Big RTW trip 2008

Thanks

2008-09-18T03:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who kept in contact with us during our time away.
We really appriciated it.
Thank you also to those of you who provided accommodation, transport and freindship on our trip. We hope to see you again either at our place or yours so keep in touch. You are very welcome to come and stay with us and we would love to see you.

David and Catriona

10th - 15th September - Home stretch - Thailand

2008-09-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

10th The flight was excellent. The steward came up to Catriona and advised they had been notified too late that she required a gluten free meal but tried very hard to find something she could have. The vegetarian Mousaka fit the bill so everything was good. In the morning they brought a vegetarian breakfast thinking it had worked for the dinner so breakfast would be the same. It was vegetarian sausages which are made with wheat! Anyway we ended up exchanging it for an omelette and David had an English breakfast. The landing was smooth and then we had our next challenge to find the left luggage and book in for our flight to Phuket. Everything went very smoothly until we realised we had left the sunscreen in our left baggage. We managed to purchase some from boots and then check in for our flight to Phuket, again with a few hours to spare. We found a little restaurant and read while we waited for our flight. The flight to Phuket was good and we had no trouble getting a taxi to our hostel in Phuket town. It did however stop along the way at a tour shop and they wanted to know what we were doing for the rest of our trip. Luckily we had all our accommodation for the rest of the trip booked. Everyone we told that we were staying at Phi Phi island village resort ans spa said "very nice hotel, very nice". So they left us alone and took us to our hostel.

11th We went out for breakfast and did some shopping and Catriona had a manicure and pedicure. We checked out and waited for our transfer to the island. The driver picked us up early so he took us up a mountain where we had an excellent view over Phuket. He took a photo of us at the viewpoint, he seemed to like the sky. He then took us to the pier via the office. The trip to Phi Phi was quite rough and took 1 ½ hours. Catriona had to go out on deck for some fresh air but managed the trip without being sick.
The ferry stopped to let 90% of the passengers off at. Tonsai bay , the main village on the island, then headed off to Phi Phi Island Village beach resort and spa. A speed boat met us at the ferry and took us to a big tractor/ bus
that then transported us to the shore. We were ushered in to the reception area and given our welcome drink.
We were then given our dinner and massage vouchers and shown to our bungalow
Very nice,

there were even flowers in the toilet.
We went for a walk around the resort to check out where things were. We had dinner at 7pm in the Marlin restaurant overlooking the water, during dinner it poured down with rain which made it difficult as we had opted for the fisherman’s village seafood BBQ buffet @ Bht 850 each and the eating area was separate from where the buffet was laid out. It was delicious but we ate too much so decided not to have the buffet again. After dinner we went for a romantic walk along the beach in the moon light then headed back to the bungalow. We ended up watching Jack the ripper with Johnny Depp and 9-11 staring Nicholas Cage. Apart from the rain during dinner it was a hot sunny day with little wind.

12th Woke to a beautiful sunny day, we slept in till 8am and were at breakfast by 9am. After breakfast Catriona had a complimentary hand/arm scrub then we set off for the beach. David picked up the snorkels and masks from the activities desk and we went snorkelling in the shallow water in front of the resort.
It was getting very hot and the tide was going out so we sat in the shade on the shore for a while reading
before moving to the pool. David took a few photos of Catriona in the spectacular pool
before having a swim himself. We sat round the pool for a while before heading back to the room for a shower and then lunch at around 2pm overlooking the beach. After lunch we headed back to the room for a siesta in air-conditioned comfort. We headed off for a 45 minute yoga lesson on the lawn by the pool at 5pm. It was a good workout and we were sweating like it was Bikram yoga. We had a green and a yellow vegetable curry and felt much better than last night. When we got back to our room the bed had been turned down and there was a little leaf on it which said sweet dreams.

13th We had the alarm set for 6.30am as we planned to walk to Tonsai bay after breakfast while it was still bearable. We made it to breakfast by 7am but after breakfast it was already very hot and we were tired so we headed back to the room to have a rest. While we were in the bungalow the wind came up and it started to rain so we were glad we had not gone for the walk and ended up watching Backdraft on the TV. It cleared up and was not too hot so we went for a walk to the viewpoint close to the resort, past a tsunami memorial
and up the hill. We had good views of the resort
and Lana bay.
We headed back to the resort via the tsunami evacuation route
and had lunch back in our bungalow and rested some more. A buggy came to collect us from the bungalow to take us to the Wana Spa for our massage, very civilised. First we were taken to a waiting area on the veranda overlooking tropical vegetation and the beach and were given cold towels and a cold herbal tea to drink. A lady came to collect us and we walked a little further up the hill to one of the bungalows where they had two massage tables set up side by side and a male therapist was waiting. We both enjoyed our 60 min. Ayothaya massage and the lady even braided the front of Catriona’s hair at the end before taking us back to the veranda and giving us a warm herbal tea and some watermelon. That night we had our 4 course romantic dinner on the beach.

We had our own waiter who waited close by to our table for the whole 2 hours it took us to get through the meal. The singers came over and sang “love me do” and the whole night was lovely. After dinner we took another walk along the beach to the pool and back to the room where we watched “Broken arrow” before going to sleep at around midnight.

14th Another 8am wake up but at breakfast by 8.30. We decided we should be able to make it to Tonsai bay this morning so after breakfast we set off. It was a hot and sweaty walk uphill
to the viewpoint and down and over to the village. We passed a few properties that were demolition sites 3 years after the tsunami.
There was also alot of construction going on. We walked around the village
and had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the bay. After lunch we did a little shopping and set off back to the resort. We had a shower and headed off to the pool where we had a drink at the swim up bar.

15th Had and early start as we had to get the 7.30am ferry back to Phuket. Mostly just a travel day. Ferry to Phuket, Mini van to the airport, 2.15pm plane to Bangkok and 5.45pm plane from Bangkok to Sydney. We had a good flight but there was a crying baby in the cabin that we could hear in the background through the earplugs.

16th Arrived in Sydney and were met at the airport by Chris, Catriona's Mum, David's Mum, Catriona's sister Megan and her two boys Ibrahim and Amadou. It was great to be back home.

18th Doing the final update to the blog at Sheldon's in Kirribilli

4th - 9th September - Bournemouth

2008-09-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

4th Caught a train to Southampton where we had to change platforms for the train to Bournemouth. There were a few people on that train heading for the Isle of White for a festival, dressed in gumboots and carrying tents. I felt sorry for them as the forecast for Friday and the weekend is heavy rain. When we arrived at Bournemouth station Max was waiting there for us, he hasn't changed a bit. We followed him to Lee's flat and he had to head back to work.We went for a walk up to the local shops and had lunch at a pub and did some grocery shopping. Later in the evening Max came back and picked us up and took us for a drive around the Bournemouth area as Lee had to work late. We had to wait for quite a while for the ferry as a ship was using the channel.Once we reached the other side of the channel we set off up to Corfe castle and to a view point.
We then headed back to Bournemouth where we had dinner at a Toby Carvery with Max's parents. After dinner we picked Lee up at the supermarket and headed back to his flat where we had a few drinks and a good chat before heading off to bed.

5th Well the weather people got it right. We woke to pouring rain and howling wind. We had breakfast with Lee and his flat mate James before they set off for work. We stayed in doors and had another Max and Lee day watching DVDs and David cleaned the bikes. It did clear for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and we manged to go onto the balcony to take this picture of the Peir and the surfers.

The weather turned again and it poured down all afternoon and when Lee was running home from work. Lee cooked us fish and chips with mushy peas for dinner and a toffee cheesecake for "pudding".
We headed off to Lee's local, the urban beach after dinner and Max met up with us there.When the bar closed we caught a taxi into Bournemouth and met up with Max's wife Mandy, her twin sister Nat, who is out from Perth and a couple of their friends.We headed home after the bar closed at 1am but Max, Lee and the group headed off to another bar.

6th We woke at 6am as David had to catch the 7.05am bus into London to pick up our bags from Marcus and Jo's. David had a 20 minute walk in to the bus station and Catriona went back to sleep until 10am. David made it to Tooting with no problems but had to call Marcus to see which bus to get on. Luckily he did not need to get a bus as it was walking distance and he met Marcus at the end of his street. David had a chat for a while before marcus gave him a lift back to the station so he could make the 1pm bus back to Bournemouth. On one of the trains back to Victoria station David managed to bump into Sarah who was on our South American trip between Santiago and La Paz. Amazing. Catriona had a relaxing day walking up to Boscombe to have a look around but mostly just reading and watching TV. David made it back to Lee's at around 4pm and the weather was still good so we walked into Bournemouth to buy our carry on luggage. We passed a cute little childrens play area and had to stop and play in it on the way back when all the children were gone.We spent the night relaxing and watching a DVD "The brave one" with Jodie Foster.

7th Finally a beautiful non rainy day. We had breakfast on the balcony
before setting off for a walk from Boscombe Pier to Bournemouth Pier along the waterfront. David walked back along the waterfront and Catriona walked back along the cliff top. When we returned to the flat Lee was home so we decided to go to Christchurch. James dropped us of at Hengistbury Head and we walked up past the double dyke fortress from the iron age. We had a fantastic view of the Isle of White and the land forms at the end called the needlesWe then walked into Christchurch to view the ruins of an old castle and the priory. We caught the bus back to Boscombe and walked back to Lee's flat from there. Later on in the evening we headed out to a resteraunt just up the road for dinner. We finished the evening watching the new batman movie "the dark kinght" with James.

8th Last day to explore so we decided to set off to Stonehenge. We walked in to Bournemouth to catch the bus to Sailsbury. It was a very relaxing ride and we both dozed off on occasions. We passed through quite a few little towns where many of the buildings had thatched roofs. From Sailsbury we caught a tour bus with commentary, to Stonehenge.
We had a walk around with an audio guide before catching the bus back to Sailsbury where we bought lunch which we ate on the bus back to Bournemouth. Lee made us a lovely dinner of chilli which we enjoyed with Max and James. Mandy (Max's wife) could not make it as she was spending time with her twin sister who is also heading back to Australia. We had a good night drinking red wine and chatting. A great way to spend the end of our time in England.

9th Said our good byes to Lee and James before they set off for work then we set to packing. Max had dropped over the bike suitcases last night and we worked out we needed to remove the rear rack, the seat post and the handlebars for the bike to fit in the bag. We put all our bike clothes in plastic bags and packed them around the bike as padding. We ended up with our two suitcases for the bikes, Catri0ona’s old backpack and a stripy bag plus two new carry on cases we bought that we packed our clothes for Thailand in and our bike front bags. James came home for lunch at the right time as he was able to help us down the stairs with our luggage. A huge thank you to him for that. The taxi that came to pick us up looked too small to fit both of us and all our luggage in, but amazingly enough we all fitted. The taxi driver was very enthusiastic and we had a good chat to him about where we had been and where we were going and he told us about the Aussie he knew that had moved to England and wanted to know where the summer was. It is funny that everyone has apologised to us for the weather. We made it to the bus station in Bournemouth and had a nervous hour or two waiting to find out if we would be able to get on with all our gear. The luggage policy is for two medium suitcases. By the time the bus arrived Catriona was feeling ill, all for nothing as we had no trouble at all. Obstacle one passed. Next we had to check our bags in but as we were so early (it was only 4.30pm) we were told we had to wait till 7pm to drop our bags off. We ended up dropping them off at around 6.30pm again with no trouble even though our bike bags are over sized. We are so glad we travelled the way we did as going via America we are allowed 2 suitcases each of up to 32Kg unlike if we came via Asia you only get one bag of 20kg. Why is it that the Americans get to take so much luggage? We then had plenty of time to relax and wait for our flight to be called.

2nd-4rd September - Brighton

2008-09-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

2nd Headed off to meet Kelli around 4pm and luckily it had stopped raining and our bikes and panniers had even dried off. It was great to see Kelli after almost 2 1/2 years. We had a little while in the flat to rest and change out of our bike gear. In the early evening we set off for a walk along Brighton promenade. It was blowing a gale and we were so glad we were not riding into the wind.We went to a little pub for dinner with Kelli and Malcom and had a great time chatting and catching up. On te way home we stopped in at the Greenhouse effect bar where the bar manager gave David a Harvey's bar mat after he had asked if he had a harveys coaster. David was so excited about his new little bar mat we had to take a photo of him with it in the bar.

3rd Had a bit of a slow start to the morning watching the news and having breakfast We then set out for the day with Kelli. We walked through a very interesting shopping street,full of little shops selling unusual things then we set off for Brighton Marina. We caught the bus and on the way there it started to rain. Luckily by the time we arrived it had stopped raining. It was around 11.30am and we headed to the pub where we had the breakfast special of eggs, sausages, mushroom, tomato, baked beans, hash browns and toast. A huge meal that kept us content until dinner. After eating we set off for a walk along the length of the marina in the sunshine.We had a look at all the boats for sale from the super duper motor cruisers to little 4 berth yachts. The wind was quite strong but it was not too cold as the sun stayed out. We caught the bus back to Brighton Pier and had to buy an icecream to have while we walked along.We even had a rest on some deck chairs on he pier before heading back to have a look in some bike shops. Catriona managed to buy the last pair of ortlieb waterproof front panniers at Evans cycles so David bought a pair of Vaude waterproof front panniers from the bike hut. What a shame we had not managed to get them at the begining of our trip, but at least we have them now considering they are over $200 per pair in Australia and we got them here for £66 and £74. After our big purchases we went back to the flat and had an indian takeaway picnic and watched I am Legend before going to bed.

4th Had breakfast and rode to the train station with Kelli. We bought our tickets to Bournemouth and said our goodbyes to Kelli, telling her she had to come and visit us in Australia.

28th August - 2nd September - Edinburgh and London to Brighton

2008-09-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

28th Had a relaxed morning checking emails etc before setting off to Hector Russell to order Chris’ 21st present a Dunbar tartan kilt. We then had another walk up the Royal Mile that was very quiet compared to when we were last here as the festivals are over.We had lunch in the Haggis Café and a walk around the mill downstairs where they make tartan. We then had a tour through Gladstone’s Land Edinburgh’s oldest residence, built in the 15th Century and added on to in the 16th and 17th centuries. We then went to look for the Edinburgh bus terminal but were unable to find it so had to go to the information office to find out where it was. We then walked up to Calton hill with its magnificent views over the city and Holyrood palace. There was a piper at the top so we had bagpipe music as we strolled around the many monuments there.We then headed back to the hostel for dinner before collecting our bags from storage and setting off to collect our bikes from Sara’s place. Sara had to leave before we got there but luckily we passed her along the way as she set off for boot camp in the Meadows. We picked up our bikes and re packed our panniers and set off for the bus terminal. While waiting for our bus we saw a couple with mountain bikes trying to get onto a Megabus coach. They were refused passage even though the cargo hold of the bus was empty. At this point we were so glad we had our fold up bikes and at the same time worried that with our bikes and bags we would be refused as well. Our bus arrived and we got our bikes and bags on OK. It was a pretty uncomfortable trip and we didn’t get a lot of sleep as it stopped at 12pm and 3am at roadside centres for rest stops.We left Edinburgh at 9.45pm (15 min early) and arrived in London at 7.30am (1 hour late)

29th It took us a while to get our bearings from the Bus station but eventually we found our way to the Thames.We stopped at a park next to the houses of Parliament and had breakfast then set off on our long slow meandering way out of London. We made it to Greenwich at around midday and stopped in at the information centre to try to get some maps. No luck. We managed to find the route 1 signs and followed them, riding past a lot of heavy industry, the Thames barriers and the millennium dome and stopping off at a pub on the Thames river near Woolwich. After lunch we set off again passing a lot of industry but also passing through the last remaining section of riverside grazing area. It was a tough ride and by the time we made it to Dartford Catriona had had enough and was exhausted. We cycled past the Ebfleet railway station which is where the Eurostar leaves from and made it to Gravesend where we stopped in at a J D Wetherspoons to use the PC to find some accommodation. We managed to get a room at a Premier Inn hotel for £57 through the reservation line. When we arrived at the hotel we found out the rates for the room was £87 so by phoning ahead we saved £30. We had ridden 48.83 miles yet were only 24 miles from London! We had a nice relaxed night watching TV in bed.

30th We woke up refreshed after an excellent nights sleep to a beautiful sunny day and set off for the information centre to find out about transport to Canterbury as we had not made it as far as we had expected yesterday. The lady at information was very nice and looked up both coach and train options. The train was only £12.50 each and ran every ½ hour so we decided to take the train. The info lady didn’t want us to leave without seeing some of Gravesend so she gave us a quick rundown on what to see. First stop was St Georges church, the place where princess Pocahontas is buried.Then we set off for the foreshore where we saw the old piers and the oldest Pub in Kent. Having see this much of Gravesend we were happy to go to the station and catch our train to Canterbury. We arrived in Canterbury and road along part of the old city wall.We then rode in to the info centre that was not much help but they did tell us where to find a bookshop We purchased a map from the bookshop and had lunch across the way before setting off toward Dover. We road through Fordwich, Stodmarsh, Grove, Preston, Elmstone and Westmarsh before stopping in Sandwich for a cream tea.
David ate the scones with jam and cream and Catriona had the pot of tea. We then set off toward the coast riding through a private estate where there was a toll payable by motorised transport. As we hit the coast we had a tailwind and had a relatively easy ride down through Deal which looked like a very lovely spot to spend some time. We made it to the white cliffs at Kingsdown and had a long slow uphill ride to St Margaret’s at Cliffe.This was a killer for the legs and Catriona decided that as it was 6pm it was time to get some accommodation for the night so we rode inland up and down a few hills to Martin Mill and managed to get a tent site for the night.Luckily they had a café on site and it was Mexican night so we had dinner before setting the tent up for the night. We ended up having ridden 37 miles this afternoon, not bad going.

31st We got off to a good start this morning having packed the tent and all our gear by 8am. The sun was shining and it looked like staying sunny the whole day. We set off back in to St Margaret’s at Cliffe and followed the path to Dover. We stopped at a lookout over Dover harbour and heard the announcements for all passengers from vehicles to return to their cars from the Dutch ferry in port and watched a P&O ferry arrive.We also had magnificent views of Dover Castle. We cycled in to Dover where Catriona stopped to have a coffee in the town centre and we then cycled to the seafront. We then had a gradual ascent on a gravel path which followed the A20 road into a headwind. At the top of the rise we were surrounded by farming land and we were able to walk right to the edge of the cliff. We took a few photos of the white cliffs before heading off.We stopped in at the Battle of Britain memorial and then down into Folkestone. It was a steep descent into the town and Catriona managed to have an accident rounding a corner. We did not realise that her front tire was flat and therefore did not corner as well as it should. She ended up with a grazed left thigh, calf and elbow. Nothing too wrong with the bike luckily. We pumped up her front tire and then set off into Folkestone, a very pretty seaside town that happened to have markets on. We decided to push on to our planned our lunch spot of Hythe. We followed the route along the coast stopping for a rest on the beautiful beachand stopped at a little pub in Hythe for our Sunday roast. The route headed inland after Hythe but we decided to follow the coast on the A259 and on top of the seawall where we could.
It was very windy and hard work but much nicer along the coast as it was still warm with occasional appearances by the sun. Once we reached littlestone on sea we headed in toward Romney and planned on camping overnight at Camber but we happened to pass Romney Farm camping site and we were so weary after riding 36 miles into the wind we decided to stop here even though it was only 4.30pm.

1st Had another good start to the day setting off at 8.20am. We cycled off into a very strong headwind only managing 10 mph or less most of the time. Through Lydd, past another military training ground and down to the coast making it to Camber where we had planned to stop last night, very glad we had stayed at the much nicer farm last night instead of the overcrowded holiday park here. We battled against the wind cycling along the coast before turning inland to Rye, a pretty little town on a hill.We stopped at a patisserie for morning tea where we managed to get a seat in the sun at the front window, lovely. We set off feeling content having fueled up to face the strong winds again and headed out through Winchelsea and back out to the coast through Winchelsea Beach and turning inland again at Level Pett where we stopped to read a story board about the Royal Military Canal they built starting in 1904 in anticipation of the Napoleonic invasion and was supposed to take 1 year to complete but ended up being finished in 1909. After this rest we headed up a very steep hill again into the wind. We stopped at the top to have a rest and take in the magnificent viewsbefore setting off to Hastings for lunch. We rode through the old town and it’s quaint little houses and out onto the beachfront with it’s unique fishing buildings, some of them 3 stories high.It was very touristy along the waterfront with a car park full of coaches, a miniature railway and many tourists. The lady at the tourist information was very helpful and looked up the phone number for the youth hostel in Alfriston we had decided to stay in and where the J D Wetherspoons was. We stopped off at the Pub for lunch and to use the internet to book the hostel. Knowing we had accommodation for the night made our afternoon ride much more relaxed as we could turn up at any time and didn’t need to search for a campground or set up the tent. The skies in the distance where we were headed was very dark and you could see it was raining. We rode along the promenade out of Hastings where the beaches were closed due to the high tide and strong winds. At times we were hardly going forward the wind was so strong. We passed cute little beach huts that were very colourful,further on down the coast at Bexhill the beach huts were all painted white.We headed inland at Pevensey so the wind was not as strong. We decided to leave the number 2 route and headed toward Westham. We came across Pevensy castle which was a Roman fort and a Norman castle and also William the Conquerer’s first stronghold.We also passed the first church built by the Normans in WesthamWe set off along a minor road to Stone Cross and found the No 2 route again that followed the cuckoo trail. We followed this route for a while until we had to ride through mud so when we came across a road to exit we took it and headed off toward Wilmington. To our surprise we saw a huge picture of a man carved out in the chalk on the side of the hill. When we checked the map we saw it was called “The Long Man”.We also passed through Alfriston on the way to the hostel, it is a very old and pretty little town. We had one last uphill to the hostel..We were so happy to arrive and lock our bikes in the bike shed and head inside for a nice shower and a bottle of wine with dinner.

2nd Woke to rain and very strong wind, glad we had stayed at the hostel. Took our time having breakfast not eager to go outside. We decided it was not worth riding the 20 miles left into the gale force winds and driving rain. We set off to Berwick station in the pouring rain to catch the train into Brighton.
When we got to brighton it was 12pmso we set off to the pub for the afternoon to update the blog and have lunch. We had a good time chatting to Chris on MSN messenger and he even got to see us as we connected the web cam.

21st-27th August - Edinburgh and Haggis tour of Scotland(In Progress)

2008-08-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

21st We woke around 6am nice and rested and dry. David went downstairs and totally cleaned the bikes and Catriona updated the blog. We had breakfast then set off for Edinburgh Castle. We waited in line in the pouring rain to buy our entry tickets and while waiting it stopped raining. The place was very busy/crowded but apparently not as crowded as if it had been a sunny day. We had great views over Edinburgh as we walked around the castle. We visited the National war museum and read about the history of the castle on the story boards around he place. We also waited in line to view the Honours of Scotland which are their crown jewels. Angry grey clouds started to roll back in as we were leaving that part of the castle. We also visited the prison and the war memorial while we were there. We left the castle to have lunch at the Quakers restaurant again. After lunch we went to see the Georgian house, a Scottish National trust building at no 7 Charlotte square. It was very interesting reading all about the different uses the rooms had and we finished off our visit watching a video of what life was like back in Georgian times, very interesting. We had another stroll along Princes street and then off to see Jimeoin on ice It was a very funny performance and we were glad we went. When we exited the theatre it was bucketing down with rain again so we had to head back to the hostel. We pittied the poor people watching the tattoo tonight.

22nd After breakfast we booked our accommodation at Phi Phi island and checked our emails. We phoned Sara who we were staying with tonight to get her address and then we then set off on a walking tour of Edinburgh. We were shown many interesting things and told interesting and amusing stories along the Royal Mile and surrounding areas. Oldest building in Edinburgh Writers Museum

After the tour finished at around 2pm we went to check out another couple of kilt makers and find out where our tour leaves from tomorrow. We also managed to find the hostel we will stay in when we return from the tour. Around 6pm we set off for Sara’s house and managed to find it no troubles at all. We met Sara and she even made us a lovely dinner. We had a good time chatting about work, cycling and sustainability.

23rd Woke to the alarm at 6am, got up had showers and breakfast. Sara showed us the way to walk back to the royal mile where our tour was to leave from. We passed through the parkland, under the whale’s jawbones and through the medows to get to the Haggis office. We checked in and waited outside the office for our tour leader/driver to pick us up. There are 22 of us on the 5 day compass buster trip so there is plenty of room on the bus and for our luggage (which we don’t have much of anyway). The tour leader Allan introduced himself and we set off out of Edinburgh towards our first stop at Dunkeld where we walked around an old 13th century abbey. Alan gave us commentary along the way and had some funny things to say. We passed over the fourth bridge which is a very impressive structure for its age. We were stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour due to the local council doing road works on the busiest weekend of the year. We stopped for a walk around the hermitage with its waterfall. We stopped for lunch in Dalwhinnie. We shared soup and haggis, neeps and tatties. After lunch we visited the Spean Bridge.Mill Whisky centre and tasted some single malt whisky. After the whisky stop where David bought the worlds smallest bottle of whisky we went to the memorial to the WWII commandos overlooking Ben Nevis. It was getting late so we headed off to our night time spot of Fort Augustus on the shores of Loch Ness. We checked in, had dinner and set off on our cruise of Loch Ness where we managed to get a video of Nessie.>

After all the excitement we headed back to the hostel for an early night.

24th Set off this morning at 9am and our first stop of the day was Urquhart castle on the shores of Loch Ness. As with most of the castles we have seen it was in ruins. We drove on through Drumnadrochit otherwise known as Nessie central and stopped at a hotel with a gift shop attached where I managed to buy a Dunbar tartan scarf, just like Mum’s. From here we visited Culloden battlefield, where in 1746 the Jacobites had their last uprising and were slaughtered. There were flags showing the lines of the Hanovian troups and the Jacobite troups. There were also stones marking the graves of many of the clans who had members buried there. There was also a little stone hut called Leanach cottage that was right on the edge of the battlefield. After this very sombre trip we headed into Inverness for lunch. We had our usual Sunday roast. After lunch it was on to the Glen Ord distillery for a guided tour and tasting at the end. The Glen Ord distillery is owned by the same company that now owns Guiness. The single malt whisky they make here is called Singletons and is mainly shipped to Singapore. After our distillery trip we headed off to Dornoch beach for a walk on what they call the silver sands.
Dornoch is apparently where Madona married Guy Ritchie were married. All refreshed from the crisp sea air we headed off to our overnight accommodation Carbisdale castle. Yes you read right we are staying in not only a castle, but a haunted castle. It has been a youth hostel since 1945 and is home to a female ghost and an art and sculpture collection. It also has lovely views over the Kyle of Sutherland. We had a nice relaxing night in the Library
before retiring to our separate rooms as for some reason YHA’s don’t have mixed dorms.

25th We spent the morning driving over to the Isle of Skye, stopping off along the way at a small hotel for a coffee break. We had lunch in Port Righ, the main town on the Isle of Skye. A pretty little town on the water with a small harbour. After lunch we headed to the Farrie falls where we could make a wish to the farries if we took a mouth full of water at the top of the falls and did not swallow it until we walked back down to ground level and made the wish there. We had good views of The Storr from there as well and the ground was very boggy. We next stopped off at Kilt Rock where Alan told us the story of the Scottish Giant and Finn McCool the Irish Giant, the story was exactly the opposite of what we were told at the Giants Causeway in Ireland. We then had a very hairy ride to the top of the mountain to Quirang (cuith-Raing)Lookout. It was well worth the ride up for the spectacular views even though it was blowing a gale. We stopped off on our way to the hostel to get beautiful forever by sticking our face in the Sligachan river for 7 seconds. Can you see how beautiful we look now? We then headed back to Saucy Mary's Hostel at Kyleakan, checked in and went for a walk to the ruins of a Viking castle Caisteal Maol. After our walk it was back to the hostel bar for dinner and a few drinks. Stephen one of the guys on the tour decided to go for a swim so we all went out and cheered him on.

26th First stop of the day was Eilean Donan castle.
It had been blown up in the 16th century during a Jacobite uprising and was rebuilt in the early 20th century. We had a tour around the castle which is still used as a holiday house by members of the MacClean clan. We passed by a herd of hairy coos and stopped off along Loch Gary with it’s spectacular views.
We then headed into Fort William for lunch before heading off to Glenfinnan which is a tourist destination for 2 reasons. The first and most important is that the viaduct there is used in the Harry Potter movies.
The second is that it was the landing point for bonnie Prince Charlie.
It was raining hard so instead of heading off to see another sight before our night time stop we headed straight to Oban and checked into the hostel. Another SYHA so David and Catriona are in separate rooms again. We had a nice relaxed night in the dining room chatting with Jannet from Hornsby and Peter from Central Australia who is cycling around the UK as well.

27th 9am start this morning and our first stop was Glencoe the weeping glen which is the site where the Campbells betrayed and murdered the MacDonald clan.
Beautiful views with all the waterfalls and sheer rock cliffs, even though it was misty and raining. We next stopped at a viewpoint looking over the Black Mount where a buck was waiting in the car park.
We stopped for lunch at the Green Welly in Tyndrum where we chatted to 3 guys from near London who were cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats they were on their 9th day out of an estimated 12 day ride. From Tyndrum we headed for Killin to view the Falls of Dochart which were more like rapids than water falls.
Our next touristy stop off was at Kimahog where we met, fed and photographed Hamish the hairy coo.
Our last stop of the day was at the William Wallace monument at Sterling.
After our walk up the hill to the monument we headed back to Edinburgh and farewelled everyone from the tour. We then had a short stroll down to our hostel for the night.

16th - 20th August Coast and Castles- Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to Edinburgh

2008-08-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

16th Set off around 9.30am as the Fort did not open until 10am. When we arrived we found that there was a special event on. They had people dressed up in Roman garb, some as centurions and others as general soldiers and women. There were 3 men on horses practicing for their cavalry exhibition that afternoon.We wandered around the site for about ½ an hour then set off back over the Tyne to North Shields on the ferry. We headed to the alternate end to the Hadrian’s wall cycle route at Tynemouth, it is also the beginning of the Coast and Castles route. We rode around the coast past Tynemouth castle where they also had a special event going on with people dressed as minstrels and knights etc,then on through Whitley Bay and stopped at a pub in Hartley for lunch. We set off again past a cute little harbour at Seaton Sluiceand on through Blyth where we stopped at a large supermarket to buy our dinner supplies. We passed a la couple of large power plants along the way up the coast. One of them had a few windmills. We Rode through Warkworth and it’s large castleand on to our overnight camping spot at Birling,but not before we rode about ½ mile up the road and realised we had passed it. The extra mile brought our total for the day to 47miles. Another sunny day but the wind was very cold and strong

17th It started raining around 4.30am and rained on and off all morning. We packed up between showers and set off toward Alnmouth,a pretty little town at the mouth of the Aln river right on the coast.We cycled along quiet country roads to Boulmer and on to Craster. Our first stop was Dunstanburgh Castle where we had to walk our bikes about a km as we were not allowed to ride them. Dunstanburgh Castle was built in the 12th Century as a power symbol and is now in ruins as the owner was put to death for treason. We wandered around for a while then headed off to Embelton for our Sunday roaast. There were two other cyclists at the pub where we stopped who had based themselves at a local caravan park and were doing day trips in the area. After lunch we visited Low Newton-by-the-sea a cute little village like a pirates cove. We then set off for Seahouses to buy supplies for dinner before heading to the caravan park at Waren. On the way we passed this sign and for anyone who listened to popular music in the 80's you will know how funny it is.We arrived early at 5pm and were able to dry the tent out before setting it up. We then went out to pick some blackberries we had passed on the side of the road on our way in. We ended up having ridden 34 miles. We had beautiful hot showers which we always enjoy at the end of a long days riding.

18th We woke to what we thought would be a beautiful sunny day as the sun was shining on our tent. By the time we had breakfast and packed up the sun had dissapeared. We headed off to visit Lindisfarne Island (Holy Island), it was a long ride into the wind and rain over a causeway that was only open today between 8am and 2.30am as it is underwater until 8.30pm this day.We stopped off to have a hot chocolate and a slice as it was bucketing down with rain and we were drenched. We locked our bikes up there and walked out to the castle. The castle was closed sso we just walked around and took some photos,We chatted to a couple and thier children who had cycled out there. The husband had 2 kids one about 3 the other around 6 in a trailer and a dog on a lead, there was also a son who was around 13 and the wife on her own bike. They were from the midlands and told us that summer was not usually like this and wished us luck with the weather. We stopped in at the cafe again for lunch and the couple we met at the pub yesterday came in to say hello as they had seen our bikes outside. We headed back off the island, this time with the wind behind us but still raining. It was a tough ride in the rain, in parts the route was over farm land that was boggy,having to open and close the gatesand the bikes got covered in mud. We finally made it into Berwick-on-Tweed with it's impressive bidges and found a J D Wetherspoons that actually had internet access. So Catriona based herself there updating the blog and checking emails while David went out to information and found us Accommodation at the Berwick Backpackers Hostel. We ended up having dinner at the pub before heading back to the hostel for a dry nights sleep. After leaving the pub we rode down to the hostel, stopping to take a few misty shots of the bridges. At the hostel we dropped our bags off in our room and were able to hang our tent up to dry. We then went into the lounge/kitchen where we both had a cup of tea and chatted to Kate who we were sharing the dorm with.

19th We didn’t wake up until 8am this morning as we were in a dark room and were having such a good sleep. We quickly packed up our bags and had the breakfast that was included with our accommodation in the lounge/kitchen. We hosed down our bikes before setting off for a quick look around Berwick-on-Tweed and then heading off up the coast. It was a hilly start to the day into Scotland and I (Catriona) started to dislike all the little contour lines on the map. The cycle computer decided it did not want to work anymore, most likely due to all the rain, so we had no idea of how fast we were travelling. We passed the gate house to Ayton Castle which looked quite spectacular but we couldn’t see the actual castle. We stopped for morning tea at Ayton and David noticed this strange dark patch on the ground that followed him wherever he went, I think from memory it might be called a shadow. We then road on to the little sea side town of Eyemouth for lunch but the sun disappeared while we were inside. We had a long uphill ride after lunch but luckily it was all on road or path and not through muddy paddocks like yesterday. We had some lovely views of the coastline until the fog started to roll in. We passed many ffarms and a few power stations. We made it to Dunbar just before 5pm and the fog was rolling in and out so we were able to take some nice pictures on the coast with both the mist and without it.

Now you see it

Now you don't

We set up our tent at the Dunbar, Belhaven Bay caravan and camping park and had most of our dinner at the picnic table before the clouds started to roll in, and much the same as South Shields we got into our tent to finish off dinner and it started to rain although not very heavily and it didn’t last long. We worked out from the map that we cycled 36 miles and because of the hills it seemed much longer.

20th Well the weather has finally got the better of us. We woke this morning to steady rain and thought “we have had enough” so we rode back into Dunbar to check out the train times.We took a photo of the local scout hall just because it was 1st Dunbar.
We just missed a train and had a 2 hour wait for the next one, so we went to a coffee shop with wifi and booked out bus ticket and accommodation for after our Haggis tour. We tried to book accommodation for tonight but had no luck. We caught a cross country train to Edinburgh for only £5 each and watched all the scenery out the train window pass us by, staying nice and dry. When we arrived in Edinburgh it was pouring rain. We went to the closest hostel but it only had beds for one night, not two. We then headed off to the information centre, there were people everywhere as the ½ price ticket booth for the festival was just outside. We tried phoning a few more hostels which were also booked out and decided to let the information people do the work for us. After numerous phone calls the guy managed to get us a double bed in the Castle Rock Hostel for £50 per night for 2 nights.

We rode straight there, unpacked our gear to dry it off and even managed to hang up our tent and fly to dry. We then headed out to have a look around and find a kilt maker. There were people handing out leaflets for shows about every 2 mitres and also many street performers. We managed to find a kilt maker and find out the hefty price to have a kilt made. We then set off to have a bit more of a look around as the rain had cleared. We managed to get a few good shots of the castle and the old buildings in town.
We then headed off to buy some food and then headed back to the hostel for the evening. On the way we stopped to watch an acrobat from Melbourne, Australia performing in the street.
We also passed the huge queue waiting to get into the castle for the Tattoo. We went to bed listening to the sounds of bagpipes and fireworks from the Tattoo.

10th - 15th August - Hadrian's Wall

2008-08-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

10th Got our early start and set off for Huyton to catch our first train, which was a 2 carriage diesel. We arrived with ¾ hr to spare. We boarded the train and didn’t have to fold our bikes as there was a dedicated spot on the train for them complete with a coated chain to wrap around them so they didn‘t fall over. Excellent. We changed trains at Wigan onto a much nicer train and again we didn’t need to fold the bikes and this time they had Velcro straps to hold them in.We sat at a table where I was able to hook up to power with the PC to run the virus scan. We had beautiful scenery out of the window with great views of the lake district country side. We passed many small streams and lakes and it was very green especially when we were near the coast. We had tickets to Barrow-in-Furness but alighted in Ulverston instead as we thought it would be quicker as it was a more direct route. It bucketed down as Catriona was in the shop getting some things for dinner and then we had to ride up a huge hill into very strong winds. At the top of the first hill we had lovely views down onto the town and out to the coast.One of the hills was so steep I had to push my bike up for about 10 metres before I could get back on and ride. I had to pull the PC out along the route to make sure we were on the right track as we only had the google map we had copied the night before. Thank goodness we were ok as I (Cat) would have died if we did all those hills for nothing. We found this sign which David liked but there were a few more uphills before we got to the steep downhill.Again fantastic scenery at the top of the hill. We stopped at the Broughton Inn for Sunday roast turkey lunch, fantastic, just what we needed. We then called the caravan park in Ravenglass to make sure we could get a pitch. We cycled on through a few little towns up and down many hills along the busy A959. Again the wind was mostly in our face and it was tough going. It must be very windy here all the time as we passed quite a few wind farms with their huge windmills.We eventually made it to the caravan park at 6pm having cycled 38 miles. We set up the tent, had a gourmet dinner of Rivita, marmalade and ham finishing off with our mix of pecans, brazil nuts and dark chocolate. We then both had lovely hot showers and retired to the tent for an early night.

11th Yesterday must have taken it out of us because even after the early night we didn’t wake up until 7.30am. We quickly packed up as it started to spit with rain. Luckily it didn’t last long and we were able to have breakfast at the picnic table where we had dinner the night before. We set off for the beginning of the Hadrian’s wall cycle route at Glnnaventa Roman Bath House.It is amazing that something that old is still standing. We cycled on following route 72 Hadrian’s Cycleway, over the river Mite and along the waters edge. We went through Holmebrook, Drigg, Seascale and past the Sellafield nuclear facility. We had the option of taking an inland route through Egremont or sticking to the coast with it’s beautiful scenery and hills. David decided we should stick to the coast.The hills were not so bad as we haad a very strong tail wind most of the time. We passed many wind farms again today. There was a very steep hill coming out of St Bees and Catriona had to walk some of it again but tried to cycle on about ½ way up. This was a bad move as she ended up with one foot locked in to the pedal, overbalancing and landing with her leg stuck under the bike and being unable to release her foot. David had kept on cycling over the hill and had no idea what had happened. Catriona eventually managed to move the bike and release her foot and catch up to David. We ended up stopping at Whitehaven for lunch at a little café / bar having our favourite cycling meal of baked potato with tuna or chicken. After lunch we set off again with a strong tailwind but this time the route was almost flat.We made good time and stopped off at the visitors centre in Maryport for afternoon tea.We continued up the coast along the B5300 all the way to Silloth. We checked a few caravan parks, one wanted 32 pounds for the night for a tent site. We thought “tell them they’re dreaming”. We ended up cycling back about 1 mile to a caravan park that only cost us 12 pounds for the night. And we had another early night getting to bed around 9.30pm having cycled 54 miles.

12th Woke up to pouring rain at around 7am. We packed up all our things but deciced to stay in the tent to see if the weather cleared. David wanted to stay in the tent and have a rest day as the weather was so bad, but Catriona said we may as well get going as it was forcast for rain for the next 3 days. We waited until around 11am and then packed up the wet tent and rode into Silloth.It was cold and raining just like winter at home! We followed the route to Abbeytown where we ended up stopping for lunch. What a bargain it was too, only £6.95 for 3 courses. We chatted to the publican about our travels and about retrenchment.(He had been retrenched from Manchester Airport) We set off again into the rain after having warmed up over lunch. We cycled through farmland and through the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Maybe it was the weather but we didn't find it any more beautiful than other places in England we have cycled. We made it to Bowness-on-Solway which is the start/end of Hadrian's wall and was once the Western fort. We had views over to Scotland across the river. We then set off for the 11 mile journey into Carlisle straight into the strong/cold windy conditions. We finally made it to Carlisle and booked into the hostel which is student accommodation at other times during the year, so David and Catriona are in seperate rooms for the night. We cycled 31miles today.

13th Set the alarm for 6am but woke up at 5.54! Had quick showers and breakfast while checking emails. Received and email from Chris who was still at work so we called him using skype. It was good to have a chat with him. It was raining when we set off but we were not the only mad cyclists out as two women who were 9 days in to their 20day John O’Groats to Lands End ride were heading off at the same time. We stopped to take photos of Carlisle Castle, then cycled on through the city and out through a lovely park by the River Eden. We had a slow climb all the way, getting a little steeper around Brampton where we stopped for lunch. Our legs were feeling pretty strong after the past 3 days of riding so the hills were not too much trouble. It had been lightly raining on and off the whole time While we were having lunch the rain got much heavier so we stayed a little longer watching the Olympic swimming heats. The rain eventually eased and we set off for Banks passing Lanercost Priory on the way which had been built of stones from Hadrian’s wall in 1169. Our first view of Hadrian’s wall was just after Banks and all we could think of was “What have the Romans ever done for us“. We were amazed to see quite a few people walking on the wall which is a Unesco world heritage site. The sun decided to come out and we actually saw pieces of blue sky for the first time since Ludlow 9 days ago. This part of the wall included a turret or watch tower. We cycled on past a few more sections of wall and turrets before stopping at the Birdoswald Roman fort. We took the self guided tour of the fort which was quite interesting. We then set off in search of our overnight accommodation. We phoned a bunk house that we thought was at Once Brewed and managed to book 2 beds. We cycled up huge hills passing through Melkridge where David stopped to take a photo and another passing cyclist offered to take a photo of the both of us.
We arrived at Once Brewed to find it was not where our accommodation was. We managed to find the directions to Gibbs Hill B&B and Bunk House which was another 2 miles on up hill. We passed another huge section of the wall and were out in the middle of nowhere the scenery was spectacular with the rain pouring down and the clouds rolling across the sky. We had ridden 41.3 hard miles today. We found our way to the Bunkhouse on the farm and had lovely warm showers and a bite to eat before heading off to bed exhausted.

14th Woke this morning at 6am ready to have an early start. We had breakfast and packed up then realised that our first destination Houseteads Roman Fort didn’t open until 10am. We watched a little of the Olympics (archery and boxing) before setting off into the rain. It was up hill for one mile out of the property and our first stop at Steel Rigg the large section of wall we had passed yesterday evening. Very dramatic scenery that does not really show up in the pictures. We arrived at the fort at 10.30am wet and cold so we stopped for a hot chocolate before touring the site, one of the most complete examples of a Roman fort in Britain. By the time we finished the drinks it had stopped raining so we were able to walk around and take photos without getting the camera wet. Grainery
Latrines

It started to rain when we got back to the bikes so our next destination was lunch at Fourstones passing Crindledykes lime kilns,19th century kilns used to make lime to improve the acidic soil. We also passed the sumit of the ride and stopped to take a picture at the mile marker there. We were soaking wet by the time we arrived at the Inn where we had lunch and stayed there for a couple of hours hoping the rain would ease. We even stayed and had a drink after lunch David having a Cumbrian ale and Catriona having a port in the hope it would warm us up. We ended up having to set off in the rain after having dried off and immediately got soaking wet again. A couple of cars drove by as we were passing large puddles on the road and covered us from head to toe. We decided we could not cycle much further in this weather so headed straight to Hexham tourist information centre to enquire about accommodation for the night. We met up with one of the guys who was staying in the bunkhouse last night and he was there tying to find out if he could get a bus back to the bunkhouse with his bike. We managed to get a night at a B&B for only £25 each. We arrived at the B&B and Ann ,the lovely lady who owns the B&B let us store the bikes in her laundry and even offered to wash our wet clothesWe had ridden 34miles.We went out to dinner at the local J D Wetherspoons hoping to update the blog however their wifi didn’t seem to be working so after dinner we went back to the B&B and watched some TV.

15th Started off the day with a huge breakfast of cereal, banana, coffee, juice, toast, bacon, eggs, cooked tomato, mushrooms and sausage. We packed up our nicely laundered clothes and put some of them on and headed off towards Newcastle. Ann wouldn’t accept any payment for the laundering of the clothes so it was a double bonus to have stayed at her B&B. We headed to the library to try to use the internet there. They didn’t have wifi so I had to join the library to be able to use one of their PCs. It ended up that I couldn’t access the blog, so only managed to check emails. We set off over the Hexham bridge stopping off at Corbridge and took some photos of old buildings..One of them was the oldest building in town built in the 13th century. It was a rather flat ride along the river Tyne. Our lunch time stop was at the Adam and Eve Pub at Ovingham where we had a lovely dish of chicken covered in BBQ sauce and cheese. After lunch we stopped off at George Stephenson’s birthplace a small house that was shared by 3 other families.George is the father of the railway. We cycled on through Newburn and into Newcastle Upon Tyne. We took photos of some of the bridges crossing the riverthere and also some of the cranes they are dismantling at the old ship building port. We made it to North Shields and caught the ferry over to South Shieldsand the end of the Hadrian’s wall cycle route at the Arbeia Roman Fort.The fort was closed as it was 5.30pm by the time we arrived so we decided we would come back tomorrow. We then continued on to Marsden where we set up our tent for the night at Lizard Lane camp ground. It started to rain just after we got into our tent, but stopped so that we could clean our teeth and have showers. We ended up having ridden 45miles.

8th-9th August Liverpool

2008-08-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Woke up to a sunny day and had breakfast in the Hostel. We walked up the road and caught a bus into the city. We walked through the new pedestrian shopping area down to Albert Dock
where we booked on to the Magical Mystery Tour. We boarded the bus and travelled through Liverpool. Our first stop was the house where George Harrison was born.
Next stop was the gates to Strawberry fields,
such a shame that people feel the need to deface these places, just like Oscar Wilde's grave in Paris. We next drove past John Lennon's childhood home.
Then on past one of Pauls homes and on to Penny Lane.
The last sights to see on the bus where a couple of places where Ringo lived in his youth. Then back into the city where the tour ended near the Carven Club.

We had lunch at a pub again and then headed back down to Albert Docks to do the tour through The Beatles Story, an interactive museum to the beatles where you get headphones to listen to commentary along the way.
It took us around 2 hours to get through it and was very interesting and well worth it. We ended up catching a bus back to the hostel at around 7.15pm then walking back to the shops for some dinner. We spent the evening watching highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympics on TV and updating the blog.

9th Spent the morning in bed updating photos onto the blog and checking out accommodation and transport for the next part of the journey because it was raining outside. We also watched a bit of the Olympic games coverage. It is very interesting to see the different coverage. In Australia all you get is swimming, gymnastics and equestrian, well maybe not all but the majority of coverage is these sports. We saw swimming, judo, boxing, rowing, yachting and road cycling. Michael Rogers came 6th in the road cycling and I am sure we would not have seen the race in Australia. It stopped raining around 2pm so we set off to the shops to get something for lunch and dinner. We had lunch back at the hostel before setting off into the city to buy our train tickets from Huyton too Barrow-in-Furness for tomorrow. We had another walk around the city passing china town
and visited the Anglican Cathedral
which is the 2nd largest in the world and has the largest pipe organ in the world. We walked past the LIPA buildings (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) and stopped in to see the very elaborately decorated Philharmonic Hotel. We then walked on to look at the Metropolitan cathedral
(Catholic) but we arrived just before 6pm and that is when it shut, so we didn’t get to look inside. We then walked back to our hostel. It started to rain again so every time it rained heavily we had to find refuge in a bus shelter. We finished the night off by watching old Hey Hey it’s Saturday clips from You Tube until the wifi connection decided to fail. We then packed up ready for an early start tomorrow.

Photo Update 9th August

2008-08-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Have now updated the blog with photos from Ireland,Thames valley cycle ride and Paris.
So completely up to date now.

30th July- 7th August - Cirencester to Chester

2008-08-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

30th Our last morning with Robert and Elisabeth, we said our goodbyes before they headed off to work then just relaxed for the morning. We watched Charlie and the chocolate factory that they had taped as we had not seen it before. David preferred the older version. We headed off for Putney to use the internet at the Library. They had a training company in the same building that hired out PC’s for the internet. Catriona managed to book bus tickets to Cirencester for 20pounds rather that 20pounds each to do it over the phone. We headed off for Tim and Pat’s after that giving ourselves plenty of time to get to their house by the time Tim usually got home from work (6.30pm). It was on the route #4 we had taken to Oxford so we knew the way or so we thought. We had another nice ride along the Thames and through Richmond Park. It was once we reached the other side we needed to stop for directions. We eventually made it to Tim and Pat’s just before Tim arrived home. We had a glass of wine in the garden and had a lovely chat with Tim, Pat and their son Chris before heading off to a local Italian restaurant The meals were lovely and we had a great time talking with Tim and pat over dinner and a bottle of wine. We headed back to their place where they put us up for the night in a bedroom at the top of the house. Much more luxurious than sleeping in our tent like we had expected to be doing that night.

31st We woke around 7am and had breakfast with Tim and Pat before Tim set off to work. Tim let us use his Eee PC and told me the name of the shop where he had bought his. Catriona checked emails and the warm showers and hospitality club websites searching for somewhere to stay in Edinburgh while David searched through Pats camping and hostel directories for places to stay during our upcoming ride. We set off at around 10.30am, very happy to have finally met Tim and Pat and so grateful for their hospitality. We set off for Kingston on Thames which had a Micro Anvika, the computer shop where Tim got his Eee PC. Catriona ended up buying an Eee PC 901 12GB model with windows XP as the 20GB Linux version would not be available until 11th August. We then set off for Victoria coach station, retracing our steps to Putney, then crossing Putney bridge and riding through Chelsea and in to Victoria. We had just enough time to pack our bikes up and put the paniers into our strippy bags before boarding the bus.
It was a good journey to Cirencester but when we got there it started to rain. It was a quick unpack of the bikes and a short ride around the town and stop off at the supermarket for dinner supplies before heading off 3km North to the Mayfield Park, where we set up the tent for the night.

1st Today we had 4 seasons in a day riding through the hilly Cotswolds. 1st we rode back into Cirencester to take a few pictures of the old buildings and morning tea where David had a Pasty and Catriona had a mocca.
Then off along the Byway toward Chedworth along quiet secondary roads, passing through pretty little villages and past rich estates.
We got a little lost trying to find Chedworth Roman Villa and just as we were about to give up we found it. We watched a video presentation on the site and spent about an hour wandering around the site which was originally excavated in the early 20th century and a building built over the top to protect it
It included a roman spa with hot and cold pools. We then set off again to Salperton. We headed to the Craven at Brockhampton for lunch but arrived after lunch had finished. We ended up having a picknick lunch with the food we had overlooking a lovely country mansion.
We rode on to Winchcome stopping at the tourist information centre to find out about campsites near Tewksbury which is where we were heading for the night. We bought some afternoon tea of museli slice at a local bakery then head off to Tewksbury. Tewksbury is full of old Tudor buildings that look like they are about to fall down.
The caravan park was almost full and we had to pay 18 pounds for the site. We set up the tent and went in to town to the local Witherspoons to have dinner and use their wifi. Unfortunately the wifi was not working but we had a good meal anyway. We had to walk back to the caravan park in the rain and it rained most of the night.

2nd We were woken at 3am to the Westminster chimes from the Abbey and heard them each hour after that. In the morning it had stopped long enough for us to pack our bags but after having breakfast and cleaning our teeth it started to rain heavily again and we still had the tent to pack up. Luckily we were camped under trees which protected us a little from the rain.
As we set off some random guy in the caravan park said “It’s days like these when you wonder why you do it I suppose” he was right but another guy had told us the weather was supposed to clear by lunch time. We rode in to Tewksbury around 9am and had a hot chocolates and David had a steak wrap (pastry). We then set off along the byway route as the sun was beginning to come out. We rode back to Tredington and out to Deerhurst where we visited an old Saxon church and Odda’s saxon chapel.(10th Century)
Deerhurst has the distinction of being one of only 2 English towns with both a Saxon church and chapel. We then rode along quiet rural roads to Ashleworth to see the National Trust owned Tithe barn. We then continued on to Ashleworth Quay to have lunch at the CTC recommended Pub on the river however they only served rolls, so we headed off to Ashleworth and found the Queens arms pub which was serving food. David had pasta and Catriona had beef stew and vegetables, just what we needed to keep us going up and down the hills of the Cotswolds. We rode on to Corse then started on the hills of Upleadon, Brand Green and Redmarley D’Abitot. We then cycled on to Estnor castle and watched 10 overs of a cricket
game before cycling into Ledbury. We stopped at the TIC (tourist information centre) to get directions to the camping ground, did a quick shop for dinner and then cycled 2miles out of town to the camping site, Woodside lodges country park with its beautiful country views. We ended up cycling just over 30 miles for the day and because of the hills we were stuffed.

3rd It had rained again overnight but we made up our minds last night that we needed to get an early start as we had so long to cycle this day. We had had breakfast and packed up and were on our way back into Ledbury by 8am. We stopped to look at the old buildings
and church then set off toward Wellington Heath. Not a good start as before we even left Ledbury we had travelled 2 miles out of our way. Once we were on the main B4214 road we were right until we started to follow the Byway signs which lead us off and around in circle into the countryside.
After having travelled 10 miles and were still only 5 miles from Ledbury and heading back in that direction we found a couple pruning their hedge and got directions to Bishop’s Frome. We decided to stick to the B road rather than chance following the Byway route. We made it there no problems. We then set off for Stoke Lacy again following the Byway signs and being left in the middle of nowhere with no idea where to go. We found our way again heading for Leominster (pronounced Lemster- go figure) it was a torturous ride up and down the hills. It got to the point where we were not even enjoying the downhills as we knew there would be an uphill to follow. We eventually made it to Leominster which seemed to be dead on a Sunday and none of the pubs were serving the Sunday roast we were looking forward to. We ended up having lunch at a pub and a well earned rest. After lunch we set off for Croft castle. We got lost again following the Byway signs and made our way to Yarpole. We could not find any signs for the castle but luckily a lady pulled up and asked us if we needed help. When she said “Just up the hill” we almost died. We made our way up the hill and then down to cross a road and into the castle grounds. Guess what the castle was up the hill so off we went again up the hill only just making it. It was 4pm and the grounds didn’t close until 5pm so we decided to have afternoon tea in the tea shop. Catriona had a pot of tea and some Greens organic 70% dark chocolate and David had a hot chocolate with a scone and jam. We had another well earned rest and set off to look at the Croft castle at 4.30pm only to find they stop admitting people at 4.30pm. We hurried down to the castle in the hope that they were running late closing. They were not, but the lovely man at the door let us in after we explained we had ridden all day to see the castle and even if we just got to look in the entry hall that would be good. He took pity on us and let us in to see the rooms that were still open. The rooms we saw were very grand and we were glad we had made it in.
We then went out and took a few photos and set off to Ludlow for our overnight accommodation and in doing so crossed over into Shropshire ("how lovely").
We reached Ludlow around 6pm and the supermarket had closed so we bought some food for breakfast at a convinience store and went to a pub (The Bull Ring)
where we were able to get our Sunday roast. We headed off to the campground hoping they would have a site for us. Luckily there were plenty so David set up the tent and Catriona went off to charge her Eee PC and update the blog. The campsite has magnificent sweeping views of the valley and Ludlow below. (Yes the campsite is uphill from Ludlow!)

4th We decided to have a rest day today after all the hills of the Cotswolds and Herfordshire. We decided to get some washing done as well so we packed it all up and headed into Ludlow with the PC. We walked around the castle taking quite a few photos..
We then headed to the information centre where the very helpful lady told us where the Laundromat and the library were. So we dropped the washing off and headed to the library where they had free wifi. I updated the blog and searched for places to stay further on in our journey. We had a break for lunch at a little pub where David had quiche, peas and chips and Catriona had chilli and rice.
After lunch we headed back to the library for some more interneting. In the afternoon we had a walk around Ludlow admiring all the old black and white buildings.
We did some shopping for dinner, picked up our washing and set off back to our campsite. We had to recharge the Eee PC as we had forgotten the power cord and had run the battery down in the library so while it was charging we had aa chat to the man who owned the campsite which was a riding school as well. He also runs riding for the disabled and told us all about that and the town of Ludlow and the way it had changed over the years. He also gave us a bit of a history lesson about Shrewsbury being the town where the English fought off the Welsh and that Telford was an old mining town built on the slag heap.

5th Woke early (5am) wanting to get a good start to the day and found it was pouring with rain so went back to sleep for half an hour. It had backed off by 5.30 so we decided to pack up. While we were having breakfast the heavens opened up again so we had to just pack up everything under the tent as best we could and the whole tent itself got soaked while we packed it up. David stopped to take this photo on our way out of the campground.
Headed in to Ludlow to get a hot drink only to find most places still shut as it was too early. We set off to ride to Ironbridge over a few hills but Catriona had had enough and decided we should catch the train as it was so hard trying to ride with your eyes so squinted to keep the rain out that you could hardly see. We managed to get tickets to Shrewsbury on the 8.49am train and didn’t even have to fold the bikes.
The rain was not so heavy in Shrewsbury but we were soaked to the bone. We stopped in at Starbucks to have our hot drink and use the wifi. (Found out you had to subscribe to Tmobile to use the wifi so just used their power to charge the battery to 100%. We dried off while in Starbucks so set off for the library to use the wifi there. Managed to book accommodation in Liverpool and find out about train tickets from Chester to Liverpool. We set off to the station and bought our Chester to Liverpool tickets then off to look around Shrewsbury. We came across amazing flower displays in the grounds of Shrewsbury castle.
We then headed off for Attingham Park stopping at a pub for the best ever jacket potatoes, bacon and brie on one and chicken, mango, and sultana curry on the other, both with a lovely side salad. We rode on to Attingham Park another national trust property that is being restored.
It reminded Catriona of Pride and Predjudice. Off again after a quick tour through the mansion and off on route 45 heading for our accommodation in Wixhall. We passed by Moreton Corbet Castle ruins and stopped to take a couple of photos.
We managed to find more hills to ride up and down, past a shooting range which sounded like a battle was going on, It was getting late, had started to rain again and we could not find the campsite at Whixal. We stopped to ask for directions but no one seemed to know where it was. It was around 7.30 so we decided to back track to Wem where we knew there was a caravan park. It ended up being a great decision. It only cost us 5 pounds for the night and they had an onsite café and bar. We put the tent up to let it dry then had showers and dinner. Headed off to bed at around 10.45pm. We ended up having ridden 35miles after lunch.

6th Had a great nights sleep and the tent even dried. We decided to take the B5476 up to Whitchurch instead of following the cycle route as the road was not very busy and it was much quicker that zig zaging around the countryside. We stopped off in Whichurch the home of tower clocks, and had a coffee/hot chocolate at Juan’s café. We then set off through the rolling countryside through Hollyhurst, Pinsley Green and crossed a canal with a drawbridge at Wrenbury.
Beautiful countryside the whole way. We decided to go to Malpas for lunch at the Red Lion Pub where King James I once drank. When we arrived we found the Pub was not serving meals so we ended up having lunch at the Table at Eaton restaurant.
We had a lovely lunch David having the blackpudding with rarebit and Catriona had grilled salmon with steamed vegies. We finished off sharing a pavlova covered in cream and fresh fruit. Yum.
We set off again heading for Chester along National cycle route 45. We took a wrong turn and ended up on the A534 but managed to find our way again. We were cycling past many hedges and Catriona noticed there were a few ripe blackberries so we stopped to pick some. We met up with the Shropshire Union Canal
and ended up cycling on the tow path to Christleton where we spent the night at Birch Bank Farm. We ended up having ridden 46 miles. We managed to get the tent up between downpours and ate our dinner in the tent.

7th We woke to a beautiful sunny day. Packed up the tent and had breakfast (which included the blackberries we picked yesterday) on the picnic table and wrote up the previous days blog entry.
We had a short ride in to Chester and we had no idea what to expect other than it started its life as a Roman fortress. Chester is lovely, full of black and white tudor buildings and shops called the Rows.
We walked up to the cathedral and had a look around, the gargoyles and other carvings were very unusual.
We walked around the wall that dated from the 15th century where King Charles I had watched his troops be defeated.
After lunch at a pub on the canal, we headed off to have a look at the Roman ampitheatre then we set off on the train for Liverpool. We had to fire up the PC to have a look at the google map I had saved with directions to the hostel. When we booked in and settled into our room then charged up the PC and connected it to the wifi after a few problems. Spent the evening in after having walked to the local supermarket for supplies.

26th-29th July - Paris for Le Tour

2008-08-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

26th Headed off to the airport on the 295 bus to Hammersmith, then the train to Heathrow. We ended up going to the wrong terminal but eventually made our way to the right one and worked out which terminal we would need when we left for home. We checked in for the flight and only taking a pannier each didn’t need to check them through. Smooth flight to Charles de Gaulle airport and then RER and Metro to our hotel in Epinay-sur-Seine, arriving at around 5pm. We ended up having dinner at the Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai downstairs and heading to bed for an early night.

27th Woke around 7.30 had breakfast and headed into Paris on the RER. We went under the Eiffel tower and got off the train at Invalides. We walked up the Champs Elysees at around 10am. There were people starting to claim their spots to see the race. We walked all the way up to the Arc de Triompe
then down a little to view the race.
We stayed there with not much going on until around 2pm when all the sponsors vehicles drove down the Champs Elysees zig-zaging their way along blowing their horns and making a lot of noise.
It was a great spectacle, which lasted about an hour. The cyclists came through at around 4.30pm, everyone was clapping and cheering them along and taking pictures.

After about 6 passes we decided to leave our spot and head down to the finish line. When the race ended there were people everywhere.We stopped to watch the awards ceremony which we could also see on the big screen.

We watched the teams doing their lap of honour and Cadel rode with an Aussie flag, that is Robbie McEwan you can see behind Cadel. One thing we found very odd about the organization was that there were no toilets provided for the crowds, we had been holding on for 7 hours! We ended up heading to a restaurant for dinner and using the toilets there. After dinner we headed back to the hotel on the Metro and RER
feeling utterly exhausted after standing for so long.

28th Full day to explore Paris. Sunny morning when we boarded our train at Epinay-sur Siene. We had to change lines a couple of times to get to our destination of Anvers. This was the stop for the Scare Coeur. We walked up to the Basilica and had a look inside. Catriona was surprised to see that they were letting tourists wander around while Mass was being conducted as in Spain and in South America there were signs that visitors were not admitted during a service. We walked back down to Anvers and caught the metro to Alexandre Dumas so we could visit the Cimetiere Du Pere-Lachaise. We stopped off at a park just outside the cemetery and had a picnic lunch. In the cemetery we visited the graves of Jim Morrison (which was fenced off and had a police guard near by),
Chopin (which was surrounded in flowers) and Oscar Wilde (covered in lipstick kisses) and monuments to the resistance of the WWII and also those who perished in concentration camps. We caught the metro to get to St Sulpice which was made famous by the DaVinci code. There was an obelisk in the church used to measure time.
We then went for a walk into the Latin Quarter past the Pantheon and down to Notre-Dame.
We sat on the river bank watching some cruise boats go by as we ate some nuts and water. We then caught the metro from Hotel de Ville all the way out to La Defense - the new part of town with its Graande Arche made from marble and lit up at night.
We took some photos and went into the shopping centre looking for some food. We found and Auchan supermarket and picked up some fruit fro breakfast. We then caught the Metro and RER back to Epinay and ate at the Asian restaurant downstairs and shared a ½ bottle of Merlot.

29th Had our breakfast before setting of on the RER and metro to the airport at 7.30am for our 10.50am flight. When we arrived at the airport we self checked in and received our boarding passes. There was a huge crowd waiting to get through the passport check with all their luggage. We eventually made it through and bought a pastry and a coffee to use up our remaining Euro. We managed to bypass the huge luggage check in line and go straight through security. People were already boarding when we got through, this was a huge change from all our previous flights where we have had plenty of time to wait around. It took around ½ an hour to taxi and wait our turn to take off. We had a smooth flight back to Heathrow, a very quick exit through customs and on to the train to Hammersmith where we caught a bus back to Wandsworth arriving at Robert and Elisabeths at around 1pm. We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon and had a lovely dinner of Mango chicken stirfry that Elisabeth made. Marcus dropped by with Jo to pick up our backpack/suitcase to look after it for us while we cycle our Britain.

15th - 25th July - London and Thames Valley cycle + Kennett & Avon Cycle paths

2008-07-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

15th Spent the morining checking emails and searching for/buying camping & bike gear for the rest of our trip. We walked to Southside shopping centre and bought some lunch which we ate at a local park and saw some quite little squirrels. Had some beer/champagne and nibbles with Robert and Elisabeth when they returned home from work.Then had dinner and Robert took David over to Tim's to pick up our bikes. They didn't fit in the porche so Tim and Pat kindly drove them over to Robert and Elisabeths for us. Had a quick look at the bikes before retiring for the night at around midnight.

16th Unpacked the bikes completely and set them up for each of us. We took them for a short ride heading to Wandsworth Park.David found some movement in his front forks so we stopped by Stratton cycles where a friendly ike mechanic fixed the problem. We then bought our bottle cages, 2 inner tubes, a heay duty lock that he suggested would be a good idea, a hex spanner and a casp for Davids rear light. We then road on to Wandsworth park where we had lunch We passed an unusual car park on the Thames near Putney.We cycled on to a couple more bike shops where we bought our handle bar bags and some attachment to fit them. When we arrived back at the appartment our tent had arrived so we were all set to head off on our ride on the Thames Valley cycleway. Marcus our tour leader from our 2006 Indo china trip came and picked us up and took us back to his plce in Tooting for a BBQ. We met his lovely partner Jo, a couple of their friends and their neighbours.We had a great evening in the courtyard that he had recently ladscaped. We ended up catching the Bus back to Robert and Elisabeths as it stopped very close to their appartment.

17th Woke at around 7am and took ages to get all our gear together and get going. We ended up leaving at around 11am wearing our long sleve jerseys and knicks. We only rode a short distance when we decided to put on our long lycra pants as it was cold, cloudy and windy. We cycled along to the Start of the route, Putney bridge, then off inland to Roehampton Gates into Richmond Park. We saw many deer eating in the grasslands.We rode on through to Ham gate, Ham common and past Ham House (A national trust house- we decided we could stop in to see it on our return as we were running behind schedule). It started to rain so we had to don our rain jackets. We kept on cyclig no problems, the bikes were cruising along, easy gear changing, nice and smooth etc. Rode by Kingston-upon-Thames and across the beautiful bridge, passed through Teddingtonand then onto Hampton Court Palace where we stopped to take a few pictures as it had stopped raining. We were getting very hungr by this stage so bought something to eat and stopped at Molesey Lock to eat it. We watched a couple of boats passing through the lock. It was a very pretty ride, lots of peole rowing on the river and many narrow boats. We stopped for coffee/hot chocolate at a kiosk at Walton-on-Thames and had a chat with the guy working there. It started to rain again but we continued on. We kept on cycling to Weybridge then on to Chertsey and stopped in at a caravan park for the night. We set up our tent and headed back to the Kingfisher for yummy dinner of braised stuffed English pork and hunters chicken.

18th Had breakfast in the tent then packed up and cycled up the river to Staines. We got a little lost at Egham then found our way to Runnymede, rode up our first testing hill (Uphill on gravel) and stopped off at the Commonwealth Air Forces Memmorial with its sweeping views of the valley to Heathrow.Went through Bishops gate into Windsor Great Park where we saw other cyclists and people ridinghorses. It reminded us of Centennial Park in Sydney. We rode into Windsor and took some photos of the castle.There were heaps of tourists everywhere so we crossed the river and cycled through Eton,then following the cycle path along the Thames. We stopped to buy lunch in Maidenhead and looked for somewhere to eat, eventually stopping at a little park in the middle of the suburban area. We rode on through many small streets zig-zagging our way, and then up through forest for our second hill of the day - Knoll Hill. Descended into Wargrave and then followed the A4 into Reading. Lost our way heading along the Kennet & Avon canal route by mistake. We retraced our steps and found the right route and headed off eventually stopping off to camp in Gallowstree Common as it was raining and we were getting tired.We ate nuts and dried fruit for dinner in our tent and we had run out of water.

19th Packed up our forrest tent and headed down the quiet and wet lane looking for somewhere to get water and have breakfast. We Rode to Stoke Row but nothing was open but we managed to fill our drink bottles at the local school.Cycling to Wallingford for breakfast we missed the turn and ended up in Checkendon which was a lovely little town with very old wonky buildings.After breakfast we then rode through Brightwell-Cum-Sotwell full of many old buildings with thatched roofs.Rode around Didcot power station, where the sun finally shone.We made it to Abbingdon and had lunch at the blue boar pub. We rode past its medieval gardens and Abbey on to Oxford. Oxford was very crowded with pople all over the roads and footpaths as it was the begining of the Summer holidays and a weekend.We ended up cycling on to Pinkhill lock where we camped on an island in the middle of the Thames river.There was one othr couple campig there who were canoeing their way down the Thames.

20th Beautifull sunny start to the day. We had our breakfast on the dock by the river and we didn't want to leave.We headed off back to Oxford around 10am and managed to get a train to Gloucester. We packed up our bikes into their carry cases for the very first time and found it very difficult to manuvre with the 2 panniers in the other hand. We caught 3 consecutive fast trains, the first to Didcot, 2nd to Swindon and the final one to Gloucester. We cycled in to the centre of town where all the churches were ringing their bells, including the Cathedral which we had a look inside.We had Sunday roast at the Tall Ship pub near the historic wharf area. We then road on down the Gloucester-Sharpness canal along the tow path. We saw a swing bridge in action, the controller had to manually wind the bridge into place and was very helpful with directions on where to get food for dinner.When we came across the next bridge he had phoned ahead to the guy on duty their to make sure we went the right way. We rode on to Gables Farm caravan and camping at Moreton Valence.

21st Woke up to another sunny day. Woo hoo. We were on our way riding to Bristol following bike route 41 without any maps. We made our way back to the canal then cycling along quiet streets to Frampton on Severn, passing small farm villages- very old stone buildings built in the 1850's. We also rode along roads with 10ft high hedges on either side. We stopped along the way and called our Mums and Chris who was working back late.It was great to hear their voices. We stopped at a cafe along the canal for morning teaand the route took us off the canal through farm land and beautiful scenery. Through many small towns each with its own very old fort like church and pub. We stopped off at the white horse pub for lunch at around 2pm where the locals were very entertaining.We then rode on past the 2 bridges that cross the Severn where we could see Wales on the other side.Lost our way and cycled back past one of the bridges making it to Bristol at around 5pm. Managed to get to the Sustrans office to buy maps for our future trips and booked in to the YHA. We bought a bottle of wine, some cheese, chips and olives and had them by the water with the other tourists.
22nd We had a great nights sleep, waking at 7am and had a huge buffet breakfast downstairs. We checked out, set up our bikes on the pavement and set off for Bath along the Bristol to Bath railway path. Lots of people riding into Bristol (maybe to work). We took in the magnificent scenery passing under many tunnels, old platforms and lush vegetation including the canopy. The path was smooth and we made good time to Bath. Rode through the centre of town looking at all the old/historic buildings. Took photos of the Abby and the Roman baths. Didn’t think it was worth the $44 to go in and see the baths so just looked over the wall.
Lots of people everywhere, naturally being a tourist town. We did go in and see the Assembly building a national trust building where they once held balls and other society functions. We rode on to Bathampton where we had lunch in a pub overlooking the Kennet and Avon Canal, very pretty. Rode on down the canal passing many narrow boats with tourists, alternative lifestyle people (ferrals) and such, amazing. We passed Dundas and Avoncliff aquaducts
and stopped off at the historic Bradford on Avon. Stopped at the tourist info and a very helpful lady let us phone through to a campsite four our nights accommodation near Devises. We went on a short tour stopping off at The Bridge (a very wonky old building with a very small door),then along the shambles down to The Shambles down to the old stone bridge and passed by a 14th century Saxon church. We rode on to our overnight camping spot by the river near send. The campground was right next to a Pub called the Three Magpies so after dinner we went over for a pint.

23rd Packed up the tend and headed off to the Caen Hill locks, a magnificent set of 16 locks in a row up the hill.An engineering feat built over 200 years ago. We stopped off in Devizes for breakfast then traveled away from the canal on the cycle route, smooth traffic free country roads with hedges on both sides. Stopped off at a small pub for lunch at Wooton Rivers then set off again along the tow path to the Bruce tunnel. We had to leave the path at the tunnel and find the cycleway again. Didn’t have too much trouble finding it. We came to the crofton pumping station which was closed on Wednesday s and it happened to be Wednesday. We made it back to the canal passing many more locks heading for Newbury. There were many people fishing and enjoying the canal. We cycled on through Newbury looking for somewhere to camp for the night. We had our dinner by one of the locks which was very peaceful and ended up pitching the tent in a field as there were no campgrounds. 24th Woke around 5am packed up our tent and had small breakfast on a bridge over the canal. Set off toward Reading but got lost again and ended up riding around a lake and through a field past grazing cows. Once we found the path again we had to lift our bikes over a few obstacles to prevent motor cycles using the track. It was very difficult so we ended up leaving the cycle path and riding on the road into Reading. We rode into Woodley where we had 2nd breakfast (we are from the shire after all) of bacon, eggs, baked beans and chips/hash browns and a coffee all for under 4 pounds each. We were back on the route we had taken from London (Thames Valley cycleway) and we headed back past Windsorto the place where we camped on our first night at Laleham. Luckily they were able to squeeze us in for the night. We had ridden so far that Catriona was thouroughly pooped and the first thing she did was blow up her air bed and have a lie down.
25th Headed back to Wandsworth taking a different route over the Thames on a pedestrian/cycle ferry.When we got to the other side the ferry man pointed out that Catriona had a completely flat tire. David changed the tire and we found it was a faulty inner tube and luckily not a puncture. We set off again toward London stopping at the mobile café and having breakfast and another chat to the guy who worked there. We cycled to Ham House finding it was closed on Thursday s and Friday s, just our luck, we took a few photos anyway.We arrived back in Wandsworth around 2pm and headed to The Ship for a drink. Once Robert and Elisabeth arrived home we headed out for dinner to a local French restaurant, very nice

4th - 14th July Ireland

2008-07-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Flew in to Dublin airport and caught an airlink bus to O'Connell Street. We found our hostel and booked in at around 8pm. We then headed out for some dinner and a pint of Guiness at the Auld Dubliner Pub. As it was a Saturday night there were many people on drunken Stag and Hen's nights wandering around. It was a cold and windy night less than 15 degrees. (They call it Summer!)

5th Start of our 8 day Shamrocker tour. There were 32 of us on the trip and a wide age range thank God. Not full of 18yr olds as we were expecting. Our first stop was t0 buy some food for lunch at a town along the way. It happened to be 10.30am and that as the time the Pub opened so we stopped in for a drink. The Pub was of the old variety that was combined with a grocery store.
The second stop was the Rock of Cashel where we toured the ruins and had an audio visual of the castle and other Irish castles.
It was good to visit our first Irish castle. We then drove on to Blarney Castle where Catriona kissed the Blarney stone and David kissed the castle as he did not get down low enough.

It was a bit of a production line and they were rushing us through, so a bit dissapointing. We drove through beautiful country roads with many green fields and well maintained hedges. Spent the night at Killarney where we went out for dinner a beer and saw some pub theatre.
The guy drank about 5 pints of Guinness and a dram of whiskey during the show. It was very funny and entertaining.

6th Drove along scenic Sleve head road where we saw centuries old beehive huts,
cliffs, rugged coastline,
stone walls and scenic beaches.

We boarded a rubber dingy
to get to the ferry to take us to the largest of the blasket islands.
It was a rough trip and very windy but no one was ill. We had 2 hours, so we hiked up to the top of the island with Christie and Andreas.

The island is uninhabited except for 3 donkeys, sheep and rabbits. The ferry was late back to collect us and an even rougher trip we were very glad to make it back to the mainland. Overnight in dingle, most people ate at the hostel and we had a great night chatting.

7th Drove a couple of hours to Tarbot to cross the Shanon river (longest in the British Isles) on a ferry.
Passed by many small towns with many pubs and small shops. Our tour guide Jac told us many interesting stories and history of the areas we passed. After lunch we visited the Cliffs of Moher which are the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princes Bride.
They are 8km long and200m high. Very windy and cold while we were there but they were very spectacular non the less. Drove on to the Burren which was once a sea and is now a limestone covered area. We visited a tomb which was over 1000 years old and contained the remains of more than 20 people.
Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. We spent the night in Galway and went out to a local pub with some of the group, had a couple of Guinness' while traditional Irish music was being played.

8th Set off early for one of the Aran Islands Inish Moher.
We left our usual bus and caught a passanger ferry over and walked to our hostel which overlooked the harbour. We hired a tandem and cycled around the island visiting a seal colony, 15th century 7 churches "Na Seache d'Teampheall",
Oun Aonghasa a spectacular semi circular celtic stone fort on the edge of a cliff, built in 2000 BC
And lots of other fantastic scenery. .
Ate at the hostel and had a few ciders and XXXX beers.

9th Back to the mainland and headed off to Westport where we walked around the town and visited the Church of Ireland with it's 100ft steeple,

we drove past peat bogs and were told about the 1840's potato famine. We stopped at a monument to the coffin ships where many Irish lost their lives trying to emigrate.
We visited the grave of W.B. Yeats at Drumcliff and took photos of the high cross andround tower, both centuries old. On the bus we had a game of pick the tune from TV shows and movie themes. The bus was divided into 2 and the losing side had to do an Irish jig in the main street of Ardara the next day. Our side lost. We spent the night at a small farm hostel near Kilcar.
A few of the group went out to dinner but David and Cat decided to have a quiet drink free night at the hostel. The scenery from the hostel was magnificent.

10th A short drive from our farm hostel and we visited Slieve League the largest sea side cliffs in Europe, 3 times bigger than the Cliffs of Moher.
We had about 1km walk to view the cliffs and it was very windy at the top. Back on the bus we continued along through Glenveagh national Park and pretty rural roads and tiny towns. We had a group photo at Ardara Waterfall and then went into Ardara to by lunch.
We stopped outside the church and did our jig and had lunch.
We were given a history lesson on "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. After lunch and some more driving we stopped off at Port Noo beach and we threw the little football around. Next stop was Grianan Ailligh,
a stone walled fort built around 3000BC which overlooks Derry/Londonderry. We then headed into Northern Ireland and our overnight stop of Derry. Dropped our bags off at the hostel and headed out for walking tour along the Bloody Sunday trail along the wall then over to the bogside and the Murals

It was quite disturbing to see young kids building a giant bonfire with an Irish Flag on the top waiting to be burnt..
After the tour we went out for dinner and had a few pints & saw some locals playing irish music. Headed off to bed at around 1.30am.

11th Left Derry under cloudy skies and misty rain and headed to Dunluce Castle.
We had a tour around the castle and just as it finished the clouds broke and we had to run back to the bus. We then neaded off to the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge where we were able to use our National trust membership to get in for free.
It was quite windy and the bridge was swaying but we managed to make it across with no problems, even stopping for a photo in the middle. On the little island we had a view over to Scotland and the Mull of Kintyre. Next stop was in a small town to go to the supermarket to buy lunch. We headed off to the Giants Causeway where we saw a short film on the history and stories surrounding the site.
We walked around the area for a while taking many photos. Then it was a long drive to Belfast. After checking into the hostel 8 of us headed off to the pub for some dinner then 5 of us went for a walk around the city stopping in at a National Trust pub complete with gas lighting.
We stopped there for a pint then continued our walk. We found a memorial to the Titanic shich was built in Belfast. We met up with everyone else at another pub and then headed off to see the bonfire.
Many English flags and people singing we will not surrender. We headed off to bed at 1am.

12th Up early to do a 2 hr black cab tour of Belfast. We visited the murals on the Protestant/Unionist side.

and drove along the huge concrete wall separating the two sides.
On the Catholic/Nationalist side we visited a memorial to the many people that had been killed. We also stopped off and took photos of more murals.

After the cab trip we had to be taken to the bus as the driver did not want to drive into the area we were in as he had Dublin number plates. We drove on to Newry to buy some lunch and on to Carlingord where we wandered around looking at the castles
and old church and had lunch by the lake. We drove on to a small cemetary with a tower and some stone crossed dating back to 800AD. We arrived back in Dublin at 4.30, said our goodbyes and headed off the the YHA where we had booked. We did our washing, had a shower and headed back into town to catch up with those from the tour still at the bar.

13th We were in different rooms at the hostel but managed to meet up with each other quite well. We had breakfast in the resteraunt and headed off for our siteseeing around Dublin. We walked down Oconnell St, past the millenium spire, saw the steyne stone which marked where the shore line used to be, went on past Trinity college (1592), took photos of the Oscar Wilde statue in the pretty Merrion Square Gardens(1752),
and then stopped for lunch in St Stephens Green, we headed off to the oldest pub in Dublin, the Brazen Head(1198) where we stopped for a pint and to listen to some Irish music. Then it was off to the Guinness storehouse for a tour and a Pint at the top in the Gravity Bar with its excellent view over Dublin.

14th We checked out and put our bags in storage then went off shopping. We visited many camping shops looking ofr a tent and air mattresses for our upcomming biking tour. We ended up buying some very small air matttresses, some very small travel towels and more locks. When we arrived at the airport to find our flight had been cancelled. We ended up finding a counter where a person was able to help us out and we were booked onto another flight arriving at Heathrow instead of Gatwick where our orriginal flight would have taken us. It was a smooth flight and we were so happy to see Robert and Elisabeth at the airport to greet us. The first familiar faces since arriveing in Canada over 4 months ago.

30th June - 4th July - Madrid, Spain

2008-07-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

29th/30th 13 hr flight from Santiago to Madrid. We shared 3 seats so were able to lie down for some of the flight. We arrived in Madrid to a sultry 35°c. The airport information was very helpful in getting us to our hotel. We caught 3 trains and ended up only 50m from our hotel. We went for a walk down to Plaza del Emperador Carlos V looking for a bank. We then walked back up our street and in the other direction where we had dinner on Plaza de Benavente at around 9pm and it was still very light. We walked down to Plaza Mayor after dinner and took a few photos. ourThe sun went down at around 10pm. We found an internet cafe to print out the Madrid walking tours we had stored on our memory stick then headed back to the hotel.

1st - We woke at around 10am to another hot 35°c day. We had breakfast and quick showers and headed off on the first of our walking tours - Old Madrid. The tour started at Plaza de la puerta de Sol which is the geographic centre of Spain. Our first stop was at a little café Chocolateria de San Gines where we sampled a hot chocolate and David had his with churros. We then walked to Plaza Mayor, and many other pointes of interest. Including this garden next to the Royal Palace

We had lunch at around 3pm in a little restaurant then found a park to have a lie down in. We set off again around 5pm after taking this shot back at the Palace and the Cathedral.
We headed up along Gran via past theatres, shops and lots of traffic. The final stop on our walk was Plaza de la Cibeles and the ornate Palacio de Comunications. We had Tapas for dinner on the sidewalk outside a bar near Plaza de Emperador Carlos V.

2nd - 10am wake up again this morning. This walk (Artistic walk of Madrid) started a little further away so we caught the Metro 5 stations to Bilbao. The walk said to start with a coffee in the Café commercial, so Catriona obliged. Our first stop was a plaza with outdoor sculptures. We took a couple of photos and headed off again down Paseo de la Castellana, walking through the centre under the shade of the trees. We made it to Plaza Santa Ana for lunch of paella mixta. We then headed off to the Prado. We found out it was free after 6pm so decided to check out the Parque del buen retiro. We had fun walking through the many shaded, hedge lined walkways.
We stopped to see Alfonzo XII mausoleum, Palacio de Valasquez and the Crystal Palace (below) which was once a green house but is now an exhibition centre.
We stopped to have a siesta here as well, then set off to view the old city gate (see it at the end of this garden bed David is standing in front of) We headed off back to the Prado where we viewed many paintings from the 12th - 15th century. There was also an exhibition of paintings by Goya. After we had finished at the gallery we walked back to Plaza Santa Ana for a wine, some beer and a plate of olives and pig fat! We didn´t realise that is what it was when we ordered it. 3rd - Todays walk was pick of the plazas. Only 28° today. We started off by walking to Plaza Lavapiés from there we headed all over Madrid city centre. We stopped off just outside Plaza Mayor at this café for a coke and a coffee. Then off again all over the city finishing at Plaza de Chueca the gay capital of Madrid, where they were getting ready for some kind of festivities, mayge something like Sydney´s gay and lesbian mardi gras. We had a very late lunch at around 5pm and spent the rest of the evening bar hopping.

24th - 27th June - Easter Island

2008-06-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Had an overnight flight from Quito to Santiago via Guayaquil. The flight was very turbulent the whole way. Had a rush to get from International to domestic as the night flight had been delayed due to bad weather in Guayaquil. We found when we arrived in Santiago we had to pay $61USD each to enter the country, plus another $50 in airport tax. What a rip off. We made it to the Easter Island flight and it was great. We had a nice new Boeing 767 with personal monitors and games consoles. The flight was smooth and went like a breaze. We arrived at around 12pm and checked into a dodgey guest house called Apina Tupuna, with magnificent ocean views. We walked to the town centre past the harbour where we saw our first Moai. We had lunch on the side of the road cafe. After lunch we walked to Tahai Moai complex and Ahu Ko Te Riku . We picked up a dog along the way that followed us around everywhere being our "guide dog". We also visited the museum, which was very interesting. In the evening we had a few beers/shandies watching the sun set over the water.

25th We headed off on the Te Ara O Te Ao trail to Orongo that took us to Rano Kau, the big volcano. Our first stop was the standing Moai at boat harbour called Hanga Piko. We then walked to a cave to view rock paintings and then to Manavai exhibition gardens, to see how they used to grow their plants inside rock circles. We passed through grass lands and eucalypt forest with good views back to Hanga Roa and up to the creater of the volcano. From the volcano it was a short walk to Orongo where we paid our $10USD to walk around the ancient birdman site. There was a complex of 54 restored stone houses in the ceremonial village and also petroglyphs which were carved into the rocks during the ceremonies. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the way back at around 4pm, stopped by the supermarket to buy some water and headed back to our room for the evening.

26th It was windy and raining all night but when we finally woke in the morning it was just howling wind. We decided to hire a car for 24 hours to see the other Moai around the island. The first sight of the day was Ahu Vinapu, being the site of 3 Ahu(platforms), near the airport runway. One of the Ahu has perfectly laid stone like in Cusco and Machu Pichu. It started to rain heavily, with gale force winds as we visited the ruins of Hanga Hahave, Hanga Poukura and Hanga Te'e. We got absolutely drenched through our "water proof ponchos", but we were not fazed and still managed to take a few photos. We then drove to Rano Raraku, the stone quarry where all the Moai were carved. We were amazed to see how many were cut from the side of the hill, there was even a 20m one joined to the volcanic substrate. We also saw a kneeling Moai called Tukuturi. The weather started to clear again and we could see Ahu Tongariki in the distance, being 15 reconstructed Moai, ranging from 5.6m to 8.7m high. We drove to Tongariki and took a few photos and a video

and also found some petroglyphs on the ground thanks to a French tour guide, who we followed around after that. We then went to the largest statue placed on a platform, 10m high, 85 ton Moai Paro. Here we touched the navel of the world that was brought to the island by Hotu Matu'a (the King who colonised the island). We next saw the 5 restored Moai Nau Nau at the white sandy beach. These all have pukao (top knots) and are decorated with petroglyphs on their backs. In the late afternoon we drove back through the middle of the island to Puna Pau, a secondary creater used as a quary for the top knots, then on to Ahu Akiui where we saw 7 moai that were restored in 1960.From there it was on to the underground garden and back along the coast where it started to pour down with rain again. We were dry at the time, but had one more photo to take of Kote Pu Hake Niai Mako'i. We got absolutely saturated again and had to head back to the hotel to change.We went out to dinner and also took a night shot of Hango Piko, who was lit up.A huge day considering the weather. We had a great day.

27th Had set the alarm to see sunrise over Tongariki but woke to howling wind and torrential rain, so went back to sleep until 8am. We had breakfast and returned the car and update the blog. The weather cleared and we were able to go for another walk to see the inland Ahu Huri A Urenga, an important astronomical marker with 11 spots related to the solstices and equinoxes. The Moai there has 4 hands.

16th - 23rd June - Quito & the Amazon Jungle

2008-06-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Had a 4 hour bus drive in our private mini van, being our final bus journey of the tour, to Quito. (that everyone on the tour agreed to pay extra for to arrive safely). Excellent trip at a normal speed. We noticed public buses swerving around corners, zooming past us only for us to overtake them when they stopped to pick up or drop off passengers along the route. We checked into the hotel and went for a walk through a couple of large parks and the old town. We tried to book accomodation at Hotel San Francisco de Quito for 2 nights after our tour finished, but it was booked out, so we ended up booking into the Chicago Hostal instead. We had lunch at Govindas a large soup, lentils, rice and salad and a fruit drink, for $1.60 each. In the evening we packed for our jungle expedition as we were only allowed a small day pack.

17th Headed off for the airport for our short flight to Colca. We boarded a 70 seat Focker F-28 jet for the 25 minute flight over the Andes to the Amazon Basin. With these small planes they have to calculate the weight for the atmospheric conditions, the temperature increased markedly from the time of everyone checking in to when we were due to take off so they had to get someone to volunteer to get off the plane.

The flight was good, only a little turbulance when we were above the mountains in the clouds. We were picked up at the airport by a big open bus and taken to the dock where we caught a motorised longboat for a two hour cruise down the Napo river. The river was murky brown and flowed very fast, there were many logs and other debris in the water that the driver had to navigate around. The river was very wide, around 400m, but only a couple of metres deep. When we arrived at the shore we had a 15 minute walk along a slipery moss covered boardwalk made of bamboo,then a ride in a long canoe to reach the La Selva jungle lodge. We were greeted with a tropical fruit drink and nibbles of cheese and biscuits, empanadas, salami & chicken pieces. We were then shown to our lodges (Huts built from palm and bamboo).
This is our hut which had a warm shower and two beds with mosquito nets and a hammock on the veranda. We had a trip on the lake in the afternoon on a long canoe looking for wildlife. We saw a few birds and they showed us the cats claw plant used in herbal medicine. The highlight of the trip was to watch the squirel monkeys having their last feed for the day on their way to their nights resting spot. They were jumping from tree to tree and some of the smaller ones missed their targets and did a bit of a free fall to catch a lower branch. Unfortunately the battery in my camera died and I did not have the spare with me. After dinner we did a night time insect walk around the gardens. We saw insects, frogs, a snake and a couple of huge tarantulas, this one was bigger than our hands.

18th 6am wake up call for breakfast at 6.30am. We set off on the long canoe at 7am for our walk to the native house.

We had a 30 minute walk through the jungle along the river bank. We say many pretty flowers, ferns and fungi. We also encountered a 1metre long poisonous snake that the native guide had to pin down with a stick he had made a little V at the end of, so we could pass.
At the house our guide picked a cocoa pod and we all had a taste of the fruit inside. The seeds are what they make cocoa out of. Catriona bit hers in half to have a look and it was purple. The father who lives in the house with his wife and some of his 9 children (the older ones are married and have their own huts on the property) was in the hut making a fishing net, he stopped when we arrived and we all introduced ourselves. We were given a taste of the drink they have in the morning to give them energy. It was made from alcohol and a mixture of plants that our guide said was like natural red bull. We then painted each others faces. See Davids art work on Catriona.
We were then show how they catch the animals with a blow gun and were all given a go. Amanda was the only one in the group who managed to hit the target which was a cocoa pod about 10 metres away.The father of the house is wearing the blue cap and holding the darts. We caught a motor canoe back to the dock where we walked back along the bamboo walkway and were paddled back to our accommodation . We then lay around in hammocks until lunch as it was very hot and humid. After lunch we again rested and at 3pm we went for a walk to the butterfly farm. We were shown all stages of the production from the eggs to the larve, catapillers and finally the butterflies.
After dinner we went for a night canoe to try to spot Camen but as the water level was so high they were hiding closer the the banks under the bushes. We did however spot a very large snake high in the branches of a tree and a frog on our canoe.

19th 5.30 am wake up call for 6am breakfast. This shot is of the lake at 6am.
After breakfast we went for a walk in the jungle to a observation tower built around a huge tree. The platform is 35metres high, the tree being 45metres is approximately 200 years old.
We had 360 degree view, giving us a fantastic view of the jungle canopy below. We were able to see many birds from our vantage point. Some of the birds we took photos of were the golden collared toucanet, yellow tuffted woodpecker, plumbeous pigeon, grey capped fly catcher and the forktailed wood nymph (humming bird) below.
We also saw many other birds including toucans and macaws. After a couple of hours bird watching we went on another walk through the jungle. Our guide pointed out interesting trees and ferns showing us the different medicinal plants along the way. Many of the plants are now commercially produced by drug companies. A group of small squirell monkeys and capouchian (not sure of the spelling) monkeys passed by overhead high in the tree canopy. We then rested again before and after lunch as it was another hot day and in the afternoon we went on another jungle walk where we met tarzan and took a picture, see below.
When we got back Catriona went for a dip in the lake with the piranhas and anacondas. Maren actually caught a piranha and had it for dinner.

20th 5am wake up call as we had to catch a 10am flight back to Quito. Our powerboat ride took a couple of hours as we were going up stream and the water level had dropped considerably from our journey down leaving many exposed sandbanks. The driver at one point had to double back to find deeper water. The flight back was smooth and the landing was good. Had lunch at a place near our hotel $1.50 each for soup, main, desert and drink, what a bargain. In the afternoon we caught a taxi with Gui and Victoria to the equator. Very touristy where we had fun taking pictures of the two of us standing either side of the equator line and also straddling it.

We had our final group dinner at Q resteraunt and bar. We had a few tapas dishes, our mains and some coctails/ beers. We said fairwell to Julio and everyone at around midnight and walked back to the hotel with Gui and Victoria.

21st Saw Gui, Victoria and Julio at breakfast and said our farewells again. We went to a camping shop and purchased a few pairs of hiking socks before checking out of our hotel and catching a taxi to our new hostel. We then went for a walking tour of the old town to take some photos. Our first stop was San Francisco Plaza and Church which is being renovated. Next was the cathedral where there was a baptism taking place. We walked to the Plaza Grande and the Presidential palace where the guards are dressed in little soldier costumes (like the nutcracker).
We then walked the unfinished Basilica. We bought our tickets for $2 thinking we had to pay to go inside the Basilica, however the ticket was to climb the tower. We climed to the top of the bell tower, where 1/2 way up there was a cafe that we stopped at and Catriona had a hot chocolate and David had a beer. We also walked across through the roof cavity of the basilica to climb the steeple.
It was quite scary on some of the ladders.
We were absolutely amazed at the places we were allowed to go and the excellent views of Quito we had. For dinner we caught a local bus back to where we had been the previous night. We went to the Vino i Tapas restaurant and had the $16 all you can eat and drink menu.

22nd We went for another walk around the old town to try to have our photos burnt to DVD, however being Sunday almost everything was closed. We caught a local bus to the Quicentro shopping mall to try to find Catriona some joggers however they only had up to size 9 and she takes 9.5, so no luck. It was raining when we left the mall so we got wet getting back to the hostel.

23rd Last day in Quito. We woke to a sunny blue sky so decided to go to the telerifico (Cable car). We checked out of the hostel and caught an electric bus to Santa Clara stop and tried to walk up to the base station. We stopped to ask directions and were told it would take 2 hours and we would be better off getting a cab. We managed to hail a cab and found that we had been walking in the wrong direction. While waiting in line for the car we chatted to an American guy from Los Angeles, who´s wife was from Ecuador. As usual half way up the car stopped and we were left swinging for about a minute.
At the top the clouds started to roll in, but we had a few sunny breaks as well.
Headed back down and walked back to the area we originally stayed in and had all our cards burnt to a DVD. On the way we stopped at McDonalds for lunch, reminded us of McDowells from comming to America.
Catriona had a wash, cut and blowdry for $5 USD, what a bargain.
We walked back through the park
and arrived back at the hostel where we had left our bags at around 5pm, picked up our bags and headed off to the airport. Found internet kiosk at the airport to update the blog.

12th - 15th June - Cuenca & Baños, Ecuador

2008-06-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Left Mancora for our 8 hour bus trip to Cuenca, including the boarder crossing into Ecuador. We were told this was one of the worst crossings in South America so we had braced ourselves. We had a private mini bus that was supposed to drop us off at the boarder and we were to walk about 200m through a very busy street to the Ecuadorian bus stop to pick up a local bus to take us to Cuenca. We were very lucky though as the mini bus driver and a few locals on the street convinced the police officer to let us though in the bus, which took us right to the bus station. The troubles started here though. We had 1 minute for 9 of us to use the toilets and Catriona being last had to run to make the bus as it had started to leave without her. The next 5 hours were the trip from hell. The driver thought he was in a rally car and as such we had the most &%%$*** (terrible) bus ride of our lives. At one stage David jumped up and asked our tour leader if he could get off the bus and make his own way! As you can see we did make it to Cuenca unlike the 5 British girls who died in a bus accident in Ecuador in April.

When we arrived we were very shaky and not feeling the best. We settled into our rooms and then headed out for dinner. We arrived during happy hour so that made us feel a little better after Catriona had a pina colada and David had a local beer.

13th Spent the day relaxing, trying to get over yesterdays bus journey. We had a wander around the town. Checked out the Cathedral where there were a group of people praying and singing while the host was on display. The stained glass windows were beautiful and the alter was another big gold display.
14th We were dreading the bus journey today. We had a 6.40am departure from our hotel so we were up at 5.45am. We had to catch 2 buses today, the first one was a 7 hour journey and the second only 1 hour. We were very surprised to find that this bus driver did not think he was a rally car driver, nor a formula 1 driver. We had a good trip up until lunch time, after that we found that a few people had been sick on the bus and Laura and Maren had vomit all over their bags. Also after lunch the driver drove much faster, but nothing like our previous driver. We arrived in Banos at around 4pm. We had a little walk around the town then met back at the hotel to plan our activities for the next day. We had a choice of 1/2 day rafting, 2 hours horse back riding or 1/2 day canyoning. The reason for only 1/2 day activities was that there were 2 world cup qualifying matches being played in the afternoon and no one wanted to work in the afternoon when there was a futbol/soccer game to watch.

15th 8.30am pickup for our 1/2 day of canyoning. David, Gui, Victoria, Laura and Catriona set off to be fitted out with wet suits, jackets, harnesses and shoes. We set off in a mini van to the start of the trip. The guides helped us on with our gear, and then it started to rain. We took one last shot before heading off on our journey. Unfortunately no one had a waterproof camera so we were not able to take any photos of our adventure.We started the trip by jumping 1.5m into a pool. Then we had to absail down our first waterfall. Surprisingly it was not that bad and David did it well. We then had a swim though the rapidly flowing water and a few more absails. We had to hurry as the rain started much heavier and the guides wanted us out of there before the water got much higher. The last part was supposed to be a 3 meter jump into a pool but we ended up absailing down to make it quicker and safer. We walked back up past a trout farm to a restaurant where we had freshly caught BBQ trout for lunch. We headed back into Banos to watch Paraguay beat Brazil 2-0 ane Ecuador and Argentina have a 1 all draw.

8th - 11th June - Huanchaco & Mancora, Peru

2008-06-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

Second last night bus from Lima to Trujillo then mini van to our destination of Huanchaco. Lovely little seaside fishing village. We had breakfast at the hotel before setting off to have a look at the town with Gui and Victoria. Walked along the promenade and paid our 50 soles to walk out onto the peir. We also watched people having surfing lessons.The weather was not the best as it was very overcast. There were many of thier traditional reed fishing boats lined up along the beech, and many small ones in shops for sale.By lunch time the clouds had cleared to leave us in sunshine and a glorious day. We had lunch at a little restaraunt where we had cebechi (Traditional Coastal Peruvian dish of raw fish marinated in lemon juice), for an entre, it was delicious. After lunch we walked up to the church on the hill with its magnificent view of the town and the coastline. We walked back to the hotel and David and Gui watched a Europe 2008 football match in Gui and Vicky´s room while Catriona and Vicki watched a Girly movie in the other room. After the football we went back out and spent the afternoon having beers and coctails, then dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

9th Set off for a full day tour of the archealogical sites around Trujillo today. We started at the temple of the moon which was built by a pre incan civilization dated at around 100BC. This is a shot looking toward the temple of the sun in the distance.They were all built from mud bricks, but it was amazing to see the colours of the painting that would have been on the outside of the pyramid shaped temple still visible. We also saw our first native Peruvian dogs. Ugly little things aren´t they?Next stop was the rainbow temple, called this as many of the decorations had pictures of rainbows. Not much colour left in the paintings, only a little yellow. We stopped off at a small museum and then off to our last stop for the day, the Chan chan complex. Another mud brick city that took a couple of hours to walk around. It was very interesting to see the archeologists at work repairing the structures.We set off at 6pm for our last nightbus, thank God. The worst one yet.

10th We arrived in Mancora at 4am, we were supposed to arrive at 5am but the bus driver had driven very fast and made up an hour. We found our way to the hotel in the dark and had a few hours sleep. In the morning we found our hotel was right on the beach and they offered surfing lessons. So we had breakfast on the veranda cafe before heading out to look around.Had a nice walk along the beach and did some yoga. Then we walked along the main street where Catriona bought a new sun dress. Then we had a relaxing lunch by the beach where Catriona sent a txt message to Lianna.In the afternoon David hired a board for an hour and Catriona had a lesson with Gui, Victoria and Simon. Have a look at the new Gidget here.

We spent the afternoon lazing around the hotel, having a few drinks with everyone before heading out to a restaurant for dinner.11th Spent the day relaxing and letting Catriona get over drinking too much the night before. Went for a dip in the ocean to cool off before heading to the main street for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant caled Angela´s Place. Fantastic food that included wheat and gluten free bread. We liked it so much we went back for dinner and ordered food to take with us for the next days bus journey.

3rd - 7th June Nasca - Lima

2008-06-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Nasca at around 6am. Headed straight for the hotel and a couple of hours sleep. Woke at around 10.30am, had breakfast and a look around the hotel which is around 15min. car ride from the town. Updated the blog and headed in to Nasca for lunch and a look around, then back to the hotel to play monopoly and drink Nasca Pisco and coca cola while playing Monopoly with Gui and Charles.
Gui thrashed us all.
Dinner of vegetable soup in the hotel restaurant before packing again and off to bed.

4th Headed off to view the Nasca lines on our way to Paracas.
We stopped of at an oasis where the others went on a dune buggy ride and sandboarding. David and Cat had a relaxing time walking around the lagoon and watching people try to sandboard.
After lunch it was off to Paracas for the night. We arrived at around 6pm, dropped our bags off at the hotel then back into the town where we had dinner at a seaside restaurant.

5th Next morning we were booked in to do a trip to the Ballestas islands to see some more Nasca lines. The trip was cancelled as the harbour had been closed because of a mini sunami caused by an offshore tremor. We set off for Lima at 10am and arrived at around 1pm. We had lunch at a little local place where we had a huge fruit salad, a jug of juice and a caserole with rice for 6 soles. Catriona bought her 4th pair of sunglasses for the trip as she had broken the arm off yet another pair. We found a supermarket and did a little shopping for a dinner of cheese, turkey, cabanosi, wine & beer in our room.

6th Felt like having a Max and Lee day today so we left our room at around 11am, had a little walk around, found a nice little diner selling Peruvian food. This time the menu was 3 courses and a drink. We chose a potato bake with guacomole for starters, chicken, chips, rice and salad for main and a jelly type desert, with a jug of chicha each. We were so full after lunch we had to go back to the room for a siesta. We met the others in the foyer at 8pm for the boys (Asher, Charles and Max) last meal with us.

7th Woke this morning at around 7am. We were getting ready for breakfast when we felt the building shake for about 5 to 10 seconds. It was the biggest movement either of us has ever experienced in a tremor before. After breakfast we went for a walk down to have a look at the ocean. There was a large mall there so we had a bit of a look around before heading back to the hotel to check out. Julio met us and took us to another part of lima where we were able to walk around the Plaza and have a look at the outside of the cathedral. (It was closed so we couldn´t look inside). We also visited a Franciscan monestary and its catacombes. We saw many, many bones down there. We also walked around the palace, now the government buildings. Then waited around for our 2nd last night bus.

30th May - 2nd June - Arequipa, Colca Canyon

2008-06-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Woke this morning to another street parade. Had breakfast before going out to watch. We headed to the airport at 11am for our 2pm flight. The flight was in 2 stages and I am sure you will know how happy David was about that. The first one was from Cusco to Juliaca and lasted around 30 minutes, it was a little bumpy. The second flight to Araquipa lasted around 30 minutes as well, but was a much better flight. Dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed out for dinner at a chinese/peruvian resteraunt. David and I both ate a huge meal and a jug of the local drink for 10 Soles.

31st - Departed Arequipa for our 2 day excursion to the Colca Canyon. Headed out on the main road north passing 2 volcanoes Misti and Chachani. We headed out into the National Reserve of Salinas & Aguada blanca and quickly ascended to 4,000m. We stopped off for some coca tea to help with the altitude. We also stopped along the way to take photos of Vicuña, alpaca and llama, a nearly frozen lagoon with a few ducks and geese. We also stopped to try to find the native rabit sunning itself on rocks.
This we managed to do before it noticed us and bounded away. They have quite a long tail, unlike ordinary rabits. We stopped for a buffet lunch in Chivay, had a walk around the square and visited the church where there was a large pipe organ with wooden pipes. Finally arrived at our hotel for the next 2 nights, had a rest and then set off for a walk into the surrounding hillside to view pre inca grave sites. The bones were clearly visible and you could see the deformities that wrapping the childrens heads to make them look like the gods had created. (See the skulls in the new Indiana Jones movie).
After dinner David went back to the room as he was not feeling well and Catriona stayed up to play a couple of games of backgammon with Gui, which she wone 2 out of 3 games.

1st - 5.30am wake up today to get to the Colca Canyon to see the Andean condors. The Colca Canyon is the deepest in the world, we viewed it from the top. We made it to the condor cross which is the best place to view the condors, we were not dissapointed. We had an hour there watching first one then six of them soaring around overhead looking for food. We both managed to get many good photos of the condors. We then had a walk along the cliff edge to another viewpoint where we had a group photo. Headed back to Chivay for lunch, stopping off in Maca where we visited a colonial church that had been rebuilt after 1998 earthquake. In the evening we headed off to the thermal pools for a dip and a drink of Colca sour, similar to pisco sour but the sour part made from a local cactus fruit instead of lemmon.
On the way we had a slow trip as all the farmers were on their way home with heards of sheep, donkeys and cows. Very nice. Lastly off to dinner at a resteraunt in Chivay where they put on a show of local dancing and music. We left just as they were starting to get audience participation going.

2nd Back to Arequipa where we arrived at around midday. We had some lunch before heading off to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina of the Santa Catalina Convent. It was started in 1579 as a convent for cloistered nuns. We spent the afternoon there wandering in and out all the little rooms, it was very interesting.
Went to the pictures in the afternoon to see the latest Indiana Jones movie then dinner and then off to the night bus to Nasca.

22nd - 29th May - Cusco, the Inka Trail and Machu Picchu

2008-05-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

22nd Full day bus journey through the high Altiplano region to get from Puno to Cusco. We had quite a bumpy trip with the driver swerving from side to side to avoid holes in the road. The scenery was impressive as we ventured through the mountains. We stopped at around 12pm at a pass at 4335m above sea level for a toilet break. There were a few stalls with people selling alpaca jumpers, rugs and other knick knacks. We bought his and hers alpaca jumpers Davids a dark grey and Catrionas light grey for 15 soles each.From here the journey continued along better roads. We arrived in Cuzco around 3pm, checked into the Rimacpampa Hostal and headed off to the Plaza de Armas where there was a parade for the feast of Corpus Christie. There were thousands of locals watching the parade of floats carried by the ¨lucky¨few. It was absolutely amazing for the first time in Catriona´s life she has been tall enough to see over a crowd!

23rd Spent the day walking around Cusco and visiting the Inka Museum and the Basilica Catedral. The amount of gold and silver inside the Cathederal is amazing. We saw where they stored all the floats used in the procession the previous day as well as the silver alter and the picture of the last supper where the meal was cuy or guinie pig.24th Left at 7am for the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo with our 6kg duffle bag for the Inka Trail hike. Our first stop was to a small village that GAP supports. Here we were shown how they dye alpaca wool using natural colours from plants etc. Catriona bought a small purse and a little Peruvian doll with a baby in its arms an one on the back. Next stop was a llama and alpaca farm where we were able to feed the llama and alpaca as well as bottle feeding the baby alpaca.Next was our first visit to an Inca site at Pisaq. Here we viewed the remaining Inca walls and amazing terraces. We stopped in the town of Pisaq for lunch and to brows through more markets. The last stop before Ollantaytambo was an Inca Bar where we were shown how they make the local drink quetcha from fermented corn. We tasted both the plain and wild strawberry sweetened versions. David also purchased the equimpent needed to construct a game of Sapo that we played there.It involves throwing coins onto a table and trying to get them into the holes or the sapo´s (frog´s) mouth. When we finally arrived in Ollantaytambo we visited the ruins there.The work that went into making them was amazing.

25th Boarded the mini bus and headed to Km 82 and the start of the 42km Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Views of Veronica mountain in the back ground. We had to show our passports and had them stamped. We stopped for a group photo then headed over the suspension bridge and started walking under sunny skies. The track was undulating walking past the first inca ruins of the track, Qanabamba.We had our first stop at a little village where we ate our morning tea snacks. Then it was onward and upward to what the guide called dead mans pass, a very steep hill and past the second ruins of Willkarakay.We passed many more small villages and stopped for lunch of vegetable soup and grilled trout. During lunch it started to rain so we had to don our gortex jackets before continuing our climb fo the rest of the afternoon. The rain was not too heavy so we did not get too wet. We made it to our campsite at 4.15pm.There was a lady there selling Gatorade, Soft drinks and beer, so Simon and Liz decided to have a cleansing ale before dinner. We were introduced to our porters and chefs for the trip and everyone had to say how old they were, if they were married or single and what job they did.

26th Wake up call at 5.30am with a cup of hot chocolate and a bucket of warm water to wash. Quick dress and packup and set off walking by 6.30am in order to make it up to dead womans pass before it became too hot. We walked for 2 hours from our overnight camp spot of Yunkachimpa at 33oom above sea level (asl). It was quite a tough walk up about 400m on an empty stomach.We stopped for a breakfast of Quinoa Porridge and a ham,cheese and spinache omlette. Another 2 hours of tough hiking to reach dead womans pass at 4200m asl. The weather was mainly overcast with slight misty rain. This was good as we produced quite an amount of heat trudging up the steep trail getting an amazing cardio workout not only from the steepness but from the altitude as well. We regrouped at dead womans pass and had another group photo then decended for about 40 minutes to our lunch spot of Paqaymayo. The decent was very difficult on the knee and ankle joints and we were very happy we had hired the two treking poles. Lunch was soup and beef and vegetables, with a hot drink to finish off. After lunch the porters packed the dining tent up once more and headed off to our night time camping ground. We were left to hike again ascending to a peak called Runkuraqay high pass at 3900m. We stopped off at the Runkuraqay ruin where our guide Jose explained to us about it´s significance as a stopping off point on the way to Machu Picchu. From the pass we decended again on stone steps all the way to another ruin called Sayacharca. The scenery and the wildflowers were magnificent.We also had times where there was very little visibility at all as can be seen in this photo of David and Gui.We finally passed our 3rd ruin for the day, Qonchamarca,before arriving at our 2nd nights camp site. 17kms in all today on top of the 13kms the previous day. When we arrived our tents were set up and wash basins of warm water waiting for us. Everyone had afternoon tea of pastries with apple or cheese filling. The Chef made Catriona some fried potato chips so she gave him a little koala as a thank you. Dinner was soup, curry and rice and a desert of chocolate pudding. 27th Slept in until 6am this morning and had breakfast of pancakes with chocolate sauce plus bread and jam. Catriona had a fruit salad. We set off for the cloud forest at 7.30am. Great views of the surrounding mountains, including 3 snow capped peaks with glaciers as we woke to a clear morning with very few clouds. The walk today was mostly flat paths on very steep ledges through wet vegetation and moss covered walls. We walked through a natural tunnel on our way to a spectacular lookout over a large valley and the back of the Machupicchu mountain.Stopped for a couple of photos before heading down to the first ruin of the day Phuyupatamarka. This had commanding views down a valley and there were special water channels built here. Our guide told us about the significance of the Andean cross and its relevance to the Inca way of life. There are 3 levels representing the Condor, the Puma and the Snake. Also the 3 things not to be a Thief, lazy or a liar. We then proceeded to walk down almost 1000m to the next inca site called Yunkapata. This was via many steep wet stone steps that unfortunately Catriona slipped on near the top and landed on her tail bone. Yuniapata is an amazing structure of terraces with spectacular views of the valley. From here it was a short walk down to our last nights camp site where we were able to have showers and lunch before visiting another incredible site called Winaywayna and its many waterfall terraces from the temple down to the houses and buildings below.

28th Wake up call at 3.50am and packed up our gear before 4.30am breakfast. Porters were collapsing all the tents at the same time. We entered the final checkpoint on the trail at 5.30am. and hiked through the rainforest in the twilight along the at times narrow trail with high steps and steep drop offs where we finally made it to the sun gate for our first view of Machu Picchu.From here we decended further to watch the sun rise over the mountain and light up Machu Picchu. We had another group photo and were then given a tour of Machu Picchu by Jose. Gui, Vicki, Cat and David left the tour early to be able to be one of the 400 people per day to be able to hike up Waynapicchu. We waited for an our and were numbers 377 to 380. It was a tough climb up after having spent the last 3 days hiking but well worth it for the views. The climb back down in parts was much harder than going up. David and Catriona also decided to climb Huxhuypicchu wich is the smaller mountain behind the city of Machu Picchu.
We ended the day exhaused having taken many, many photos, it was a fantastic day. We took the bus down the Aguas Calientes where we had lunch and caught the train back to Ollantaytambo and a mini bus back to Cusco for a wonderful hot shower and nice warm bed.

29th Woke up this morning and sent a load of washing from the trail off to be laundered. Then off to the post office to send our 10kg package of warm clothing home. Hopefully our last package home. Met Julio back at the hotel for a tour of the Inca sites around Cusco, finishing at Sacsaywaman which is where there is a big festival in June for the Sun God, called Inti Rami. Many of the stones from this site were removed by the Spaniards to make their colonial houses but they left the larger ones as they were too large to move.

Will load more pictures when time permits.

19th - 21st - Puno & Lake Titicaca

2008-05-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

19th Another early start, had to be ready for 7.30am bus which took us to the Bolivian - Peru boarder. The drive was slow up and out of the creater La Paz is in. It was a 2 hour journey to the shore of lake Titicaca where we had to disembark so the bus could travel across on a barge and we caught a small boat. We drove past many small towns and rural communities. We stopped for lunch at a small town on the lake where we spent our last remaining bolivianos. We transferred to a mini bus that took us to the boarder. The boarder crossing was very easy. We swapped onto a coach that was Inca class on the Peruvian side. We arrived in Puno at around 4pm. We went for a walk to the main street and bumped into Simon and Liz, so joined them for a beer/coffee & baileys before dinner with the group at a chinese restaraunt where we shared a meal (which we could not finish) for 10 pesos. (2.76 Pesos to $1US)20th Love these early starts. Picked up by cyclos for our trip down to the harbour at 8am. We boarded our boat at around 8.30 after having bought some provisions for our host family. We then set of to Taquile Island. The people of the island have managed to maintain their way of life, living off the land and from the lake, much to the displeasure of the Peruvian government. They do not trust modern medicine and still use Shamen when they have any ills. We had 1 1/2 hours to wander the island and take photos before meeting in the main square for lunch.. We had lunch of quinoa and vegetable soup and grilled trout with rice and chips for $15 Pesos. Excellent meal. We then set off to the peninsula where we had our home stay. When we arrived a delegation met us at the jetty. We were walked up to the school followed by a band playing drums and recorders. We were split up into twos and threes to go to different families. We stayed with a family with three children, one boy and two girls. Went back to the school yard where the locals challenged us to a game of football. David thought we were a good chance (because most of us have played football/soccer before) but even at 7 on our side to 5 on theirs they thrashed us over 10 to 5.David in orange running after the ball. We were given local traditional garments to wear to a party the locals put on for us. We had a fantastic time first watching the adults,then the little kids and then everyone joining in the dancing.Made it to bed at around 10.30pm.

21st Catriona helped to make breakfast of fried bread, my efforts were pretty dismal at first. David helped out by looking after the toddler who is just learning to walk and didn't want to be left alone.Back at the boat by 8am and off to the floating Uros Islands.When we arrived the women of the island we visited gave us a demonstration of how the islands are created and how they batter for food etc on the mainland. We were shown inside their houses and given the opportunity to purchase some of their wears. Before we left we were taken on a trip on one of thier reed boats around thier little island and past their trout farm. It was alot of fun. We arrived back in Puno around 12pm where it was back to the hotel for a shower and then off to the internet place to update the blog once more.

15th - 18th May - La Paz

2008-05-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Caught another local bus at 10am for our trip to La Paz. Our group occupied the first half of the bus with others at the rear. Locals were alowed on the bus to try to sell us food, papers or whatever. Most exited before we set off but some stayed on until we reached the terminal gates where the driver stopped to pick up more passengers to fill the aisles. When the bus stopped at a checkpoint 8 women jumped on with trays of cooked food or drinks trying to sell us some of thier wares. Most of them managed to get off before we headed off again but 3 of them were stuck on, one of them had very smelly chicken. They eventually got off when the bus stopped 20km down the road. They were not very happy when they got off, not having sold anything but would most likely have picked up another bus in the other direction back to their stalls. The route was very steep and scenic over the mountains. The bus driver didn´t stop at all until Maren had Zaida request a toilet stop at around 1pm. He gave us 5 minutes for us all to use the 3 toilets available. Fran who has been sick for weeks was last back and the bus driver started to move off without her until Asher got up and made him stop. It was a very tough bus ride but luckily we did not feel the effects of the altitude this time having gone through it previously.
Around 4pm we hit a road blockade simillar to the one at Iguaçu Falls. But this time the driver decided to go overland. We followed small dirt tracks not meant for big buses. We passed other buses and trucks doing the same thing. We had one hairy moment when we got to a small hill but the conductor guided the driver in the right direction and we made it back to the road after about 30 min. We finally arrived in La Paz at night. La Paz is in a creater so we had a spectacular view of all the city lights as we drove in. When we arrived at the terminal we were advised to be on our guard as there are many thieves about. We transferred to a smaller bus, having our luggage put under the bus in the luggage compartment. We were just about to leave when the driver spotted someone taking one of the backpacks from the luggage hold. The guide chased them and they ended up dropping it and running. Luckily it was Simon's bag as he has a 95litre backpack which is very heavy. If it had have been mine or David's they would have had no trouble running with it. So after that bit of excitement they made sure they locked the luggage compartment and we set off up the very steep and crowded streets and made it safely to our hotel.

16th Spent the day wandering the streets looking at the witches markets and the tourist- artisan markets with Donna. The witches markets sell all sorts of potions and dead animals for luck, health and other things. We bought a jumper with llamas knitted into the pattern, a couple of benies, a small chess set where the white side is the Incas and the black side are the Spanish. We also walked passed San Francisco church and to some local markets where I managed to buy some more sun glasses as I managed to break the arm off the pair I had to buy in Canada.
Finished the day having our farewell dinner and Frans birthday at an asian restaraunt. The food was very ordinary but the company was excellent. Not sure why GAP tour leaders continue to take us to foreign restaraunts where the food is vastly inferior to the local cuisine.

17th We woke at 6am for a quick breakfast and were escorted to the tour office (too unsafe to walk the streets by ourselves at that time of the morning) of Downhill madness mountain biking. David and I along with Sandy, Asher, Max, Charles, Gui, Vicky, Maren and Laura had all signed on to ride the death road, one of the most dangerous roads in the world. We were fitted out with padded pants, a vest, full face helmet, and full finger gloves.

We set off with 7 others in 2 mini busses, through La Paz and out into the country side. There was heaps of traffic on the road as it was a carnival day and many people were heading into La Paz and to other towns around for the festivities. After an hours drive we disembarked from the vans and were matched up with our bikes. The bikes were top of the range Rocky Mountain soft tail bikes from BC. The suspension and the seats were excellent. The journey started at La Cumbre 4700m and we decended on the main road in single file spaced about a bus length apart. After a couple of kms we stopped and were put into a slow medium and fast groups. David and I were in the fast group so were toward the front. We had to pass quite a few trucks that had to travel very slowly on the very steep road. The scenery was amazing, massive mountains similar to the rockys in Canada. We had to stop and dismount to pass the checkpoint and then pay 24 Bol for the ride down the death road. At every stop we were given very detailed instructions on the conditions we were going to face in the section of the road we were riding on and how to ride defensively and safely. Once we were on the first part of the death road the decent was around 500m on gravel and dirt with very steep drop offs and narrow sections and tight corners. We had to be carful of the gravel and to stay on the tracks so as not to loose control. At one point the guy travelling down behind me lost control fell off onto the track and his bike went over the cliff. Luckily it was caught in a tree and they were able to retrieve it and he only had a few grazes. We passed a few points where many cars, buses and trucks had been lost over the edge. One corner had 70 vehicles lost over the edge. The whole of the ride down was awsome, scenery from top to bottom excellent and some of the best we have seen on a bike.We finished up with a beer at a little shop at the bottomand then off to Yolosa where we went to a hotel for lunch and a shower. The view from this hotel were excellent as well.Then a 3 and a half hour drive back to La Paz. David was in one van that drove back via the death road, (much more scary in a van in the dark than on the bike) and Cat in the second van that drove back via the new road. Even though it is relatively new it is in very bad condition due to rock falls etc. Arrived back at around 9pm to pick up our t-shirts and CD, very tired but exhillarated as well. We had to walk back to our hotel through a street procession. There were many bands and dance/marching groups dressed in colourful costumes.The parade started in the morning with locals standing and sitting in temporary grand stands along the street. It was an amazing spectacle. The locals had been drinking all day so a few were quite drunk. We made it safely back to our hotel.

18th We finally met our new tour leader who had been held up in Lima after having lost his mobile and camera. We then set out into the streets again to find that there were still street parades going on.One of the ladies from this troupe gave me a little hat as she was walking past.It was very hot during the day and they were drinking and having fun. Spent a few hours updating the blog and uploading photos onto flickr.

13th - 14th May - Cochabamba

2008-05-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Our nightbus was the worst so far. There was no toilets on the bus and there were a group of locals camped up the back of the bus behind the last seats as well as in the aisles. We were seated toward the back of the bus and Sarah in the last seat had someone stroking her hair during the night. We started out on very winding bitumen roads but after our last stop at around 12am the road became dirt-gravel and it was very difficult to sleep on the very hilly, twisting roads. It was a slow journey and we arrived at 7am in Cochabamba.

13th We had a sleep for a couple of hours. We headed out for a walk around the dirty city. The footpaths were very uneven and broken and it was very easy to trip. We had lunch at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. The meals were huge and very reasonable in price. After lunch we walked to the lake which looked like a dodgy area so we left there pretty quickly and headed for the markets.The markets were huge, full of things for locals including traditional dresses, bowler hats, cattle heads and intestines, live produce that looked sick. We wound our way through the stalls and eventually found our way back out into the open air and headed back to the hotel. As we had lunch so late we did not end up going out to dinner but finished off our Pisco with Gui and Vicky.

14th David went for a run with Asher for 40min. They ran up and around a hill where they had a good view of the city.We went back to the same restaurant as yesterday for a huge breakfast. We then set out to find David a pair of shoes to replace an old pair he had brought. We ended up finding some at a shop by the main square. In the afternoon we took a city tour on an open topped double decker bus. There was both Spanish and English commentary so we were able to find out alot about Cochabamba and had a very enjoyable time. Finished the night having dinner with Gui and Vicky at Dumbos. Walked back to the hotel via some more market stalls and tried unsuccessfully to find some fruit for the bus journey the next day.

10th - 12th May - Sucre, Bolivia

2008-05-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

10th Departed Potosi at 10am on a local bus. It was not as bad as we were expecting seats were quite comfortable. The road was good quality bitumen the whole way, which was a pleasant surprise after the last week of travelling on dirt-gravel roads. The scenery was spectacular, at one point we stopped off to take some pictures of a suspension bridge. We eventually made it to Sucre and were met by the local operator who gave us a huge selection of activities to do over the next 2 days. We had lunch-dinner at a small restaurant around the corner with Gui, Vicky, Fran and Sandy, a 3 course set menu for 30 Bolivianos ($4.00) and the food was very good.

11th Today we set off on a walk to see some rock paintings and an Inca trail. We set off with Gui, Vicky and our guide in a mini bus to the start of the hike a couple of Km outside Sucre. We drove through a large agricultural market that is held once a year over a week. There were donkeys, cattle, llamas and other live stock everywhere. It was very colourful and interesting. We also had to stop at a police checkpoint where they have a piece of rope strung across the road to stop at. When the toll has been paid they lower the rope for the trucks and cars to pass. The hike itself was tough as we were hiking at altitude of over 3,000m.We walked down to the first of the rock paintings where there was a man in traditional dress waiting to let us in as they have been fenced off.We then had to walk back up which was the hard part, and down again to the second larger rock paintings. The next part of the hike was a long walk back to the van where we took a short ride to the start of the Inca trail. This was a steep down hill walk which took its toll on David's knees. All up the walks took around 6-7hrs. On the way back into town we passed some dinosaur foot prints so the driver stopped for us to take some pictures. We finished the day very tired but happy.

12th Today was our big mountain biking day. Asher, Charles, Gui, Vicky, David and Catriona all headed off to the tour place at 9.15 to be fitted out with our bikes, helmets and gloves. Freddy, the guide headed off and we followed him through the busy traffic filled streets of Sucre. I (Cat) had trouble keeping up, as did Charles. We eventually caught up as we headed out of the city centre. Gui and Vicky where no where to be seen but they had our guide from the previous day with them. We headed in the same direction as our trip the previous day had taken us, out past the airport up hill and past the markets. I had trouble with my bike being too big as it had an extension on the post for the handle bars. Luckily for me Asher swapped bikes with me and I was able to ride a little better. Just after the markets we took a left turn and were out into the country side. We stopped at an excellent viewpoint for lunch,then it was off again on the trail heading back into town past many farms etc. We passed a boy and girl in school uniform in the middle of nowhere so David stopped and gave them both a pencil with Koalas and Kangaroos on them. We had problems with our bikes with gears slipping etc for most of the ride On the way home Ashers chain broke and Freddy did not have a chain breaker with him, so he swapped bikes with Asher and coasted down hills and David pushed him along the flats an small uphills until we reached the outskirts of Sucre where he was able to borrow a pair of pliers to fix the chain. It was a slow uphill ride back to the shop where we arrived exhausted..We found out later that the guy with Gui and Vicky had no idea where he was going and they ended up at the police check point before turning back. They ended up just riding back the same way they had come. Vicky's chain had also broken on the ride and their ¨guide¨ also didn't have a chain breaker so they had to push the bike back. A complete disappointment for them. We arrived back at around 2.30pm so we had time to explore the city. We stopped by the Cathedral, the Library and also the local produce markets. The fruit and vegetable displays were extremely colourful. Ended the day an early dinner and then the night bus ride to Cochabamba.

8th - 9th May Potosi

2008-05-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

6 hour bus journey over very rough road. Our first chicken bus minus the chickens as it had been hired just for us.
Many places they were doing road works and it was only single lane with a sharp drop over the edge. Passed many little mud huts, some still in use others in ruin, also many llama heards. We stopped for lunch in a tiny village. The toilets were putrid, no flush. You had to get a scoop of water to do a manual flush. We arrived in Potosi around 4pm. Very steep, narrow roads. The city is situated on the sides of a few hills. It is the highest city of it's size in the world at 4000m above sea level. We were feeling the effects once again, the slight dizzyness and breathlessness. Went out to dinner together to a very nice restaurant. David and I both had a traditional Bolivian dish of meat, chicken, sausage, onion, egg, pepper and gravy over a bed of fried potato. A huge meal all for the princely sum of 32 Bolivianos less than $5 each. We ended up taking a doggy bag and finishing it off for lunch the next day.

9th Breakfast in the hotel included eggs, muesli and yoghurt, juice, tea or coffee and bread with meat and cheese. After a satisfying breakfast we set off with Gui, Vicky and Tanja to explore the City centre. Walked through the markets, similar to the one in Uyuni with cow parts etc. Walked down the boulevard which is full of shops. We also browsed through craft markets where Catriona purchased some little people earings, some long knitted socks, an alpaca scarf/shawl and a drink bottle holder, David purchased the brightest backpack (with typical South American designs) in the markets. All this for under 300 Bolivianos. Visited the main square and a large church where mass was being said. Have taken lots of photos of this pretty, colonial city. Spent the afternoon updating the blog and wandering the streets again. Dinner for Sarah's 23rd birthday at another nice restaurant.

5th - 7th May Salar Uyuni

2008-05-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

We slept in today as we were to leave at 8am and woke at 7.05am. Quick breakfast, shower and pack and were ready with 5 minutes to spare even though Cat had left her shoes outside the room overnight and they had gone walkabout. Jumped into a van to take us to the Bolivian boarder. Our first stop was the Chilean boarder where we had troubles as our driver tried to queue jump. We eventually had our passports stamped for our exit but Laura had lost her visa (They are only peices of paper given to you as you enter the country and very easy to misplace). We were held up for about 30 minutes until the guard decided to let her through. Next we had a 30 minute ride to the freezing bolivian boarder. It was just a small hut in the middle of nowhere with no toilet facilities other than to squat behind a wreak of an old bus. No troubles here once we filled out our immigration forms. We transferred our bags to 4 Toyota Landcruisers which were our transport for the next 3 days. Zaida, Donna, Tanja, Catriona and David shared one of the landcruisers. All roads are dirt, some in better condition than others. We drove past huge mountains and volcanoes. Our first stop was the Laguna Verde or Green Lagoon. Amazing colours due to the copper content, looked similar in colour to a glacial lake. We stopped for lunch at a little place near a hot spring.

Cat went in but David decided to give it a miss. Lunch was cucumber, tomato, cabbage, onion, meat and bread. They even provided sweet rice cakes for Cat. A few of the group started to feel the effects of the altitude with dizzyness and headache. We had reached 5000m but dropped back down to 4800. After lunch we stopped off at some geysers,
stopped to take pictures of an active volcano and at another stop to take pictures of some llamas. We arrived at our overnight accommodation at 4pm. We were right in front of Laguna colorado, a red lake due to alge and plankton. Gui, David and Cat went for a walk to a viewpoint over the lake. The colours were remarkable and well worth the exhausting walk. We saw a flock of pink and white flamingos. David was feeling the altitude and did not feel well on the walk back, we took it very easy and slowly. Pasta bolegnese for dinner tonight. Catriona had some rice spaghetti with her and was able to eat as well. Headed to bed early as the solar powered lights went out at 8pm. Before bed David went out to have a look into the sky. The stars were amazing, very clear and bright as there were no lights from the settlement to obscure the view. Everyone had a really bad nights sleep. David had a headache, trouble breathing and sleeping and woke in the morning with diarrhea. Catriona also had a headache and nausea. Both of us didn't sleep much. Most people said it was a night where they wondered what they were doing here and wanted to go home.
6th Couldn't stomach breakfast and David took 2 Immodium for the trip. Spent the day criss crossing the desert tracks viewing rock fromations(the tree stones),
lakes (laguna onda) to view more flamingos. We also passed many llamas,
sheep, vicuña. The scenery was always amazing. We stopped for lunch overlooking the blue lagoon.
David gave them our can opener to open the tins of tuna. They were amazed by it, showing it to one another and were very grateful. One of the drivers came up and shook Davids hand and said "Muchos Gracias Amigos". Catriona still not feeling well so had small amount of rice and a couple of panadol. Our night stop was San Juan village where we were able to have showers and shared a room with 6 others. Dinner was Chicken, chips and rice and everyone was feeling much better as they had aclimatised to the altitude. 3 kids from the village came and put on a show for us.
The older boy played the pan pipes and the two girls danced. Very cute. Early to bed again as solar powered lights out early.
7th Everyone had a much better sleep and feeling good. Today we crossed the salt flats of Uyuni. Our first stop was Isla Incahuasi, an island in the middle of the salt flats. It is a coral island and covered in cacti. We had an 1 1/2 hours to explore the island before setting off over the salt flats, stopping in the middle of nowhere to take some photos.
Wilma, our cook found a hole in the salt, where from the water just below the surface she dug out some of the salt crystals. The shapes were amazing. Lunch was at the salt hotel, amazing. We then headed to see the process of salt mining and production at a little local operator. There were a few stalls of handcrafts where we bought a beanie each and a man and lady bolivian finger puppet. Last stop was the locomotive graveyard just outside Uyuni. We arrived in Uyuni in the early afternoon, checked into our hotel and set out to see the town.
Walked through the markets where we saw a steers head on the ground and pieces of the steer hanging up. Many little stalls selling everything from safety pins to traditional clothing to hair dye. We passed a funeral procession for a small child. The little white coffin was being pushed along in a makeshift trolley and many women and children followed along behind carying flowers. We headed back towards our hotel, stopping to buy a llama finger puppet along the way. (Guess what the llama is saying) We decided to have an easy dinner at the pizza restaurant in the hotel. They made a nachos with some pizza toppings for Catriona. Showered and early to bed again as they only had one channel in Spanish on the TV.

3rd - 4th May San Pedro de Atacama

2008-05-09T12:13:00.002-07:00

Spent most of the 3rd on the night bus. We passed through very mountainous desert, with little or no vegitation. We were able to get off and stretch our legs at a couple of major bus terminals along the route. We arrived in San Pedro at 3pm, found our hostel, had showers and set off to explore the tiny town, full of young backpackers. We visited the main square and the very old church where we were able to take a few photos. All the buildings were adobe (made from mud and sticks). We went out to dinner for Laura's 26th birthday at the Adobe bar and after dinner went for drinks at a small bar, where we played drinking games.

4th Today we walked around the town visiting the old church again for a photo of the outside, the cemetary where there were many small graves, the futbol field and around the outside of the town where we saw the irrigation channels, some in use others not. In the afternoon we did a tour of the Valle del La Luna (Moon Valley) we saw the three Marias which were rock formations, Death Valley- Nothing lives there due to the acidity of the soil, and finally to view sunset over the Andes. Zaida brought up some red wine and chocolates for us to farewell Chile. Everyone had a great time. We ended the day having dinner at a little restaurant with Gui and Vicky.

30th April - 2nd May La Serena

2008-05-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Another 9 hour bus trip to get to the seaside town of La Serena. Left Santiago where it had started to rain, through tunnels and past sprawling suburbs heading North. We were travelling into the sunshine and fresh country air. The vegitation changed into desertlike landscape with low lying bushes and many cacti. The views from the bus were fantastic. Deep blue sea on the left and high andes mountains on our right. We made it to the town in the late afternoon. It is another old town founded in 1500s and was the main link to Santiago and Peru. There are 29 churches of which we visited 4. Narrow streets and a few plazas, full of people and cars.

1st We took a full day tour to the Elqui Valley. Everyone came along even Sarah and Laura who are also following our trip after having officialy left in Santiago. The first stop of our tour was supposed to be a papaya factory but as 1st of Mayo is a holiday like Labour Day it was closed, so we headed on up to the dam. We noted that even though we were in a desert area they had many crops planted, papaya, grapes, citrus and avocado to name a few. The dam supplies all the water for irrigation and drinking water for the area. We also visited a Pisco factory where we were shown the steps to making pisco and also sampled some grapes and 60% Alcohol Pisco (They can only sell up to 50%) it is watered down to make it the legal level of alcohol. We drove through picturesque mountains of many colours. Yellows, Reds, Greens, orange, white and brown, with citrus and grapes planted into the hills. The many colours are due to levels of iron, copper etc in the earth. Finished the tour visiting the place where a famous Nobel prize winning poetress lived and died. Headed back to La Serena for a drink at a bar and dinner with a few others from the tour at a place recommended in the Lonely Planet.

2nd. Late start packed and out of our room by 12pm. Updated the blog and set off to see the Japanese Gardens and some more churches and historic buildings. Left at 9pm for our overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama.

27th - 29th April Santiago

2008-05-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Santiago Chile at 6.30am. After a quick breakfast on the bus we checked into our next Hotel in the heart of the old town quarters. After a quick shower we headed off on a walking tour of the old city. We first went to Cerro Sta Lucia - the site where the city was founded in 1541.
From here we were able to see great views of the city and the Andes. We then met up with half of our group and continued walking around the city admiring the grand old buildings, churches etc. There was a group of scouts marching in the main square. We caught the metro train to a different part of the city for our farewell lunch for Jon, Greg, Thomas and Linda who were leaving the trip. We were to go out for drinks at night for Thomas and Linda but the weather was so bad we had a room party instead. Will attach a short video later.

28th David not feeling too well after last nights party so he didn´t leave the room until 2pm. Cat went down for breakfast and to see off Thomas and Linda. At 3pm we headed out for a walk through the shopping district where we were amazed at the number of shoe shops. We also visited the Palace which was once the mint and Iglesia San Francisco the oldest church in Santiago. We had our meeting for the next part of our journey. Max, Charles and Asher from London, Simon and Liz from Nottingham and Donna from New York. After the meeting we headed off to dinner with Simon and Liz at an italian restaurant close bye.

29th We took the hop on and off bus tour of Santiago with Gui, Vicki, Tanja and Amanda. We started at the Iglesia san francisco and traveled around the city till we got to the funicular where we alighted the bus and bought our tickets for the funicular and telerifico (gondola). The Gondola didn´t start till 12pm so we decided to have a walk around Bellavista a quaint little Barrio (suburb) with many restaurants, cafes, small shops and colourful old houses. We travelled the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal where there was a large statue of the Virgin Mary. Amazing views of Santiago and the snow covered mountains behind. Due to the smog it was very diffucult to take pictures that showed the scenery. We took the gondola up and back across the hillside and had lunch in a Baverian beer garden. After taking the funicular back down we caught the bus past the old markets and then back to the begining again. We had to track down an exchange place to buy some Bolivianos for our boarder crossing. After trying 10 or so with no luck, we finally found one where we were able to buy a small amount.

Update to previous entries

2008-04-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Have just added David and the Master video clip to Paraty entry.
Have also added video of Ilha Grande Boat trip into google videos. http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=-8804949910890640255

23rd - 26th April - Pucon

2008-04-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Another 6 hour bus trip where we slept on and off on our way to Pucon. Another small touristy town similar to Bariloche. Lots of upscale accommodation, places to shop and eat. We wandered down to the main street and bought some supplies at the supermarket for our next couple of days here. We are staying at hostal willy where we are staying in a little house next to the main hostel with kitchen facilities, dining room, open fire and a BBQ. We had a BBQ for dinner and a few drinks. The tour operators from the volcano climb came and kitted us out with our gear for the climb. It included boots, pants, jacket, gloves, helmet, backpack, crampons and a neckwarmer/beanie and an ice pick. 24th 7am start today. We headed off for Volcano Villarrica about 10km South of Pucon. In winter this is the snow skiing mountain of Pucon. We drove above the cloud line and got out at the car park. We had a short walk to the chairlift where we had a choice to walk for an hour to the top of the chair lift or catch it for 5000 pesos. Only Jon and Greg decided to walk, the rest of us caught the rickety old double chair. As you can imagine David was freaking out as there were no chains or anything to hold you in and it decided to stop when we were above the highest point from the ground. Luckily it only stopped for a minute if that. Once back on solid ground we hiked up to the glacier where we put our crampons on and were given a demo of how to use the ice pick in case we were to slip.. It was a tough, exhausting ascent to the point of the 1983 lava flow. We took a few rest stops along the way taking in the views and many pictures. Lucky for us it was another sunny day. The further we climbed the more the cloud below evapourated leaving us with spectacular views. We took the crampons off and scaled the lava flow to the top. The smell of sulphur was quite overpowering at times but we managed to stay up there long enough to have a group hug,take more photos and have a bite to eat. The views were incredible, both of the surrounding country side but also into the crater.

It felt like we were on top of the world. Our decent was fun and difficult at times. There had been a snow fall a week ago and we were able to slide down much of the way on our bums like a slippery slide. We had to walk over the lava flow again and then put our crampons back on to get over the glacier. Once we took our crampons off again we half walked half slid down through the cinders and volcanic rock back to the car park. We arrived back at the hostal exhausted but having had one of the best days of the tour so far. We finished off the day with a little party our tour leader put on for us. 25th Another early start, this time horse riding. They asked us what our experience was and matched us up with our horses. We headed out along a dirt road where the horses were just walking while we got used to the them and they got used to us. It was a scenic ride through the country side. We were able to make the horses trot and then canter. We went through a Mapuche (local natives) village and past their farms. We stopped by a river to have a snack. I (cat) didn't quite get my foot out of the stirrup before dismounting and ended up on the ground with my foot still attached. The guide hurried over to help me out and advised me to only have my toe in the stirrup when dismounting. The trip back was along the river where we were given another opportunity to canter along the sand. Then on a winding track over rocks and up and down hills. In the afternoon we headed off to the termas los Pozones, local natural thermal pools by the river, to soak our weary bones. It was another enjoyable day. We finished off with dinner in a restaurant and then to a club called Mummas and Tappas, for a drink. 26th Last day spent updating blog and exploring Pucon.

21st - 22nd April - Puerto Varas

2008-04-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

Left beautiful Bariloche (Argentina) where it had started to rain. Had a 6 hour bus trip to Puerto Varas (Chile). Smooth boarder crossing. The road was very scenic and winding traveling through the Andes. Unfortunately this was not good for motion sickness, but I (Cat) managed to hang in there. David and I are still not 100% but the others were not either but theirs was due to a huge night at an Irish pub. We had a little walk around the main streets of Puerto Varas. Looks like a little German town as there were many German migrants after the WWII. We went for dinner at a seafood restaurant at the end of the day. We both had salmon, glad to be able to have something other than beef after our time in Argentina.
22nd We took a tour with some of the group to Chile's 2nd largest Island Chiloe. Our tour van boarded the ferry which was rather daunting as it was so small. We were able to go up to the top deck for the journey. We saw sea lions, pelicans and seaguls on the journey. Our first stop off was to a little village with the oldest Church in Chile. We then set off on a gravel road past many small family run, subsistence farms. Everything there is done manually, from milking to ploughing the fields. We stopped off to see some black neck swans and to sample some oysters with white wine, tough life but someone has to do it. There were men out on the shore drying seawead to sell, to make agar agar. We then stopped off at the islands biggest town where we went to the produce and handy craft markets. They have an interesting way of selling muscles, threaded on a string and dried out! We then headed to the penguin beach (no penguins as it was not the right time of year) where we had lunch at a little restaurant with a million dollar view and very cheap prices as they catch the fish locally. David and I had sea bass with potatoes for around $6 each! Last stop off was San Antonio Fort which managed to survive the 1960 Earthquake and tsunami. Another fantastic day.

18th - 20th April - San Carlos de Bariloche

2008-04-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

Arrived at 11.30am in pretty good shape after such a long bus journey. We checked into our new accomodation which is a log cabin style youth hostel. As has been the case so far we have a private room and do not have to share a bathroom with 8 others like the other guys.
We headed off to look around the pretty, small town. Very touristy, like Jindabyne with lots of restaurants and shops selling outdoor gear. After a quick hamberger, Jon, Greg, Gui, Vicky and Cat and David took a bus about 5km out of town to a gondala. We took the gondola to the top of Cerro Otto. About half way up we entered the clouds, so there was limited visibility at the top. We set off outside and it was blowing a gale. Luckily the trail was protected and we had a good walk back down the hill and into town. Once we were out of the clouds we had a magnificent view of the town, lake and mountains. We went out to dinner with Zaida and a few of the others to the best steak restaurant in Argentina. The chef showed us the different cuts of meat and as the portions were so large we shared a half serve. The meat was exceptional.
19th We were booked on a private tour through the hostel to take us to Mt Tronador, the highest mountain in Argentina. We passed some amazing scenery, Lakes like a mirror and Huge mountains with many colours due to the leaves on the trees changing. Our first stop was a 1 hourkçhike uphill to the top of a 70m waterfall. Again fantastic views of the valley and surrounding mountains. Next stop was lunch at Pampa Linda for a lunch of caserole and mashed potato. The drove on to have a walk to another waterfall. We walked through a native bamboo forest. The next trek we did was to the base of Mt Tronador and we hiked to the end of one of the 4 glaciers on the Argentine side. More amazing scenery, Sonya (the local guide) was fantastic giving us real insite into the Park and the flora and fauna. Finished the day shopping where we found gluten free pizza bases and biscuits. So we went bak to the hostel to make Pizza. Zaida read the instructions for us and we found we needed fresh yeast so back out to the shops where we were lucky enough to find a packet exactly the size we needed. Excellent way to end the day, Pizza, Chocolate and red wine.

17th April - 21hr night bus to San Carlos de Bariloche

2008-04-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

Did some last minute shopping for pack covers, a couple of shirts and a pair of 3 length zip off pants for Cat. David also bought an Argentine futbol shirt. Boarded the bus at 2.30pm for a 21 hour bus trip.

Lucky for us it proved to be the best bus so far, wide seats, large windows and they played a couple of videos, Dirty, Failure to Launch and some movie in Japanese with Spanish subtitles. We were served Afternoon lunch, Dinner and breakfast. (Most of it was bread or sandwiches so I (Cat) couldn´t eat it.)

15th - 16th April - Buenos Aires

2008-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Paul took the whole group on a walking tour of Buenos Aires for the day. We started off taking a trip on the underground to Plaza Italia, from there we walked down a small colourful street, similar to Newtown. We stopped at a cafe for breakfast/coffee and a look around the shops in the area. We saw a few dog walkers with about 10 dogs on leads that were very well behaved. We then walked through the botanical gardens, where there were many stray cats. We also walked past the zoo and through other parks, full of ponds, rose gardens gravel walkways and sculptures. We ended up walking to Recoleta Cemetary which is full of crypts where we could see the coffins and stairs down to the lower levels. An amazing experience. We also found Eva Perons grave which was rather low key compared to many of the others.We finished the day by going to a Tango lesson, 3 course dinner and tango show. It was excellent! We even liked the piano accordian.
16th We went out to lunch with Paul and half the group, in San Telmo. The restaurant was supposed to serve the 2nd best steak in Argentina. It was very good. David and I shared as the meals are so huge. After lunch we caught taxis to La Bocca, which is a part of town with very colourful buildings and the areas surrounding it are poor and dodgey so you have to catch a cab there. It was very touristy and there was a Diego Maradona lookalike who was charging to have a photo taken with him. He had a photo of himself with the real Maradona and it was hard to pick who was who. In the afternoon we walked the main shopping Mall called Florida avenue, it was about a kilometer long. Towards the end of the day it was getting very smokey due to fires surrounding the city and the lack of wind to take it away. We had our first meeting with our new tour leader Zaida and 3 new people on the trip, Sarah, Thomas and Linda. Then went out for our final dinner with Paul at a very ritzy restaurant. David and I shared a meal again, Kid on a spit!

13th - 14th April Colonia

2008-04-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

A 1.5 hour bus trip took us to Colonia. We settled into our hotel and we set off to explore the town. Very quaint old town settled in the 1700´s. We visited the oldest church in Uraguay and the city gates and what is left of the wall that would have surrounded the city. It was a very cold and windy day. We ended up going to the shops and buying some beer and a bottle of Dunbar whiskey. That night we drank and played cards in the common room of the hotel.
14th Lovely sunny day we wandered around the town and took a few photos in the sunlight. We had a BBQ for lunch at the hotel for Gui´s 33rd birthday and spent the rest of the day on the rooftop terrace playing Canasta with Dawn. Left at 6pm for the ferry to Buenos Aires. Was a rather smooth trip over the brown murky waterway. We went out on deck for a little while and it was interesting to see all the channel markers in such a huge expanse of water. It must have been a narrow channel as there were huge ships passing very close by.

11th - 12th April Montevideo

2008-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Left Salto at around 12pm for our 6 hour bus trip to Montevideo. We had a fairly smooth journey through the countryside of mainly farming land and through a few small towns. Very interesting to see the different types of architecture. Most of the houses are very small brick and cement. Arrived in Montevideo at 7.30pm and headed out for dinner. 12th Spent the day walking through the old part of town. There were markets on in a park in the centre of the old town selling antiques, arts and crafts. You could buy muskets, pistols, old telephones with the stick and the other bit you put to your ear attached by a cord (don´t know the name of them but I am sure Sheldon or Gregg will be able to help there). We went out to lunch with the group and shared a main, it was still huge! I can´t believe how big the servings are here. We didn´t end up having dinner as David was still stuffed from lunch.

10th April Salto Uruguay

2008-04-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

The bus dropped us off on the side of the road where we were met by a couple of taxis. 4 to a taxi including our luggage is a very tight fit. The taxis took us through the boarder crossing into Uraguay and on to our hotel in Salto. We were going to spend the day at the waterpark but it was closed so we spent the day by the river drinking beer (shandys for Cat). David hurt his shoulder and back throwing a vortex around. He seems to think he is still 20 like the rest of them. Sandy who is 10 years older than me also had the same problem as David and has asked Paul to tell her next time she is too old to play all day. :-) We went out to dinner with the group to a resteraunt about 10 blocks from the hotel. Nice to be able to walk back after the big meal.

7th - 9th April Iguacu Falls

2008-04-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

Spent last night travelling on the night bus from Sao Paulo to Iguassu. It was not as bad as we had expected. More comfortable than an airoplane as the seats reclined much further. We arrived at the bus depot at 10am and were taken to the hotel by taxi. We had to wait in the lobby until around 12pm so David decided to get his little football (Rugby League) out and throw it around. Paul let us use his PC to pay off our credit card. We are reluctant to use the public PCs as Cat´s internet banking logon had been canceled as someone had tried to use it. Once we checked in and had a shower we set off for the Brazilian side of Foz du Iguacu. We walked along the path with the views of the falls gradually getting better and better. We took many photos from the different vantage points along the path. Along the way we also saw many colourful butterflies, lizards, a coati mundi which was an furry animal the size of a large cat with a big fury tail striped like a racoon´s and a pointed face. We also saw a toucan in the trees above us.The falls were quite spectacular even though the volume of water is much lower than at other times. At least we didn´t get wet! We took a walkway right over near the top of Devils throat (The largest part of the falls). For dinner we went to a traditional Brazillian BBQ resteraunt where they have a salad buffet and the waiters walk around with meat on large skewers and cut it off at your table.8th. Today we were to go to the Argentine side of the falls, however on our way there the driver recieved a call to say that there was a protest on the Argentine side of the boarder blocking the way into the falls. We ended up having today as our free day so we walked through the town, posted a couple of postcards and bought a top each. David bought a number 10, Ronaldinhio Brazillian soccer jersey. We then spent the afternoon by the pool reading and relaxing.9th. We had an early start today as we needed to get the falls in before catching a night bus to Salto in Uruguay. We headed off for Argentina and said goodbye to Brazil. After passing through we encountered the protest. They had a couple of large baners in the Argentine flag colours, blocking the highway. We were stopped there for about 30 minutes before they decided to let some traffic through. We spent the day on the many boardwalks and taking many more photos of the spectacular falls. Everyone else in the group went on a boat that goes right up to the falls, they ended up soaked. The falls were absolutely amazing and it was good to have been able to see it from both sides. We didn´t make it to the devils throat on the Argentine side as we were worried we would not make it back to the bus depot in time due to the protest. We spent about an hour in traffic again waiting to cross the picket line. When we arrived at the bus depot we found our bus was stuck on the other side of the protest so we had to catch a shuttle to our bus and transfer our luggage on the side of the road, and also wait another hour in traffic. The bus was a double decker bus where we were served dinner much better than we have had on an airline, and it was only the standard class bus. I can´t wait for the superior class bus.

4th - 5th April Paraty

2008-04-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Took a 1 1/2 hour local ferry then a 2 hour local bus ride to reach Paraty. Not a good trip to take when you don´t feel well, thank goodness for Maxalon. Arrived in Paraty around 3pm and found a place to have lunch. We then walked around the old town for the rest of the afternoon. Paraty is a historical village founded in the 1700´s. We walked up and down the cobble stone streets and took photos of the colourful buildings, churches and boats. Had dinner at a very nice thai restaurant. Went on a tour of the area to some waterfalls where some of the people from the tour had a slide down the rocks into the pool at the bottom. We also visited an alambique distillery where they did some tasting. I (Cat) am giving my body a break from alcohol for a couple of days. We stopped at a restaurant and had Fejuada for lunch. It is a traditional Brazilian dish made from beans, sausage and pork off cuts. We then visited a 17th century farm which also included a distillery. We finished the day watching a capoira display. They called up a few of our group to join in at the end and David did so well they put him up against the Master.

1st - 3rd April Ilha Grande

2008-04-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Left Rio around 10.30am with 15 of us in a mini bus. David and Paul had to stand, or share a seat with one bum cheek on the 2 hour journey to the Port where we caught a schooner over to the island. We had a relaxing 1 1/2 hour trip in very calm waters. there were cussions on the deck for us to lie on and enjoy the view. We arrived at our lovely tropical accommodation that remineded us of where we stayed in Luang Prabang. Went for a walk in the local rainforest in the afternoon where we viewed an old aquaduct and some ruins. We also went to a natural pool which was lovely, and other views of the island. We had a BBQ and caphirinas for dinner at the hotel. A great start to our holiday with the group.
Next day we decided to walk up to Parrots Peak it was supposed to be a 6 hour return walk, but we managed to get up in 2 1/2 hours . It was very steep in some places walking over many tree roots and large boulders in some places. Walking through the rainforest was very hot and muggy and we drank heaps of water along the journey. Fantastic views of both sides of Ilha Grande. We arrived back at the hotel hot and tired. We had a nap and a shower before going out to have a look around, then back for drinks around the pool before dinner at a restaurant on the beach. Very nice.
Woke early and David took a yoga lesson by the pool before breakfast. Eight of us went on a cruise around the island. We stopped to snorkel, play soccer on the beach and have a bbq lunch. We also drank many capirhinas and ended up dancing on the boat and having lots of laughs . I (Catriona) drank way too many and ended up quite ill.

30th - 31st March Rio

2008-04-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

30th I (Catriona) woke early this morning with diarrhea. Must have eaten something dodgey yesterday! Went downstairs for breakfast of bread rolls, ham, cheese, pineapple, coffee and juice. I decided to give it a go, David had the bread rolls though. Headed back to the room and did not leave there for quite some time. We ended up watching the Pink Panther, the modern one with Steve Martin. We headed out later to get some lunch for David then back to the room for some more rest. In the afternoon we went for a huge walk along Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach. The roads in front of the beaches were closed to trafic and there were heaps of people out and about. We ended the day doing a bit of shopping for diner. 31st Met Tanja this morning (she is on our tour) and headed off on a full day tour of Rio. Our first stop was Sugarloaf mountain. We had to take 2 cable cars to get to the top. We had a clear sunny day and the views of Rio were magnificent. We then drove by Copacabana and Ipanema beach to take some more photos. We then went into Centro (the CBD) and visited the Cathedral, which is a very modern designed building like a cone with the top chopped off. There were full stained glass windows on four `sides`. We headed up through St Teresa on the cobble stone streets to the Corcavado to see Christ the Redeemer. Once again the views were very impressive. Had a meeting with the others on our tour and went out to dinner. Dawn from London, Laura from Oxford, Amanda from Cambridge and Marin from Norway are continuing on having started the tour in Caracus, John and Greg from toronto, Gi and Victoria from Brisbane, Sandy and Fran from Proserpine, tanja from Munich and Charlotte from Cheltanham, with Paul our Leader from UK somewhere.

28th-29th - Miami to Rio de Janiero

2008-03-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

Spent our last day in Miami shopping for last minute things for our South American trip, then dropped the rental car back at around 4. Checked in at the airport only to find our 8pm flight had been cancelled and we were now on a 11pm flight. We met a lovely girl named Audrey who is from Sao Paulo. She gave us a few tips on what to see and do in Rio. We had a good flight arriving in Rio at 8.30am. Crazy taxi ride to our hotel, but arrived safely.
Spent the day aclimatizing to the heat and humidity. Caught a crazy local bus in which we managed to get airborne over a small bridge (they drive very fast, especially around corners and they brake really hard. Really need to hang on, even when sitting down.)
We ended the day at Copacabana beach, strolling along the waters edge. Very romantic.
We join the tour tomorrow 31st March.

21st to 27th - Florida

2008-03-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

21st Walked off the American Airlines flight from Vegas to Miami at 6.00am a little tired but happy after we had a smooth night flight. Cat and I walked straight in and picked up our hire car from Hertz - a small Chevy (but it is like a toyota corolla actually).
Cat drove straight onto highway 1 and we were off down the road to Key West. It was a great drive over all the bridges (especially the 7 mile one) that link up all the Keys. At Key West we walked around all the old buildings and shops, had a hot drink and key lime pie (lime cheesecake) and we sat around Malloroy Square waiting for the sun set.

There was a large cruise liner at the dock and thousands of people from the ship were in Key West, so it was very crowded. As the sun lowered more and more street performers and the like set up around the square. It had a carnival type atmosphere. Unfortunately due to cloud cover we did not see the sunset.

22nd - We headed of the the John Pennecamp National Park and walked around the boardwalk through the mangroves. The weather was not favourable for snorkelling so we decided to head up to St Augustine. We were caught in a huge torrential downpour as we skirted Miami on the interstate 95 freeway. The rain was so heavy we could hardly see the road and many cars had their hazard lights on and were driving around 20 miles/hr instead of the usual 62-70 mph. We made it as far as Melbourne which is just south of Cape Canaveral. For dinner we had Pad Thai at a local Thai/Vietnamese restaurant.
23rd - Set off to the Kennedy Space Centre where we spent most of the day. We did a Cape Canaveral: Then and now tour which took us around to all the old launch sites and the airforce space missile museum. It was facinating to hear the guides and volunteers (who worked at the site during the time these old facilities were used in the early 60s) talk about what went on. Good thing we are not one of thier neighbours as they did occasionally have missiles go astray. One in particular ended up over Brazil and has just recently been found in the jungle. In the afternoon we headed off to St Augustine.

24th - We had a full day to look around St Augustine - the oldest European settlement in North America. It was settled in 1565.

We jumped onto one of the sight seeing trains that travel to all the important tourist places in St Augustine like the Oldest wooden school house in America, the Flagler memorial Presbyterian church, Flagler college-which was one of the old hotels built by Henry Flagler (one of the founders of standard oil) and the old fort which is one of the reasons that the town is still here.
25th - Found the library and Cat uploaded some photos and updated the blog while david did some washing at a laundromat. Then we headed back down the coast toward the Everglades. We stopped along the way at Daytona beach and had lunch and watched the cars driving on the beach. It was a cold windy day but there were still plenty of people sunbaking next to thier cars on the beach! Our overnight stop was at Pompano Beach.
26th Headed to the Everglades national park, Shark Valley visitors centre. From there we took a 2 hour narrated tram ride out to the observation tower. Saw many birds and alligators along the way. We found out that the everglades is actually a large freshwater river/slough that due to human intervention is endangered and much smaller than it first was.

27th Back into the everglades but the southern part this time and Flamingo visitors centre where we hired a canoe for 3 hours. We paddled up buttonwood canal to Coot Bay. M

17th - 20th March - Las Vegas

2008-03-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Very bumpy flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Las Vegas for the last 30 minutes as we skirted some electrical storms. Good lightening show out the window of the plane. Our bags were delayed for about an hour at Las Vegas so we occupied ourselves watching people on the slot machines and watching the huge advertising screens showing what shows were on in Las Vegas at present. Once we picked up our bags we caught a shuttle bus to our hotel - The Casino Royale - after dropping off others at their hotels. It was like a mini tour of the Las Vegas Casinos, great way to have a look around the lights of the strip. Ended up getting to bed around 1am.
18th Woke and had small breakfast of porridge then headed out onto the strip. After a couple of hours we stopped for second breakfast of ham, eggs, sausage and tortilla at a little Mexican restaurant, we declined the breakfast Margaritta or Bloody Mary that was offered. Walked to Tropicana and then caught local CAT (Citizen Area Transit) bus into the suburban area looking for a thrift store to get a wedding dress. No Luck, found where the shop used to be but it had closed down a couple of months previous. Missed a few buses and time was running out so we caught a monorail to the Sahara in the hope of having lunch. By the time we arrived there we didn't have much time left before the wedding so had to forgo lunch to find the Graceland Wedding Chapel. After an hour of walking and 4 blisters later we found the Chapel. You can view the pictures here http://www.dotphoto.com/GuestViewAlbum.asp?AID=5159405
Username Graceland Password DCHAR
The wedding was a hoot. As you can see from some of the photos we got to sing with Elvis.
After the wedding we decided to check out downtown las vegas, the old part you see in old Elvis Presley and James Bond movies. We then caught a bus back to the Sahara and the lines for dinner were excessive so we ended up catching the Monorail back to our hotel and had dinner next door at Denny's.
19th Had a good nights sleep and headed back to the Sahara for their breakfast buffet, but by the time we arrived they had already started the lunch buffet, so we took our time over brunch and left thoroughly stuffed. We caught the monorail back to the other end of the strip at MGM grand and headed to Mandalay Bay which is the last Casino on the strip. We made our way slowly back through the Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York and so on down the strip. Lots of interesting exhibitions etc in the casinos and lots of new shopping malls since we were here last.
20th Packed up and put our bags in the storage room. Another day hitting the strip taking photos inside The Venitian and other Casinos, as the voice on the monorail said, we travelled from Luxor to New York to Paris, Venice and the Sahara all without a passport. We had lunch at the Flamingo buffet and then headed into their gardens and pool area. An oasis in the desert with Flamingos, turtles and many birds. Cat had a little cat nap for 1/2 and hour then we wandered the strip a little more with the feeling of being Las Vegased out. We headed off to the airport in a shuttle and were glad to be away from Las Vegas. Caught our 11.10pm flight to Miami and because of the time change after our 4.5 hour flight arrived in Miami at 6am.

15th - 17th March - Calgary

2008-03-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

Checked into our dodgy Hostel yesterday. Spent the first night in a mixed dorm, shared with some local homeless (they seemed to be working in the construction industry nearby).
15th-First stop was to return the rental car and from there we caught the C-train back into the city to do some sight seeing. We found an MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op, similar to Paddy Pallins) and ended up buying some shoes that are a cross between sandals and hiking shoes, they have covered in toes. I also had to buy a new pair of sunglasses as I had broken the arm off my old pair at Canmore. After a full day sight seeing we went back to the hostel and checked into a private room, much nicer than hanging out in the lounge watching boxing on the TV with a bunch of guys speeking French! I found a copy of REX my life and David had fun reading all about Rex Hunt's life so far.
16th- Got off to a slow start as it had been snowing all night and was rather cold outside, and we had the room to ourselves. Walked back to MEC and spent another $400 on some x-country ski/bike pants, 2 pairs of cycle shoes like the ones we bought yesterday except you can put cleats on them, and a pair of rear bike lights. We purchased a day ticket on the train, so spent the day travelling around on the C-train. Did a dry run of our trip to the airport and did some grocery shopping. Back to the hostel and David finished off reading REX.
17th - Up early and headed to the Scotia Centre to post off our ski gear home and the bike stuff we bought to London. Caught the Train and a Bus to the airport and were there 3 hours early. We needed it as we had to go through pre clearance for the USA. Much better than having to wait until we got to Dallas as we only had an our turnaround there.

14th March - Drumheller

2008-03-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

Got up early and headed off to Drumheller. We stopped off on the way to have a look at the 1988 Olympic Ski Jump and Bobsled track near Calgary.We went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum just out of Drumheller. It is home to many dinosaur skeletons. It was absolutely amazing. We saw many bones and fossils and even a paleontologist working on a find.

After the museum we stopped off at a small church that claims to seat 10,000 only 6 at a time.

Then on to Horse Thief Canyon where we had a good view of the Bad Lands and the amazing landscape where they have found many dinosaur bones.

Then went to Wayne an old Ghost town with a population of 30. We had to cross 11 bridges in 6 miles to get to the Last Chance Saloon, where David had a beer and Catriona had a root beer.

Our last stop for the day was some more hoodoos. Once the cap is dislodged the form errodes much more quickly. The one on Davids right days are numbered.