In our week long break between retreats, we took a ferry over to Morocco (North Africa). Arriving in Tanger, we had a few hours to spare before our overnight train departed for Marrakech. Our first impressions of Morocco was that was an intense place. In the cities things are non-stop. Market stalls open early and trade late into the night. Everyone wants something from you and will stop at nothing to get your full attention. First, they test out up to six different languages until they figure out your nationality. We were very impressed with the number of languages that the average Moroccan can converse in. Everyone speaks their two official languages - French and Arabic. Then there is the local language of the Berber people that most locals are familiar with (and there are several ... read more

After our adventures on the farm, we headed East to Almeria by bus. The change in scenery was quite dramatic, with the seamingly endless blockade of beachfront hotels and resorts finally giving way to smaller villages and eventually some coastal cliffs. Almeria and the sorrounding area is mostly famous for being used as the movie set for many Spaghetti Westerns (Western movies made very cheaply in the 60s and 70s), this being the main reason for us traveling here. So in that vain we´re going to present The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Almeria: Firstly the Ugly. Although the city centre seems to be fairly nice, although slightly outdated in architecture, and has a vibrant cafe culture, the city surrounding the core streets is quite poor. Many buildings seem to have been under construction ... read more

We have just spent the past two and a half weeks traveling around the countryside in Southern Spain (Andalucia province). Before we left Malaga we sent the last night enjoying the atmosphere of the Festival de Malaga which was a week long multicultural festival. There was also an international film festival on at the same time. We enjoyed a variety of tapa dishes from around the region, and also many varieties of beer and wine. Our next stop was a little town called Tolox, which is a small town situated at the foot of the Sierra De La Nieves (a large national park mountain range). We caught a local bus to the town (we weren´t exactly sure where we were going as no one spoke any English but we managed to get there ok!) We had ... read more

Having decided that we had enough of Olde London Towne, Ali and I hired a car and took off down to the country, but not before a quick trip to Greenwich to stand on the prime meridian and sychronise my watch. We headed down about 2 hours South West of the city to a lovely little town named Wimborne Minster, which is situated about 25 mins north of Bournemouth and Poole, two towns on the English south coast. We were staying in Wimborne with Tilly and her family - for those of you who don't know Tilly she met Ali's sister Steph while traveling and stayed with us for a short while in Melbourne and with Ali's parents in Canberra. After being frontloaded with a mass of local information from Tilly's family, we headed out to ... read more

Dubai is one of the most interesting and different places we have seen. It basically looks like a brand new city of skyscrapers that has landed in the dessert amongst some very traditional buildings. Stu would describe it as a place of extremes. It has an extremely old and traditional culture infused in an ultra modern setting. We experienced some of the cheapest and best food we've had in the world (about $3 for both of us including drinks) and some of the most expensive western food (about $250 for dinner). There are lots of westerners here, probably as many as locals. It's also very hot here, however we've been told that at the moment the weather is perfect because in summer it gets up above 50 degrees! The bus stops are air conditioned and everyone ... read more