On our 12 month 'OZ Trip' around Australia from June 2008 to 2009, we had only reached as far north as Cooktown in Queensland as we had run out of time to make a worthwhile trip to the tip of Cape York. On the way home to Darwin we had also wanted to travel up through the proposed Limmen National Park, located between Borroloola and Roper Bar in the NT, but two shredded tyres near Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park and Wollogorang made this too risky, so we had travelled back on the tarmac instead. As it turns out, we have been invited to one of Alex's best friend's 40th birthday party being held at their holiday house on Magnetic Island during the July school holidays. So we decided to kill three birds with one stone, ... read more

We again caught an open bus trip from Dalat to Nha Trang (6 hours), the beach capital of Vietnam (according to Lonely Planet). Unfortunately, it wasn't beach weather as this part of the east coast is exposed to the winter monsoon (onshore northeasterly flow) at this time of year. As well as this, there was a tropical disturbance in the South China Sea, which only added to the overcast conditions with intermittent showers occurring during our stay. We stayed at a small and friendly family-run place, Phong Lan Orchid Hotel, located up a little alley just a couple of blocks from the beach. Since it was his birthday, Mark got to choose the restaurant and opted for Le Petit Bistro. Although the main meals were yummy, the pièce de résistance was the chocolate mousse we had ... read more

We took a bus from Ho Chi Minh via Phan Thiet to the beachside resort town of Mui Ne on the southeast coast of Vietnam. This part of the coast is orientated such that it is sheltered from the northeasterly winter monsoon and we experienced fine and sunny conditions during our stay. We had booked ahead while in Ho Chi Minh and stayed at Canary Beach Resort, the most luxurious place we stayed at while in Vietnam, with a buffet breakfast included in the price. The bus trip took about 5 hours. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the white sandy beach or by the pool. For dinner we walked down the road to a local café and had barbecued prawns and fish with salad. They reckon about 1 in 4 tourists will catch ... read more

We cleared customs in Darwin without any dramas and hopped on the 5-hour Jetstar flight to Ho Chi Ming City (Saigon), arriving around 9:30 pm. We had a booking for 4 nights at the An An hotel in District 1 and so were centrally located. The 'family room' was really just a 'deluxe' room (queen and single beds) with an extra single mattress on the floor. On our first day there, we decided to see some of the sights of Ho Chi Minh, including getting ripped off by a taxi driver on the way to the War Remnants Museum (which was an eye opener for Annelies and Thomas), visited the Notre Dame Cathedral and Post Office, went for a ride on a cyclo (ripped off again!), and dodged the traffic on our walk back to the ... read more

On Saturday we headed out fairly early as we had a long drive to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park via Burketown, Gregory Downs, and Adels Grove. About 30 kilometres out of Normanton, we stopped to have a look at the Burke and Wills - Camp 119, the most northerly camp of the fateful Burke and Wills expedition of 1860/61, which we found very interesting. Further along The Savannah Way , we also stopped to have a look at Leichardt Falls. The gravel road from Normanton to here was in good nick as it had recently been graded. To view Leichardt Falls we had to take a short track along Leichardt Creek, but it was only a couple of hundred metres off the main road - the falls weren't visible from the main road so it would ... read more