And finally some photos from Galapagos

the traveller returns

well I am now back in London and I felt that for completeness I should update with my last few days in California plus my journey home.

When I left off we were about to celebrate 4th july. It was great fun. We watched Italy beat Germany on the tv (can't believe that I was actually hoping germany would win), drank some beers, had a lovely bbq, ate ice cream and went to watch the fireworks go off over disney land.

The 5th July we actually went in to Disneyland. It was me, Gaby, Sandy and little Giorgina, who at 2 years old was scared of a lot of the rides (despite claiming she wasn't scared, you should have seen her holding her hand over her mouth and looking wide eyed during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride). I did a lot of the more adult, scarier rides like Space Mountain, thundermountain etc.. which was a giggle. We ate lots of stuff that was very overpriced and bad for us. A good time was had by all and we were all exhausted by the time we made it home that night.

Thursday morning it was Eduardo's birthday so we had a celebratory breakfast before we started our girls day. I went for a manicure with Sandy and Gigi (her first manicure and pedicure - she was so good until she smudged it all right after it was done but 2 year olds aren't designed to stay still and wait for these things to dry). Sandy and I dropped Gigi off at home before going out for a spot of shopping and a bite to eat. It was really good fun. We giggled a lot and experienced the joys of retail therapy. When we got back it was time to change shifts with Gaby coming out with me for rubios fish tacos and a film (the Lake House) which was a cute chick flick. We had a lovely time.

the next morning it was friday and time for me to pack my stuff for my journey home. It took me ages, as once again my stuff seemed to have expanded (could be due to the retail therapy the day before) but I manage to cram everything in so that I would only have to wander through the airport with the excess stuff in 2 plastic bags plus my sleeping bag, oh and my large beach bag. Hell I still used up less of the over head space than most people. I had a lovely last lunch with the Negretes before gaby drove me to the airport for 1.30pm

The flight was pretty well on time, so other than sitting in the airport doing sudoku, chatting to some really sweet people in queues and on the plane, plus watching 4 inflight movies because I just could not sleep... there really isn't much to report about the journey (oh and I opted for the beef not the chicken). Mum was there to meet me at 11am Saturday morning in Heathrow. I walked right up to her without her recognising me (what can I say, my tan was well and truly topped up in Ecuador, so I am a different colour to usual). Saturday was lost to jetlag, with my having to have a 3 hour nap and than feeling groggy for the rest of the day. the cats eventually recognised me so it was hard to get a lot of sleep as they kept proding me in the face during the night so that I would stroke them some more. they are allowed to be needy now, but this can not carry on much longer, I need sleep.

Sunday I met up with Terri to watch the Wimbledon mens finals, before going round to Hannah's for the world cup final. A good time was had at both, it was lovely to start catching up with my friends although i am still feeling a bit disorientated and like I should be getting on a bus or a plane to go somewhere else.

Now it is Monday and I have had lots of my hair cut off in anticipation of my job interview tomorrow (plus a top up manicure for luck). Wish me luck! Actually given the time I had better go to bed and hope that the cats don't keep waking me up as I need sleep for my brain to be properly functioning tomorrow.

Suppose that this now constitutes the end of my blog, as my travels are offically over, but watch this space as I am hoping to pop a few galapagos pics up here in the next couple of days. over and out

Ecuador - Gaby's last day

OK, I have had limited internet access, so this is going to be a long update, you have been warned. I am currently in the US, with my last few days of travelling ahead of me, can't believe that I am catching a plane back home on Friday afternoon. Not sure how I feel about that. Don't think that I will know until I am home and have allowed it to sink in a bit. Suffice it to say, if I had more money, I would be doing more travelling, but I don't, so I won't.

OK so back to my Ecuadorian trip as my earlier blogs only really covered the first two weeks and when we had left off we had just come back from Cuenca, so back in a time when both Ecuador and England were still in the World Cup.. how quickly times change. All the hope dashed. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... um I'll stop talking shit now. Sorry, I am in a strange mood, possibly due to consuming copious amounts of ice cream (yes I know it has lots of calories in it, all I will say to diet Nazis out there is "bite me!" - the alternative weight loss solution, you get people to eat you until you reach your goal weight). OK I really will shut up now.

Last few days with Gaby

OK so we get to the Friday after Cuenca and Gaby's last weekend, as she was flying back to California on the Monday (19th June for those that have lost track, as I almost have). That Friday Gaby's cousin Johnny drove us to the Historical Park in Guayaquil and his daughter Anita stayed with us to go on a guide tour round it. It was fabulous as they have 3 sections. The first has examples of indigenous wildlife from around Ecuador (I made friends with the cutest deer), the second has old style buildings reconstructed to show us what Guayaquil used to look like and the third shows a country farmers house, plus examples of the crops that grow in Ecuador. It was really fascinating and our guide spoke very good English, which is always helpful.

After the historical park we went back to Johnny's for a lovely lunch with his family. They all speak good English which made life very easy for me, given my limited Spanish (although I have used the little that I know as much as possible. Cerveza anyone?). Once again we were treated to fabulous Ecuadorian dishes, I love the food there.

After lunch we headed back to Sonia's as we were going with them all that evening to Salinas and their summer house there. Salinas is on the coast and while it is currently off season there, it is a very busy there buzzing with people escaping the city for weekends by the sea when it is very hot. The journey was uneventful and we were taken out for some lovely seafood that evening on arrival (the food theme continues, my stomach was being spoilt rotten).

The next day it was kind of cloudy so not really good beach weather. Haskel and Sonia drove us all along the coast, stopping so that we can taken photos and explore some of the more dramatic beaches. They were really beautiful. We even went to visit Montanita, a small surfer town that has a bit of a dodgy reputation, with the police turning a blind eye to open use of canabis (OK it is Gaby that thinks the reputation is dodgy, I would have quite liked the place if it hadn't been overly full of tourists).

Before going to the club that Sonia and Haskel belong to for lunch we stopped in Ulon to pick up some cakes, as in the middle of nowhere along the coast road, there is this fabulous baker and cake maker that Haskel and Sonia swear by. A famous Ecuadorian hairdresser (his face is on billboards in Guayaquil, I knew he looked familiar) had the same idea and was also buying naughty pastry goodies while we were there.

That night back at the summer house, we ate pan de yuca (i love that stuff) with yoghurt drinks and attempted to put a dent in the cakes that we had bought. I lost the battle with my slice of chocolate cake, it was gorgeous but I just could not finish it.

The next morning it was Sunday and also Father's day so we headed back to Guayaquil at a reasonable time in order to go round for lunch at Sonia's dad's flat. Her sister and brother were also there with their families. It was really good fun. Haskel kept plying me with vodka and sprite (not joking either, they were strong and I had at least 8 of them), while I chatted on the balcony to Sonia's dad who was so sweet. He kept saying "beautiful woman, drinking with me" to me, which kind of covered most of his English, as well as reciting the lyrics to the Marseillaise, which covered all his French but he knew more of the words than I do!

There was salsa dancing at one point (I observed, as yet another vodka sprite had appeared that required my attention) and lots of laughing. The food was fabulous, Sonia's mum deserves here reputation as a good cook. It was great fun, it really was.

Sadly we had to leave early when Gaby's cousin Patty came to get us, as we were due to meet up with the other side of the family for Gaby's last day in the country. We were round to her Auntie's where lots of people arrived to see us off. Lots of familiar faces from my two weeks in Ecuador. All so lovely and friendly. It was nice to have an offical send off in order to say goodbye to them all. It felt sad though. At least I knew I was going to see Johnny's family again, as I was staying with them the next night before leaving for the Galapagos.

So that was Sunday. Lots of chatting and lauching. Monday morning, Gaby got up very bright and early, so early in fact that I could hardly open my eyes in order to hug here and say good bye. After she had left I myself had to get up and get ready for my 8am pick up to go to Johnny's house. We dropped of my stuff and than I went in to the university where he works with him. It was good fun though. I met some of his students, and chatted to them. We went to visit some of them on their placements (1 primary school and 1 nutrition centre for children) which was definitely eye opening. Really glad that I got the opportunity to go there. I even had lunch with the language department (me hanging out with a group of teachers! never!)

Later I went to the mall and downloaded all my photos on to disk (so that would have been just before I updated blog with photos from previous entry). I tried to get an early night (failed as I couldn't sleep) before getting up early to head to the airport and my trip to the Galapagos.

The Galapagos

OK you are going to be relieved to hear that I am not going to do a day by day, blow by blow account of my Galapagos trip as it would be very samey and very very long!

Here is a summary of what went on. First when we started out there was drama as they had over booked the boat by 3 people. It was OK though as 3 people agreed to get off, based on getting back on the boat at a later time and having all their accommodation and tours covered for the time being. I tell you if I had had the time, I would have gone for that deal too, was good to see that they did well. Fortunately there is a change over of passengers twice a week (Tuesdays and Saturdays) as some people don't do the full week trip and overs do but started on different days. Obvioulsy I was starting on the Tuesday.

After that we settled in to a routine of walking on islands, looking at fabulous wildlife, being reminded not to touch said wildlife, snorkelling and lounging on the boat. I even managed to get a couple of scuba dives in (I dived with hammer head sharks - how cool is that? plus lovely giant turtles, schools of baracuda, lots of white tipped reef sharks and sea lions).\

The trekking was interesting seeing really tame endemic or just plain rare to see wildlife from really clost up. My favourites are probably the blue footed boobies (the boobie dance rocks), the albatross (they fence each over with their beaks as part of the mating ritual, plus as so clumsy on land that they sometimes full over quite dramatically on landing), the sea lions (they are wonderful with their cheeky whiskered faces, amazing swimming with them in particular), the tortoises, the marine igaunas, the land iguanas, the penguins, the frigate birds (with their red pouches to attract the females), the pink flamingos, the turtles, the pelicans, all the sharks and well everything!

I just loved it. We had a lovely bunch of people on the boat, 20 to start with, with only 15 after the changeover on Saturday but with Jo (english girl that agreed to get off due to the overbooking situation that I mentioned) coming back on, which was great as we got on like a house on fire. Most of the time we were in the middle of nowhere at sea, with only wild life on any of the islands that we visited (only change to that being Friday night prior to changeover Saturday when we were in Porto Ayura and lots of us ended up getting horribly drunk and going out to a club playing some truly cheesey tunes).

Otherwise we were pretty well on the boat or looking at stuff on islands. It was great. I liked the crew (although sadly only truly got to bond with them all on my last night, when Jo and I ended up staying up drinking cuba libres out of a bucket with a lot of them until 4am, before getting up at 6m to go visit an island and pretend that we weren't drunk still). Our guide, the gorgeous but kind of boringly depressing Victor, never got sloshed with us, which is a shame as I think he really needed a good drinking session to cheer himself up a bit (he was missing his labrador, Chester). But he was nice to look at, so was a useful back up in the scenery just wasn't catching your attention that particular day.

The sea lions will definitely remain the biggest highlight of the trip though, they were great fun to snorkel with. I was diving around, doing somersaults with sea lions turning all around me. They love to play! They'll swim to within an inch of you very quickly, looking right at you, before streaking off again. It is very funny! Seeing hammerheads on my second diving trip was good too, but they just as much fun as your average sea lion.

So that is how my 8 days in the Galapagos went by, mainly in a haze of wildlife visits, snorkelling and lounging on the deck half asleep. I loved it and would do it again in a minute! Especially since I didn't get sea sick, which is very unusual, as I normally do and a lot of over people were. It wasn't that calm. Those ginger travel sickness pills I got in Aus really rock!

Life after the Galapagos

I spent one night in Porto Ayura after the trip (which I basically slept through thanks to cuba libre night) before heading to the airport (by taxi, bus, boat and bus) on Baltra, on a plane back to Guayaquil, a long walk to the bus station and 2 buses to Ayampe on the coast as I wanted to stay at an Eco lodge there, which Al Williams (for those of you that know him) was going to try and join me for a few days. I didn't know if he would be able to make it as his passport had been stolen in Peru just days before so I didn't know if he would be cross the border without one

I arrived in Ayampe (tiny village not much in it) in the dark and could not find the hotel so stayed in a different one, where I was the only one in it and felt like I had walked in to the shining. I was out there first thing in the morning and realised that I had been metres from where I was supposed to be staying, but couldn't see any of the signs in the dark. Arse. Anyway, I checked in to the Finca Punta Ayampe, a lovely place that I was so glad to finally found. I settling in to a hammock with my book and the kitten (so cute, wanted cuddles). I can't tell you what time it was but a while later (back in hammock following lunch break, kitten back in purring position on my tummy) I looked up to see Al walk in. Although it took me a few moments for my brain to register that it was Al.

It was great to catch up with him. We chatted, ate the worlds largest burritos (ok the record is unproven but I will be on to the guys at the Guiness books to tell them that they need to check them out) and watched some truly bad/weird films of tv. The luxury of being about to watch films was great, didn't really matter what they were.

The next day we hit the beach with 3 of the hotel dogs (Doobie, Foufa and Pepper) who kept distracting us from our reading when they covered us in sand so that we would stop what we were doing and throw stones for them to chase. It was good fun. The beach there was beautiful, very dramatic given the weather. An Indian couple (from New Delhi but currently living in Washington DC for 2 years due to a work contract thingie) that had checked in as we were heading out stopped to say hello. They were heading over to Porto Lopez to book on for whale watching the following day and kindly agreed to book us on to the same trip while they were there. Al and I had been the only people staying at the Eco Lodge up until that point and they mentioned that another girl was checking in as they left so that brought the total up to 5. I did say to Al that the girl might turn out to me my lovely cabin mate Emily from my Galapagos trip. Sure enough it was! I tell you that place should start paying me a commission! So we were a family of 5 and it was great.

That evening we had the great Rummikub tournament (after a very bad attempt at playing Risk by me, Al completely beat me so I had to annihiliate him at Rummikub) with all 5 of us playing (well 2 had to play together as only have 4 boards, but it worked).

Whale watching and Al gets his zen back

The next morning we got up early and got on the bus to Porto Lopes. We had from the guide that there is a place there, called the Whale Cafe that did great coffee. We had to see if this was true (ironically while places like Ecuador and Colombia produce some of the finest coffee in the world, all they drink is Nescafe. it is insane and Nestle have a lot to answer for). We were very excited by the prospect of good coffe and it was good! it was really, it came in mugs and they did refills. I had pancakes and fruit salad to accompany my coffee, it was all lovely.

After that we got on the boat and headed out Isla de Plata to explore (saw Albatross, blue footed boobies actually mating and not just doing the whole boobie dance flirty bit, masked boobies, frigate birds and stuff like that) which was good for Al, as he was going to make the Galapagos Islands. Some of the people than went snorkelling, including Al. I, however, having felt the temperature of the water, decided that they were all insane and stayed on the boat where it was much warmer. Turned out I was right not to go in as the visibility was poor and there was nothing exciting to see.

Now we reach the crucial part of our day trip, the whale watching element. We were on the look out for humpback whales. My 2nd time ever looking for them (saw loads in Boston about 9 years ago) but Al's first. We saw loads after a bit of a slow and worrying start. At first we would only see them fleetingly before they would dive and vanish, which was really not that satisfying but towards the end we saw a group of about 5 of them together. Looked like they might do the same thing (dive and leave) but no, one of them breached (jumped out of the water and went back in with a big splash) and he just kept doing it. It was amazing to watch. It was fantastic and Al managed to get the photo of the trip, catching the whale in full breach, so when I get my hands on a copy of his photo I will pop it on here for all to see.

So that was our Saturday. It was amazing and I enjoyed it a lot more than sitting in a cafe watching England get knocked out of the World Cup by Portugal. Feeling very zen about the whole football thing. In fact Al, who was definitely showing no zen like qualities before (he blames it on having his passport stolen) was pretty zen like after seeing those beautiful whales!. We got back to town, snuck back to the whale cafe for some coffee and some cakes to celebrate Al's birthday (it had been a few days before but kind of being ruined by the thieves) back at the Finca. Unfortunately we had missed the last bus back to Ayampe (a good 30 minute drive) but luckily some guys were heading in that direction so we got a very cool lift on the back of their pick up trucks. It was so much more fun than getting a bus.

When we got back, as it was all of our last nights at the Finca, we all ordered our favourite dishes (yummy giant burrito), drank a few beers and chatted. We were quite exhausted by the time we had our cake at the end.

The next morning e-mails were exchanged, goodbyes were said and I head back to Guayaquil with Emily (who was going straight on to Banos). I had one last night at Johnny's house before getting up very early Monday morning and getting my flight back to the US of A.

So yesterday (Monday) was spent on planes and in airports as I didn't hit LA until 10.30pm due to delays. I did speak to some lovely people at the airport though, so that really passed the time and made me realise just how many great people there are around, such a shame I don't have time to get to know them all

Independence Day

Today is the 4th July. Had a lovely bbq at the Negretes and ate the ice cream that I was promised. It has been a lovely day. Sandy is here with the girls, Gaby, Eduardo and Jenny are all well. Plus Reuben (Gaby's brother), Carlos, Olga and Asim (friends of the family) all came round for the bbq too. We watched Italy beat Germany and drank a few beers. It was all good.

Shortly we are heading out to see the fireworks in Disneyland (well we aren't going in to Disneyland at all but going to a spot near it where we can see their fireworks, as it gets far too crowded in there and we have a naughty two year old to take care of).

I have two full days in California left before I fly back home on Friday, getting in on Saturday. Where did all the time go? Good thing I have kept a blog, that will remind me!

Photos from Ecuador

Above have the Inca ruins at Ingapirca. Please note the distinct lack of tourists. It was bliss

This is the artists district in Guayaquil at night. A really beautiful part of the city that they restored over recent years, as it had become very run down and a hide out for thieves and stuff. Now it is a vibrant, gorgeous part of the city covering a hill with 444 steps that lead up to a beautiful lighthouse. As well as finding art works here, there are some good bars and restaurants, plus obviously panoramic views of Guayaquil from the top

Here is one of the many gorgeous views of the area around Banos. I would put the many photos of waterfalls that I took up too, as there are so many in the area, but my blog might melt down! So here is a nice panoramic shot to give you a feel of what that area looked like

And this final photo is dedicated to Gaby, who was determined to see an Iguana while she was in Ecuador She finally saw one on her last day (she left this morning), but as it was a pretty quick glimpse, I though she would like this shot of Iggy (original name I know) who was having a bit of a snack on the lawns at the university today. The university has loads of Iguanas roaming the campus, I think they like to lounge around in the sun and look studious. Reminds me of my student days.... or at least it would if they were lounging around, pretending to be studious and drinking beer. Ah what fond memories I have!

Ecuador and footie fever

Ola All

Well here I am on the final (bar a few days in California) leg of my travels round the world. Can't believe that it is almost over, it is making me depressed just thinking about it! So I won't!

I am writing this in Guayaquil, which is my base while I am in Ecuador. To be more precise, I am at my friend Gaby´s cousin Sonia´s house. So, since I have been remise at updating my blog over the last 10 days, I had better zip through my time here for you all.

OK, we arrive on Monday night (5th June) at Guayaquil airport, where I hung on to our baggage trolley for dear life, fighting off the swarm of porters that all wanted to "help" us. Fortunately we were soon surrounded by the huge contingent of Gaby´s family that had all come to meet her at the airport. It felt like there were 100s of them, although there can´t have been more than about 30-40.

We were taken by Sonia and Haskel to their house, which is gorgeous! Felt like I had arrived in an exclusive spa hotel. It is really really lush. Very nice base for a scummy old backpacker like me, I can tell you. Unfortunately they don´t speak much English and I don´t speak much Spanish (although my vocab is growing fast) so poor old Gaby has to do a lot of translating.

As we arrived quite late after a long trip, it was off to bed for us and our ecuador adventure started the next day.

So Tuesday we were taken to visit Guayaquil, walked along the boardwalk 2000 (was built for the millennium) which gives you great views of the river etc.., went to the rio grande mall and in the evening ate crab at the Red Crab, complete with hammers (I have had a training course on eating crab Ecuadorian style and I am apparently a natural at it, although do feel that I was wearing a lot of my dinner by the time we left). Sonia was a great teacher re how to dispose of a crab. It was a really fun night out

Wednesday we met more of Gaby´s family, so more people that I couldn´t communicate with very well, but they were very friendly, saw a bit more of Guayaquil and headed that evening to the artists quarter, which is a beautifully restored part of town. It is up a hill (444 steps to the top) which has a lovely lighthouse at the top. Got some great views of the city.

Thursday - Saturday we went to Banos which means Baths, is kind of like Bath in UK in that it has thermal and mineral springs there that are supposed to have healing properties. It is also right by a very active volcano and surrounded by mountains (kind of like it is in a basin) in the Andes. There we visited lots of beautiful waterfalls on a sort of tourist bus called a Chiva. Went up to look at the lights of the volcano at night (sadly was too cloudy to see much, but boy could we hear it complaining - so much so we weren´t surprised to find that our car was covered in volcanic ash in the morning). Plus of course we watched football and the atmosphere when Ecuador beat Poland, was amazing. Lots of Canelazos (alcholic local tea like drink - yum yum) to celebrate afterwards.

Also managed to watch the England v Paraguay game that next morning before we headed back to Guayaquil. Go for it England! Please, please for the love of all that is holy bloody well go for it! Sorry had to get that off my chest.

We were in Banos with an aunt of Gaby´s, her daughter in law and her chauffeur/brother of the daughter in law. It was really good fun.

Saturday we made it back in the afternoon, headed back to Sonia´s and had lovely local snacks (sorry am not going to go in the details of all the food that we have eaten, as lots of names of things that will mean nothing to you, but suffice it to say that I am trying everything and it all tastes good).

Sunday we met up with Gaby´s cousin Johnny and his family (who speak English) and were taken on a boat trip, to a church where they have the body of a girl that is in the process of being made a saint and had more local delicacies. After that we went to Gaby´s aunt house for dinner and a lovely walk along the boardwalk of Salado.

Monday we went out on more of a tour of Guayaquil with Gaby´s uncle Walter, having lunch at his house (following a spicy fish soup snack at 11 and ice cream at 12 - they could have warned me that there was going to be lunch as well! was fit to explode afterwards).

Monday evening was our really touristy moment as we went on a tour of Guayaquil on an open top bus. We went with Gaby´s mum, Jenny´, best friend and her husband. They took us for a nice meal afterwards, although how I managed to squeeze more food in is a mystery to me, similar to the mystery of how we manage to eat so much at Christmas! They were very sweet though and even negotiated me a free key ring as a souvenir from the restaurant.

To be honest it is impossible to give our money away here, as with the various friends and family of Gaby always insisting on taking us out, we are having to be quite sneaky in order to pay for anything! And even than our plots often fail and they beat us to it with payment for things! Obviously this is good news for my bank account, but I do feel bad being treated for everything by Gaby's family. They are far too generous.

Tuesday - Thursday we were in Cuenca (with 3 of Gaby´s aunties, her cousin Simon, her cousin Reuben´s wife Louisa and Louisa´s little boy Daniel AKA monster), which is again up in the mountains. We went to visit the Inca ruins at Ingapirca, which was great, as there were only about 4 other tourists there, so could really visit it in peace. We also went round some of the small towns around Cuenca, which are really pretty. Plus the scenery on the drive there was breathtaking (drive to Banos was also stunning although different kind of scenery, more rainforesty while Cuenca, more lagoons and llamas).

Of course we watched Ecuador beat Costa Rica on our last morning. Free Canelasoz afterwards courtesy of our hotel, as they were just so thrilled by the result! Unfortunately I was unable to watch the England game as I was trapped in a car to Guayaquil. Can´t remember the last time I missed an England game. I am officially a traitor! Consumed with guilt I tell you! Absolutely riddled with it! After the altitude in Cuenca I had a storming headache yesterday night, so I got an early night. That brings us up to today, which has only just started so you will have to wait and see what happens!

Love to allxxx

California baby!

Well hello all, it is my last day in sunny California, so that would make it a good time to update you on my lovely time here!

When I left off I had reluctantly departed Rarotonga (man, I can't wait to get back there when I next get a chance) for lovely Californ I A. My flight was pretty uneventful, although it has to be the first time that I have known so many random people on a flight (well Rarotonga isn't a big place so I met a lot of the other travellers during my stay) which was good as I had Adam to chat to when waiting for the plane, Deb to chat to at my stop over in Tahiti and lots of other random people to say hi, and exchange chit chat with at US baggage collection and customs. I felt positively popular by the time I headed through the system (OK I have to share this, my immigration guy was nice and smiled! what is going on? that has NEVER happened before). My lovely friend Gaby was waiting to meet me at the other side, so lots of hugs and squealing before we headed off.

Now the drive itself was fabulous as Gaby had come to pick me up in her convertible (BMW one that was in a bond film, very smooth), so I felt I had arrived baby! Yes, I might have been wearing tatty trousers, a crumpled, old and worn out t-shirt plus some very very well worn in hiking sandals with a minor stinky problem..... but I looked good! Plus the traffic was bad (it was Friday afternoon before a long weekend, what was I thinking arriving at a time like that) so I had lots of time to catch up with Gaby and enjoy the experience of being in a car that other people were lusting at (I kid you not, just yesterday a guy wolf whistled at us on the freeway... we were going at 70km/h but we could still hear him as we went past his truck).

When we made it back to Tustin it was fabulous to see Eduardo and Jenny (Gaby's parent's) and I was once again enveloped in the warmth of their family. Like an abandoned kitten that needs a home. That evening Gaby and I went to see X Men 3, as it had opened that day (enjoyed it and the fish tacos we had before at Rubios - yummy yummy).

Saturday was the day that my mum was arriving. Gaby, Jenny and I headed out to LAX to meet their plane. It was slightly delayed so we drank lots of frozen coffee and people watched. My mum and Maggie were flying over with Paul, who was coming to stay in Santa Monica with his sister. As I had met her before, it was great when we bumped in to her at the bit where you wait for people to come out, so that she could wait with us too. We had great fun talking about not waiting but taken the 20th (30th... etc) person that came through even if it wasn't them. Unfortunatley while we kept changing the numbers... none of the lucky winners of our random lottery tempted us enough to abandon my mum, Maggie and Paul, so we were still there when they came through and ready to pick them up.

It was great to see them all. Once again lots of hugging and squealing. Can't believe that it had been over 4 months since I had seen my mum. Felt like so much longer and yet like yesterday too. Weird sensation.

Paul headed off to Santa Monica with his sister and nephew, while Maggie and Mum headed back to Orange County. There was lots of catching up going on.. hugs... and some lovely food. That pretty well covers Saturday.

Sunday we went and did some shopping in the afternoon in Newport beach. There is something about the US and California in particular, that really makes a person want to shop. It is weird! But it was nice to wander round Newport and chat etc... I actually didn't buy anything that day (obviously saving it all up for the major shopping spree I have been on since).

Monday - Wednesday we headed up the coast to Monterey... Gaby, Maggie, my mum and I. We went to see Sandy, Rick and their gorgeous little girls Giorgina and Sophia. What fun we had. As it is quite a long drive we didn't make it to Monterey until around 3pm. We caught up with Sandy and Rick, went to visit a Mission and had the most lovely bbq that evening (being Memorial day I am assured that this was the American thing to do and that we were being authentic).

Tuesday Rick was at work, we headed to a vineyard and tasted some wines. Met up with Rick at lunchtime and had some fabulous burgers before heading round Monterey and to Carmel. Had a coffee break and did some window shopping (still controlling myself at this point)

Now Wednesday is when it all starts going wrong for my flexible friend. We head to Gilroy with Sandy (we have packed up as we will head straight back to OC from there) and the Outlet shops... Umm well it had been a long time since I had had a serious dose of retail therapy and obviously I was in need. 2 skirts, 3 tops and 2 pair of sandals later... I felt good! Oh and a hair band thingie too It was great! There was so much more I could have bought, but didn't so I was really quite restrained. As we shopped for so long, we didn't make it back to OC until around 11pm, so I was only really fit for bed at that point.

Thursday was a beautiful day and we headed back to Newport Beach to do some more shopping (well ostensibly for my mum to look for nice kids clothes and for me to go to the Ipod shop to talk to them about the fact that my Ipod had been in a coma since Rainbow beach and was showing no inclination to come back to life). Sadly the prognosis was not good for my little Ipod (hard drive was screwed, which is what I told them anyway but I had to wait 1 hour for them to confirm it). As it was out of warranty the repairs wouldn't be covered....rrr! But on the bright side we could send it to the recycling home for ipods and get 10% off a new one. My mum, being very naughty and following much debating (read arguing) with me about it, bought me a new black one (30gb) It is very beautiful! I look forward to playing with it when I get home as she took it back to London for me. On the additional brightside I found another fabulous skirt and top on this trip too, so I will not disgrace Gaby in front of her family when we go to Ecuador (she had every reason to be worried!)

When we got back Gaby and Jenny had prepared a feast of roasted rosemary potatoes, roast chicken, Jenny's ecuadorian/greek style beans, artichoke etc.. It was lovely. Really enjoying all the home cooked food I am getting here in California (don't even get me started on Sandy's cooking when we were in Monterey - delicious - I am going to be the size of a house by the time I get home if this continues in Ecuador)

Friday we drove the PCH from OC towards LA. Had lunch in Venice Beach, drove up and round Malibu before doing some more shopping in Santa Monica (stocked up on some fab CDs) before heading back for my Mum and Maggie's final meal in California.

Saturday morning was weird. Felt sad saying goodbye to my mum and Maggie. So once they had left for the airport, Gaby and I went shopping (for practical stuff we would need in Ecuador and I needed to find new odour eaters for my stinky sandals as the ones I had bought before were just turning them white but not actually doing anything about the smell), helped out with the office move (Jenny's business was changing offices, I could show off just how strong and macho I am, even with a manicure... it was fun), went for fish tacos at Rubios (just love those, have to go again before I head home, they are just too good), and did buy some more CDs (we had to go and get a CD as a present for Gaby's cousin Johnny in Ecuador and I just couldn't help myself, I bought myself a few more to keep me going - have been listening to the same CDs for too long since my Ipod died on me, needed some new stuff or would go crazy).

Saturday night Gaby and I went to see "the Break up" in the cinema (thought it was mainly good but could have done with moving faster, being shorter and having more funny moments... acting was very good as you did feel rather uncomfortably like you were witnessing a break up). Didn't have fish tacos as had those for lunch and it would be over kill. But I do think popcorn is a heavenly dinner alternative and it has been so long since i had any.

So today is Sunday. Gaby and I went to meet up with my friend Bettina (who I know from my time at Fox, she works for Fox in LA and is fabulous). We went to her house in the Hollywood hills and parked up the lovely and still sexy convertible. Bettina, Jack (her 3 year old son who is very cute) and Linus (her big, soppy dog) took Gaby and I on a tour of Hollywood and the Fox lot. We parked at Santa Monica and walked along the pier, before having lunch at Bubba Gumps (good shrimp, plus they supplied crayons so that I could colour stuff in, since Jack lost interest very quickly). It was just great. We had some good cocktails there so I was feeling quite rosy cheeked by the time we left.

After lunch we wandered on the pier, allowing Linus to stretch his legs and Jack to play on the various little moving car things that kids adore. Bettina than took us on a tour of the mansions on Sunset boulevard, Bel Air etc.. before heading back to her house and a final glass of wine. Unfortunately as we have to get up at a really obnoxious time for our flight tomorrow (we have to leave the house at 4.30am) and we still need to pack, we couldn't stay too late so we headed back here. It looks like Gaby and Bettina are going to keep in touch, as they got on like a house on fire (never have understood that expression but it doesn't stop me using it) so a new friendship has been born.

I have taken the opportunity to update this blog as my packing is much easier than Gaby's (joy of living out of a backpack). Hope that everyone is well. Not sure how much internet access I will have in Ecuador, so don't worry if I go a bit quiet for a while. I will update when I can.

Love to all

PHOTOS! Yeah

Well firstly here is an example of my underwater photography work. Had to take piccies as part of my Advanced PADI certification. For a first go, was proud of this one, as you can tell it is a fish and everything!


Here is the famous White Tipped Reef shark that I saw on my 2nd to last dive. I was about 1m in front of it, peeking over some coral. We felt that the divemaster should be the one to swim up next to it and take this piccie. Thanks Gaz!


Here I am under the water - proof that I have been diving for any non-believers out there.


And finally here I am happy after a good dive! Life is sweet

Shark!

Well I am not in the US yet, but wanted to update quickly re my last dive trips before I leave the island tonight (plus gives me the perfect excuse to have a final banana & coconut thick shake umm yummy).

OK so I went for my dives after blogging yesterday and on our first dive out in the afternoon we saw a shark. It was amazing. It was a white tipped reef shark (so not particularly dangerous, although this one was very large for a reef shark, so I wouldn't have wanted to piss it off). It was lying on a sandy patch between the coral obviously planning to have a bit of a siesta. Of course we turned up, got really close to it too (I was only about 1 metre away peeking at it from behind the coral). Gaz (one of the divemasters) managed to get some truly phenomenal photos of it, which I have copies off (plus I have copies of my own underwater photography attempts... some of them aren't half bad).

I really can't explain just how amazing it was to be so close to this shark. I could see its gills moving and its eyes watching us, to assess whether we were a threat. Think in the end it just decided we were a little annoying so swam to another spot to try and sleep (foiled by the fact that we followed the poor thing.. he is lucky that we only have a finite amount of air, so couldn't loiter around it for too long). I can't wait to show you all the photos. If I get a chance to I will try to put one of them up here.

After that I was just on a high. We had one final dive (saw the cutest little moray eel trying to look all macho - got a cool photo of it glaring at Gaz's fingers, which will give you an idea of just how diddy it was) , a blue starfish and of course lots of the beautiful reef fish that you get round here. No sign of Ed the Trigger Fish, which is a shame as I wanted to say goodbye to the great ugly thing. There is something quite sweet about having an aquatic stalker when you go diving. Obviously Ed never was told that Trigger fish aren't supposed to like divers. But he doesn't really look very bright.

After the dive I handed in all my knowledge review stuff for my Advanced open water certification, and I got my advanced certificate. Excellent! I am hoping that I will get the opportunity to dive when I am in the Galapagos. That would be so cool. All those giant turtles!

Fortunatley it was not final goodbye to the dive team as John (one of their regular divers) was celebrating his birthday in Whatever! bar & restaurant that night and I was invited. It was a really good night, lots of silly magic tricks, a huge but tasty sirloin steak and than back to dance at the banana court (was getting deja vu from the week before). Getting home afterwards proved more problematic as taxis just aren't a way of life here. Fortunately one of the local guys who helps out sometimes at the dive place, Matthew, made sure that I got home OK. Ended up back at his place chatting to his house mate Amber (who makes a mean cup of tea, just call me grandma) and his friend Wayne. So in the end it was 3am by the time I got home, following a very refreshing (it was breezy) trip on the back of a scooter.

Getting up to back this morning was hard, but it has been done! Now I am going to head in to town for a final look round, after popping in to see my diver friends for a final farewell, as promised drunkenly last night (I hate saying good bye, it is so sad). But I will be leaving Rarotonga determined to come back again. I may have been bere 23 days, but I could so easily have stayed so much longer. LA is going to come as a shock after the peace and quiet here.

Scubatastic

Well I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day on Rarotonga. I don't want to leave! Admittedly the house has been quiet since the boys all left but the Germans, Canadians and American that moved in are really sweet... if not quite as silly. So I have enjoyed some nice mellow evenings with them, watching DVDs or doing my SCUBA homework.

Following my last post I completed my Open Water Diver Qualification. Did a couple of fun dives, decided that since I was going to dive more anyway to sign up for the Advanced course and I completed that yesterday. I have 2 final fun dives this afternoon and that will be my Rarotongan SCUBA adventure over. But on the bright side, I am now qualified to dive up to 30m when I turn up at other dive sites around the world. That can't be a bad thing.

With the advanced SCUBA I did my deep dive to 30m (with game to check for effects of Nitrogen Narcosis, which is kind of like being drunk from the symptoms I have read about), an advanced navigation dive (at last a valid reason to use a compass), wreck dive (yeap that is what it says, I dived on a ship wreck), photography dive (umm yes, no surprise there I took photos) and a night dive (boy was it dark, but diving with a torch in the dark is very cool, trust me). I just need to hand in all my written review stuff this afternoon and I will be officially an advanced PADI diver. Yeah!

That kind of sums up what i have been up to. I think my tan may actually be fading due to the amount of time I have been spending in the water here. But I don't care! Can't believe that it is my last two dives this afternoon. It will be weird saying goodbye to everybody at Pacific Divers. Unfortunately you can't dive on the same day that you fly so tomorrow (as I fly at 11.15pm in the evening) I will be pottering around town, packing and generally winding down for my departure.

However, it will be cool to get to LA and see the Negretes. Plus my Mum and Maggie arrive on Saturday which will be wonderful, can't wait to see them. So the adventure continues. California and Ecuador still to go before I head home and knuckle down to working again. Assuming that I can find a job quickly (NatWest Visa would greatly appreciate my finding a job promptly... hehe)

Will update you from the US of A...

Crazy Aunt Steph

Well my official new title is Crazy Aunt Steph, as that is what the cheeky sods that I share a house with here like to call me. OK so 3 of them are 19 yrs old, doesn't mean they have to make me feel quite so ancient!

Not that I am really complaining, as I have been laughing so hard over the past week or so, it has been fantastic. Vara's has really turned in to our little home, with evenings spent listening to music and talking utter rubbish. Sadly the 19 yr old contingent (Ollie, Ali and Jon) all left yesterday for LA, so me and Rhys (other household stalwart) are pining for them just a little bit! As is Ariki, our crazy puppy (he is 8 months old and likes to chew on things, particularly feet). The New Zealand girls all left yesterday too to stay with family nearer town and Rhys is off tonight, with the 2 remaining guys off tomorrow, so I am officially being abandoned by everyone. I don't like it!

Oh well, sure that we will have a whole new influx of people today and tomorrow, just hope that they are as fun. Feel like my Vara's family have all left me! Travelling is great, but saying goodbye to people officially sucks!

But on the bright side I have lots of great memories, particularly at the official send off on Wednesday night, dancing at Banana Court to some truly great cheese, while drinking vodka cranberry and melting from the heat.

Plus there is of course my diving. I have been doing my PADI and following 2 dives tomorrow will be a qualified diver. I love it! Rhys learnt with me too and he is officially hooked. While Ali and Ollie did their advanced while they were here, so we were a little diving family. I might try and squeeze my advanced course in before i leave, but it really depends if the lovely folk at Pacific Divers can fit that in. It really is addictive this diving lark though. Excellent! Plus it is so cheap here, it is incredible. Can't even feel guilty about spending too much money. It is a win win situation.

I get the feeling that the rest of my time here is just going to fly by between diving sessions etc. I am optimistic that some more cool people will be arriving to hang out with. But if not, I can get back to my books. Haven't got much reading in recently, as was too busy laughing. Good exercise laughing, you should all try it.

Well I am going to sign out now as don't really have that much more to tell you. I can confirm that I am so relaxed now, it is amazing that I can still function. While I look forward to seeing you all back home, I hope that you won't be offended if I admit to the fact that I really don't want to come home yet. But I still have a good 5 weeks to go, maybe the home sickness will have kicked in by that point.

Love to all

Island life

Well rather than detail my day to day life (which would get very repetitive) here is a general feeling of my time on Rarotonga.

I get up late normally, generally because I have not quite got in synch with the time difference and can't get to sleep at night. It is like being back home on the weekends. If it is sunny I get up, eat some breakfast, drink some juice, shower, dress and walk round to the lagoon to lounge in the sun, read my book, listen to music and swim when I just get too hot to stay lying there. After that I head back, usually checking e-mails en route and saying hi to those of you that have e-mailed me (Al Williams on his latin american trip is sounding increasingly more spanish with each e-mail)

If it is cloudy or rainy, I usually get the bus in to town, have a spot of lunch, go to the internet places there that are much faster and sort out what I still need to sort out. So far I have booked my return flight to Ecuador, my Galapagos trip, confirmed the date of my flight home to London, updated my CV and started looking around re work. Pretty productive really.

For those of you that want to know, I will be back in London on the morning of Saturday 8th July. No doubt feeling kind of bleary and jetlagged but that is the official "end of travels, welcome back to reality" date. Not sure how I feel about that! : )

Anyway, I have gone off on a tangent. Back to Island life. My evening generally involve sitting around chatting to my house mates, listening to the sea crashing just outside the house, teasing the dog with tidbits of food, and watching the occasional DVD. I did go out for an Island night last Thursday, with local dancing, music, lots of vodka and oranges, a typical Rarotongan meal etc. That was good fun, despite my finding myself surrounded by some very sweet but dour looking Europeans. The guys from my house were on a different table, but I soon ran over to them to have a healthy dose of silliness (can you believe that the Europeans were unmoved by ABBA, the Sugarbabes.... all those silly "who cares how daft you look just throw yourself around the dance floor like you just don't care" tunes).

There is talk with my current contingent of housemates, of having a house bbq some time this week. That should be a good laugh, we'll try and get the lovely Vara in to the party spirit. The old American couple should be in their element, as the husband loves to expound on things bless him (life before computers, the 5th scouts jamberie in Holland in the 1930s, being able to walk the streets without fear in his day etc...). He doesn't mean any harm at all and is very knowledgeable, but it can be difficult to extract yourself when he gets started. I don't think I have heard his wife speak at all, although she is very smiley. The Brit boys in our house keep threatening to bring up politics. I think if that happens I am just going to make a run for it and hide until the conversation (or series of lectures) is over. Still he is very nice about the 1930s Polish scouts, so I am fond of him. Just wish that he had a volume and pause switch for when you need a bit of a break.

What can I say, they are all a nice bunch of people covering a very great age range (18-80+), it makes for some funny moments.

Well that is my island life update. Right now I am going to see some nice diving people about how much it would cost to get my PADI here. Hope that it is reasonable, as, if for no other reason, it can't be hot and sticky under the water surely! Umm cool water and no really dangerous sharks in the area (Hammerheads aren't that evil right - not like the White, Tiger and Bull sharks). Bring it on

Ground hog day

Well the 3rd May the first time round involved a lot of time in airports and on airplanes, leading to my arriving in Rarotonga the day before I left.

Second time round was much better. As I had a room to myself (a bit of an extravagance, but as I am here for 23 nights I just wanted to have my own space) I actually got to unpack my stuff, and really settle in. I slept through to 10am, which was a good lie in for me, before heading for the 3km walk to the main beach house on Muri beach. I officially checked in and didn't waste any time before hitting the beach..

How lovely it was to laze around, reading a book and splashing in to the lagoon every time that I needed to cool down. The water is so clear you can see all the fish swim past in the distance, and it is so still because of the distant reefs that break the waves further out, you feel like you are swimming in a giant, exotic pool.

Ummmm heaven for my lazy, sun drenched bones

As the afternoon wore on I decided to pop in the little shops along the way to buy some food for dinner. I had had plans of trying to make a stir fry but Rarotonga is not a mecca for stir fry ingredients (unlike you want an onion, potato and paw paw stir fry) and I settled for pasta and sauce. Rarotonga does not offer a great variety of vegetables as while anything that is grown on the island is cheap and readily available, anything that has to be flown in from New Zealand, is more on the expensive side (4.5 for a small packet of cherry tomatoes, but boy did they taste good!). I have adjusted my expectations food wise accordingly and am living on a steady diet of pasta or noodles (well I did manage to make a pretty good chilli last night if I say so myself).

When I made it back to Ariki (the house I am staying in, has an overgrown puppy there of the same name, likes to try and chew my fingers) I found that my housemates had got out a dvd. So once I was full of pasta I settled on the sofa to giggle along to American Pie the Wedding. Silly but satisfying.

So that was the 3rd May second time round. Not sure when I will have a chance to do the same day back to back again, but I did enjoy the novelty of it.

Sydney and Good bye Australia

Firstly just to let you know that all photos of Adelaide and Sydney can be found on sophiehenry.com - Sophie has put lots of my stuff up in a folder called Steph's photos. There is also a separate Sydney folder, although some of the pictures of Guy, Ann and Thomas are in my folder too. Enjoy!

Now back to Sydney. As I left off Guy and Thomas had come to pick me and Sophie up at the airport. It was amazing to see my Big Brother after all this time. Can't believe that it has been 10 years, and we have all promised each other that it won't be another 10 years before we see each other again.

It was great to catch up and go back to Guy & Ann's for a spot of lunch and a good catch up. Both Sophie & I felt at home straight away. After lunch we went to Manly beach and looked at the market (so many pretty things! hard to resist), wandered down to the beach and had a lovely dinner (yummy mussels). After that, being a Sunday night, it was back home with Thomas off to bed past his bedtime and us chatting away until late (actually that is a general theme for our 3 nights at the Congertons, lots of talking untl far too late for the poor Guy who had to work the next day).

Monday, Sophie & I headed in to town. Felt weird to be on a bus heading in to a city but we recovered. We had great fun going round the shops (ok I admit it, I did spend a little money, I couldn't help myself) before going to Doyles for a lovely seafood lunch overlooking the harbour. Sophie & I managed to track down some pressies for Guy, Ann and Thomas, and felt like we had accomplished something when we found ourselves sat on a bus in rush hour for what felt like hours. These are the things that I do not miss about cities!

That evening we had a lovely meal of steak and salad, with the good wine flowing and a lot of chatting (as I said that was the theme for our trip). I can't explain how great it was to have so much time to catch up with Guy & Ann.

Tuesday was much the same with a later start but a bit of a potter in town, a catch up on the old e-mails before going back for spaghetti bolognaise and more lovely wine at Casa Congerton. Can't believe that it was our last night! I was going to be saying goodbye to Guy, Ann and Sophie in the morning (with Sophie heading to Thailand while i headed to the Cook Islands).

Guy, bless him, was up at 5.30am to make sure I was awake. A quick shower, some last minute packing and a mug of tea later and it was time to head to the airport. I said goodbye to Ann & Sophie at the house (as Sophie's flight wasn't until late afternoon), hoped in the car and Guy drove me all the way to the airport (good thing about a really early flight, he could do that before work, was still above and beyond the call of duty though). Trying not to get too emotional and promising that I would be back before too long, I headed off for my first flight to Auckland before getting connecting flight to Rarotonga.

So the 3rd May I left Australia, briefly dipped in to New Zealand before flying to a small Polynesian island called Rarotonga, only 32 km round and in the middle of the Pacific. I crossed the date line and arrived in Rarotonga on the evening of 2nd May (weird to think that at that time on the 2nd May the first time round, I was eating spaghetti at Guy & Ann's house).

Adelaide and Sydney

Well I am now in Rarotonga and am still playing catch up (while perspiring heavily, boy is it hot here!). So I need to tie up my time in Australia before I move on to how things are here in luscious Rarotonga.

When I left off I was leaving Cairns to go to Adelaide and vist my many cousins there. The journey was uneventful and I was met at the airport by my cousin Emma and her gorgeous little boy Ambrose (the most beautiful eye lashes you have ever seen on a boy, he is a complete sweetheart). Emma drove us round to her mum's , my cousin Helen's place where I met lots of my other cousins. I am proud to say that I now know the name of all 9 of Helen's lovely kids. I really do have the nicest cousins.

Don't want to go in to huge detail, for those non family members reading this, but everyone was well. I had a lovely meal round at cousin Paul's and met his 3 adorable children too (mum if you came out here, you would be in kiddie heaven!). Susana had made a lovely meal and it was lovely to relax, laugh at Paul & her brother Tim being attacked by little Michael & Ben and see the finale of the Australia's biggest loser. What can I say, it was addictive TV.

The next day Emma, little Ambrose and I went to the Gorge Wildlife park, where I fed kangaroos and wallabies (they are so cute) and finally got to hold a koala (having seen a wild one in the trees the night before when I went for a walk with Emma & Anna). A lovely relaxing evening at Helen's followed, with me actually attempting to turn up one of the legs on Simon's school trousers (umm wonder if that is still holding, sewing was never my strong point, but it was fun trying!). We ended the night with me and some of the girls curled up on sofas watching the Count of Monte Cristo

The next morning Helen kindly gave me a lift across town to the house of my friend Sian, her husband Russell and her 3 week old baby Patric. My trip to Adelaide was all about kids and babies. It was lovely to catch up with her and she seemed really well, for those of you that know her. Finally having recovered from the birth.

That evening, my last in Adelaide, I was treated to trip to Barnacle Bills for little Ben's 3rd birthday party. I met all of Susanna's family, who were lovely. Paul dropped me back at Helen's and we all ended up chatting until 1am. Lots of reminiscing about the family.

The next morning Paul drove me to the airport and I was off to Sydney where I was rejoining Sophie and seeing Guy for the first time in about 10 years.

Of course, I will not be able to finish off the Sydney element as once again I am running out of time on this computer (story of my life at the moment). So that will have to follow shortly. Suffice it to say it was amazing to see Guy when he met me at the Airport and meet his son, the lovely and I can't believe already 6 year old Thomas. He drove us back to his place in North Ryde where I saw Ann. I just wanted to hug them all and not let go! But details of that will follow in my next update, as my time is now fflashing red.

Cairns onwards

Hi me again and as usual up against it time wise, so I will update as much as I can before I get kicked off PC.

Well I am now in Sydney but am still playing catch up on the old blog front. Umm might need to just start editing myself more and get you all up to date on my adventures, given this is now my last day in Australia (sob, sob, love it here, don't want to leave).

When I left off Sophie & I had been dropped off in Cairns after white water rafting. We were staying at a hostel called Bohemia and by the time we got there we were exhausted (didn't realise how much the day of rafting had taken out of us). We just went for a bite to eat round the corner from the hostel before going back to collapse and sleep like the dead in our hostel. Shame as we met some nice people who wanted to chat etc.. but we just couldn't do it, we needed to sleep and didn't have an ounce of energy left to be sociable.

The next morning was an early start as we were picked up for our Cape Tribulation trip. What a beautiful part of the world. We went on a boat on the Daintree river and saw some big crocodiles (wouldn't want to annoy those creatures, they are huge and deadly), we were taken in to the rainforest, which was awesome and than taken in to where we were staying in Cape Tribulation. Our hostel/resort there was a place called Ferntrees. Peter Pans had messed up and we weren't booked in the same dorms. Unfortunately the hostel was full so they couldn't put us together. As it was Sophie's birthday the next day we decided to upgrade and be put in our own cabin (as this place has proper nice accommodation, not just dorms) so that we could be together to see in her birthday. It was worth every penny (and to be honest wasn't THAT much more given how lovely the accommodation was). Our cabin had 4 beds in it, a wonderful bathroom, a porch and was right in the rainforest. It was heaven!

We went for a wander to get a spot of lunch and found a place called Dragonfly just round the corner from our cabin. It was lovely there and they didn't massages so we booked in to have a massage in later that afternoon. Best thing we could have done. Delphina was a miracle worker. We both floated our of our respective massages feeling like new people. Plus had dinner at Dragonfly afterwards, as when we find somewhere we like, we can get very compulsive about going there (had lunch there the next day too before we left for Cairns.... what can I say it was a beautiful spot and the food was lush).

So other than a bit of pottering around we didn't visit that much in Cape Tribulation. It was just such a lovely spot to calmly wander round and enjoy the scenery. We were picked up by our bus and taken back to Cairns going to visit a gauge and Port Douglas on the way back. It was great. Back in Cairns, I sorted out my luggage as I was flying to Adelaide early the next morning.

Sophie and I worked to the Cairns Esplanade for dinner and celebrated her birthday in style in a restaurant called Splash. I ate the best oysters that I have ever tasted followed by lobster. Sophie decided to splash out (pardon the pun) and bought us a bottle of champagne to have with our meal. It was heaven!

Right Adelaide and Sydney to follow us the running out of time thing is flashing at me on my computer now. Love to all and next update will come from Raratonga. Blimey

OK will try to be brief.... catch up from Rainbow to Adelaide

Well first things first, at last we have photos, thanks to a) Sophie being able to post loads on her website using her laptop and b) me being at my cousin's place using a decent computer so I have been able to import one.

Yeah.... for more piccies covering some of my Australian adventures, please go to:
www.sophiehenry.com
All the Aussie pictures are currently in 3 folders: 1) Noosa, 2) Noosa, Fraser Island and 3) Rainbow Beach, Whitsundays. More will follow and as they do folders will be added.

So enjoy. I put this photo on as it captures the moment that I ended my last blog with. When we met up with Keren and Larissa again in Rainbow Beach and drank lots of wine to celebrate. I love those girls. They will definitely be friends for life.

Now when I left off we had departed Rainbow Beach and were heading towards Airlie Beach for our trip out to the Whitsunday Islands on a sail boat. Now the coach journey was 14 hours with most of it over night (we left at around 7pm and arrives gone 9am the next day). I did manage to doze in the fitful way that you do given the fact that your neck is starting to cramp up every 20 minutes and you have to move it, or face being stuck in that position for the immediate future. So it would be fair to say that Sophie, Margo and I were far from feeling fresh when we reached Airlie Beach.

As Sophie and I were going straight on a boat that evening, we weren't booked in to a hostel, so we went to the beach in order to catch up on a bit of sleep. Of course the minute I started to nod off it started to rain heavily so we had to run (or in my case stagger slowly, while swearing profusely) for shelter. We didn't manage to have a shower either. BUT we did bump in to Daljit (another Noosa trip friend) and have a catch up with him, plus buy some wine for our boat trip (4 litre box, but that is normal it was a 3 night trip and no we didn't actually finish it). We had an early dinner with Margo at the Beaches hostel restaurant (very nice salmon, yummy) before heading to rendez vous with our skipper, cook and the 10 other passengers of our sail boat, the Madison. We were in high spirits despite feeling smelly & knackered, as we had met some really fab people along the way, so were optimistic that this was going to be another fantastic trip.

Umm.. well we liked Roger our skipper and Christina our cook/2nd in command. They were lovely. However, we knew we were in trouble when it became clear that the other passengers, rather than being made up of a few more small groups of people, was in fact a group of 10 American college students who were all studying together in Brisbane. Sadly our first instincts were right and we really didn't bond with them at all. Well, they were pretty selfish and only interested in chatting to each other. The first night, Sophie and I couldn't even speak to each other over the racket that they were making. Fortunately Sophie had some neurofen on her, as I needed it. The wine just wasn't enough.

TO make things worse, the cabin space was worse than cramped with Sophie & I put in the 4 bunk room (all the other rooms were 2 bunk, so weird that we were put in with the group) where there was no where to put our stuff other than on the bunks. Which meant very limited space to sleep in. I was on the verge of making a bid to swim back to shore by this point. But with sharks and jelly fish in the water I was too much of a coward to try it.

We managed to avoid the Americans (sorry can't remember most of their names, just not interested) and hung out with Roger and Christina as much as possible. We did see some amazing things though and I would definitely recommend sailing round the Whitsunday islands to anyone. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice as it could be following the 2nd Cyclone that had hit Cairns just the week before, so we didn't get to go out to the Great Barrier Reef, as it would have been too rough. But we did go to some fantastically beautiful spots (don't just take my word for it, check out the photos on Sophie's site) as Roger had been sailing round that area for years and knew all the best spots.

This is definitely something that I would like to do again, but when I have enough money to ensure that I have the boat just for me and my friends. Plus, big shock, I was not sick! Not even once! Did have a few annoying 20 yr old facile conversation related headaches (conversations about Barbie dolls and who is the sexiest Disney character for example, plus loads about boys/girls they fancy), but otherwise felt fine throughout the trip.

So we spent 3 nights at sea, with stops to go to beaches for walks, visit look out points, see Aboriginal cave drawings and do some snorkelling (well Sophie snorkelled, I couldn't get a stinger suit that didn't have holes in it, so I stayed safely on board reading). Christina looked after us very well food wise and Sophie & I did almost finish our box of wine (but not quite)

When we got back to Airlie beach and were free from our annoying boat mates, we checked in to Magnums (nice hostel) where we straight away bumped in to John and Tylor from our Fraser Island trip. It was great to see some friendly faces again and realise that we are able to have intelligent conversations with 20 somethings... we were just unlucky on our boat. After bumping in to the Canadian boys, we bumped in to the girls... everyone was in good form. We checked e-mails and realised that Jamie from our Noosa trip was in Airlie, texted him and arranged to meet him that night, before bumping in to him on the street 10 minutes later. After that we saw Daljit again... before Margo & her cousin joined us for drinks that evening. It was reunion central. We just needed Larissa & Keren there to make it complete. How we laughed.... Sure that Sophie will put up heavily edited highlights of the photos I took up on her website soon, so what that space.

The next morning we were back on the coach and I said a sad farewell to everyone as, other than the Canadians and a couple of the Israelis from the Fraser trip, I won't have a chance to meet up with any of the others again. Well not in Aus anyway, but get togethers in Europe are already being planned.

We had a lovely 8 hour journey up to mission beach. It got very wet by the time we reached there and you could see a lot of the damage that had been caused by the cyclones. Glad that I wasn't around when either of them hit! We didn't really have a chance to explore Mission beach as it was late by the time we got in and we were feeling pretty tired. We got up in the morning early and were almost ready on time to get picked up to go White water rafting on the Tully River (ok, he had to wait as we ran around pulling our stuff together. Comments were made about how organised we are! I just growled back. Little did we know that our driver would end up being our rafting guide... but following an inauspicious beginning, but the end of the trip Sophie & I were trying to work out how we could keep him).

White Water Rafting was fantastic. There were loads of rafts but we ended up with Drew, who was smart mouthed and cheeky most of the time. I loved it and abused him back. Don't know what it is about Australians, but I fit right in here because I can give as much crap as they do. We laughed so much, which is particularly amusing when you are going down grade 4 rapids. It was definitely exhilirating. I would recommend it to anyone. We had a great team in our raft, and particularly got on with Gina, lovely American student teacher from Florida, who was being so polite despite being told that she was being rude by being polite, when she should be getting in to the flow of Australian abuse/banter, as that is getting in to the local culture. She had definitely got the hang off it by the end though, I like to think I inspired her! I am the queen of cheeky comments and dirty looks!

I would go again in a heartbeat (although being in Adelaide now, that is a problem!). Want to do more!

After White Water Rafting they dropped us off in Cairns. I will tell you all about that and our trip up to Cape Tribulation... plus my time in Adelaide, when I next get a chance to update. I think that Rebecca needs to us the PC.

Love to all xxx

Don't have time to cover it all so here is part 1

Hello All

Well sorry for being off line for a while but having been at sea for a while, my internet access has been very limited.

When I left off Sophie and I were going to watch a DVD with Margo in our room in Rainbow beach as it was raining. Well we had a fab time watching the Island and after that Margo (who is Dutch not Swedish as per previous post, I am a tad senile) ran off to get some food. Sophie and I were popping out of our room ourselves when a mop of long brown hair and outspread arms, shouting incoherently came running towards us. Before we could get too alarmed we realised it was Keren from our Noosa trip and the incoherent language was Hebrew.

Being girls we hugged and screamed, it was so cool to see her. She told us that Larissa was going in on the 7pm coach too so we had a chance to catch up before we lurked around the coach stop waiting for her to come in (of course her bus was delayed so it was 8pm before we could surprise her and scare everyone getting off at Rainbow beach with our screaming).

What followed was a pretty legendary night for us, so happy to be reunited for one last night. The 5 of us (as Margo also joined us and got on like a house on fire with the girls) dranks lots of wine, chatted, shared chocolate, got increasingly boisterous and than decided that we could sing louder than the group of 50 odd Brazilians that had invaded our Hostel bar. NOt bad going since we only seemed to know about 1/2 the words of all the songs that we picked to sing. They had to withdraw to the beach, obviously recognising our superior ability to be very very noisy. Later we exchanged bad jokes with a group of Irish lads, before prising an amorous Brazilian off Larissa and heading back to our room to watch sophie dance, chat some more, take more silly photos and generally have a great time.

the next day we hung around the beach as it had actually stoppped raining before saying a really sad farewell to Larissa and Keren (Margo was on our coach) and heading to Airley beach for a long 14 hour over night coach journey, before getting straight on to our sail boat (The Madison) that evening for 3 nights sailing round the Whitsunday islands...

Well I will have to tell you all about that another time as I am almost out of time on this computer but it includes our group being me, Sophie and a group of 10 american students. I admit that I contemplated jumping over board at one point... but more details when I have a chance. Hopefully when I am in Adelaide.

Love to all

Fraser Island Freak out

Well hello all again, as I am typing this it is obvious that I have made it back safe and sound from Fraser Island. Another fantastic trip with another fab group of people, with the added bonus that I didn't have to drive afterall! Phew!

So here is the round up of the Fraser trip. On Thursday afternoon we had a briefing before heading off on our trip Good Friday morning. There were over 50 people in the briefing and we found out that we would be in 5 groups of 10-11. We were told all about the safety elements (don't play with Dingos, how not to wreck the car, rules of the national park that is Fraser, why swimming in the sea round there will kill us due to currents, jelly fish and sharks, why you should never go anywhere on your own... etc..)

After that we were called in to our Groups and Sophie & I were in Group B. To be honest, when I saw Group D where a lot of the older people had been put and than turned to see a group of very young and excited people in Group B, my heart did dip a bit. However, within 5 minutes, Sophie and I were in love with our group and knew that we were a) probably going to be the loudest on the Island and b) going to have a great time.

So to the group. There were 4 Israelis that were travelling together: Shai, Amit, Assaf and Yaniv. We could see straight away that they were going to keep us entertained. Plus 5 Canadians: Shell, Shannon, Lisa, John and Tyler who all seemed adorable. Fortunately a couple of the boys (Shai and Tyler) were cool about driving the great big 4x4 trucks, so I was off the hook and could relax knowing I wasn't going to have to get behind the wheel.

After a few drinks in the bar getting to know our travel companions, Sophie & I went for an early night so that we would be fresh for our early start in the morning. As our room was right next to the bar, it would be fair to say that that didn't quite pan out as I just couldn't sleep but c'est la vie.

The next morning we all met by the trucks to load them up with food, camping gear, stoves, tables, our bags, lights, water etc.. The boys got a quick introduction in to how to drive the monsters that were our trucks. After that we all piled in (8 in the back, 3 up front) and were on our way to the ferry to take us over to Fraser Island. The adventure had begun and everyone was in high spirits. The music was on full blast, we were singing and generally being boisterous in the back, so that no one could be in any doubt about the fact that we were planning to have a really good time.

The ferry journey was short but sweet, so before we knew it we were bombing along the sand with Shai (whose moto was to do everything we were told not to - naughty boy) driving and the rest of us hanging on as we bounced along the beach, screaming at him not to try and go through the water. In the end I adopted my most teacher like voice (what can i say you pick it up if you are related to a lot of them) and basically threatened to murder him once we were out of the truck if he carried on. Seemed to work, which surprised me as much as everyone else and we were peacefully bombing along the sand without any threats of kamakaze driving action.

Our first destination was McKenzie lake and we made it there uneventfully (well our bums were numb and bruised but those trucks aren't designed with comfort in mind). We had a lovely picnic (eggs for Shai as he can not eat bread at the moment as he it is not Kosher at the moment, the other Israeli boys weren't strictly observing that rule so they had sandwiches with us) before going down to the beach and the most beautiful lake on the Island. I had a wonderful lounge and read, plus laughed at the others who seemed to be trying to kill each other in the water. It was so much fun.

After McKenzie with headed to get more ice and water at Eurong, so that we could make sure that our food didn't get hot and rot, before finding our campsite off the beach not far from Eurong. How we laughed that evening, cooking steaks in the dark (well we admittedly should have set up camp a little earlier), drinking copious amounts of red wine (by the metallic mug full) and dancing to music. Plus I never anticipated that I would go to Fraser and be learning Hebrew, although many of those terms can not be used in polite sociey! I have some great photos of us all messing about that night, it was great fun. Plus have discovered that if I only get 4 hours sleep (as we were up at 5.30am the next morning in order to avoid high tide on our trip to Lake Wally) I am not actually grumpy in the morning! Could be that I was still a little merry though... ummm.

Unfortunately as we had the car lights on and music playing for ages the night before, despite the fact that we had regularly turned the car over (although admittedly not for long enough each time) we had a very flat battery. So next step was to flag people down on the beach to find someone that could jump start us. I love Australians, loads of them stopped to help and after problems finding someone with working jump leads we were finally on our way. So we headed Northward up the beach and found a nice spot to picnic before actually looking at the map to find out where the lake was and realising that actually we needed to go back to Eurong and in-land to get to the lake (oops, what can I say, we are full of enthusiasm but not hot on the planning). So we took our time over our picnic breakfast to allow the tide to start going out again before finally heading to lake Wally. For this lake you actually need to hike for about 30 minutes to get to it, across large patches of desert like sand. It reminded me of the Sand patch in Noosa.

As we get going over sand dune after sand dune, we started to worry that maybe this was a wind up by the tour operators. Although people going past us in the opposite direction wearing swim suits, did put our minds are ease. Finally we went over a sand dune and a gorgeous lake was lying at the bottom of the dune. The water was a beautiful dark emerald green, as while it was hot, there were clouds that were protecting us from the more aggressive sun rays. We ran down that last dune, threw off our clothes (well except for the swim suits obviously, wasn't that kind of a trip! what were you thinking) and jumped in the water. It was gorgeous. Lovely and fresh and clean. Swimming around I saw a turtle slowly glide past, before diving under the water when it realised that a great big, human creature was watching it. It was heaven, an opportunity for more silly photos and some lounging around to dry off post swim.

After an hour or so there we hiked back to the car, as we wanted to drive up North of the Island to go to Indian head, some cliffs were you get a fantastic view of Fraser Island. It really was stunning out there. We couldn't see any sharks or dolphins in the ocean though, as the clouds made the water too dark, but apparently on a clear day you get a good view of the wildlife. I wasn't sorry though, as it was already very hot for a cloudy day and with a clear sky I would have completely melted. We also had a lunch at Indian head before heading back down the Island so that we could find a camping spot near the ship wreck that is on the beach there (have great photos of that too, with clouds looks very ominous and dramatic).

We had agreed with the other trucks that we would all try to meet up and camp together near the wreck and we spotted where they were so you soon had an area set up with tents and 5 trucks all spread out. John, Amit and I set to work on dinner and prepared a veritable feast of stir fried chicken, vegetables, rice, sweet chilli and red wine sauce, finished off with wraps for those of us not observing Hebrew holidays. It was gorgeous! There were a fair few other Israelis and Canadians in the other groups so we chatted to them. I got to practice the nicer Hebrew terms that I had learnt (Sababa baby) and drink more wine. Around 11.30 Sophie headed to bed, but I was still mid drink so carried on chatting away. Around midnight, when I was running away to hit my tent, I had to do a quick toilet (ie find private bit of bush) break. Being quite desparate to pee and not wanting to disturb the others I broke the rule and went off to find a spot on my own... Oopsie! As I was emerging from behind my bush, I could hear Shai over in the camp going "Hello Dingos". Sure enough, as I headed in the direction of ther camp, two dingos were heading straight towards me and I was alone. Fortunately, I think these dingos had been to London, I ignored them and they ignored me. I am a lucky girl. Those animals can be very vicious when they want to be. Obviously they had already had their dinner.

So I made it back to my tent unscathed and slept like a baby, until the Canadians woke us all up at 7am so that we could make a start on our final morning on Fraser (we had to be at the Ferry for 2pm). We headed off and ended up having breakfast in Happy Valley, where we could stock up on more clean drinking water before heading back to our favourite spot of Lake McKenzie. It was wonderful, more swimming, laughing and group photos (sadly not for me as my camera battery had died by this point) as we realised that the end was in sight. We stayed at the Lake as long as we could risk it (11.30am) before heading back to catch the ferry. Almost lost one of our bags en route, plus a particularly bad bump sent Shell flying across the truck, and caused Yasiv to bash his head on the ceiling but we literally made it by the skin of our teeth, as we drove on to the ferry it started to move out in direction of the mainland.

Too sad to face the fact that our trip was over, once we had dropped off the truck, cleaned & unloaded everything, we all went for a spot of lunch together. That evening at 7pm we saw the Canadians off at the bus station as they were doing the nasty night trip that Sophie & I are doing tomorrow night, up to Airlie beach. It looks like we should be able to meet up with them there on Saturday night. This morning (after failing to party last night, as we were all too tired, it finally caught up with us, so we missed the great Easter Sunday Toga party) we said goodbye to our Israeli boys as they were driving up north too. We are hoping to see Assaf in Sydney when we are there, plus both Assaf & Amit should be in London in October, so we know that we will see them again then.

It is amazing how attached you can get to people in such a short space of time. I think this is because you are going through some extreme experiences in quite basic conditions, so you all have to pull together. Sophie & I loved our group and are looking forward to seeing them again (Shannon & Lisa will also be in Sydney when we are and fly home the same day that I head to Rarotonga).

So it is now Monday lunchtime. Sophie and I will be popping out to get a bite to eat shortly. Our Dolphin Kayaking trip this afternoon has been cancelled as the weather is pretty bad today (windy, cloudy and rainy, we were obviously lucky when we were in Fraser as it was lovely most of the time). We are booked in to go tomorrow before we get the evening night coach to Airlie. I hope that the weather clears so that we can go, as it would be great to do something like that to wear ourselves out so that we actually get some sleep on the coach. From Airlie we get on the boat for 3 nights out in the Whitsundays and the greater barrier reef. Both Sophie & I are hoping that our luck with travel companions continues, as there will be 12 passengers plus crew on our boat. I am sure that it will! I will update you all with my on-going adventure once we make it back to Airlie beach on Saturday (heading to Mission beach Sunday and our white water rafting adventure on Monday.... it is all go go go!)

Right now, I need food before we curl up in our room (have lucked out and we are the only people in our room) to watch the Island on Sophie's laptop, as she brought some DVDs. Margot, nice Swedish girl from one of the other Fraser groups, is going to join us, as she is here on her own and there really isn't much to do in Rainbow beach when it is raining. It is all about the beach action!

Anyway.. love to all and Happy Easter

Noosa Nutters

Hello All,

Well my last update was from Byron and that already feels like a long time ago, but I will think back and update you on my final days there and what I have been up to since.

Well I last updated up to Wednesday. On the Thursday I got up early and went in to pick Sophie up at her motel (of course I managed to get lost and therefore be late, nothing like driving round in circles with a platinum blonde up your arse in her poncey car so you can't do a naughty U-turn to make you really late). But I eventually found her and we headed in to Byron so that she could pay for our trip up North. Of course this took longer than expected (well we do have a very full and complicated itinerary) but the lovely people at Peter Pan's sorted everything out for us. After that we went for a spot of brunch and did some last minute shopping for Sophie's preparations for the wedding (which was at 2.30pm that afternoon).

Suffice it to say things got very tight timing wise in the end but I managed to get Sophie to the wedding on time (following hair curling frenzy and me popping back in to town to pick up the final paperwork for our trip) and she had a great time. Having wrecked a lot of my clothing and trainers on my travels I headed to Ballina (larger town South of Byron) where I managed to get some bargains and now have trainers again (so may go horse riding soon) and some summer trousers so that I am no longer relying on only 2 pairs.

That evening was a mellow one with Jo, Craig and I enjoying a lovely supper (Jo is a fab cook) and a bit of TV.

On Friday I had another mellow day with lots of reading, talking to Poppy (the cat) and popping to a place called Clunes (which has one cafe but a beautiful village park) for a spot of lunch. That evening Jo and I were dropped off in Bangalow by Craig and went to the pub that Jo had worked at for many years while she was a student round here. It was great fun. A proper Aussie pub and most of the people in there knew Jo, so lots of hellos all round. Only had about 4 beers, but both Jo and I felt a little bit grubby the next morning, so that seemed to be enough to see us on our way. Obviously I am turning to a light weight.

The next morning Jo & Craig when to a Christening, while I had to pop back to Ballina to drop off my car (sad farewell to my little manual Hyundai Getz, very cute car, not it's fault that I wanted an automatic) before getting a bus back to Byron Bay to catch up on e-mails. Good thing that I did, as had an e-mail from Janina (Galloway ex Eurosport for those of you that know her) saying that she was in Byron and leaving her mobile number. I texted her and found out she was on Main Beach so grab a fruit smoothie and headed there to join her. We had a lovely chat and Emma (Sanders ex Nat Geo for those that know her, what can I say it was media tastic in Byron that day) joined us after recovering from a bad reaction to a jab that she had that morning in preparation for her trip to China (she fainted and hit her head quite hard on her way down poor love).

Unfortunately I didn't have that long to spend with them as Jo & Craig were coming to pick me and Sophie up from her motel, as Sophie was spending her last night with us, so that we could get dropped off together in the morning at the coach stop - plus also meant that we could all have drinks and not worry about driving. But while it may have only been for about 2 hours, it was great to catch up with Janine, who looks fab for her travels and is definitely having a great time.

So that evening Jo, Craig, Sophie and I headed out to Lennox Head for dinner (after Sophie, Jo and I had had a good wonder round the land around their house, through macadamia tree orchards, palms, fruit trees etc.. it really is gorgeous round there). We had a fantastic Thai meal and some nice wine, before heading back to the house for wine and great conversation (squeezing in a lovely ice cream from In the Pink - who do the loveliest ice creams before heading back). It was such a top night. I even got to brush up on my tarot reading skills which was fun, although we didn't have a full deck but we didn't let that stop us!

So the next morning we said a sad farewell to Craig and Jo drove me and Sophie downn to Byron in time to have a spot of breakfast before we caught our coach. It was really sad to say good bye to her! It was so lovely to see her and Craig, hope that it isn't too long before I see them both again! Good to see them so happily settled back at home though.

Well once on the coach Sophie and I were starting our big adventure, heading Northwards via a quick stop in Brisbane to a place called Noosa. We were met at the coach station by John, who works at Dolphins, the hostel that we were staying at in Noosa. As he had to wait for another coach to come in before heading back, we had time to look round the shops and check our e-mails. Sophie & I loved the hostel when we finally got there. Really near to Sunshine Beach, outside of the main city of Noosa it had a great vibe. Really relaxed and friendly. We re-packed our stuff so that all the things that we would need for our trip the next morning would be in a small backpack (no small feat as we were going camping for 2 nights and had already been warned there would be no showers and very primitive facilities available).

That night we went to eat in a restaurant called Stella near the beach. The food was fantastic and we really had a great time, as we knew that we wouldn't be having a nice meal like this for a while. After that we headed back for a relatively early night as we were being picked up at 7.45am to head out to Sandy National Park near Noosa where were going to be camping and canoeing in the everglades.

It turns out that this is a self guided trip (shows how much I was paying attention) and there were 9 of us going out (although Nina was only booked on for 1 night not 2 like the rest of us, so was coming back the next day with people returning from their 2 night stay). First step was to be taken to pick up all the equipment that we would need (tents, cooking sets, drinking water, a group lamp, washing up stuff etc) and the whole group met each other for the first time. After that we were taken to get a water taxi out in to the National Park where we were picking up our canoes and being told what to do. Being told what to do involved being warned not to dive head first in to the water, being reassured that while there were bull sharks in the water they had never been known to attack anyone in the everglades and that we would be lucky to even see one, and to be given a very topline map of where to go, plus this is how you paddle a canoe 2 minute overview. After that we were on our own.

Well the group was composed of me & Sophie, plus Jamie & Daljit from England, Noelette & Sharon from Ireland, Larissa (Spanish, Swiss, England educated), Karen from Israel and Nina from Denmark. It is fair to say that none of us had extensive canoeing experience, so it was funny from moment one. Particularly when me and Sophie were floating off in the wrong direction failing miserably to turn the damn thing around (before you laugh at how stupid we were being, bear in mind these are big old fashioned canoes not kayaks, not the most manoeuvreable thing on the planet, espectially when fully ladden with camping gear). But we all soon got the hang of it and were canoeing through the everglades, admittedly zig zagging a fair bit but beyond that you would think we were pros.

All was fine as we took a detour up a side river since we had a lot of time before we needed to set up camp at Harry's Hut. That was cool, and we wer laughing a lot, After that we headed in the direction of the Hut but missed the main turning, so decided to go an alternative but longer route. However, after going most of the way, we discovered that there was a tree down blocking the route we had taken so that we had to go all the way back again and find the original turning. We made the camp for around 5pm, having started out at around 10am so that is a lot of canoeing. We were aching and knackered, but tents had to go up and food needed to be cooked before it got too dark. It gets very dark out there by around 6pm, so we didn't have much time! But that is where team work comes in and we really did have the loveliest group of people. We helped each other out and despite being tired and being a bit worried that we would never find our camp site, we were still laughing.

A very basic meal and after that we had Jamie desparately persuading us all that it was morally wrong to go to bed at 7pm. So we kept chatting and laughing until around 8.30pm when we just all had to sleep. The next morning we woke up, staggered out of our tents feeling bruised as the sleeping mats didn't really do anything to soften the hard floor, especially given how much our shoulders were aching from the canoeing the day before. It was a beautiful morning, with the sun shining already at 6am. We managed to even have some tea (sponsored by our Irish friends, the great bringers of tea bags) with our cereal bars before hitting the road to go up to camp site 3 (6km canoe up river) and trek up to an area called Sandy Patch (12 km return trip from Sandy Patch).

This is when we really realised why we were doing this trip, despite some stress the day before. The water was still (the river is all tea tree water so lovely warm colour of tea) and mirror like, so everything that we saw around us was clearly reflected in the river. All we could hear other than the sound of our paddles going through the water, was the chatter and singing of all the native birds. I don't know what they were talking about but it sounded quite exciting. It was pure heaven. I didn't care about my burning arm and shoulder muscles, this was just amazing. It only took us about 1hr 40 mins to canoe to camp 3 before we set off on our trek up to Sandy Patch.

That was a very hot trek, as by this point it was around 9.45 so the sun was starting to really warm us! Plus a lot of the hike is up hill so I hope you won't mind my admitting that I was sweating like a pig for most of the trip. By this point we had not seen anyone else at all, we were alone up there.

Having seen the sandy patch from the distance (it looks like a huge blob of sand on the side of the hill) I was not prepared for the reality. It was like walking out of forest straight in to a desert of fine white sandy. There were dunes of this white sand stretching out around us. It was amazing! How this had ended up up there, I do not know but it was stunning and we loved it! Walking around sand is hard work but we ploughed through it stopping to take the silliest photos, laughing as Jamie decided to roll down a sand dune and ended up covered in sand (he was still finding it in his ears later that evening) and generally being really silly. It was also an opportunity to stop for lunch, although my sandwich did end up living up to its name, each time there was the slightest breeze, but hey it adds to the crunch factor. We could even see 40 mile beach from up on the dunes, but didn't head down as we were worried about not getting back to the camp before dark. So after a really good explore of the sand patch we headed back to the river.

First step was not to get in our canoes though, it was swimming time. I was too hot to care about these sharks that wouldn't hurt me "honest". I would have tackled a great white, just to cool down and the water felt fantastic. There is something just great about swimming in tea tree water at the best of times, but when the water is so clean and cool, and you are so hot and sweaty and miles form the nearest shower.... well it was heaven. All I can say is that I definitely cavorted. That is the only word for it, plus it was fun hanging off the end of the canoes and just splashing around. Even Daljit, who was worried as he can't swim, ended up giving in to temptation and was hanging off the end of the dock in the cool water. Only Noelette & Sharon didn't jump in, they don't know what they were missing!

So refreshed we canoed back to camp and made our dinner. Once it was dark we started sharing scary stories (well as much as we could before going off on a comic tangent), made Jamie show us his audition dance to get in to study dance at uni (well our view was he was already covered with sand anyway...) and generally joked around. At some points I was laughing so hard I was crying.. We really didn't have the best group and we didn't want to think about the fact that it was our last night out there, but instead joked about going AWOL in the wilderness (I say joked as without much food or drinking water left we won't have been AWOL for long).

The next morning we got up early and took down our camps, packed up our canoes and set off with plenty of time to meet the boat by 10am at the pick up point. We had time for a stop and a paddle en route. Again the water was clear as a mirror, the birds were sinking and you could hear scattered laughing from the canoes. It was another heavenly moment. I don't think my photos can ever do it justice. We made it back in plenty of time and the boat picked us all up. Once back in Noosa we unpacked all our kit, refilled the water cans, spread out the tents for cleaning and realised that there was nothing left to do but say good bye. Fortunately e-mails have been exchanged, so the Noosa Nutters will keep in touch, but it is amazing how sad I could feel to say good bye to people that I hadn't even meet 50 hours before.

So that was the Noosa Everglades trip. As Sophie kept saying, life doesn't get any better than this. The funny thing is we were bruised, scratched, our muscles were burning, the bugs were biting and we were all dirty without access to a shower, but I don't think any of us have ever been happier.

That afternoon Sophie and I had a lovely lunch in Noosa, to celebrate access to real food, with two refreshing glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. We hit the beach and sure enough fell asleep (Sauv Blanc effect methinks) before having to go and get our coach at 4.20pm to Rainbow Beach. So that is where I am now, the sun is shining, it is early, I was up at 7am for the free pancakes and now desperately need a shower to fully wake up before doing a clothes wash and hitting the beach. Tomorrow morning we head to Fraser Island for another 2 nights camping, this time with 4 wheel drive cars not canoes (guess who will be driving, hehehehe) and hopefully another set of every cool people.