Taking some time off from the difficult life sprawled on Rio´s beaches to update this bad boy. From pretty, tranquil, rabid-dog infested Colonia, we headed to Montevideo, the spectacular capital of Uruguay. My travelling style of go now, plan later, although offers spontaniety, excitement and flexibility can spectaculary go wrong at times. This began to look like one of those times as the direct bus from Montevideo to Iguassu Falls was something of a convenient transportation fantasy dreamt up in my head and it looked like the whole Uruguay expedition was turning into a complete farce, the [View Full Entry]

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Back to Auckland, and back to another Nomad hostel with a feel of a tower block in a run down council estate. A vibe that seems to work if you are taking advantage of the "power hour" available in the rowdy bar downstairs, but not so great when you feel rotten and can only really lie around a 10 bed dorm all day. The pain killers were doing little to shift the pain at night, and the icing on the ailing cake came with an added feeling of nausea and fatigue. Yay. Thankfully there were a few upsides, I mean nothing [View Full Entry]

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From Wellington, the vibrant capital of culture and wind I headed on up to a quaint little place called Turangi, where I met Liv, a mate from the Oz travel days, and where we proceeded to wait for 3 days in vain for the weather to clear/ move out of the guaranteed suicide category, on The Tongariro Crossing. It is meant to be "The best day walk on the planet" but as experienced guides were even refusing to go due to the blizzards and avalanches, it was probably best we didn't chance it. Instead we entertained ourselves with Jenga, a highly [View Full Entry]

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I left off at the furthest South I went on the South Island- Te Anau. I had an incredible "tramp" the kiwi term for trek, or in this case huge-mountain-slog as I spent a night above the tree line, and experienced my first real "alpine conditions" which really should have been done with crampons and an emergency beacon... but they were a bit pricey. I took an ice axe though, having sought some great advice from some germans (they are everywhere) that if I find myself sliding down the ridiculously steep slope either side of the path, I could sink the [View Full Entry]

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So a rapid fire update. I spent a Saturday night in Sydney, which is as eventful as can be when you are in bed by 10:30pm thanks to Goon (boxed wine) and the ridiculous invention of 1 hour free drinks... mistakenly interpreted by me and Dane (Canadian mate I know from Tubing in Laos, who happened to be in Sydney for the same time as me) as meaning 1 hour all you can drink. Anyway, you can see why these blogs have grown rather thin in recent months, as the culture and history of India is much more interesting to read [View Full Entry]

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It feels miles away where I last posted a blog, in Western Australia actually, a town called Geraldton, using the free wireless of a "restaurant" (term used loosley) called Mc Donalds. Ever in an adventure, moments after updating the blog Lancelot made an entrance fit for a knight who has failed in slaying a dragon and rather sheepishly announces that "Ze keys are locked in ze van". Brilliant. After scouring the internet for locksmiths working at 8 pm and getting a rather pricey quotation, we decided to put our DIY skills to the test. Whilst I youtubed all the (worryingly large [View Full Entry]

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It lies there, motionless. An incredible creature, strangely beautiful. Even with its wings lying limp against the tarmac, its power in those knife-sharp talons and perfectly crafted beak seemed to demand respect. Seeing such a spectacular eagle this close made you almost feel lucky. A privilege to be face to face with the king of the skies. Hours before it would have been soaring high over the Australian outback, over land dotted by scrub and bushes, termite mounds and spinifex, Cattle and Kangaroos. It would have looked so graceful in its elegant descent back to earth, where the flesh of [View Full Entry]

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So Kirsty and I made it to Broome, where we headed straight to Cable Beach. We were greeted by a perfectly blue sky merging with an even bluer, lapis lazuli sea with surf washing up on an incredibly wide, white beach dotted with sunbathers and surfers. After we exhausted the waitresses at a nearby café with our repeated demands for (free) ice water refills we set off to start advertising for people who want to share our sexy ride south. Kitty has six spare seats, a fact that seemed very unlikely when Kirsty and I have packed in a hurry [View Full Entry]

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Okay, so MASSIVELY missing out a couple of months, I thought I would add how Kirsty (my long lost sister who has been terrorising Australia for the last year and a half) me and our Mitsubishi Star-Wagon called Kitty Killa is getting along. We set off about 4 days ago from Darwin after buying the beaut from a likeable English guy called Chris for a bargain price of AUD 2600, about 1300 squid. (Considering she was optimistically on the backpacker market for 4995 Ozzy dollar we did okay here.) First thing was to get a new set of tyres on her [View Full Entry]

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I hate to admit it, but as feared these blogs have died a bit of a death. In India I had hours of long rattly train rides to reflect on the experience of a lone traveller amidst such diverse and rich culture. I had a rough draft of how the blog was going to read before I even found a functioning computer, and looked forward to documenting my experiences and being able to share my stories online. Come South East Asia, having done the intrepid travelling malarkey, it was non-stop tourists and backpackers over every whiskey bucket or on every sandy [View Full Entry]

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