Niamh and Cathals Blog on RealTravel

London journal: Should we stay or should we go?

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:26:38 GMT

So after the long flight from Wellington via Melbourne and Hong Kong we landed at Heathrow on Thursday the 13th of September. Once through immigration at Heathrow I was hit with the reality that this was it. No more travelling. I have to say I had a little cry right there in the arrivals hall!

Like the proper Londoners we now are, we hopped on the tube and did the long but straightforward journey to Leytonstone where our friend Niall lives. He welcomed us and had the sofa bed all ready so we could fall asleep. This turned out to be an excellent plan and once we'd exhorted him to wake us ...

Wellington journal: Wanderers return to Welly

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:33:34 GMT

Wellington is where we bought our round the world ticket and therefore is where it ends. Our ticket doesn't end until November but some friends are getting married back in London in September so we had decided to cut our trip short and go back mid September.

Luckily we have friends who live in Wellington which meant it would be a nice relaxing end to the trip, chilling out and gearing up to enter the real world and find somewhere to live, get jobs and so on.

After checking out of our hotel, managing to misplace both our wallet and $350 dollars and my jade pendant (no idea where ...

Sydney journal: Shopping in Sydney

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:59:04 GMT

Ok, so we eventually arrived in Sydney after the aforementioned mammoth flight. We were actually pretty chipper when we got here, that is, until we saw the weather. It was bucketing down and we didn't have a stich of waterproof clothing between us, having given it away in Peru on the mistaken understanding that it was sunny down under. A fact I gleaned from repeated viewings of Home and Away. Anyhow "no worries", as they say here, we had a free pickup and were transported to our hostel without a drop hitting us.

We dumped our stuff and headed straight out to the shops, I was on a ...

Quito journal: The centre of the world! Nearly.

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:16:22 GMT

The day after we returned from Otavalo, we decided it was time to visit Quito's main tourist attraction, Mitad del Mundo, or the Centre of the World. Obviously enough, this is a monument marking the equator line which passes fairly close to Quito.

There were a few people heading off from the hostel, so we decided to go with them. Despite getting a little lost on the way ('It really is quicker this way, honest') we made it all the way out to Mitad del Mundo, about an hour out of town on the bus (if you don't get lost following an Aussie called Chris, of course).

Given the amount ...

Easter Island journal: Navel of the Earth

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:09 GMT

We had to fly from Quito to Santiago late at night and from there to Easter Island, but the second flight was delayed by about 3 hours.

However we got there eventually and the island was beautiful as we flew over it. We got settled in our accommodation without much delay, with a lovely view of the ocean. Even though we had been awake for about 34 hrs straight we decided to head down to get our first glimpse of the Maoi, or standing statues for which the island is famous. Nobody knows quite why they're there, numerous theories abound though. They were all toppled over during civil wars ...

Otavalo journal: Otavalo Markets

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:53:34 GMT

After a few days in Quito, we felt it was time to take a break, so we headed for the famous market town of Otavalo, a couple of hours north.

Although the main market happens on Saturday, even when we arrived on Thursday there was plenty to see on the Plaza los Ponchos. We didn't buy anything the first day, however, partly because as the tourist numbers increased during the course of the afternoon, so did the prices.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed back down to the markets. The bargaining was much easier now, so easy in fact that all we had to do was wait, it seemed ...

Trujillo journal: La Libertad

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:49:09 GMT

We flew to Trujillo via Lima, which entailed rather a long time in Lima airport. About 8 hours. Naturally I used the time productively, having finished my book in about 5 hrs, The Kite Runner, recommended, I went shopping. There's not a huge array of stuff to buy in Lima but there is alpaca wool clothing. So spent a lot of money on a new coat, gorgeous and a lovely sweater. Naturally I now have to cart them around!

We got to our hostel in Trujillo around 10.30pm, checked in and went straight to bed. The next morning we were more chipper and had a chat with Vanessa, the owner about what to ...

Cusco journal: Couldn´t resist Cusco again

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:35:36 GMT

We´d been to Cusco on our honeymoon trip, so it was nice to be back 4 years later and lots of things looked familar.

We decided to go for the "party hostel" option, although normally we avoid these like the plague. There were surprisingly comfy beds and the location was good, it´s called The Point. One of the best things about this hostel was that they had a gorgeous husky puppy called Sasha, she was very naughty, prone to biting, but I loved her.

We didn´t do much really for the first few days, just wandered around and saw the old haunts. We´d seen pretty much all the sights, the ...

Copacabana journal: On the shores of Lake Titicaca!

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:51:51 GMT

So we had an uneventful but very scenic journey to Lake Titicaca. The lake was very blue, almost dark blue and surrounded by mountains. It´s 3,827 metres above sea level, making it the highest navigable lake in the world.

Arriving at Copacabana we found a hotel without incident. Copacabana is possibly the most touristy place we´d been in Bolivia. Full of gringos in stripey trousers.

We did take the time to visit the Cathedral, which includes an interesting chapel, called the candle chapel, lit entirely by candlelight. It's interesting as the walls are covered with wax graffiti.

La Paz journal: Partying in La Paz

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:32:43 GMT

So once off the most polluting bus so far, we said goodbye to Claire, Tess and Tim and headed off to Arthy´s Guesthouse again.

We showered and slept and in the evening we went in search of food only to find the streets choked with loads of people and marching bands and floats. We found out later that it was the anniversary of the city. The partying continued for 2 days and we had a bird´s eye view from the balcony of the guesthouse.

Schools, girl guides, boy scouts, the police and every office body seemed to be represented. The army, navy and all were out marching too, displaying ...

Potosi journal: Pottering around Potosi

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 12:40:30 GMT

We arrived in Potosi at 7.30am. We bravely decided to do the half hour walk uphill to our hostel. It´s 4,070metres above sea level in Potosi, so we were pretty puffed when we found the hostel.

We were unable to check in just then, so headed out and found some breakfast with hot chocolate (coffee has been pretty bad so far in South America). We also (bravely) booked ourselves onto a mines tour.

Let me explain: Potosi is famous for the silver, tin and zinc mines. Once the richest city in the world, the city´s fortunes have waned considerably since then. It is however a UNESCO world ...

Cusco journal: Happy Birthday, Niamhie!

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:22:57 GMT

It was Niamh's birthday on the 30th, however she fell ill (most uncharacteristic) and spent almost the whole day in bed. She did manage to venture out in the evening to a restaurant we had visited on our honeymoon, though I had to eat most of the food myself! Poor thing.

Uyuni journal: Sumaj Jallpha or Wonderful Land agency

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:13:44 GMT

Good 3 day tour. Accommodation is basic and unheated, so wrap up warm. The guide, Fabian was informative but didn´t talk our ears off and the scenery was fantastic.

La Paz journal: Blockaded in La Paz

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:37:29 GMT

We arrived in La Paz without incident. The flight landed somewhere in Northern Chile after flying over the Andes. This just made me think of the film Alive.

We met up with some fellow travellers at the airport. They were all hit by the altitude immediately an most of them were a bit bleary because of it. La Paz is 3,600 metres above sea level, or 11,810 feet. However once we got some local currency I bought several bottles of water and a bit later everyone was feeling better. La Paz airport is very quiet and relaxed, we were expecting it to be more like Lima airport which is just chaos.

Puerto Natales journal: What do we do now?

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:00:32 GMT

After a very convoluted bus journey, we arrived in Puerto Natales around 9.30pm. We booked into our hostel, Erratic Rock and fell asleep.

We had planned to get the Navimag, which is a ferry which goes from Puerto Natales, through the Chilean fjords to Puerto Montt. Apart from flying or going through Argentina it's pretty much the only way to get to mid-Chile from here. We were pretty exited about it, apparently the views are great.

However when we went to the Navimag office they told us that the ferry was delayed by a few days. Therefore it looked unlikely that we´d get to Santiago ...

La Paz journal: Interesting museum

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 08:56:06 GMT

Costing just 8 Bolivianos, this museum is full of information about the amazing coca plant. Well worth an hour or two.

Santiago journal: A sleepy stopover in Santiago

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:57:41 GMT

We arrived in Santiago at 8.40pm and then we went to the Lan Chile desk to see if we could bring forward our Santiago La Paz flight to the next day, apparently there´s nothing much to do in Santiago. The good news was that we got on the flight the next morning at 6.45 but we had to sleep in the airport.

I found a quiet corner and made a trolley barricade and we slept using our luggage as pillows for a few hours. Next stop, La Paz.

Puerto Madryn journal: Right Place, Right Time for Southern Right Whales

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:20:50 GMT

The bus down from Foz de Iguazu was probably the most comfortable bus ever; mind you, if you've read some of our other entries, you'll know that mightn't be saying much.

Newly installed in our seafront hostel, we wandered along the beach. Amazingly, not 500 metres out in the ocean was a pair of Right whales, spouting and splashing and generally doing whale-type things. We watched for a while, then headed off to find a bite to eat.

Puerto Madryn is fairly unremarkable; neat and tidy, but not terribly exciting. In the afternoon, it seemed like the entire population of the town was ...

Buenos Aires journal: Bussed it to BA

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:58:07 GMT

We got to BA after about 18 hours on a comfy bus upon which we met a nice young Glaswegian boy called Ryan.

We found our hostel which was lovely with the best hostel breakfast so far. Then we met Ryan and had a bit of a wander round the city. After some lunch we chilled out and then went back out in search of warm jackets as we planned to go to Patagonia but didn´t want to carry our really heavy ski stuff.

After about an hour of searching we found two warm jackets for a tenner each. Result. The district we shopped in was really interesting if you´re a bit geeky like me. There were ...

Foz do Iguacu journal: What a lotta water

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:48:24 GMT

The bus journey from Rio was comfortable but very, very long - 23 hours in all. There were very few people on the bus and the staff were very friendly so it wasn´t nearly as bad as we´d worried it was going to be.

We arrived at Foz around 1pm and took a bus into town and found our hostel without incident. We checked in, got some food and too many beers (they taste so good when you´re sitting in the sun) and then fell asleep.

We got up later on, hung around the bar and chatted to some of the people in the hostel and then Cathal was hungry again so we went to this place called Mega ...

Cork journal: A family visit

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:41:12 GMT

We flew over to Cork and picked up the hire car our mothers had so kindly arranged for us. 'You'll be the two that are travelling the world', said the car hire man. 'Um, yes', I said, wondering where this was going. And how he'd identified us quite so swiftly.

'Your mother's very persuasive', he said to me. 'But then she's a primary school teacher, isn't she'.

It turned out that they're really not supposed to let someone arrange car hire if they're not actually going to be there in person. But this is Ireland, so the fact that my mother is a primary school teacher seemed to ...

London journal: Work? I think I remember!

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:51:45 GMT

So we'd managed to change our flights around in Ireland and we flew to London later than planned.

When we got to London we realised we really missed our friends, so I asked for some work to replenish the budgets and to give us time to see our mates. (I'm writing this about 2 months after and I can tell you we managed to make enough money to cover the monumental amount of money we spent in London and Ireland on food, booze, car hire and other consumer goods!) At least the travel budget is not depleted and may even be slightly healthier.

I started 6 weeks work at my old agency and we ...

Dublin journal: Quick stop in the city where we met!

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:40:35 GMT

We actually went to a good few places in Ireland but I'm putting them under Dublin and Cork. We went to Castlewellan again to see my Aunt Maureen and went for lovely walks. Including climbing Slieve Donard completely hungover. Professional mountaineers us! We enjoyed once again Maureen's amazing cooking and hospitality and chilling out with the family and the attentions of Sandy the lovely dog.

On the way back to Dublin we called in Newgrange, once of the best tourist attractions in Ireland in my humble opinion. It's a neolithic passage tomb. That's about 5,000 years old. I'd been years ago ...

London journal: Good old London

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:15:45 GMT

We spent a few relaxing days at Karine's beautiful house in Ealing, not doing a whole lot. There was time to meet up with some of our old friends, back in the very same pub where we'd said goodbye the previous year. Everybody was looking very well indeed. It was great to see our friends again, we'd been looking forward to it for quite some time.

Oddly, the thing that struck me most walking around London was how clean everything seemed to be; not the kind of observation I'd normally associate with central London, but there you are.

Addis Ababa journal: One last time in Addis Ababa

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:05:42 GMT

The journey back to Addis took much longer than expected. It was also extremely cramped, even by Ethiopian standards. So it was quite late indeed when we finally reached our hotel in Addis. I'd also managed to finally pick up some kind of stomach bug, so I wasn't up to much for the rest of the evening.

The next day we did a final bit of souvenir shopping, then just hung around waiting til the evening so we could head out to the airport. We arrived at the airport around 9pm, but our flight wouldn't start checking in until 3am, so we took it in turns sleeping on the benches. Ethiopian ...

Harar journal: East to Harar

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:29:58 GMT

We took the bus from Addis Ababa to Harar, an ancient walled city in the East of Ethiopia. Harar is described as the fourth holiest city in Islam and has been in existence at least since the 7th Century. The centre of the city is the walled 'Jugol', inside which is a maze of alleys running between white-washed buildings.

The first evening we did little more than eat dinner and go to sleep, despite being promised that we could see hyenas if we simply looked out our window.

The next morning we met up with our guide, Nebile. He led us round the old town for about 3 hours, during ...

Addis Ababa journal: Back to Addis

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:49:04 GMT

As usual, we were at the bus station before sunrise. We had bought tickets for Dessie, about half-way to Addis Ababa, because the direct bus for Addis hadn't arrived the previous evening. However, far too many tickets had been sold for the Dessie bus so we had to get a refund and then get onto the direct Addis bus, which was quite a struggle. We managed it in the end, in the company of Anna, a German girl headed the same way.

The trip took 2 days altogether. Originally we were told we would overnight at Dessie, but the bus didn't stop until quite a way past that town, in a place ...

Lalibela journal: The Rock-Hewn churches of Lalibela

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:17:42 GMT

After the last few bus journeys we'd decided to skip the next one, since it was likely to take three days to get to Lalibela from Axum. Instead, we'd splashed out on a couple of shiny new plane tickets. So we found ourselves in Axum airport, which is a funny place, really.

We went through security to get to the ticket desk, checked in and were shown to some seats to wait for our flight. About half an hour later we were called to board, but we had to go through security all over again, x-rays, taking off the shoes, the whole thing. Bear in mind, security is about two feet from the ...

Shire journal: Through the mountains to Shire

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:54:36 GMT

We were at the bus station at 6:15am, pushing our way through the shouting crowd clustered around the gate. A station official (or 'green grocer' as I prefer to call them, since they all wear the same kind of long, green coat you might expect to have seen in a London grocers back in the 50s) led us to the back of the station, to the rustiest, most banged-up bus we'd seen in a long time awaited its passengers. It had to wait quite a while too. We hung around the bus waiting to get on, giving all and sundry a good chance to have a stare. Maybe not that many tourists take the bus, maybe they ...

Gonder journal: Castles and churches in Gonder

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 03:06:15 GMT

A minibus took us the short drive from Bahir Dar to Gonder. We arrived in the late morning but it took quite a long time to find somewhere to stay. Part of the reason for this was my having left my hat on the bus. Niamh waited in a juice cafe very nice by the way, called 'Sofa') while I trudged off in the noonday heat to find the bus station. Amazingly, I'd only just wandered into the station and started to wonder which dented little minibus I'd been on that morning when the driver's assistant came running over, my hat in his hand.

Back in town, we managed to find a decent hotel and ...

Katete journal: Volunteering at Tikondane

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:12:36 GMT

Way back sometime last May, somewhere in Cambodia I was surfing the Lonely Planet Thorntree message board a came across mention of a place called Tikondane that accepted volunteers. I emailed them and asked if they wanted two Irish people to help out. I said that I normally worked in fundraising and Cathal was good at computers. Elke replied back and said come! We said we'd be there around the 10 Jan, 2007 which was very ambitious given we hadn't booked any tickets to Africa and we'd no idea where we'd be next month, let alone next year. Still it's nice to have a goal.

In the ...

Debre Mark'os journal: Overnight in Debre Markos

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:28:51 GMT

The first of many Ethiopian bus journeys was upon us. As would become tradtional, we rose painfully early and scooted off to the bus station before sunrise. Locating our bus amid the chaos was easier than expected, then we just had to wait the required three hours for the bus to actually leave.

The journey was great, in the end. The scenery is quite incredible, particularly as the bus passes through the enormous Blue Nile Gorge. The canyon is immense and we had a fine view as the bus bumped and grumbled its way down the winding road into the canyon. At one point, Niamh and I ...

Addis Ababa journal: Addis at last

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:49:53 GMT

Our flight to Addis was interesting. Mostly because there was a lady being deported on it and she screamed and wailed for a good portion of the flight. There was a very red faced official escort with her. What a job!

We got into Bole airport at around 3.30am, sorted out our visas and waited around for it to get light. At 7.15am we hired a taxi from the airport and tried to find a hotel. We tried several from the guidebook and had called a few from the airport. The cabbie kept getting lost. Turns out a lot of hotels were booked and the cabbie got really bored with us when we refused to ...

London journal: For one night only... stopover in Blighty

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:25:09 GMT

So, our flights were Lusaka - London and Addis the following day. The flight was late taking off as the Zambian president was on it and obviously they had to dance and sing to send him on his way.

When we eventually got to Heathrow, we headed into South Kensington and met our close friends in a proper English pub and went for some pizza. It was a bit strange being back in London after a month in the bush and we were a little bit culture shocked. Still our friend Karine looked after us like royalty and fed us cheese and lovely coffee so we soon settled in. We had enough time the next ...

Lusaka journal: Luckless in Lusaka

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:25:26 GMT

We checked out early from our hotel in Livingstone on the 5th and took the bus up to Lusaka with Dee. (Ray had gone a few days earlier with the car). It was an uneventful journey and we got a cab to the backpackers and promptly ordered pizza! We said goodbye to Dee, it had been lovely to see her. I did some washing whcih I hung out on the line in the hostel whereupon several berries fell on it and stained it purple. Rotten luck!

We explored Lusaka. We stood on Cairo road and wondered where it reminded us of. Eventually we decided Lusaka looked like Ulan Bataar with trees. It's ...

Katete journal: By staying here you help support vital community development work!

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:20:10 GMT

Livingstone journal: Back in the land of the Livingstone

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:00:24 GMT

We were back in Livingstone at last. So we settled back into the hotel and generally lazed about. We went to the falls a few more times, seeing it at various stages of flood. The water was really brown now and it was a very wet experience. In fact, one day as we made our way past the David Livingstone statue we passed a group of Japanese tourists, who'd clearly just arrived and hadn't seen the falls yet. They looked in horror at our drenched bedraggled state. The guide asked - "is it very wet?" "Yes" we cheerfully answered and the whole group looked very worried. Wonder if they braved ...

Mongu journal: Off-road to Mongu

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:35:24 GMT

We left Livingstone on the 27th, in our shiny new rented Landcruiser. The road was perfectly fine for the first couple of hours, until we reached Sesheke, near where Niamh and I had crossed over from Namibia. All of a sudden the road disappeared into a dusty track. Not to worry, this was why we’d hired a 4x4. Indeed the going wasn’t that bad at all for the first little while. But we had to drive 200km on this muddy track and the puddles grew and grew until there were small ponds covering the road from one side to the other. Despite the depth of some of these, the Landcruiser barely paused ...

Caprivi journal: Captivating Caprivi

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 04:26:51 GMT

We were looking forward to the Caprivi strip, because Martin promised us we'd see hippos!

So we were up early (a real feature of this trip) and headed off to cross the border. It was coming up to Christmas so the queues at the border were very long, but all in all we were done in 40 mins so not too bad. We sped over to re-enter Namibia without incident and drove a bit until we found a huge boabab tree and Joe sorted breakfast out.

We had a lot of driving to do and without delay headed off again and several hours later we were all pretty sleepy until Manuella yelled "elephants!", ...

Okavango Delta journal: Okavango and Makoros

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:55:16 GMT

From bushmanland we headed into Botswana. At the border they stamped my passport "departed' even though we'd just arrived! We headed over towards the Okavango delta. We had a long drive to the edge of the lagoon where we camped at a nice place called Gooma camp. We had sundowner beers overlooking an amazing sunset (another one!). Everyone was in good humour and it was a lovely evening, topped off by more of Martin's fantastic cooking and his scary stories of hippo and elephant encounters.

The next day we took down the tents early and made our way by speed boat into the delta proper. We ...

Tsumeb journal: Dancing Bushmen!

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:34:58 GMT

We continued out of Etosha National Park, heading South East towards the town of Tsumeb, where we stocked up on supplies and bought all the water they had in the local Spar as well as essentials like cider and chocolate! Once we had done our shopping we hit the road again towards the town of Grootfontein to see a big lump from outer space!

The Hoba meteorite, near Grootfontein, is the largest meteorite ever found, landing some 80,000 years ago it weighs about 50 tons. It's pretty big. It's still there to see in the huge crater where it landed. However the crater has since been developed ...

Etosha National Park journal: Game driving in Etosha

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:05:08 GMT

We met our new group in the morning. As well as our friend Emma, there was David and Ina, from LA who were on their honeymoon; Isobel, a French girl over from London for a well-earned holiday. Our new guide was called Martin, and assisting him was Joe. Without much ado, we bundled into the 4x4 and headed off towards Etosha.

It took most of the morning and afternoon to reach the National Park. We camped in the park for two nights, in two different camps. Both camps featured floodlit watering holes, where you could sit and watch the game (apparently the flood lights don't bother them). ...

Etosha National Park journal: Brilliant company and small groups - Max 8!

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:57:36 GMT

Windhoek journal: Back to Windhoek

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:25:03 GMT

We set off from the Dunedin Star in the morning, and drove to Windhoek, back to the Chameleon Backpackers. Niamh and I had a much nicer room this time, since it was included in the tour price. We decided to go out for dinner as a group, since it was the end of the first tour (our resident pharmacist, Manuela, would be continuing with us towards Zambia, but Nicola and Laura were leaving us). Rather ambitiously (as it turned out) we set off down Indepence Avenue in search of an indian restaurant we'd been assured was worth the walk. However, after walking for about fifteen minutes hunger ...

Swakopmund journal: Sunny Swakopmund

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:15:38 GMT

After Walvis Bay, we drove up the coast to Swakopmund. It's a much more pleasant town than Windhoek, partly because it's quite easy to walk around, but also because it has a far more relaxed atmosphere.

The main event here was the opportunity to go quad-biking, sand-boarding, sky-diving or whatever other adrenaline-filled, hyphenated activity took our fancy. As it happened, our budget didn't stretch that far, so we retired to the internet cafe while our more adventurous companions did their stuff. By all accounts they had a great time. The 'combo' packages seem to be quite good ...

Walvis Bay journal: Salty flamingoes

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:42:06 GMT

On the way to Swakopmund from Sossusvlei, we stopped at Walvis Bay for lunch. After showing us the local salt processing plant, Michael and company took us down to the beach in the hope of getting up close to the flamingoes that live there. There were indeed a lot flamingoes in the bay, but the tide was very far out, as were the flamingoes. Niamh was most disappointed, as she had been hoping for a decent close-up. Guess we'll have to visit Miami for that one.

Sossusvlei journal: Sandy Sossusvlei

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:21:00 GMT

We were in high spirits setting off for our trip to Sossusvlei. Our group totalled seven, as well as us and Emma, there were four girls.

We made our way through some very nice scenery, stopping for photos and interesting features pointed out by our guides.

We saw a sociable weaver birds' nest. These birds build an avian apartment block. It's a huge structure with maybe hundreds of individual nests inside. Sometimes it can get so big that the branch of the tree collapses under the sheer weight. We had a lunch stop and about an hour later crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. ...

Kimberley journal: Big Hole

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 00:14:57 GMT

From Stellenbosch, we decided to aim for Kimberley. I decided to take a slightly more scenic route - famous last words - "It doesn't look much longer on the map". Well it was, much longer. So we were still about 400km from Kimberley at 8pm when we rejoined themotorway. We were pootling along for about 15 minutes when we hit a sign which indicated roadworks for the next 80km.

Let me tell you a bit about roadworks in South Africa, we're experts now cause we've encountered them so often. Firstly you need to reduce speed. Obivious enough. Then you pass by a man or woman in an orange jumpsuit ...

Windhoek journal: We're in Windhoek

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:14:40 GMT

We. along with our friend Emma, flew from Johannesburg to Windhoek. The flight was non-eventful.

I was looking out the window as we were descending and could see just scrub and acacia trees. There were no signs of anything remotely resembling a village, let alone a city. When we cleared immigration and collected our luggage we realised that the airport was very far away from the city. Very far indeed.

We got a taxi, with a very friendly driver and checked in at our hostel.

Later we explored the city on foot. It really didn't take long, apart from some vaguely Germanic looking ...

Johannesburg journal: Whistlestop Johannesburg

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:01:55 GMT

We arrived in Johannesburg at 4pm having driven all the way from Kimberley. There was just time to spend an hour at the brilliant Apartheid Museum. It's a very well presented museum with interesting, incredibly informative exhibits and we really wished we had more time before it closed. I think you'd need about 3 hours to really get the most out of a visit.

Once they kicked us out from the musuem at closing time we were faced with the neccessity of finding somewhere to sleep. We thought we might as well head out to the place we'd stayed at before, which is near the airport. You'd think ...

Cape Town journal: Top Table

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 06:40:11 GMT

We arrived in Cape Town in the afternoon and made Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens our first stop. They are very pleasant gardens, feauturing mainly South African plants. There was an interesting section on plants with medicinal value and some lovely sculptures. We spent a very relaxing 2 hours there.

Then we headed into town to try to find a bed for the night. We first tried Long Street, with me waiting in the car, whilst Cathal went to check out hostels. While I was waiting, at least two people tried to open the car doors (I had them locked) and when Cathal returned, I told him that I ...

Stellenbosch journal: One of Niamh's dreams come true

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 06:15:04 GMT

Derek and Kelly had mentioned that there was a Cheetah Rehabiliation Centre at the huge Spiers winery in Stellenbosch. It just so happens that cheetahs are Niamh's favourite animal in the whole world, so we simply had to take a detour to Stellenbosch. After the usual battle with South African signage, we arrived in reasonable time.

Before visiting the cheetahs, we had a wine tasting, largely because we felt it would be a shame to come all the way out here without checking out the local produce. We really enjoyed it; not only was the wine quite lovely, but I found it surprisingly ...

Kimberley journal: Beautifully restored house with very informative hostess

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 06:18:45 GMT

Hermanus journal: Tip of Africa, route 62 and whales

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 05:38:53 GMT

After we'd finished looking at the elephants and their friends we headed off west towards Mossel Bay, along the famous Garden Route. The scenery was gorgeous but it was impossible to pull over and take any pictures, which we felt rather defeated the point. We did get some lovely views though as the sun was setting.

We arrived in Mossel Bay after dark and I'd found out about a hostel that was actually a converted train parked on the beach, so I booked us in there. It was very cute.

The following day dawned beautifully sunny and since we were up early we decided to drive along what ...

Hermanus journal: Very interesting place to stay, but maybe just for one night.

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 05:18:32 GMT

Clarens journal: Pretty Clarens

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 03:01:29 GMT

After a yummy breakfast, we piled into Drew and Lindsay's rented Fiat and set off to Maseru. At Maseru we got some lunch which we ate on the roadside. I'd bought pap, or maize meal porridge, which transported Cathal to his childhood in Zambia, as he'd not had any since then.

We cleared the border crossings without incident and were once again in South Africa. Drew steered a steady course towards the town of Clarens in the Free State and we arrived there just after dark. We checked into some nice but pricey accomodation. We had the honeymoon suite which was nice, but weirdly had the ...

Port Elizabeth journal: Another Port

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:01:17 GMT

We continued along the Wild Coast towards Port Elizabeth. The landscape was much the same as we had seen the previous day, undeveloped save for the almost ubiquitous sprinkling of small rondavel huts, with no sign of any electricity, telephone or other facilities. Every now again we had a brief glimpse of charming inlets and the ocean beyond.

Along the way, Niamh was puzzling over the people, standing by the side of the road, holding tiny flimsy paper signs with two or three letters on them. The signs normally read 'XC' or something similar. Presumably they were hitching, but we ...

Port St Johns journal: Quick stop - Port St Johns

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 07:39:57 GMT

Port St Johns had been recommended to us by Derek and Kelly in Durban, so we followed the bumpy road to the coast to find the small but busy town. Our hostel was some way out of the town, right on the beach. It turned out to be very busy indeed; I think we got the only two bunks remaining.

Niamh and I took a nice walk down on the beach, accompanied by two of the many dogs at the hostel. The beach is very pretty, although there's a fair bit of litter. The isolated feeling of the area is rather at odds with the concentration of backpackers in the area. The scenery here is really ...

Semonkong journal: The Mountain Kingdom

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 07:11:42 GMT

We'd never heard of Lesotho before we spotted this tiny country in the middle of our map of South Africa. So we decided to head over there once we'd asked Terry at the hostel in Bloemfontein what it was like. Getting there was simple enough - we took a bus from Bloemfontein to the border near Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. We, along with a German and a Swede, got a taxi on the other side of the border to the tourist information office to see about buses and getting to Semonkong. The lady was very smiley and helpful, but actually there was a guy called Howard dropping some posters off about a ...

Durban journal: Dropping by Durban

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:43:20 GMT

Derek found us wandering with our bags back to the town centre and we piled in his car. He was a very interesting guy and it was lovely to chat to him on the journey down. He was very positive about South Africa, not like the few locals we'd met before who were always telling us not to go anywhere in case we got mugged. It was so refreshing to meet someone with interesting stories and who filled us in on the current events. We chatted about all sorts of stuff, including his job which is in the clothing industry. We visited a garment factory en route and Derek treated us to lunch. He offered to ...

Semonkong journal: Lovely (only!) place to stay. Good food, gorgeous location.

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 04:57:12 GMT

Bloemfontein journal: Blooming giraffes!

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 04:41:36 GMT

We took the bus from Johannesburg and arrived in the Orange Free State on a scorching afternoon. We called a hostel and the owner, Terry came to pick us up. He was an interesting guy, a heart surgeon, he'd inherited the hostel from his Dad. He was very upset about the rugby match Ireland had won!

The hostel was really arty - full of little touches like lightbulbs in blenders and fridges. Terry was full of advice about things to do in Bloemfontein, so the next day we headed up the hill for a walk to a game reserve. It's free of charge so we decided we'd wander around to see what we could ...

Bloemfontein journal: Really funky backpackers, don't make too much noise, everyone can hear you!

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 08:33:03 GMT

Johannesburg journal: Johannesburg

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:53:02 GMT

It was to be my first and Cathal's third time in Africa and we were very excited. So we crept out of Mark and Helen's house at 3.45am, so as not to wake them. There isn't really much to do at Wellington airport at the best of times, but even less at 4am. We were flying via Sydney again and the journey, including layover would take 21 hours. Gulp.

We arrived in Jo'burg safe and sound and Bob from our hostel picked us up from the airport. We were hungry and one of the other hostel guests, Steve from Liverpool suggested we go to the Irish pub for a bite. So it ended up with us, Wayne, Bob's ...

Taupo journal: Lake Taupo back to Wellington

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:45:01 GMT

So we finally left Napier and decided to come back to Wellington via Lake Taupo. It was a truly glorious day when we set off and there wasn't too much traffic so we got to Lake Taupo around 2pm. However just as we could glimpse the lake, the heavens opened and our view was very quickly obscured. We'd planned to stop, but drove straight on. Pity, cause in the tiny breaks of mist and cloud we could see the lake was huge and probably absolutely gorgeous on a clear day.

We came back to Wellington later that evening and met up with Mark, who was back from England and Helen.

We hung ...

Wellington journal: Back to Welly

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:46:39 GMT

We flew back to Wellington from Christchurch. Mark and Helen very kindly picked us up from the airport. We chilled out for a few days, spending some quality time with our friends, going out, meeting their friends for the Guy Fawkes fireworks (which they had on the wrong day because it was Saturday and the kids wouldn't have to stay up late on a school night!). We also went out to the cinema. It was really nice to see them again and it made us realise just how much we miss all our mates back home.

Our time in New Zealand was fast running out and we wanted to see some of the north island. ...

Punakaiki journal: Pancake rocks and mountain passes

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:41:50 GMT

After Fox Glacier we headed out to see the nearby Lake Mathieson. Apparently on a good day you can see Mount Cook reflected in it. This was not a good day, all we could see were the ripples from the rain falling into the lake. However we walked around it for an hour nonetheless.

We then headed north past Franz Josef, another glacier, getting a glimpse of the big monster as we passed. From there we went onto Hokitika, famous for greenstone, or jade, which is important to the Maori. We did an interesting little drive from there, around old gold mining lanes, where you could still see the ...

Fox Glacier journal: Fantastic Fox

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:23:56 GMT

So we parked up about 10kms from Fox village the night before and in the morning we were up bright and early, as we'd booked a day walk on the glacier for a 9am start.

We got kitted up for the walk - we needed crampons to attach to our boots, gloves, hats and raincoats. Then we boarded a 1978 Bedford bus towards the terminal face of the glacier. On the way, we got a great glimpse of Mt Tasman, not usually seen so clearly but it was a gorgeous, clear day.

When we got to the glacier it was amazing to see it up close. It's really huge and you can see where in previous years it's ...

Milford Sound journal: Majestic Milford Sound to Arrowtown

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 18:43:21 GMT

We spent the night in at a beautiful camp site on the shore of a lake. After dinner we snuggled up in our rather comfortable car/camper and drifted off to the sound of the waves on the lake.

In the morning we continued onwards towards Milford Sound; in the event we'd covered most of the distance the day before and arrived there fairly early. We killed a bit of time until our cruise began then sauntered down to the cruise terminal.

Our ship was really rather large, considering that we were only sharing it with a group of 40 Chinese tourists and nobody else. The cruise took us ...

Te Anau journal: Te Anau and around

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:20:12 GMT

We set off from Dunedin to cross over towards the West Coast. Our first stop was Te Anau. Needing showers at this point, we parked up at a caravan park and availed of copious amounts of hot water. The setting was beautiful, as we ate a very nice dinner of veggie sausages and mash, we could see the sun go down over Lake Te Anau.

The next day we booked a trip to the Glow Worm Caves. This is across the sound, in quite a (geologicallly speaking) new cave. The larvae of a specific gnat live in caves and emit light to attract food. They dangle silk threads down into the cave and mosquitos and ...

Waitomo Caves journal: Lovely caves and see glow worms lighting it up

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:44:19 GMT

Dunedin journal: Along the West Coast

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:25:51 GMT

We made some progress down the East Coast. The scenery was really lovely, lots of snowcapped mountains. We got to the very picturesque village of Omaru. It was a lovely wide main street with English-style buildings.

We wandered around and spotted a sign for a penguin colony. We went off to see what it was all about and discovered that the smallest penguin in the world - the blue penguin comes ashore each evening to go to their nesting boxes. So we booked tickets to see them and parked up on the harbour to have some dinner.

When it was time to go and see the penguins we went ...

Christchurch journal: Gorgeous hostel, complete with herb garden and lemon trees

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:38:16 GMT

Christchurch journal: Christchurch

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:38:16 GMT

We arrived in Christchurch in the evening, found our hostel and ordered pizza washed down with a rather tasty red wine.

The next day we had a lie in and set off to explore Christchurch later in the afternoon. However I've never seen a city quite so bereft of people. And at 4.30pm on a Saturday the shops were closed. Quite amazing. We were very puzzled. It's a lovely city to walk around though, really nice wide streets and lovely English-style buildings. We repaired to a local hostelry to sample some ale and eat ploughman's doorstop sandwiches and watched a bit of rugby. Which is when we ...

Kaikoura journal: A Whale of a Time!

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:12:38 GMT

The Tranzcoastal journey to Kaikoura is very scenic. On the train, which is used primarily by tourists, there's an observation carriage which is open so you can take pictures. Cathal spent most of his time there. They also do a commentary on the scenery as you pass by. We saw some lovely landscape and also passed by a salt processing plant, where there are pools of saltwater drying out. Some of the pools were pink due to the algae.

At Kaikoura you can go whalewatching or swimming with dolphins. We chose the former and booked ourselves onto a whalewatching cruise for the following day. In ...

Picton journal: Picturesque Picton

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:00:22 GMT

We took the ferry over from Wellington and it docks in the small town of Picton. Unusually for us, we'd booked a hostel and they came to pick us up from the ferry terminal. The hostel was lovely, the best we'd been to on our trip so far, but then we realised later that hostels are of a very high standard in New Zealand.

Picton is very small, just one main street straggling back from the harbour. However it's perched right on the Malborough Sounds and it's from Picton that the mail gets delivered to the more remote households living on the sounds. So the next day we booked ourselves onto ...

Kuala Lipis journal: Kuala Lipis - to Taman Negara

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:15:52 GMT

We had no real reason for stopping in Kuala Lipis, other than Cathal reckoned it would be interesting. So we got off the train and found out how to get to Taman Negara (car then 3 hour boat ride). Then off in search of food. We found a nice Indian place who fed us with all the rice, curry and lassi we could take and then we explored Kuala Lipis. That didn't take long, it's not a big place. Interesting colonial architecture though.

We did find a funny bar (only bar) called Flash Jacks. Run by an old Chinese guy, they had happy hour (for the 2 customers, us, and his mates). However later, ...

Picton journal: Free breakfast - homebaked bread, yum!

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 12:55:13 GMT

The World journal: Trains and Boats then Planes

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:19:59 GMT

After 10 years working in London it seemed we were in real danger of finally growing up. We decided to put that off just a little longer by taking a little trip to see some of the places we'd always wanted to see, plus some places we just liked the sound of. So we'll be travelling across Russia, Mongolia and China on the famous TransSiberian Express, touring round Japan and then heading off in the general direction of India, via parts of SouthEast Asia. After all that, we're planning on going to Southern Africa (where Cathal was born). If we're still keen for more punishment, South America ...

Wellington journal: Friends in Welly

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:57:36 GMT

Originally we weren't going to go to New Zealand on this trip and then one of our friends from England got a job in Wellington and he and his lovely wife moved over for at least a year. So we decided it would be lovely to catch up with some friends and on investigation it seemed like we could easily buy a round the world airline ticket from there. So off we went.

Mark, our friend, met us at the airport, taking a few hours off from work. It was really great to see him and Helen and we chatted the night away, drinking wine. We had sore heads the next morning but poor Mark and Helen had to ...

Wellington journal: Brilliant museum - and it's free!

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:57:24 GMT

You really need to go more than once to Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand. It's got great exhibits on history, culture, art and natural history. Very interesting sections on immigration and it details the various peoples and their origins which make up Kiwi society today. We really liked it and learnt lots.

Kota Bharu journal: Jungle train from Kota Bharu

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:51:11 GMT

Kota Bharu is one of the most heavily Islamic towns we've been to in Malaysia. Although Muslims are the majority, in most places we've been to, there's a very strong Chinese presence. We'd have starved if it weren't for the Chinese vegetarian restaurant as most of the townsfolk are fasting due to Ramhadam. Still we met a very friendly guy who took us to the local mosque. I had to go to the seperate womens' bit and it was interesting to see the women chatting, some of them asleep on the cool marble floor whilst more were inside reading the Quar'an and praying.

So we're a little bit mad... ...

Singapore journal: Singapore shopping spree

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:39:02 GMT

We took the train (at 3am!) from Jerangut to Singapore. The border crossing was very painless indeed. So we arrived in Singapore without incident.

We'd been told that it was a very clean city and when you compare it to other cities in Asia it's pristine indeed, it even has pavements! However it's not that clean - on a par with London or Paris.

We were only spending 2 nights there so were very conscious of the budget. It is not cheap. At all. Therefore we decided to eschew most of the sights (we couldn't be bothered, too costly etc) and I dragged Cathal shopping. I was in desperate ...

Kuching journal: Cat city, Borneo

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 03:50:08 GMT

Very hungover from our antics the night before we prepared to get our first flight in eight months!! Yes we were taking our second budget airways flight on this trip, mainly because it's virtually impossible to get from Pennisular Malaysia to Island Malaysia any other way. However we booked with AirAsia to Kuching, Sarawak and it was cheap and very, very comfortable.

We nearly fell over when we got off the plane it was so hot, so chickened out of getting the bus into Kuching so we used the fantastic coupon system again and got a taxi to a guesthouse we'd been recommended. Once we checked ...

Kuching journal: Very good value for money, great way to see orangutans.

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 03:44:13 GMT

Take the number 6 bus from Kuching and get the driver to let you off at the park. We recommend bringing some snacks as there's no cafe there. However keep it well hidden when the apes turn up. Bring lots of water and allow yourself time to explore the gardens too. The last bus leaves around 3.40pm so you have to be quick after the second feeding to get back to Kuching. It costs just 3 Ringit to enter the park so it's a cheap day out.

Kuching journal: Very knowledgable staff and good location

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 03:14:51 GMT

Kuala Lumpur journal: Great view and amazing buildings - and it's free!

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:25:19 GMT

Ko Tao journal: Ko Tao - Dive, dive, dive!

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:28:10 GMT

From the train station at Chumphon, we bought a ticket for a bus/boat combo to get us to Ko Tao. You can get either a fast or slow boat. We chose the slow/cheaper one. We relaxed and after a while got our first glimpse of an island in the Gulf of Thailand. There were numerous touts on the boat, all ready to sell a dive course. We were a bit tired and so asked a few questions but didn't commit to anything.

Once we got off the boat it was tout-tastic with brochures being waved in our faces and offers of taxis abounding. We found out where the nearest accommodation was and headed there. ...

Bangkok journal: Bustling Bangkok

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 02:22:58 GMT

Cathal's cousin Killian and his lovely girlfriend Sabrina live in Bangkok and they kindly offered for us to stay with them. So we arrived sweaty and crumpled from our bus journey at their gorgeous apartment. Wow, what luxury. We felt like we were dirtying it, so we headed for the shower in the lovely bedroom they'd so generously vacated for us. What bliss, it was spotless, gleaming. We'd not had such a nice shower since we left.

We went out with Killian and Sabrina for dinner to a nice place locally and then had far too many beers catching up on all the news as it had been a long time ...

Ko Tao journal: Fantastic, really professional shop, excellent instructors.

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:47:05 GMT

Really good diving school. They couldn't be more helpful or professional. When I was worried, they just the skills day again until I was confident, meaning we'd be taking up an instructor for a whole extra day at no extra cost.

They ensure that there are no more than 4 people in a group, so you get really good attention from the instructor and all the other instructors keep an eye on you as well. The equipment is in really good condition as well. Highly recommended if you want to do a dive course.

Sukhothai City journal: Squeezing in Sukhothai

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 04:16:17 GMT

We arrived in Sukhothai after a comfortable bus journey from Chiang Mai. We booked ourselves into a lovely bungalow and chilled out. Just as well - as half an hour later there was torrential rain.

The next day we took the bus to the old city. Sukhothai was the capital of Thailand for 150 years. There's an old city wall and many, many wats. We hired bikes and cycled around the old city for a few hours. It was very pleasant seeing the wats, some of which were reminiscent of those at Angkor. There's also a history museum which is worth a look, as it has artefacts from the temples and a ...

Chiang Mai journal: Hello, Land of Smiles!

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:17:19 GMT

We took the boat crossing the Nam Tha and as we got off the boat, Niamh managed to avoid the gangplank and step up to her knees in muddy silt. It was a bit infuriating since the shoes had just been cleaned that morning following the mudfest of the day before. It's also quite funny that the Thai immigration guys pointed out their garden hose before processing our papers! Dripping wet, but mostly mud-free we entered Thailand.

The customs guy (resplendent in his tight, black, CHiPs style "stayprest" type- uniform) indicated there was no local bus to Chiang Mai until later that day ...

Huay Xai journal: Mud, mud and some more mud!

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 02:43:14 GMT

So we got to the bus station early at 7.30 at Luang Nam Tha, bought our tickets for Huay Xai for the 9am bus. Put our stuff on the "bus" (songthaew actually, which is a sort of converted pick up truck with seats) I hopped on to distribute some of our stuff on the bench to reserve our space and I used sign language to indicate to the couple opposite that they were our seats, we were going for breakfast. To anyone who's travelling in Laos, this is the way the locals do it, nobody ever moves your stuff and it's best to get there early if you want a seat cause they are all sitting on the bus ...