.

-een rodeo museum met een livestock in de buurd.

we hebben erg gelachen samen.

Bij het oppikken van m'n en pauls bagage Dawn en ik kwamen weer wilde herten tegen op onze weg naar huis.

En na een lekker grote pizza ben ik naar een community play van roger geweest. Dat was erg leuk!

Vandaag de dag was gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaf!

Na zelf een biketour door een eiland vol natuur te hebben gefietst nam paul me mee naar tipple U buffalo ranch waar het grootste deel van dances with wolves is gefilmd. We zagen een coyote en ik heb foto's kunnen nemen van tatanka's (indianen woord=buffalo). Het grappigst van alles.....Kevin cosner huurde een huis tegenover die van Dawn&pauls in die tijd+Dawn kwam met haar auto een auto tegen met iemand die naar haar zwaaide....een paar straten verder op dacht ze (o my god.....that were kevin cosner!).

Paul, ik&de hond zijn naar pauls de ranch van pauls zus&man geweest vol vee en wilde reeen.

Het leukst van alles is.....de nederlander in mineapolis zei me....wat moet je in pierre, daar is niets te beleven. Ik ben blij dat ik gegaan ben. En dat ik het zo heb mogen treffen met dawn en paul. Ze hebben zelfs een trip voor me geregeld om morgen naar rapid city te gaan.....en alsof het zo moest zijn....deze week en volgende week zijn de enigste twee weken in het jaar dat er een bekende rodeo is in rapid city en veel andere paarden dingen. Dus hihaaaaaaaaaa cowboy iris is coming soon!I thank god for all those presents.

.

Frankfurt, Germany

Não iremos detalhar a viagem, mas deixamos aqui umas breves notas para mais tarde recordarmos esta aventura na gélida Alemanha.

Adorámos as contruções arquitectónicas com traçados de linhas paralelas e prependiculares num rigor desmedido!
Adorámos as salsichas e batatas fritas que nos aqueceram o frio rigoroso!
Adorámos as paisagens do Rio Reno que nos acompanhou entre viagens de comboio!
Adorámos as feiras e feirinhas de natal que nos ofereceram momentos unicos de prazer!
Adorámos as capelas e catedrais de imponencia reconhecida!

Apenas um pouco disto ficou registado nas fotos que podem ver na galeria.

Abraços!

Bruno & Mariana

Bali, Indonesia

We arrive back safe and sound back in comfortable Sanur after agreeing a refund on our return tickets in place of speedboat tickets; this journey apparently only takes 5 hours in total. It did only take 5 hours, we where amazed but glad to get back to Bali. The speedboat coast around 500,000 IDR (£35) which considering the hassle of the previous trip was well worth it.

The Jati Home stay is FULL- noooooo!!! We find alternative accommodation close by and get settled down, it's nice to spend a day relaxing with Leigh before she flies off home. It seems like the trip has gone very quickly but it was great having her along and we hope that she enjoyed it as much as we did. The new place is fine, we have AC, pool and free breakfast so all is well.

So the next day we relaxed with mum by the poolside and after packing her back full of our crap and souvenirs that we have gathered, we say goodbye. It is all very sad and we had such a good time, it was nice to have someone along and be able to relax for a while. Jonny and I get dropped up to the Prima Cottages where we went the second time in Sanur. Here we also have a pool and breakfast. Jonny and I relax in the pool but something then happened! My bikini and hair both turned green! It's definitely the pool and after some debate we realise that rather than putting too much chlorine in, they haven't got any at all so its algae that's making our stuff turn green. We me a nice couple by the pool and tell them of what happened. Actually the next day it happened to them too! I had to sit there and get lemons put on my head to take out the colour. Very humiliating! Jonny and I decide to stay at the hotel anyway as it's conveniently got free wifi and we can catch up with people. In the evening we find a nice restaurant that does Spaghetti Bolognese. Jonny and I are so fed up of rice and noodles and have officially gone on strike; our bodies literally can't take anymore!

Jonny and I didn't really do much the next couple of days but catch up with things and went in the pool. There were no more green incidents. We enjoy going out for food and find a nice Organic restaurant and best of all, a place that does pie and mash! We go for various walks in Sanur but mainly just chill at the hotel. We decide to head to Ubud again for a couple of days as we don't want to stay in Sanur till we leave. So we find a very cheap taxi to take us there the next day.

Jericoacoara, Brazil

Head down, I denied myself any sunshine today and instead sat inside my room tossing between my (dodgy) Rough Guide book and various travel websites hoping to come up with a clearer picture of what I was hoping to achieve over the coming 3 months.

The plan has always been to have a "chill-out and planning period" for the first 2 weeks, then begin the "real" South America trip in earnest at the start of February.. running until I head back home on 1st May.

And I believe I've finally cracked it!

I've had to make a few sacrifices though...

The plan is to head off to Colombia in 2 days on the 1st Feb. It's going to be a horrible 14 hours flight (no surprise there) that begins at 2am and for some bizarre reason goes all the way south to Sao Paulo from Fortaleza before another flight brings me back up to Bogota (passing Fortaleza on the way up)!!! It's with another airline "Voegol", so hopefully I won't have any of the problems I encountered with TAM and Iberia. It was the "cheapest" option (I say "cheapest" as the flight cost around 450 euro! Internal flights are cheap in South America. International flights within South America are not.)

Each country will get between 15-20 days, so I'd had around 15 days in Brazil already. The ironic thing is in two weeks, apart from the Iguazu Falls and Amazon, I've essentially "seen" the main sights in Brazil (which are mainly found along the coast). Despite being the largest country in South America, most of the sights are either found in the cities or the beaches. The vast swathes of rainforest that have always dominated the interior mean that the history of Brazil can mainly be found along the coast. The Amazonian port of Manaus is the obvious exception, but that was populated early on only because of easy access thanks to the Amazon river.

This probably also explains why the Portuguese managed to claim so much land when they established Brazil, the interior was probably so dense with vegetation and marshes that the Spanish would have thought it was too much trouble to conquer! (later... I actually read more into it, and apparently the country is so large because the slave traders used to travel deep into the countryside to capture Indian slaves, thus anexing the area for Portugal)

Hopefully I'll get a chance to explore some more of Brazil on the return leg, but I really feel I've had a good taste of the place at this stage! Definately a great place to chill on beaches and party to great music!

Anyway, best get out and enjoy the last days of sunshine before my 'orrible flight in 2 days! Onward to Colombia!

...later...

I met a few people for drinks from the Pantanal region of Brazil later on, and from what they tell me, this has to be mentioned as the 5th MUST SEE thing in Brazil, along with the Iguazu Falls, Amazon, Cities and Beaches. Still though, for a country of it's size, it's surprising that you can see pretty much all the main sights within 3-4 weeks (from all accounts, Peru or Argentina would require about 2 months to see all the major sights).

The Pantanal sounds like a great experience though, in particular in April when the rains have ended, and you can arrange African-style safaris to see all the animals including the famous Jaguar so I'm going to see if I can squeeze it into my tight itinerary!

pierre south dakota, USA

Hi,

Na een goede vlucht te zijn aangekomen in mineapolis, word ik doorgestuurd naar de extra beveiliging.

Ai.

Ik mag niet binnen tot ik alle vragen van mevr. met de juiste antwoorden heb beantwoord

en mij de vluchtpapieren haast over de toonbank werden teruggesmeten. maar Iris keep on smiling.

Mijn dag kan niet meer stuk, want iris is in America toegelaten ondanks dat ik volgens hun "geen echt

werk heb, alleen reis, singel ben en eigenlijk niets voorstel." Never mind.....na nog net niet als crimineel

aangekeken te worden is de incheck+beveiliging gedaan.

Ipv. vier uur wachten voor vertrek ga ik op weg van the airport met de light trein naar the MAL OF AMERICA.

In het donker is er weinig te zien van mineapolis, en dat wat je ziet is één grote autoparking.

Maar eenmaal in the mal aangekomen kijk je je ogen uit.

Naast een huge stylisch winkelcentrum met van alles en nog wat aan winkels zit hieronder een underwateraquarium.

Uiteraard moest ik ook daar even een kijkje nemen.

Boardend voor pierre staat er een nederlander achter de balie om te roepen of er iemand uit pierre komt, want dat ik

daar een weekje rond ga trekken....De man had niet alleen humor.....een stel kwam ook naar me toe om me een overnachting

bij hun thuis aan te bieden+nog wel adresjes wisten om me van piere naar rapid city&mount rushmore te vervoeren, enz..

Dit bod kan ik uiteraard niet afslaan.........en ik sta verbaast hoe gastvrij de Americanen zijn.

Helaas voor mij is m'n bagage niet meegekomen.Evenals bij twee andere mensen. Nu vermoedden wij gedrieen dat mijn backpack er al eerder uit wilde in watertown op weg met een klein vliegtuigje naar piere.

Een bezoekje bij het gastvrije stel thuis, raken we in gesprek betreft ranches+rodeo.

De rendieren/muildieren hangen niet alleen aan de wand door paps en zoon neergeschoten, maar kwamen we ook tegen onderweg.....overstekend op straat. vet gaaf.

maar voor nu voor mij.....sweet dreams.

ps. fam.....morgen stuur ik jullie een nieuwe accommodatie adres door.

Byron Bay, Australia

Naa er det en stund siden jeg har faatt skrevet, ettersom det ikke har vaert saa mye internett tilgjengelig denne uka. Loerdag morgen dro vi nemlig til et sted kalt Port Stephens i Newcastle! Der bodde vi i en slags hytte inne i skogen, men bare fem minutter fra stranda! Det var veldig idyllisk enda den dagen vi kom var det 42 grader ute!!!! Heldigvis sank temperaturen fort og det kom litt vind som gjorde at vi hadde en koslig dag paa stranden paa soendag, hvor Tina klarte aa nesten svi av seg hele ansiktet, bokstavelig talt!!! Det var en veldig koslig plass, og vi foelte endelig vi kom litt ut i Australsk natur naar vi saa store tarantell type edderkopper som hang rundt og ble angrepet av slemme fugler, som saa ut som ravner, naar vi maatte ut for aa gaa til utedoen paa natta. Jeg ble nemlig angrepet fire ganger paa de 20 m som var mellom rommet og doen! Det var doeds skummelt! Jeg horte bare vingene flakset og saa floey den rett mot hodet mitt og den ene gangen TRAFF den meg i armen!

Mandag morgen stod vi opp grytidlig, 04.45, for aa dra inn til et ekstremt oede sted i Newcastle, kalt Hexem, hvor vi ventet paa at den beroemte Mojobussen skulle plukke oss opp! Der ble vi spist opp av fluer og foelte oss en smule lost naar bussen i tillegg kom en time for sent! Da vi kom inn i bussen fant vi ut at nesten 70% av de som var med var norske, noe som var litt teit, men ogsaa litt komisk! Vi ble kjoert til en kjempe koslig camp, kalt Cresent Head, hvor vi endelig fikk proeve aa staa paa surfebrett. Boelgene var kjempe store og svelget tonnevis med saltvann mens vi kavet oss utover for aa finne riktige boelger som vi kunne proeve aa surfe paa! Celine klarte aa staa paa foerste forsoek, den heldiggrisen!! Etter en stund kom Tina etter, mens Ingrid og jeg klarte det dagen etter! Det er veldig veldig moro, men ubeskrivelig slitsomt aa kjempe mot boelgene, saa jeg foeler musklene mine har vokst i massevist, de har i hvert fall vaert innmari stoele! Cresent Head campen var en veldig koslig, liten camp, hvor vi ble delt og bare var 15 stk! Det var kjempe god mat og godt organisert!

Paa onsdagen dro vi videre til Spot X, som er en mye stoerre surfecamp, hvor alle 44 som var meldt paa var sammen, pluss mange andre grupper som kom fra andre steder. Det var altsaa en helt annen stil, men surfeinstruktoerene var ekstremt underholdende og morsomme og holdt humoeret oppe paa de fleste! Enda de er veldig tullete og mobbete paa land, saa er de veldig flinke instruktoerer i vannet, og vi har til og med begynt saa vidt aa klare aa svinge brettet i boelgene! Vi skal definitift leie surfebrett senere og oeve paa det vi har laert paa egenhaand!

Paa fredagen, altsaa i dag, saa kjoerte vi opp til Byron Bay, som vi enda ikke har sett saa mye av, siden vi nettopp har kommet. Men siden surfecampen naa er ferdig saa skal vi nok ligge en del paa stranden og titte rundt paa alt som er her! Det er veldig koslig saa langt, og hostellet er kjempe fint =)

Byron Bay, Australia

halloo

Har vert uten nett i en uke naa, derfor har det vert lite oppdatering! forrige helg var vi i port stephens, paa et slags camping sted. det var utrolig fint der, vi koste oss stort sett bare paa stranda (som laa rett ved) og dro inn til byen og spiste god middag. den dagen ble jeg helt sykt solbrent, og naa en uke senere flasser jeg alt av meg. det er ikke saa morro, men men.

paa mandag dro vi fra port stephens inn til new castle for saa aa dra til ett ode og ganske saa forlatt sted som het hexam. der skulel vi bli plukket opp av mojo bussen (surfecamp bussen), og det ble vi etter ett par timers venting! men det ble fort bra igjen, var veldig god steming og mye bra folk paa turen. vi dro forst til cresent head, hvor vi la fra oss baggene og tok med oss surfebrettene og dro rett ned paa stranda. vi hadde tilsammen 7 sessions med surfing i lopet av de fem dagene. det er ikke saa slitsomt naar man er ute i vannet, baade paagrunn av vannet generelt og ikke minst at det er saa sykt morsomt. men det er lenge siden jeg har vert saa sliten og odelagt. vi slet oss rett og slett helt ut, men det var absolutt verdt det. jeg klarte aa reis emeg opp paa brettet forste dagen, saa alle gjenstaaende dager var bare oving oving og lere aa svinge osv osv. vi er nok alle blitt forelsket i surfing, det er en utrolig kul og morsom sport. utenom surfingen spiste vi kjempe god mat og drakk paa kvelden med baade surfeinsturktorene og folk som oss. ulempen med campen var at 90% av gruppen var norske. var ikke det vi hadde forventet, men det var morsomt forde.

idag skal vi samles paa et utested i byron bay, for en siste avslutning med alle folkene! vi gleder oss veldig mye til aa kunne staa opp litt senere enn rundt 6 imorgen og la kroppen faa hvile litt. de siste fem dagene har som sagt vert ganske saa harde og energi krevende! saa skal bli utolig deilig med litt ro.

ellers har vi ingen satte planer for australia enda, saa vi blit nok her til mandag ogsaa reise vi videre. men til hvor vet vi ikke enda.

tror det var de viktigste hoved trekkene av den siste uken, litt vanskelig aa huske alt paa en gang. faar surfebildene mine i lopet av uken tror jeg, saa da skal jeg faa lagt ut noen!

haaper alt er bra i kulden hjemme, Tina :)