From riches to rags

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G'day family and friends!

We are writing this travel blog whilst sitting on our balcony in our jungle hut on Magnetic Island, just off the coast of Townsville, Eastern Austrailia. The island is apparently the hottest place in Austalia (Oz), and is quite beautiful, with giant boulders cascading into the ocean. It is nightime here now, and a possum has just ran into the Hostel's restaurant area scavenging for food. We are surrounded by the largest population of Koala Bears, we can hear them growling out there, but we haven't seen them yet - give it time. There is an abundance of wildlife surrounding us on the island, most of which can be seen and heard from our hut which backs on to jungle. Giant bats (flying foxes) with a wing span of over a meter are circulating above, whilst the gentle rustle of leaves to our right suggests the lizards and giant spiders are searching for their next meals. A silver back spider has also just made it's home for the night on our balcony... to Marieke's delight.

Right, what seems like a long time ago now, we last wrote to you on an Aeroplane travelling from Singapore to Bali, Indonesia. We arrived at our guest house rather late that night, and were met in the warm pouring rain by Barrie's Mum, Penny and her friend Jeff. It was SO good to see them both and their pale complextions(!) and to catch up and tell them all about our trip. The best thing was to see some familiar faces!

We spent two weeks in total in Bali, spending the first four days relaxing around Penny and Jeff's rather nice hotel in Sanur, making full use of their warm swimming pool and plush amenities. This wasn't exactly backpacking at its finest, but I am sure you'll understand our need to both spend time with family and to just relax and recharge in the comfort of their hotel! We are certainly learning to appreciate the finer things in life that we would normally take for granted...

We managed to talk the two of them into doing some 'backpacking' of their own with us. We found ourselves onboard the local ferry boat over to Lembongan Island, a beautiful island 25km off the east coast of Bali, where motorbikes are the only form of transportation around the single potholed road that circulates the small land mass. It is a small reminder of what the very touristy Bali was like 30 years ago - unspoilt and untainted, with village life continuing without too many holiday makers and touts. The island's main export is seaweed - they cultivate it just off shore, all year round, and export it to Japan and other Asian and European countries to use in cosmetics. We found that most men, women (and a lot of children) on the island were either fishermen or seaweed farmers/pickers. You can even see the 'hedgerows' of seaweed growing in the shallows as the water is so clear. They separate and dry the seaweed out on tarpauling on land for three months before it sets sail to a distant land to end up in your moisturiser.

Upon arrival to Lembongan, a highlight for us was seeing Penny and Jeff being whisked off on a scooter by a local man to a guest house that Marieke had negotiated prices for us at - it was brilliant! Among other things, we snorkled by far the greatest reef we have ever had the pleasure of viewing - we chartered a local fishing boat to take us out to a local reef and it was well worth it! - forget the Great Barrier Reef, hardly anyone had been here and it was teeming with untouched coral, and swarming with some of the most beautfiul fish you are likely to see. A huge variety of giant colourful corals danced in a rythmical motion with the current, complimented by an aray of fish and marine life moving in a choreographed sway whilst we could simply just observe in awe. It was a little deep and isolated for Marieke's liking (around 20m deep and 300m off the northern mangrove beach), but the fear of being in deep unknown water soon subsided. This moment was a great highlight of the trip so far.

Midway through our time in Sanur and back on mainland Bali, we left Penny and Jeff and ventured off on our own. We left them in the north of Bali in the pouring rain and cracking thunder under the islands' only volcano. They took a taxi back to their hotel in the south - we nearly went back with them - it was raining that hard!

Anway, once we had sorted ourselves out, we stayed in a beautifully remote sleepy village situated beside a massive lake under the volcano. It was VERY cold in the north, such a contrast to the humid sticky heat in the south we had experienced only a couple of hours previously. The next morning we were awoken at 3am and whisked off with the two of us on the back of a tiny scooter all the way to the foot of the volcano, dressed and ready (if a little dizzy and tired) to hike to the crater to catch the sunrise. We overestimated our fitness. We scrambled and climbed, slipped and slided, sweated and cried, with only torch light to guide us up the red and black beast of a rock.. After two of the toughest and most rewarding hours of our lives, we reached the volcano's summit - 1717m above sea level and just in time to see the sun rise in the east. Our small tour group experienced something really special that morning, the views were tremendous, especially through the clouds of smoke created deep within the volcano. The volcano is still very much an active one, only ten years ago a German couple died on the same trek, getting too close to the crater when it erupted. The thought of a potential eruption meant we were even more pumped with adrenaline, if a little scared! At the summit, the local guides cooked us eggs and bananas with the aid of the volcano's internal heat, and we celebrated our achievement high above the island of Bali, taking in the sunrise.

After this, we travelled to the east coast of Bali and took the ferry over to the neighbouring island of Lombok. A little less untamed and touristy, this island promised a lot. We met a Belgian guy named Sebastian on the mini van to the town of Sengiggi, and we spent the next 3 days touring the island with him on scooters. He was good fun, a well travelled backpacker and we all had a great time together. Our first evening was spent in the dirtiest most disgusting lodgings we have ever had the pleasure of sleeping in, it stank of rancid damp, and had no toilet paper - oh the joys of travel!

The local touts were awful as well - they didn't leave us alone. One guy approached us SEVEN times whilst we were eating in a restaurant to try and rent us a scooter - the lesson learnt here is to never EVER say 'maybe later' to anyone in these parts, as they WILL be back! The next day the three of us rented scooters (from someone else for half the price) and made our way across the island to the wonderful unspoilt beach settlement of Kuta, in the south. It was excellent and the most time we'd spent on a scooter. Sebestian was an experienced biker and led the way and helped us gain more confidence as we rode through Lombok's capital city and then breaking out into the mountainous countryside.

Kuta was lovely. With some of Indonisia's biggest surf, we spent most of our time walking along its many beaches, looking out at the giant waves 1km offshore. We befriended a bunch of street kids who constantly tried to sell us their handmade bracelets - they spoke better English than some English children of their age, it was quite amazing. On our way back from Kuta to Sengiggi on the scooters we had to (very quickly) take cover under the tin canopy of a local mechanics as we got caught in our first real tropical storm. It poured down for nearly two hours and we had never seen rain quite like it. The thunder sent shivers down our spines as it crashed and roared all around us. We are almost positive that lightning hit the tin canopy on one occasion, as we saw a crack of light in the corner of our eye and lots of smoke, immediately followed by the ear drum bursting sound of the thunder - Barrie was leaning against a wooden column at the time - very lucky?! The sound of this monsterous thunder directly above us was immense - we have NEVER felt so scared in a storm! Time was ticking though... we knew we had at least a three hour bike ride ahead of us... darkness was approaching. Do we sit it out and risk it getting dark and riding back in the dark on roads we weren't familiar with? Or do we ride out in the torrential rain with only shorts and a t-shirt... we had already seen one accident the day before in the rain.... so we sat it out, hoping that the rain would ease. Two hours sitting under this local mechanics tin canopy, with about 15 other locals doing the same thing! Needless to say, we looked slightly out of place and got some strange looks.What an experience.

We left Lombok after three nights and took the ferry back to Bali and met Penny and Jeff for another 2 days of fun in the sun, but we finally had to say fairwell to them and continue our journey south to a far off land called Australia........

We arrived in Darwin, north Australia at 3am and slept for an hour or so in the airport (on the floor) before getting a taxi to central Darwin. We had breakfast which only consisted of a bacon and egg sandwich but costing us around £8 each. We then found a hostel, the cheapest being around £35 for a double. It was a massive and depressing culture shock as it slowly dawned on us that we had underestimated the price of everything in Oz. We had assumed that prices would be around the same as in England, but everything from a room to a beer was at least a 1/3 more than you guys have to pay at home. However some things are four times as much, such as chocolate! This hasn't detered us from buying that however..there's always room for a choccie bar! Because of the recent cyclone, two bananas cost us nearly $4, which is about £2.50! It was particuarly tough for us as SE Asia is one of the cheapest places to live in the world. This really was going to be a different experience in Oz and New Zealand. It is mainly to do with the strength of the pound against the Australian Dollar, and the fact that they had not really been affected by the financial problems experienced in the West, their economy is booming and their wages are excellent - a barman can earn around £18 per hour, and so their cost of living is so much higher. Unfortunately, Australia at the moment is no place for a backpacker - unless you are prepared to work, and of course have the time to work. We are seriously considering bringing our time here to an end and moving onto NZ and South America, a place where our money will go a lot further. However we are really aware that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and that perhaps we should try and see as much of Oz as possible and make our money work in the time given - answers on a postcard please???

Anyway, back to Darwin. We experienced our first taste of hostel life in Darwin, and instead of a double room in a cheap guest house we were now living the hostel life, and it has been a great experience. We cook and share bathrooms with lots of other people, meaning we are meeting lots of people. We can't afford to eat or drink out in restaurants, so we hang out and cook in the hostel and meet and chat to people over dinner, so this is a totally different experience from what we were used to in Asia. So there are good and bad sides to Australia and to be honest - it is also nice to be in a country and to not worry about the cleanliness of the food. We haven't had an upset stomach in nearly 2 weeks now!

The highlights of Darwin, apart from hostel life were seeing some massive crocodiles in a local croc sanctuary - one of them was 'Burt' the Croc they used in the 1980's movie 'Crocodile Dundee'. At eighty years old and 5.6m long, it was truly awesome to see something that hasn't evolved since the Jurassic period. You wouldn't want to mess with him and his mates... these Crocs are a real problem in Northern Australia. They reside in creeks and watering holes, swim in the ocean and close to towns, and eat around ten poor unfortunate people a year - it really does not bear thinking about.

After visiting the Northern Territory Museum in Dawin, we walked down to a local beach and witnessed something quite amazing. A two meter Bull Shark - the most aggressive and deadly shark out there, was playing in the surf, only 10m off shore, we could not believe our eyes! We tried to get a picture but each time the shark showed itself above the surface, by the time we pressed the button on the camera it had gone under again.

So having seen the two largest predators of the sea in one day, and the fact it is jellyfish (stinger) season, needless to say, we have not set foot in Australian waters yet, and probably won't. This place is teeming with wildlife.

We have recently moved on to Cairns, where we spent too much time hanging out in a wonderful hostel (Castaways Backpackers) waiting for the bad weather to end so that we could go snorkling off the Great Barrier Reef. We met a couple from London who'd just invested in a 1992, 4 litre Ford Falcon (a beast) and whose plans to travel further north for a couple of days coincided with ours. So we joined them in a little road trip 150km north of Cairns to a lovely isolated area named Cape Tribulation - this place happens to have the oldest rainforests in the world - David Attenborough said so!

'Cape Trib' is where the dense mangrove and rainforests meet the sea. It was incredibly unspoilt and baron of tourists, something which we had not experienced in South East Asia and were grateful to be experiencing now. We were in awe of its beauty and grandeur, and despite the tough four hour hike in some of the hottest weather we have had in the last three months, we walked along some of the best beaches and rainforest we have ever laid eyes on. The goal was to reach a 'swimming hole' at Emmegen Creek. Upon arrival at Emmegen Creek, after a good two hours of sweating our arses off and feeling incredibly unfit, we came across signs warning us of crocodiles and not to swim in the water! We were so desparate to swim and cool down from the hike it wasn't fair! But two minutes up stream was this wonderful swimming area. The walk was worth it and we refreshed ourselves in this cool mountainous creek - but surely there was nothing to stop those crocs coming up stream and eating one of us? - it did cross our minds a few times....

We would thoroughly recommend Cape Trib to anyone venturing that way. It was recommended to us by some of Marieke's Uni friends and are so pleased we got to see and experience it. Once back in Cairns the weather finally turned and became hot and sunny, and we finally got the chance to go and see the Great Barrier Reef. It took around 2 hours to get out there by boat, and once under the water we were (slightly) disappointed to be honest. It was beautiful and obviously massive, but some of the coral had been damaged from over use and the recent cyclone didn't help matters. It was worth it though as we both saw some massive fish, and swam above a Sting Ray. On his second trip out, Barrie swam alongside a turtle. Some of the girls on the boat saw a reef shark, but Barrie DID NOT! He really wanted to see a shark in the reef, but Marieke was very glad to not have been in the presence of such a predator, knowing that they can swim faster than us... I think we have just been spoilt with the amount of beautiful reefs we have snorkled in other countries so far, but for the others on the boat they were really amazed. The lunch buffet was nice though! We do like a good buffet...

So that's it, we left Cairns two days ago and took the Greyhound Bus six hours south to our current location. Don't worry too much about us, we are only just getting over the culture shock that is Oz and are really starting to enjoy it. However, in the back of our mind there is a nagging doubt that we might run out of money before our six months is up if we stay in Australia for too long. So who knows, we could still be in Australia as per our itinery, or maybe we will bring NZ and South America forward and be there next time we send you a blog - we'll keep you posted.

We hope everyone is happy and well - we're off to put a shrimp on the barbie and down a scooner with a Sheila

Lots of love

Marieke and Barrie

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Comments

[Mum]

Crocs
What a great blog again, you two are keeping us well up to date,horrible the crocks!E says watch those red spiders don't nip you in the bum! Good to see Penny and Jeff on the pic again nearly 1 year ago that you were married and saw them last.Life in England will seem very dull in comparison to what you are getting up to.Miss you and love to both and a big hug,xxxxxxxxx

[Albert]

Dull
Ha, life anywhere will be dull from now on. What will you do when you get back? Explore the exotic wildlife in the London underground outback??? Hey you two, sounds good, looks good, although I don't know about the beard...