Flew from Cairns to Alice Springs where it was a toasty 37c! From Cairns to Alice Springs there's a half hour time difference which was a bit weird! The taxi driver from the airport in Alice Springs was of Scottish descent but asked us whereabouts in England we were from!! As it cooled down we took a walk up Anzac Hill in the centre of Alice Springs to see a view of the town and watch the sunset. The deep blue desert skies were amazing and the photos don't do it justice. Next day we sheltered from the baking hot sun [View Full Entry]

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From Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays we drove north stopping off at Ayr (!) for lunch where it was about 35c, so just a wee bit warmer than the original Ayr in Scotland! As Jen got out of the car she accidently stood on her watch that had fallen on the ground so that made 2 of us without a watch as Gordon lost his on the Lares Trek in Peru! (Och well, who needs to worry about the time anyway?!). Heading further North to Townsville we noticed a dramatic change in the scenery as we entered a lucious green tropical [View Full Entry]

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Heading north from Brisbane to Noosa we visited Australia Zoo made famous by it's owner the late Steve Irwin. Although expensive, it's a great place to spend a few hours. Throughout the day you can hear the keepers speak about the animals which was really interesting and entertaining, e.g keepers were lifted up by the trunks of elephants, rolled around with tigers and fed HUGE crocodiles by hand! It was fab to see Wombats and Tasmanian Devils as we'd never seen them before. Jen slightly overcame her fear of Kangaroos as we tried out feeding them and they were really tame [View Full Entry]

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After a short drive from Bellingen to Coffs Harbour we enjoyed a walk along the marina to Muttonbird Island for great views of the town and surrounding coast. We then walked along the beach under the old pier but it was still a bit cool and windy to sunbathe or swim. This is the nicest part of the town but we decided to walk into the centre anyway which is a few kms away. We found a beautiful walk back from the centre to the marina along the creek, part of which was a boardwalk through mangrove swamps. The YHA hostel [View Full Entry]

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Well, we escaped the sandstorm in Sydney and thankfully it didn't follow us to the Blue Mountains, though it was still a bit windy and cool! On the way we stopped off at Wentworth Falls, though when you've seen Iguazu Falls in South America nothing really compares! As it was windy the water from the fall actually blew upwards instead of down! We were really impressed with the YHA hostel in Katoomba. It had a very relaxed atmosphere with a lovely art deco social area and fire place (needed for the cold evenings). We went for one of the fab walks [View Full Entry]

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We had a great 14 hour (!) Quantas flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney. GG was entertained with a huge choice of TV programmes and films. At one point we were flying over ice sheets near the South Pole which was amazing to see! Despite the long flight we felt surprisingly awake when we arrived in Sydney, so much so that we had enough energy to go for a nice Thai meal! It was lovely to have a nice tasty dish after the many bland meals we'd had in South America! On our first full day in Sydney we visited Darling [View Full Entry]

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We had 3 full days in Buenos Aires and wish we'd had longer as it was one of the highlights of the trip so far. Yes Rio was nice and well worth a vist, but the people in Buenos Aires were friendlier and we loved the look of the city (very much like Paris) and the street entertainment. We stayed in a really quirky hostel called 'The Art Factory', which was highly decorated with lots of funky murals on the walls. Our room had a big cow painted on the wall! The staff were brilliant and there was entertainment every night [View Full Entry]

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After 45 days of early starts on our tour, it was nice to have some longer lies and not have a strict timetable full of activities. On Sunday we went to the famous hippie market in Ipanema where Jen was in heaven and GG was bored! Heavy rain put a stop to Jen's fun and Gordon heaved a huge sigh of relief! The next day we went on a tour of a Rio favela! There are many favelas in Rio but Rochina is the only one reckoned to be safe enough to walk around. The British government travel advice says to [View Full Entry]

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We've been so busy in the last 3 weeks that we've not had any time to blog! Sorry! We finally located our missing tour leader, who we reckon had been off on a 2 day jolly with yet another girlfriend from a previous tour that he led! We got an overnight bus to Iguazzu Falls and the girlfriend joined us for the journey!! The falls are stunning and one of the highlights of the trip. We viewed them from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides and got thoroughly soaked going along the walkways and from the speedboat going under the falls. [View Full Entry]

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Jen managed to hold it together just long enough to visit an orphanage in Sucre! A few of the group had bought supplies of nappies and shampoo to take to the place which was a church run project managed by volunteers. Jen was impressed at how well the place was run and had fun playing with the babies and toddlers! Afterwards JP dragged GG around yet more shops and markets (lovely handicrafts! Could´ve bought loads!). We said bye to two members of the the group and after a disturbing night on the bog Jen just managed to make the flight to [View Full Entry]

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