I'm feeling sad as I sit down to write this final blog. I can't believe that we are at the end of an 8 month jaunt around the world, having explored some of the most inspiring places that most people only dream of visiting. I hope that you enjoy this final instalment of our blog (for this trip anyway!) and thank you all for your most appreciated feedback and support! Well, we were almost reluctant to return to Kathmandu after our back to nature experience in Chitwan National Park. But the lure of the best pizza in the world ensured that [View Full Entry]

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So hungover and hungry we touched down in Kathmandu airport from Lukla. The plan was simple: get to hotel, dump our stuff and go and grab breakfast, and spend the afternoon snoozing. The pre-arranged airport pickup man wasn't there, so we had the joy of haggling for our taxi. Oh we took the serenity of the mountains for granted! Once we threw our stuff into the hotel we dropped back our rental gear, happy to get the hefty deposit back in our greasy mits, we walked to the famous Mike's Breakfast in the scorching heat and chaos that is Kathmandu traffic. [View Full Entry]

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My lungs are burning, my lips are frozen, my legs are begging me to stop. Four more steps. I stop to gasp for air. At last, there is no where else to go. I'm standing on the summit of Kala Pattar at 5,600m. Prayer flags are flapping furiously in the wind. Finally I muster the energy to lift my head and look around me. There it is... Everest piercing the bright blue sky surrounded by its Himalayan giant neighbours, Lhotse, Nuptse, Pumori, Ama Dablam, and the Khumbu Glacier. I have to concentrate to catch my breath again. I remember how this [View Full Entry]

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Excited! That is how we both felt leaving Brisbane for Hong Kong. Moving from our longest time in one country to our shortest, we predicted a bit of a culture shock when we arrived in HK. Boy were we right! We were wide eyed as we drove into town in our taxi at the sheer scale of the buildings, high rise apartment blocks everywhere. As soon as we got out of the taxi, the hustle and bustle of the city was upon us, and the heat and humidity hit us. We stayed at the Ah Shan Hostel, which is basically a [View Full Entry]

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Have you managed to tear your eyes away from those fabulous photos of Whitehaven beach yet?! Pretty nice eh? But it gets even better! We got a bit lost coming out of Airlie beach, forcing us to drive through it twice more, argh! We were so glad to get out of that place. Next stop was a money saving night in Cape Hilsborough National Park, just south of Airlie beach. We registered ourselves at Smalley's beach camp for 4 dollars each, which Lonely Planet assured us would be "jumping with kangaroos". It wasn't. But, it was a pretty nice spot nonetheless [View Full Entry]

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Well, after the somewhat underwhelming Ayers Rock experience, we were off to Cairns. We were excited to hit the coast, and get away from the outback and head for the ocean. We touched down in Cairns to buckets of rain, and that's the way it stayed for 2 days non-stop. Turns out the humidity never drops below about 97%. We were holed up in a really nice place called Dreamtime which had a cafe attached to it, offering backpackers cheap meals. The highlight of our time in Cairns was collecting $120 from Qantas for our wandering luggage. When the time came, [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, I can't believe my turn to write the blog has come around again so soon! It seems like just yesterday that I was telling you about our outback adventures. We were very sad and lonely leaving Simon and Row's place in Sydney. We had such a lovely time there it really was very difficult to move on. We couldn't stop thinking about how we would be back to proper backpacking after we stayed with Sarah in Melbourne. We were so used to friendly, familiar faces and no hostels. However, we had one more week of sponging off relatives to [View Full Entry]

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After flying back into Sydney from Parkes, we were keen to regain possession of our beloved passports, so we headed into the city. We got to the Indian embassy to find a scum of anxious looking travelers (ourselves included!), but within 30 minutes we were out of there, visas in hand. That night we got some awesome pizza from Base in Randwick delivered, easily the best I've ever had, and headed down to the park to watch Shakespeare's Twelfth Night being performed. It was fantastic to sit with beer in one hand, pizza in the other in the open air, trying [View Full Entry]

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So we arrived in Queenstown Airport all packed for Australia, got to the desk, handed over our passports and the attendant raised her eyebrows. "Where are your visas for Australia?"....Hmmm, a good question indeed, as we were assured by Trailfinders that we didn't need them. I also had a feeling (that was subsequently proved false) that Lonely Planet was with Trailfinders on that one. A bit too much adrenaline for our liking, but it was all ok as we handed over some dosh and we were sorted, electronic visas in the cyberspace back pocket. As Simon was in Tasmania, Row picked [View Full Entry]

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So after 4 1/2 months of bumming around the world, the time had finally arrived for us to get down to some hard work. Back in October/November we were thinking that we would love to work on an Australian outback farm for 2 reasons; 1. Primarily to save some dosh and; 2. to experience the "real" Australia. Mark mentioned this plan to his brother, Simon, who lives in Sydney and in no time at all it had been arranged for us to volunteer on a farm near the small township of Condobolin, 463km west of Sydney, in return for free meals [View Full Entry]

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