http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Willow/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Willow en-us Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:03:27 BST Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:03:27 BST Waiting in the car park that doubles up as a bus stop in Manzini Swaziland I passed an entertaining hour watching a master class in packing with the luggage destined for Mozambique slowly and seemingly quite precariously being piled higher and higher. We'd left the hostel around 6.30am catching a minibus that took us as far as the next main minibus stop and from there we'd squeezed into ano http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-272791.html We'd left the hostel at Hluhluwe early in the afternoon crossed the boarded into Swaziland and by nightfall arrived at the hostel a few km off the 'main' road down a bumpy unsealed track and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The hostel I stayed at Sondzela Backpackers is within the Mlilwane wildlife reserve itself and turned out to be one of my favourites located in a beautiful tranquil http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-247261.html I'd stopped at St Lucia on the northern coast of KwaZulu Natal mainly because I wanted to see the Hippo's that live along the estuary here so a few hours after arriving in town I found myself down at the jetty clambering onto a tour boat and trying to decide on the best place to sit. What I'd somehow managed to miss when I was reading up on St Lucia is that in addition to the Hippo's these wetl http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/Saint-Lucia/blog-245288.html It's been a while since I arrived back in the UK now so I really don't have any excuse for not having done this earlier... but I figured I should at least finish the last few blogs from my Africa trip before I head off again 0Eshowe is a small town and at first when I realised I was the only person staying at the backpackers there I was more than a little tempted to hop back on the Baz Bus and http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/Eshowe/blog-237664.html Lesotho translates as the land of the people who speak Sesotho the people of Lesotho are called Basotho. It's a small land locked country at 30000 sqkm it's completely surrounded by South Africa and lies entirely above 1000m its lowest point is 1400m with over 80 of the country above 1800m. And of its 2 million population around 29 have HIVAIDS recent estimates for the average lif http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Lesotho/blog-208884.html Well I've been back in London for two months now and predictably its all been a bit of a blur lots of nights out catching up with old friends I haven't seen in ages or new friends that I made along the way in Oz and NZ. And in between that I got a job and a found somewhere to live yup reality has hit with an almighty thump.. for now anyway 0 A few peops have asked about my Africa photos so http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Mpumalanga-/Kruger-National-Park/blog-196213.html After three very entertaining weeks down the east coast I finally found myself back in Sydney needing to make a few decisions about where to go next. The original plan had been to head to Tasmania maybe find some work in Melbourne and then go over to the west coast for a while. But part way down I'd started to have a bit of a rethink.... the timing of which probably coincided fairly well with my http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Wagga-Wagga/blog-166610.html In a bid to step off the east coast backpacker travellator for a few days I hired a car and headed south from Airlie in a little blue speed mobile down to places where neither Greyhound nor Oz Experience buses go 0 First stop was Cape Hillsborough and in keeping with my backpacker free plan I upgraded to a cabin.... ensuite bathroom my own kitchenette sole control of the TV remote and only m http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Fraser-Island/blog-166609.html The bus ride from Mission Beach to Airlie lasted about 8 hours and for most of it there were only 10 of us on the bus having two seats to myself was luxury We had a couple of of breaks on the way down and as most of us were staying on until Airlie I soon ended up chatting to a few people and trading travel stories with a Scottish guy called Harry. We arrived in Airlie to see the most amazing su http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Whitsundays/blog-166608.html Having read almost every brochure about trips to the Great Barrier reef whilst I was in Cairns I felt just about ready to open my own travel shop..... to compete with the other 5000000 of them that seem to line the streets of Cairns. There are heaps of reef trips on offer here to suit all budgets and schedules in the end I opted to do one from Port Douglas with a company called Haba who were gre http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Great-Barrier-Reef/blog-166251.html After three fab days doing not very much on the beaches of Cape Tribulation I figured I had to move on with only a little over 3 weeks before I needed to be back in Sydney to meet up with Helen there was a lot to squeeze in First stop on my way south was Mossman Gorge. On the day I'd driven up from Cairns it was raining when I got here so I'd opted to pass on by in search of sunnier skys.... t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Atherton-Tablelands/blog-161292.html Well it's finally happened today is my last day in Sydney Whilst I've had a great 6 months here it's not for me in the long term so figuring I should probably see something other than Sydney's CBD whilst I'm in the country tomorrow morning I head off up to Cairns for a 3 week road trip down to Brisbane. After that who knows... at the moment I'm having trouble planning past tomorrow Anyway http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Crescent-Head/blog-149052.html The first stop on my whirlwind east coast road trip was Cairns... and as I stepped of the plane to blue sky and sunshine I found life already felt a world away from work and Sydney. I had an afternoon to pass in the 'city' before hitting the road and spent most of it just wondering around. With a population of just 140000 or so I'd hesitate to call Cairns a 'city' indeed walking round the city c http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cape-Tribulation/blog-148804.html I'd had various plans to go away over the Easter break four days off work seeming to be the perfect excuse to jump on a plane and escape the city but somehow things happened time eluded me and I never quite got round to booking a ticket. So Easter in Sydney it was As it turned out most of my flatmates were around too and with none of us being overly enthralled about the idea of four days in to http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Blue-Mountains/blog-146944.html I'd last seen Sam about a year ago as she jumped in a taxi to Kuching airport leaving little old moi behind in Borneo to continue my travels alone 0 So I was really excited about her coming to visit and catching up on all the gossip over the odd bottle of vino or two 0 I've met lots of people in the 5 months or so that I've lived in Sydney mostly other travellers that I've shared a beer or t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Newcastle/blog-146943.html With the exception of my Xmas trip up to Port Stephens I'd managed to spend 4 months in Sydney without ever going past the city limits ... in fact it was unusual for me to venture out of the centre. All a rather sorry state of affairs so I figured it was definitely time for another mini road trip. As it happened Pam was up for an adventure too so we planned to hire a car and head south... somewher http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Batemans-Bay/blog-132584.html My first six weeks in Sydney were all a bit of a blur..... I moved out of the hostel that Megan and I had stayed at in the city centre it was clean but huge one of the few hundred bed types busy and full of 1821 year olds.... all fine but I was starting to feel a bit like grandma 0 So after a quick flick through my guide book it was off to Kings Cross Sydney's red light district and as http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-132583.html After a few lazy days spent trying to increase my freckle coverage which is about as close as I get to a tan on the beach at Koh Samet I headed up to Bangkok for a mad day of shopping well I had a few more kg of baggage allowance to use up 0. With Helen arriving that afternoon fresh from her CambodiaLaos trip the rest of the night was lost catching up on the last few weeks of gossip int http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-125193.html After four fab days spent temple hopping around Siem Reap it was time to move on. Last time I was here we'd arrived by bus from Phnom Penh and left by plane to Laos.... this time I left by boat to Battambang. I'd booked my ticket through one of the travel agents in town but something about the whole booking process hadn't left me feeling too confident fortunately the taxi truck arrived to pick m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Kampot/blog-125192.html Cambodia wasn't somewhere I'd planned to visit on this trip and my ending up there was all a bit random. I'd first been about 6 years ago with my sis and her friend Anabelle and absolutely loved it..... so now when I found myself in Bangkok with 3 weeks to kill before I needed to meet Helen and with my original plan to travel Thailand not quite turning out as I'd expected well booking a flight http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-125191.html