Well this is it folks! Just about to set off on an awfully big adventure-the grown-up gap year. The house is still in a chaotic state, the suitcases remain open, the boxes unpacked, Christmas upon us and the paperwork incomplete! I just love being prepared, it seems that the preparation time for a year out stretches and stretches. I just don't need snapped elastic or tempers! Follow us as we travel through China and then Mongolia and Russia, training all the way through from Shanghai to London. Not 'in training' but on the train. Once there we will sustain ourselves with a little supply teaching and lots more travel. Feel free to send us messages and love. I am sure we will need both! Meryl... read more

After Hobart Beach I thought I had a handle on who goes camping in National Parks. Middle-aged refugees from urban life. 'Communities' of people returning year after year from all over the country gathered without sounds of industrial life. Solar-powered and gas-fueled fridges. Generator hums replaced by cicadas. But of course you can never generalise. Bittangabee Bay harboured a new species, the hunting, fishing species. The gung-ho, goanna-tossing, spear-fishing, night prawning variety. But I think the refugee camp image prevails. Clothing strung on trees, logs and rocks; blackened cooking pots piled around wood fires. Makeshift showers with water bags hanging from available branches. Small groups of people sit around in various states of undress doing nothing much in particular, children play as they always do. But there the analogy ends; the luxuriousness of leisure, no worry ... read more

You're only staying one night?' Kerrie the ranger enquired as we paid up our money,'that's what the folks next to you said and they're up to their fifth night!' She went on to expound the virtues of this beautiful little campsite right on the estuary of the Congo creek winding its way behind the beach. Swimming in the tidal creek, canoeing up to the wetlands, surfing on two beaches and a 14km walk along the coast to Tuross Head. Don't camp here if you want luxurious amenities. Two pit toilets and a cold beach shower together with a few washing up sinks comprise the facilities. The view, however, is outstanding. We were lucky enough to sidle up alongside an old boat ramp area and settle ourselves with our table and umberella. Dining with a millionaire's view; ... read more

City meets country. Literally. Enforced rest. Quiet contemplation as I sit gently swaying in my Peruvian hammock, a keepsake from a former adventure, under the gum trees. Deserved rest I should say. Yesterday, a walk down quiet Mystics Beach reaching the estuary of the Minnamurra river where a very rabble of people met our view, swimming, boating and playing. This morning an early morning stroll to the 'world-famous' surfing beach, The Farm. This is Killalea State Park nestled on a peninsula between Minnamurra and Shellharbour. A strangely ordered and manicured campsite encroached on one side by the sprawling McMansion estate of Shell Cove. An environmental disaster of monolithic proportions. Look South, look South out to the ….range circling Kiama. It is not hard to see the volcanic crater that this must have been long before you ... read more

We thought we had factored in enough extra hours for an already slow train journey from Bundi to Delhi but should have known from the beginning that it was fraught with difficulties! We had driven down the main road of Bundi waving at everyone out of the back of the auto rickshaw on the way to the station. We had shaken hands with our guide and driver of the rock painting outing, we had shared a cup of chai with the miniature painter (the paintings not the artist!) and shouted out to Krishnan our chai-wallah. Empty station. Checked with guard who said our train had been cancelled and we had to make our way to Kota on the next train arriving and pick up the train to Delhi. Turning around, the friendly smile of Krishnan greeted ... read more