Sally
Sally Barber Joined: August 6th 2008
Logged in: March 26th 2009
Logged in: March 26th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Hooker Valley (Mount Cook)
new zealand. where do i begin?! i flew in to christchurch and dad was waiting for me at the airport. was so good to see him! especially so far from home! we had a motel in hagley park just outside the city centre. christchurch was really just a couple of days for us to readjust and get ready for the next few weeks travelling around. we went to cathedral square and saw some of the city - it was so unbelievably quiet, not sure where all the people are! maybe there arent any....?! christchurch is also such an english city with ducks swimming along the river and rowing boats...felt like a little slice of home! we spent a day exploring the surrounding areas of Lyttleton and Akaoroa on the banks peninsula which are little harbours built ... read more
Brisbane skyline
I decided to do a few parts of the east coast for the last leg of my journey in australia..... from tasmania me and andy flew up to brisbane and then got the bus down to byron bay for a weekend of beaches and beer. i met up with sally, who i stayed with in melbourne and graeme, a friend from the west coast. for anyone who knows byron bay you will know cheeky monkeys and so we spent our token evening in there dancing on table tops and singing to cheesy music...! had a very hot day on the beach, battling with the waves and body boarding. byron bay is such a hippy, surfer town so we had a fun weekend down there before heading back up to brisbane. the grand finale of australia was ... read more
Freycinet National Park
Me and andy have explored Tasmania campervan style....we kinda left it to late to get an actual campervan so we converted a rental van into our little home for a week....blow up bed, sleeping bag and we were ready to go! Hobart is a pretty little city built into the hill. Lots of nice colourful houses and a big bustling waterfront. didnt spend long here but was good to see where all the people in tasmania actually live! we set off down south to the Tasman Peninsula....endless sweeping beautiful stretches of deserted beaches. despite it being high season, there were never that many people around...it is very easy to find yourself being the only person around for miles. we had a good feed in a traditional english pub before parking up for our first night in ... read more
Harwick Bay, Adelaide
Arrived back in Adelaide to stay with Ab and Trav for christmas. so nice to be back in a house with my own room and be able to unpack my bags!! Trav made an excellent tour guide and showed me all around Adelaide for a few days. his parents also have a beach house down in Yorkes so we all went there for the weekend, saw some beautiful beaches, soaked up the sunshine and even went out on my first fishing trip! it was such good fun....especially as i caught myself a king george whiting :) Christmas itself was different, but great. we spent christmas eve down at the beach, eating fish and chips, drinking champagne and watching the sunset. cant say ive ever done that at christmas before...a million miles away from sitting in jeans, ... read more
The Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road
Landing into Sydney airport from Bali was like being catapulted back into the 21st century after so long in South East Asia. All these shops and foods and familiar brands that I havent seen since leaving London. I was just walking around in a complete daze! Caught a connecting flight straight to Melbourne and landed to a very chilly 13 degrees. I spent my week in Melbourne staying with my friend Sally which was awesome as she had a little apartment right in the centre of the city. Melbourne is a fantastic city and I felt very settled there very quickly. I loved just walking around down all the little side streets lined with coffee shops and along the waterfront. At night the city comes alive and the lights reflecting in the water like a rainbow ... read more
Sunset, Cable Beach, Broome
Perth, aka the sunshine city, certainly lived up to its name. The city centre itself is nice but there isnt really much to do there. The highlight was climbing up to Kings Park where the views back down over the city are amazing. There are bushwalks and botanic gardens so it is easy to spend a whole day up there, a little oasis where you can escape the city. The suburbs of Perth were awesome though. I went and spent a night down at Cottlesloe Beach and stayed in a great hostel literally right on the sand. The beach was beautiful, full of surfers enjoying the massive waves and the whole chillled out-beachy lifestyle you associate with Australia really shone through. My favourite place in Perth was definitely Freemantle (Freo to the locals). It has such ... read more
Sunrise at Mt Bromo, Java
Indonesia, wow. what an amazing place to visit. Flew from Singapore to Jakarta (Java) to start this Indonesian adventure. Jakarta wasnt what i was expecting at all. it is very built up with lots of big skyscrapers...just like any big city really. didnt feel particularly safe walking around so i am pretty glad i am with intrepid for this part of the trip. We left Jakarta early the next morning for the most mammoth journey i think we have done so far. a minibus to the train station, a 4 hour train ride and then 7 hours on a bus took us to Pangandaran. the journey was stunning though. as promised we passed through lush rice terrace fields and deep gorges. the train tracks were built into the cliffs with these massive sheer drops down below! ... read more
Petrona Towers, Kuala Lumpar
met up with my intrepid group in bangkok. a good group, real mixture of people so should make for a fun few weeks! had another day in bangkok...have become strangely attached to it-seems to have been the centre of my world the past couple of months for going in and out of different countries. the overnight train down to surat thani was a real experience! wasted a few hours in the so-called 'disco carriage' playing cards and having some beers...turned into drinking snake wine which was the most disgusting thing i have ever tasted! preserved snake scales floating around in your drink isnt that good surprisingly! we arrived in surat thani and took the 3 hour journey to khoa sok national park. this is such a beautiful place. we stayed in little wooden jungle huts nestled ... read more
Rai Leh West
What an awesome time me and Roisin have had in Thailand over the past couple of weeks. Flew from Hanoi to meet Roisin in Bangkok- it was so good to see her and be travelling with someone again. We hopped straight on a flight up to Chiang Mai for a mountain trek we had booked. Had a quick snoop around the night bazaar and bartered our way into buying some souvenirs. It is so huge and you literally can buy anything you want and for so cheap! Early the next morning we were picked up in a tuk tuk and diiven an hour and a half into the mountains to a place called Chiang Dao where our 3 day trek started. It was such a beautiful spot, with little bungalows and a restaurant nestled up in ... read more
Jungle Beach sunset
Exploring Vietnam has been a brilliant few weeks! Made my way from 4000 islands in Laos to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) via Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Was a pretty horrific journey with more people squashed in a minibus for 16 hours than you would think is humanly possible. Not to mention the people bribing the driver so they could hang off the roof! All during a monsoon rainstorm too. I guess its all part of the experience!! I left Emily and Louise in Cambodia and got the bus to Saigon- a pretty uneventful journey and an easy border crossing. Arriving in Saigon was insane. I had forgotten how busy a city it is and just how many motorbikes there are! Crossing the road means taking your life into your own hands...you just have to walk slowly ... read more
