DAY ONE We arrived in Broome a day early for our tour and stayed at the Mercure hotel.We had a relaxing afternoon and visited Matso‘s brewery which was just across the road. Woke up the next morning to find a huge puddle of water on the floor. Our air conditioner had malfunctioned and leaked. Later in the morning we were collected by the Outback Spirit tour guide and driver Paul. Our first site of the bus that we would be travelling on for 2 weeks. We then went to the airport to collect the other passengers. Our group comes from far and wide including 4 from Switzerland, 2 from South Africa, 2 from New Zealand and the rest from Australia. One couple missed their flight so would be going us at a later point in the ... read more

A great day - scenery as varied as you could get complete with a relaxing dip in the warm waters of the Myvatn nature baths. We first drove past the mountain voted the best in Iceland. We were lucky to view it without the usual layer of fog at the top. It is called "the lady with the broad shoulders". Morning tea at the highest farm in Iceland (470 m above sea level). Fresh air and a delicious coffee sitting outside looking out towards the snow capped mountains. Next stop was Detifoss waterfall which is 100m wide. It is the most powerful in Europe and drops 44m. There are great rainbows and lots of spray. The waterfall was used as a site for the filming of Promethius , the movie. A swim at natura baths followed ... read more

The day started with a quick tour of Reykjavik and then we left the city to go further south. We pass many areas of large greenhouse installations using geo-thermal heating and hydro-electricity growing the fresh vegetables for Iceland. The landscape is desolate and vegetation sparse. The result of 1000s of years of volcanic activity. The countryside then changed to fertile farmland. We then visited the Gulfoss waterfalls where huge volumes of water spray and fall. We then moved onto Iceland's largest geyser which spouts every 8 minutes or so. Then more waterfalls and a black sand beach with its sea stone arch. The whole day we were driving with the huge glaciers in sight including the one which erupted in 2010 which caused chaos in Europe with ash. Interestingly Iceland had no ash but severe flooding ... read more

Vicki's health has only marginally improved so we are not walking but catching the ferry to Portovenere. Our first stumbling block is that the ferry today has been cancelled so off to the tourist information centre for advice. Plan B - the train to La Spezia and then catch the ferry from there. A quick train ride and then more advice from a tourist information centre as to how to get to the ferry. Made it in time, bought our tickets and then we set sail for Portovenere. We have been very impressed with the competent and helpful staff at the Tourist information centres in Italy. After a relaxing ferry ride we arrived at Portovenere. Before checking in we walked around to the castle on the point and a small bay known as Grotta Di Arpaga. ... read more

LEVANTO TO MONTEROSSO We set off this morning for Monterosso. Great to be able to have our luggage sent on ahead of us and know that dinner has been booked for this evening. A cool morning but brilliant sunshine. We left Levanto and immediately start a steady climb over a distance of 530 mts. We had to channel our inner goat ( glad Vicki is a Capricorn) at some parts of the walk. There was a mix of asphalt, soil, steps ( some quite steep), dry river beds ( that's what they looked like). We passed many houses , vineyards, olive groves, oak and pine forests. There were spectacular views of the sea both back to Levanto and forward to Monterosso. There were not many people on the trails. When we arrived in Monterosso we took ... read more