We left San Jose by a 7 seater shuttle bus which was a bit cramped but luckily the route took us along the Interamericana (Pan-American Highway) and the road was fairly good. Our fellow travellers were a mother and daughter from Colorado, a chap from France and a Mexican guy together with his full size surf board which was balanced down the inside of the bus as this was the only place it would fit. The Costa Rican driver could not speak English but handed us a piece of paper that told us that we would be ‘changing buses about half way’. So we were on our way and looking forward to the start of our adventure. We were heading for the Nicoya Peninsular in the north east. We knew that once you were off the ... read more

Would you believe it but at Cairns Airport we met up with Ulrike and her daughter Theresa from Austria who had been travel companions on the first leg of our cruise on the Coral Princess to the Great Barrier Reef - its a small world. Theresa had enjoyed her diving boat trip but the weather had not been too kind and she said she seemed to be permanently wet and cold - although she did get to see some lots of marine life. We told her that we had won the quiz on the second leg of the journey and that we did have some questions on fish...... She said that she knew all the fish now and had seen all the different types on her recent dives and was beginning to recognise the differences. We ... read more

We left Granite Gorge where we had so enjoyed the lovely Rock Wallabies and stopped in Meereba to do some shopping before heading out of the Tablelands towards the coast. On the way I passed Paul a mint that we kept in the front of the van to keep him focussed on the road............but he shouted and said he was ‘eating ants’ ...... I had not noticed but the whole packet of mints was crawling with the horrid little creatures and I was also covered in them. He stopped the van as quickly as he could (not easy) and we both jumped out - it took forever to get rid of them............Anyone driving past must have thought ‘those mad people jumping up and down on the side of the road’! We finally managed to get rid ... read more

On the way out of Cape Hillingsborough National Park we stopped to undertake the Mangrove Swamp Walk and were rewarded with seeing numerous small and large birds but were also plagued with some nasty biting mozzies so did finish the walk quickier than we would have wanted to (at great speed actually!). Once out of the mangrove swamp we were surrounded by the spiky grass trees that seem to cover the bush all around this area. Before European settlement, the Yuipera Aborigines lived here and utilised its rich natural resources. Evidence can be found in numerous shell middens throughout the area and we came across a really noticeable one on the Diversity Boardwalk - a massive mound containing millions of used shells left where they had been dropped all those years ago. Middens were formed when ... read more

We awoke the next morning and guess what the sun had finally decided to put in an appearance - what a change that made to one's day....... At breakfast we chatted to a couple from near Tweed about the grey nomads that travel permanently around Australia and they said this was great but that problems would occur if one got sick. They said that they heard that this man had got really poorly and his wife could not drive their caravan and did not know what to do. However the local caravan club put a notice in their magazine and although they were over 600 kms away from their home a convoy of volunteers manage to get their caravan back home - they are quite a unique united band of travellers these ‘grey nomads’ that travel ... read more