Coming from a humid Ecuador to New York’s snow and chilling wind was a shock to the system, but to experience the sparkle and crispness of the city in the winter was worth every numb toe and runny nose.

On one of the days, the weather went from being grey and bitterly cold to bright and sunny so we took the opportunity to spend a lovely few hours strolling from the north end of Central Park down to 57th Street. I’d never taken the time to explore the park before and it was a perfect day for a walk; cold but crisp and bright. Central Park is a great amenity and were it not for the ever present Manhattan skyline in the background, you could be in the middle of the countryside. I thought we’d have seen the last of any real wildlife when we left the Galapagos, but the area was full of life and we even spotted a large red-tailed hawk watching the world go by from a tree.

We were quick to settle back into the land of plenty although I struggled to clear my plate when we ate out. We mainly stuck to budget restaurants but also managed to fit in a couple of nice meals. The Spotted Pig gastropub in the West Village was definitely a highlight. This is the only pub I’ve ever ate in that has a michelin star and their burger and chips was probably the tastiest I’ve ever had. I didn’t realise that a pub burger could be so good! It wasn’t too expensive either (about $18 for a main) although their pints were pretty pricey at $9 (plus) a pop. We had planned on visiting after Riona had read about the place in a few magazines, but it was while we were strolling around one afternoon that we came across it and decided to have some tucker. One of my favourite things to do in New York is to stroll around the city with no particular plan and let her quirks, sights and attractions find you. There’s something here for everyone, you could walk the streets for years and never get bored. Some of my highlights included exploring Chelsea’s Indoor Market, trying the gluttonously thick chilli-hot-chocolate at Jacques Torres chocolate shop in Brooklyn, having a post-dinner cupcake in the Magnolia bakery in the West Village and warming up the old bones with Hale and Hearty‘s cheddar and tomato soup. My desire to eat good western-style food again was pretty evident!

Mainly because of the cold weather (it was sometimes too cold to just wander the streets) we spent more time shopping than we had planned, just to be indoors! NYC really is consumer heaven, we picked up some great bargains in Macys (there were big sales on) and in the shops along Broadway from Canal St to Union Square. We also visited the Jersey Gardens Outlet, Filene’s Basement and Century 21- all of which contain lots of junk but we did get some good bargains in reward for our perseverance. Riona thought she had hit the jackpot when we stumbled across a sample sale in Chelsea Market and I had to leave her to it for a few hours as she wreaked havoc on her credit card

I had never been to a Broadway show and so on our last day we queued up at Times Square for discount tickets to one of the big shows. We ended up at Spring Awakening, which was great -it’s a musical tale about the sexual awakening of a group of teenagers in 1890′s Germany, but with modern music and a few raunchy sex scenes. Not one for the kids, but it had the audience veering between laughter and tears and we both really enjoyed it.

We stayed in the L Hostel in Harlem for $25 each a night and it was perfect, just a few months old, modern, clean and close to the subway. We hardly spent any time there as we were up and out each morning and not home until we were ready to sleep each night. On one of the nights we met our old friend Pam from home and another night we met Nina, a girl we had met briefly when we were in Peru.

After six fantastic days in NYC, it was time to pack our (much heavier) bags and start our final journey back home. After so long being on the road where our biggest worry was where we would go next, the thought of settling back in to a very different country from the one we left was a little depressing, but it would be nice to see our family and friends again and at least we had Christmas to look forward to.

This final entry is being written a few weeks later and already the whole trip seems like a dream! After a few days of being home, it was like we had never left. We plan to keep this blog updated from time to time with photos from around Ireland and from any other holiday we take (probably not anytime soon!). You can subscribe for future updates here. Other than that, thanks for reading! Good night, God bless and safe home ;-) 

After getting off our boat in Puerto Ayora and finishing our last excursion (a trip to the El Chato Tortoise Reserve in the Santa Cruz highlands), we set about on what would be one of our last accommodation searches of our trip! If you believe what most of the guidebooks tell you, staying in any of the Galapagos’ three large towns will be hard on your pocket, but this doesn’t have to be the case and with a bit of searching and bargaining, we got a lovely double room for $20 in the Hotel Espana (on the intersection of Tomas de Berlanga and Islas Plazas). Food wasn’t overpriced either – if you wanted to eat gringo-style food on Puerto Ayora’s main drag you’d pay well for it, but a trip to Charles Binford St will have you eating a set lunch of soup, main course and desert (with a drink) for $3. The restaurants on this street aren’t flashy, but you’ll be in good company (all of the locals eat here) and the food can be really good. Familiar Williams was the pick of the lot – we had the most succulent lobster in coconut sauce here for $12 on one of our last nights and it was superb (neither of us had tried lobster before and thought it was all it’s hyped up to be!). The more ordinary dishes come in huge portions and average around $3-4.

There’s plenty to keep you occupied around the town, but its highlight for me was the small fishermans port where the boats land their catch every day. The port has an army of pelicans constantly waiting for leftovers and easy thieving opportunities, but they’re not as ill behaved as you’d expect and most of them wait patiently for handouts from the fish traders. There’s even a resident sea lion who’s been hanging around for years (you can just about see his head in the picture below, underneath the womans arm).

On past the fishermans port is the Charles Darwin Research Center where Lonesome George lives. Back in the day, when the Galapagos were frequented by whalers, merchantmen and naval vessels, thousands of giant tortoises were taken away on ships as an insurance against scurvy – the huge animals could be kept alive as a future food-scource for up to eighteen months without food or water by simply turning them on their backs. This and the introduction of feral animals to the islands, all but wiped out the giant tortoise population, and while some species were wiped out altogether, many are still dangerously close to extinction. George is the last of his own species (Pinta) and was taken from Pinta island in 1971 to the Research Center where he lives to this day. They’re still trying to get him to reproduce with a close matching species and in July of this year he mated with a suitable female. However, the eggs are showing signs of being infertile but as of November, there’s still some hope that some of the thirteen eggs may hatch.

Just as with the unpopulated islands, there’s plenty of wildlife to be seen on Santa Cruz including lots of marine iguanas, boobies, finches and sally lightfoot crabs. There are some great places to visit within walking distance of Puerto Ayora like Tortuga Bay with its pristine white beach and Las Grietas gorge, a natural swimming pool filled with brackish water that’s reached by a $0.60 water taxi from the main port and a twenty minute walk.

We didn’t spend all of our time on Santa Cruz. Our cruise itinerary didn’t take in any of the northern islands, and one of them in particular that we were sorry to have missed was Bartolome island, so we went there on a day trip. It cost around $100 dollars each and was quite a long day (more than six hours were spent on the boat getting there and back) but worth it. There was a group of Japanese tourists on board who were so excited by every small animal they saw that they made us a bit more appreciative of just how much wildlife we had seen on our cruise! At one stage we spotted a huge Manta Ray swimming alongside the boat, and this, added to the Japanese group’s enthusiasm, helped pass the hours on the boat. Bartolome has some great snorkelling, an interesting lava landscape and probably the most famous vista of the Galapagos, the so-called ‘double-sided beach’.

We were really sorry to be leaving the Islands after spending ten days there, and if we were to do it again, would have stayed for another week or two at least, but our flights were booked and we had to move on.

If you’re thinking of going to the Galapagos but are put off by the cost of the cruises, my advice would be to go on out there and enjoy them from the land. You can always do a bit of island hopping when you’re there! The islands truly are a wonder of nature and they’re clearly not going to stay that way forever – we probably  have less time to enjoy them than we realise.

For our remaining six days in South America we flew back to Ecuador to see a bit of the coast. During this time we visited Montanita which we disliked (too many fake hippies) and Canoa which was lovely and chilled out. We enjoyed Canoa, but really we should have just stayed in Santa Cruz as it would have been nicer and we would have avoided a lot of travelling.

After Canoa, we returned to Quito for the last time, where we ate an excellent meal in El Arabe and stayed close by in the homely and cosy Blue House.  It certainly was a step up from our previous accommodation in Quito which was in the very welcoming but slighty scummy Hostel Sucre (the cheapest bed in the city I reckon at $4 for our own room). After spending our last day in the excellent Artisan’s market in Quito getting a few gifts for the folks at home, we finally left this part of America behind and flew north to New York, our last stop before returning home to Ireland.

We spent five days on the Archipel II and visited five of the main islands in the group: San Cristobal, Espanola, Floreana, Isabela and Santa Cruz. We had read online that the islands, which are all volcanic, are not that pretty and so were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the place as well as the excellent wildlife watching.

The Archipel II is a luxury class “eco” catamaran with a seven member crew and room for sixteen guests, but as it was only the beginning of the high season, there were only eight of us on board. After flying over on a plane full of people in their sixties, we were quite pleased to see that we would be joined on our boat by six other ‘youngsters’ like ourselves, all from different countries and all good craic. The boat itself was great; although perhaps a bit lacking in atmosphere, it was quite luxurious and you couldn’t complain about the food or general service. Our average day involved waking at about 6.30am, breakfast at 7am, hopping into our small speedboat at 8am and beginning our first excursion minutes later. After a few hours we would return to the boat for lunch at 12pm and then leave again around 2pm for the afternoon activity. Activities were always either a guided walk along one of the island trails or snorkelling in the clearest water I’ve ever seen. After this second activity we’d have some afternoon refreshments and as we soaked up the rays on the sun deck, the boat would sail on to the next island. We rarely sailed at night. The sea was not very rough so neither of us were sick thankfully, and as with our boat trip in Indonesia, we both really enjoyed the hours reading and chatting with the other passengers as we motored along through the deep blue sea. Most days the weather was great and although at times it was dull or overcast, it was always warm and sunny.

Because we were with a nice group and the wildlife and scenery was so good, we really enjoyed all our activities but were quite disappointed with our guide who was verging on rude at times and generally unenthusiastic. This is no reflection on the boat as he had never worked with them before and was just assigned to it at late notice (most of the boats don’t have their own permanent guides: they are assigned by the national park authorities). In a way, it would have been great to have a better guide who could have told us more about the endemic species and how they differ, but in another way it didn’t matter too much as unlike a safari trip, for example, the animals don’t exactly need spotting! The snorkelling everywhere was really enjoyable, but to be honest it wasn’t as good as Borneo. And of course it was a lot colder. Generally wetsuits weren’t 100% necessary but they did make it much more comfortable and enabled us to spend longer in the water (the water temperature was about the same as Ireland at its warmest).

Over the five day boat trip, we saw many sealions, iguanas, pelicans, albatross, boobies, mockingbirds, Darwin finches, tortoises, lava lizards and crabs, while underwater we saw many colourful fish, turtles (sometimes mating), rays and white tip reef sharks. There were many really cool moments, including some of these main highlights:

On Espanola, we witnessed an Albatross mating ritual, which was really very funny to watch. Originally there was three birds involved but number three soon bowed out and left the other two to it. What followed consisted of quite a bit of rapid opening, closing and touching of beaks, accompanied by lots of squawking at various volumes and pitches. They were still going strong when we eventually walked on after about twenty minutes of giggling and photo-taking.

At Shark Alley on a small island off Isabela, we saw about thirty or forty white tip reef sharks in a narrow, shallow, natural canal. We also came within about two or three meters of these reef sharks when snorkelling in Gardner Bay. After a few minutes observing these, we moved along the path to where we witnessed two angry-looking marine iguanas locked in a head-to-head battle of endurance and strength. This duel involved a lot of spitting as well as quite a bit of gum and teeth baring which we hadn’t seen before. Vicious stuff!

The best stop on our itinerary was probably Gardner Bay on Espanola. We were lucky to have a beautiful blue sky day here and the beautiful beach had about one hundred sealions on it, plus marine iguanas, sallylightfoot crabs and red lava lizards. We also spotted a rarely-seen Galapagos snake and spent a fascinating few minutes watching three mockingbirds eating the placenta of a sealion who had just given birth. The newborn pup still had the cord attached and apparently the birth had been witnessed by other tourists an hour previously while we were strolling up the beach.

The baby tortoises we saw at the Isabela Tortoise Breeding Centre were just plain cute, especially when you compare their size to their grandparents, who are huge creatures that often live well past one hundred. The work of the breeding centre is very important as the tortoise population has been decimated over the last fifty years of human habitation, primarily by the introduction of mainland species such as goats and pigs. The centre helps boost the population of various endangered species before releasing them back into the wild.

One of the most common but amusing sea-birds on the archipello is the blue-footed boobie. These oversized, dopey-looking creatures with their big blue feet, never failed to bring a smile to our faces and it’s no surprise that they’re the unofficial emblem of the islands.

After five great days on the islands, our boat landed in the most populated town in the chain, Puerto Ayora on Isla Santa Cruz. We had another five days left before we returned to the mainland and although we didn’t have very high expectations, we enjoyed the second half of our stay just as much as the first.

Mindo is only briefly mentioned in the guidebooks we looked at, but it really deserves more attention. We were advised to go there by a couple we met in Peru and we’re glad now that we took their advice. It´s a small town, really a village, in the middle of one of Ecuador’s cloud-forest regions that´s best known for it´s bird watching. After getting off the bus on the main road about ten kilometeres from Mindo, we got a lift in the back of a truck to the village (the main mode of transport in the area) and booked into Hostal Rubby, a fantastic guesthouse run by local bird watching guide Marcello and his lovely wife Norma. We were the only guests for the three nights we stayed so had the best room in the house, the loft room complete with three beds, two hammocks and windows looking out over the trees. It was great value at seven dollars each per night including breakfast. We ate lunch there most days too, three bucks for three tasty courses. The place is named after Norma’s daughter Rubby, a little girl of eight who has a severely debillitating syndrome which means she has limited mobility, no speech and a mental age of two. Although we weren’t able to communicate normally with her, Rubby made us welcome by pulling at our hair and playing around us. We felt honoured as Norma said she doesn’t interact with the guests at all unless she likes them. She’s a lovely little girl but has it hard living in Ecuador where there are very few facilities for kids like this. Norma mentioned that they are looking for a trained therapist to work with Rubby… if you know anyone in that field who would like to trade their skills for some free time in Mindo, they should get in touch.

Marcello has a reputation for being a really good bird watching guide and we´d hoped to do one of his early morning trips the morning after we arrived, but he´d been booked up a year in advance by a pair of specialists who had him for two full weeks, so we had to make do with another guide who wasn´t the best! We spent five hours walking around Mindo the following morning looking at birdies, but we were a little disappointed with what we saw. All wasn´t lost though, as we´d learned that there was an Ecuadorian-German couple who would allow you into their garden for a few bucks and bring you coffee or tea as you watched countless hummingbirds buzzing around the place. It was excellent – I´d seen some of these birds before but never close up, and they´re really entertaining to watch. After about three hours watching them, I knew it was time for us to go when I realised that the plastic bits were coming off my camera as the glue melted in the heat!

There’s lots to do in Mindo including white water tubing and swimming in waterfalls but the water was low when we were there so we chose to visit a butterfly farm and zipline course. We went to the see the butterflies first and again spent a lot more time there than we´d planned. Although it was small, the place was full of butterflies, some of which were nearly seven inches in width. They were really nice to watch, and one part of the farm had a hatching box where you could see the pupas changing into butterflies over the course of about ten minutes. They also had some other animals, mostly frogs and, for some reason, preying mantis´.

On our last morning, we decided to give the zipline a try. Of the two zipline courses, one is owned by a consortium of locals and the other by some Costa Ricans. We did our bit to support the locals and did their one and they were willing to give a bit off their price so that helped! There were ten lines to traverse and the whole thing was done in about 40 minutes but it was the best ten dollars I´d spent in a long time. The guides would spin you upside down and stick you in all sorts of funny positions as you zipped across the valley on a metal cable. I´d done similar things before and thought that I wouldn´t get much out of it, but it really was a rush and pretty scary too!

We only spent three days in Mindo, but it´s the kind of place you could spend a lot longer in. If you´re ever in Quito and looking for somewhere more tranquil to pass a few days, you could do a lot worse than hanging around with the birds and butterflies in Mindo.

Samona Lodge is the real deal, it´s definitely not a place to go if you´re shy of snakes or spiders or any kind of creepy crawlies. We spent four wonderful days there and both agreed that it beat our previous jungle trip back in Borneo by a mile. By the end of the first day we had already seen much much more than we had anticipated – gangs of squirrel monkeys crossing the river jumping from tree to tree, a huge Anaconda about 6 meters long, sloths sleeping on branches along the river bank, huge vultures and loads of other birds.

Over the next three days it just got better. Naiser, our guide, was an exceptional spotter and although our trip was pretty short (really just three full days), it was completely action-packed, jammed full of wildlife viewing and adventure. It has definitely been one of the best things we´ve done in our six months away.

The jungle is just a wonderland of green. There is so much vegetation – you look at some trees and they appear to have about twenty different plant species growing on them. It must be a botanist´s paradise, as well as a heaven for wildlife geeks (which we have temporarily become in the last few weeks).

Each day there was a different programme which included: motorised boat trips on the river (day and night); day and night-time jungle walks; a local village visit where we helped make and eat some delicious yuca flatbread; a visit to the local shamen who performed a cleansing ritual on us; boat trips to a nearby lake where we watched the sunset and fished (unsuccessfully!) for piranhas; paddling on the river in a cozy (i.e. tiny) dug-out canoe; and walks around the lodge after dinner at night. Its hard to describe it all in detail as we did so much and really loved it all, but there were a few particular moments that stood out.

The Anacondas were just amazing. So bloody huge! We saw them three or four times in various positions and they never ceased to impress us. I have a fondness for snakes, I´ve discovered, but even the anacondas were outdone by a tree boa who practically performed for us one night from where he was resting on a tree in the camp. He wasn´t that huge; just about a meter and a half long and quite skinny, but it was like there was a snake charmer at work- he was just a joy to watch as he coiled his body upwards and reached out to us with his tongue first, trying to get a feel for what kind of creatures we were. We saw a similar tree boa coming back from our next night trip on the river, but this one was less interested in us than he was in the bird´s nest he was twisting his body around, no doubt with murder in mind.

Then there was Eddie´s favorite, the tarantulas. On our first night walk we saw a baby one, which naturally we were all very impressed with until a few minutes later when our guide spotted a huge mama about three times the size of the first one. She was pretty impressive I must say and we all took photos of her next to an average sized camera to give an idea of scale. The next tarantula we saw was on the dinner table; he very obligingly posed for photos and then managed to scramble over almost all the cutlery on the table before one of the staff lifted him off to let us eat our dinner in peace. At another meal we were greeted to the sight of a wolf spider on the ketchup bottle. Huge spiders on the dinner table almost became the norm.

One of the best activities was not one listed on our itinerary, but was probably one of the most impressive, because it was right there on our doorstep! On the second night, after dinner and our usual discussion about what we had seen that day, Naiser took us on a walk around the camp. The place was crawling with life! This was the night we found the boa constrictor on a tree (on a branch hanging above the walkway down to the boat), but before that we had already spotted numerous tarantulas, some of whom lived in the thatched roofs of the bedrooms. We also spotted a christmas tree frog on a plant in the middle of the camp, the red eyes of caymen lurking out from under our bedroom (the camp is on stilts above a swamp) and loads more weird and wonderful insects. The entire camp was so full of wildlife, we almost didn´t need to leave it!

At times it felt like we were the only people out there; although there are other lodges nearby, we only passed other boats once or twice a day. The first night we returned from our night walk in our motorised boat; it was pitch black (except for the light from Naiser´s torch searching the river bank for movements) and just as we left the Laguna Grande, the skies opened. We felt like national geographic explorers, zipping home in our canoe with torrential rain pelting down, the sounds of the jungle night air all around us and the rain water pouring down the backs of our ponchos. What adventure!!!

Our last night came sooner than we would have liked. We went back down to Laguna Grande to see if the Anacondas were still around (one of them was) and then we watched a really spectacular sunset. It looked like the sky was on fire, the photos look almost fake. After darkness fell, it was the clearest of nights and the stars were just amazing.

Everything about Samona Lodge was exceptional. The food was excellent and there was plenty of it (they were also very accommodating regarding vegetarians and food allergies). Our guide, Naiser, was brilliant, he was an exceptional spotter and seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the flora and wildlife. He was like a cross between Rambo and George Clooney (well I thought so anyway). The lodge can accommodate loads of people, but it was very quiet when we were there, there were only five of us in our group which was great. The accommodation was fine, quite good I thought considering where it was. Each room has it own bathroom (cold water only) and mosquito nets over the beds. These are very necessary as there are lots of cockroaches and other crawling uninvited guests, so that net was well tucked in each night (by the light of our candles and head torch). We booked through Happy Gringo in Quito and paid $200 each (incl. the $20 entrance fee) plus optional tips.

After dinner each night, Naiser sat down with the group and pointed out everything we had seen that day in a picture book which lists all the local wildlife. Because of this we were able to note almost everything we saw and so for the record here´s what it included: two Anacondas; a few fresh-water pink dolphins; numerous tarantulas and a few other spiders; a few types of crickets and katydids; numerous species of ants (including the fascinating leaf-carrying ants and painful fire ants); piranhas (only Naiser caught one though); a few poisonous types of frogs, other harmless frogs, toads, bats, geckos, two tree boas, a freshwater turtle, the smallest monkey in the world (I don´t know it’s name), a huge earthworm, a freshwater stingray and a couple of caiman (which are like alligators). And just in case there´s any twitchers among you, here´s a list of all the birds I managed to note down: a spectacled owl, lots of stinky turkeys, parakeets, macaws, kites, swallows, terns, kingfishers, coromants, fruitcraws, woodpeckers and a few different types of tucans, parrots and tanagers.

But arrive we did, and after checking into our hostel and getting a quick bite for lunch we ran on to the first bus we saw with a sign for ‘Iguazu’, which we soon realised was heading for Foz de Iguaza, across the Brazilian border, about five minutes away. It was no big problem, we just had to wait for a return bus but it was on this bus that we had our first (and only) brush with border smuggling – how exciting! Well it wasn´t that mad really, all that happened was a strange looking package fell in front of my feet just as two women disembarked at their stop. Being the nice people we are, I immediately passed it to Eddie (who was closer to the door) who proceeded to run off the bus shouting after the women that they had lost their package. But they didn´t claim it so he got back on and passed it back to me. At this stage, we had time to look at the parcel and we were both beginning to wonder what could possibly be in this CD case-sized package, all bound up with a black bag and duct tape. Strange indeed. Before we had more time to cop on to the obvious, a man sitting opposite me grabbed it out of my hand and then reached below me to feel the underside of my seat, from where he produced two more similar packages! Brazen as you like! Now I´ll leave that one to your imagination, but as we got off the bus we were realising that we have to be a bit more wary and on-the-ball at border crossings in future (apologies if my blog heading had you anticipating anything more exciting!)

So, to continue to the main event: the falls themselves. Well, they lived up to expectations- they are spectacular! We arrived at Iguazu National Park at 3pm and by 6m we had covered about half the walkways which take you to the various viewing points. The falls are on the border between Brazil and Argentina, but as the majority of viewing points (and the best apparently) are on the Argentinian side, we didn´t bother crossing over to Brazil. The falls are much larger than the (Canadian) Niagara falls and boast about 270 individual waterfalls spanning over 2.7 kilometers of the Iguaza river. They are second only to the Victoria falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe in terms of water volume, so as you can imagine, they are quite a sight! We were also quite taken with the amazing and colourful butterflies that landed on us frequently as we strolled around the walkways.

We went home happy that evening, looking forward to completing the circuit the following day. But it was not to be, as I discovered when I awoke in the night to the crack of thunder and the sound of torrential rain. The next day was a wash-out, so we waited for the following day, when we returned to a very different set of falls. The first day by comparison had been a trickle. We were now faced with a much more powerful (and browner) set of waterfalls, with what seemed like twice the force and volume of water in them. Whereas we had stood as close as the platforms allowed on the first day and not got wet, we were now feeling the spray on our skin whenever we were within about ten metres of the water. The boat to the island in the middle of the falls wasn´t sailing because of the high water levels, but the train was still running so we got over our disappointment. The train takes you to the most spectacular viewing point, where we jostled with all the other sightseers for the best shots. But the number of visitors doesn´t detract from the experience, and I can definitely say the long diversion north was worth it.

On the second day, we also saw more interesting wildlife, namely lots of coatíes (which look a bit like racoons), lots of lizards, a large caymen (looked like an alligator to me) and a turtle. After three days in Iguazu, we boarded a less salubrious semi-cama bus (alas, the only option) and set off on the 24 hour journey west to the beautiful region of Salta.

We’ve been a bit lazy on the blogging front for a few weeks and also a bit busy, but I wanted to write a bit more about Australia before I forget it all! So as Eddie wrote, we had a fab time with our friends Michelle, Justin and baby Molly for our first five or six days in Australia. We got picked up from the airport, went for lunch in St. Kilda’s in Melbourne, saw the beautiful Mornington peninsula (where Michelle and Justin live), visited some local wineries, got well fed in both the parent’s houses and got brought down the Great Ocean Road for a weekend trip (saw Koalas, Kangaroos, Whales and of course the 12 Apostles), dropping baby Molly off first with the grandparents. Suffice to say, after six weeks of roughing it in Asia, it was a real treat. We then spent a night with a relative of Eddie’s who took us up the mountains to her daughter’s house for another dinner. We were well fed and watered again!

We spent 2 days in Melbourne itself and loved it. It’s a very friendly city and easy to get around. There was a free tram and tourist bus which went to all the sights so it suited us perfectly! We got our rental car after that to begin our five day trip up the coast to Sydney.

On the Victoria side, the main memorable bit was Wilsons Prom, which is a gorgeous national park. We stayed in Lakes Entrance the next night in a cool little cabin (basically a mobile home), and watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics (they were Olympics mad in Australia; first time I ever watched more than a few minutes of it!). After that we crossed into New South Wales and I have to say, the drive got more interesting from then on; if you’re ever doing the same route I recommend taking the inland route on the Victoria side as the coast just goes on forever with not that much to see – in Winter anyway. We passed though lots of lovely little towns in New South Wales like Tilba Tilba, really old fashioned places. We stayed in Merimbula a night, lovely place, and visited the Whale museum in Eden which sounds boring but was actually quite a highlight! We also visited Jervis Bay, Hyams beach and lots of other little stops along the way, including a community boat-building project in Orbost and an Aboriginal Info centre which were both really good. They’re all in my photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/rionar . It was a great little trip, with lots of nice people and places and really gave us a small taste for how huge and diverse Australia is.

We rolled in to Sydney for our last four days days in Australia but I didn’t really take to the place at all. It’s probably very different in summer, or when you’re not on a tight budget or if you’re working there, but I found it very pricey and not terribly ‘buzzy’ like a big city should be. However, we did get some fantastic deals like steak and chips for just $10 in Kings Cross (it was like an expensive fillet steak at home) and afternoon tea with scones, cream and jam down by the Opera House for $6. We also went to see the Dark Knight in the Imax, on the biggest screen in the world apparently and that was cool, scary stuff. We got a great deal on a room in the Devere hotel in King’s Cross, which was a lovely bit of luxury – check out www.wotif.com if you’re ever looking for cheap deals in Australia.

We then left Sydney to fly to Fiji for what turned out to be a highlight of the trip so far but more of that on the next post.

Again we met some nice people there; we haven’t been alone since we boarded that boat back in Lombok, so there’s been practically no rows at all (except for the odd grump on long bus journeys!)

After the jungle trip, we stayed in Sandakan for a night, and then back to Kota Kinabalu for our last couple of days. Today we headed out for a bit more diving just off the coast here near Gaya island with Sabah divers whom we can wholeheartedly recommend. Nice people, professional, no bullshit; by which I mean they’re not all about acting cool and talking exclusively about fish and/or diving. I had a bit of trouble equalising (balancing air/water pressure in my ears) so I had to sit one dive out but I got it sorted for the afternoon. I’m getting into this whole diving lark a bit more in last few days and Eddie is getting more ‘back’ into it. I think Sipadan was so built up for us (it’s on lots of ‘world’s best’ lists and people talk it up alot) that we almost enjoyed today’s diving more; although there was less to see, there was more time to look at what we did see. In Sipadan you’ve big expectations and you see so much you can get overwhelmed!

So tomorrow we fly back to Bali as our next flight is to Melbourne in two days time. We’re looking forward to meeting up with our old friend Michelle there, plus her hubby and baby. We’re both really looking forward to the next stage of our journey (Australia, Fiji and New Zealand) but have definitely a new interest in Asia after the last six weeks here; trips to China and Vietnam at least are on the cards for the future. Borneo has been great, but different from what I expected. You do almost everything here with a tour company; its all activity based and all well set-up for tourists to do one trip after another, with a very well worn track of activities: Climb a mountain, trek the jungle, dive Sipadan and see orangutans – that’s Sabah in a nutshell!

We went with Seaventures, whose base is a converted oil rig just off the coast of Mabul. They were pretty good (just bring your own dive tables). The night before and after we stayed in the lovely Sipadan Inn in the poor (and smelly) town of Semporna. It cost a bit more than our usual accommodation, at 85MR per room- about 15euro- but was a great bit of luxury! We spent both nights relaxing in our room watching movies on HBO! Anyway, here we are in action!

And here’s a taste of what we saw:

After our week of lazing about on Gili Trawangan, we took the boat back to Lombok and set off by bus to the other side of the island we’re we would board the good ship ratcockroachtinycabinbutlovelyfood – this was going to be interesting! It actually turned out to be a fantastic few days – we’d sail (mostly motor) through the night and spend the days island hopping. The route went around Sumbawa, over to Flores and back again (the full itinerary is here).

Most of the islands we landed on didn’t have much to them, but some had villages and the locals would usually come down to the beach to have a good gander at us. They’re very smiley people the Indonesians, especially the kids who love practicing their two or three sentences of english (usually “hello”, and “where are you going!?”). We did a lot of snorkelling, but most of the coral was dead, killed by a combination of El Nino and dynamite fishing (which is the method of choice for many over here!) – it wasn’t all bad though, the reefs around Komodo were untouched because of its national park status so they had lot of life about them (all sorts of reef fish, turtles and in some places the biggest clams I’ve ever seen!). While some of us spent our time looking at fish, Neil from Australia preferred to hook them; he caught us one nice big Mackerel for dinner on the last night, which went down a treat!

On the third morning, we arrived at Komodo island and went on our first dragon hunt, but as we were in the middle of the mating season they we all off getting jiggy with it so we didn’t even get a glimpse of one. It was a little disappointing, but the following day we went to Rinca island (which is the other main island in Komodo national park) and spotted one within a few minutes. We then saw some more on a hike into the island; they’re impressive creatures and have picked off a few of the locals living on the island over the years. You wouldn’t think it by looking at them, but apparently they can run at up to 30 mph and count buffalo as one of their favourite snacks!

After a couple more days of sailing, snorkelling, sun-bathing, chatting, singing, reading and island stops we said goodbye to the wonderful Perama crew and all the lovely people we’d met and went back to Bali to get a bit more surfing in. If we’re ever back in Indonesia we’ll probably do this boat trip all over again as it was a great way of seeing parts of Indonesia that are otherwise difficult to get to and it was probably the most enjoyable thing we’ve done on this trip so far.