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Day 154-157

6^th-9^th February



And so, our travels were nearly at an end, all we had to do was get to Sydney and get ready for our flight back to London via Kuala Lumpur. I however had not thought through what happens when you fly with a cold. I have never experienced pain like it. I couldn’t get the pressure in my ears to equalise and thought for 30 frightening minutes as the pain became horrendous that I was going to burst my eardrum. Eventually after I had literally been sobbing with the pain there was a loud bang and finally my ears decided to play ball. Ellory actually heard the pop! My hearing was definitely not right for a couple of days after that but hopefully no lasting damage. My lesson to you all, DO NOT fly with a cold, really, just don’t do it kids, miss the damn flight, it is not worth it!



The descent into Sydney was not brilliant either and highly traumatised (on my part) we landed back safely. We had booked our final two nights at the Nomads Westend near the station and we arrived just in time for the Chinese New Years celebrations. Our hostel was near Chinatown so we rushed out to watch the parade, although like complete idiots, both of us forgot our cameras, so once again you’ll have to take our word for it, it was really cool!



After all that we were really in the mood for some Chinese food and found a restaurant where unfortunately they misheard ellory’s order for fish soup and brought him the fish head soup! Fair play to the man, he actually ate it. There is no way in hell I could have stomached that. Other than that trauma the food was delicious.



So our final two days were spent getting ready for the flight home and taking long walks around Sydney. All too soon it was time to head to the airport and being our long journey home. We had an uneventful flight to KL. We had 7 absolutely freezing hours at KL airport in the middle of the night while we waited for our connecting flight and then finally we got on another plane for the long haul to London and home. My mum and dad were waiting for us at Heathrow to drive us home and it was so so good to see them again!



Our epic travels were at an end and it has taken us an extra year to finish this story. We had a very difficult year when we returned. Both of us suffered losses and both were very glad we had each other. We both hope that 2012 will be a little easier.



We learned so much, saw some amazing sights, met some amazing people and had a wonderful time on our travels. We visited 7 countries in two continents in 5 months. We stayed in the highest city in the world (La Paz), visited the highest navigable lake and the deepest canyon (Lake Titicaca and Colca Canyon). Saw 2 wonders of the world (Machu Picchu and Christ the Redeemer). Got hit by lightning in Bolivia, stranded in Cairns during a cyclone and experienced a small earthquake in New Zealand. And as a final fact we came back with scars from bites from monkeys, spiders and sandflies!



We have shared it with you in 74 blogs, 76943 words and 1750 photos and we hope you have enjoyed reading it. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our amazing journey, your wedding presents could not have been better :). To those who contributed to the camera, we dedicate the blog to you, we certainly couldn’t have done it without you!



Onwards to the next stage of our married life together!!

Lots of love

Liz and Ellory xxx

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