Jordan and I are off travelling for approx 8 months. We have been working hard for the last few years getting our degrees up in Manchester then moving back to Milton Keynes where Jordan works as a recruitment consultant and I have just finished a PGCE training to be a Geography teacher.
We are starting off in Dubai seeing some friends for a few days then Thailand-Australia-New Zealand and who knows where else!
We had a long weekend (25-26th Jan) a while ago now which I forgot to write about but shall fill you in now. We took the van up North to a small town called Lancelin. On the way we stopped at Yanchep National Park to see the Kangaroos and Koalas. It was boiling hot so we only walked a short way but it was nice and we hadn't seen kangas properly before and it was really cool to see them. They are so beautiful and impressive. We made it to Lancelin in mid afternoon and spent some time in the pub garden listening to a guy and his guiter. Amazing view of the beach and very relaxing. The Australian Open was on that evening so we stayed in watching it with a bunch of pommies. I ... read more
Part two of our road trip sees us heading further East along the coast through Denmark to just past Albany then back on ourselves up to Margaret River before returning home. DAY 5 20/03/13 We were well rested after our night in the cabin and the next morning set of fresh faced to visit the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. There are a few similar tree in the region but this 60m tall Karri tree is the tallest in the region which has a lookout platform at the top. Originally used as fire look outs the trees are studded with metal pegs which create a sort of steep spiral staircase around the trunk. There is however quite large gaps between these pegs and nothing to stop you falling through and whilst no-one has died going up one ... read more
16th-24th March 2013 The boys and I went on a road trip before our friend and flatmate Neil leaves to go over east. We hired a car and drove along the coast from Perth to just past Albany and back 9 days and over 2000km. This is what we got up to.... Day 1 We drove to Bussleton in our flash hire car. We were absolutely packed into the thing with barely room to breath. We drove slow and took the scenic route along the coast rather than the freeway and stopped of at a nice beach on route, the first of many. We got some supplies from the town centre then went and set up at our first campsite, Peppermint Park. A really nice campsite but about 10km out of town so a little bit ... read more
We arrived in Perth early september. I started working straight away in a cafe with my friend Nadia and also looking after a 10yr old girl Maggie after school. Jordan soon had a job in the city back in recruitment. Our first couple of weeks consisted of exploring. We visited Scarborough Beach, Fremantle, the city. We had our first Aussie BBQ at Nadias house the weekend Neil and Ian arrived. It was very gormet BBQ, Baby octupus and Baramundi rather than you average sausages and burgers, all cooked by Nad's Boyfriend Owain who is quite the chef. We started looking for a place to rent with the boys and after a couple of weeks crashing at Nadias we signed up for a lease on a 3 bed flat on Adelaide Terrace right in the centre of ... read more
Another nice Emirates flight and we made all the way to East Coast Australia and Bondi Beach where we bought our first Aussie lunch (ouch...so expensive!) Jed and Hailey, who we met in Thailand, met us and we caught up at their house for a little while before heading out to explore. We had a nice walk along the beach filled with buff people in gym clothes and covered in tanning oil! In the evening we carried on socialising with a few drinks in the RSL with some live music. The next morning we were off to the market for Brekkie rolls and then headed to the shops so Jord and I could by a new camera as ours broke as soon as we stepped off the plane! The afternoon was spent lounging at the beach ... read more
We splashed out on a aircon bunglaow with a pool which we got straight in with our new Apache pilot friend and a sweet couple from South Africa. When the Mosi's got too much we went out for dinner to another 'Mum's Restaurant' (a popular choice in name) followed by a couple of drink in Skunk bar with an Australian couple who got us excited about the next leg of our journey. The next day we decided to walk to the view point. It was not a walk! It was a steep muddy scramble up the side of a cliff. It was nice though and despite warnings that the path to the lagoon was pretty rugged we went for it anyway. It was a bloody risky, slippery, muddy slip and slide to a not very impressive ... read more
The island was crowded. This was obvious from the first step off the boat that we had shared with a guy and his pet gibbon dressed in dungarees! We had a rough idea of where we wanted to stay which was useful as it was push and shove as we came down the jetty. Theres prbably a hundred Guest houses in about 2km squared. Within 2 minutes of arriving Jordan and I decided to get tattoos here so after a quick manicure we found a tattoo place we liked the look of. I had mine done and over in about an hour but Jord sat there for the rest of the night while Surf and I explored the local night life. We watched the amazing fire display at Slinkeys and met a couple of American guys ... read more
Rain, rain and more rain... It had truly set in and we were soaked at least once a day. Krabi is a fairly standard Thai town. It was good for us to catch up on all our boring stuff like getting photos printed and clothes washed but we were keen to move on fairly quickly. We did visit a nearby temole that was surrounded by hundreds of monkeys. You could buy peanuts to feed them so of course we did and they climbed all over me to get to them! After monkeying around for a bit we decided to attempt the 1,237 stair climb to a small temple at the top of the mountain. It was hard work the stairs were so steep, practically vertical and very uneven but we made it up in good time ... read more
Early start leaving the Perhentians on the speed boat which was a lot smoother than the one we caught over which threw us all over the place! Hopped in a taxi to the border with an English lass then walked back across into Thailand. Bit of a mission to get back up through Thailand. A lovely hot and sticky train to Hat Yai then a mini bus to Trang where we finally got see our Surf again! After a night in Trang (nothing to write home about) we got on another boat across to Ko Muk. We arrived at the GH recommended in the Lonely Planet which was closed. Come to think of it everything was pretty much closed. There was the three of us alone on the beach. Peace and Quiet. The islands was gorgeous, ... read more
Diary Entry: 10th August = One long day of travelling in one boat (2hrs,) a public bus (1.5hrs,) a stupidly hot bus (6hrs,) followed by a minibus journey (4hrs) that went through about 20 Army barracades in Thailands Muslim conflict area. 11th August = Finally in Malaysia on route to the Perhentians. Just need to find an ATM that will give us some Malaysian Ringer. Arrived in the Perehantians 12pm and its.... PARA, PARA, PARADISE!!!! Stepped off the boat to stand on a jetty above a huge shoal of fish with loads of the fish we saw diving swimming about in 2m of crystal clear water. The backdrop is a white sandy beach surrounded by jungle covered mountains. After a few hours on the island it was true to say the place really was paradise. After ... read more
