Sydney is surrounded by some beautiful places and one place that I had on my list of 'to do's' was the Blue Mountains. It's a mountainous area consisting of a sandstone plateau that includes gorges up to 760 metres in depth, and has high points up to 1,190 metres. It's namesake is derived from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. My housemate Kate also mentioned that she would like visit too, so we decided to go to Katoomba which is about 100km from Sydney and provides a good base for exploring the area. We left [View Full Entry]

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By the time the west coast campervan trip was over, I was pretty certain I had to start working straight away. Australia was far more expensive than the 3 and a half months I had spent in South East Asia and was beginning to bleed my funds quickly. I wanted to be in a position of covering all my costs and saving some would be a bonus. I began to work in a small Cafe (or kiosk as they say in Aus) which was a 20 min walk down to the nearest beach from Clairvaux house. Extremely convenient and with great [View Full Entry]

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I know this blog has been 6 months in the pipeline, but it does actually carry on from the previous one, I just forgot about it whilst I was busy working in Sydney....!! So we left Tin Can bay having hand fed the dolphins and made our way down the coast as far as Noosa. Noosa National Park is a headland that covers an area almost 23 square kilometres and has many coves and beaches backed by forest. It's a very picturesque area and there are many walking tracks to discover. We decided we would walk one of the routes that [View Full Entry]

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Having spent the night in our campervan at Hervey Bay we woke up early to make our way to Tin Can Bay so we could go and feed the dolphins that come into the bay there every morning. Unfortunately we arrived about fifteen minutes too late and only saw the one dolphin, Harmony, who is still very young and not ready to be fed by the public. Harmony's father Mystique had been fed and had already left the bay. Feeling quite disappointed that we had come all this way and not managed to feed them, we decided we would stay the [View Full Entry]

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This blog begins in Townsville, where we arrived quite late in the evening and set ourselves up at a campsite. Our impression of our whistlestop visit was positive, Townsville seemed to have an upmarket French feel to it with a picturesque marina and colonial style buildings. The following morning we decided we would go over to Magnetic island which is just offshore from Townsville and is roughly 50% national park with some lovely bays and beaches to explore. The name of the island came about because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the ship's compass of Captain Cook as [View Full Entry]

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Romana and I decided we would take a road trip along part of the east coast of Australia. This would be a farewell trip for Romana, having been in Australia since November and a welcome trip for me, having just arrived. So we set off with 10 days to play with, starting in Cairns and ending in Brisbane. We hired a little campervan so that we would have the freedom to stop when we felt the need and also didn't have to worry too much about accommodation along the way. We flew from Sydney to Cairns and as we approached our [View Full Entry]

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I left Ubud and headed to the north of Bali, to a town called Lovina, recommended by Lisa whom I had met in Singapore (Hi Lisa if you're reading this!!). Lovina isn't your typical beach-side resort as it's made up from black volcanic sand so it's spectacular in a different way. The bus journey from Ubud had lovely views as we went over a mountainous area and then made our descent with views of the coast and where we were heading down below. The town is a lot smaller and quieter than Ubud which was a nice change after the hectic [View Full Entry]

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So here we are, another new place to explore! I only had a week here to explore this beautiful Island so I had to limit the places I could see (you can't do it all!) Bali is an Indonesian island lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces, and has a mainly Hindu cultural following. My first stop in Bali was Ubud, well known for it's culture; dance shows and many artists painting in the typical Balinese style. It's a good place to explore the surrounding areas easily too. My [View Full Entry]

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Finally I left my beloved Thailand; home to me for 3 months (minus the 2 weeks in Cambodia and Laos) and made my way alone to Singapore. It's very strange when you've been with people for so long, to suddenly be on your own again, not having anyone to consult with...especially when you are so awful at making decisions like myself! I had 4 days to explore Singapore, I wasn't sure if this would be too much but actually when I was leaving, I wanted to stay longer!! I managed to fit a lot into 4 days so I'm afraid this [View Full Entry]

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So we left the beautiful island of Phi Phi after a nice week of relaxing and making lots of new friends...Gill, Hayley and Gill's family and friends all left to go to Bangkok and I met up with Wiz again. We decided to head to Koh Lanta which we had heard was also beautiful and only an hour away on boat from Phi Phi. On the boat there were many 'hotel touts' ready to try and sell us their accomodation 'very cheap, cheap!' We had literally entered 'low season' from 1st May (it was 2nd May!) and it meant we chose [View Full Entry]

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