http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Milly-and-Graham/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Milly and Graham en-us Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:03:41 +0000 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:03:41 +0000 Well we made it home we settled back in to our house we got jobs we got a cat and we got married. While we were away we missed our loved ones and our home country so much it hurt but now our trip feels like the most amazing time of our lives which is as it should be. We have been reliving it month by month this year and trying to remember all the details the scary moments as well as the th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Shropshire/blog-218008.html This update is long overdue it goes without saying. We are now home safe and sound and settling back into some kind of routine. The last few weeks of our travels spent in Tanzania were possibly the most exciting challenging and rewarding of the entire trip. Looking back now from the comfort of familiar surroundings and after reunions with loved ones and one disgruntled cat we can barely beli http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/blog-142392.html It all happened a long time ago now but the final few chapters of the blog need to be finished. The last weeks of the trip were amongst the most memorable of our time away so we must do them justice with a decent blog entry. Apologies if the details are a bit lacking. We moved on from Johannesburg to Cape Town on 20th November and picked up a hire car on arrival at the airport so that we could me http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-116661.html Apologies for the disruption to the blog. We have got lots of great photos and a big report to write on our time in Cape Town but are a long way from a decent internet connection at the moment. We spent a very relaxing Christmas and New Year in Zanzibar and were thinking of all of you back home in the UK while we lay about in hammocks swam in the warm Indian Ocean and had a Christmas lunch of o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/Zanzibar/blog-116665.html Within three days of arriving in Africa we had already seen more amazing animals than we thought we might see in three months here. Kruger really deserves its reputation as one of the best wildlife parks in the world. We arrived in Johannesburg in the middle of a fearsome rainstorm and were too exhausted after the long flight from Sydney to do anything other than flop at our hostel. We didn't have http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Mpumalanga-/Kruger-National-Park/blog-107992.html One of the challenges we set ourselves for this trip was learning to SCUBA dive. It seemed like the best way to see the Great Barrier Reef too so we signed up for the SSI certification course with Cairns Dive Centre. Two days of pool and theory followed by two nights liveaboard on the Kangaroo Explorer at various dive sites on the reef including a maximum of nine dives. Not bad.It was hard work http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Great-Barrier-Reef/blog-107976.html Sydney was chilly and cloudy when we arrived in Australia from NZ. Enough to make anybody grumpy. We spent a few days in the city the highlight of which was breakfast at bill's. Then on our third day we caught the ferry to Manly and by the afternoon and return trip the sun was breaking through the clouds to give us a taste of things to come. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the Opera House http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-101252.html Skydiving jetboating bungyhellip Queenstown has got it all. If yoursquore looking for adrenaline thrills Queenstown is the place to be. We had been putting off signing up for anything until we got here and nervously browsed the information centres and booking offices lining the main street. In the end we confessed we didnrsquot really fancy any of it had a nice fish supper and an early n http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Fiordland-National-Park/blog-93638.html After the delights of Abel Tasman national park and all the lovely wine of Marlborough we headed off to Christchurch to stay with Grahamrsquos good friend Tim. It was a relief to be out of the campervan for a few nights. Charming and lovely as it is to be so independent Timrsquos spare divan was like five star luxury to us after three weeks of sleeping on a converted kitchen table. On their http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Glaciers/blog-93631.html A strange collection of pictures for this blog which covers many miles where not a great deal happened. We went from Lake Taupo down to Hawke's Bay area to start the wine tour see separate blog. We hit a bad spell of rain and cold at Napier so didn't get to appreciate the Art Deco buildings properly. Compared to the rest of New Zealand which seems to be full of brand new single storey wooden bu http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Abel-Tasman-National-Park/blog-93609.html We seem to have spent rather a lot of our time tasting our way around New Zealand. We started taking a photo outside each winery to remind ourselves which ones we had been to. Once we put them all together we realised we had been to rather a few... So rather than spread out entries for Hawkes Bay Martinborough and Marlborough here is a rundown of all the wineries we have visited so far. Otago st http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/blog-92153.html The perfect antidote to all the rugged isolation of the Northland Rotorua. Tourist heaven. There are so many things to see and do and pay for here it would be impossible to get bored you might think. However when we arrived early and eager at Wai o Tapu one of the major geothermal parks in the area we met the most disillusioned looking crusty traveller type shuffling around. He looked at http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-92146.html We arrived in Auckland safe and sound a day and half after leaving Chile. Crossing the International Date Line did mess with our heads. We lost an entire day Good news for the budget though. Our planning for the NZ leg of our trip had been minimal. We arrived at five in the morning without a clue what we were really going to do. A friend's brother had agreed to let us crash at his empty house in http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-90693.html Time to close the South American chapter of our travels. Our final ten days spent in Chile seem a bit of a distant memory now. Many apologies for not getting round to the blog for so long.We left Bolivia at the end of our tour of the salt flats hopping on a bus and waving goodbye to our fellow jeep survivors who had another full day of kneecap torture to endure. Think we made the right decision t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-90684.html So everything was going to plan perfectly for our last few days in Bolivia. In order not to spend any more time drifting we booked our train ticket from Oururo to Uyuni before we left for Rurrenabaque because we heard they sell out pretty quickly. We just had to catch a bus to Oururo from La Paz the day after we got back from the rainforest. Super. Except our flight back from Rurrenabaque was ca http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-85002.html We took the decision to spend more time in Bolivia than we originally planned. With our travels in South America coming to an end it seemed a big shame not to see something of the rainforests and wetlands that cover a large portion of this continent. After several weeks of dry high altitude living the thought of mosquitos creepy crawlies and drowning in our own sweat somehow seemed rather appea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-83696.html After a couple of days resting in La Paz experiencing the craziness of the street markets where you can buy anything from dried llama foetuses to a new toilet we bit the bullet and signed up for the infamous downhill mountain biking experience along the worlds most dangerous road. Everybody weve met who has the tshirt recommended Gravity Assisted in La Paz as the company to go with. Excellent http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Coroico/blog-83422.html It had to happen sooner or later. Graham started feeling a bit stomachy about 10 minutes over the PeruBolivia border and spent a couple of days dashing between bed and bathroom. I got a lesser bug two days later. Neither of us were horrendously ill but it wasnt very pleasant. We ended up staying a lot longer than anticipated on the shores of Lake Titicaca. On a not unrelated note Titicaca we http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Copacabana/blog-82629.html Arequipa is a lovely city. You cant go 10 steps in Cusco without being accosted or hassled to buy things or go on tours or eat in restaurants. Here you might be asked if youd like to try a restaurant in the main square but thats about it. The place is generally full of people going about their own business. Cusco was wonderful though and we are still missing the place but the atmostphere is a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Colca-Canyon/blog-77791.html After failing to make the required three month advance booking deadline for the oversubscribed Inca Trail we opted for a 5 day trek through the mountains to Machu Picchu with SAS Travel no connection with previous employers. We reached an altitude of 4600 mts and covered over 60 kms in total. It was hard but worth every painful step. The trip was all the more memorable because we were part of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Salkantay-Trail/blog-75232.html