///ROUND THE WORLD TRIP///

Friday, January 02, 2004

New Years Day in Barca I slike NYD anywhere else – everything’s shut…except KFC, where we ‘dined’ for lunch. Our evening meal was at Mum and Ken’s hotel and was pretty good (again).

After a non-specific technical fault and huge delay we eventually took off at just after 1.15 local time, some 3 hrs 10 mins late. We were given no explanation and the plane we boarded looked suspiciously like a reserve plane (oil marks all down it, non-eliptoid engines, my skewed logic dictating it must be…) but so far we are doing OK. Somehow we fluked an upgrade so our 36th and final flight of our trip was in Business Class. We are about an hour from home at the moment. Jen’s parents are coming to pick us up and we might even venture out to buy a car this afternoon. So our trip has ended. It’s weird to think that a year ago today we wer on our way back from our skiing trip to Canada and about to embark on a year that would not only see us visiting places we’d only dreamed about previously but a year that would also change us deeply. Never again will we prejudge nationalities (except the Spanish), we will treat the environment more kindly (but still won’t throw our loo roll in a bin…it HAS to go down a toilet), and most of all we will live each day as if it’s our last (and not get chained to our new jobs….honest!!)

THE END

Daniel Cornwell 1/02/2004 09:23:00 PM

We spent most of New Years Eve in bed, not getting up ‘til lunchtime. When we did surface we hurried over to the airport to meet and greet Sandeep and Rachel (Jen’s sister & boyfriend). Their plane was nearly an hour late and by the time we got back to the hotel it was late afternoon. A beer on the square and a couple of cocktails at Hard Rock followed before we all met up with Mum and Ken at 7pm. After a quick pint at an extortionate Irish Bar (45 Euros for 8 drinks, that’s about 4 quid a drink) we headed to a square full of cafes with outside seating. That’s the good thing about Barca at New Year, although it’s not boiling hot it’s warm enough to sit outside at night, a far cry from home at this time of year. So we found a spot for eight and got Mum and Ken involved in some drinking games. First up was drink while you think which saw Verity drinking and thinking progressively more as the game went on. Ken’s ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ was by far the poorest attempt at a celebrity. The best game we played though was the animal game. Basically everyone assigns themselves an animal, and then an action for said creature, and then you take it in turns doing your own signal and then someone elses. They then have to do theirs and someone elses…ad infinitum. Ken struggled a bit to be fair, although Sandeep (drinking on Rachel’s behalf) seemed to put away more red wine than anyone else. We ended up at the restaurant at about 9pm, to find they had put us in our own little alcove. Agut D’Avignon is known as one of the nicest, poshest, and most expensive restaurants in Barcelone, specilaising in traditional Catalan fare. Another couple of bottles of cava washed our starters down, and our mains duly arrived. I have it on good authority that the lamb was wonderful. My steak was fantastic too, in fact everyone’s food and the service was exceptional. The food bill came to about £30 a head which Mum paid for. We paid for the drinks…47 Euros (35 quid) for 4 bottles of wine…BARGAIN! By this time it was nearing midnight so we headed out to La Rambla once more and made our way north to Placa de Catalunya. There were thousands of people, and some unfortunate ones in cars. They were jostled, sometimes rocked, and some lost a tyre or two thanks to the amount of champagne bottles everywhere. Funniest was an old bloke in a BMW 5.40 whose tyre made a loud hissing sound as it deflated much to the onlooking, and pointing crowd’s glee. His face was a picture…if you’re stupid enough to head to this part of town on New Year’s Eve you got what you deserve pal! We just about made it to the square to hear a couple of chimes, although we lost Mum and Ken, and Rachel and Sandeep in the process. We tried to eat a grape for every chime (a Catalan tradition) but soon realised this was no easy thing without the seedless variety…I managed 4, which I think was as good as anyone else. A few minutes later we found the other 4 and stood and watched the hoards of hammered people dancing, drinking and singing. The police turned up a bit later, and made their presence felt, although without being heavy handed. The crowd started to disperse around 1am and by the time we walked back to the hotel (1.10) you wouldn’t have known there had been thousands around just over an hour previously.

Back at the hotel they offered us a glass of champagne and even put some chocolates in every room, a nice touch. We finally hit the sack at around 2am, thoroughly exhausted after a fantastic New Year celebration.

Daniel Cornwell 1/02/2004 09:21:00 PM

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

We tried to go for a Chinese but found that the one we had chosen (Swan) had stupidly (about 10 quid) expensive main courses…so we popped next door to the George and Dragon, which is an old Englidh George and Dragon pub. No pictures of dogs playing snooker though…

I have, though, remembered the main reason for this particular entry…the Spanish. From Knifeboy in Arequipa to psychosexual policeman in Madrid we have been singularly unimpressed with the Spanish…I am afraid that Barcelona has just confirmed everything we thought. They are the most arrogant, self centred, lacking in
spatial awareness, group of cretins we have ever met…OK so picture the scene you are walking down a street and you bump into someone you’ve never met before with more force than is required to uproot trees…what do you do a) walk away with your head down looking ashamed; b) say sorry (a hundred times) and offer to pay some form of compensation or c) turn round, glare at the person you just hit, implying they were in the worng, and then cock your head arrogantly before tutting and walking off.
If you answered a) you are normal. If you answered b) you are Biritsh, and ifyou answered c) well, I guess you know the rest… We have been bumped, cajoled, and almost rugby tackled by so many Spaniards now that I have genuinely started to believe they were all born with a complete lack of spatial awareness and they don’t even realise when they are nearly decapitating their fellow man. It got so bad on the metro today that we took it in turns to ‘tread on a Spaniards foot’, and barge them all out of the way. So there we have it…a year away and the prize for the rudest, least accommodating, most spatially unaware people…the Spanish. At this point I do want to say that our theory about there being nice people and complete arseholes from every country still rings true, as we met Pilar on the Galapagos boat and she was lovely.

Daniel Cornwell 12/31/2003 03:20:00 AM

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Pat, Mum and Ken arrived a couple of days ago and we spent most of Sunday just walking around town. The most amazing sight was the sheer number of people milling around a town centre that was completely closed. It was almost like watching 10,000 people turn up at the Trafford Centre on a Tuesday, at 4am.
Literally everything was closed, all the big shops, even bars and eateries. We can only imagine how strong the Spanish economy is that they turn down footfall like this. On Sunday night Mum and Ken treated us all to a lovely meal at their hotel and we came up with a plan for Monday and Tuesday…

Monday started with an amble down La Rambla and a visit to the local produce market. It was a good fun way to start the day even if the local McDonalds didn’t stock breakfast items…we finished the morning with a trip to the Dali museum, which was well laid out but disappointing as nearly all the exhibits were prints not originals, it was expensive (8 Euros, about 6 quid) and their was little or no explanation of any of the exhibits or photos accompanying them. After lunch at the Hard Rock Café (fantastically lardy) we headed to the Palace of Catalan Music which was fully booked for the day before wandering round the Barri Gothic for an hour or so. We eventually found a cafe and stopped for a drink before we had our own siesta. In the evening we managed to find a semi-decent tapas bar and indulged. Afterwards myself and Pat went to the airport to pick Verity, Pat’s friend, up. Her plane was delayed by nearly 40 minutes and by the time we got back to Plaza de Catalunya (midnightish) we were all too tired to sit in a bar so they headed back to their hotel, and me to mine…

We were up early on Tuesday and met up at La Sagrida Familia, Gaudi’s work in progress. There is some conjecture as to whether they ever want to finish it (work started some 130 years ago) as it is almost as famous for being a building site. What is complete is spectacular, and the views over the city from one of the towers equally so. It is due for completion in around another 25 years, but if the complete lack of activity today is anything to go by it will take considerably longer.

Second up on our second day’s touring was to be the Picasso Museum, but with the queue seemingly endless we decided to give it a miss, maybe manana…We headed to the chocolate museum only to find it was closed on Tuesdays, so instead headed to El Xampanyet, one of the ‘’best Cava bars in town where they well and truly ripped us off. We had a drink each and about 4 plates full of tapas and they charge us over 40 Euros…when I tried to ask him to explain, the prices he charged us showed no correlation to the ones on his price list, so we left more than a little miffed at the ‘tourist tax’ we’d just paid. The afternoon was much more fun though as we took a trip out on the cable car and over to the Olympic Stadium and surrounds. The cable car itself gives you a great view (at the end) of the port, which is nice if you are a ship-spotter but not great if you’re not. Barcelona is the exact opposite of Rio. You get up high and the city looks horrible, all highrise with no character, but at street level the architecture is a joy to behold, paradoxically, Rio is the most beautiful city in the world when seen from Sugar Loaf, but up close it is a hole.

The Olympic Stadium and surrounds, whilst not as spectacular or well kept as Sydney, was an interesting detour, and made you realise once again why London should never win the bid – there just simply isn’t enough room or infrastructure in the English Capital. Rachel and Sandeep arrive tomorrow so 6 will soon be 8…

Daniel Cornwell 12/30/2003 11:29:00 PM

Saturday, December 27, 2003

So here we are again, back on the road. BMIBaby were excellent, and we arrived on time in Barca. By the time we'd grabbed our ludicrously heavy (30KG) suitcase from the baggage reclaim and jumped in and out of a cab it was 11.30ish and we were fast asleep by…er…11.31 (ish).

Although it looks a bit dodgy on the outside inside Hostal Goya is really nice even though we’re paying a night what we were for a week in South America and Asia. It doesn’t have a telly in the room though which is a bit of a pain in the arse.

On first sight Barcelona is very similar to Paris, all boulevards and balconies (I seem to remember saying that about somewhere else ;) ). It’s also busy and full of rude people who barge in front of you/trip you up without even an apology. The city itself though is beautiful, and we have spent most of today (after Jen’s ridiculous 12.30 lie-in) wandering round soaking it all in. We have raided our wardrobe from home and don’t feel like scummy travellers any more, having worn the same clothes for the last 11 months you have no idea how nice it is to put on a Paul Smith or Ted Baker shirt again, especially as they seem to fit better than when we went away in January.

We walked down the famous Las Ramblas, which is reminiscent of the Champs Elysees, but it has a pedestrian walkway in the middle, sorely lacking in Paris where if you so much as step foot on a road you are likely to be, at best, maimed by a passing 2CV. It had it’s fair share of those weirdos who cover themselves in silver/gold or dress as an ape and then expect money for doing nothing. In my mind they have taken over from clowns as chief nightmare givers to young children. There were a couple of those 3-matchbox/pea con-artists and it was good fun to watch them con a few gullible Americans…

We eventually pitched up at the museum of erotica, which was quite interesting. Having previously visited the one in Copenhagen last year, which was effectively 4 floors of hard-core porn we were expecting much more of the same but instead got an interesting view of erotica through the ages. It was almost educational (!) and was an interesting way to spend half an hour or so. The best bit was definitely the cinema where they showed movies from the early 20th century that were almost like some sort of bad comedy porn. The actors were all fat with bad facial hair, and that was just the women. Although it was quite amusing there was something intriguing in the naivety and naturalness of it all, a far cry from the silicone-enhanced splatter-fests of the 21st century.

Our tour of the Barri Gothic took us past the Cathedral that, unfortunately, is covered in green mesh at the moment. You could just about make out the beauty of it behind the renovations. We will be going inside for a look around in the forthcoming days.

Daniel Cornwell 12/27/2003 06:12:00 PM

Sunday, December 21, 2003

It's amazing the difference a few days makes. First up we had a couple of days relaxing chez Lynn (Jen's Mum) who fed us up in considerable style. She even did us a roast dinner on a Wednesday...We found out one of the best things about being away. I have lost nearly a stone and a half (10 kilos) and Jen has lost half a stone. Although these measurements were taken pre stay at Lynn's.

We are now back in our house and have spent a couple of days sorting through things. Although nothing from the loft has been pinched we are minus a desk and were minus a Sky Receiver too until one of the tenants remembered it was 'in a cupboard'. Not sure why he put new batteries in the remote control if it was in a cupboard...never mind we've got it now but don't have any telly as we're awaiting a new viewing card. There is also a massive red-wine-esque stain on one of the carpets and one of the curtain tracks is broken. Apart from that the house (and neighbours) are all in good nick.

My brother stayed overnight on Friday and we went for a couple of pints, it seems he is the only person in the world who has had more happen to him in 6 months than we have, but I'll leave it up to him to tell you all about it!!

At the moment it's great to be home, although we really enjoyed our time away we were ready for PS2s, CDs, and wide screen tellies again, oh but the weather, Christ it hasn't got above 1 degree yet...



Daniel Cornwell 12/21/2003 06:19:00 PM

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

And so here we are, some 11 months (and 3 days!) on. We have just had a lovely night's sleep and a bacon and egg roll for breakfast. The journey back wasn't without incident however, oh no siree! We arrived at Madrid after our 14 hour flight from Quito (stopover for 2 1/2 hours in Guayaquil) only to be confronted by the police from hell scanning all bags as you enter the country. We tried to explain that our hard drive had been corrupted once by a scanner in an airport so could we please show you that it works and be on our merry way. Oh no, said Mr. Police Brutality 2003/4 it has to go through. After a few minutes, realising if we didn't we would either lose the hard drive or not be allowed to get our connection, we relented and he couldn't wipe the smug grin on his face as he said 'we are the best police force in the world, and we never let anything through' at which point I eplained (in hindsight somewhat foolishly) that he hadn't scanned either our cellphone or the medicine Jen was carrying so they couldn't be that good (or words to that effect)...and he snapped...he grabbed my passport and bundled me into a room (leaving Jen in the corridor) and told me to take my cap off (bizarrely enough...at this point I thought I was about to hear the twang of rubber gloves being put on) and sit down. He then proceeded to shout at me in Spanish for about 5 minutes the gist of which was 'I am God, you do what I say, I can make you miss your flight, I'm still having pshychosexual problems due to my incredibly small member, and thus feel the need to shout and bawl at members of the public' that kinda thing. I then tried to explain why I had kicked up a fuss and he would only let me do thisin Spanish. Oh how hilarious it would have been for an outsider to hear me going on about 'el hard-drive a corrupto, kaput' that kind of thing. At one point I swear I managed to use 4 languages in one sentence ('Je suis mas fatigue, me hard-drive es kaput'). Eventually he let me go, without any internal examination I hasten to add, and we were on our way. Jen mumbled somethign about police brutality and we should complain, I thought better of it, and decided descretion and all that...and kept me head down until the connection to Barcelona. From Barca we had a 6 hour wait at their incredibly scruffy airport. We couldn't decide what the issue was, as there was srcaps of newspaper allover the floor, everywhere. Either someone had strong feelings about the press, or it was some kind of bizarre new Xmas decoration. The fcat of the matter was though that the cleaners were on strike and had obviously come in late at night and covered the floor with the news.

So eventually, after some 28 hours traveling, we made it back to East Midlands airport (via BMIBABY who were excellent) to be greeted by Lynn, Richard, and Rachel - a welcome sight. As we made it to the car it was clear one other special person had come to see us - OSCAR! I opened the boot of the car and he jumped on me, seemingly having saved a years worth of licks. He seemed to remember us (good start) and came and sat at our feet when we sat in the lounge last night.

We have had the best nights sleep for ages, no noisy neighbours, no worrying about stuff going missing, no having to get up to check out...and I slept through until midday (!) and had the best tastign bacon and egg sandwich I have ever had for lunch. Our plan is to sort stuff out here in Nottingham (we have sent an incredible amount of stuff back - at least 11/12 boxes) and then head over to Glosspo for a few days before coming back to Nottingham for Xmas day. We fly to Barca to meet up with my mum and step-dad (and brother and Rachel & Sandeep, but we're seeing them in England first) on boxing day. They arrive on 28th...here's hoping the cops in Barca are better (endowed?) than Madrid...
Daniel Cornwell 12/17/2003 01:42:00 PM

Monday, December 15, 2003

OK we´ve changed our flights and are on our way home...bit of a shock really to think we´ll be in the UK in some 40 hours. We couldn´t change our final Barca to Manc flight (the original one that meant we couldn´t get home for Xmas) so have bought a return with BMIBaby from Barca to EMA and back, we will still have New Year in Barca with my parents, borther and Jen´s sister as planned.

We have changed our plans for a few reasons...

We are tired, and more importantly tired of travelling and the hassle associated.

Both of us feel a bit under the weather.

We´ve just had the best week of the trip - it´s nice to go out on a high!

We´ve run out of cash (the flights were so cheap they amount to about 4 night´s accomodation in Madrid)

Jen´s Mum´s cooking.

Daniel Cornwell 12/15/2003 03:43:00 PM

Sunday, December 14, 2003

Piccie time, there are far too many to title them so, after a few jungle pics it`s the wildlife of the Galapagos...by the way my last bloody card has just currupted meaning the cutest of the cute seals and the Frigatebird piccies are lost forever...





GALAPAGOS

















Saved my fave 2 for last - yes that is a hammerhead...big isn`t it!


Daniel Cornwell 12/14/2003 11:26:00 PM

So we`re back...we`ve just arrived in Quito, after the flight back from the Galapagos, and what a final few days we had! Wednesday seems likes a lifetime away now but that`s where I left it so that`s where I`ll start. We started Wednesday near Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz) with a dive at Loberia, although the sea was rough we had a good dive and saw rays, turtles and sealions...still no sign of the elusive hammerhead though. On the way back onto the boat my mask got trapped between boat and dinghy and my mask shattered into a thousand pieces, glad it was a dive mask not a leg or even worse the camera case. We then headed to the Charles Darwin Research Centre which is effectively a breeding programme for giant tortoises. Each island has an endemic sub-species of tortoise, or should I say had, many of them have been wiped out through man`s exploitation of the area in the early 19th century. You see, tortoises can go for up to a year without water or food and thus make great meat for boats with long passages around the world as they don`t really go off. The really sad part is that of one sub-species, Pinta, there is only one tortoise left. `Lonesome George`is now 90 years old and reaching his prime for mating but has so far shown no interest in the 3 introduced females whose genetics are most similar to his. Despite our egging him on he didn`t get his shell over when we were there either.

After lunch we headed up into the highlands where we saw some wild ginat tortoises, although it seems a little funny describing them as wild as although they lived in the wild they don`t exactly tear around at Mach 3. We went backl tot he boat via a huge lava tube which has collapsed in the past bringing down stones the size of a cow. We didn`t hang about in there for fear of further collapses...

Back on the boat we met up with our new found colleagues, 5 Canadians (2 French Canucks, 3 living in America now). Brent and Lisa and father Gary all now live out of Canada (Brent in Hawaii), Gary is a dentist so he and Jen swapped (or should that be swabbed?) info. The two French Canadians, Chantal and Marie Jose were really nice too although neither spoke amazing English so we had to resort to French (again) at times.

Onto Day 5, Floreana Island, which is to the south of the archilpeligo. Our dive at Enderby Rock was excellent, we saw a number of Galapagos Sharks (like reef sharks but bigger), rays and some wonderful little pufferfish. After the dive we headed onto the island, past the resident sealions and to a lagoon where we saw about 30 flamingoes, the brightest and purest shade of pink you could imagine. We were also fortunate to see (via binoculars) a nest with 5 chicks that were an ugly grey colour. After walking to the other side of the island we entered a bay where we managed to get up close to mating turtles, and I got soaked trying to get a photo of the rays that washed themselves up into about an inch of water on the beach. 3 Penguins also flaoted by and it was a magical half hour or so. Next up was a snorkel at Champion Rock whilst most others dived Enderby again (we decided to stick to a dive a day). It was wonderful! We saw 14 cownose rays in formation near the surface but the best bit was snorkelling with the sealions. 2 youngsters and their mother spent at least 10 minutes swimming towards us and playing before it was time to head back tot he boat. Although on land they are clumsier than a dog with no back legs (which is incidentally what they look like when they walk) in land they are so quick and graceful. Our last stop for the day was at Post Office Bbay where a barrell stands in which letters and postcards are deposited. The idea is to look for people who live nar you and then take your post back with you. We left a couple of postcards and checked for people in NW of England of which there were...none...here`s hoping some Mancunian turns up there one day and brings ours back! We finished the afternoon by watching the two boats` crews palying football which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Day 6 (Friday) meant Espanola, which is one of the best islands to visit. We were up and out by 6.20 and had landed on a beach, near the obligatory sealiuons some five minutes later. Our 2km circuit walk took us high up onto the cliffs and through colonies of masked boobies, repleat with either eggs, week old chiocks or slightly older fledglings. With a number of the nests built next to or on the paths we got a great opportunity to see everything close up - it was fantastic. After the boobies we walked through the resident waved albatross colony and their chicks. We were lucky enough to view the famed albatross dance where they made loiud noises before dancing as a pair and touching beaks...magical! The final area on the island was at the `airport` where we viewed all the different bird species flying, landing, tkaing off etc...

Our dive for the day was next - Gardners reef, and what`s more we saw our first hammerhead, some 3m (10 ft) long, and about 10m away. It was a real thrill, and coupled with the manta rays, sealions and other fish made it another memorable dive. We finished the day with a long sail north, but only after we had snorkelled with sealions and rays again...

Day 7 - yesterday, Santa Fe

Up and out early again we walked through a giant cactus forest (with some specemin over 200 years old and with trunks so thick you couldn`t get your arms round) before spotting a number of pallidus land iguanas. They were all yellow and black so I`ve renamed them the Cambridge United Land Iguana and they are subsequently my favourite animal in the world, amost, but at that point we hadn`t dived Gordon Rocks...and so to the dive site. To give you a bit of history about this site we found out about it from t`internet and booke dour whole trip to the Galapagos because Nemo dived there. With this in mind the change of itinery made it fitting we should dive there for our final dive. It is famous for a few things, the swirling currents, sometimes bad visibility, but mostly for it`s hammerheads, lots of them, and big buggers too by all accounts. So with a real sense of anticipation we donned our gear and dived in. Well the vis was good (about 10-12m) and the currents although bloody cold (my computer went from 23-19 degrees at one point) weren`t too strong...as for the sharks...well we saw one really early one, and it was huge, we estimated at around 3.5-4m. It then decided to circle us, about 5-7m away...and then promptly diappeared into the blue. We managed to circumnaviage the three pinnacles despite the strengthening currents before 2 eagles rays were spotted and the group followed them en masse. That is, the group except myself and Jen who decided to hang around near the back of the rock and see what was out there...oh my God did we have a shock at what we saw next...at least 20 hammerheads, some seemingly in feeding frenzy less than 10m away. A couple decided to check us out and came within a few metres. Our reaction was a mixture of shock, sheer jubilation, and adrenaline (there are over 1,000 unprovoked attacks by hammerheads on humans every year) as we spent a couple of minutes watching them swim off into the distance. There has never been a hammerhead attack on a diver in the Galapagos Archipeligo, it is thought that the abundance of fish means that they don`t need to supplement their diet with neopreme coated humans.

Arriving back at the boat we felt it was a real case of mission accomplished. The only animal we wanted to see that we hadn`t (apart from the red footed boobies that you have to go Genovesa in the North to see) was the frigatebird, the ones with the magnificent red balloon that they inflate to impress the ladies...we were promised those for this morning. I then managed to smack my head on the boom of the boat nearly knoicking myself out and giving myself a stonking headache. I muttered something ironic about knocking the wind out of my sails...

Our final trip of the day was to South Plaza Island where we saw more sealions (still not tiring of them though, they are so adorable, especially the pups), gulls, more land iguanas, and tropicbirds who have a distinctive long white, wispy tail.

Our dock for the night was near Seymore Island where we were up at 6am this morning for our final walk. First up we walked through a colony of blue footed boobies (and yes I did buy an `I love Boobies` t-shirt, when in Rome and all that) and then we saw the magnificent frigates, replete with red balloon and wing posturing to attract the ladies. The balloon itself takes 20 minutes to inflate and 10 to deflate and we saw some in various stages of pumped-up-ness. More land iguanas, and the three cutest and most inquisitve sealions yet followed before we headed back to Nemo.

Since then we have flown back to Quito and are now in two minds as whether to leave South America on a real high and head to Spain for a couple of weeks ro whether top head south to Banos and Cotopaxi. We are favouring the former as we`ve just had one of the best weeks of our lives and want to remember Ecuador by the Islands some 1,000km to the West of the mainland. We will, undoubtedly be back. We would like to visit the more far flung places, and do some more diving. Our week was truely on of the best of our lives, and we feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to see what we`ve seen and interact with nature in the best possible ways. We were both gutted to have to return to the mainland and arrive back in dreary old Quito.



Daniel Cornwell 12/14/2003 09:04:00 PM

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Who`d have ever thought that on islands famous for it`s flora and fauna they`d have t`internet. Well they have, XP too, and it`s bloody quick. So here we are, 3 days into our Galapagos experience. Rather than sum up how we`re feelign about it all now I will do that after a detailed run down of what we`ve done so far...

Day 1 - Sunday...First up was the change of venue, we flew to Cristobal not Baltra, due to the airport at Baltra being reaved or something. This meant we flew in a smaller Boeing 727-200 not the lovely snazzy new Airbus that TAME have. This plane was so old and decripid it`s previous owner was Istanbul Airlines (WHO?)...having said that we arrived safely so enough said...

At the airport there was a big sign stating the things you couldn`t bring onto the islands...soil, live animals, VACCINES... so with a lump in our throat when asked we said we were carrying medicine which is true I guess and they let us in...

We were greeted at the airport by Walter, a Galapagos resident, who was to be our guide for the 8 days. To our relief he spoke good English. To our further relief we were told that there were only 7 of us booked onto the trip for the first 4 days (5 more are joining us tomorrow to make a full boat of 12), and we were then introduced to 3 of them. Emma and George are newlyweds from somewhere near London (or was it West London, can`t remember) - George originally comes from up north. Both are IT consultants but we didn`t hold that against them. Pilar (anyone remember Eldorado - well she looks nothing like THAT Pilar...) hails from Madrid, and she`s told us where to go and where to avoid at Xmas. The two others, who had arrived a couple of days earlier to do some diving, were a Swiss couple, Erica and Chris, who have been in South America for about 14 months driving around in a Toyota Landcruiser that Chris souped up into a kind of weird campervan and then shipped over to Buenos Aires. He also works in IT so for once I`m not the biggest nerd in the group...all are really nice and we seem to be getting on pretty well.

After sorting our cabins out (double bed, hot shower, wardrobe (!)) we hung around on the ship for a while before heading back to Cristobal Island for our first look at the wildlife. Our bus dropped us at a beach and we saw a sealion colony of about 30-40 just doing their thing, except these were different to all the other seals/sealions we have seen in that they didn`t react to humans. Usually they will hiss and try to scare you away if you come within a few yards but not these guys, they just sat there doing their normal stuff, babies suckling, others playing in the sea. We also saw marine iguanas which are indemic to the Galapagos Islands, in fact they do not exist anywhere else in the world and help prove Darwin`s evolution theories. The have basically had a need over time to swim and have thus developed tails and a breathing system that allows them to do it. There were tens of them and although really ugly they posed more than happily for photos. Now Walter, our guide, has a laptop with him which has XP (yay), and also writes CDs (double yay) so we`ve gone photo crazy, but not as mad as Chris who has a really nice camera - to date he`s taken over 800 photos!!!! We finished the day with a check dive, which made up my mind that there was no way on earth I was going to dive with a hood on...

Day 2 (Monday) started with an early dive at Cousin Rocks, where we saw 4 sharks, a couple of marbled stingrays, and a turtle, amongst others. The highlight though was undoubtedly getting checked out by the sealions who then whizzed around us performing barrell rolls just for the camera! On Bartolomè island we took a long walk to the top, via a boardwalk where we got a good view of the surrounding bays. Hopping back in our dinghy we managed to find the rare Galapagos penguin posing on a rock, before we donned our snorkelling gear and went for a dip with the playful sealions.

After an amazing lunch (our chef is one of those amazing people who you just don`t notice but he makes the most amazing food on his own in a kitchen the size of a small toilet cubicle) we headed to Santiago Island, to Puerto Egas to be exact. This was probably the highlight for me so far...although it didn`t start too well. We landed on another beach with another sealion contingent (they are everywhere, in the ports they even sleep on the boats!), which had the saddest little sealion who looked malnourished. Walter explained that his mother had wither died, or abandoned him due to him being touched by humans. The smell of people on fur leads the mother to throw the kid out on the sand (as it were) and effectively leave it to die. Walter said there was nothing anyone could do, and the pup would be dead within weeks. It was really sad, but again evidence of survival of the fittest, kind of, or at least evidence of how man manages to bugger everything up...

Onwards and upwards though to more lava-y landscapes, and more marine iguanas, so numerous and so camoflaged on the rocks that we nearly stepped on a few, playing sealions, and hundreds of crabs. We sat and watched nature at play for about an hour, 2 sealion males fighting over territory, 2 others chasing an iguana and then playfully biting it`s tail, crabs trying to avoid the passing birds...before visiting the fur seal colony that is also on this island. We also saw a canary, an oystercatcher, and many many pelicans. We sailed onto Rabida, arriving just before midnight.

This morning we headed to Rabida where there is a red beach full of sealions (surprise eh?) where we walked to the top of a hill before skirting around the edge of the island. We saw a couple of mating turtles, the female definitely getting the raw deal, not only was she nearly drowning but she had to provide all the flipperage to stay afloat whilst the male was using his flippers to get a better grip...we also saw the bachelor sealion beach where all the deposed males go to get fat and then mount a challenge to the other males who previously deposed them. No bar or cable TV though.

Our 2nd dive (at Beagle Rock) followed, and despite seeing a Manta Ray (from afar) it was a bit of a disappointment, a bit currenty and poor vis, and also Jen`s mask kept flooding for no apparent reason. The dinghy ride afterwards, through the mangroves on Cerra Dragon, was excellent however, adn we got fleeting glimpses of sharks and rays in the clear water. The best bit though was getting close to the blue-footed boobies which have bright blue feet (never I hear you cry!). They are mean divers though and we got to see a couple plunging into the drink for their lunch.

And here we are...after a five hour boat trip that nearly saw us seeing our lunch again (it`s getting a bit rough currently). Jen gave me my 4th injection (a rabies jab on the day we visited isla rabida - nice irony!) and we`re just about to head back to the boat for the remaining 4 1/2 days. To sum it all up so far for me it`s been amazing, yes some of the wildlife is a bit similar but we still go all gooey eyed at the sight of a seal pup, and diving with them is just incredible, a unique experience. There is enough variety in the islands, although all volcanic they have different hues, and fauna. Jen is getting abit cabin feaverish but is enjoying it too. Hopefully the 5 that join tomorrow won`t be like the gourp of Americans on the other boat whose itinery is the same as ours...obnoxious, hilarious dress sense, and no observing of the 2 metre rule (that`s how close you can get to the animals)...



Daniel Cornwell 12/10/2003 02:37:00 AM

Saturday, December 06, 2003

OK so this is it, here we sit in Quito again, just about to do another Lonely Planet walking tour. I have rather stupidly left the driver disk for my X Drive in an internet cafe so we`ve got to hang around a bit and wait for it to open (we`re in one across the road). We will not be on email now until at least Wednesday and probably not until next Sunday in all honesty as the Galapagos is omne of th eplaces still lacking in I/Cafes (Thank God!!)

Daniel Cornwell 12/06/2003 04:09:00 PM

Friday, December 05, 2003

Quito is another place that gets a bad rap (see Nazca, Peru). OK so it`s a big place and busstly, with a few scary people but it`s got a real buzz to it, especially with it being Quito day tomorrow... We have spent the afternoon wandering, buying books on the Galapagos (we are even more excited now than at 2.57pm when I wrote earlier) and people watching. The party buses continue by the way...many more with many more people, it can`t be long until the first serious accident...


Daniel Cornwell 12/05/2003 11:32:00 PM

Ok so I write something positive about an airline and then they break down on the runway and we´re stranded in Santiago for 2 hours...ho hum. Well anyway we´ve arrived in Quito and appeared to have landed on our feet in a big way. We were picked up by a really nice chap who is the great-nephew of the lady we are staying with, whose daughter owns the travel agency we´ve booked the Galapagos with. Confused about family ties, well we were until she got the photos out over brekkie and explained who everyone is. Her house is beautiful, we have cable, our own bathroom, own tabel and chairs and fridge, it´s like living in a palace...we found out this morning that her husband (who died 5 years ago) was a consul/diplomat, hence the beautiful house, furniture and surroundings. We managed to ascertain that they spent a few years in Paris, and thus we have found a mutual language, although mine is rustier than hers...

We met up with Latin-Tours today and any fears we had (very minor) were immediately expunged, they are so friendly. The boat looks even more amazing in their brochure than it does online...to say we are excited would be an understatement...

Just spending the day relaxing and wandering around Quito. They are in the middle of their biggest festival of the year here so it gets to be a ´lock your daughter up´scenario at night apaprently. There are loads of people going round on big ´party´ buses. I hoipe the driver isn´t as pissed as the passengers. They were already leathered at 11 this morning...

Daniel Cornwell 12/05/2003 05:57:00 PM

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Very rarely do I write how good airlines are so I thought it was time to re-address the balance. LanChile are excellent, there I said it. They stored my medicine and cooled the cool bags and even brought them to me at the end of the flight. Here we sit in Santiago with 3 hours to waste...

Daniel Cornwell 12/04/2003 04:06:00 PM

OK, picture this, you[re at an official BCP desk (one of the biggest banks in Peru), and you are waiting patiently in line to pay your airport tax (what exactly does this 28 dollars a person go towards other than propping up the Peruvian economy?) and then your time comes. You have a few left over Soles (local currency) so ask to pay in Soles. You give the guy 250 Soles as you think roughly that should cover it and he gives you about 30 Soles change. Fine so far except than when you ask for a receipt you see you should have only paid 200 Soles and he's basically pocketed the other 20. You kick up a fuss and he eventually gives you your money back. CORRUPT OR WHAT? It wasn't just the fact that he did it, it was the way he took the Soles off me, to start with I wasn't even sure if I gave him 250 or 300, he just ssaid 'that should cover it'...a sour note to leave on really but there you have it. Peru is full of wonderful places, and mostly fantastic people, but, just as in parts of SEA, people still see tourists as easy prey for rip-offs, and it begins to wear you down. We're more than ready for Ecuador (although we've heard even worse reports here...)

Daniel Cornwell 12/04/2003 10:58:00 AM

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Why is it as soon as I don´t write anything for a few days people think I must be in some sort of danger...not like I was bitten by some flea eared mutt and then disappeared or anything.

So, we´re back from the jungle, and apart from the fact I´ve had Guns ´n´ Roses going round my head for the last 4 days (Welcome to the jungle We've got fun 'n' games We got everything you want Honey, we know the names - ad infinitum arghhhhhhhhhhhh!) On the whole it´s been great fun

On the evening before we left we picked up my rabies jabs and some sort of cooling container (that is supposed to keep everything cool for about 12 hours - it only manages about 6/7...), and then went for a great meal at Fallen Angel, kind of a bar cum restaurant cum club with some of the weirdest toilets (think broken mirrors and barb-wire) and tables (glass topped baths filled with water and fish...)...but the food was great.

So off to the Amazon, 30 minutes to Puerto Maldonado in an (Sc)Aero Continente plane from the dark ages. After arrival at PM we headed into the jungle by thatched bus (I kid you not) and boat. We made it to the lodge around 2pm. Each room at Pasada Amazonas has it´s own bathroom, cold shower et al, but no wall on one side so you can really feel at one with nature. At about 3am each morning we were woken up by the eerie sound of howler monkeys doing their thing (howling I guess). It was unique, I´ll give it that. Our guide, Tito - from Lima, was excellent and it was he who took care of us for our stay, waking us up at stupid o´clock (4am on 2 out of 3 mornings), and taking us on many excursions. On the first faternoon we headed to the observation tower, which is some 37m (120 ft) high and gives you a great panoramic view of the surrounding forest. We saw a couple of macaws and just generally took in the view before arriving back at the centre in time for tea. We had a bit of a saga with my medicine, the barman moving it from the fridge (his fridge) and leaving it on the side...we hope we got it back in before it got too cold...only time will tell I guess.

So to day 2, and up at 4...by 4.30 we were on aboat up river to a nearby Ox-bow lake. In this lake live a family of giant river otteers, and we were fortunate enough to get a glimpse albeit from a hundred metres away. Posada Amazonas has entered into a partnership with the local community aimed at preserving the natural area and has taken a commitment to view wildlife in such a way that it doesn´t interfere witht the animals themselves...unlike another lodge whose group came whizzing past, causing the otters to disperse and then blocking the rout eback to their nest, much to the fury of all on our boat. Eventually they retreated but the otters were not to be seen again.

Whilst on the boat a chap was filming for a program called ´World Report´ which airs in the US. We did our best point and look at the otters routine for him so I might be on 2 TV progs in a week or so!! On the way back to the river one of the guides managed to catch a yellow-bellied piranha and demonstrated how sharp it´s teeth were by putting something in it´s mouth...eeek, glad we didn´t fall in.

In the afternoon we visited a local shamen (no veras, or e´s for that matter) called Don Jose who took us round the tribe´s medicinal garden. We chewed on an anaesthetic plant, and rolled something or other around in our fingers until they turned purple but none of us sampled the Para Para plant. ´Para Para´means ´stand-up, stand up´...the plant being their version of viagara...

Just towards the end of the trip it started to rain ( - properly, think cats and dogs and then chuck in a few giraffes, hippos and elephants) and Richard was about 2 metres away from getting squashed by a falling branch...nonetheless, despite arriving back soggier than an incontinent babies nappy, we had had a good afternoon.

We also managed to go on a night walk where, apart from a few insects, one laying eggs, we saw bugger all....well it was dark I suppose...

So to the final full day and another early start to get to the macaw lick. We had watched a wildlife on 1 episode filmed at PA the previous evening (God it was so good to hear David Attenborough) and it had whetted our appetite. Now macaws eat alot of seeds and, due to the toxins in these seeds, they also eat clay, which apparently couteracts these toxins. I couldn´t help thinking wouldn´t it just be a whole lot easier if they just ate, say, Big Macs, but then remembered we were in the jungle, and Ronald was not to be seen for a few hundred miles...

Well we didn´t have the best of luck...the macaws didn´t show early in the morning, and when Tito organised an additional trip for us later on that morning (at 8.30!!) we could hear them but not see them, they stayed high in the trees as they obviously didn´t fancy clay for lunch (but then who would?)

Tito would not be defeated however, and he dragged us to a Parakeet lick just after lunch where we were treated to a cacophony of noise and clay-eating the likes you´ve never seen. For a full half hour 300+ cobalt parakeets dined on the finest clay, screeched and flew as if there was no tomorrow. The fun finished about as quickly as it started, and dead on the dot of 3 they all flew off, seemingly startled by something (bet it was those bloody monkeys again...).

We headed off to the Kapok tree, some 400 years old, and ´the grandfather of the forest´, it was, again, very humbling to see something of this beauty and age. On route we passed a group of termites that had built it´s nest way up in a tree´s canapy, complete with a tunnell (on the outside of the tree) they had made from ´saliva, faeces, and dirt´, or ´spit, shit and grit´ to you and me... Just a little bit of fun left for the afternoon as I provided much hilarity doing a Tarzan and swinging on a vine. It held though, proving just how bloody strong they are, and if it´s good enough for Jonny Weismuller it´s good enough for me....

Tito spent the evening explaining how the project between PA and the local community worked. Many guides used to be barmen, the barmen used to be porters etc...and also explained how it is hoped that the whole lodge will be handed to the community within 15 years (they have already made an undertaking to that effect), lock stock and barrell, when it is hoped they will be better versed in how to run an eco-lodge.

This morning we got up late (6.30) and have now safely arrived back in Lima. The trip was great, although we were a little disappointed not to see more wildlife. Some of the wildlife we definitely missed were all the bugs that bit us, we now sport between 30-50 bites betweeen us despite wearing long shirts/trousers (tucked into our socks, we looked like cyclists for 3 days) and insect repellent. We did see a guy today who must have had more than a hundred bites on each leg so I guess you could say we were lucky.

Tomorrow we´re flying to Quito, Ecuador, which is only about 1,500 miles as the corw flies from here...the only problem is that we have to connect in Santiago as there are no direct flights using our RTW tickets...this not only means an extra 9/10 hours in the air but the prospect of the same airplane food twice in one day...

When in Quito we´ve got a couple of days to hvae a look round and hopefully get up to the middle of the world (it´s basically the equator guys...) where you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere, and as you know we never miss a photo op like that...off to the Galapagos in 4 days, really can´t wait now!
Daniel Cornwell 12/03/2003 09:38:00 PM

Saturday, November 29, 2003

Piccies, from Titicaca, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and, of course, Machu Picchu

The Plaza de Armas in Cusco + Flags. A load from Titicaca.







Some of the sights of the Sacred Valley





Machu Picchu








Daniel Cornwell 11/29/2003 04:41:00 PM

On the way to the station we were approached by a BBC World news person who interviewed me about my experiences at MP. If I make the cut it´ll be on some program or other on or around 7/8/9th December.

Well as you know by now it`s impossible for us to have a normal trip without a saga and the train journey proved to be a saga of epic proportions. We started off on time, and we`d just commented on how good PeruRail were (apart from the ticket costs and uncomfortableness of their seats) when the train broke down, across two lines. The complete lack of information was unreal, speculation was rife;it was an electrical fault, it was the engine overheated, it was the wrong type of leaves on the track...eventually we found out that the power was buggered and as the lights went out people reached for their torches. Now the real drama began. They eventually sent for a new locamotive from Cusco (2 hours away) which would mean that it would take us about 4 1/2 hours to get back. The time by now was about 7.30pm...I was due for my second rabies jab at 9pm. The doctor had previously said I needed to have my shots within a couple of hours. Thus I was starting to get a little stressed. We explained the situation to the conductor who spoke a little English, with the help of a Spanish speaking American. They radioed my doc, who said I needed the shot `este noche` (ie before midnight) and we were left to panic for a few more minutes. Eventually a car turned up at the side of the train, seemingly following the train. We were informed that this car was being driven by the Director of Trains, and a few minutes later we pulled up to an abrupt halt at a level crossing where we were unloaded into said car. I eventually got the jab at around 11.20pm, relieved but absolutely knackered.

Daniel Cornwell 11/29/2003 04:27:00 PM

Friday, November 28, 2003

Things never go to plan do they? First we had the dog bite and then Richard came down with a chronic bout of food poisoning, stomach cramps et al...meaning that we`ve just finished our 2 days at Machu Picchu without H & R.

So off we headed at 6am to be greeted by Ruben, our guide, and the rest of our group. This time our group was a great bunch and consisted of:
Paul (or Pablo) a San Franciscan
Kris from Belgium who is about 12 feet tall and weighs about a stone
and sisters Emma and Jacqui from England (siblings not nuns) who are sitting just to my left right now so I can`t write anything bad about them....only joking! They are both lovely, one of them taking a year out the other taking about 3 months out.

Unfortunately as soon as we were together we were apart as we were all on different carriages on the train. We settled down for the 4 hour trip into the sacred valley and beyond, but only a few minutes in I had another seriously misjudged Cornwell moment. You know when train food comes whizzing by on that trolley and your mind flicks back to Philip Larkin and his bad pie, well I chose a bad sandwich and regretted it for the next 6/7 hours, more of that later.

We started our Inca trail at KM104, missing the two really high passes (4,200m, and 3,900m - you do these on the full 4-day trail) but still with 14km to trek in a day. The climb of over 600m wasn`t accurately reported in the agents when we booked and it proved to be a bit of a pain. Ruben started off by telling us his life story and to start with I couldn`t tell if he was just a bit of a nutter who wanted us to feel sorry for him to get a tip. I soon realised, however, that I had misjudged him and he was (and indeed still is...) an exceptionally informative guide, who maybe overenthuses on occasion.

So we started, the first half of our day was all uphill to Winay Wayna - the hostal where the 4-day trekkers and some of the 2-day trekkers stay. It was a hard walk with the sun beating down on us. Halfway up I felt really ill, presumably due to the sandwich, and genuinely thought about stopping and turning round at one point, but Ruben (and Jen) kept me going by persuading me to stop more regularly, and just generally geeing me up. We eventually made it to the hostal, via a cooling waterfall, now knowing we were only about 1 1/2 hours from the Sun Gate, the first time you get to see Machu Picchu . Feeling much better we made short work of the first hour or so and reached the bottom of the climb to the Sun Gate. The climb is 15 minutes of pure uphill via a seemingly endless number of steps. It`s as iff the Inca`s wanted to heighten the tension you are already feeling as you know as you climb the final stair and round the corner you will finally see the sacred site of Machu Picchu. Now I am pretty sure I have written about this before but some things we`ve been to see have lived up to or exceeded our expectations (Angkor, The Great Wall, Uluru, The Moreno Glacier) and others have fallen woefully short (The Floating Markets, and the Colca Canyon to name but 2!), but none have affected me like Machu Picchu did. As I climbed the final stair and rounded the corner there it was in front of me. My emotions got the better of me, and finally viewing this almost unreal city, some 2,500m up in the middle of the jungle, after the hardest day`s walking I`d ever done, after reading about it for so long, after seeing the pictures on TV and on thousands of postcards I shed a tear...a mixture of relief that the trek was over, and joy at one of the most amazing sights I think anyone could ever witness.

Just as we stood there admiring the whole area (we still had an extra half hour climb down to the site itself) it srtaed raining and we got the most beautiful double rainbow. The rainbow was sacred to the Inca`s and was a great sign, and it was so fitting that not one, but two should greet our arrival at their sacred city.

So we took the slippery walk down to the Hut of the Caretake of the Funery Rock, where all the postcard shots are taken from. It was clear that the rain had scared most tourists off as there were only 2 people left that we could see, and a half dozen llamas. Incidentally llamas got their name from when the Spanish arrived and having never seen llama before asked the Quechua speaking Inca`s `Como se llama` (what is the name) and the Inca`s mused `llama, llama` as they didn`t speak Spanish. The Spanish thought thanks very much and named it the `llama`!

We spent half an hour taking tons of pictures before heading to our bus, tired but utterly elated.

When we got back there was just time for tea (average) and internet (slow), before bed (welcome).

Today we were up at sparrow`s fart again (5.30am) and made our way to Machu Picchu for a guided tour of the site by Ruben. He has learned all he knows from numerous books on MP but also from the Quechua people, from whom he is descended. This meant we got alot of info that may or may not be 100% accurate, but it sounded fesable, and certainly added another dimension to the speculation from various anthropologists. In 1533 the Spanish reached the Sacred Valley and it is thought the men from MP left to help the fight but with no food reaching MP from the valley there became a serious food shortage. MP was then abandoned in favour of other sites, Villacobamba (100km NW, and ironically the site Hiram Bingham was searching for when he stumbled upon MP) for one. MP itself was discovered by locals in 1901 and Bingham used their help in re-discovering the overgrown site 10 years later. The complete excavation took some 37 years.

After Ruben left with a generous tip in his pocket (and he deserved every penny) we tried to find shelter from the rain and eventually emerged as the sun shone once again. We took more photos before heading back to Aguas Clientes where I am writing this from.

The choice on how to `do` MP seems a really logical and easy one for me. Do you a) walk 45kms over some stupidly high passes, getting soaked when the tents leak, and possibly if you are very unlucky, altitude sickness, only to arrive at MP at 6am with it covered in cloud...or do you b) walk a tough but demanded 14kms, still see all the scenery preceeding the site itself, enter the site when the cloud has generally lifted and have the site to yourself, and then have a guided tour and the best part of a day to see the area at your leisure. Oh and pay 100 USD less...? For me there`s not really a choice to be made. I think the thing with the trail is that there`s a hell of alot of bravado, last night at the hostal the 4-dayers didn`t speak to us, obviously believing we weren`t worthy, as we hadn`t had to suffer like they had...I always thought they called it using your head. Now finally, and we`re shamed to say it, but as the mist stayed around MP for most of the morning and the 4-dayers saw little or nothing we couldn`t help but feel at least a little smug.


Daniel Cornwell 11/28/2003 06:49:00 PM

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

To say yesterday was a bad day would be like describing the second world war as a bit of a punch up. It all started at our first port or call, Pisac market. Jen and Helen were nogotiating over some hats when I made the mistake of getting a little too close to the owner´s dog, who decided to go for me. The result was a bit on my right wrist (about the size of a pin-head where it broke the skin) in South America´s rabies hotspot country. I asked the guide (who, incidentally was excellent) if I needed to see a doctor and he said, no, no worries, no rabies in this area, or words to that effect. So we went on to finish the day´s tour (more of that later) before logging on last night and reading from some webiste or other...

Rabies: There is a higher risk of rabies in Peru than in other South American countries. Cases of human rabies, usually transmitted by dogs, has increased but the exact incidence of human rabies is not known. Two outbreaks of rabies, transmitted by vampire bats, claimed 40 lives in 1989–90.

So we contacted a doctor as recommended by our travel agents. Eventually we saw him after he saw ´yet another stupid Englishman who didn´t take altitude sickness seriously, here look at the pulminary something or other x-ray...´ and he explained that the old system of injections (1 a day for 2 weeks injected into the stomach muscle with a (in my case very) long needle) had been superceded by a new one where you 5 injections; one on day 0, and on days 3, 7, 14, ans 28. Day 3 is fine, day 7 however we{re in the jungle, day 14 we´re in the Galapagos, and day 28 is Xmas eve and we´re in Madrid...ahhh I hear you cry but Jen´s a dentist, she can inject you can´t she. Yes this much is true but the problem is with the vaccine, it has to be kept at between 2-8 degrees C, which might be a little tricky in the middle of the rainforest, on a boat, or after a 12 hour flight. We´re working on it, and will let you know. On the positive side the Cusco area hasn´t had a reported case of rabies for 4 years (although presumable some go unreported in the outlying areas), the dog only just broke the skin (and he seemed non-frothy and fairly normal, by the way the first question the doc asked me was ´do you have the dog with you´hahahaha, yeah I just picked up this biting little bundle of hate and put him in my rucksack), and we´ve caught it early. Will let you know if I start foaming at the mouth...

The day´s trip to the Sacred Valley itself was really good, starting at Pisac market, and then heading to the ruins that tower above the city. We did some training for our assault on Machu Picchu by climbing up and over a pretty big hill before exploring the ruins. There were about 500 people that lived here in the space for about 50 houses, you got the feeling the houses only had one room too...there was an old ornate sundial too.

Secondly we headed for lunch at another non-descript, pan-pipe filled tourist buffet hole. Nothing else to write about that place. Ollantaytambo was next and it did not disappoint. It used to be the starting point for the Inka trail, and you can still start here but it becomes a 5 rather than 4 day walk. The ruins are above and alongside some of the best preserved agricultural terracing we have seen, and are all overlooked by an image of one of the Inka God´s - a rock formation on an opposing hill. This was the last settlement anyone knows anything about as it was the last place the Spanish got to. Very little is known about Machu Picchu for this very reason, the Spanish never found it...

We headed back via Chinchero which was very similar to Taquile island, lots of locals doing their thing (and selling to tourists) and a church with a wonderfully ornate ceiling. The suinset over the snow-capped peaks was devine and we stopped for one last photo.




Daniel Cornwell 11/26/2003 03:46:00 PM

Monday, November 24, 2003

This morning we went about paying for everything we booked yesterday, and what a fun time we have in store. Also, after musing with a beer overlooking Cusco`s wonderful Plaza de Armas we worked out that at the end of the trip the 4 of us (us 2 & H & R) will have spent about 56 days or so in each others company...quite remarkable really.

The following programme is now booked and all very exciting it is too.

Today - well I`ll come to that in a minute.
Tomorrow (25th) - All day tour to the Sacred Valley
Wednesday (26th) - Taxi to Sacsayhuaman, and 8km walk back via loads of other Inka ruins.
Thursday/Friday (27th/28th) - The short (2-day) Inka trail to Machu Picchu look at the link here
- we come in on the 3rd day, and do 6 hrs walking and then MP itself on day 2.
Saturday (29th) - Day in Cusco, or if the weather`s bad in MP on Friday, another day there.
Sunday (30th) to Wednesday (3rd) - 4 day (3 night) trip to the Amazon rainforest to stay at Posada Amazonas. Click here for more info.
Wedneday 3rd Dec we fly to Lima, on the 4th we follow that up with a mammoth day of flights, Lima to Sanitago, and Santiago to Quito (Ecuador) - which we have to do due to the vagaries of our ticket. It menas we get an extra 4,000 odd air miles.
5th and 6th of December will be spent finalising the Galapagos trip, going up to the equator and standing with a foot in each hemisphere (we are such tourists) and going to Otavalo market.
We then have a week left (15th to 21st Dec) when we`re going to have to find something to do in Ecuador, before we head to Madrid, and then Barcelona...

It`s going to be a hell of a few weeks...

As for today we`ve had a really good day exploring Cusco. We started just after lunch with the Santa Catalina monestery, which was founded in 1605. Only 45 years later a huge earthquake rocked the buildings and most of them had to be rebuilt. In doing so a number if Inka treasures were discovered, the colonialists built the church over the walls of the Acllawasi, the palace of the Inka`s handmaidens. There is a wonderful courtyard complete with well, and many religious pieces of art from the last four centuries.

We followed this up with a trip to the fabulous Inka Museum. It is really well laid out, chronicalling the first Inka`s through to modern day descendents who still roam in the countryside. It is home to a collection of everything from pottery though to weaponry, and also a small but to scale model of Machu Picchu, and some really interesting photos of the site as it was when it was discovered in 1911 by `Hiram Bingham, an American anthropologist.

Our final stop for the day was at the Cathedral that sits on the north side of the Plaza de Armas. It is a wonderful building, which has enough silver and gold to enable every Peruvian to live a life of luxury were it equally distributed. It also has a beuatifully carved cloister and chapel.

Cusco is certainly turning into a `favourite place´ although the constant hassle from shoe-shine boys, postcard sellers, and kids with lambs (!) is beginning to get to us.



Daniel Cornwell 11/24/2003 10:34:00 PM

Sunday, November 23, 2003

Well last night we successfully found a good trip to Machu Picchu and jungle tour. We then went to find a reasturant recommended to us and wentg down "gringo alley", which we will not repeat again. apart from being touted and almost dragged into every doorway we settled on a mexican. The problem with said Mexican has been found out this morning, the chicken Jen felt that smelt off...was, in a big way and we´re both suffering for it now. Helen and Rich have arrived, have felt the altitude, and have agreed a course of events which´ll mean another 10 day haul together. We´re heading off to the jungle after a 2 day trek to Machu Picchu and a couple of days in Cusco...should be fun.

Daniel Cornwell 11/23/2003 09:05:00 PM

Saturday, November 22, 2003

For starters well done England, and what a mach. I managed successfully to not wake Jen up until about 2 minutes from the end of normal time, so I`m not really in the doghouse either...back of the net.

This morning started well (ruby) and went downhill from there. Jen woke up with a migraine, and then the twat behind the desk at the hotel thought the 100 soles note we paid for the room with was a fake, and the 2nd one i offered ,a nd the 3rd and 4th...eventually we made it into a cab with him cursing us. I got the notes from the bank last night for Godssakes, and if I was going to go into large scale money faking it wouldn`t be with Peruvian Soles...

The bus journey to Cusco was a nightmare, the bus stopped everywhere (despite climing it was direct with no stops), the air con wasn`t switched on (contra to their promises pre-departure) and one guy (a Peruvian surprisngly) had his bag nicked. Top that off with the length of time it took to go 350 kms (7hours) and you can understand why it was a nightmare...however, every cloud and all that...

Cusco is lovely, yes, it`s touristy but that has it`s bonuses, shedloads of great restaurants for starters. Also we don`t get hit upon by hawkers as much as we look a little like scabby backpackers (well I do at least, no hair cut for 10 weeks and counting) compared to all the tour groups here to see Machu Picchu. No idea of our plans as yet, we´re off to talk to some travel agents now. H & R arrive tomorrow, should be fun being back together again (God I sound all whistful...)


Daniel Cornwell 11/22/2003 10:39:00 PM

We managed to find a great Italian restaurant for our tea, and, sated, we headed back to the hotel. After a nice breakfast we headed to the bus station. We had another goodbye kiss, a few waves, at on point I thought she was going to cry. Again, I reiterate, if you stay in Arequipa you MUST STAY HERE, it´s wonderful!

Our bus was scheduled for 9am and as we arrived at 8.45 it was clear there was a problem...apparently there had been some demonstrations in Puno a couple of days back which resulted in them bricking the Ormeno buses...so they put ours back 5 hours in the hope the protests would have subsided...after hanging around the station for the full 5 hours (we figured if we left they would almost certainly bring the bus forward just to spite us!!) we boarded, and got through to Puno without inncident. Well, the only incident was me getting a nose bleed, well it is very high here I guess. The guesthouse we booked into is nice, no cable though,a d they told us last night that no hotel in Puno has cable...today we founf this to be a complete lie, but more of this later. We felt the altitude on climbing the stairs, OK so I´m not the fittest bloke in the world but I don´t usually pant for 2 mins/nearly faint after climbing the stairs...maybe those steaks in Argentina are having an effect. Anyway with our tour for today booked we headed out for a great Calzone, the nicest thing we´ve had in Peru by far.

Puno itself is not a nice place, one pedestrian mall is flanked on all sides by scary alleys and scary pople, it´s a definite walk back to the hotel with chest puffed out looking hard kinda place (not that I´m very good at that...)

So to today, we were picked up at 7.20 (!) by our guide, Percy, WHO SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH!!! We headed to the port where we boarded the worlds slowest boat...all in all today we spent 6 hours on it, I could have swam faster. However the trip itself was excellent, which was a pelasant surprise. The first port of call on Lake Titicaca was the floating villages of the Uros, just 20 mins (about 100 metres I think) away. Although heavily touristed (on4e island per boat seemingly) we got a fascinating insight into how they live. The islands themselves are about 2m thick and are made of reeds, the same reeds they use to make their houses, boats, and even eat! They tether them in the shallow parts of the islands although ain heavy storms the islands often break their moorings. We met a couple who were 19 and 17 and already had 2 kids, they marry at 14/15 apparently. The man does manly stuff like fishing and the woman does the cooking etc...although for some reason Percy claimed this was feminism working...not sure on that one old chap...

We then got treated to all their crafts/handiwork and although we weren´t under real pressure to buy it felt a bit forced in the way it happened, kind of, here´s our culture now buy...

As you know by now we are the ultimate tourists so we took a trip in a reed boat, driven/piloted/captained by Julio who I´d recently not bought somehting from. He was a big lad, and when he demanded (not asked for) a 2 soles ´tip´we all obliged...

So onto Taquile, an island made of rock and the like where we spent 3 hours wandering round getting a real feel for the Peru of say a couple of hundred years ago, although they have finally now got electricity and within 2 years over 80% of homes have got TV...the locals wree all dressed in traditional clothing and you got to see many knitting hats, tending to flocks of sheep, or just doing they´re thing. It was fascinating. Percy told us all about the knittin ghats ritual and it goes something like this. All the 14/15 y.o. boys have to knit hats and when they are courting the hats are taken home by the girls who then pour a load of water into them. The theory goes that the boys that work hardest and thus produce the better quality, no corners cut hats, have hats that don´t leak. The workshy fops on the other hand have leaky shoddy ´Friday afternoon´ hats and do not make as good suitors...I guess if Darwin had landed here not the Galapagos (pretty hard as it´s a landlocked lake at 12,000 feet) he may have worked out natural selection on this basis eventually too...

On the way back to Puno it cropped up in conversation that our hotel had said nowhere in Puno had cable...I asked the ever knowledgable Percy and he said that was complete and utter bollocks (not his words) and that a number of hotels did. We, are now firmly esconced in one, but it doesn´t have ESPN2, the channel we need...however I think it is being shown on TV5, a French channel, which we do have. So I´m going to have to settle for the match in French, with a 4am kickoff. I am under strict, turn the volume, brightness, contrast down instructions, and under no illusion that if I wake my better half I will be a dead man.

So off to Cusco tomorrow, we´ve got high hopes for the place. Helen and Rich are arriving on Sunday so we´re going to try to arrange the Machu Pichu thang with them.
Daniel Cornwell 11/22/2003 01:06:00 AM

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Some photos from today...the hotel where we´re staying has got free broadband (and they´re wonderful, one of the nicest, friendliest places we´ve stayed all year - Las Torres de Ugarte click on their website here , they even gave us a kiss on our return!!!) so these may be the last til after Machu Picchu, oh and while I remember Helen and Rich have changed their plans and we´re all set to meet up in Cusco...bring it on!

First off, some piccies of the canyon and us, some arty ones and the terraces.





Condors





Some hots of locals doing their thing...and one of the ubiquitous show...






Daniel Cornwell 11/19/2003 11:38:00 PM

So we´re back from our little trip to the big canyon. I know I´ve used the Motley Crew analogy a couple of tiems so far, but I feel it´s been long enough since the last one and I am going to again. Think of Motley Crue and what do you think of...? Dodgy mullets, bad mysogynistic soft rock etc...who were even worse than these muppets? Poison? Europe? No idea, but anyway if you can think of a bad soft rock band worse that THE CRUE then enter their name here .... --------- because the group of people we´ve just spent 2 delightful (not) days with were worse than the worse motley crew you could ever imagine. For starters, and the best of a very bad bunch, 2 Italians who fashionwise were old enough to know better. Perms, tattoos and bad sunglasses DO NOT GO no matter how you dress them up, especially when you´re in your mid 40s. Now, stage left, enter Carolyn (who was really nice but that´s not the point) with her newly found Spanish boyfriend and his two friends. I´ll start with Carolyn´s beau hereon in known as ´Knifeboy´. For a start all he did was slobber over her constantly, in a packed minibus. He had more (scary) tattoos than you could shake a stick at, smoked like a chimney (seemingly deliberately in our faces at times), drank (beer, pisco sour, meths) all day, was incredibly rude, looked like a drug addict/devil worshipper, and carried a massive flick-knife which he used to peel a banana...what a man, a big knife, wow! He also, later on the trip bought a knuckle duster from a market stall ´para este noche´ his words not mine...nice chap. He also took turns in taking the piss out of me, Jen and the other non-Spanish speaker and egged the others on to do so. In short he was an utter prick of the highest order. What Carolyn was doing with him we´ll never know, but I guess they do say something about all women loving rogues...Knifeboy´s 2 mates were a mid 40´s arrogant hairy monster, who looked a bit like Yanni, and the ugliest woman I have ever seen. If she stood next to Anne Widdicombe you´d swear the die-gard Tory had just been voted Miss Universe. Apart from the fact she was uglier than all 7 sins, she was rude, obknoxious, another inconsiderate heavy smoker, and just plain strange. I nicknamed this couple ´Beardy and Weirdy´.
The group was topped off with some upper-class snob of a woman from London. For this lady everything was wrong; worng tour, wrong guide, wrong country, wrong trip to the jungle etc etc...she didn´t even stay with the group for tea, she was staying at a 70USD a night place, so she obviously took the brunt of the Spaniard´s pisstaking.

Oh and to our guide, Lady (I kid you not this was her name). Bless her. She tried. I think Osama Bin Laden would have made a better English speaking tour guide, as her grip of the English language was, erm how to put it politely, SHIT. She had been told by her boss, and thus completely stitched up by her boss, that the whole group spoke Spanish. She did try to speak English but we would have learnt more if we´d sat in the pub for 2 days.

Hey the driver was a nice guy though. Didn´t catch his name, or give him a nickname so we´ll call him, erm, driver.

We set of on the long, gruelling drive with Carolyn doting on Knifeboy´s every command, at one point I thought she was going to follow him to the loo to wipe his arse for him...the non-aircon bus was completely full and getting hotter by the second, and with those too all over each other next door to us we knew we were in for a long journey. We couldn´t open the windows due to the dusty roads so we had to suffer the heat and the people...The first day was a real letdown, we basically drove to Chivay, via some llamas, cute kids, cute kids with llamas, and some coca tea (for altitude sickness) climbing to over 4800m (15,600 ft) in the process. Chivay was a little lower at 3681m (still nearly 12,000 ft) and we all felt a bit out of puff as we climbed the hotel steps. Entering the hotel bar and hearing Celine Dion ´My heart will go on´we did what any self respecting English couple would do, and went to bed for 3 hours, only to be woken by the same song, which was then played for another hour or so. During this time everyone else went to the nearby hot springs, seen it done it we thought and caught some shut-eye. The meal at a local restaurant would best be described as bad, and the ´entertainment´of a few locals and some panpipes best be described as ´very bad´. Hell but at least we didn´t get dressed up in local costume like a German couple on the next table. They were both over 6 ft tall, and they looked liked they´d hired their clothes from a Peruvian school outfitters. Funny without meaning to be...bed came at 9.30pm, not a moment too soon.

So, to today. Up and out by 6am we arrived at the Colca Canyon at around 7.30 after a couple of pointless stops at craft stalls and the like. The drive was a little more scenic than the previous day, as we passed numerous estancias (farms) and the famous terraces, resplendent with green healthy looking crops. The canyon itself was quite a sight, dropping from a peak of 5,800m down to below 1,000m (this may be incorrect, this was what I managed to decipher from Lady) - a drop of 3 miles. The condors came out in full flight, although nowhere near as close to us, or as great in number as when we were in El Calefate or Rio...at that moment anyway. After an hour at the acnyon we headed a bit further along the road and walked for about 30 minutes away from the crowds at the first viewpoint. Here we were really lucky as just as we were about to head back to the van 6 condors came out of nowhere and circled about 30 ft above us. I was tempted to injure Kinfebiy and let the birds do the rest but he was much bigger than me, and he had a knife. So back on the bus, and home some 5 hours later. The trip for me was almost worthwhile due to the condor moment, but for Jen it was a complete washout, ´as bad as the floating market´...harsh words indeed. We´re off out tonight to try and avopid the people we´ve just met. Hopefully they won´t ever read this either...
Daniel Cornwell 11/19/2003 10:59:00 PM

Monday, November 17, 2003

Piccy time...The mummies in the desert and the Nazca Lines first...





Our pilot for the lines and the titchy little plane we were in...



Now Arequipa, the monestery and the Plaza de Armas




Daniel Cornwell 11/17/2003 10:15:00 PM

Tea was nice (´Doner Kebab´, made from chicken...) and so was getting a full nights sleep. We´ve nearly shaken off the bugs we´ve been carrying, thanks to the penicillin we bought over the counter...

Today was a good day. We started off by booking our 2 day, 1 night trip to the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world. We go on that first thing tomorrow morning. We also booked our bus tickets out of here - we go to Puno on 20th for Lake Titicaca. We have also booked a hostel in Cusco. We´ve decided we´re definitely going to go into the Amazon but as we´re not sure how we´re going to react to the alititude in Cusco (we might need more days acclimatizing) we´re going ot have to wait until we get there before we decide whether to do it in Peru or Ecuador.

After a great (and cheap) lunch we headed out on our lown little walking tour of Arequipa. The city itself is full of buildings made in white vocanic rock, hence it´s rather imaginative moniker, ´the white city´... It is the 2nd largest city in Peru with a population fast approaching a million. Unfortunately for it´s inhabitants, living in the shadow of El Misti (a big volcano) means that there are regular earthquakes. The last one in 2001 destroyed many historic buildings, although they have clearly patched things up since them as everything looks pristine nowadays. Our first port of call was the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, which was once home to 450 nuns. Now, only 30 are left (aged 18-90 apparently) and have all taken a vow of ´not meeting anyone else´as they are locked up in one corner. The Monestery (as monesteries go) was excellent, brightly coloured and still maintaining it´s century old charm. The entry price of 25 soles (about 4.50 UKP) was a bit steep though maybe it was this that led to only tourists in the grounds, no locals...

We then headed to the Museo Santuarios Andinos which houses the ´Ice Princess, Juanita´ a mummy of a girl who died 500 years ago. We didn´t get very far as it was shut, as was the cathedral and another church we wanted to visit on the Plaza de Armas. Never mins, we sat with our ice-creams and people watched for an hour or so until we felt compelled to give our seats to an elderly lady who could barely walk (interestingly she walked past about 20 locals who didn´t offer their seats without saying a word, and then got to us and started cursing ...so she got the seats...discretion, valour and all that...)

We´ve sent another parcel home, containing a couple of presents and the art we couldn´t send back from Argentina.


Daniel Cornwell 11/17/2003 10:12:00 PM

After an afternoon of doing nothing we pitched up at our sister hotel which is conveniently situated outside where the bus stops, at around 10pm. We were greeted by the stupidly enthusiastic Freddy, who has taught himself English in 8 months. He learns most from the guests who stay at the hostel and has picked up some great phrases, namely ´supercalifragilisticexbealidocious´, ´easy peesy lemon squeezy´and ´I´m hank Marvin...´ We helped with a few choice Manc phrases, i.e. ´Alright our kid´ and ´I´m gonna brain yer´ amongst others.

Our bus arrived a whole ten minutes late, just after midnight, and we were asleep a full ten minutes later...and pretty much slept through til 8am when we arrived in Arequipa. The first thing we noticed was the altitude, it may only be 2,500m here (about 8,000 feet) but for unfit buggers like me it is fun even walking down a street. Obviosuly Macchu Picchu and the rest are even higher so we´re spending a couple of days here just adjusting to the height before we head out on any trips. The current plan (and, as always this is subject to a ridiculous amount of change) is to sepnd tomorrow here, the next 2 days doing the Colca Canyon tour, and then head to Puno for Lake Titicaca for a few days. We should be in Cusco this time next week to allow us to spend a few days doing (hopefully) 2 of the 4 days of the Inca trail, and a jungle tour out of Puerto Maldonado....

Arequipa looks great fun, some nice restaurants, great buildings and enough to keep us occupied for a day or two. Our hotel is great, hell they´ve got cable and we´ve just watched a film in English, and although it was pretty bad (Sliding Doors) it was nice to understand something on telly. We also watched a bit of Brasil Vs Peru (1-1) in a bar and the locals were really mad for it - great!

Daniel Cornwell 11/17/2003 01:39:00 AM

Saturday, November 15, 2003

Nazca gets a bum reputaion as far as we are concerned. Everyone we`ve met says `get out of there quickly, there`s nothing to do`and the like, and that might be true but it`s a small, compact, tidy town with a handful of good restaurants, one fantastic internet cafe, and friendly and helpful people. After an utterly fantastic meal at one of said restaurants last night we took our penicillin we`d bought from a local pharmacy earlier in an attempt to start killing off the bugs we`re carrying. Jen`s had a cough and splutter for about 2 weeks now and I am just developing a mean sore throat. Thanks to the complete lack of curtains in our room we woke at about 4am and dozed until about 4.05, before the cockerels started making cockerel noises. This is an example of one of the reasons being in Peru is really like being back in Asia. The infrastructure is poor, the traffic is manic, the people have genuine smiles on their faces, and people work HARD for a living, seriously hard in some cases. And they`re the lucky ones, unemployment is currently running at 22%.

This morning (after the cocks) we headed to the cemetery in the middle of the desert at Chauchilla. This is an area of tombs some 2,000 years old which were discovered, and subsequently looted, in 1901. A German chap, Max Ulle was responsible for their discovery and some would say he was the first looter, many objects are now on display in German museums. It is a really earie place, with only 12 of the 1,400 tombs open, surrounded completely by desert. Our excellent guide talked us through the mummying process, people were placed in the foetal position, and put in wicker baskets, to help them be reborn. Food and drink were placed in the tomb with them, and their innards were removed, their skin embalmed. At the head of most tombs lay a baby, and many tombs of the more important people also contained hair grown by a nominated virgin (!) which was in some cases 3 metres long.

It was a really interesting morning, and was followed up by a trip to a local pottery maker, where he showed us the process he goes through to make the fantastic replicas of pre-Inca earthware. It was really good and, although we obviously had to visit his shop, there was no pressure to buy, although we did...

The final stop this morning was at a gold making area, where we saw the process they used to earn 100 USD a week, which is a good wage here. It involved mercury and none of them wore gloves/protective clothing. Many die very young or lose fingers etc...nice.

This afternoon was the trip out to the Nazca lines. These are huge shapes in the ground, only visible in their full glory from the air. The lines were first discovered after passenger flights started in Peru in 1920s. Most depict animals; a whale, a monkey, a dog, a hummingbord, amongst others. There is also a mysterious pair of hands, and one that looks like an astronaught. As above, the best (and only) way to see the lines is from the air. That means a light aircraft, a very light aircraft. The pilot strapped the two of us, a couple of locals, and a Canadian in, and immediately said it would be bumpy...oh and boy was it!!?? Jen is still green and it`s over an hour since we touched down. The flight itself was OK, I prefered it to airline flights, you could see all the instruments, what the pilot was doing etc...but in order for both sides of the aircraft to see each figure the pilot had to bank sharply (at 45 degrees) every cuople of minutes. It was fantastic though, they are pretty unique (although I believe there are some more, not as impressive ones just up the road), and it was well worth the 35 USD.

We`re booked on a night bus tonight, as per previous post, leaving at midnight, and arriving in Arequipa at 9am tomorrow. So we`ll miss the England match, come on England, a France Vs Aus final is like choosing between death by hanging or death by firing squad...

Daniel Cornwell 11/15/2003 07:18:00 PM

Friday, November 14, 2003

OK, an unexpected bonus for you all...Rio piccies...yup loads of Christ and we're not religious but hey...here he is, the main man, it's JC (or Christo Redontor to his friends) and one with the view from the top!








2 meal shots, first me and Neil on a meat fest, and then the 4 of us at 'The Girl from Ipanema'



Me at the spiritual home of football, the Maracana, and the Saint Teresa Tram...



3 at Sugar Loaf, waiting for the cloud to clear...also, the last 3 - MONKEYS!!! (I love the one with the beach in the background) and finally the Andes as seen from the plane an the way to Santiago (One of the American's remarked to Jen 'My aren't they big, I didn't think we'd see them from the plane...'!!!)








Daniel Cornwell 11/14/2003 11:43:00 PM

When we got back tot he hotel yesterday (Thursday) we did absolutely nothing, nada, zip. We kind of crashed out, couldn´t be arsed to go out for tea and set our alarm for the first of about 5 7-9 hour bus journeys. Our taxi driver came, and another great bus journey passed without incident, the only downside being the aircon not working too well, and the movies...this time it was ´Coyote Ugly´ and ´Screwed´. ´Screwed´manages a whopping 4.7 out of 10 on the IMDB poll...truely awful. The other night we got ´American Beauty´ for godssakes...!

So here we are in Nazca, a town of 56,000 people famous for one thing - the Nazca lines...more on them tomorrow. We have booked a flight over them (the only way to see them) and a tour to a cemetery for tomorrow, and have booked on a night bus tomorrow night to take us down to Arequipa, which is the City Lucy and Mark loved more than any other in Peru. We have high hopes. A bit of a balls up on my part is that we will be on a bus during the rugby semifinal so COME ON ENGLAND!!! I´ll be cheering you on from somewhere in the desert.


Daniel Cornwell 11/14/2003 10:21:00 PM

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Amazingly enough the girls weren`t sunburnt, but Colette had attracted a fairly amourous tambourinist who insisted on playing his tambourine on her knee by all accounts. Jen also muttered something about good looking blokes and volleyball...yeah OK, but who wants a six-pack when you can have a crate eh girls? We had a couple of beers (spot a recurring theme, they are Irish after all) and grabbed some food (me and Neil shared a meatfest again) before parting ways. It`s really weird this travelling lark in that you meet people at various stages (usually on buses) and then end up spending time together for a few days then part. In the last few weeks we`ve spent 10 days with both Mark & Lucy, and Helen & Rich, and now 4 days with Colette and Neil. Without getting all emotional you literally spend all your time together and when you part it is really quite sad as you feel all kind of on your own again. Anyhow, to the 6 of you, we miss you already, can`t wait for the big parties back home next year!

Anyway, we paid up and left (without paying the service charge of 10% due to the lack of service in the hotel - washing taking 3 days etc...) and our friendly receptionist (or not) who we`d decided was a bit shifty from day one tried to convert Real into Dollars to suit him one way and then a different price the other which meant we got shafted on the exchange rate. The bottom line was we left without paying for the washing that was 2 days late anyhow. We were just mentioning how we`d left Rio withour being robbed or scammed whilst in the taxi to the airport when we realised that in the ensuing row said shifty bugger had used the classic diversion scam and not refunded us the 50 USD for the safety deposit box...haha suckers, he was having the last laugh....so we promptly turned the cab around and went back for it...oooh the look on his face was a classic. Anyhow we got our 50 back (& I gave him 10 bucks for the laundry), and the cab only cost about a fiver more in total (we were in it for nearly 90 minutes in the end) than the hotel had quoted us for a one-way airport fee. So I guess you could say in the end we did leave Rio without any trouble (not even a sniff of it, in the centre, on the metro, on the beach, at the Maracana etc...) but we did get taxis most places.

So we pitched up at the aiport only to find ourselves behind a group of middle-aged Americans on a whistle stop´`This is the real South America, honest`tour, which was taking in Rio, Buenos Aires, Iguazu, and Macchu Picchu in about 2 days or something. These particular Americans were checking their luggage straight through from Rio to Lima (stopover like us in Santiago) so we though we`d give it a go and sleep at the airport (or, failing that, on a sofa in one of their suites) and get the flight the next morning (we presumed this is what they were doing). But no!! The (soon to be heralded a customer service God) guy at the desk told us their was a flight to Lima tonight with a whole hour connection time in Santiago, he explained the Yanks were on this, and we couldn`t check our baggage through for flights more than 8 hours apart. On the plus side it would mean we`d msis out on having to leave STGO airport, paying about 20 quid return taxis, hotel we hadn`t booked, and the departure fee (18USD each). The minus...arriving in Lima (meant to be THE scariest place in SA (maybe Colombia aside) - makes Rio look like a quaint Cornish fishing village) at 11pm with no hotel or taxi booked. What did we do, well I think you can guess, and here we are in Lima. Thanks to my brother and some woman in one of the lounges we managed to track down the hostel we`d booked for tonight (13th) and persuaded them in our (only slightly) improving Spanish we would in fact be there tonight (`este noche, si, este noche...no no manyana, este noche`....ad infinitum). The first plane journey was OK; LanChile don`t half serve some great food and the service was excellent too, shame about the legroom, but at Sau Paulo they explained that our (40 min) layover would be about 30 mins longer than expected due to having to change a wheel on the plane (we did land very very hard...). Thus we were up against it timewise. We eventually made it to Santiago though, and got to the gate literally as they started boarding...the nick of time I think they call it.

The Lima flight seemed to take an age, but we eventually made it to the airport, and after queueing for 40 mins to get through customs (we had some lady doing her best `stamp one, yawn a bit, look bored, ignore people`routine) we made it to the belt and customs, where the bags were there already and we cleared customs in record time. We headed into the arrivals lounge where there must have been 200+ touts, clamouring for business, most of them looking dodgier than a 10 day old meat pie. Thank the Lord for some bloke named Raul who had our names on a whiteboard. Thus we made it to our hostel (which is nice, cheers Coleete and Neil for rec.) and were asleep within minutes of arrival.

Having spent the morning looking around Miraflores we are pretty glad to be moving on to Nazca tomorrow, in fact we`ve already bought our tickets. Lima is smelly, dirty, and full of unlicensed taxi drivers who incessantly beep their horns touting for business...you`ve got to remember as well we`re staying in the nice area - Miraflores. To be fair the taxi drivers we have had (all booked through hostel) have all been really nice guys, and the chap at the bus terminal was too...erm straws to clutch at anyone??

A couple of other things of note, yesterday we woke up at a hotel on the Atlantic Ocean, and today we went to bed at a hotel near the Pacific. So we saw both of the world biggest oceans in a day...amazing when you think about it (unless you live near the Panama canal I guess...)

For dinner we sampled our first Peruvian fast food - Bembo`s. Although pricey, the burgers were excellent and the chips fresh and not too salty. Good effort Bembo, whoever you are. It was considerately better than Bob`s in Rio which was bloody awful. We also got to sample Inca Cola and can confirm it tastes like a mixture of coke, bananas, dr.pepper and dandelion and burdock...it was OK.

On our way to this internet cafe (we were at one earlier but the server crashed) we decided to count the number of horns that blared whilst we stopped for about 10 seconds to cross a road...the total: 11. Amazing, it´s pretty difficult to go more than a second without hearing a horn - maybe this is the road rage capital of the world.
Daniel Cornwell 11/13/2003 10:09:00 PM

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

The Maracana was built for the 1970 World Cup and basically after lobbying for a national stadium by a journalist...the ground being subsequently named after him (no he´s not called Mr Maracana)...can´t see that happening in the UK somehow. It is really impressive, and holds about 120,000 people currently, down from the record of nearly 200,000. Jesus again remained behind the cloud so the piccies weren´t as perfect as we´d hoped but myself and Neil enjoyed a good hour or so wandering round, looking at the dressing rooms, and a couple of great views frfom the stand. The girls are on the beach currently, probably sunburnt.

Daniel Cornwell 11/11/2003 07:00:00 PM

The day finished with a meal at the Girl from Ipanema (again) with Neil and Colette in tow. They´re over here for about 3 months; Neil left just before 3com collapsed last year...sensible guy...we´re getting on great and so spent most of yesterday together. We eventually made it to their hotel (very central, near the old presidential palace) after a real palava with the buses that meant it took us about an hour to get there (should have taken about 15 minutes). Still not to worry as that made it about 1-1 in that sense as they got delayed making their way to our hotel the night before...so we started our walk at the Gandhi monument, a gift from the Indian government a few years back...it´s fairly unremarkable, but is huge and seems to miss out his most ditinguishable feature, his glasses, unless of course they´ve been nicked.

We then headed out to the Saint Teresa tram, or bordinho, which according to the lonely planet ´has young thieves contantly jumping on and off´. The tram meanders up the hillside towards (but not getting to) Corcovado, via some huge mansions, grand in the 60s/70s, now covered with graffiti and surrounded in high barb-wire fences. The tram itself is so ramshackle that you feel at any time it might just fall aparrt like a clowns car, you can literally see bits of wood coming out of their joints, but the four of us clutched our stuff close to us, and enjoyed the rided. I´m not sure we would have found it as good had the armed policeman stationed at the rear of the tram decided not to turn up for work. Thankfully for us he did, and although loads of scallies jumped on, and clung onto the sides to avoid paying, and jumped off the trrip passed without incident. The vewi of Corcovado was great but by the time I´d got my camera out we were back among the favela that have slowly started to creep up the hillsided and it was too risky to take a shot.

After the obligatory tourist photo we carried on our walking tour, passing a number of grand buildings that were now porno cinemas, squares that were dust bowls, and streets so ugly, not even their strteet planners would love them. About half way through the tour we thought sod this and did what any self-respecting bunch of tourists, fed up with seedy allies and even seedier people loitering in them, would do - we headed to the pub, and had a beer.

The afternoon was to be the highly anticipated trip up Pao de Acucar - Sugar Loaf Mountain, where the views of the city are the best (in theory). We eventually made it there on the hot,sweaty, standing room only bus from hell, and bought our cable car tickets. The mountain is in two stages, Urca, then Pao and at the top of Urca (only a couple of hunderd metres high) we had great fun photographing and chasing some playful monkeys, hell one even posed for me with the city in the background - good lad!! It was at this stage we looked over at Corcovado and realised we could see as much of it as Stevie Wonder could, as it was covered in a thick, dark mist. Despite Jen´s optimistic cries of ´it´s lifting´ every five mins it didn´t. What do they say about Jesus never being there when you need him? Never worry though as we enjoyed a couple of beers at the top (after cable car number 2) whilst trying to decipher some Scots sitting next door (we failed on this count...). On the way back down the monkeys made another brief appearance, this time with a couple of cute babies, and then we headed back to the hotel.

We met up for the night in Copacabana, us late (again, 2-1 to them) due to our hotel seemingly having lost all our clothes en route to the (shut at 6pm, we got back at 7) laundry. No record, no receipt they said as we headed out. The irony of losing all our stuff via the hotel rather than being mugged etc...was not lost on us. We had a mediocre meal but nice beers (is beer ever bad?) before going our seperate ways. Copacanaba has lost alot of it´s glitz and glammer over the last few years, not even Barry Manilow makes the trrip down here any more. It was decided today would be a beach/shopping day for the girls and a trtip to tthe Maracana for the boys. Suits both parties fine.

On waking up we were told they´d found the receipt for our stuff, and it duly arrived, clean, pressed, and ludicrously expensive, at 10am. Thank God! We wouldn´t have been insured so Jen´s hopes of a new wardrobe would have been dashed...
Daniel Cornwell 11/11/2003 02:06:00 PM

Sunday, November 09, 2003

Today´s been our first day proper in Rio, after all we did last night was go for a meal at ´La Garota de Ipanema´ - which means ´The Girl from Ipenema´. It is, unsurprisingly, the bar in which said ditty was composed, and we enjoyed a good couple of hours eating, drinking, and people watching. I tried a caprihinha (spelling?) which was so sour it made my cheeks do that involuntary thing they do when you suck on the juice of about 20 limes. It is their national drink and consists of more sugar than at your average Tate and Lyle factory, more lime juice than in a Mexican restaurant, and some alcohol so potent I coughed for a few seconds after my first slurp.

Today has been a great day, for starters the hotel cable TV showed the rugby, and although I thought England were awful (and Wales particularly good) it was good to watch a whole game in the comfort of...bed...I do think we´ll get a spanking by the French though.

We headed out at about 10.30 towards Corcovado, which is most famous for what sits atop. The landmark statue of Jesus, some 70m tall, sits resplendent on the 710m peak, it´s arms outstreched, seemingly watching over the cariocas and their city. It was meant to be finished in 1921, but took a further ten years, and many handouts from various companies/churches around the world but is as impressive (if not more so) in the flesh as in countless TV programs/movies. We went up via the train, through some pretty grotty areas, and spent over 2 hours at the summit, just wandering and taking photos, soaking in the views and having a really rather good hot dog. When we left we bumped into Collette and Neil (Irish couple from the bus), who had been given som ebum info about a bus to take and had thus gone via Beiruit by the sound of theings. We agreed to meet up tonight. We also told them the Irish score and they didn´t seem too surprised by the mauling at the hands of the French, they´ll have to drown their sorrows now I guess...

After Corcovado, and with the cloud starting to come in we decided to leave our trip to Sugar Loaf mountain until another day. We headed back to the hotel for a brief siesta and then went for a wander along the Ipanema beachfront. We managed to find Jen a cheap sarong to replace the one from Thailand that got ripped, and sat and watched the world go by for a good couple of hours. On the beach there were some fascinating vignettes - sellers plying their trade, volleyball matches with seemingly loads at stake given the passion with which they were conducted, an American Football practice match, and many many more things to watch, all in the shadow of sugar loaf, the clouds having parted for the day.

On the way to the internet cafe we stumbled upon a group of musicians playing the famous samba beat, with a group of about 6 dancers, well, erm, dancing. It was like a kind of really good quality busking, with dance moves, and we watched for 20 minutes before wandering off. It´s been a great day, and although you never feel 100% safe here (mainly because of the reputation??) we´re really enjoying it. Tomorrow we´re doing the central walking tour, and the day after is spare, we´re hoping to catch at least one sunset from Sugarloaf/Corcovado, although the weather forecast is pretty poor for the next 3 days (scattered cloud and 30 degrees, ,not sure how we´ll cope?!!!)

Daniel Cornwell 11/09/2003 08:17:00 PM

Saturday, November 08, 2003

You know you´re in a rough town when an armed policecman greets you at the door of your bus when you arrive...yup we´re in Rio all right. The bus journey over was great, would urge anyone coming from Iguazu to go with Cruziero del Norte and go from Puerto not Foz, much better although pricier. We had some mad bird with horns (I kid you not) on the bus and we met a nicee Irish couple whose email address I have lost who we were hoping to meet up with. They´ve got our phone number so here´s hoping they haven´t lost it...

Off to see Christ tomorrow, and a big mountain (sugar loaf), not sure what to do on Monday, Tuesday is our designated beach day...we´re staying in Ipanema, which is a little built up but feels fairly safe which, considering all the flavela we saw on the way in, is one of our main considerations...

Daniel Cornwell 11/08/2003 06:03:00 PM

Friday, November 07, 2003

Our second day at Iguazu Falls (Argentine side - yesterday) started weirdly when the tour company arrived half an hour early to pick us up. We were still in bed and asked them to come back later, at the agreed time. They did, but not with the huge bus and tour party of the previous day, but with a small bus, us and a guide who spoke broken English. He was a ncie guy though and with it just being the four of us we had the flexibility to wander around at our own pace. We started with a train journey to the top of the Diablo, the biggest and fiercest of all the falls. The spray from the falls saoked us all, thank god for Jen´s camera case, which meant we could get some decent piccies. Then onwards to the upper circuit, and more specacular views, we even managed to see a baby Caiman (small alligator thingy) en route. The afternoon was spent on the lower circuit, first admiring more falls from more viewpoints (it really is amazing, and you never tire of the views) and then we embarked on a boat trip to under the falls. The force of the water was unreal, and, having had the coldest and most thorough shower we´ve had a for a while we paused to dry off before heading to Isla San Martin. The trek up and over the island left us with some amazing views which most people don´t bother going to see, we also found a little area where there were about 10 lizards, and a colony (is that the right collective noun?) of vultures just sitting in a tree, atop a hill. We were alkso accosted by a couple of inquisitive blue-crested jays which jumped hopped and skipped about for about 5 minutes without a care in the world.

So our day ended, I trapsed to the only viewpoint we hadn´t seen (a really small waterfall in a secluded spot) whilst the others had ice-cream, and we passed the French Fear Factor TV team who were making a tightrope walking episode over one of the falls. They are amazing and definitely on of the most impressive natural wonders we have ever witnessed.

So, onto Rio, our bus is booked and we´re all set for hopefully our lat 24 hour bus journey of the trip...we should be able to avoid long journeys in Peru, but not 100% sure about that one yet. We´re also saying goodbye to Helen and Rich for the last time before we get back, they´re moving north when they return so no doubt they´ll be round ours occasionally. They´re a great couple and it´ll be strange being on our own travelling again, what after the time with Lucy and Mark, and then H & R. Incidentally H & R are heasding to the same hotel that L & M are currently staying at so L & M look out for tall bloke, shaved head, like knives, and H & R look out for Mark´s mullet!!!!!

Daniel Cornwell 11/07/2003 02:08:00 PM

Thursday, November 06, 2003

OK, no time to write, just time to resize a few piccies and bang them on, found a great internet cafe so here goes. Long entry for today will be written tomorrow.

First up is way back a whole week ago in Buenos Aires - Tango!




2 from the footy, first Boca fans in the mad home end - any vantage point a good one, and then me and H at the ground.



The Colourful Boca







Now onto Iguazu...first up a load of falls/us at falls piccies...the last one is me just after being soaked by one of them on a boat trip.













Some of the animals we encountered...in order...2 lizards, a blue-crested jay, an armadillo, and a coitu....






Daniel Cornwell 11/06/2003 11:39:00 PM

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Our buffet tea was nothing special, and if you´ve read Anthony Bourdain´s ´Kitchen Confidential´you´d know why...apparently in restaurants all the gone off meat/day old specials etc...go into buffets, glad we´ve got 3 days of them then. My run of consecutive steak days is over - I think I made it to around 16 in Argentina, not bad considering.

Having been told yesterday our bus would be with us at 8am and there would be an English speaking guide we were a little annoyed come 8.40 when the bus finally arrived and the guide only spoke Portuguese and Spanish. However, she assured us, she´d fix us up with an English speaker when we got to the park. Today was Brazil day, and after another hour we finally made it to the other bus, Jorge our new guide, and Iguazu Falls. The falls themselves are massive, almost too big to take in, but the Brazilian side gives you the best opportunity to see them from afar, the panoramic views are better here than in Argentina. The falls themselves are 2.4km long, over 100m high in places, and are surrounded in lush jungle, giving almost a fantasy-book look. There are many seperate falls, but today we got the views of the biggest. We had a good hour and a half to walk around the short boardwalks and we duly did so, followed closely by some weird looking creatures more interested in the contents of our backpacks than anything (no they weren´t Brazilians, more like raccoons...) The only casualty of the day was my bottle of water than tumbled the 50 or so metres to the rocks below where it promptly exploded. Not like the river needed more water but there you go... Our guide then shuffled us around a couple of buses, we had another buffet lunch (arghhhhhhhhh!) with weird meat on skewers. Unlike China where they just told us all the meat in a similar restauant was beef here they at least pretended it was something else, hell we even got offered chicken hearts and back chicklets, done whole, bones inclusive...yum yum!

The afternoon was a bit like the afternoon we had on the penguin tour in Purto Madryn, although no Welsh tearoom (no tearoom at all for that matter). First up was a really bad souvenir shop, if you wanted amythyst nativity scenes, dried out stingrays and piranhas, or just tack then this is your place - we loved it for novlty and awfulness value...do people really buy this crap?? Our next stop was a visit to Itaipu dam, the largest hydro-electric plant in the world, which started with an utterly hilarious video about how great the plant is and how wonderful pylons look at sunset, or something like that. The plant itself is impressive, and provides 95% of Paraguay´s power and 25% of Brazil´s. It is massive though and the full extent of the environmental disruption caused by it´s building in the late 70s and early 80s will never be fully known. It is thought that some entire ecosystems were wiped out, and the laughable propaganda in the film showing happy animals just looked more than a little trite. The tour itself was so dull I fell asleep, and awoke just in time to arrive in Foz du Iguazu - the Brazilian city closest to the falls...and my word but the words ´hole´ and ´shit´ have never looked more appropriate together than when describing this place. From the moment we left the bus we were houded by incredibly persistent unwashed kids begging for cash, hawkers selling really bad souvenirs, and watched everywhere we went, just like Asia then again really...

Eventually we got to the ticket place and tried to buy a ticket from Foz to Rio on the 8th. We were told that NO SLEEPER BUSES make the 22 hour trip, but we could get a sleeper from Argentina (Puerto) for a load of cash more ...we obviously went with the latter and now have our first 24 hour long one-journey bus ticket...ohhh how exciting.



Daniel Cornwell 11/05/2003 10:47:00 PM

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

We've made it to Puerto Iguazu, the Argentine side of the falls. The bus journey last night (our last in Arg.) was by far the best...massive seats, wine with our (surprisingly nice) meal, Matrix Reloaded on video (in English) and not a gypsy in sight. Hell it even departed and arrived on time.

This place isn't too great, not alot to see or do in the town, but it's the falls a few miles away that we're here for and we're off tomorrow to the Brazilian side to get the view from there before heading to the Argentine side the day after. Our hotel's got a swimming pool (LUXURY) and as it's 30 degrees plus outside we're having a lounging tan-topping afternoon.

Daniel Cornwell 11/04/2003 06:43:00 PM

Monday, November 03, 2003

On Sunday morning we headed to one of the many homes of tango - San Telmo. There was a flea market there with everything from soda bottles to milk urns, sheet music to china dolls, and of course, other assorted bric-a-brac. We made a few select purchases (mostly small pressies for home) and had a really poor lunch sat next to the rudest 4 people we`ve met for a long time. One of them deliberately wouldn`t let us move our chair so we could sit down adn then, as a local TV camera started filming, started preening and posing, only to find the cameraman focusing on other people. HAHA.

In the afternoon Jen and Rich went around the Racoleta market, masses of craft stalls (more pressies) and various live entertainers. The people watched and maneged to spend more time doing this than it took me and Helen to go to la Boca, watch a footy match, get kept in the stadium for 30 mins, and get back. So onto the footy. Boca Juniors is the home of Argentinian football and has spawned more than one future international - Diego `Hand of God` Maradona being hte most (in) famous. Fortunately the drug-taking fat cheat wasn`t there or I would have really struggled to have blended in. This coupled with the fact that a flag to commemorate the Falklands dead was paraded before the start of the match made me a little less than confortable. But not to worry as we were safely sat in the tourist section, in the main stand, away from the kop-esque ends of the grounds where people regularly get mugged and the like both before, during and after the games...

The crowd itself was pretty big, the stadium (which is a bizarre and cavernous 3-sided/3-tiered thing) holding 60,000 plus must have been nearly full...over 50,000 there. Independiete brought their full contingent of fans (about 4-5,000) and the stage was set for a flowing, entertaining goal-glut...which erm, never came. The match itself was pretty poor, loads of diving around, play acting, falling over as if attacked by a machete that kind of thing, but the atmostphere was amazing. Jumpin, singing, gesturing, and that was just us. The hardcore fans behind each goal kept singing throughout the whole match and did this great little bounce on the spot and then bump everyone around routine every now and then which, with an estimate of about 10,000 of them packed into one of the stands looked and sounded amazing. When we finally got out fo the ground (they give the away fans 20 minutes head start to get away before getting a kicking) we were bundled back into our minibus and we went, in convoy, straight back to the hotel, via some of the seedier, less than salubrious Barrios. We were even warned to keep our windows shut, and, having been shot more than a couple of glances I was more than happy to do so.

In the evening we went out for another steak (that`s 14 in a row now - think about 7/8 kilos of cow) and headed back via the arcades where, I can reveal, that I won the motorbikes, Jen won the cars (Helen and Rich were nowhere!!!) and then she slaughtered me on the airhockey thingy (7-1, I was robbed...). We also had a few goes on the drum thingy with the drum sticks and I can confirm it is bloody hard. I think in about 10 games only once did we clear a level. Jen and Helen did some magnificent comedy dancing for mine and Richard´s enjoyment on one of those dance machine thingies. Each game cost us 10p so in total we spent about 4 quid between us - BRILLIANT!!!

Today has seen us finally leave our hotel which was excellent (the hotel Goya on Suipacha) and post a parcel home thru DHL and Neil (CHEERS!) although they wouldn`t let us send our art back as customs wouldn`t clear it or something (cost all of about 40 quid in total) so we´re going ot have to think of another plan there. We`re off to Iguazu overnight and have booked into a hotel and booked onto a couple of excursions with H & R. Looking forward to it.

Although we`re ready to move on we`re a bit sad to leave BA, it`s a wonderful city, full of great buildings and amazing food. Yes so it`s a bit scary off the beaten track but then isn`t everywhere...?


Daniel Cornwell 11/03/2003 03:39:00 PM

Saturday, November 01, 2003

Oh yeah while I remember footy tomorrow - Boca Juniors, and we´re in the Boca end so Lord please forgive me for what I am about to do...I have to cheer for Boca, the club Diego Maradona played for and is life-president of...this may cause some sort of permanent mental scarring.

Daniel Cornwell 11/01/2003 08:55:00 PM

After doing nerdy computer things (see below) we spent most of the rest of Friday just milling around Buenos Aires, taking a trip to the famous pink palace where Evita made her empassioned speeches. In a sign of the times in BA it was surounded by huge anti-riot gates but still looked pretty resplendent. After a huge meal for a fiver (the plate itself was about a foot wide), where we got a free glass of champagne (how to piss the locals off...don´t let them get their own money out of their own banks, and then sit fat tourist in window of posh restaurant and feed it huge steaks and champagne...) we headed back into town and shopped for a bit. The banks in town still bear the scares of last years riots, many of them (Citibank/Lloyds) still clad in dense wrought iron defences, many damaged by hammers/chainsaws etc...it´s strange to think 20 years ago the UK and Arg were at war, and just 12 months ago foreigners were the only people who could get money out of the bank (and thus became targets for muggings etc...) when the Peso crashed...I don´t personally remember being made to feel as welcome in a city for a long time.

Jen got some Nike trainers for about 20 quid before we were touted by some travel agency...so we stopped off for a chat...and before you know it we´d spent a bloody fortune...we´ve basically booked our trip north to Iguazu (20 hours - overnight sleeper bus), 3 days in an OK hotel, 2 days of tours, one day on the Argentine and one day on the Brazilian side. All in all it´s cost us about 100 quid between us which is a bit of a bargain. Helen and Rich have ditched the Spanish lessons and have decided to join us, heading north before back to BA on about 8th. We´ll be on our way to Rio round about then. Anyhow, after going to the agents we had to go back around 7 to pick our tickets up, and it was then we chanced upon a brochure for a tango show - a kind of tribute to the grand-daddy of all tango, Carlos Gardel. Carlos died at a very young age in a plane crash and one fan killed themself when they heard the news such was the loss. We decided to book (when in Rome and all that...) but our preferred nights (Sat/Sun) were both full so we only had a choice of one - Friday. This meant, with the pick-up at 8pm, we had about 45 mins to get changed and smarten ourselves up (as much as you can smarten yourself whilst still wearing clothes you have done every day for the last 10 months - Jen´s shoes looked good though!!) before heading out.

The theatre itself was only built about 3 years ago but is full of nice touches from yesteryear, from telegrams on the wall to plaques, awards and the like. The meal we had before the show was amazing; the service attentive, fast and accurate (a couple of times they replaced the water bottles when we put them on the edge of the table and we didn´t even know they´d been replaced). I maintained my steak a day for lunch so had pasta in the evening along with a great tiramisu. Everyone had a nice meal and we settled down for the main event. Now tango originated in the bordellos and brothels of BA and the movement of the dancers is highly sensual. The women all wore slightly revelaing outfits, the men smart suits and a glint in their eye. The music was provided by a 6-piece band that you didn´t hear a bum note from all night, and the dancing, well it was sensational. They took us through the ages of tango from the past to the present with a nimbleness and agility I gave up dreaming of years ago (and that was just the blokes) and one slightly chubby non-tangoer sang a couple of tunes that the locals applauded at the start (bit like stars in their eyes; only, good) and then sung along to. It all finished a little past my bedtime (12.30) and we finally made it home by one, shattered but exhilerated. Rumour has it H & R did a spot of tangoing when they got back, we went to bed...

This morning, after we finally made it out of the hotel at around 11, we took a taxi to ´La Boca´- one of BAs most famous, and in parts, most dangerous Barrios (suburb). It is famous for it´s cosmopolitan markets, music, and brightly coloured and decorated houses, although if you stray from the touristed areas you tend to get parted from anything of value. Well we didn´t and we didn´t, and, thus, enjoyed a great couple of hours just wandering around and taking snapshots of (semi) genuine Argentine life. We bought some more art (our house is going to look more like Southerby´s than a house by the time we get home - only not really Southerby´s as it´s all cheap (if delightful) stuff...) - a couple of oil paintings for about 20 quid - and then took a taxi back to that cultural icon, McDonalds. You´ll be pleased to know that a Big Mac tastes the same here as back home, and in Aus/NZ/Chile/Thailand/China for that matter.

Our one final stop for the day was the Japanese Gardens (Jardin Japonés) in the posh Polo playing suburb of Palermo. It is a fantastic littl eoasis in the middle of a sprawling city with Koi the size of sharks (although they have no/very small teeth I bet they could suck you to death) that you can feed (no wonder they´re so bloody big, all those tourists feeding them) and watch as they follow your every move. The grdens themselves are well ordered and contain many oriental-looking plants and fixtures (bridge/stepping stones etc...). Again, another hour went by just wandering, chatting and watching the world. It´s been a great day (well few days to be honest) partly because we´ve met up with H & R again but also because BA is such a great city. It really has got everything; fantastic architechture, great food, parks, tango, shopping. Definitely one of my faves so far.

We´ve got an email from Mark and Lucy saying they enjoyed TDP and got great views (sods) and they´re trying to get up here before they head to Rio and Easter Island...if you read this guys, would be great to see you before you have to get jobs... and, yet again and old pal of mine, Neil, has helped us out in a big way and is helping us ship a parcel back to the UK for next to nothing. CHEERS!

Daniel Cornwell 11/01/2003 08:52:00 PM

Friday, October 31, 2003

And then there were pictures...in this episode, Torres del Paine, Moreno Glacier (again) and Buenos Aires...

Jen as far as we got on the way up to the towers, the huge rock in the background is about 50m short of the viewpoint...followed by us in the snow



The lovely waterfall, and a shot of the 3 of us (us 2 plus Shana)



The moment it all cleared, you can just see the towers slightly to the right of centre in the background...in the foreground are the horns....and the 4 of us (us plus Lucy and Mark - spot the mullet!!!!)



Onto the Moreno...and 6 that don't really need an explanation...(nice crampons eh?)







Finally a couple from Buenos Aires, one of the big flower thingy that opens and closes, and one of Evita's mausoleum


Daniel Cornwell 10/31/2003 02:24:00 PM

Sometimes when you're in an internet cafe you get some almost strange people hanging around, some with their screens facing away from everyone, some clearly typing with just one hand but today I've seen the most unbelievable. On the surface he looked like a respectable Argentinian but when he started surfing he went to google and typed in 'Kenny G pictures'. He then spent half an hour meandering through literally hundreds of pages of the mullet-haired musician before ordering one of his CDs...very very odd.

Daniel Cornwell 10/31/2003 01:48:00 PM

We've booked ourselves on a trip to see Boca Juniors play Independiente at the weekend, when I say we I mean myself and Helen, Rich and Jen are going to wander around the markets or something...

Last night I continued my extraordinary beef eating skills by having another (fairly bad this time) steak, whilst the others had pizza, omelette (rather confusingly titled 'tortilla' here) and sausage, egg and chips (wonder who that one was...)

Helen's feeling a bit under the weather today so we're going to do some shopping and laundry etc... hoping she'll be better for our first Friday night out in BA. We're going to try to find some tango place or other and have a bit of a boogie by all accounts...will let you know how we get on. Amazingly enough this month this website has had nearly 1,000 hits (just under) so someone must be reading this drivel. Am hoping to get some piccies up either later today or tomorrow but seeing as they appear above the text you'll know if they're up anyway so I don't really know why I'm writing this...

Daniel Cornwell 10/31/2003 01:32:00 PM

Thursday, October 30, 2003

We´ve spent the day wandering around Buenos Aires and it´s been great fun. the city itself has more traffic than you can shake a (very large) stick at, and you have to watch your step with cars, lorries, trucks, bikes, motorbikes, pedestrians etc... all going at 100mph. It´s a bnit reminiscent of some of the Asian cities; Phnom Penh, Beijing, Bangkok, but with it´s balconies with little plants, and leafy tree lined streets it looks more akin to the boulevards of Paris. We have taken time out to visit La Recoleta which is one of the worlds largest and most grand cemeteries. It is also where the Duarte family is buried, you may know one of them better as Eva Peron, or Evita. Evita is still ´worshipped´by many people as she transcended the barriers of class within the country, and from a poor family rose to be the wife of the President. She died aged just 33, and a few years later her husband was forced into exile. Not the happiest of endings but there you go...it´s not Hollywood you know!!!

After there we moved on to the Museum de Bella Artes, which had numeroud Degas and Picasso pictures, a section on Argentinian art (some weird stuff there!!), the first ever Rothko I´ve seen in the canvas, and a copy of Rhodin´s ´The Kiss´, or at least I presume it´s a copy, the original must be somewhere in Europe?

Next door is a huge park, sponsored by Tetrapak, which has a massive flower that opens and closes, we only saw it open, and it didn´t close anytime we were there but it does...apparently.

Helen and Rich have upped sticks and moved in at our hotel. It´s about 15 quid a night and it´s got en suits, cable etc...we couldn´t get in at any of the hostels so we´re pretty happy. the plan is to spend a few more days here before heading north.

In other news we had a British Airways experience that wasn´t all bad...we couldn´t get on a flight to Easter Island (all full for the whole of Nov/Dec, ahhhh well next time eh?) so we just re-routed so the plan is now:

12 and 13/11 Rio to Lima (via Santiago)

4/12 Lima to Quito (via Stgo)

This will give us about 2 weeks to go from B.A. through Iguazu to Rio, spend some time there and head over to Lima. We then have about 2 weeks in Peru to get around Nazca, Arequipa, Puno, Puerto Maldonado (rainforest), Cusco, and, of course, Macchu Picchu.

We have also finalised the Galapagos and a big shout to my brother who booked and paid for the whole thing whilst we sorted out a few money issues. The one we went for in the end is here , should be an amazing end to a hell of a year.
Daniel Cornwell 10/30/2003 07:23:00 PM

Our ´direct´flight wasn´t. It went via Bariloche and as much as we liked it there we didn´t really want to see it again. We ended up nearly 2 hours late arriving, and thus missed our rendezvous with Helen and Rich at our hotel (!?) at 8pm...howvere there´s a happy ending to this tale, as they liked the hotel so much they booked in about 10 mins after we arrived and we thus managed to meet up. Me and Rich obviously had a plate of steak the size of a house, and Jen did her best with a 14 oz. sirloin. We´re going to be in BA until at least Monday when we´re going to take the bus north to Iguazu Falls. What we´ve seen so far is like Bangkok on steroids, lots of pollution & treaffic, but with a great collection of sights, smells and sounds...intriguing.
Daniel Cornwell 10/30/2003 12:31:00 PM

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

If you´re ever in El Calafate and you want to eat like an American (so stuffed you can´t walk...bit like ´It´s a Kockout´...) you could do a hell of alot worse than try Rick´s cafe. For 17 pesos (that´s just under 4 quid) we had an all you can eat salad buffet and as much freshly cooked meat as yuo could possibly desire. I had a steak bigger than my plate (and it was one of the best I´ve had so far) a sausage, a 1/4 of chicken and a bit of Jen´s lamb. We didn´t quite manage the grand slam, although Ben and Andy gave it a damn good go. Incidentally Andy´s Dad is a cow farmer and they once had a whole cow in freezer. It weighed 700kg and took 2 1/2 years to eat. So I guess you could say he is fairly well qualified to tell whether it´s good or bad mat and he said it was excellent!!! Ben on the other hand is young free and single and has set himself a challenge of, ahem, enjoying the company of a different girl in each of the country´s he´s visited. No luck in Chile in Argentina apparently but he did manage Brazil and Peru (alog with Canada and the States.)

So off to the capital today, should be fun, meeting with H & R either tonight or tomorrow and Jen´s still convinced (deluded?) that she´s going to get me tangoing...

Daniel Cornwell 10/29/2003 01:33:00 PM

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

So after waterproofing our boots (they took 2 days to dry out) we settled down to dinner at the hostel with Ben and Andy - another recent graduate travelling before he starts his first job. He went to Sheffield Uni so a good old reminiscence was had by all...

So onto the ice for our glacier walk, somewhat belatedly, having originally planned to do it in New Zealand. We cramponed up and headed up and onto the Moreno Glacier. Apart from an Argentine/Spanish woman dressed like an extra from ski sunday (utterly hilarious lycra leggings) our group was all English and our guide gave us the usual background to the glacier, and other interesting factoids about it´s height, length, width, depth etc (up to 100m, 25km, 8-10km, and 700m in that order). We walked on the ice for about 2 hours, seeing caves, crevaces, sink holes, lakes, streams and so many different shades of blue. It was truely fantastic, and we were really pleased we´d made the effort to come back and do it. A really nice touch at the end was to chip a load of ice from the glacier and toast everyone with a wee dram of whiskey, using glacial water and ice to cool it. Great idea, great day out!

Tomorrow we´re flying up to El Calafate, another scarily titled airline (Southern Winds...who are these people??) where we have booked ourselves a hotel as all the hostels seem to be full. We should get to meet up with Helen and Rich who did the long haul from NZ yesterday.
Daniel Cornwell 10/28/2003 10:31:00 PM

Monday, October 27, 2003

Yesterday (Sunday) was a day of rest, we got up late, lounged around, watched the rugby with Mark and Lucy (how bad were England??), hazd a bottle of wine and then headed out for a really bad steak (it is Chile after all) served by some bloke wearing a costume more akin to `odd-job` in the Bond movies, than a waiter...so we said our goodbyes, and parted ways again...they´re a great couple, and we´ve invited them up north sometime mainly so Mark can meet Oscar...they´ve got some sort of party organised for the New Year which we´re going to go to too...

So we´re back in El Calafate, off trekking (again...) tomorrow, - the weather´s lovely today as for some reason it always is this side of the Andes...

Daniel Cornwell 10/27/2003 05:00:00 PM

Saturday, October 25, 2003

So, onto Torres del Paine (in the arse)....

The following are all genuine quotes from various people before we headed out to Torres del Paine...

´It´s the most spectacular walk you´ll ever do...´, ´October is the dryest month ´ and ´It never snows on the ´W´ ´

Having spent 3 unspectacular, soggy, and snowy days in the park we can unequivacally say that all the above statements are absolute bollocks. It´s worth noting that when it snows in these parts it does so in force, and then of course some of that snow melts and becomes a kind of river that runs through the easiest point which of course tends to be shaped a little like a footpath. Thus we managed to cross a few rivers that weren´t marked on the maps...but anyhow to the trip...

After a couple of buses we made it into the national park (after paying 8 quid to get in, Chilean nationals don´t have to pay, and it was pretty difficult to understand what the fee went towards, we didn´t see a ranger for 3 days, the refugios were all self-managed and the tracks were in awful condition, maybe the 8 quid paid for the guy who cellects the 8 quid´s wages???) and headed off towards Las Torres (The Towers). It was an OK walk but the snow line was at about 500m, and we had to climb to 900m to get to the viewing point. It did not bode well. After reaching the refugio half way along the track (Chileno refugio) we dumped our bags, had a quick noodle stop and headed into the snow towards Las Torres. It soon became evident that it would be more than a little difficult, adn by the time we reached the ´45 mins to go´ point the snow was nearly a foot deep and there was little or no trail to follow. It is here that the trail then decides to go pretty much vertical, climbing the last 300m in about a kilometre. It was hard enough work without the snow, but said pawdery stuff just compounded matters and we found ourselves taking an hour and a half just to get within 200m of the viewpoint. By this point the track was not visible and we had to rely on the team of French people (more later) who had forged on ahead and ´created´ a path, of sorts, in the snow. They quit about 50m from the viewpoint when a blizzard struck that looked akin to those seen on Antactica documentaries... It was at this point we decided to head back too. It was about 4.30 and we still had a 2 hour walk back to the refugio. The French (who were obviously very experienced and a good deal fitter than us) then passed us, with their guide saying something patronising about our walking style (criticism not constructive) and not even offering an ´Are you both OK, do you want one of us to walk you down the mountain...?´ type comment. So there we were, on our own and in a winter wonderland of sorts. Of course all this weather meant the Towers were completely obscured from vision so we didn´t see them at all. If we weren´t so cold and tired it would have been great fun throwing snowballs and the like but by 5.30, and still an hour away from shelter, it was the last thing on our minds. Eventually the snow eased a little and we turned the corner from which we oculd see the rfugio and we made it back, a little more than tired and cold. After a bowl of rice and veg we settled down to a game of Scrabble which we were too tired to finish and we headed off to bed at around 9pm...only to be awoken by the French guys arsing around at about midnight , and 12.30, and 1.30...if there wasn´t about 12 of them and they weren´t all 6 foot 3 and built like brick shithouses I would have had a word...but instead meekly we fell asleep only to be woken by a dorm member going through another dorm members bag...or at least that´s what I thought he was doing...I hadn´t realised that our soon to be walking partner Shana had moved beds and in my confusion at 2.30 suspected this Brazilian chap of thievery. He was, of course, just going through his own pack, but too tired to intervene I just shined my torch in his eyes for a full 2 minutes while he stood not able to say a word (7 people in the dorm) just like a startled rabbit, before heading back to his bed withour whatever he went to the bag for. I of course didn´t realise it wasn´t Shana´s bag until the morning, and thought I´d stopped some great dorm robbery...

For day 2 we were joined by Shana, and Alaskan (by moving house, Californian by birth) who was great company for the following two days. Although we felt at times we were walking a little slower than she was used to she kept to our pace without moaning and opened up loads - enough to tell us some rather interesting stuff about herself, her gun-toting hunting fiancé, a challenge they´re trying to break when she gets back and other sordid tales. The walk on day two was stupidly wet and for the second day running we didn´t get to see the rock formations we´d trekked for - Los Cuernos (The Horns), at least not until we´d made it to the hostel, and were huddled around the fire, drying clothes, boots, legs etc... and one of them peaked through the clouds for all of a minute.

Today was possiby the hardest day of all 3, due to conditions (weather - snow, wind, rain, you name it...) deteriorating even more, the fact we had to set of at 6.30, and the tracks turning from rivers to Nile-esque deltas. To cut a long walk short, the 4 hour walk to the ferry took 5 1/2 and we eventually made it back, via boat/bus at around 6pm. Unbeleievably (and perhaps a little fittingly) just as we approached the best viewpoint on the main road back the clouds lifted and we got our first and only glimpse of everything, towers, gorns you name it. We bundled out of the bus, got about 10 photos and as soon as they had appeared they were gone...on the bus back we met us with a guy (Ben) we´d shared the bus into the park with. He was thoroughly pissed off, having tented it, and then adding insult to injury having lost his bus ticket. We seemed to get on well so we´re meeting for a beer or 2 tonight. He´s from Chesterfield and likes footy so sure we´ll get on like a house on fire...

So there we go, on the whole the walking wasn´t too difficult, although we covered over 40kms in 3 days, with considerable climbs/descents (the height we got to in day one is higher than the tallest peak in England)...but the conditions...add to that the fact that until the viewpoint on the bus we didn´t see anything...add to that just how cold, wet windy and just generally unpleasant it was...well you get the picture...

I am sure in summer it´s lovely and really spectacular, but for us, from our experience, it just didn´t live up to the hype...

So back in Puerto Natales, going for a drink with Ben and...Lucy and Mark, who we´ve just bumped into in an internet cafe. They had emailed us about 10 minutes previous, saying let´s meet up and this will definitely be the last we see of them before we get back to the UK so we´ll have a few beers today and tomorrow no doubt...it´s really good to see them again...Mark updated me on all the rugby news, and Lucy and Jen have already had a good chinwag, we´re feeling better already!!

Daniel Cornwell 10/25/2003 11:21:00 PM

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

This trekking larks bloody expensive...these prices are all per person...

Entry to the park - 8 quid
Return bus - 11 quid
Ferry - 10 quid
2 nights at hostel (in an unheated dorm) - 28 quid (!)
Equipment hire (coats, sleeping bags, trangia) - 35 quid (!)
Which makes a total for 2 nights and 3 days of nearly 100 quid per person...

Rant over...it´s all booked so we´ll be incommunicado for a few days...hasta luego...



Daniel Cornwell 10/22/2003 07:52:00 PM

So we´ve booked our trekking but it wasn´t without incident...all I would say to anyone planning on coming here is get things sorted in advance or have more than a fixed 3 or 4 days to do everything. We tried to book in to 2 of the different refugios (didn´t fancy tenting it as it´s v cold and wet) and they were full, just 2 weeks into them reopening after the winter closure. We were told there´d be no problem getting in so we´re obviously a bit annoyed, but have managed to change the walk we´re doing so we´re only away 3 days 2 nights, not 3days 3nights...

The only downside is that we have to stay in Puerto Natales for an extra day which is a dump of the highest order. It´s not scary or unpleasant, just a real dump. I guess that when you are the only city in your country for 5 or 600 km you would be a bit unloved and unkept though.

Our hostel though is lovely, we booked it initially through Hans (Pucon) and although it´s a bit pricey for S.A. it´s really nice, the people that run it are great and the other people staying there seem to be nice too. If you´re wondering why we´re not ice trekking we´ve put that back a few days to the 28th and have booked a flight out of Calafate to Buenos Aires on 29th October.
Daniel Cornwell 10/22/2003 02:16:00 PM

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

We`re back in Chile. You can tell cos everythings run down and the people look miserable. The journey here was uneventful apart from stopping at a wonderfully `League of Gentlemen`esque store in the middle of nowhere. They did sell some wonderful chocolate though. We`re trying to sort the trekking and stuff out now although the weather ain`t grand...about 5 degrees and windier than a Heinz convention. I think www.weather.com says it`s going to rain solidly for a week...oh joy, glad we packed our windprrof waterproof gore-tex things then....or not as the case may be....

Daniel Cornwell 10/21/2003 06:56:00 PM

Monday, October 20, 2003

Thought I´d get a couple of piccies up...

First, us in Bariloche with a St Bernards (don´t ask, we didn´t), and this is followed by a couple of the wildlife ones, first a penguin closeup and then Jen´s ace whale piccie.





3 from the Moreno today...




Daniel Cornwell 10/20/2003 10:38:00 PM

And in this episode...

The bus journey from hell inclusing ´when films go bad´ 2
and One of the Wonders of the World (in our opinion)...

We left the hostel to catch our bus at around 5pm, but upon arriving a couple of guys we met at the hostel, one of whom spoke Spanish, found out that both their and our bus were delayed for about an hour (turned out to be an hour and a half late leaving Puerto Madryn...). This gave us enough time to get to know them both a bit better - Dieter from Belgium (who spoke a mind-numbing 6 languages) and the really amusing Charles from Holland (why are Dutch people always so jovial?) who decided to pass the time by drinking 2 litres of gin and tonic (but never really altered his jocular grinning state - amazing...) Anyhow after about half an hour the guy who runs the hostal we´d stayed at showed up out of breath after running from the hostal to the station. He went straight for me saying ´You didn´t pay me´, ´I need the money for my family´ and that kind of thing, despite the fact I had already paid up the other guy who works there. After a few minutes of him refusing to believe us and him calling me a liar (amongst other things in Spanish) I got him to recheck with his employee as I remembered a problem with the change when we paid, hopefully it would jog his memory. It did, and they apologised (of sorts) and bade a hasty retreat tail betweeen legs. Such a shame as we were going to write to the Lonely Planet and let them know how nice it was but after being called a thief, a liar and other Spanish things (a peso, a piella, a jug of sangria??????) we have decided against it...is you do happen to read this it´s called La Tosca in Puerto Madryn btw...

So eventually the bus came and we were on our way. No sleeper buses made the 16 hour trek so we were in a regular national expressesque one and it was bad. For starters our connection was at 2pm, and we were already scheduled to arrive at 1.30 (1 1/2 hours late) if there were no more delays), they also seemed unable to get the temperature right, with air-con on it was (ant?)arctic and with it off it was like Bangkok in the wet season - humid to say the least. Then the film to end all bad films (an d you thought Sniper 2 was bad...) `Exit Wounds` `starring` Steven Seagal - how has this guy made a creer for himself. Not only can he act about as well as the cast of Eldorado, his films are all the same, and the one possible savig grace of a bad acting film star, their looks, does not save him...he is seriously ugly. By the way I lifted this from www.IMDB.com as I thought it put it pretty suscinctly...

Where to begin? The acting? Don't go there. The action sequences? The film itself is an action sequenced intruded every now and then by neanderthal dialogue.

Nobody can get anything out of this film, I would have enjoyed myself more if instead of letting my friend choose the video, he simply pummelled me into a coma with the box. Insert it into the video and it does just that anyway.

Seagal can't fight anymore hence the crap close-ups and extended gun battles. DMX is nothing special. Still, the studio's make 'em, and the morons lap 'em up. Stop, and think before you waste your time with this, you could be doing so much more with your life. And if you see a friend in the same situation I was in, simply take the video from their hand, and beat them senseless with it. All the comments can be found here

And then at 2am the worst thing in the world that could have happened (barring us having an accident/breaking down), did. A group of gypsies and their badly behaved smelly kids got on seemingly with all their worldy possessions (the adults not the kids) and decided to disrupt everyone to try to get to their seats. It turned out our seats were double booked but we refused to move, having seen them transferred from another bus, and suspecting their tickets were from the other bus. Now I`m not great with kids at the best of times but these little buggers...Christ, by the end of the night we were devising ways to divert the adult´s attention so we could throw one out of the skylight. It wasn´t just that they were badly behaved (although they were...) it was the complete lack of attention the parents were giving them (especially the Mum, who obviously considered it highly normal for a five/six year old to scream all night, shit herself, and approach strangers and hit them). How we survived without killing (or at least maiming) them I`ll never know, but we did, just. Anyhow we finally arrived at 2pm, and fortunately our driver had the foresight to flag down the connecting bus and we arrived (on a sleeper bus during the day, oh how we didn´t laugh at the irony) in El Calafate at around 7pm. 24 hours of bus nightmare hell...we´d like to say never again, but unless we can find some cheap flights, and/or a pot of gold we are going to have to at least 3 more times...

Anyway onto El Calafate where we now reside. We are staying at the youth Hostel (believe it or not the first time on the whole trip we have stayed at an HI affiliated hostel) which is really nice although a bit out of town. They do massive steaks for tea though for 3 quid so they´re top grade in my book. Anyhow today we went on their tour of the Moreno Glacier, one of the few advancing glaciers in the world. As I (think I)´ve written before it is the famous one where all the ice crashes into the lake as it advances at about 2m a day. Our tour guide, Diego, sporting O´Higginsesque sideburns, was genuinely funny, cracking jokes in both English and Spanish. some of his best quips were self-depricating humour about the population of El Calafate never incrasing much (due to heavy drinking and fighting with knives) and the like. The trrip we took went along the back road so we avoided most other tourists and got to see some local fauna...mainly birds. We saw condors swooping, hawks hovering, and many other species I forgot to write down (lapwing, yes I think that was one...) We also saw a group of 10 or so flamingoes, we´ve never seen them in the wild before. Despite the 2-tiered foreigners Vs nationals pricing system that Argentina seems to have borrowed from Asia we thought the national park entry fee (4 quid) was reasonable even before seeing the glacier. Our first view was from about 7km away and the size of it was amazing, some 20 kms deep, 60m high, and 4 kms across. It made the NZ glaciers we saw seem like childs play. The glacier itself was named after Perito Fransisco Moreno who first explored this area. (Perito means expert bythe way, as he was an expert in exploring obviously...) He is held in really high regard here as he was paid for his exploring in land, including alot of land near the glacier itself. Being a thoroughly decent chap he then gave the land back to the people of Argentina with the only proviso that the land remain as it was then for evermore. This created their first national park. Our group had a little walk to the right handside of the main trails and as we turned the corner to view the glacier close up for the first time it decided to advance a little and icee came crashing down. Although we were still 500m away the noise was deafening and the sight enthralling and we stayed and watched, and even caught a couple of clips on video. It´s difficult to describe how amazing the whole thing is really but just take our word...it is stunnning, on a scale you can only imagine. We then continued around the boardwalks for a couple of hours before finding out that the boat trip had been cancelled due to the fact that icebergs had obstructed the launch. Diego then tried to get us on another boat that left from a different pier but it jetted off just as we approached the car park. There were no ther planned launches today so we left a little downhearted....but we had such a good time we have decided to go back tomorrow. this time to do an ice trek on the glacier, somethign we wanted to do in New Zealand but didn´t get time to. The one we´ve chosen also has a boat trip which goes from the good pier so we´re pretty happy all in all.

In other news we got an email saying the Galapagos cruise we thought we´d booked has been reserved for someone else, we´ve got to wait until Friday to find out if another 2 spaces have become available. We´re not too happy as you can well imagine. Every cloud though, as we have also found out that some of Jen´s patients have paid up (some 10 months late) so we´ve come into a small amount of cash.



Daniel Cornwell 10/20/2003 10:20:00 PM

Saturday, October 18, 2003

We've booked the Galapagos trip, have a look here, we're doing the Thursday to Thursday one I think. We're just waiting for confirmation on some of the diving. Watched the rugby, and then headed into town to go to the market but the stallholders obviously took one look at the (very rainy) weather and decided to stay in bed as there's no-one here at all. Off to Rio Gallegos tonight and will try to pick up a connection to El Calafaté tomorrow afternoon, that'll mean 24 hours on a bus...can't wait...

Daniel Cornwell 10/18/2003 02:52:00 PM

Friday, October 17, 2003

OK well what a day it's been. Up and out early and straight over the the Valdés Peninsula for our Wildlife extravaganza day. First up was the whale watching which we've done a few times now I think this was our 5th!!!) but this one was really good. We went out in a craft that looked like it might just survive a metre wave withour washing us out to sea and thankfully we didn't have to test that theory out, as the sea was relatively calm. after about 10 mins we saw the first of the whales, we perhaps weren't ready for what happened next. About 5 or 6 approached the boat and swam underneath, clearly visable from the surface. Then they started breeching (jumping) in the distance, and at one point we were surrounded by about 10 whales with many more visable further afield...it was truely amazing.

Back to shore an hour later, everyone wearing the biggest and most elated of grins.

We then travelled around the peninsula to a colony of elephant seals with the face only a mother could love. They grunted a bit and rolled around but unfortunately none of the pups got eaten by orcas....this is one of only 2 places in the world where the 'killer whale'intentionally breaches itself to eat little seals. Only they don't usually bother turning up until January, and they weren't there today. The seals amused themselves for a while until the big daddy of them all woke up and decided he wanted a bit of nookie. It was far from consensual as he went through his harem slapping them about and grunting like a premiership footballer....may have been the relection but I was sure it looked like he was wearing a newcastle kit....???

So that was that, a fun day out, some great wildlife spotting and a superb English/Spanish guide....we're off outof here tomorrow, and off now to eat another brick of cow.

Daniel Cornwell 10/17/2003 11:30:00 PM

Here follows a review of Sniper 2 for your delectation.

Berenger is back in "Sniper 2" taking on an assassination mission in Eastern Europe unaware that his superiors have a secret agenda. The story is convoluted and messy and the screenplay doesn't help with events unfolding more as afterthoughts than as part of a coherent plan. During the run it's never quite clear who the bad guys are, what their cause is, and, most of all, why we should care. There's a babe in the flick for a heartbeat but no titillation; some sniper vs sniper action lacking the cat and mouse psychodynamics; and the usual pyrotechnics, fire fights, and stunts all seem token. Not as good at the original which was Razzie material anyway, this sequel is a minimal watch even for jarheads, action junkies, and Berenger fans.

Seems I wasn`t wrong, even in Spanish it was awful.

Daniel Cornwell 10/17/2003 10:32:00 PM

Thursday, October 16, 2003

So we left Mark and Lucy in Bariloche and took the 15 hour bus to Puerto Madryn where we are now. The bus itself would have been a great and comfortable bus when it was built, sometime in the late 1980s. For some reason they started serving coffee at around 11pm and decided to follow up the first okish movie (Changing Lanes) with the woefully bad `Sniper 2``starring` Tom Berringer...maybe their thought process was that without the coffee noone would stay up for it...

We were rather conveniently at the back of the bus meaning that we didn`t get disturbed too much and we both managed to get some sleep, Jen about 6 hours, me about 4. On disembarking for some utterly bizarre reason we decided not to go and find a hostel but to book ourselves onto a 2 day wildlife tour...and they booked us into a hostel instead. Thus we dashed over to the other side of town, had about 1/2 an hour to lock everything up and then jump on the minibus.

We had an excellent day, and tomorrow sounds even more fun. The road to Porta Tombo is mostly unsealed and over 180 kms one way so we finally made it to the Magellenic POenguin reserve at around lunchtime. This reserve is so different to the other ones we have seen mainly due to it´s size. At the moment there are over 200,000 (!) penguins, and when the adolescents return and the eggs hatch in a couple of months that figure will be nearer a million. The reserve itself is much more open plan than others we`ve seen although it is warden copn trolled. Whilst you do walk on specified walkways the penguins can go where they want as the fence is designed so they can walk under it. No area is off bounds to them. We saw many couples taking turns warming their eggs, a few swimming in the sea and preening, and many many that just came up to you (within a foot or so) and looked quizzically before waddling off. It was wonderful and the hour and 1/2 we had there flew by.

Now we obviously were`t listening when they described the rest of the trip as the next port of call was a Welsh Tearoom (!!!). Gaiman (what a great name for a village...) along with Trelew and Puerto Madryn were first inhabited by Welsh settlers and thus they still have `original`tearooms. The one we were deposited at had been visited by Princess Diana at some point (wasn`t her Stepmum Argentine??) but we declined the 4 quid service fee (payable regardless of what you had to drink) and had a quick bit to eat and soft drink near the town sqaure. It set us back 2 quid and we were far happier than we would have been in some fake touristy pseudo-Welsh place...

The last stop of the day was at the local natural history museum which was basically like the one in London on 1/100th of the scale. It was excellent though although we could have done with an English speaking guide.

Tomorrow is whale watching (is this the 5th time???) and elephant seal spotting. We`re told we may (if we`re mega lucky) get to see Orca too. The hostel we`re staying at is excellent and they are even showing England Vs South Africa on Saturday so I`m a happy bunny. We`re outta here on Saturday, the long trek (16 hours) south to Rio Gallegas where we hope to jump on a 5 hour bus to El Calefatè - home (well it`s 80 kms away but it thought of as the home) of the Moreno Glacier, one of the only advancing glaciers in the world. You will have seen it, the one that has all the chunks of ice fall off it and into the sea.



Daniel Cornwell 10/16/2003 11:21:00 PM

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

How tall is Craig David? According to all the websites we´ve read he´s 6 foot 2...????? Mark thinks he´s 5 9 and I think he´s about 5 1...answers on a postcard please...

Turned up at the cathedral, found it wasn´t open ´til 5pm - even God has siestas here apparently.


Daniel Cornwell 10/15/2003 06:09:00 PM

We spent Tuesday wandering around Bariloche, the weather was lovely (again) so we walked down by the lake, to the town square, where you can have your photo taken with St Bernards and huskies, and then we visited the Cathedral which was built about 10 years ago. Now I`m not one for churches, mainly due to the fact that I had to go to cathedral twice a week when at school and I was mentally scarred as a result, but this one was excellent. It had a number of stained glass windows, and even plaster sculptures depicting the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. It was really peaceful and we spent a good half hour just sitting, taking it all in, and trying to take the odd surupticious photo...

In the evening we headed to tthe Irish Bar (yes they even have them in Argentina) and then onto a restaurant where I had a chunk of cow the size of a brick for about 2 quid...it was magnificent. I can`t tell you how much better the food is over here. Jen had some creamy rice and chicken combo which was excellent too. With drinks, bread, a main course and service (for 4...) the whole lot came to about 14 quid...BARGAIN!!

We´ve booked ourselves onto a night bus to take us to Puerto Madryn today. This is the drop-off point for the Valdes Peninsula, where most of Argentina`s wildlife casn be found. We`re hoping to get a glimpse of Magellen Penguins, Elephant Seals, Southern Right Whales, Dolphins, and possibly Orca which are sometimes seen just off the coast. the plan then is to gradually head south towards Torres Del Painè and the Moreno Glacier. We will bid farewell to our traveling chums, Mark and Lucy tonight as they`re heading north before south so we might not see them again. It`s been really great to have good company over the last week or so especially as Lucy speaks great Spanish!!!!

We´ve tentatively blown our budget into orbit with a Galapagos cruise and diving trip - have a look here . We're doinjg a 7 night cruise on M/V Seaman leaving on 27th November. We're just waiting for confirmation but it looks amazing and should be a great way to end the trip. We´ve also brought our flight to Europe forward a couple of days so we don`t arrive on Xmas Eve...

Daniel Cornwell 10/15/2003 02:44:00 PM

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

All taken in Pucon on the Villarica volcano.





Valdivia wildlife and Niebla, the forts at the confluence of the rivers.







Two in Bariloché, one from our hotel room and the other from the town square, note the Andes in the background.


Daniel Cornwell 10/14/2003 04:42:00 PM

Monday, October 13, 2003

Argentina is our 10th country on this trip, and having arrived a few hours ago, it seems quite European, and if Bariloché is anything to go by quite (over?)developed. That said the route into Argentina, and the town itself is quite beautiful. Bariloché sits on a lake on the other side of the Andes, and their snow capped peaks are clearly visible. It used to be THE place to go for skiing in Argentina but has suffered from newer trendier resorts opening up nearby. The guys at the border were friendly enough, and even wished us a good stay in Argentina...how time heals, the Falklands War was only 20 years ago.

After a cab into town from the bus station we struggled to find anywhere to stay until Lucy and Jen found a great little place that´s got the rugby channel in every room as well as en suite etc etc...bliss! (It´s even got fluffy white towels.) It´s cheap too as their peso crashed last year and is worth roughly half of what it used to be worth, the room´s cost us under a tenner a night...just off to try to sort the flight south to El Calefaté, we were thinking of doind some fishing but the season doesn´t start until Nov 1st so we´re going to miss out.

Daniel Cornwell 10/13/2003 09:25:00 PM

Sunday, October 12, 2003

The guest house we´re staying at is great although we were a little worried when Mario, our host, was caught ogling some school girls. We were even more worried when I remarked ´They´re a bit young...?´ to which he replied ´They´re never too young...´ Remind us again why you left Germany Mario, not wanted by the police were you?

Anyway, the weather yesterday was pretty rubbish so we kind of wandered around town, initially looking for somewhere to watch England Vs Turkey, and then, after resigning ourselves to the fact that not everyone is obsessed with Beckham et al, I sent a text message to a friend from home (cheers Andy) who kept us updated both on the football and the drunken state of mancunians. We visited the ´sea-lion´ market again, and then crossed the river to the 2 museums, one the museum of contemporary art, and the other of local history. Both were excellent, the former now housed in a brewery that was (wait for it) destroyed in an earthquake in 1960.

The four of us headed back, and after our home made pizza tea we had a game of scrabble that me and Jen were winning before we all got bored and quit half way through a game. We ended up watching some sort of MTV rundown which got from 30 to number 2 before a bloody power cut so we´ll never know what´s number one in Chilé.

The weather was much better when we got up this morning, so after a bit of a lay-in we all headed back to the fish market, where this time the sea lions were joined by about 5 pelicans and numerous other birds. The market was in full swing whereas on the other days we have visited just as it was closing, and we stood, watched and photographed the animals for a good half hour. Valdivia, as I wrote a couple of days ago, stands at the confluence of 3 rivers and was a really important straegic port many years ago. Thy built a series of ports just down the river at Niebla, and we spent the afternoon hopping on and off buses and ferries and visiting the two main ones. There was loads of original (and a couple of fake) cannon and we even saw dolphins in the harbour, making for a great days wandering. We´re off now to get the biggest fillet steaks you can find, to prepare our stomachs for the redmeat fest that is Argentina. Hopefully they´ll be a little more interested in the rugby world cup (the 5th!!! sports item on CNN, behind, baseball, football, collage american football, and WOMENS GOLF!!!) than they seem to be here in Chilé. At least they´re competing I suppose. We head off to Bariloche tomorrow via a 7 hour bus journey that should go pretty direct, and for the moment at least we´re staying as a foursome. Mark and Lucy might be heading north to San Martin when we arrive in Argentina, but we´re basically doing the same route for the better part of a month so our paths will surely cross.
Daniel Cornwell 10/12/2003 08:58:00 PM

Friday, October 10, 2003

We finally made it up the volcano at the third day of asking. The weather was bright and airy and we managed to stumble out of the guesthouse in time for our 7am equipment fitting session, and soon discovered the others on the trip a) looked considerately fitter than us, and b) consisted of mostly Californians (at least two of which were embarrassed Arnie was now running their once proud state) and c) had already tested their equipment. Thus we left a little dis-spirited. Our guide, Claudio, who turned out to be an egotistical prick (!) decided he would go with the slowest group (us, obviosuly) and a jolly fat-bloke from Chile called Rodrigo. After hanging around at the top of the ski lift for 40 minutes for no apparent reason we headed up Volcan Villaricca, some 2984m high and completely clad in snow and ice. Claudio then decided to do his version of uphill running, and left the three of us for dead, clearly deciding it was much more important for him to reach the summit for the 1,300 (and first) time than to help guide the unfit people towards their goal, after all we clearly had paid for a guide (HIM) to help us get to the top. By now it was nearing 3 o clock and with still 2 hours trekking ahead of us (we wasted over an hour at the bottom waiting for the cable car to heat up...) and suffering with the altitude (now at about 2,400m, 7-8,000 feet) we decided to eat our packed lunch and wait for Claudio to realise we were missing and come back down to us...which he didn´t do, instead he asked another guide on the way down to go back down with us whilst he proceded to the top. As it happens Rodrigo, the new guide, and a group of attached Israelis (yes nice Israelis, a first for the trip!!!!) were superb and we started our descent. The descent was the best bit...we got to slide down pretty much vertical slopes (or at least they SEEMED vertical) on our backsides, using our ice-picks as brakes. This is more like it we thought!!

We eventually got back, utterly shattered, at around 7pm, and although we didn´t get to the top it seems no-one else did either as the smoke coming from the volcano was too acrid and people had to stop a couple of hundred metres short. It was a good but knackering day and our meal at our wonderful guesthouse (La Tetera) was really welcome. We shared it with Mark and Lucy who also had a go at the volcano (they got a fair bit higher than us) and are now in a shared house with them...in Valdivia, a university town on tha coast. Our stay at La Tetera was wonderful, and we can thoroughly recommend it to anyone staying in Pucon.

So far here we have been to the fish market where fat lazy sea lions live and get all the left over fish, they´re so lazy that they study the bit of fish thrown their way before deciding whether to leave their plinth (where they lie all day sunbathing) to go and eat it...although they look friendly enough they{ve got big teeth so we didn´t want to get too close...After this we bought some local chocolate which was devine and pottered around for a bit before finding t´internet...

We´re probably heading into Argentina over the course of the next couple of days, the only pain in the proverbial being that we want to go on Sunday and you can guess the only day of the week with no direct buses...so that´ll mean an extra day here and we´re a long way from being convinced there´s enough to do here for a few days. Tomorrow we´re heading to the beach area, Valdivia was an extremely important strategical port in the 17th and 18th centuries as it is at the confluence of three rivers, and there are some great little forts and a nice coastal walk which the four of us will attempt tomorrow. As long as there aren´t any vertical ice climbs or Chilean guides we should be OK...
Daniel Cornwell 10/10/2003 09:24:00 PM

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

The Finn Brothers once sand ´Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you...´, and whilst this would have been amusingly ironic whilst still in New Zealand it´s just plain irritating in Chilé. It´s rained for 2 solid days now, meaning we can just about escape t´internet but not alot else. Today is another ´reading´day. Met a really nice English couple who´ve been through Peru so they´ve given us a few hints and tips. They´re now doing roughly the same route as us for a few days so we´re sure our paths´ll cross again. One of them had their bag nicked the other day off a bus in broad daylight so we´re being extra vigilent now!!


Daniel Cornwell 10/08/2003 02:52:00 PM

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Here we are in Pucon, the weather´s turned a bit poor, so bad we can´t go up the volcano for a couple of days. We´re staying in the nicest guesthouse we´ve stayed in for a long long while. It´s similar to a Swiss chalet, all pine fittings and comfy cushions, they´ve got a book exchange a fab restaurant AND SPEAK ENGLISH!!! We´re going to be here a few days we think before heading over into Argentina or taking the boatr down south to Puerto Natales, we haven´t decided which yet but Bariloche (Argentine) is the current favourite.

Here are our first piccies from S.A.

Two of the parade of Indiginous groups in Santiago.



Valparaiso, and Jen enjoying candfloss in Chillán



Bernardo O´Higgins in all his glory, Chillán...first in the Mexican School mural and second in the Old town where we nearly got killed en route...


Daniel Cornwell 10/07/2003 04:02:00 PM

Monday, October 06, 2003

After the taxi/old town experience we decided to sit in the town square and people watch for a bit, it turned out to be a great couple of hours. For a start every town square needs a nutter, one that runs around and hollers incoherently at everything and everyone and we had one, and boy was he mad. There were a few ice-cream stands which was a bonus as we got a couple of magnumesque lollies for about 40p. They were a little on the sweet side but did the trick. Hell there was even a candyfloss maker and we duly sampled his wares for about 9p!!! To be fair it´s a much more realistic price than you pay at the fair in the UK (1 or 2 quid?) as after all it is ONLY SUGAR!!! The saga of the day began to unfold in that a photographer with a papier maché horse (replete with Chilean hat and poncho) kept trying to lure kids onto said dobbin for a polaroid. We sat there for 2 hours and he did not succeed once poor chap. Just as he´d packed all his stuff up some little brat wandered up and professed some sort of interest in a photo. Old bloke couldn´t believe his luck and re-setup his stuff. Then the calamity, on what was obviously his last shot of film one of the local BMXers drove past at the exact instant he took the kids picture. Cue kid crying, old bloke cursing, and us desacending into fits of laughter. It was a bit like watching a Chilean Mr Bean or Señor Frijol if you will.

So back to the hotel and another evening when we couldn´t be bothered to walk back into town for a bite to eat (the food is THAT bad), it´s doing wonders for my diet...

So we´re all packed and enjoying (?) a final stroll around Chillán before heading to Pucon this avo, should be climbing a live volcano wither tomorrow or the day after to get a good look at the lava, should be fun...




Daniel Cornwell 10/06/2003 03:21:00 PM

Sunday, October 05, 2003

One thing Chileans are not too bothered about, seemingly, is food. We can´t find anywhjere to eat out, although last night we stumbled on a fairly okish cafe. I went for the trusted favourite (empanada pino) as usual but they´d run out...I hadn´t bargained on that eventuality so went for about the only thing on the menu I understood - dos huevos y papas fritas, 2 eggs and chips, which had a mysterious inngredient - cebello (sp?) which turned out to be onion. I managed to try a Pisco Sour (pisco - kind of grape brandy, lemon juice, sugar and topped with merenguesque egg white) it was surprisingly nice. I also asked for a beer (grandé) which came in something more similar to a bucket than a glass. It was bloody good though and oh so cheap, under a quid! Jen had pasta which was OK, and we left fairly full for the first time in South America.

Finally got a good night´s sleep as well...no dogs, fewer cars, and only a few drunks on the way home at 5am (why do the South Americans speak quite soooo loudly??) so after a brief lie-in we headed out into town. With it being Sunday there were loads of people out in their ´Sunday best´, most on their way to mass at the numerous churches in the town. There was also some sort of cave next to one church which I presume was a replica of Lourdes or some other place where the Virgin Mary was spotted.

Pur first port of call was at the Escuela México, the school donated to Chillán by the Mexican government back in 1939, after the devastating earthquake. Paplo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet, lobbied David Alfaro Siqueiros, a Mexican muralist to decorate the library, and he did. One was is a tribute to Mexican figures like legendary agrarian rebel Zapata, whilst the other depicts Chilean heroes, such as our mate Bernardo O´Higgins ((much) more of him later...) Although not in the greatest state of repair the murals themselves are stunning and well worth the trip. We offered a donation to the bloke who´d let us in and the 2,000 pesos (just under 2 quid) was duly accepted...and pocketed...not sure how much of that will go towards restoration!!!!

The market that the lonely planet reckons is the best in Chile was a real let down even for market lover Jen. Yes the produce was pretty, but the Chilean local craftwork left us a bit cold to be honest, all straw hats and saddles. Jen did however find some lovely tasting walnuts, so that´s alright then...

After a stop at the local delicatessan for lunch (McDonalds - literally nothing else is open on a Sunday) we decided to try to catch a local bus to the old town to see the now heroic Bernardo O´Higgins and his memorial. An illigitimate child of Irish descent he was born here some 200 years ago, and was central to Chiles independence, in fact it was he, who in 1818 signed for their independence. In every town there is ´O´Higgins Av.´ or the like. The sad part is that he was forced into Peruvian exile by a mixture of the military and aristocracy in 1823 and then died in 1842, never returning to the land he helped free. And he´s called Bernard. Sort of. So off we went, except in my starling Spanish I thought ´Rio Viejo´meant old town but in fact it means old river (nice one Dan...) so we ended up quite literally in the middle of nowhere, apart from a few locals looking bemused at the idiot gringos...eventually we managed to flag a bus down who refused to take money from us and then took the bus out of service. I had visions of ending up on a backstreet with the cast of West Side Story waiting to carve us up but to be fair to the bloke he took us to Av. O´Higgins (I kid you not - this guy is such a hero) and flagged down a cab for us that was going to the old town...and we eventually made it. The monument itself, which marks his birthplace, is very grand, kind of Bernie on a horse (he´s got a lovely pair of sideburns by the way (think that bloke out of Emmerdale)) with 3 flags behind him (one nowadays Chilean presumable the others rebel or first confederancy flags). Bordering the whole thing is yet another mural, some 60m long and 6m high which was pretty cool. Couldn´t work out what any of it depicted but there were some really intricate rock mosaics. Interestingly enough there is alot of graffiti around (very different to Asia for example) with daubings similar to those found in most primary schools in the UK.

Sated (and relieved) we eventually squeezed our way into another share taxi and found ourselves back in the centre of town where we are now.

Daniel Cornwell 10/05/2003 07:43:00 PM

Saturday, October 04, 2003

Maybe I was a bit harsh on Valparaiso, I´ll admit that much...only a bit though...After t´internet we walked around some more tight little alleys and backstreets for a bit and saw a church with missing tiles, buckloads of graffiti and loads of dog crap everywhere. This aside it was an interesting half hour or so in which we got to see how not to build a town prone to earthquakes. All the houses were built on sheer rock faces and stood about 5 stories high. I may be wrong but if another biggie hits I don´t think there´ll be a whole lot left of Valpo. We retired to the room where I promptly fell asleep only to wake around 11pm. Figuring I´d missed another tea and that if we felt a bit unsafe at noon it´d probably be worse at 11 we did the only thing we could...went back to sleep.

Now after 5 hours sleep in the afternoon I suppose I shouldn´t have expected a great nights kip anyhow but the sheer level of the outside noises and the frequency at which they occured was absolutely astounding. No sooner had you closed one eye than a taxi would hurtle round the cobbled streets seemingly with a microphone attatched to it´s exhaust, amp and speakers on the roof. When it wasn´t the cars it was the dogs. Now I love dogs as much as the next man (unless the next man happend to be, say, Chinese) but these bloody mutts decided to practice their barking all night, almost in time with the cars coming past. In fact every now and then a dog woulod bark itself hoarse only for a car to come past and start it up again. This must be the Chilean version of Chinese water torture.

We got up at 7 and, having seen all we wanted to of Valpo, decided to head to the bus station and try to bring our trip to Chillan forward from 9pm to something a little earlier. We got there at 8.30 to find a bus was going at 9.15 (RESULT!!) so we booked on it and here we are, now in Chillan. Off to the market and Bernardo O´Higgins monument (this bloke has everything named after him so he´s already become a bit of a legend chez Cornwell) tomorrow as well as a school donated by the Mexican government in 1939 after the other one was destroyed by...an earthquake (sense a theme here...) The hotel we´re staying at is really nice though so if Chillan´s really bad at least we´ll get some kip. I´ll let you know if the earth moves...

Daniel Cornwell 10/04/2003 09:12:00 PM

Friday, October 03, 2003

Valparaiso is ´the most interesting place in Chile´ (quote, unquote). OK so it´s got a few furnicular lifts and narrow streets but that is truely it. To be honest we´ve found it all a little threatening, scary looking blokes hiding behind every corner, we were warned not to take our camera out by the hostel we´re staying at etc etc... We also feel we´ve ´done´ the whole place in an afternoon, there´s only so many ´ascendures´ you can do without falling into a boredom induced coma. We are also starting to have a few language problems, in that everyone talks so bloody quickly. It´s hard going, wish I´d done Spanish not History for GCSE now... booked on an overnight bus to Chillán tomorrow - home of the ´best´market in Chile apparently...can´t wait.

Daniel Cornwell 10/03/2003 06:56:00 PM

After waking up at 3.45am we realised our body clocks had still not adjusted to the new time. We couldn´t get back to sleep so we did a bit of planning and, after breakfast, headed out into Santiago. Our expectations were low, most people we´ve met describe variously as (this is verbatim) ´a hovel´, ´the biggest dive in South America´, and perhaps most poetically, ´a shithole´. Well we´ve found it to be none of the above, and we´ve had a great day!

We started by headed onto the Metro (clean, quick and you can get a mobile signal - are you reading this London transport?) where we did a bit of a dry run for catching our bus to Valparaiso tomorrow. It all seemed fairly easy to negotiate and our pidgeon (more like small pathetic sparrow to be fair) Spanish got us a room booked for tomorrow, a phone card, bus info, and copious bottles of water )even the non-fizzy stuff...) so we´re quite chuffed...We then headed into the hub of the City - Plaza de Armes. It is basically a big square filled with all manner of artists, some doing caricatures, some landscapes, one even painted little scenes, on glass, with his fingers. Being a sucker for this kind of stuff we bought a glass thingy for about 90p. By the time we bought he had a crowd of 10-15 people watching but with no-one buying until I stepped forward in my now magpie (slightly better than a sparrow) Spanish and set the ball rolling. He made a further 5 or 6 sales, I should have asked for commission...! The whole area reminded me a little of parts of Paris, quite Bohemian with some great architechture as a backdrop. Whilst walking through the square we noticed a few people dressed up in what looked like indiginous clothes (Jen remarked how some of the women looked a little like pantomime dames...!) so we followed only to find ourselves at the start of a prossession for (my translation here...) Indiginous Culture Festival. Various ´tribes´then processed to loud pan-pipes, brass bands and drums. The music and general all round hubbub was really catchy and we found ourselves watching the wonderfully adorned groups for an hour as they danced and played their way through the city. It was fantastic, a real chance finding but one of the best things about travelling, you always chance upon little bits of cultures you have no experience of and invariably it is a real highlight - this was!

On our way back through the square, looking for some lunch, a chap come up and was incredibly friendly, all handshakes and nods, and gave us a load of tips on where to go in Chile, what to do, where to stay et al...couldn´t be for free we thought and indeed it wasn´t as at the end he asked for some money for ´children´s plays´. Being the hardened travellers we clearly are by now we feigned ´no cash´ and then watched him watch us for 10 minutes or so before we thought it´d be safe to head into a shop for lunch. For lunch we had ´empanada´, which is basically a Cornish Pastie with hard boiled egg and an olive in, it was great, and all for 50p (with a can of Pepsi). Everyone we´ve met has also told us how expensive Chile is, and granted, nice accomodation isn´t cheap but the food, internet and transport is very affordable...

We sat in the plaza having lunch and decided to go to Cerro San Christobal which is about 850m high and looks over Santiago. It was a bit of a walk (couple of kms and hey it´s so hot here I got a little sunburnt today...) but was really worth it. We chanced upon another Cerro (hill) en route (who´s name escapes me for now) which was like a real oasis in the middle of all the traffic (both pedestrian and vehicular). There was a lift you could take to the top, and from there is was a nice stroll around and down, passing couples taking a siesta, wonderful terraced gardens and all manner of flora.

After another km or so after passing through some pretty dodgy looking areas (walking a little quicker, head down) we arrived at the base of the furnicular railway which they rather wonderfully titled the ´FUNicular´which was maybe stretching it a little but it was great fun... At the top of the hill, where Pope John Paul II made an address in 1984, is a 36m statue of the Virgin Mary, and whilst not as visually impressive as I am sure Christ´s statue in Rio will prove it was still nice enough. The views of the city were amazing, although you couldn´t see some of the Andean peaks less than 30 kms away thanks to the smog (which apparently wasn´t too bad today - hate to see it on a bad day...) After the ´fun´, came the cable car across the whole of the park which was in the world scariest cars, which didn´t seem to have any locking mechanism at all, although I stress we didn´t try to open the doors whilst in full flow... The round trip lasted an hour or so and, absolutely thrilled at the fantastic exploration of the city we´d had, headed back to the hotel and for a little siesta. We were greeted at the front door by the manager who we believe to be in some way related to Basillette, he´s camper than a pack of scouts at jamboree but a nice chap who speaks excellent English and he helped us out with a few questions on our route.

So, tomorrow we´re off to Valparaiso, and more (hopefully) FUN-iculars as it´s basically built on two levels. From here a plan has formed which takes us through Chillan (best market in Chile apparently), Pucon (horse trekking in the Andes), Valdivia (University town - meant to be delightful) and a couple of other places before heading over to Argentina - Bariloche to be precise. From there we´re heading south and around to Beunos Aires with what looks like a whole host of 20 hour bus rides currently...we´re going to spend some time looking for cheap flights, we maybe didn´t realise just how big this place is (for the record, Chile is only 200 km wide but over 4,000 km ´long...)

Daniel Cornwell 10/03/2003 12:47:00 AM

Thursday, October 02, 2003

Hola, Bienos Noches, we are now in South America. The flight (on an A340 - LanChile) was memorable for a couple of things, namely the uncomfortableness of the seats (total lack of pitch) and the temperature in the cabin...Nelly would have had a field day, there´d have been naked people everywhere...

The drive from the airport to Santiago City was unremarkable, the first thing that was a little different from our preconception was the number of huge and nice looking homes, there was also what looked like a Barrett Estate - surely the bottom hasn´t fallen out of the UK housing market and they´ve felt the need to come out here? There was also shedloads of graffiti, it´s safe to say while it doesn´t feel as rough as perhaps we´d have thought, Santiago is not the most salubrious of places. We arrived at the International Youth Hostel only to find all 120 beds were full, the (stupidly un)helpful chap at the desk informed us next time we should phone ahead...yeah thankkkkkkkksssssssssssssss So we pushed on, feeling absolutely knackered, until we found the Hotel Tokyo which is good enough for a night or two. We couldn´t manage to stay up late so crashed out for a few hours before heading out into town for a bite to eat and a drink. It´s already apparent that they don´t realise you are foreign and are obviously retarted when it comes to Spanish linguistics, so they babble on at you for about 5 minutes before you have to shrug, smile and say por favour or the like. Our Spanish will imrove´- we hope, if not, it´s gonna be a long 3 months. Also their bloody keyboards have things in weird places (the ´( ´and ´)´signs are one key to the left, the @ is only available through alt 64, the place where you normally do an apostrophe comes out as a ´{´ . When you´ve already experienced over 35 hours on October 1st (we will in the end have about a 40-hour day - just like being back at Michael Page really) it messes with your head...

No real plans from here - we might hang around for a day or we might get the hell out, I guess it really depends how we feel in the morning. It is worth noting that the woman who runs the hotel is certifiably mad, if incredibly nice at the same time, think Hannibal Lechter crossed with Basil Fawlty and Carol Smilie and you´re not far off.
Daniel Cornwell 10/02/2003 12:08:00 AM

Monday, September 29, 2003

Did the earth move for you? Well it did for us...at 6.30am. In Christchurch. First there was a low rumbling, then an all over vibration, all finished off with an eerie silence. The earthquake, not a big one fortunately, was centred just 30 kms from Christchurch, and measured 4.9 on the Richter scale. It was more than a little un-nerving though, makes you wonder just how terrifying a big one would be...
Daniel Cornwell 9/29/2003 09:47:00 PM

Well we waited and waited and never received a call from Tim. Not having his number there wasn't alot we could do so we just hung around in Queenstown (played another game of golf - Jen won this time) and headed out for a few games of pool (which, she points out, she also won) , a few beers (or baileys and malibu if you're a girl) and some food at a bizarre japanese teppankyaki place. On waking we headed the 250 kms to Moeraki - home of the boulders. These are like huge marbles (some 1-2 metres across) that have found themsleves on the beach and are slowly being eroded by the wind, and sea (and seemingly the endless bloody rain!!) They are really striking as there's about 20 of them and n-one really knows why they're there.

We left around lunchtime and carried on up the road to Christchurch, where we watched the Warriors lose and caught up on email last night. Our first (well to be honest Jen's) bits of Spanish seemingly have gone down quite well as we have had a couple of replies from places which, when translated, seemed to answer our questions. Our 'learn Spanish in the van' has gone really well, if we're asked our name or our nationality - we can also so we're 'very well thank-you'...but we're buggered if we're ill!!! I'm going to attempt to learn it in 11 hours on the plane, unless there're some REALLY good movies on...

On our way back to the campervan depot today we had a bit of an incident when a cyclist and car collided just in front of us in the middle of one of the busiest junctions in Christchurch (on the main thoroughfare to the airport from town). Jen hopped out (being a qualified 1st aider!!) and took control of the situation, we donated a fleece blanket to the cyclist, who, after a brief check up by the paramedics was found to be OK - just cuts and bruises. We eventually made it back to the depot and gave our van back and got the deposit back (important bit). SO here we are in Christchurch - this'll probably be the last entry before we head to South America so just a couple of minutes to sum up NZ really. It is so similar to the UK - weather, people, places, most of the scenery (we don't have stuff like Milford/Queenstown though). They people are, as a nation, warm and friendly with a real self-depricating sense of humour and are little pessimistic at the best of times ('Oh we'll never win the world cup' 'we're bound to have a big earthquake soon, we're overdue by 800 years' etc etc...). Again, very similar to the UK. They also like to take the piss out of their nearest neighbours (the Aussies) as we do with the Scots and French etc...

All in all we've really enjoyed it here, although the last 4 1/2 months have been 'plastic' travelling really as it'sa been sooooo easy. South America should be a whole new ball game, we're going to have to get back to haggling, watching our packs like hawks, and eating new food (not burgers, kebabs and the like)...hell we may even get a tan in some parts as we're both now whiter than white again. We're determined to come back to NZ in their summer and do the things we couldn't for whatever reason (dive the Poor Knights, walk the Tongariro and Routeburn tracks, see Milford without gale-force winds and rain), and will certainly miss the people and ease of travelling...goodbye 2 hours in a campervan, hello (again) 12 hours in a truck. In mud. Miles from anywhere.


Daniel Cornwell 9/29/2003 01:36:00 AM

Friday, September 26, 2003

Not much to update - we played a game of golf and, for a change, I won... we also went to see Bad Boys II which will be noted in future generations for it's liberal use of the f-word! It was pretty good though - funny in parts but a good all round action movie.

Daniel Cornwell 9/26/2003 11:06:00 PM

View of the mountains before entering the Sound; Us and a fast flowing creek/waterfall thingy



Mirror Lakes, the inquisitive Kea



The entrance to the Homer Tunnel.



Us on the boat



Milford Sound in all it's glory...



'Ickle Baa Lamb!!!' (mint sauce anyone?)


Daniel Cornwell 9/26/2003 04:25:00 AM

Our guide for the trip to Milford Sound was a chap named Dave Hughes - the owner of 'Trips 'n' Tramps' (tramping being the NZ term for long walks). A sheep farmer for most of his life he started 'people farming' (his phrase for tourism) about 15 years ago and now operates up to 6 buses, some 363 days a year. He also doubles up as the local courier, a point not lost on us as he stopped at a number of local houses en route with flowers, parcels and letters. Our fellow passengers consisted of 4 middle-aged Aussies who were really pleasant and a couple from California who were vastly different to most Americans we've met, they were quiet even to the point of near humility. Although the female of the American couple did win the award for stupidist comment of the day when suggesting they should build little sheep shelters for the poor lambs - it was then that Dave explained to her that an average farm could have 50,000 + sheep spread over many many heactares...

The trip to Milford is one of the most amazing 120 kms of road I have ever travelled, and we stopped at a few places on our way. The Mirror Lakes gave a reflected view not dissimilar to that at Lake Matheson (different mountain though), whilst at Deer Flats we all enjoyed a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate, and some great biccies that Dave swore he got up at 5am to bake...The road through the Alpine section (Homer's tunnel et al) had only reopened a day or so before and is closed regularly due to avalanches. It was, indeed, to shut at 4pm that evening so we had to be quick getting in and out. The tunnel itself was great fun, although I was pretty glad we weren't having to drive it...many a campervan has had an argument with a coach, and or the tunnel roof and many a campervan has been damaged. It is completely dark in the tunnel and it slopes at 10 degrees, so it's really daunting. Water constantly runs through the roof adding to the eerieness. However we got through (and back) with no problems. The chasm, some 11 kms before Milford was well worth a look - The shape of the chasm is similar to the Remarkable Rocks (Kangaroo Island, South Aus) in shape except that these rocks have been shaped by water running onto them, not the wind. There is all manor of swirls and patterns as the water thunders off the mountains at a hell of a pace.

After finally arriving in Milford we were shepherded onto our boat, the Milford Mariner, which was, bizarrely enough for a boat, voted best hotel in NZ in 2001. Strange people these Kiwis. We enjoyed the first hour of the cruise, the sheer walls, and waterfalls 3 times the size of Niagara Falls adding to the drama of being such a small speck in a vast glacial lake. Then the weather stepped in...it got so windy we couldn't hear ourselves speak, and we could lean in to the wind without falling over. And then the rain came. We tried to brave it for a further 30 mins before heading inside out of the elements only to have to sit next to a load of Americans who, from their accents I asumed hailed from the deep south...to say I have never met a more witless bunch of moronic individuals would be entirely the truth. Of the group of 7 or 8 at least half had not even been out of the bar area to view one of the most breathtaking sites I (and surely they would) have ever witnessed. When one of their group came in after one of the many waterfalls his wife remarked, rather prudly, 'I don't need to go outside now we've got a digital camera, Chuck (can't remember his name but Chuck fits about right) just takes the photos and I look when he gets back'...On another occasion Jen, who for her efforts at taking in the view had got soaked, was mocked - 'Look how wet she is...' IDIOTS. Then the particularly annoying fat one with the digital camera - 'Chuck' - who, incidentally was wearing a matching 'Dunedin Albatross' bright red sweatshirt to his wifes ('what taste!', or should that be 'what taste?') started singing in a 'look at me, I want to be the centre of attention way' some ludicroud ditty abou tbeing a pirate. He then berated anyone who cared not to join in, despite the fact no-one knew the words. Unsurprisingly his cronies found him utterly hilarious, so when we were disembarking I nudged him overboard and he drowned...only joking on that last bit. Despite the weather doing it's best we enjoyed the cruise and trip immensley and arrived back in Te Anau around 5.20 having had a great day.

Overnight it rained, and rained, and rained, and thundered, and rained, and rained...you get the picture...so much so that we both had the best night's sleep we'd had for ages (work that one out - we couldn't!) and have driven back to Queenstown to meet up with an old friend tomorrow. Tim is the son of Diana and Reg, and sister of Mandy, who my mum once taught (!). He emmigrated to NZ a few years back and now has a wife and kid (and another on the way) out here! We're meeting for a coffee tomorrow before we head back to Christchurch for a couple of days...South America is scaringly upon us, in fact this time next week we'll be in Chile...we're both excited but a little nervous at having to do some proper travelling again...


Daniel Cornwell 9/26/2003 04:08:00 AM

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Our last day on the piste was spent with a very short lesson on some rock hard snow/ice, followed by a great afternoon with myself and Jen finally doing some blue runs together. I've finally managred to master the turn in on my toe edge, but, alas, not at great speed, these things take time. Helen and Rich also progressed to a blue run in the afternoon, so we were all quite chuffed. In the evening, after a great pizza at 'Winnie Bago's' we all had a farewell drink as we're unlikely to meet now before we get back to the UK - they've got another 4 weeks or so in NZ and are then doing a different route to us in South America. There is a possibility we might meet in Quito just before Xmas but that's about it. Seeing as though they're going ot live 20 mins from us in the UK we're bound to stay in touch.

So, farewell to Queenstown, until Saturday at least when we're popping in to meet up with an old family friend who emmigrated to Christchurch from the UK a few years back. We are now in Te Anau which is basically the last village before the road to Milford. We've booked on a day trip to the Sounds tomorrow as the road has recently reopened after 5 days shut due to the risk of avalanches.

Just 4 pictures to show...

The four of us in Queenstown, some of the Hector's dolphin



Me in Pupu Springs, and us skiing in Queenstown


Daniel Cornwell 9/24/2003 04:22:00 AM

Monday, September 22, 2003

I ache. All over. My pecs (or moobs), my biceps, my triceps, my stomach mouscles, my knees, my calves, my ankles, They all ache. On the positive side we've all had a good day on the slopes. I've mastered(ish) the art of turning properly, and I even managed some carved turns today which is a little advanced but hey that's OK for now. Jen's lesson wasn't as good as yesterday but my guy was excellent and we learned loads. H & R are progressing well, in fact Rich was in the same group as me today and has done really well considering he first strapped on a board yesterday. Not alot else to report apart from the fact it was so cold last night that I woke up with frost on my nose - looking forward to South America - it's got to be warmer there surely!

Daniel Cornwell 9/22/2003 04:56:00 AM

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Saturday evening was spent at Helen and Rich's lodge where they cooked us a great tea consiting of pork, mustard, creme fraiche and a little cider! It was excellent. Myself and Rich then headed out to watch the New Zealand Warriors keep their NRL title hopes alive with a 17-16 win over Canberra. It was an excellent match, but we soon hurried home as we were up early this morning for boarding/skiing. The good news is that as of this evening (Sunday) none of us has any serious injuries...a few bruises but not much else. The weather was great, and we had a lesson each in the morning before meeting up for some narly powder dudes. Jen is up to level 4 (from 1-6, 6 being seriously good) and had a really good day, not falling over once apparently, although we can't confirm this as she's far too good for us mere mortals and tends to go on the (ever so slightly) harder runs... I started the day on level 2b but have been promoted to level 3 for tomorrow, it also seems I have finally mastered the toe-edge turn so I am starting to pick up a bit of speed, which in turns then leads me to forget how to turn but remember how to fall spectacularly. Rich has done really well on his first ever day on the slopes, and Helen has too, looking every bit the classes' demonstrater when she came down.

Having said all this here we are at 5 (ish) so knackered we're already talking about tea and bed...no beers tonight! The plan is to do another day tomorrow at Coronet Peak before hading to the Remarkables on Tuesday.

Daniel Cornwell 9/21/2003 05:05:00 AM

Saturday, September 20, 2003

I am pleased to result that I am now officially luge champion after having beaten Rich 3-1. Jen beat Helen too (2-1 I think) so I guess we'll have to have a re-match at some point. Jen won the crazy golf (by 3 shots from me and Rich) and I beat Rich at pool (3-1) so it was a good day to be a Cornwell! These rainy day activities occured due to the mountains being closed and H & R's insurance mishap which they've now sorted. In the evening we went to an Irish pub, Pog Mahone's, where everyone was Irish - hell they even had the all-Ireland hurling (men playing kind of aerial hockey, not to be confused with women throwing stones down some ice whilst shouting 'hurreeeeeeeee') and then on for an Indian. Jen was feeling a little rough due, we think, to the pinkish hue of the chicken we ate on Thursday evening so we thought the way to sort her guts out was to go for a curry and it seems to have worked a treat!!

One of the mountains is closed again today (Saturday) due to high winds, the only on eopen is having a kids fun day so we're steering well clear. Hopefully we should be able to get some boarding/skiing in tomorrow, as for the rest of today - no idea what we're going to do really.



Daniel Cornwell 9/20/2003 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Well we've got our skiing/boarding kit and are ready to rock and roll except Helen and Rich can't find insurance anywhere so we've got to chill for a day or so and perhaps get on the slopes tomorrow. It's not too bad as we ate some pretty pink looking chicken last night and it hasn't agreed with me too well. Looks like the rest of the day will be spent hoping the weather continues to improve and luging, not necessarily in that order!

Daniel Cornwell 9/18/2003 09:41:00 PM

Hector's Dolphins are one of the rarest dolphins in the world and are only found in the waters around New Zealand. They are the smallest dolphin (female slightly bigger than the male - 1.4m Vs. 1.2m) and are a kind of mixture of white and grey in colour. Our trip headed out in pretty calm conditions considering the winds lashing the harbour, and within about 20 minutes we had spotted the fist pod, and the 6 swimmers duly slipped into the freezing cold (well, 10 degrees but it felt MUCH colder) water. It was so cold that when you put your head under you got one of theose headaches you get when you eat ice-cream too quickly. Our suits kept us afloat with the minimum of ease and we all spread out and waited for the dolphins to approach, which they did pretty much straight away. Now it must be said that the dolphin magnets of the day were Jen and another girl, whilst myself and the others were not as attractive, probably because my wild trashing in the water (not used to not having fins whilst in the sea) scared them they might get a kick in the head. Having said that they moved so quickly you couldn't touch them if you tried. Eventually there were around 20 of them, and they took it in turns to pass, obviously laughing at the human's utter inability to swim. Needless to say we got some great vidi clips and a couple of piccies which will eventually find their way onto here. It was a wonderful hour or so and much better than the Kaikoura experience we nearly took as there were much fewer people, more dolphins and we only had to travel 20 mins each way (as opposed to 90!) We were a bit sad to leave Akaroa - it has a lovely harbour, and old french-themed shops and arcades - we could have spent another day or two...BUT we heard that Saturday heralds the start of the school holidays so we have rushed down to Queenstown in a vain attempt to get some 'boarding in before the brats arrive. So that's where we are now, although it's very different to how it was the last time we were here - it's pissing it down for starters. Also the winds are so high that some of the ski fields are closed so our sprog-avoidence plan may be thwarted. We came here via Lake Tekapo, a church on it's banks, and a statue to the ordinary working collie. We'd have stayed longer at the lake but the weather was shocking.

So the plan is to spend some time on the slopes, but not sure how (very badly), when (soon) or where (or for how much!!!) yet.

One interesting anecdote is that the guy who performed the maori welcoming ritual on me up in the Bay of Islands a few weeks back when I was the chief for the day accidentally hit a British backpacker with his stick a few days ago and has broken his jaw in a number of places, he's currently having it re-set - seems like I got off lightly!!!

Daniel Cornwell 9/18/2003 05:31:00 AM

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

So our big exciting, diving on our own day arrived and we headed up the road from our campsite in Nelson (where the bloke had owned and run said site since 1976 and although he wanted to sell as a going concern now he couldn't due to rising property prices, when I suggested he sell the land (it must be worth a bit as it's near the town centre) he said he couldn't as he'd had such a personal involvement with the place and it was like his baby....I felt a bit sorry for him to be honest) to Motueka where at Sportsworld we hired our dive gear for the day. The nice lady that served us gave us a weight belt with a whopping 30 lbs (14 kgs ish) of weight on it, we won't need all that we figured as we normally dive on about 5-6 kgs we would be less buoyant due to freshwater but more so due to thicker wetsuit...oh how spectacularly wrong can you be....?

The first thing about Pupu Springs is the distance it is from the car park, with dive gear, it the sun. It's 10 minutes but whilst waddling with all said gear it seems to take alot longer. By the time we arrived we were so knackered we had to take some kit off and have a break. The 7mm suits did the trick though as when we enetered the water you couldn't feel how cold it was. But we couldn't sink. As the bag was too heavy as it was we didn't take any extra weight to the springs from the van so thus we just kind of floated on the sruface. Hell it was only 4m deep so it wasn't too bad. I had just enough weight to duck-dive down for some rocks which we thought would weight us down a little more, unfortunatley we only realised after getting out that they were pummice-stone and thus did not help us sink at all as they weighed about a kilo between them. The springs itself though is quite inredible, so clear so you can see as far as is possible, no murkiness (a little to be fair after we got a bit tangled in some weeds - the currents were stupidly strong) and a great experience. We were a little disappointed about the lack of wildlife but hey it'd be like fishing in a goldfish bowl for the lazy fisherman so I guess most of the fish have gone that way...we did see an eel, a couple of fish and a fresh water lobster thingy though.

On the way back to the van we decided to do the 'drift' dive in fish creek. Now on most drift dives we have done you kind of loat along in a very weak current taking about an hour to do a couple of hundred metres. Not fish creek - oh no! What happened next was both exhilerating and incredibly frightening. We zoomed along over rocks in water about 30-40 cm deep before emerging in a 3m deep pool where we could catch our breath. The current then got me again and before I knew it I was heading off down the river...Jen following behond a moment later. After about 20 metres of zooming we grabbed onto a branch and realised our exit from the rapids was on the other bank...and there was no way on earth we could cross. After a few minutes Jen climbed our bank only to discover she was no standing in an island, all great fun this eh? Eventually we found a creek that wasn't flowing like a prop from a white-water rafting video and we managed to get back to safety...all good fun...?!?!?!

After depositing out (rather muddy) gear back at Sportsworld we headed off to Belnheim where we stayed overnight. The next day we travelled south, past Kaikoura and Christchurch to Akaroa - where we are now. The trip itself was pretty uneventful, punctuated only by text messages from Helen and Rich who we were supposed to be meeting in Queenstown at the weekend (they're going to learn to snowboard - hurrah I won't be the worst on the slopes for at least a day!), it turned out they were heading to...Akaroa, so we booked it at the same place and had a great night catching up, planning the next few days (came to no real conclusions on that one) drinking (and splilling) red wine and eating tacos!! GREAT NIGHT! Jen bumped into Helen this morning and she had a bit of a headache by all accounts...we're both fine, and we're going dolphin swimming today. It's cheaper here than Kaikoura and there are less people on the boat so we're hoping it'll be really good, we have our camera, and case so hopefully will get some shots.

On last footnote - another bit of trivia really about NZ. We've noticed alot of the road signs warning people not to drive as quickly an the like as they have a massive problem over here with road-deaths...here are a selection of the rather natty signs:

'Drive Wild, Kill a Child'

'Blood Split, Life Guilt'

'The faster you go the bigger the mess' (lost the ability to rhyme as we went further south seemingly)

'The quick are the dead'

More as we see them...

After today we're heading to Mount Cook and then on to Queenstown where we think it may be a little busy as it's coming towards the end of the ski-season and it's the first day of school holidays on Friday - arghhhhhhhhh, lots of 7 y.o.s whizzing past be at mach 10....nightmare.


Daniel Cornwell 9/16/2003 10:50:00 PM

Sunday, September 14, 2003

OK so photos below, and hell, some of them even uploaded before I write about them - that's a bit too efficient even for me...

Heading north we made it up to Punakaiki before sunset (this place name reminded me of 'poodlephykies', which for some weird reason me and my brother used to call a belly button when we were about 6...) home of the pancake rocks. Noone knows how they were formed or indeed why they are there but they are, if you get my drift. Sunrise and sunset in one day was all too much and we trudged the 50 kms or so south to Greymouth before our 'fush and chups' dinner. Greymouth should definitey be rhymed with Plymouth, as it is particularly grim, especially when wet and windy as it was the night we were there.

The weather during the night and in the morning was grey and awful and we gingerly started out over Arthur's Pass (no idea who Arthur was/is sorry!) which was specacular indeed. At one point we were in the valley surrounded on all sidees by snowcapped mountains. When we arrived at Kaikoura (our destination for the night) we paused for a few minutes for a cup of tea, for me to finish yet another book and to watch a whitebait fisherman as the sea came crashing in around him. And that was just about all there was to Friday really...until we ended up in Kaikoura for a beer. Richard (who doesn't drink much) livened up after his half of cider and decided to start moving things around in the restaurant we went to, he grabbed the specials blackboard and the A-frame outside and positioned them so we could see and read them, all a little bizarre but quite amusing nonetheless. My dinner was awful, they brought by steak cold, so I returned it apologetically. The chef was obviously from the Gordon Ramsey school of charm as he clearly just bunged it in the microwave/deep fat fryer as it came back as tough as old boots and well-donw to the core. Not feeling like causing a scene I simply asked them to strike it off the bill, which they did, and the rest continued on with their meals. It's not like I'm going to waste away is it??

This morning we went whale watching courtesy of Whale Watching Kaikoura (tm) and Richards credit card (our thanks go out to parties...) and it was another fantastic experience. The sperm whales are toothed and can eat giant squid up to 5m in length - not too keen on falling overboard then, I'd be like an h'or deauve (or however it's spelt...). WWK were excellent and highly imformative, showing us computer generated videos of how the cayon we were in would look without the water (over 1200m deep) and the like. Well recommended. And where to after that. Well we fairly raced up the coast, said goodbye's to Richard and Lynn and have now arrived in Nelson, just 100km short of Pupu Springs where we are planning to dive tomorrow. Richard and Lynn are headed off to the north island (which will be a bit of a let down after the south methinks) and we hope they get on well. They've been more than generous, paying of r just about everything the last few days so a big thank-you from the both of us. In the last week we have driven over 2,000 kmns trying to give them a feel for the island, and I think they had a good time, we certainly did.


Daniel Cornwell 9/14/2003 07:53:00 AM

Us and Sally and Richard on the Miramar Peninsula, and Allen's Beach, annd a couple of the BIG sealion...





More from the Otago Peninsula - Albatrosses, and a penguin, followed by us on Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world.





Various pics from Queenstown






Lake Matheson reflections (and me looking reflective...)



Fox Glacier



WHALES!!


Daniel Cornwell 9/14/2003 07:16:00 AM

Friday, September 12, 2003

The last job to do in this visit to Queenstown was to get some snow chains as we were warned to carry them at all times throughout the South Island. This, we duly did, and headed north on what would prove to be a fantastic day. The first of two lakes soon came into view - Lake Hawea. It is a beuatiful azure blue and stands next to a number of snow-capped peaks. The views were stunning as we passed through and alongside Lake Wanaka. Before we stopped for lunch we stopped next to a couple of mottled horses and fed them grass, burger rings (crisps) and mints. They seemed to lap them all up, not fussy in the slightest. We carried on, over and through the Haast Pass, stopping only for Thunder Creek, a 100-foot waterfall. Our brakes were smelling of burning rubber, a fact brought home to us when a bus driver said he could smell us comiung from a km away!!! No hand-brake on this time though - just very very steep hills. Our destination for the day was Fox Glacier (why come all this way for a mint I hear you ask...?) where we found a campsite and then bombed down a 6 km track to Lake Matheson - where NZ's highest point - Mount Cook can be viewed in the reflection of the lake. Normally that is. Instead we got, Mounts Cook and Tasman, on a cloudy day, surrounded in cloud, with a cloudlike reflection. Were we deterred? No not really as we vowed to return at 6am (!!!!) for sunrise...these things always sound good at the time. On our return to the village we tried to find the Glow-worm forest which seems to have been cordoned of and turned into the Glow-worm Cafe with Glow-worm Experience. It was shut. We gamely decided to head down the road and, with my father in law as chief trespasser we hacked our way into nearby forest and managed to find a couple of vaguely glowing things. Almost satisfied we finished the day at a wonderful little cafe which served hot chocolate and citrus flavoured beer - now there's a winning combo.

The alarm went off at 5.30 and we decided to go back to bed - it was warm under the covers - in the minus degrees outside them. However Richard had other ideas as their van's lights were on so we felt almost compelled to join them in the trip to the lake. For once getting up early was the right decision...To get to the viewpoint you have to walk around the lake to the other side (about 40 minutes) so it was about 6.30am by the time we got there, but the views were worth it. The coud of the night before had cleared and gave way to wonderful views of both Mount Cook and the slightly smaller Mount Tasman. Best of all the water was as still as it could get so the reflection was almost perfect. We were also the only people there which made it even better. A few photos later we headed off, the mount once again shrouded by a dense mist by 7.15. Stopping only briefly at the cafe next to the lake (run by the grumpiest woman on the planet, although she did do a good breakfast to be fair) we headed off to have a look at the glacier. It has been receeding for the last few hundred years and the walk from the car park (an hour return) used to be glacier, but no more. It's something to do with the ice melting quicker than it forms apparently. The views were good, although you couldn't go on the glacier without a guide (none handy, or cubs for that matter) which was either for safety (as they claimed) or a ruse to use the expensive guiding companies...you decide...

Onwards and upwards to Franz Josef Glacier just up the road where we tried to book a heli-hike last night, unfortunately they were all either too expensive or fully booked, or both. So we climbed up to the viewpoint and took the obligatory photos. Richard's knees playing him up a bit so we didn't do the full walk. Since that time we have headed north through less spectacular scenery but with windier roads (Jen was driving thank God - I had a kip!) towards the Pancake Rocks where we hope to reach tonight. From there it's the Tranz-Alpine 'Athur's Pass' tomorrow and whale watching (which Lynn and Richard are paying for - YAY!!) on Sunday. Their ferry to the north island is Sunday afternoon. We've booked ourselves some diving in Pupu Springs on Monday - this is the worlds clearest (but also, seemingly coldest - 6-8 degrees C) freshwater lake - with 65m (!!!!!) visibility. The whole she-bang is costing about 30 quid each for all the kit as we're doing it ourselves with no giudes, it is only about 4m deep, and 45m wide (they proved the visibility thingy using mirrors) so even we should be able to navigate it.

Daniel Cornwell 9/12/2003 03:20:00 AM

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Making our way out onto the Otago Peninsula we thought it would be prudent to call ahead to book onto tours. After a few minutes we thought our plans for the day, which involved whizzing round the Royal Albatross and Penguin centres and then heading off to Queenstown before sunset. We didn't bank on the birds not being around until 11.30 and 3.15pm respectively. This stumbling block, however, turned out to be the thing that made the day so successful. It meant that we had to find other things to do...thus we headed down a gravel road to Allen's Beach (no idea who Allen is or was but it's a nice stretch of land to own/have named in memory of you...) where the Lonely Planet said you can sometimes see some seals. Arriving over the windswept dunes all we could see was swirling sand and a few rocks. On closer inspection though, one of the rocks was the biggest Hooker's Sea Lion we have ever seen. It was clearly lazy or tired as it couldn't quite make it to the dunes and just kind of stopped midway up the beach. It must have weighed 200KGs plus (they can way up to 400) but didn't seem to mind us approaching him, although we clearly weren't going to go up and stroke him or anything like that...Before leaving the beach we found another 5 or 6 none as big, some as tired, some more lively. It was great fun and we got (yet more) great seal/sea-lion piccies.

The Royal Albatross Observatory is the only inland place where these magnificent, and frankly, huge, birds ever land. After a brief Attenborough narrated DVD we went up to a little bunker on Paraoia Head where some chicks currently reside. Now, with the parents only returning with food once a week, and with only 12 chicks around we thought our chances of seeing one fly was pretty slim but we did, on 3 occasions. A couple of things are a bit difficult to take in without seeing them in action - 1) they can fly up to 100km/h + and this is stupidly quick, 2)their wingspan can be anything up to 3.5m. Thus, they have to be seen to be believed. Their life cycle is a bit odd too, they leave their nests after about 5 months and then do not touch land again for anything up to 5 years. At that point they start having massive great albatross parties (there ain't no party like an a-bird party...) where they all strut there stuff for a month a year until some 3-5 years later they finally find a partner whom they mate with for life. The amazing thing is that the birds always arrive within a few days of each other despite not seeing each other for a year at a time. Something to do with magnets in the brain apparently. The birds are tagged and from this the wardens are able to tell that a 42 y.o. female has returned agian this year, having ditched her husband she is now with a 17 y.o. toyboy. I think they'd nicknamed her Demi, but I may have been mistaken.

Onqards then to Penguin Place - home to 2.5% of the worlds entire yellow-eyed penguin population (that's 100 out of 4000). They are the 3rd largest breed of penguin and did the usual penguin stuff, ate fish, swam alot, and waddled around in a stupid manner. It is an excellent centre with a number of warlike camoflaged hides and trenches. I half expected the penguins to start throwing grenades or opening fire with some light artilary but no such luck.

Our final stop for the day was Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. It is 161.1m long and 47.22 high which gives it an average gradient of 1 in 3.41. The steepest part is 1 in 2.86 apparently. we climbed to the top and took the obligatory photos. Although we didn't eat there there is a fantastically named restaurant in Dunedin - 'A Cow Called Bertha' - hopefully they didn't kill that American we saw in Rotorua, although there would be enough meat for a few months...We ended the day with a great stonegrill meal as we were up early today to make the trip to Qneenstown, which is where I am writing this from.

Queenstown is the self-styled adventure centre of the world. You can bungy, luge, raft, jetboat, the list is endless. It is really a resort town though due to the proximity of a number of ski-fields. We took time out to take in the scenery via Skyline (similar to Rotorua) and enjoyed some tremendous views of the lake, town and surrounding mountains. We also all had a go on the luge. Lynn beat Richard 2-1 whilst myself and Jen drew 2-2.
Daniel Cornwell 9/10/2003 06:49:00 AM

Monday, September 08, 2003

Well it's now 6pm (ish) here and Jen's mum and Dad, Lynn and Richard, are still awake which is pretty impressive since they arrived just under 12 hours ago after 25 hours on planes and in transit. They are both well, and brought us a couple of guifts, Jen, chocolate and pants, me some whiskey. As I've said before it really is great to have them here!!!!

On the journey down to Dunedin, where we now reside, I travelled with Richard whilst Jen sat with Lynn. This was mainly to keep them both awake, but also as whilst I got an update about Blair/the UK economy/the job-market and other (relatively) high-brow topics, Jen got to chat about the important things like Holby City & Casualty, the dog, and family gossip (one of their distant relations has gone a bit crackers apparently...)

Richard's brand-spanking (and frankly alot nicer than mine...) camera was full of piccies and videos of Oscar, which we will be uploading to our hard drive to keep when they leave. He has grown loads although still looks facially the same as when we left.

Tomorrow we're off to the Albatross Sanctuary and the Penguin (er...) Place (they obviously couldn't think of any other noun for 'home of penguins' that was alliterative...) and are going to try to see some seals on the way. Then we're off over to Millford Sounds (where alot of Lord of the Rings was filmed) which is in the Fiordland National Park. Apparently the road has just reopened after the recent earthquake caused an avalanche, although we have been warned of imminent snow showers over the coming week.
Daniel Cornwell 9/08/2003 06:35:00 AM

Sunday, September 07, 2003

After surfacing around 10ish we had a great brunch at The Chocolate Fish Cafe, on the sea-front, consisting of a full-english and a chocolate fish (I kid you not!) We also bought a piece of artwork by a local artist for about 25 quid. Bargain! It was decided we were going to go for a tramp (local term for a walk over bush-land, not an attack on a vagrant) around the Mirarmar Peninsula, and we did - some 10 kms of it, up and down o'er hill and vale. It was excellent and there were many great viewpoints of Wellington, the harbour and the Cook Straight. In the evening we visited a Mongolian BBQ (called, rather unimaginatively 'Genghis Khan', one highlight of the evening was ringing them up to book a table and asking 'Hi, is that Genghis Khan', kind of hoped there'd be some bloke grunting on the other end 'Yes, it's me, could you hold on a minute I'm just raping and pillaging...') and gorged ourselves. We finished off a couple of bottles of wine, more in commiseration really as we lost comprehensively - 3-1 - to Richard and Sally at pool earlier in the night. With all of us feeling knackered, and Sally suffering from a nasty cold we headed back and had an early night.

We bade farewell before we went to bed, and sneaked out around 7.30am in order to catch the ferry to the South Island. Richard and Sally have been really kind, putting up with us for a couple fo days and taking time out to show us the area, so we hope to be able to repay the favour one day.

The South Island is much more mountainous than the north, and is home to most of the ski-fields. As soon as you start the drive south from Picton you can see the snow-covered peaks of the Kaikoura Range in the background. It is breathtaking. We've now arrived in Christchurch - about 350 kms south of Picton where we are 'picking up' Jen's parents tomorow morning - not sure what's planned for the next few days...


Daniel Cornwell 9/07/2003 06:36:00 AM

Friday, September 05, 2003

I have to say that sometimes I am the luckiest guy alive. The rugby I watched last night was the best match I have ever seen, decided by a penalty in the last minute and won by a single point - 26-25. It's a shame I am talking about the Brisbane Bronco's Vs St.George NRL game we caught in the pub after the Wellington - North Harbour game which was monumentally awful. OK, so the conditions were poor but it was still a depressing display of how not to play rugby by the country that loves it more than any other. (North Harbour won 15-3 btw, scoring a try in our corner of the stadium in the last minute - the only highlight for us...) The only other moment of interest was a streaker, buoyed by former all-black Mark Ellis' dare on live TV a couple of days ago, trying to get on the pitch, via a parked van (the pitch is some 5 feet or so below the bottom of the grandstand, thus the van roof proved a useful allie). Ellis' dare included evading the arms of at least one steward for the reward of $1,000 NZ (and an additional $1,000 for each steward you evaded afterwards). Incidentally with the maximum fine of $1,000 in force for streaking in theory you cannot lose...however 'ginger', as he will surely be forever known after last night's escapades, did lose. He somehow contrived to slip off the van's roof, and thus into the waiting arms of a steward. He was then held on the ground for at least 10 minutes (he must have been stupidly cold) before being hand-cuffed and led away by the boys in blue. So cold, wet, $1,000 lighter and ginger, not a good night really.

Having watched 80 minutes of poor kicks, dropped balls, and farcical streaks myself, Richard, and Shane (a schoolfriend of Richard) retired to a pub where we watched the most sublime display of rugby I have possibly ever witnessed, won by the kicking and 2 tries of the tubbiest least-likely looking player on the pitch...in the last minute...in Brisbane...with GORDON TALLIS playing for the Broncos - MAGIC!

We arrived back shortly after 11.30 to find Jen and Sally and a couple of empty wine bottles. They had been putting the world to rights by all accounts and we joined in for an hour or so before heading to bed.

Richard and Sally have been wonderfully accomodating, and we're looking forward to a day out and about in Wellington. Sally and Jen decided last night the itinery for today so we're going with the flow.

Daniel Cornwell 9/05/2003 08:59:00 PM

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Te Papa is excellent. For starters it's mainly free, I say mainly as you have to pay for the interactive exhibits which were (computerised sheep shearing aside which was fantastic) all pretty awful anyway. The Timewarp that took you forward in time to 2055 felt like it was made in the early nineties. Needs upgrading a little methinks. Among the galleries, and exhibits was a fascinating section on the geography of the local area, and the tectonic plates throughout the world. One plate goes straight through NZ and you can see why there is so much vocanic activity. Also a bit worrying as we're heading to the South Island where they had a 7.1 Richter scale earthquake just last month and they are still having aftershocks.

Nando's appears to be in NZ which is great news although they were out of spicy rice so that particular cultural highlight will have to wait til lunch today. We've popped round Richard and Sally's and dumped our stuff there. We're meeting up with tthem again tonight (I should hope so we're staying at their house!!!) and I'm off to the rugby with Richard and a mate whilst Jen is staying in to watch bad TV and drink wine no doubt. The rest of today is going to be taken up with the bits we didn't get to yesterday thanks to the inclement weather - namely the cable car (if it's not too windy), houses of parliament, and markets which were closed yesterday but oh so luckily (honest) open on a Friday.

We're on the Picton ferry first thing Sunday morning and then we're dashing down to Christchurch to meet up with Jen's parents who should arrive around 8am on Monday morning.


Daniel Cornwell 9/04/2003 11:36:00 PM

While we've got a fast connection here's some more piccies....

Maori rock carvings on Lake Taupo; Huka Falls



Wai-O-Tapu, and the fish I put back (4 pound rainbow trout)





Cape Palliser...a seal yawning ('bloody tourists....'); me, lighthouse, moon, van, seal, countryside...ace piccie!!


Daniel Cornwell 9/04/2003 12:34:00 AM

With the weather taking a turn for the worse towards the end of the week (we didn't know how bad it was going to get...) we decided to head out to Cape Palliser - about 100kms from the Hutt Valley. We set off under beautiful blue skies, and despite the part sealed, part unsealed road we made good progress, arriving at around 11am. The area was highly reminiscent of the Cornish coast and it's fishing villages - even down to the boats with battered bulldozers attached to the front to help pull them out of the surf and up the beach.

The lighthouse at Palliser is a little like an old fashoined barber's pole - red and white striped - and stands atop a cliff some 300 steps high. For some reason the land was cordonned off (lambing season) so we took a couple of piccies and then made our way back. Parts of the road were so bad it had completely subsided into the sea and it was one lane - we also got to go through a ford where the bridge was 'Cars Only'. All great fun if a little 'not-insured'...

One of the cape's other highlights (other than the magnificent rolling scenery - you could even see the snow-capped peaks of the South Island in the distance) are the seal colonies that lie just a few metres from the road to the lighthouse. Heeding warnings not to get too close or cut off their route to the see (this makes them very aggressive apparently) we spent a half hour watching them on land - mostly sleeping, and in the sea - mostly playing. It was great to be so close to nature without it being behind bars.

Onwards to Wellington then - we are staying in Lower Hutt at the mo, which is the closest campsite to the City Centre. The weather (sorry to bring it up again I sound almost like a Kiwi...) was horrible last night - wind and rain so volumous that it caused our skylight to leak, fortunately not on the bed or it would have been distinctly unpleasant. It is still raining hard so we're off to do the museum run followed by a search for (cheap) original Maori artwork to add to our collection from other countries we have visited. We're really looking forward to a couple of nights in luxury (thanks Richard and Sally) before the ferry which could be pretty awful if the rain and wind keeps up.

First impressions of Wellington are good - it seems to have a really good mix of museums/cultural stuff and the important things like bars and restaurants. Today will tell - we start at Te Papa - the National Museum of NZ - 'Our Place' as it's affectionately known to the locals.

Daniel Cornwell 9/04/2003 12:13:00 AM

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Up early then for the quick run 50-odd kms north to Wai-O-Tapu (ignore previous incorrect spelling) which is 'New Zealand's most Colourful Thermal Site'. Not the biggest or best, but the most colourful. For all I know this could have been due to copious amounts of dye.

The main reason for coming was the Lady Knox Geyser which goes off at 10.15 am every day, with the help of a kilo of carbolic soap (something to do with viscocity and surface tension). It went off on time, we took a picture or two, and then left. That's all there was to it. The park itself was OK. Certainly colourful and sulphuric. There were some lovely Jade green and yellow pools and generally it was well sign-posted and informative and thus worth the drive.

On our way back through Taupo we stopped at Haku Falls - one of the fastest running waterfalls in the world. Many a kayaker has been killled trying to shoot the rapids that proceed it. It is slightly artificial though as this part of the Waikato river contains a hydro-electric power station which increases the speed of the water flow during peak electricity usage (day-time). The power station was well hidden and didn't seem to detract from the natural beauty of the surrounding area at all.

After a quick lunch stop we found ouselves in Turangi - at the south end of Lake Taupo. It's much smaller and less touristy than Taupo and we managed to find a guy willing to take us out fly fishing on the lake. This is something I've wanted to do for years and I gamely promised the campsite owner any fish I caught. Our guide, Colin, had been fishing the lake and surrounding area for 26 years and was anice enough guy. He clearly knew his stuff and after the briefest of introdcutions we got down to business. After an hour or so of nothing he finally struck, and I was soon reeling in a '4-pounder' which we landed fairly easily. He asked us what we wanted to do (I didn't relally have the heart to kill it) and Jen reminded me of my obligation to the lady at the campsite. Within seconds the fish was dead - clobbered right between the eyes (well if it wasn't dead it would have had a hell of a headache). He then bled it (cue Jen nearly throwing up) before gutting it. It appears this one was off upstream to spawn (there were thousands of eggs) which made us feel even more guilty. Anyhow what's done is done and the lady got her fish. We caught 3 more - one a baby and the other two slightly bigger than the first (one was a 5-pounder...woooohhhhhh!!!) and put them all back. Our guide got interesting after a while and started telling us about some of the turf wars between his (extended) family and friends and the local Maoris. He was the first rascist we've met in NZ which in itself is pretty amazing in comparison to our friends across the Tasman. He had had some interesting scraps though, including one episode with a cricket bat which is better left not told.

After returning triumphant we received a free beer each (yay!) and headed off to bed - a storm was whipping up so we battened down the hatches again, and tried to keep warm in the face of winds and rain you just don't get at home...

The storm had abaitted when we awoke and we set off south - past Tongariro National Park, along the 'desert road'. Although the cloud cover was low you could just about make out snow on the peaks - the reason we were unable to do the famous Tongariro Crossing. Incidentally 4 hardened hikers were air-lifted from the peak just a couple of days ago as the weather closed in in around 30 minutes.

Palmerston North was to be our first stop-off point, one reason for stopping here - the rugby museum. From the outside it looks like an old school hall or similar - I was expecting something grander. Having said that the inside was amazing - hundreds and hundreds of artefacts and mementos, from the last 120 years or so. It was really well laid out with some interesting diversions - TV showing the Hong Kong sevens (the one where the Kiwiws won it not this year...), ansaphones you can ring with recorded info, and many others too numerous to mention. It was so good that even Jen, with her pathological hatred of all things sporting, had a good look round for an hour or so...and all for 10 dollars between us - definitely one of the bargains of NZ!

The last 100 kms or so were interesting as the navigator (Jen today) decided we should take a back road up and over some hills to our destination for the night - Upper Hutt. Now these aren't hills in the UK sense, or at least not hill roads in the UK sense. Hence we spent the last 30 kms doing about 20km/h one a track just about wide enough for a Ford Fiesta. We passed loads of rocks/boulders that had fallen down the sheer cliffs to one side, but, frustratingly we never got a clear view of the valleys below thanks to some large fir trees that blocked our view. Darn trees eh? How dare they?

We're going to explore the area to the south and east of here over the next couple of days before arriving in Wellington on Friday in order to meet up with Richard and Sally. It's going to be lovely to be in a prpoer bed again.

Only one thing to note really and we've local radio (you've never heard bad local radio until you've heard Kiwi local radio - it is truely awful, trust me I've listened to BBC Radio Cornwall and this is significantly worse) to thank for this. Thursday in New Zealand is National Penis Day. Not sure why (anti-feminist backlash?) but it just is. Strange lot these Kiwis.

Just having looked at our stats (will have 10,000 hits by the end of the year) I saw that someone typed in 'latest miracle in the world' into google and got our website purely thanks to my mis-spelling of 'the' - I spelt it 'thte' and so did they on the search. I feel so proud that some happy soul chanced upon this whilst looking for Christ's work...hahahahahaha they couldn't have been further away eh?

Daniel Cornwell 9/02/2003 05:42:00 AM

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Skytower + Sunset; Rangitoto Island and some tourists



Jen's fantastic bird piccie, and the hole in the rock



Caving, black-water style; mud glorious mud at one of Rotorua's thermal parks



Alright Geyser, and us, luging (note the man-breasts)



Maori cultural show...



Zorbing and the agrodome (those rams are real by the way...)



The best sunset ever - East Cape





THE BOAT!! - in the middle of the road, having just fallen off it's trailer, we missed it by all of a couple of metres...


Daniel Cornwell 8/31/2003 06:13:00 AM

We strolled round Napier on Saturday, looking at and photographing many of it's art deco buildings. After a while, feeling a bit deco-ed out (thank God we didn't actually live in the 30's - God, a decade of deco what a thought...) we fell into a cracking Irish bar and had a nice lunch and a bit of Guinness. Feeling suitable refreshed we managed to find a new leatherman (hooray) which cost about the same as the hotel gave us back so that was OK. The weather took a turn for the worst so we headed back to the campsite. Jen stopped to stroke an adorable puppy which sent it's owners (two straggly teenagers wearing hooded tops - need I say more...;) ) into a fit of rage. They promptly left KFC and followed us all the way back to the campsite. He looked suitably enough nutter-esque for us to cross the road a couple of times, and stop at a couple of shops to try to shake them off but it didn't work. In the end as we turned the corner for the campsite we legged it and they didn't follow!! God and Jen was only trying to be friendly for godssake...if you leave your puppy tied to a lmap-post that's what you get!

Onwards and upwards to Taupo - home of the famous crater lake. In 186 AD one of the largest ever volcanic eruptions occured here in NZ and it created Lake Taupo - some 18 by 25 miles. In parts it is 250m deep, and when a storm hits 3m waves are considered normal. This afternoon we took a trip out in 'Barbary', skippered by Bill Dawson - who's lived in Taupo for most of his 61 years. In that time he's seen the town grow from just 700 to 22,000 people. The 80km trip to Rotorua took 5 hours when he was a kid, now it takes just over an hour. The boat itself is a 40ft ketch (2 masts) built in 1926. A certain Mr Errol Flynn once won it in a game of cards and then presumably used it as some kind of floating harem. For Bill it's been a bit of a labour of love as he bought it as a wreck back in 1976 (for $3,000 - about 1,000 quid) and then took 7 years to restore it before starting up trips to the Maori carvings (quite nice but not worth the admission fee alone) when the tourist thing caught on in Taupo. The wind wasn't really strong enough for a sail so we motored along and he shared some interesting tales and listened to ours and those from others. All in all it was a great couple of hours and worth stopping here for.

We're heading back up to Wai-O-Tomo tomorrow - which is near Rotorua before retracing our steps and crossing the desert road south towards Palmerston North and Wellington. We're hoping to find a (cheap) company that will take us out for a bit of fly fishing as the trout here are exceptional apparently (if they were that exceptional they surely wouldn't get caught...?)


Daniel Cornwell 8/31/2003 05:48:00 AM

Friday, August 29, 2003

We celebtrated our last night in Rotorua with that staple Kiwi fare - curry. Fantastic it was too. At long last we've found one Jen enjoyed and wuill have again - a lamb nowabi whatever that contained. On checking out and driving a bit we found our leatherman to be absent (this is no.2) and to cut a long story short the hotel deny one of their people has nicked it despite us not having it and it never having left the room. Eventually they offered us 200 dollars to buy a new one which we are pleased with.

From Rotorua we headed north to Tauranga (pronounced, in the usually weird Kiwi way, Tower-onga, not tour-anga as you would expect...) to get Jen's teeth fixed by the son of her boss' ex-biology teacher. He was great and clearly undercharged us too. Hats off to Mr Gareth Gregg BDS, I know this is a long shot but if you ever need a dentist at short notice in the north island he's your man...

We had some time to burn before the dental appointment so managed to visit Mount Manganui which, after the oil refineries en route, turned out to be a really pleasant little beach resorrt. The mount obviosuly dominates the skyline but the area is not too touristy and we spent a nice hour or so sipping coffee and people watching...

After deciding we couldn't really justify or afford a trip to White Island (NZ's most active volcano) (having recently been to Rangitoto $135 each seemed alot of cash) we decided to miss it out and head around the Eastern Cape. We stopped overnight at a small place called Te Kaha and caught the most fantastic sunset - all purples, reds and oranges - on our own little private beach. It was worth the stay in the middle of nowhere.

Our plan for today was to head out to the Eastern Cape lighthouse (600 steps up - it's located on the top of a cliff....never of guessed huh?) after stopping at Te Araroa Pohutukawa which is a massive tree basically. Only 2 problems we found with these plans...
1) The 20 km gravel road to the cape was so bad we only managed 1 km before having to turn back)
2) We couldn't find the bloody tree, perhaps, judging by the number of timber-trucks we passed it's now a canoe, woodchips or MDF.

Hence we sped on - through Gisborne, where Cook first landed (on the mainland) and Dame Kiri Te Kanewa was born, and onto Napier where we now reside. The trip between Gisborne and Napier wasn't without incident though. Our van is utterly pathetic at climbing hills, however this probably saved us a nasty incident this afternoon. We were climbing on of the many hundred hills at about 50 km/h behind a car with a boat on a trailer. Suddenly the boat slipped it's (obviously rather weak) morrings and slid off the back of the trtailer and skidded to a halt in the middle of the road. Fortunately the car brakes better than it accelerates and we can to a halt about a metre or so behind the boat. Can you imagine that on the insurance claim form 'hit boat...200 metres up a hill...' Anyhow we got out, helped the bloke get his boat back on his trrailer, secured it a little tighter and with frayed nerves headed onwards.

Napier was destoyed by an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt from nothing. It is meant to be the finest example of an art-deco city anywhere in the world, with the possible exception of Miami...but after meeting 'Jim from Florida' the other night I would suggest the people may be a little easier to get on with here. we plan on having a full day wandering and photographing tomorrow before leaving on Sunday.

One very weird thing we have found in NZ is their love of throwing things up in the air and making them land (and stay) on electrical wires. So far we have seen a large demestos bottle, a pair of shoes, and the best of all today - a tea cup repleat with saucer. Why - no idea? The kiwis are also obsessive about the weather - you can't have a break between records on the local redio without the presenter commenting on the showers, or even getting people to phone up to comment about them...all very amusing and very reminiscent of the UK.

Daniel Cornwell 8/29/2003 08:15:00 AM

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Well we have accomplished our mission - we've zorbed, luged and spa-ed and they were all great...but more of that later. We spent yesterday morning visiting Te Whakarewarewa which is New Zealand's 'largest Maori cultural and geothermal visitior attraction'... some 150-odd acres in all. The first thing you notice is the smell - the natural pools give off a kind of sulphur 'bad-eggs' smell and we found out that after a while it gives you a bit of a headache. In my case my vision went a bit funny too but I put that down to the contact lenses. The site itself is really split into two distinct areas: The New Zealand Maori arts & Crafts Instiutute, along with original Maori buildings, and the geo-thermal area. The Maori architechture we had already seen a bit of in Northland so we skipped into the (more exciting) land of Geysers (pronounced Gigh-zer not geezer to my surprise and disappointment, this meant I couldn't go up to them and whisper 'awight geezer' like a cockney) and mud-pools. The largest geyser and most impressive is Pohutu which erupts to some 30 metres...when it feels like it at any rate. We saw it at about 10 metres but it was still impressive and good fun. The surrounding area is a real 'moonscape', although no American flags here (pleny of American visitors though...) They also have a kiwi sanctuary which is in the dark, as they are nocturnal, so you get to see them running around and digging for worms. They are weird looking but strangely enchanting, and we spent a good few minutes observing. Unfortunately the kiwi is highly threatened over here with only about 50,000 left in the wild. Dogs, cats and possums are the main culprits, with one dog alone responsible for tens of deaths in a single day last year.

We decided it was too wet for golf (that fine rain making a reappearance) but instead headed out to a cablecar (Skyline) that gave you a good view of the surrounding area. at the top the luge - a kind of go kart with no engine that just hurtles downhill. You basically sit in this thing and hope and prey you make it round the corners without it tipping you out onto the cold, wet concrete. It was great fun. After the first ('Scenic') run we moved on to the 'intermediate' course (where I won) and then the 'advanced' where Jen won the first one fair and square before overtaking me as I was slowing for the end of the race on the third and final race. She had the cheek to say she won and quite frankly if she wants such a hollow victory she's entitled to it...bad loser moi?

Onto our hotel, which is lovely by the way, and yes, it's nice to be out of that campervan, even if it is just for a couple of days. They put a little note in the room saying congrats on your 3rd anniversary and some chocolates too which we thought was a nice touch. Quick bath (never ever thought I'd think of a bath as a luxury) and then onto our 'traditional Maori experience' - the Hangi. when we turned up some 20 minutes before it was due to start there was already about 50 American tourists in evidence and they had already decided the all-American boy, Jim, from Florida, was going to be chief for the evening. What about me, what about all the Koreans due to arrive in ten minutes. Not a chance, Jim had already decided he would lead the free world...must be an American trait... Jim then received the 'peace twig' on our behalf. Given recent events I half-expected him to pull a grenade out from under his jacket, throw it at the Maori and liberate New Zealand. Anyway enough of this, the food was ordinary, bit like any other buffet the world over, just that this one was supposedly cooked in an oven over hot stones. Supposedly because when they opened the oven to show us how they'd cooked it it looked spotless and the food was conveniently placed at the top. Nonetheless the opening of the ovens sent the Americans (most of them middle aged with fat stomachs, wallets and heads) and Japanese apoplectic with excitement and they videoed the whole event. God help their friends when they get home...'Wow, look an oven' 'Yeah and here's the best bit, it's got food in it...' Hours and hours of fun - guaranteed.

Thankfully, or so we thought, we were sat not with the Americans, but with two Aussie ladies (I use that word very loosely). It turns out the only thing they had any interest in was rugby which wasn't all bad but you tend to tire of it after, ooh say, an hour of nothing else to talk about.

Now the entertainment was everything the food wasn't - colourful, interesting, and fun. The group of nine, in traditional Maori dress, seranaded us for about 45 minutes before encouraging us to participate, women throwing balls on string about (Jen didn't) and men, 'The Haka' (I did). It was great fun, and all in all the night was well worth going to, even if the food was, I suspect, a little less than authentic.

This morning we decided to take a trip out to 'The Agrodome'. This is not a place where you walk in, look at someone's bird and get loads of hassle, no sirree, the agro here stands for agriculture. How refreshing it was to meet up with Jim his anorexic, plastic-faced wife, and tour-group cronies again this morning for the sheep show. The show itself was quite fun, 19 pure-bred rams were paraded whilst some bloke in a vest (it's winter...hello!!) gave a funny, well rehearsed commentary. A couple of times the sheep either fell asleep, or decided to headbutt each other for food, but in the main they were well chaperoned by vest-man. He then sheared (shore? shorned?) one for good measure, stating that the world record time for one sheep being sheared stands at an astounding 21 seconds. (Maybe it was this that was the inspiration for the So Solid Crew? -

'I've got 21 seconds to shear, I've got 21 seconds to shear, so if I catch it on the ear, you'll see the blood flow, I've 21 seconds to go' perhaps not but it's a thought...).

The funiest part (for me and Jen at least) was the cow milking when assorted kids were invited on stage to milk a cow with the biggest udders you've ever seen. The kids were joined by a rather large Californian woman named (I kid you not) BERTHA...oh how we laughed. How I stopped myself from shouting 'which one are you going to milk kids?' I'll never know. Anhow after this we bade a fond farewell to Jim and his lot and scampered as quickly as our van would take us to the Zorbing site.

Zorbing, invented in NZ, consists of throwing youself down a hill in a big rubber sphere. You have 2 options for this - strapped in or with a bucket of water over you so you slip and slide around. We did the latter (both at once), twice! It was fantastic fun and we've got a video clip or two the prove it thanks to Jen's diving case for her camera.

The Polynesian spa was our last port of call today - we tried all the pools, ranging from 36 to 42 degrees (you'll just have to trust me - 42 degrees is damn hot) before an Aix massage - recommended to us by a couple we met whilst rafting. It consists of jets of water being squirted all over you whilst you have a massage. although the rooms looked a bit like an abbatoir it was excellent and I did my usual massage trick of falling asleep.

On our way back to the hotel for our last night of luxury (normality?) for 4 months I stopped off at a map shop and found out the Tongariro crossing that we wanted to do is shut to everyone without 'extensive alpine experience'. Apparently it's crampons and ice-picks only at the mo (what no clothes...???) so we're thinking of getting down to South Island a little earlier than planned, a couple of days before Jen's parents arrive on the 8th Sept.

Jen's managed to find a dentist that'll see her at short notice (the son of her ex-boss' Biology teacher nonetheless...) so a short stop at Tauranga tomorrow before heading off to see the White Volcano.


Daniel Cornwell 8/27/2003 05:42:00 AM

Monday, August 25, 2003

We finally made it to Rangitoto Island on Sunday, at the second time of asking. The weather was glorious, not a cloud in the sky, in sharp contrast to the previous 3 or 4 days further north. We cought the 9.15 ferry, arriving just under half an hour later. The island itself was formed after a volcanic eruption just 600 years ago although it's thought to be extinct now. Before arriving we had already decided to take the route to the top and back before catching the 12.45 ferry back to Auckland. It was interesting to see some mums & dads struggling with pushchairs, they obviously presumed the track would be pushchair friendly. It wasn't - far from it. The walk to the summit (about an hour) was unremarkable. The flora was pretty boring (only the strong and seemingly most uninteresting plants can grow here) and there was little fauna to speak of. However the view from the top was astounding - we could see all of Auckland City, a number of the other islands and even as far over as the Coromandel Peninsula some 50 kms away. It was worth the trudge and we spent a good half hour taking in the views and having a pre-packed sarnie. On the way back down we visited the lava caves where we ventured about 100 metres through a semi-dark passageway that eventually came out further down the hill - all great fun. It was a little more dangerous than it sounds (although not alot if truth be known) as we forgot to pack a torch.

Leaving Auckland we headed south to Waitomo - home of the famous glow-worm caves and 'black-water rafting'. En route we saw small lambs, piglets, and also calves...maybe spring really is on the way and we'll get some better weather. We also saw (well Jen did) a 'weird looking thing, bit like a cross between a deer and a horse' - her words, not mine. Black-water rafting is where you climb down into a cave and then float inside on an inner tube down some rapids and also through the glow-worm caves. It was superb, despite the fact that they got us dressed up like extras from 'Fashion Retards - the Movie'. The wetsuits/helmets et al did the trick and kept us relatively warm and we went through a couple of caves with hundred of glow-worms in them. In the pitch black it was an enthralling sight. Apparently the life-span of a glow-worm is thus: eat for 9 months, have sex for 3 days, give birth and die. Apart from the last couple of days that sounds like just about the best lifestyle you could ask for. Our guide, John, also does 'proper' caving and has got 'stuck' on a couple of occasions on a vertical squeeze or something like that. He says last year a woman was stuck for 42 hours and that 90% of people who get 'stuck' die. You can probably appreciate that he wasn't selling this sport to me that well...

Anyhow the jumping down waterfalls, floating and the like was amazing - a great hour or so and, had we had more time and money we'd have probably done it again.

We moved on again afterwards and are now in Rotorua - home to Zorbing (throwing youself down a hill in a big ball), luging (throwing youself down a hill on a cart) and nice relaxing thermal spas, which we're going to need after the first 2 activities.

Tomorrow is our 3rd wedding anniversary, and we're booked into a nice hotel, that we can't really afford for a couple of nights to celebrate. We're also going to go luging, golfing, and thermal spa-ing tomorrow, before the hangi in the evening - traditional Maori show and meal - tomorrow night.

Close followers of this tripe will know I like my irony and here we are again...Jen has broken a tooth (well a filling has fallen out). You couldn't get more ironic unless you were a recruitment consultant who didn't know how or where to find a job...erm....
Daniel Cornwell 8/25/2003 07:36:00 AM

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Think of the worst event you've ever been to, a school fete or fundraising gala perhaps. Multiply it by 10 and add in a charge to enter (!) and you've got the Whangerai Craft Fair. From 'easy-iron' ironing boards to a bloke selling seeds (these are edible apparently, you don't plant them like normal people and wait for (tastier) things to grow) it was all truly awful. The only saving grace was a stall selling chutneys and the like - they had some fantastic lemon curd. Although for the entrance fee and curd price combined I could have shipped some from Mars. The only even vaguely funny moment was when the seed man asked to his enthralled audience (the old women and one small child) 'Who wants to try these seeds?' and everyone looked at each other completely disinterestedly. At that moment I kinda wished I'd have produced a budgarigar as I'm sure it would have eaten them...

The weather continued getting worse throughout the day and we were virtual prisoners at the campsite from mid-afternoon onwards. We took this time to do some laundry and play some pool and table-tennis. Now usually I don't mind Jen beating me at the odd game of pool but she not only beat me at pool she went on to thrash me at t-t. And I was really trying. She stuffed me, spanked me, call it what you will...

With our dive trip planned for today we had a tough call to make but at 6.30 when we got up the weather hadn't improved any so we took a raincheck (ba-boom...) and decided to travel back to Auckland. This means tomorrow (when the weather is supposedly going to improve) we can visit Rangitoto Island which we wanted to do earlier but couldn't because of the weather...confused...so am I. The van we've had was singularly awful so we've swapped it and used the money we saved on diving to upgrade. It's much more spacious, although I couldn't work out why it wouldn't go above 80 (km/h) on the motorway...until I realised I'd left the handbrake on. One quick stop to wait for the brakes to cool down and the smell to dissipate and we were on our way...'much better' I thought, we hit 80 in no time...

So, tomorrow in Auckland before we head down to Waitomo for some black water rafting...this is basically caving on an inner tube in an underground river with no lights only glow-worms to guide you...should be fun.

One really good part about NZ has been the pubs - well the 2 we've been in anayway. In stark contrast to Aus where the pubs were nearly always awful...here they are bright, airy, and clean. There are also fewer seedy types (until we enter obviously) propping up the bars.



Daniel Cornwell 8/23/2003 05:27:00 AM

Friday, August 22, 2003

Part two in a series of 'diversions on the way to our campsites' was Whangerai (pronounced Fong-er-ay - all the people in the City are so impressed I know how to say it...who says local radio doesn't serve a purpose...?) Falls - a big waterfall, described as the most picteresque in New Zealand. They were nice enough although the river below was a horrid chocolate brown colour, reminiscent of Willa Wonka's chocolate river, due to the run-off from the rain.

Our telly has blown up - it gave up the ghost last night after 1 whole evening's useage. There was a smell of burning plastic, a puff of smoke, some flames and then (thank God) it all subsided leaving a useless piece of electronics. We've been in today and got our money back. Today is the Craft Fair that we heard advertised on local radio (we've got no telly remember so it's our only form of entertainment now...). We're a bit worried as there are no adverts for it anywhere, no posters, nothing. It'll be awful and I'd bet my last dollar on that much. We've booked in for a days diving tomorrow but if the weather stays like it is now (cold, wet, foggy, windy) it'll probably just be an hour or so on a boat...

Rachel and Sandeep (Jen's brother and her boyfriend) have booked flights to join us all in Spain for New Year so it'll be me, Jen, my Mum and Ken, my brother and Rachel and Sandeep. Should be great fun, although it'll be near the end of the trip we're really looking forward to it.

Daniel Cornwell 8/22/2003 12:19:00 AM

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

New Zealand is more like England than we thought. It has rained and rained and rained for two days solid now. We've left Auckland and headed north and are now in The Bay of Islands in a lovely little place called Paihia. From here we were hoping to dive the wreck of The Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace's flagship which was bombed and sunk by the French in 1985...but...the weather's so bad the dive company here has taken it's boat out of operation for a week and a half meaning we can't get to it. To be honest the bay looks as cloudy as hell anyway so maybe it's not too bad a thing. The trip up was fairly uneventful, we stopped of for a lovely breakfast at a cafe on the side of a hill where the winds were so strong I thought the van might blow over...needless to say they didn't, and a full English (or full New Zealand?) later we were off...

The scenery itself is reminiscent of any national park in the UK. Perhaps most like the Lake District at the present time, as there are lakes at the sie of just about every road. The only disconcerting thing about these lakes are the treetops that are just visable above the (rising) water...

We're hoping to see the famous 'hole in the rock' tomorrow which is...a hole in a rock. The water was so high today that the hole was not visible...Friday to Sunday is the Whangarei craft fair so I'm letting Jen drag me along (shoul give me some chance of getting to a rugby match or two...) before we head back down. It's looking pretty unlikely that we can do any diving but we're half thinking (well less than half really, more like eighth thinking) about pushing our flight to Chile back a week to enable us to get back up north in October - when the conditions are better...
Daniel Cornwell 8/20/2003 02:24:00 AM

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

New Zealand is so similar to England. If you think Aus and England are similar - come here!!! From the smaller streets and accompanying traffic, to the multi-cultured atmostphere Auckland would fit erally well into England. It has it's fair share of parks and interesting places too, some of which we've visited over the last couple of days.

After a lie-in we decided to venture into the City - in our campervan. This was a mistake as there were no (or at least very few) car-parks which weren't multi-storey. eventually we found some on-street parking for a couple of hours. The city skyline is dominated by Skytower which rises some 328m - more about that later.

After passing some time just wandering around we visited Cash Converters (this is becoming a habit) and bought the cheapest second-hand telly they had and a CD player - we managed to get both for about 70 quid! Then onwards and upwards to Mount Eden where a short drive took you nearly 200m up the side of a steep (dormant) volcanic crater. The views from the top were excellent, although we didn't manage to trek to the centre of the crater as the weather closed in just as we were about to start the heading down. Following a bit of a drive we ended up on the East side of the city (past millionaire's row) at Kelly Tarlton's Antactic Explorer. Kelly died just a few weeks after the construction of the centre in 1985, aged 47, and despite trying I couldn't find out how he died. It seems such a young age for a fit and healty guy - maybe it was caused by the stress of building this huge centre, which was excellent by the way! Aside from an unremarkable aquarium (not another I hear you cry - that's at least 4 now...) it houses an exact replica of Scott's Antarctic base from the 1910-12 expedition and also an Antarctic area where you get to ride on a snow-cat through real snow and see penguins in their (semi) natural environment. There's also a cool little cutaway section where you can see them swimming. It was so good we went around twice! Just time to catch a coulpe of pictures of the sunset before heading back for a food shop.

Today has been a really great day. The first place we visited was the marina and the Auckland visitor's centre. We saw a couple of the America's Cup yachts and also discovered that the weather for tomorrow, our planned day on a boat visiting the islands, is predicted to be 'wet, with gale force winds'. This forced us into a re-think, and we are (semi) reluctantly heading north tomorrow up towards the Poor Knights Islands. We continued on tot he War Memorial Museum of Auckland which looks a bit like a Greek temple - made that way as many of the returning soldiers were stationed in the Med during WW I (would they want to have been reminded of the war though...?) There is currently a fantastic exhibition on the Peruvian tribal culture, based mainly upon the value of gold and ritual killings. At the start of the exhibition was a painted jug from around 2,000 years ago. All the further exhibits formed a part of the stories on that jug and slowly pieced the story together. It has really whetted our appetite for Peru and the Inca trail. The Museum also housed countless other exhibits on Maori culture and WWs I and II to name just a couple.

We decided to walk back into the city (about 3km) and went via a huge park (Auckland Domain) the university that houses a fantastic clocktower. Our last port of call was to be the Skytower and we duly went as high as we could (about 2/3 of the way up) and enjoyed some great views of the city. Downstairs is a casino and we put a token bet on a roulette table - Jen made the call (red) and it, rather predictably came up...BLACK...should have known really in the land of the All Blacks and all that.

Tomorrow we're going to start heading north for some diving and then it's back down to Rotorua and the thermal spas before some 'black water' rafting among the glo-worms in the Waitomo Caves.
Daniel Cornwell 8/19/2003 06:30:00 AM

Monday, August 18, 2003

Back in Freo we decided to go to the prison which closed, after a riot, in 1991. It was an interesting hour or so, and we even got to see the gallows complete with rope still swinging. Afterwards we went for a quick run around the market where I had my tarot read. Really interesting stuff - I shose all 4 aces (you choose 10 cards out of 78) which she said was very strong. She described me as strong minded, indecisive and sexy as hell (I made one of those up...) and seemed surprisingly accurate. Apparently I will come into some money in May...lottery tickets WILL be bought...

In the evening (Friday) we decided to go out for a meal as Saturday was to be an overnight flight. We found a great little Italian - Sandrino (not a helpful dwarf called Marco) - and had a wonderful meal - all the better as we hadn't eaten outside a campervan for weeks!!

So, it's goodbye to Aus - we've had some real highlights; the diving, Ayers Rock, Sydney, The Whitsundays, couple of nights out in Melbourne, Darwin and the crew there, Fraser Island et al, and only one real lowlight. All in all it's been fantastic and we will be back one day to see the bits we haven't this time round, and to revisit some of our fave places.

We're now in Auckland - it seems like a really nice, open-spaced, interesting city. We arrived at 5pm yesterday and eventually picked up our van around 6pm leaving the depot at 7. It took us 90 minutes (and over 50 kms) to find our campsite. Tired, hungry and p***ed off we eventually rolled up just before 9. Fortunately there was a Pizza Hut next door which we made use of...with it being Sunday all the shops were shut. The day in transit was awful - we got really bad legroom seats (Jen had some sort of post where her feet should have gone) and couldn't sleep on the overnighter and then tried to grab an hour or so in the terminal before boarding the midday(ish) flight to Auckland. That one was a little better but we could have done without the hordes that descended on the departure lounge for the 2 earlier flights to Japan...

So, a couple of days in Auckland ahead - Rangitoto Island is on the agenda tomorrow as well as the Skytower and a couple of other things. From here we're heading north to do some diving at the world renowned Poor Knights Islands (in Jacques Cousteau's top ten world dive sites) and we'll also hopefully get to dive the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior. That should mean our anniversary should be spent in some thermal spa or other at Rotorua - at least that's the plan fo now...

Daniel Cornwell 8/18/2003 12:25:00 AM

Saturday, August 16, 2003

In Perth airport - waiting for our flight to Brisbane (11.20pm) and then our connection to Auckland (11.20am) - it's going to be a long 16 hours.

Internet is slow (think 28k modem on mogadon) and expensive (gold coins only in the slot - running out of guineas and galleons) and shit (the browser keeps crashing) so you're going to have to wait for what w've done over the last couple of days...

Daniel Cornwell 8/16/2003 12:47:00 PM

Thursday, August 14, 2003

We spent the morning playing 'Supa'Golf in the Swan Valley. It's a new(ish) concept in that the balls are about the size of snooker balls and the club heads are similarly over-sized. This means it is impossible to hit a ball more than, say, about 150 metres. It was a par-36, nine hole course and we both did reasonably well (I thought) to finish on 45 and 46 shots, as expected Jen won by a shot.

After this we made the short trip to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) which was excellent. The best thing about the place was that they exhibit different animals depending on their climate. Hence we went through a zone for Southern/Western Aus, one for the Tropics etc...

This afternoon we had our first decent look at Perth - it looks like a nice city with some great architecture and shops. We're going back on Saturday after we've dropped the campervan off. We're now in Fremantle and will be here most of tomorrow checking out the Gaol and looking round the market.

We'll be sad to leave Aus (on Sunday morning after overnight flight from Perth to Brisbane Sat night) but we're also really excited by New Zealand - it'll be nice not to have to drive a thousand kilometres without seeing anything/one...

Daniel Cornwell 8/14/2003 07:13:00 AM

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

There are nearly 3 times as many dead marsupials as friendly Australians in Western Australia. How do I know? Well it's 1250kms of boredom from Exmouth to Perth so we decided to count a few things and have a few games. We counted 287 dead roos/wallabies between Exmouth and Geraldton, 5 dead cows, one dead sheep, two or three herds (living) of goats, and one chair in the middle of the road. This compares with the number of Aussies that waved back at us when we waved at them (102). We also saw 24 road trains and passed over 25 cattle grids. When we decided to go for combos, eg Waving road train drivers (6) the excitement was almost palpable. There were a couple of waving roos too, rigor mortis having set in.

I have a couple of theories about why the number of dead animals is so high -

Ausies like killing...the first question we are always asked when we say we had an encounter with a roo is 'Did yo kill it...?' They also have a saying over here - 'The only good roo is a dead roo...' They are the biggest meat-eaters I have ever known, ee The Roadkill cafe a few weeks back in Darwin. I rest my case.

Aussie animals are very stupid and cannot spot a gap in the traffic wih a car coming along, ooooh, every half an hour.

My final theory is that all the Wallabies and Kangaroos are all committing suicide faced with the utter boredom that is the Australian outback. Maybe terrorist groupd should take note and strap some C4 to the back of them. Hell they could even form their own splinter cells - Wal-Quaida and Islamic Roo-had!!

Another weird thing was all the goats which somehow had managed to vault their endless fence and now frolicked near the roadside. I have seen pictures of goats jumping before nd they can jump up very effectively but not along too well. During one of my many moments of day-dreaming on the way down I imagined the animal olympics with a 1-2-3 for the goats in the high jump but no goat finalists in the long jump....yes it really was that dull this journey.

Anyhow here we are back in Perth after a good days and a halfs driving...3 days in and around the most remote capital in the world (closer to Singapore than Sydney) and a half day back in Fremantle before heading out of Aus before our visas run out. We arrive in New Zealand (Auckland) some time on Sunday afternoon.

Daniel Cornwell 8/13/2003 09:11:00 AM

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

The Navy Pier at Exmouth was built at 1964 and is only divable with one company, Coral Coast Divers. Having made the 2,000 km + round trip we were pretty determined to have a good dive...and we did. The entry to the divve was a little disconcerting - a giant stride from about 3 metres above the water. Jen was more than a bit hesitant but jumped before the instructor behind her pushed which is probably a good thing. The all-metal structure has slowly become covered with barnacles and coral and there is a multitude of fish down there, ranging from huge Potato Cod to a 2 1/2 metre White Tip Reef Shark (they are usually about half this size). It was another case of wondering if there was some sort of nuclear cargo down here (see the Yongala earlier on the trip) as everything was supersized. We saw a couple of Anglerfish which are so poor at swimming (they just kind of sit there looking bored) they have grown feet and now walk most places. It was an exceptional dive and well worth the trip, even though Jen's camera decided it had had enough after about 4 photos and froze completely.

Today we went out again - heading to the Murion Islands. I say heading because we never actually made it. After about 40 minutes the Captain explained we were now in the midst of 3-4m swells (for the benefit of those who weren't already throwing up) and would have to return back. Although I felt a little sick I didn't join in with the others although when asked how I felt I quipped, rather glibly, 'I'm OK and after all we're all in the same boat.'

My brother has very kindly put a compilation of sorts together for us so we've got some music for Nez Zealand, we're getting kind of bored of the same music we were listening to last year...Cheers Pat, and good luck on Friday (he's going into hospital for a gallstones op...)


Daniel Cornwell 8/12/2003 03:21:00 AM

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Photo time - this computer has crashed on me about five times whilst uploading these - hope it's worth the effort...

Darwin Group Shot, 2 Aerial Photos of Ayers Rock and The Olgas and CRASH (notice the ripped off roof is back on, albeit upside down...)





Fremantle



ROAD TRAIN!!Me at The Blowholes



Lake Cave



Busselton Pier



Augusta Lighthouse





Gloucester Tree and The Valley of the Giants





Wave Rock





The Pinnacles (at last...)







And finally...Just to prove we did see some whales - a baby Southern Right and a diving Humpback.



Daniel Cornwell 8/10/2003 08:14:00 AM

We're now as far north as we'll get on the west coast of Aus - Exmouth (another English name). It's a bit warmer here - hey I've even ventured out in shorts for the first time in ages. We've booked in to do 3 dives over the course of the next 2 days - one at The Navy Pier and a couple out at the Muiron Islands. We got a really cheap price after I fed them the roo/campervan sob story!!

Daniel Cornwell 8/10/2003 07:27:00 AM

Saturday, August 09, 2003

Today we drove. And drove. And drove... all we saw on the nearly 700 km was red soil, scrubs, and dead kangaroos. Never mind though as we are now in Carnarvon (no castle and incorrect spelling), some 367km short of our 'diving' destination - Exmouth. We have tentatively booked onto a couple of dives - they have done us a stupidly cheap rate. It would have been more expensive to do one whale shark snorkelling trip. The weather up here, whilst not as hot as back home, is fine and about 25 degrees. Tropical compared to the south coast.

Carnarvon itself is a small, and shut town - it's 5pm on a Saturday here and everything is closed...that's about all to say about it really.


Daniel Cornwell 8/09/2003 09:09:00 AM

Friday, August 08, 2003

What a busy few days. We have found internet access pretty hard to some by so hence the delay in the update. Anyhow - I guess we need to go back to yesterday morning when we were up and out at 8am in order to cover the 550+kms we had planned. Leaving Albany we headed north through the Stirling Ranges - a huge number of hills and mounts that looked were shrouded in a blue haze due to the Eucalyptus trees surrounding their bases. We stopped only for a couple of photos and to observe and photograph the many ROAD TRAINS that passed by us. For the uninitiated ROAD TRAINS (they are so big they deserve the capitalisation) are basically huge articulated lorries with anything from 3-5 trailers. They hurtle around the inner parts of Aus, where there is no rail system. Apparently they take a few hundred metres to stop and thus, when one comes along you basically get out of it's way and covered in dust. Great fun. About halway through the journey we passed through Kulin, where once a year there is an outback 'horse' race. I say 'horse' race because the only way we found out about this event was through the plethora of beer-can horses and riders that had been made and decorated. They were all life-size and there was probably twenty in all, spread through about 20 kilometres of roads. It certainly broke un the fairly monotomous journey.

Our first real stop for the day was at Wave Rock - just the other side of Hyden. Wave Rock is a rock that looks like, wait for it, a huge wave. Rather predictably we had our photos taken 'surfing' and the like. We also visited Hippo's Yawn which is a rock that looks like...well I bet you can guess...except that it didn't really - jnust more like a big cave.

So, with daylight running out ewe headed to Corrigin where stayed overnight in temperatures that could only be described as 'brass monkey'...

On leaving the campsite at 8am (again - this is becoming a habit) we headed to the Dog Cemetery where around 80 of 'man's best friends' now rest in piece. The fog shrouded the adjoining fields in a rather mysterious and sinister way, but you'll be pleased to know none of the dogs reappeared as Zombie-dogs or anything like that. The other claim to fame Corrigin has (other than the fact that it is the only place with 80 dead canines in one place, apart, of course from most Chinese restaurants) is that it holds the world 'Dog and Ute' record which stands at 1527, set last year. This means that last year they had 1,527 Utes (Aussie trucklike thingy - you must have heard them say Ute in Neighbours) with 1,527 dogs in them. Presumably there were 1,527 drivers too, otherwise it'd be a much more impressive boast. When they broke the record 4 years previous the 699 Utes stretched for over 7km whilst passing through the town...by my incredible mathematical ability I reckon last year it must have been around 16 kms...about 10 miles.

Onwards and upwards - off Northwest towards Perth. We passed a couple more 'sculptures' in fields including a car with the top end in the ground and thre rest sticking upwards. The word 'Buggar' (sic) had been daubed on the back - those crazy Aussies... As we passed through the old townships of York and Beverly I was worried we'd end up in Hull or Bradford and our van would end up on bricks as soon as we left it. Fortunately they stopped the Yorkshire-naming fascination at York (we'd already been through Scarborough too).

Last night we made a bit of a crazy decision...basically we're heading north. We've had a couple of weeks to think things over since the accident and are deternmines now to see everything we should have. Hence we are now back in Cervantes. this time with a fully functioning van. We finally got to The Pinnacles this afternoon, passing the spot where you can still see the skid marks where we crashed. There was a dead 'roo on the road nearby - perhaps another car did the damage...

The Pinnacles were well worth the return trip - huge monoliths in the middle of sand dune that have been formed over thousands of years. The tallest is about -3 metres tall and there must be tens of thousands of them in the National Park. We strolled around and got a good number of photos before heading back into town. Only one more diversion - the stromatolites. These are the reason you and I are here today - they effectively provided the first oxygen on the planet and thus helped make earth habitable. They didn't look much but for some reason I felt immensely satisfied having seen them.

So, here we are in Cervantes. We're moving on again tomorrow and our aim is to get as far North as is physically possible. This will mean we can get up to Ningaloo Reef and although we might not have enough money to dive we will definitely be able to snorkel. It'll also be our last chance to go to a beach and experience weather above 20 degrees for a few months.

Daniel Cornwell 8/08/2003 09:09:00 AM

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

We're still in Albany. Albany and the surrounds remind me very much of Cornwall - rugged coastlines, sheer cliffs, and charming and kind people. In the town centre itself there is a myriad of small cafes and coffee shops, one of which we stopped at today and had some of the best Bruscetta I've ever tasted. Marvellous! We went out whale watching (again) yesterday and today. Today because we didn't see any yesterday and they offered us a free trip out! Today we saw a pod of 3 humpbacks doing their thing, and although this is the 3rd time we have seen whales I still marvel and their gracefullness in the water despite weighing upwards of 50 tonnes and being over 15 metres long.

Tomorrow we're leaving Albany and heading back up in the general direction of Perth. there are some lakes on the way to Wave Rock where we will spend most of Friday. We should be able to make it up to The Pinnacles although we'll be driving that last stretch at about 40km/h!


Daniel Cornwell 8/06/2003 07:48:00 AM

Monday, August 04, 2003

We successfully managed to clear the bar whilst having our celebratery pint on Saturday evening. No idea why, but every single person left the bar in the 40 minutes we were in it. Maybe they were all seeking refuge in the warmer looking 'lounge'. The trip back to the campsite - all of a kilometre and a half (that's around a mile to those thinking in old money) - was awful. For a start it was raining, none of that fine rain that soaks you through either. This was more like God had decided to empty every container cantaining water and throw in all down within 1 square mile. (Incidentally I thought I'd look up clever metaphors and similes on the net for 'heavy rain/storms', my brain isn't feeling too crash hot this morning, so I thought I'd cheat. The only site I could find didn't have any although they did have 'He was as nervous as a hemophiliac in a razor factory' which I thought was quite good, if totally irrelevent). While I'm at it (irrevevance that is) what happens if you do say 'boo' to a goose? What does the goose actually do? What does it say about you? How would you catch the goose in the first place to say 'boo' to it? This came to me a few seconds after one flew toward us at a rate of knots before climbing just before experiencing windscreen armageddon. Funny how the mind (well mine at any rate) works. Anyway back to Saturday night....We eventually made it back to the 'van wetter than a polar bears backside (did that one myself - can you tell?) and as cold too. Thank God we had a heater (how ironic, thanking God when it was he (if you believe all that stuff) that just made us wet...) and, thus, managed to dry everything, even though it took a good hour for my (supposedly) quick-drying trousers to dry. The wind just got stronger and stronger throughout the evening and at times we felt like we were on a boat such was the rocking of our high-sided van.

Sunday was one of those mornings when you wake up and are glad to be alive. Bits of trees, mud, sand, small children, you name it, it was strewn all over the campsite but for some reason us, and our van, were pretty much unscathed. With the weather a little calmer we took a trip out to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse and joined the 9.45 tour. Our group was the usual motley crew (alas this time there was a poodle perm) and as we started to ascend the 6 flights off stairs it became apparent that one of the Aussies wouldn't be making it to the top. To describe her as a weeble would be a tad unfair, but then when have I ever been particularly fair? She made me look like Kate Moss and struggled breathing before even starting to head upwards. Still, at least she tried, one guy was left holding 4 tickets as his assorted friends left him to go up 'on their behalf' citing the weather, the height, allergies to (almost) cylindrical buildings on peninsulas etc...Anyhow back to weeble woman. She made it to platform one before her Mum (almost as rotund but seemingly a little fitter) made her excuses for her saying 'Yeah, she's a fat knacker who can't be arsed'. Or words to that effect. (She actually said 'she hasn't got a head for heights' - how I contained my urge to shout 'Liar' or counter it with 'she's certainly got a head for cakes' I'll never know). Our tour guide was excellent, highly informative (lighthouse built in 1895, 2 oceans (Southern and Indian) meet here, it is one of the most feared capes in the world along with Cape Fear and Cape Canavaral or something) but she had a kind of face that had clearly got a little weathered over the years. This made her look like she was going to burst into tears at every opportunity, although thankfully she didn't. At the same site (ish) as the lighthouse is an old, salt-encrusted, waterwheel. We went for a quick peek and couldn't decide what it's purpose was or really to be honest if it was what it said it was (couldn't see anything remotely salty wheel-esque).

Sunday was to be the 'day of the long drives' and, we duly made our way to the little town of Pemberton - home to the Gloucester Tree. This tree is hundreds of years old and stands over 60m high. Back in 1946 some kind people decided to pout rungs in it and and platform at the top and thus made it accessible for the public. Being the daring sorts that we are we took heed or the 'you need to be ultra-fit to climb this' notice, scoffed, and climbed. It wasn't as bad as they portrayed - Aussies do love their hyperbole, just look at their current most famous export, Steve Irwin - the walking exageration - and we enjoyed the views from the top. That is, until the winds started picking up again and we made a hasty retreat to the safety of the ground!

The next stop was just outside of Walpole - The Valley of the Giants. This is a $1.8m project set up over 6 years ago that has now received over 1.1m visitors. Set in a forest of tingle trees it is a 600m long circuit walkway that rises to about 40m. The bridges (all cantilever) sway in the wind which was a little un-nerving but it gave was a fun diversion and a great way to view the world as say, a falcon or koala would. Leaving there at about 4pm we had a bit of a dilemma. Denmark was the nearest town some 50kms away - easily doable in full light. Albany - where we really wanted to be was some 100kms away and we weren't too keen to travel in twilight. Just to emphasise the point three 'roos (the first we'd seen since 'fateful-Friday' night) crossed the road just as we were pulling out onto the main highway. Our mind was made up for us when we reached Denmark and saw no food shops, no campsites (only one we saw was down a dirt-road and we're not allowed down them in this van) and no people. It was as deserted as a recruitment company at Friday lunchtime. So we headed off to Albany and made it around 5.40, keeping the speedo well and truly down and 'roo-watching' (didn't see any more but then they say it's the 'ones you don't see') all the way.

So, here we are in Albany. It's only 11am here and already it's rained as heavily as on Saturday, been sunnier than on a Thai beach and been windier than a Heinz convention.

One thing has become very obvious over the course of this holday. How much myself and my dear wife are becoming like our parents. We enjoy guided lighthouse tours (I even decribed it as 'jolly'!!), delight at seeing trees and nature, and even visit a bloody waterwheel. I have also found great delight it spotting real Aussies driving. You can tell real Aussies as when they approach they lift their finger from the steering wheel in a kind of G'day mate' type way. I have had literally hours of fun doing this. Please transport me to the zorbing, snowboarding, bungying paradise of NZ before I start wearing sports-jackets, join the National Trust, and start smoking a pipe.


Daniel Cornwell 8/04/2003 02:39:00 AM

Saturday, August 02, 2003

We didn't play golf - what a shocker. Basically we got to the par 3 course and found out it was all done on an honour system but to hire clubs you had to trek back into town (where we'd just come from). By this time it was getting late so that makes Jen still golf champion. Today we went whale watching, which was a different experience to Moreton Bay. The whales we saw were mother and calf - the calf, although weight a ton or two, and measuring a few metres was only 2 weeks old. They were 'southern right', not humpback, whales, which tend not to breach as often as the humpbacks. The calf was very playful and came within a few metres of the boat - we got some great piccies so will try to add these soon.

We then tried to get to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse but it was so wet & windy in the car park we thought the van was going to topple over. With discretion being the better part of valour we decided to take a raincheck (every pun intended) and headed back to the campsite with a view to going back first thing tomorrow.

We have just heard the weather report - we have a 'sever weather warning' (but then so does the whole of Southern Western Australia - an area not disimilar in size to Texas) tonight so it could be fun in our little van!

More good news has come from Jen's previous employers who have come up with an offer for her to go back in January which she is very happy with, although it looks as though her first day back at work will be her birthday...


Daniel Cornwell 8/02/2003 10:29:00 AM

Friday, August 01, 2003

While I remember yesterday was the day of coincidences - we had 3 in the space of about half an hour. First up we were listening to an Abba record and then crossed over the Abba river. Secondly the jetty at Busselton has a brand spanking new bench donated by the Cornwell family. Thirdly, as we started the jetty walk someone had scrawled their name - K. Jones - on the ground. This is my stepfathers name. That was it so it was more of a thrity minute coincidence thing rather than a full day but there we have it.

We left Margaret River early(ish) this morning and have headed to Augusta (where, yes we're having a game of golf!) where we're staying for a couple of days. On the way we stopped off at Lake Cave which (unsurprisingly) had a lake in it...The 'mood' lighting was very effective and nature had done it's bit too really in creating a much smaller and almost homely cavern compared to yesterdays huge one! We spent a good hour there before heading to the most South-westerly town in Aus. We're going to be here a couple of days (the campsite is cheap) and have booked onto a ludicrously cheap whale-watching tour for tomorrow - it is less than a third of the sum we paid in Brisbane.

Daniel Cornwell 8/01/2003 07:14:00 AM

Thursday, July 31, 2003

For T III read Hulk. Again, although highly stylised (aren't all comic books), a little long, and with no discernable storyline I thought it was much much better than the critics. We are now in Margaret River - a picturesque town situated, unsurprisingly, on the stretch of water that bears its name. It boasts some great viewpoints, a few eateries, and one fantastic internet cafe! The trip here was via a couple of places; our first stop being Busselton, which is famous for it's pier. At 2km long it is one of the longest in Aus and we duly trapsed it's length (and back, obviously) with the wind whipping and the rain lashing our faces. Still it was quite a pleasant experience for no other reason than that there were so few people around and you could really feel the force of the wind and sea. After this we made it to Ngilgi Cave which was found, completely by accident, in 1899. It is about 40m deep and has hundreds or thousands of stalagmites and stagaltites. We descended as far as we could go and had a good look round before the guide turned all the lights off leaving it eerily dark. Thankfully he turned them back on before the long trudge back to civilisation. In total we walked over 2 km and up and down 681 steps (no I didn't count them).

No real plan from here - we;ll probably move on tomorrow - there have been reports of an albine Southern Right whale being born in Albany, so we're hurrying along to get there in time to see it. We called a company doing whale watching there today and they said that they thought the mother and child may shelter in the bay for a few more weeks so we are hopeful we can get there in time. The weather is still shocking - rain and gale-force winds.

Daniel Cornwell 7/31/2003 08:16:00 AM

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

I actually thought Terminator III was much better than alot of the reviews I've read. I thought the predictable one-liners were well-delivered, story line had a decent twist, and the action sequences were fantastic. The crane chase is really excellent. All in all worth 8.5 bucks! For those who don't know Tuesday is cheap Tuesday in cinemas throughout Aus...thus the cheap ticket. We loved the cinema so much (honest) we've decided to go back today to kill a couple of hours...this time to see 'The Hulk'. The weather is predictably awful - that fine rain that soaks you through again.

This morning we had a couple of hours at the Dolphins Discovery Centre where we spent some time in the museum area and also on the beach where we saw at least 7 if not alot more wild dolphins who swam right up to the shore line looking for their food. Unfortunately the sea was pretty choppy so we couldn't wade out and 'interact'.


Daniel Cornwell 7/30/2003 05:54:00 AM

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

'Parents, be nice to your children, they choose your retirement homes...' as found on a wall in Fremantle - a place we've just spent the day wandering. Freo (as it's known to the locals) is a really smart looking place with buildings straight out of picture-books, fantastic looking cafes, and a relaxed, (almost falling over) laid-back feel. We started the day by walking to the 3km or so into town from the caravan park along a coastal path. The weather was unusually hot and sunny for the time of year and it was a fun 40 minutes or so. En route we passed some dreadlocked hippie type woman with a couple of those fires thingies that you twiddle round your head. It's a good job hers weren't on fire as she would have set herself alight on numerous occasions such was her uselessness with them. We also watched a black lab. puppy run into the sea chasing a tennis ball and spend fully ten minutes searching for it before it's owner realised it had gone forever and plucked another from her bag...she'd obviously done that before.

So onto Freo...we spent a fair part of the morning just walking around (that's free you know!) and looking in bookshops (can't afford such luxuries now...) before having our (packed) lunch in a town square different to most we've seen so far in Aus insofar as there were no tramps, annoying children (well one, but he wasn't that annoying) or paralytic aborigines. Sad, but true. Our one indulgence for the day - a coffee at one of the afrementioned cafes whiled away another half hour or so before we headed to 'The Roundhouse', which, incidentally, is not round but has 12 sides. I suppose 'The Dodecahedral-house' just isn't as catchy (or easy to spell). This was the site of the first Freo gaol and here they once executed a 15-y.o. boy. That'll teach him for playing truant...Onwards to the Maritime Museum which holds a reconstructed part of the stern of the Batavia which sunk off the West coast in 1629. Of the 316 on board only 116 survived due to a mutiny shortly after people fled the sinking ship. Ironically only a handful drowned as the ship went down, most died in the bloody 'coup' that followed. Just a quick shout out to an Oxford supporting friend of mine - thanks for ringing me last night to gloat about Paul Wanless. For once I have no reposte. I fully expect you to get promoted and us relegated...

This morning we were due to head out to Rottnest Island but with thunderstorms, 30 knot+ winds, and 3m swells due for this afternoon we decided against seeing our dinner again and have travlled south to Bunbury - home of the Dolphin Discovery Centre. We are going to try to see soem of the little fellas tomorrow morning which is their favourite time to come into the 'interactive zone'. Jen's also had some really good news about something that has been dragging on for about 2 years now so all in all we're pretty upbeat for the first time in a few days.

Daniel Cornwell 7/29/2003 05:43:00 AM

Monday, July 28, 2003

The dust has settled after a nightmareish time really. In the immediate aftermath of the crash Helen and Rich stayed behind to help us out, and drove us to the nearest police station the next day so a big shout to them. Also a big thanks to the 4 people (2 of whom I didn't get their names...) who stopped by the side of the road and helped us salvage everything we could. Without them passing by (and the South African couple who picked Jen up and took her back to the campsite) a bad night could have been a whole lot worse.

In some of the emails we have got people keep asking 'did you hit the 'roo'...the answer, quite simply, is no. Having said that we are now buying as much kangaroo meat as possible - it tastes a little like a cross between beef and pork btw.

We also get asked 'what about insurance'? Well the 3,000 (UKP) we are paying is only the excess...being backpackers, and needing a cheap campervan rental to get a reasonable excess (say 200 UKP) you have to pay at least 50% on top of the rental price - sometimes up to 100%. Having already taken the insurance out once and not the other time we decided against it this time for purely financial reasons and I guess we were the unlucky ones.

The most difficult thing now is trying to motivate ourselves to do other things as we obviously cannot afford the diving, or, indeed, the long trip up the coast (once bitten and all that...). It's really easy to think of all the ifs...

if we'd picked up the first van at 10am we wouldn't have been driving at dusk
if we'd gone straight to the campsite and not out to the Pinnacles we'd also have been fine
if we'd hired a more expensive and newer van (this one had done over 420,000 km's) it would have had anti-lock brakes and we wouldn't have veared of the road
if we'd taken out more expensive/lower excess insurance...

but then there's the other ifs...

if we'd rolled on the road not the soft sand which took the impact of the roll what would/could have happened?
if we'd hit the 'roo (we had no 'roo bars on the front and the engine was under us not in front...) what would/could have happened?
if there was a car coming the other way what would/could have happened?

So on one hand we're really annoyed about losing the chance to go north, losing a load of cash and possibly losing the opportunity to do certain things on the trip. On the other hand we could both be on the way home in a casket by now, a point vividly illustrated to us on the front page of the yesterday's 'Western Australian' newspaper. The headline 'No Chance' above a picture of a car that crashed into a bridge killing a young couple instantly.

As an friend of ours says 'if my auntie had a moustache she's be my uncle...' and I guess that's what we have to do - it's in the past, it's happened and now let's move on.

In an effort to do so we went to Cash Converters (!) yesterday and bought the cheapest TV we could find. We figured that doing so would mean we wouldn't get bored in the evenings (even though Aussie TV is basically UK TV with strange accents and bad acting), and hey, they'll even buy it back off us for half the price we paid (we paid 130 dollars - about 50 quid for colour TV and aerial) should Qantas not allow us to take it to New Zealand with us. So we're kind of thinking of it as a TV rental cost of about a pound a day - a bargain in every sense of the word. Incidentally the sales assistant looked at me as if I'd escaped from the local asylum when I asked if I needed to buy a licence. 'What for?...A telly? You're kidding mate?'

As I've already said we've changed our plans and aren't going up north any more. After some wrangling with NQ rentals they have given us a new van (they didn't have any of the ones marked 'scabby backpackers vans' and thus tried to charge 20 quid a day 'upgrade fee' for the only van they had available, before I pointed out in their terms and conditions that it says 'if we need to upgrade you we will pay for it' or words to that effect.)

So here we are in the delightful coastal town of Fremantle. It's all 'art deco' buildings (ish) and fancy coffee shops. We had a quick look round yesterday and have come back today (with packed lunch and bottle of squash) to see it when it's a little less crowded. The plan from here is to go out to Rottnest Island tomorrow, and then head south towards Margaret River, through to Albany, doing a tree-top walk or two en route (Walpole) and then back to Perth via Wave Rock and York. We will probably stay in lay-bys every other night but as campsites are pretty cheap (8-10 quid a night) and they have hot showers that may be our biggest outlay. We still have enough money to get to, and do New Zealand fairly effectively we think. At the moment we are trying to sort a little additional funding (donations welcome ;) (!)) which will enable us to do the South America touras planned.

One other thing is that because we are watching our money diary entries will almost certainly become more sporadic (certainly whilst we are camping anyway as few sites have internet access) and we may take a couple of days to respond to emails. If anyone needs to contact us urgently my Aus mobile number is available on the message system for my UK number (!). You can text us on that.


Daniel Cornwell 7/28/2003 04:21:00 AM

Saturday, July 26, 2003

OK. It's not been a good day or two really. We left Perth after changing campervans once in one that had done over 420,000 km's. Upon arriving at Cervantes at around 5.15pm we decided to make the trip out to the Pinnacles so we could get on up the coast first thing the next day. We were going fine until a huge 'roo (the biggest we've ever seen) jumped out in front of us. I slammed the brakes on and we skidded into the side of the road before the car decided to roll over (and land upright) tearing the roof off in the process. Although really shaken up neither of us are/were hurt and we walked away. Some very kind people stopped by and helped us salvage everything. The roll wasn't at very high speed as nearly everything was intact (apart from the van)...even the wine, beer bottles etc... survived !

The bad news is that cost. It's going to cost us $7,000 due to the excess, towing charges, and 'single-vehicle' accident clause. This means that we're some 3k down and as we were living to budget at the mo we are not sure how we're going to pay for South America. We're trying to sort something out but it looks likely thanks to one bloody 'roo we may have to cut our trip short. As the cop we reported it to today said 'at least you're alive' and for once I'd agree with that. Apparently the biggest part of his job is dealing with car crashes - many fatal.

We're heading back to Perth tomorrow first thing and picking up a replacement van as we decided this morning in typical British stiff upper lip type way that 'the show must go on' and we're going to try to stick to our original plan. The alternative was to lose the money we'd paid for the van and hang around in Perth for 3 weeks. We would have gone back to Perth and got jobs but we can't work here as we don't have work, only tourist, permits.

We are both OK - a little bruised and sore, but no cuts or anything more serious.


Daniel Cornwell 7/26/2003 05:14:00 AM

Friday, July 25, 2003

We're off up the coast then, and access t'internet may be a little more sporadic. Hence if you don't get an email back for a couple of days don't worry! Our first stop in Cervantes for the Pinnacles, then off north towards Monkey Mia (swimming with dolphins and some 'Awestromomy' - star-gazing in a hot-tub!) before finally heading up to Ningaloo for some much needed diving.


Daniel Cornwell 7/25/2003 12:49:00 AM

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Our last night with the gang was a little shorter than the previous one. We only managed a couple of drinks before heading back due to the 4.30am wake up for our flight to Perth. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, a really really good bunch of people. Ben did his 'mar-mee-tay, vey-je-mee-tay noo-tell-ahhh' routine (in joke) and we got it on video so we were happy. He also beat me at pool the git! Strange to think really that in a couple of months Ben'll be back in France, Katherine (who has already headed to Sydney) will be back in the UK, Laurina will be in Canada, (dirtygirl) Zoe, and Rog will be in Sydney and we'll be in South America - literally all spread round the world.

So, here we are in Perth. First impressions are that it's a very laid back big city. We met up with Helen and Rich for lunch - they're off up the coast today and we've arranged to meet in Coral Bay on 29th for some diving. They had a spot of bother with their campervan from Wicked Campers as the one they were allocated had a porngraphic depiction of a couple of women and their sex toys. Unsurprisingly they weren't amused and the van is currently being re-sprayed...

We've brought our van forward by a few days and are thus picking it up tomorrow. It means we can spend more time heading up the coast. Ours is from NQ rentals and has no daubings on the side thank God.
Daniel Cornwell 7/24/2003 07:23:00 AM

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Today is the ninth anniversary of my Dad's death. That's nearly a third of my life. He was kind of the inspiration for doing this whole mad year out thing in a 'carpe diem' kind of way. Ironic really as he never even went in an aeroplane. I still miss him.

Daniel Cornwell 7/23/2003 10:13:00 AM

Last night will definitely go down in the 'Dan & Jen World Trip Annals' as 'another great party night out...' After meeting up with everyone from the trip bar the Aussie couple (who incidentally told some of us they'd left town but told others they weren't leaving for a few more days) at Shennanigans - an 'Irish Bar' - we decided to do their quiz. On round 1 we scored 10 out of 10, but after only getting 5 in the next round decided to move on sharpish to Hanuman's - a Thai/Indian restaurant that has won loads of awards for it's food and ambience, although, not as it would turn out, it's customer service.

We arrived at 9.05pm only to be told our table, booked for 9, had been given to another group. Whilst we were a little annoyed we weren't that bothered and went across the road to another Irish bar for a beer. They had my mobile number and duly rund at 9.39 to let us know our table was ready. Drinks were downed and we made our way to the restaurant within a couple of minutes only to be told to order quickly as they'll be closing the kitchen soon. Within a couple more minutes we had ordered wine and various meals only then to be told (after tucking into the wine) that 'chef has shut down the tandoori over for the evening', meaning most of us would be left with dishes we didn't want. Not impressed! (Dirtygirl) Zoe complained and for old times sake I joined in but in what I thought was a fair and constructive way - hey I didn't even raise my voice. The unanimous decision was made (after quaffing more of the wine obviously) to leave the restaurant (without paying for anything), and the girls (Ben was on the internet so just the 6 of us by now) were up and gone pretty sharpish leaving me to chat with the Assistant Manager, Dino. He explained how sorry he was and I said how disappointed we were and how we have eaten in some really good restaurants all around the world and in the UK. I then mentioned I ran a website and that I'd have to mention it in there (in a disappointed about your place kinda way not a bitchy one) and it was then he really (for some reason) started begging us to stay. Indeed his exacts words were:

'What would it take for you to stay?' reply - 'nothing, we've made our decision', then he said (and this has NEVER happened to me before) 'I'll take it' (take what????) 'I'll take it, I'll pay for your food'. Meaning we could have all had a free meal in one of the best restaurants in Northern Australia for nothing - just paying for the wine. By the time this ludicrously generous offer had been made the girls had scarpered though and by the time I had explained to them what had happened we were all agreed (honest!!) that we had made a decision to leave and it was now a matter of principle. Fair dos. So (with it now past 10pm) we trudged up and down Mitchell Street looking for a place to eat. The Hog's Breath Cafe had stopped serving food and so had everywhere else (including the numerous fast food places - arghhhhhhhh) but eventually Rog and Zoe used their charms to persuade the chefs at Cafe 69 to stay on for another half an hour and cook us all a meal. And what a meal it was. Massive steaks, lamb shanks to die for and, according to Jen, some of the best ribs she'd ever had. The message is clear - if you ever go to Darwin go to this place - the staff were friendly and the food was just exceptional. A bonus was that the bill came to under a tenner a head... TREMENDOUS! Now touching midnight we wandered back to where it all began this time with Ben in tow. Incidentally, he was sporting the best t-shirt I've seen so far...Plain black with the words 'Qui est ton Papa?' on it (he is French after all...). Superb. Another couple of pints and a bizarre conversation, using props, about emus legs were had before we bade farewell to our new found buddies. Katherine had left for her flight back to Sydney a little earlier and we were tired...we finally made it back around 2 o'clock. Stupidly enough, with a 6am flight tomorrow we've all arranged to meet up again tonight...should be fun again...


Daniel Cornwell 7/23/2003 04:07:00 AM

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Big hairy elephant (mammoth) post coming up...

Our first evening in Darwin (last Thursday) was spent at the Nimbil Market, home to hundreds of craft and food stalls, tens of hippies with bad dreadlocks and one fantastic didgereedoo player. In fact he was so good we even bought one of his CDs although, alas, not the Drum 'n' Bass one. After listening to didgeman for 20 mins or so and chomping on a pile of nachos as big as your house we bumped into Jason Gillespie - one of Australia's fast bowlers. He was in town for the test match against Bangladesh starting on Friday. I am pleased to report he looks as tall, ugly and gipsy-esque (Romanic?) in real life as he does on the telly. We retired early (bit like Bangladesh - an innings and 132 runs defeat - OUCH!) due to our early start. We were so bleary eyed that Jen took it upon herself to fall down the stairs, bruising and grazing her knees. 'These things always come in threes don't they...?' I thought...only to be proved spectacularly right in the course of the trip.

Our guide (Warren, or Wazza - pronounced 'Wozza', just as, I found out the other day, Wagga Wagga is pronounced 'Wogga Wogga') had been in and around Darwin for about 5 years and kind of sub-contracted himself to our tour company in that all the equipment, 4x4 et al were his. I thought I worked some hours in the past but it pales into insignificance for this guy as he gets up at 5, and starts work at 6 after typically finishing at around ten the night before...but as he said, whilst stood in the middle of the National Park, 'Yeah but just look at my office...' He was a good and knowledgable guide although occasionally he would floor us with 'facts' that were just plain wrong...e.g. 'The crocodile has a three-chambered heart - just like us', and the best - 'Go to the top of the hill for a full 380 degree panoramic view...'

After a few niggly bits of admin, park fees, sleeping bag hire and the like, we all crammed into Wazza's Landcruiser. Our group was quite well balanced - 3 accountants (Aussie early 40s Glen and his partner, early 30s Kate and Katherine, a South-African living in Britain), 3 recruiters (arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! me (well, ex-recruiter), Zoe (later to be known as 'Dirty' Zoe and Rogelia - both of whom now live in Aus after immigrating from Wales (definitely NOT ENGLAND OK!!!!)and Portugal repectively) a doctor (Laurina, from Ontario), a dentist (Jen) and a mad Frenchman - Ben. We remarked that our group would be ultimately balanced if Ben was in a medical profession, and to our surprise when we asked us what he did he replied 'nursing'. We could hardly contain our glee until Ben qualified that in fact he was a student and actually did 'Nothing', just with a heavy French accent. So, off we went into the dust and towards Lichfield, stopping just once, briefly at magnetic termite mounds. These mounds are built from north to south (about 5 inches wide, but a couple of metres long) so that the termites get the sun in the morning on one side and the evening on the other - kind of like natures central heating I guess. Some were 50 years old and towered some 2 metres plus tall. On arriving at Wangi Falls we were ready to cool down and we took time out to swim across a lake (no cros here although, curiously, there were no locals, only tourists, swimming) to said falls before discovering that a car had been broken into in the car park and a couple had lost all their rings, passports, children, that kind of thing. Ever so slightly worried by the whole thing (we'd asked Wazza to lock the truck - his reply 'No-one ever breaks into vehicles here' meant he left it unlocked...) but returned to an untouched truck and trailer...I guess 'backpackers' never have much worth stealing anyway. After an hour or so it was time to move on to Tolmer and, subsequently, Florence Falls (down, and then back up, 160 steps...) where we also enjoyed the tropical whether with swim-time, but thankfully without 6 metre reptiles.

Only one really amusing incident happened during the day. Katherine (who was sitting next to Jen) got on the bus as I was talking to Glen and Kate. She reversed in (we were sitting on two benches of four - facing each other), and bent over to pick something up. I looked up to see this bum (covered in sarong) about 30 cms from my face and, convinced it was Jen (Jen evidently has a sarong & swimming cossie just like Katherine) went to give it a good pat. For some reason (maybe the look of horror on Kate and Geln's faces) I just made as if to before Katherine sat down and I flushed red in embarressment. God knows what would have happened if I had actually slapped her on the arse. Incidentally we had a good laugh about this later and she said afterwards if I had she would have elbowed my somewhere...)

The trip to the campsite followed, during which I was very careful to identify my wife before touching her knee, holding her hand etc... It was highly amusing to watch people do that little head slump thing when just drifting off to sleep. Every single time Laurina's head nearly touched the window of the bus she would sub-consciously correct her slump and her head would go back upright. Very strange but quite amusing nonetheless. Beer and bolognaise for tea which were both delicious. we decided against the tents (no mozzies in Lichfield for some reason) and, thus, slept in swags looking up at the stars. (Interestingly enough for me and my brother when we asked Ben how he felt as a percentage when he was flagging a little he said 57 and a half!!!!!)

Our (very) rude awakening came at 6 before we heading out towards Katherine Gorge where we spent half a day canoeing up and then back down. About halway up, we spent some time on our very own secluded beach before continuing on. There was a section at the end of the first gorge (there are 9 in total I think) where you could carry your canoe over 3 sets of (not very) rapids before carrying on to (you've guessed it) the second gorge. In the 35 degree heat we decided to watch the others and shout encouragement from the bank, and made it back around 20 minutes early. Laurina, Katherine, and Ben (paddling on his own) didn't get back until nearly an hour late meaning a change of plans - not all bad - we got to go to Katherine Thermal Spa
instead of another waterfall.

We finally entered Kakadu National Park after more driving (in total we drove more than 1000 kms over the four days, on dirt, 4x4 and normal roads), arriving at Barramundi Gorge (Maguk to the local aboriginals) campsite. After an uneventful night (remembered only for my toasted marshmallows, and Zoe's roasted bananas with chocolate) we got up early for the entertaining walk straight up a bloody big hill to the top plunge pool. There were, in fact, two main pools, with one other only accessible by diving and swimming into it or jumping in and then swimming out. Feeling brave (and-or foolhardy) we decided to jump off a couple of rocks some 4/5m high into the main pool. Jen decided to complete her second fall (quite spectacularly too it must be said) by slipping on the rock and grazing her backside whilst bouncing off the rock and into the water. Was this a (potentially) nasty accident or was she trying to give me something to help me differentiate her bum from others? Either way I'm pleased to report she didn't hurt herself physically (only her pride hurt) and what's more I got it on video!! This spot (despite Jen's Greg Louganis-esque fall) was our favourite of the whole trip - a real oasis in the tropics. Oh, and the fact that we didn't have to keep our eyes open for crocs as none of the buggers could ever climb up to those pools.

Jen decided to complete her sumersaulting triumverate with the most spectacular coming last - on the way to Jim Jim falls. Neither her, nor I, am 100% sure what happened other than after stubbing her toe on a tree root/stone/small mammal she ended up flipping over, and lying face up in some undergrowth. Considering the whole tracks was nasty looking rocks she was pretty fortunate to choose the only bush for a good km to land in. Nevertheless she now sports a bruise the size of a fist, but no longer sports the shorts she was wearing - they were ripped beyond further practical use. At Jim Jim we swam in the clear pool (not convinced there were no crocs here although I felt more convinced we were safe when Wazza dived in too) and spent a good couple of hours chatting to others in the group.

With a fridge full of beer it was inevitable that the final night would descent into some form of debauchery and it duly did. I think it is unfair to besmirch anyone's character on here (honest) but suffice to say it was during this evening, as the beer and wine flowed, that we gave Zoe her new moniker; 'Dirty' Zoe, she doesn't get that nickname from a lack of cleanliness you know! Without getting into too much detail she told us of her fascination for 'dirty men' (Robbie Williams and Colin Farrell are top of the tree, although Vin Diesel qualifies too apparently). This topic and line of conversation had most of us in stitches but not poor Ben, who by this time had consumed a couple of litres of red wine (well he did start at lunchtime) and was taking about half an hour to get a sentence out. We finished the night by trying to solve one of Zoe's men dilemmas for her by all chipping in our 2 cents of advice before finally getting to bed around midnight. It was a great night, as the seven of us (the two Aussies and Wazza slunk off to bed early) really gelled and had a great laugh.

With most of us feeling surprisingly refreshed we headed off, after breakfast, to the local Aboriginal Cultural Centre. I say most of us as Ben looked as though he was about to die. He muttered something about the steak being off or something and, feeling generous, we gave him the front seat (more leg room for him, less change of getting covered in vomit for us) for the duration of the day. The centre was similar to the one at Ayers Rock, although no 'scary-boob dance' this time round, but we'd seen enough after 30 mins or so and hurtled off to Ubirr rock, site of some of the oldest Aboriginal art (some say up to 22,000 years old) and a great view over the wetlands. With time running out all that was left was our crocodile cruise along the Corroboree Billabong. Our host, Ted, a straight talking late 50s Aussie, had to wait an hour or so for another group who'd suffered a flat tyre before setting out onto the water. The tour was fantastic - another highlight. Ted certainly knew his eco-system and treated us to an excellent commentary describing all the birds and other wildlife. However we'd all come for the crocs and they didn't disappoint. We must have seen 5 or 6 Freshies (smaller - not dangerous to humans unless provoked) and the same number of, the larger and much more menacing, Salties (they eat everything and anything - even their partners and offspring - these are the ones that killed a German tourist in Kakadu last year). Ted even managed to find what he believes could be the biggest recorded croc in the world - one 6 metres (over 19 feet) long. It swam on the surface some 10m in front of the boat for a minute or two before, rather ominously, deciding to submerge. At this point Ted hit the 'full throttle' button and we were out of there p.d.q. After a bit of fun with lotus flowers (leaves as hats - that kind of thing) we trapsed back into the van for one final drive back to Darwin. Never has a shower been more welcome (we hadn't had one since day one) and we must have scraped off accumulated dirt at least a millimetre deep.

The tour, guide, food, wildlife, sights, and people were fantastic. One of the most fun tours we've been on and definitely a great group of people. In fact, we all got on so well we're meeting up for more drinks and a Thai meal tonight before every one moves on. Who knows what revelations we'll get tonight...

We've spent the morning washing just about everything we own (that dust gets everywhere).

Whilst we've been away our collective sets of parents have been busy and it now looks likely that Richard, Lynn, and Rachel will be popping over (only 30 hours) to New Zealand to go skiing with us in September. Jen rang Lynn (her mum) last night and was so tired she could barely speak let alone sound excited, but, just in case they read this, Lynn, Richard Rachel - SHE IS - VERY!!! They should be booking something in the next day or two. However, my mum, stepdad and brother have all booked their tickets for New Year in Barcelona which, is also, great news.

Off to Perth on Thursday - we're in the process of arranging to meet up with Helen and Rich who arrived there yesterday. We should be able to spend some time diving with them on Ningaloo.

The following are a load of pictures some as far back as Brisbane/Aussie Zoo, and others from the recent trip.

Tasmanian Devil, sleeping koala - Aussie Zoo.


Jen with 'Steve Irwin' and again with a couple of 'roos (asleep not dead before you ask)



The stage is set - State of Origin - Suncorp Stadiumm Brisbane, and us at the match.



Jen on Nimbil Beach, and The Roadkill Cafe - 'You kill it, we grill it'...



Us by the magnetic termite mounds, me at Wangi falls.



Tolmer falls, and us at Florence falls.



Jen at Florence, us at Buley rockholes.


Me canoeing and on 'our' beach.



Empty canoe-park, group shot at Katherine Spa.



Katherine Spa again, and me with marshmallow stick(!).



On the walk to, and at Barramudi Gorge.



Aboriginal art, and us overlooking the Wetlands.



Salties, the second 'The Biggest in the World?' (!)




Daniel Cornwell 7/22/2003 05:38:00 AM

Thursday, July 17, 2003

State of Origin turned out to be, if not a damp, a very soggy squib. The Blues lost 36-6 and thanks to Jen persuading me to wear my new Blues shirt I got a fair amount of (fairly good natured) abuse from Maroons fans. Good job I took a zip-up top to wear on the way home!

We've arrived in Darwin following a 4 hour flight (with additional hour delay thanks to some idiot not getting on the flight despite their baggage already being on it...I mean just what type of person does this???), and it's a little hot. Now I like it warm, but I don't like it this warm. There's warm and there's warm...(bit of Peter Kay for you there) and indeed it is bloody hot again but then we are back in the tropics...only a few hundred miles from Indonesia. Darwin appears quite laid back and less backpackery than the East coast. Our Kakadu tour starts tomorrow and we've got a full group of 9 people (&guide) going so should be fun. They've closed the area we were meant to swim 700m (Twin Falls) due to a newly discovered, and now resident, crocodile. Nice! Providing we survive you'll be sure to get a blow by blow account sometime Monday evening/Tuesday morning!

Daniel Cornwell 7/17/2003 07:59:00 AM

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Well, we had the night out with Shane...the poor mite just couldn't keep up with his English drinking buddies and by the end of the night looked a little akin to the famous Alan Partridge, 'I'm Confused' moment...haha We offered to let him sleep on our floor as he'd missed his last train back but he declined stating it was his intention to go and clean the local casino out. We duly let him out back into Brisbane and haven't heard from him since...hope you're alright mate!

Somehow we struggled out of bed by 7 yesterday in preparation of the day's whale watching we'd booked earlier. Every year thousands of humpback whales make the trip from the Antarctic up to warmer waters to give birth to their (blubberless) young. They then slowly make the trip back down. Having missed them on the South coast (Warrnambool) and Fraser Island (we saw a couple of spouts of water but no actual whales) we decided to take the trip out on 'Eye-Spy' to Moreton Bay with Kerry Lopez, the only female boat captain in Australasia. (Click here)

As we left Brisbane I came across a sign reading 'Don't Spread Fire Ants'. Now I may be in a minority of one (well two, along with Jen) but I have never heard of Fire Ants, or indeed why I should not spread them. I didn't know if they were referring to spreading them like marmite on bread (kind of aboriginal delicacy per chance?), or populating a large area with them. I thought they might even be like small insect arsonists...however via google I have discovered that:

"The red fire ant is a tenacious but ordinary looking red-brown ant originally hailing from South America. If you disturb their nest they will swarm on to you and sting you with their tails repeatedly and in unison. Each sting releases a small amount of venom. The immediate sensation is that the bitten area of your body is on fire. The sting gives rise to pustules which can be extremely itchy for a week. In about 1% of cases an allergic reaction will occur."

Fine, but it still begs the question as to why anyone would deliberately spread them.

Further along the highway we went past a wonderfully named place called 'Humpybong'. This is where the Bee Gees went to school and indeed played their first gig at a hotel around the corner. when you type in 'Bee Gees Humpybong' into google you only get three results...are they embarrassed of their roots?

On arriving at the jetty I had a chat with a lovely old lady who'd spied the 'Dive the Yongala' t-shirt I was sporting. She was from Townsville and her husband was an ex-sailor and we spent a good few minuted chatting. She sported a rather natty cap/visor and it wasn't until I was just finishing the conversation what I noticed the brand name, barely readable, on the brim. And a splendid name it was too - 'Drunk'nMonkey'. I wondered for a brief couple of minutes whether this was a description of the wearer but dismissed that thought immediately. I also wondered whether she knew of what she was wearing, and indeed, whether it would be pertinent to inform her of this fact. Maybe, I decided this particular company hadn't sold enough products to 'the youths of today' and where thus tackling an, ahem, more mature market...

Anyway enough of the trivial matters and onto the whales. The sea was, to put it mildly, choppy and Jen decided to perform her usual party trick and re-view what she'd eaten a few hours previous. I, for some reason, felt great, and even managed some of the bloody awful lunch they provided. However, they are not chefs but a whale-watching company, and where they failed with the panini they succeeded with the whale-watching. First up we saw a couple of pods, maybe 5 whales in total and they spent a good few minutes coming to the surface to a chorus of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' from all aboard. The fun really started though when we chanced upon another pod - just two whales this time - a little further out to sea. These guys were totally uninhibited - coming within 5 metres of the boat and performing a number of 'breaches' - where they flip spectacularly out of the water. They also laid on their sides and waved their flippers. If I hadn't been there I wouldn't have believed it - they were definitely communicating with us. Indeed when we finally had to leave them for shore some 40 minutes later they made an screaming-like noises before performing a final wave each - truly mesmerising. Of all the things we've done either here in Aus it ranks up there with the best. A humbling, but amazing experience, one that will live long in the memory (I think I've used that phrase a few times on this trip now...;) )

One other thing Brisbane knows how to do well is kebabs so we had one last night and it was just like a Doner at home...In other parts of Aus all the kebabs have been weird and looked more like dog droppings in pita bread. So here we are now, waiting for State of Origin III tonight. Although it is a dead rubber there's alot more than pride at stake as the whole series is currently tied at 33 wins each (with 2 draws) and, thus, NSW (GO BLUES!) can take the overall lead for the first time ever tonight. To say I'm excited is a massive understatement. Tomorrow we're off to Darwin, and, I am sure to get to the airport we'll have to take a cab. I only mention this as the 'yellow cab company's cabs are all orange which I find somes up Brisbane really - a little quirky.
Daniel Cornwell 7/16/2003 03:29:00 AM

Monday, July 14, 2003

Just booked our 4 day tour of Kakadu. Click here for details...


Daniel Cornwell 7/14/2003 08:05:00 AM

So, we've arrived in Brisbane. I've always thought of Brisbane of something akin to Peterborough insofar as it has sports teams I hate and doesn't compare to other similar sized rival cities (i.e. Cambridge and Sydney)...however having spent the afternoon here I may have to change my mind (about Brisbane, not Peterborough - that is still, and always will be, a hellhole...) First things first...we bade farewell to our newest found enemies by not even saying goodbye to them (that'll teach 'em eh?) when we left. Tempting as it was to run them through with a sword we managed to bite our tongues although we did bitch about them on our way out to reception.

Arriving in Brisbane we were picked up by an absolute nutter who runs out hostel. He drove though the City at top speed chewing on a piece of cod whilst attempting to give us a guided tour. Jen thinks he is certifiably insane, I just think he's a little quirky. Either way he's made us feel very welcome at his hostel and he's got an even friendlier dog, a Wynerama called Mr Spock. We finally managed to pick up our State of Origin tickets for Wednesday night (although as I booked them using a credit card that now resides in Sheffield at my brother's house that was more trouble than it sounds...) and we are getting ready to meet up with Shane whom we met in Vietnam earlier in the trip. Should be a fun night. Tomorrow we're off whale watching at Moreton Bay providing we can find a tour that's cheap enough...
Daniel Cornwell 7/14/2003 06:17:00 AM

Sunday, July 13, 2003

Tweedledum and Tweedledumber decided to stay in last night and sat on the sofa talking to themselves refusing, seemingly, to admit we existed. I tried so hard to communicate with them but presume they just must hate the English (they made a couple of sly comments I didn't rise to...) They hurumphed around all morning as well and must have gone past us in and out of the house and in the street on at least four/five occasions; blanking us EVERY time. At least we move on tomorrow and will never have to see their over-perfumed, pretentious, fake, irritating, thick as pig-s**t faces again. YIPPEE!!!

Did very little today other than hit the beach for a half hour or so, lovely and warm it was too.

Daniel Cornwell 7/13/2003 08:17:00 AM

Saturday, July 12, 2003

From the sublime to the ridiculous...

Chris and Charlotte; mild mannered, friendly, down to earth, loads of stories to tell, helpful.

New Irish housemate couple (even after 3 days after trying to be nice to them and find their names out they haven't bothered to tell us...); inconsiderate, rude, unfriendly, boring, nothing to tell.

Chalk and cheese, Cambridge and Manchester Uniteds, Tony Blair and an honest politician. Yes they are all as different and as contrasting (some would say so different in fact that they're opposite) as our previous and 'new' housemates. All we know despite seeing them on three occasions (and hearing them on many more) is that they're Irish, love themselves (HE spent over 40 mins in the bathroom this morning perfecting his boy-bandesque look (he now successfully looks a bit like the ugly one from Boyzone)) and have no personality between them. She is so vapid that she makes the Queen Mother look full of life...

Anyway claws away for a minute. Although it is just mentioning the hilarious moment last night when we locked ourselves in the bathroom (the handle came off in our hand) and the only exit was through the dullards' room...at about 10.30. They weren't amused but we thought it was hilarious...

Onto our past two days, which have been, housemates aside, an unmitigated success. We managed to find a hire car last thing on Thursday evening and, thus ventured out from Noosa yesterday, and again today. First up yesterday was Australia Zoo - this was set up in 1970 by a couple who spawned the most famous 'Crocodile Hunter' in the world - one Steve Irwin. He has since taken control of the site and it now covers over 75 hectares with plans to increase in size to over 315 ha within 3 years. It is a great zoo because the animals are enclosed in areas akin to their natural environment; crocodiles in billabongs, snakes in dense undergrowth, and spiders under toilet seats. We also sat through a highly entertaining crocodile show (no top-hats and dancing though...shame) before leaving at around 2.30pm. We didn't spot the man himself, although he was apparently, 'in the area'...I guess it's a little strange in that it's just about the only zoo in the world where people come to look at a human.

Onwards and upwards to the local Noosa Par 3 (Aussie for pitch 'n' putt) golf course where for the second time this holiday I got 'spanked by my wife' - she beat me by one shot. Revenge will be mine...I did distinguish myself by hitting one ball into a lake which cost me two shots, and thus the match...

After our rude awakening by the Avon couple at around 6.30(am) we evenutally surfaced at round 8ish before heading out to the Eumundi market - a local institution. As markets go (avid readers will know they are the bane of my life) it was good and we found at least one decent stall which sold framed photos (all taken by the stall-holder) from the Barrier Reef and around. He's putting together a couple of pictures in a frame for us and posting them home. We chatted with him about various divesites, and had a wonderfully hot 'hot dog' before heading north to Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach. To liven things up a little Jen did her 'that scenic route road looks nice' routine and we thus went via Aberdeen (even saw seagulls the size of dogs...) At Tin Can Bay we successfully saw none of the dolphins it is famous for and at Rainbow Beach we saw very little of the famous multi-coloured sand as by the time we got there it was almost time to get back (d'oh!) and it was at least a 3 mile walk along the beach, dodging high-tide, 4x4 trucks and kids with ominous looking buckets and spades. So, here we are back in Noosa, which is definitely turning into one of our fave places in Aus. We're going to give it one more go with Mr & Mrs Vain this evening before giving them up as a lost cause (in case you're thinking 'well isn't there a possibility they just don't like you...?' we have thought that too but then realised we haven't even spent enough time with them for them to hate us...) Tomorrow is a designated beach day (our last for a long long while probably) whilst we should arrive in Brisbane around lunchtime on Monday.

In other news I have had a great idea what to do when I return to the UK - one which I am going to explore but I can't say what it is here so you'll just have to wait - it is a corker though!!

Daniel Cornwell 7/12/2003 08:01:00 AM

Thursday, July 10, 2003

We have bade farewell to Charlotte & Chris, and although our paths don't cross again on this trip (they're off to Northern Aus then China next, then home in about 6-7 weeks) I feel sure we'll meet up when we're all back home...they only live in Chester for godssakes!! We whiled away yesterday with a series of videos - first 'See Spot Run' (2 out of 10) which was perhaps the worst film (barring Chain Reaction) we've ever seen but we loved it nonetheless as it featured Bullmastiffs...We followed this up with 'Blood Work' - Clint Eastwood, 5 1/2 out of 10, 'Crackerjack' - about lawn bowls (for those that didn't know my Dad played bowls for England and also was president of the EIBA when he died - indeed their headquarters is named after him), very very funny in an irreverant Aussies taking the piss out of themselves kind of way, 7 1/2 out of 10. We followed that up with 'Bowling for Columbine' - Michael Moore's controversial docu-film about the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, and the reasons behind it with regard to American gun culture. Although very biased (isn't all journalism in one way or another) it is an exceptional, thought-provoking piece of film - one we were all shocked by but thoroughly 'enjoyed' - if that's the right word. 9/10.

Today we've had a brief look around Noosa Heads - where all the big knobs hang out apparently. Very nice in a developed and expensive sort of way. We are trying to hire a car for tomorrow for a couple of days to enable us to get up to Rainbow Beach and the local pitch 'n' putt golf course...but it's school holidays and everything is booked out...watch this space.

We've booked our campervan for Perth from 28/7-16/8 and also in New Zealand for the 44 days we are there, we've also booked a flight from Christchurch to Auckland for 30/9 - the day before we fly to Chile. Charlotte & Chris have both done the Southern Cone in South America and New Zealand so they gave us loads of hints and tips - if you read this thanks guys!

Daniel Cornwell 7/10/2003 06:02:00 AM

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

We've arrived in Noosa where we've seen more expensive apartments, luxury cars (even saw a Ferrari yesterday), and more arrogant looking ****ers than anywhere else. That last notion may be a tad unfair we'll just have to see. There are an inordinate number of 'surfer dudes' (to use their parlance) who all look either really hard or about 12...or more menacingly, both. On a serious note Noosa looks much more developed than all the other resort towns on the East Coast and seemingly caters for the well-heeled (not sure what we're doing here...). Avril Levigne (whoever she is) spent a couple of days here last month cavorting on the beach by all accounts, and what's OK for an un-talented 17-year old Canadian that can't sing should be more than OK for us. (Whilst we're talking about Canadian songstresses it's a shame Alanis wasn't here - what fun we could have with the lyrics to 'Ironic' - the irony being of course that in a song called 'Ironic' none of the 'ironic' observations are 'ironic'...oh the irony!!!) but I digress...

We arrived yesterday afternoon after a fairly uneventful bus journey only enlived by a bus driver that knew everything about every small town/village/house en route and peppered us with facts along the lines of 'You can fit seven and a half UK's into Queensland and it's not even the biggest state...' Arriving at our hostel we found we were sharing a kind of maisonette (a bit like my brothers flat but on two levels and without all the gadgets) with another couple (who were out). Charlotte and Chris (both 23, although he born in 1979 her in 1980 - very crucial bit of info this) sauntered in at about 5.30, and it appears they were having the same thoughts as us all along - namely: what will these other people be like, will they steal stuff, are they tidy (whoops!) etc etc... Our fears (and hopefully theirs) were allayed - they are a great couple - he's a sports mad Alan Partridge fanatic (and frankly who isn't?) and she's a really down to earth bright bubbly sort. We all got on really well and after a few beers I even helped her fill in a job application form and told her how to manipulate the client and, more importantly, the recruitment consultant. God I hope my advice works... Today is a 'let's look around our new home' type day so we probably won't do a great deal. We're here until next Monday and may learn to surf at some point (yes they do make boards big enough...) and possibly take a trip up to Rainbow Beach. We may bring our trip to Brisbane forward by a few days if we don't like this place...

Daniel Cornwell 7/09/2003 01:18:00 AM

Monday, July 07, 2003

Well we've messed up a bit...it's the school holidays (how could we forget) and, thus, most, if not all, of the accomodation in Noosa is booked out - we've managed to find one place with doubles but we have to share the aprtment with 2 other strangers. It'll either be wonderful or awful - these things always are...

So - a 3 hour trip to Noosa tomorrow and then 5-6 days there before we head off to Brisbane. We're probably going to hire a car and visit one of the national parks and also take a trip to Rainbow Beach. It is interesting that the 3-hour trip just feels like 10 minutes to us now when, if in England, it would be the equivalent of Glossop to Cambridge...

Meanwhile, the Blogger stats just get more and more bizarre - will whoever typed "farm animals and girls pictures" please own up - this is getting disturbing now.

Daniel Cornwell 7/07/2003 08:19:00 AM

Sunday, July 06, 2003

Picies time....

Mick and our intrepid green travelling thingy; Jen at the Champagne Pools



A turtle's head; Us in Eli Creek



Us at the Maheno Wreck; Me with my big rod.



D-I-N-G-O; some bloke in the desert....




Daniel Cornwell 7/06/2003 11:52:00 PM

On Friday morning we were picked up on cue and were greeted by Mick, a genial Englishman who emigrated to Aus about 5 years ago. He married an Aussie and they now have a kid together. Mick was to be our guide, and his first words to us were 'They did tell you it was school holidays...?' Well no they didn't actually. The pertinance of that question was obvious in seconds as we were greeted by 11 adults...and 5 kids. Now 12 y.o. Bridget was really well behaved, as were Harrison, Caleb, and Harmen (not anagrams folks these are there real names) but Abby...oh my God... If you think of the archaetypal 'I'll scweam and scweam and scweam' kid you're not far off. If you throw in a mother who gave into her every demand (and I mean DEMAND), little habits like crying (for an hour and a half) to get attention when in bed, and repeating words and phrases around 10 times each time anyone said anything (at FULL volume)...then there's your girl. She is, without doubt, the spawn of Satan.

However it wasn't all bad, the other kids were really well behaved, and the adults attempted to make polite conversation despite us having little in common. There were other backpackers - Emma and Paul, doing a smililar trip to us. They are both librarians (shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) and despite us having opposite opinions on just about everything (monarchy - I want to keep and think they're OK in the main, they hate, want to dissolve and would prefer a republic; music - they like RADIOHEAD and PJ Harvey ('nuff said)) we seemed to get on OK. There was also Rebecca, from Georgia (USA) who was really level headed and had some great stories about how messed up the US is. For example in her state you can only have sex in one position (missionary presumably - didn't probe her on that one...), can't drink until you're 21 and can be arrested for either offence, but you can own a gun (in fact you have the right to bear arms as per the constitution) and can drive a car at the age of 16. She also told us a fantastic story about her room-mate called Prea who called herself 'Princess' and made all her friends do the same. I could go into more detail but suffice to say it just confirms even more of my opinions of our 'friends' from across the pond. She also had many more serious and worrying stories about the recent war and people and things being branded 'Un-American'. For example The Dixie Chicks having a go at Bush in an interview and subsequently having an amendment passed that banned them in certain States; and the 'French Fries' Vs 'Freedom Fries' name change. I guess you could say eclectic would be a far description of the group...

We arrived on the World's biggest sand island (Fraser Island!) early on Friday morning and our first stop was Lake Allom where we saw some incredibly cute little turtles who swam around for a bit and breathed. No juggling, magic tricks or anything - inconsiderate sods. We then went for a swim in Eli Creek, a fantastic slow running little clearwater creek. Jen fell in incredibly specatcularly but didn't hurt herself, as Vic Reeves might say...'Ooooh I'm in pain Bob, it's me pride, me pride really hurts...' After this we travelled up the island to Knifeblade Sandblow - a kind of huge solid dune that has taken thousands of years to form, it looked a bit like you imagine the Sahara to look... without the sand blowing across it ironically...Next up on day 1 was a trip to the Maheno shipwreck - a luxury liner that ran aground during a cyclone in 1935 whilst being towed to Japan. Much of the structure now lies below the sand but it was still a spectacular sight, you can only wonder at how much more so it would have been some 70 years ago. When it washed up 68 years ago this week it had all it's contents still on board and people came from miles around to buy souvenirs. The Aussie taxmen, not missing a trick, set up a couple of tax officers on board and charged everyone VAT...nice to know nothing changes over 70 years...

Our campsite at the Cathedral Beach resort (so named beacuse of the Cathedral Rocks - formed by weathering of sandstone on the beach -which we viewed last on day 1) was an excellend place to stay - we were all in tents, but ones with beds in, housed in a covered shed. Excellent. We were soon tucking into Mick's fine Thai beef curry and Abby was preparing her lungs for the screaming fits (9.30pm, 2am, 6.30am - all times approximate - I was too bleary eyed to check my bloody watch...) to follow.

The glorious weather of Friday had disapated somewhat by Saturday morning and, thus, the view of the ocean at Indian Head was not as we'd hoped. Usually you get to see sharks, whales, dolphins...we saw a couple of stingrays in the bay. However we did get to see a Brumbie in the afternoon - this is what Yanks would call a Mustang - a wild horse. There are now less that 20 on the island as they culled about 2,000 a few years back as they were basically eating everything. In the afternoon I had a quick go at fishing and kept my proud 28-year record in tact of never having caught anyhting on a fishing trip, although I did 'catch' a big log that tore the hook, weights and some line off. It was too damn cold by the time we reached the Champagne Pools - a set of rocks where the sea bubbles gently over the top giving off the effect of champagne bubbles. We watched from afar as a couple of the hardy Aussies ventured in - our reward was the first 'whale spot' of our trip, albeit from about 1km away...We had a really early night (I was asleep by 8.30) and Abby didn't wake us this time (lucky for her that one trust me...) until about 6ish. So, to our last day (today) where we (in no real order) did about 9kms of walking, though rainforest and to and from Lake Wabby, saw a dingo (that then looked as though he was about to attck a fisherman), and had a great lunch at the 'Happy Valley' restaurant, where we had (not Chinese) but a smorgasboard (Mick's word not mine) dinner. We arrived back at the hostel a couple of hours ago and have had a decent shower for the first time in a couple of days.

Fraser Island is a wonderful place and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We are glad we did it guided and not as part of the hideously cramped 'backpacker' 11-seater landrovers. Yes, our group was not as we expected (it was a bit like going away with your Mum, Dad, irritating cousins, and a couple of socialist workers (only joking Emma and Paul)), but we still had a great time and crammed so much in. The company we went with were 'The Fraser Island Company' (no ambiguity with the name then...) - click here for their website. I'm glad we've booked a recovery day in Hervey Bay (that rhymes) tomorrow before heading South to Noosa on Tuesday.

My hard drive seems to be playing up a bit but I should be able to add some pictures to the site tomorrow.



Daniel Cornwell 7/06/2003 09:59:00 AM

Thursday, July 03, 2003

No email for a few days - off to Fraser Island to wrestle with some dingos....

Daniel Cornwell 7/03/2003 09:32:00 PM

It's that time you all look forward to...piccies - this time all from the Whitsunday's. Thanks to Pat's picture changing program I should be able to add a few every couple of weeks now...

Me doing captain's pose; us on the Iluka



Me doing the 'I'm on top of the world' Leanardo thingy; Jen and Iluka.



The stunning Whitehaven Beach;...and 2 tourists



The angle we sailed at; us at sunset at the Captain's wheel.



Finally, 2 group shots. One at Whitehaven Beach lookout and one at the end of the trip.

(l-r - piccy 1 - Gizmo, Gertia, Ella, Nuala, Me, Jen, Annik, Louise, Roma, Josephine, Andy)


Daniel Cornwell 7/03/2003 06:18:00 AM

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

I clearly have far too much time on my hands, as, since this whole plan was conceived (1st Nov last year) I have written over 61,000 words in this diary. If this continues by the end of the year I'll have enough for half a Harry Potter, well a book/novel of approx. 400 pages!! Amazing stuff!

Daniel Cornwell 7/02/2003 11:45:00 PM

OK just to clear one matter up - all our posts used to get published at a time and date we had no control over - i.e. about 5/6 hours behind GMT - some American time I think. This, however, has now been resolved by the wonderful people at Blogger who have now made it possible for you to change your time stamp. Therefore from now on every entry will be done (in theory) at the actual time I post it wherever we are. At the mo we are 9 hours ahead of UK time. So I'm writing this at about 11.30pm yesterday...

Daniel Cornwell 7/02/2003 10:43:00 PM

We haven't done an overnight bus so far this trip...nearly six months in, and no overnight bus trip which are a bit of a rites of passage thing for travellers. The worst bus trips we've done were the 2 9-hour ones in Laos, the biggest danger there was getting shot at - here it was that we didn't get back on the bus after each (enforced) break, or maybe getting attacked by the massive beetles and cockraoches at Rockhampton. Ironically this was where they cleaned the bus! Only one moment of any interest really as it was one of the best night's sleep I've had in weeks - there were 4 seats to each person so you could really spread out - I woke up just after a pitstop to find Jen not in her seat and not behind me or, anywhere to be honest. I had a brief look around and then, presuming she'd forgotten to re-board at the petrol station, or was stuck in the loo, proceded to tell the driver of my predicament. His response (Oh bugger!) was then followed up by muffled laughter as a fellow traveller pointed out Jen had simply moved seats and I was clearly the biggest idiot on the planet...ho hum!

We arrived in Hervey Bay on time and not too tired but saw fit to have a mid-afternoon kip anyhow before going out and booking our trip to Fraser Island. We're not going for the self-drive option but we're doing a 3-day 2-night trip with a max of 16 people. Should be great fun. Incidentally I was quite looking forward to the body-boarding into the lake scenario that Rich of Helen & Rich fame enjoyed but 2 people have quadraspazzed on a life-glug (c Brasseye/Chris Morris) over the last month - nice!

Catching up slowly on emails and the like and another chilling out day tomorrow before we leave for FI on Friday morning.

We have got pictures from the Whitsunday's trip and they should be up on there at some point tomorrow providing I can find an internet cafe that takes our camera.

By the way we fly home 6 months today...still not half way through this thing yet!!


Daniel Cornwell 7/02/2003 08:41:00 AM

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

Well here we are back on dry land, and this time, thankfully, the weather was glorious and there was not even a hint of sickness. We arrived at Iluka a little bleary eyed but after finding out that there would only be 10 of us (plus 2 crew), which meant we got a cabin - and that cabin hand the only electric-pump toilet - talked about spoilt! Myself and a jocular Cetic supporting Glaswegian (Andy) were the only two blokes on the passenger list although 2 of the crew (Skipper - Pete, and dive specialist Matt) were also of the less fair sex. We were accompanied by Andy's other half - trainee solicitor Jo(sephine), 2 Dutch girls (Gerthia, and Gizmo (!)), 2 English girls (Roma - it was her 25th b-day and Louise), A Red-haired Irish girl (Nuala - Pat you went home 2 days too early!!!), and a (French) Canadian (Annik). On day one we managed to get a dive in - beautiful coral but very shallow - which meant we managed to surface after 50 mins with 90 bar of air left - they wouldn't let us do any more - the spoilsports. All the others that hadn't dived before did an intro dive and really enjoyed it. So off to our first overnight stop - Tongue Bay, from where we walked to the lookout for Whitehaven Beach.

Whitehaven Beach is the 'picture postcard' beach that everyone thinks of when you say 'Whitsundays' and we were not disappointed with tthe view - spellbounding. On that note I've finished Harry Potter by the way and a jolly good read it is too, although I couldn't believe they killed off Ron and Hermione at the end...what a shocker! (Only kidding JK and lawyers...) It was decided that we'd all play cricket on the beach and, unbelieveably, the top scorer was the Scot - they don't even bloody play it up there...There were a couple of pools where there were (supposedly) Stingrays, but despite us having a good look we couldn't see any...despite this though it truely is a fantastic beach which even I enjoyed. Just time for a quick snorkel before another night of wine, talking about football and Championship Manager (me and Andy) and shooting star gazing. We were hopeful of spotting some whales at some point but the best we got were turtles and dolphins...apparently you can spot whales regularly at Hervey Bay (where we head on the overnight bus tonight...). So to the final day - Jen did a 4.4km walk to the top of the lookout where she and the rest of the group saw (apart from the amazing view) a snake although Pete said from the photo it was harmless. Myself and Andy relaxed on the 9-hole golf course where Scotland gained a moral victory as although it finished all square at 47 shots each (we managed one par - mine at the last hole) he beat me by one hole at matchplay. Even though a great hour and a half. Jen managed to get some fantastic photos too so we're all happy!

On the way back there was one last chance to get the sails out and go with the wind and that we did until reaching our final destination at about 4pm. One last group photo before the bus back to the hostel. We're now going to shower and change before the horror of the overnight bus...

Overall we had a fantastic time - we had another great group where everyone got on well (as always getting on with some better than others) and the food, crew, sailing and sights were all outstanding. I would thoroughly recommend them, despite having quite possibly the rudest Scotsman on earth (and that is an achievement!!!) working in their sales office. A fantastic 3 days - we now feel sooo relaxed and chilled (I am sure Mr McCafferty and Mrs Greyhound will shake us out of that tonight...)

So, onto Hervey Bay, and Fraser Island. We want to do it ourselves (not in a group) but we're not sure if that'll be safe and/or affordable with all the dingos on the island and lack of money in our pockets! Either way we're going to have a couple of days in Hervey Bay first before deciding what to do. Unfortunately Andy and Jo aren't arriving in HB until Sunday and we need to have left by Tuesday so we can't share any more footy stories...

Daniel Cornwell 7/01/2003 06:32:00 AM

Saturday, June 28, 2003

Airlie Beach is a bit of a con really in that it hasn't got one. A beach that is. Only imported sand from some 60 kms up the road - Bowen to be precise. This place is backpackers heaven/hell depending on your viewpoint really...loads of fast internet cafes (heaven), but loads of dodgy travel agents, sailing companies, bars, and people...Unsurprisingly we've brought our bus to Hervey Bay forward to Tuesday - meaning we've only got tonight in this god-foresaken place, as tomorrow we board Iluka for our Whitsunday's sailing experience. It nearly didn't happen as when we went to see ProSail yesterday they only had 3 (including us) booked onto the trip, needing at least 2 more to definitely venture out. We were told we'd be downgraded to a (much) worse boat and get a little bit of cash back for our trouble - we weren't happy last night to say the least. That said we're now a group of seven, and because we paid nearly full price and they're now discounting we should be upgraded to a cabin from a dorm...every cloud and all that...

As I write this my bro is boarding his flight to the UK (via Singapore) and by the time I next check email he'll be home the poor sod. It's weird to think but it's still about another week until we're halfway through our trip - scary stuff!

So here's to 3 days sailing, sunning, and snorkelling (what great aliteration, Mr. Parsons (my English teacher) would be soooo proud) - catch you all in a few days...


Daniel Cornwell 6/28/2003 05:15:00 AM

Friday, June 27, 2003

Piccies time.

Atherton Tablelands first; Jen with Pelican at said Tablelands.



Me at Cathedral Fig Tree; Jen with diver's helmet at ReefHQ.



Maori Wrasse on the Yongala wreck; us hovering at the bow of the Yongala.


Daniel Cornwell 6/27/2003 01:09:00 AM

Thursday, June 26, 2003

First things first, whoever typed in "spanked by my wife" into yahoo and got our website must have been in for a bit of a shock...very very amusing...(the quote on our Blog refers to when Jen thrashed me at pool btw)

So we're back on terra firms - thank God. During the last three days and nights we have experienced everything from 30 knot winds (in the middle of the ocean) to the most amazing dive-site we've ever been to.

Just to start - I forgot the walloping we gave the wallabies...hahaha in your own back yard as well...

Anyway - to the trip. We set out and the first thing we were given (apart from our nice ensuite double room) was the weather report for the next couple of days - strong winds (up to 30 knots) and 2m+ waves...happy happy joy joy... Just how bad this meant things would be wasn't clear until the first overnight in which the boat rocked so much en route to the reef we were thrown around our room and Jen saw her tea for the second time...nice...

Arriving at Keeper's Reef we finally got in the water only for me to find that I couldn't equalise (my ears, not CM4) and thus I stayed on the surface whilst Pat & Jen buddied up for a few minutes. They eventually resurfaced some 10 mins later having lost the rest of the group - not a good start. Onwards and upwards, and after the mighty Sudafed had taken effect we completed our second dive. Good news in that my ears were fine and we completed the dive. I felt a bit rough and didn't do the 3rd dive of the day whereas Pat and Jen buddied up again and went back down. We all felt the first site was a little disappointing as alot of the reef was bleached and dead, and also there were loads of 'Crown of Thorns' which had killed off alot of the coral.

The following morning I lost my 'never been sick on a boat' virginity as it was my turn to see exactly what I'd eaten the night before...however once in the sea (we were now at a different reef - Wheeler's Reef) my sickness went and we enjoyed three good dives. In Shark Alley we saw (wait for it) a white tip shark - the first reef shark we'd ever seen. The coral was much better and a good day's diving was had by all. In the evening they managed to rig up a TV so we could all watch State of Origin II and the mighty Blue slaughtered the Maroons. The Captiain (Greg - a top bloke) was cheering for the Maroons and at one point threatened to crash the boat that night if we continued cheering for NSW...we all shut up and then a broad grin erupted on his face, so then we shouted for the rest of the game...(NSW won 27-4 for those who don't know - we'll be there to see if they can get a 3-0 sweep for only the 3rd time in their history on July 16th). So to today, we arrived at the SS Yalonga wreck at about 6am and were woken up, kitted out, and in the water by 6.45...some wake up call. The SS Yalonga was on the last part of it's voyage - the leg from Sydney to Cairns - when it went down during a tropical cyclone in 1911. All 121 passengers and crew perished. The wreck, still mostly intact but now covered in soft coarls, stands in the middle of nowhere - in about 30m of water on a sand bank. To get to it is more than a little tricky and requires a good leap of faith. You have to swim from the boat along a rope to the buoy line where you descend to about 10m before joining another line which goes down to the ship. You have to do it like this as a) the visibility above the wreck is so poor you can't see it until you're 3-5m away from it, and b) the currents (especially at 6.45am!) are so strong if you didn't hold to the lines on you'd end up in New Zealand. That said after a few ear problems (it's these early starts) we managed to descend onto tthe wreck. Having dived some great sites our expectations were quite high and we were not to be disappointed - an unbelievable sight greeted us. The shape of the ship itself is recognisable and a couple of the mast type things were at an angle they shouldn't be. The cargo bays were uncovered and you could peer in and stop for breathers, although penetration of the wreck is not allowed due to the fact that the iron is corroding and it is more than a little unsafe. Those in the know believe the wreck has about 30 more years before it collapses and forms a new artificial reef. The sheer variety and size of sealife was incredible - we saw Moari-wrasses (about 1.5m long), clownfish the size of your hand, and most fantastic of all, a couple of giant potato cod (one nicknamed V.W. - as it's the same size as a Beetle) which must have been all of 3m in length and fatter even than me...unreal. We enjoyed the two dives immensely, I can't imagine we'll ever dive a better site, even though we only amassed a total of 55 mins underwater - you don't half suck your air in those currents and depths...

So back onto the boat and a calm(ish) trip back before bading fairwell to our crew and new found diving buddies. Diving Dreams were excellent and I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone considering doing the Yongala and the GBR. We have some piccies - one of us on the wreck (well above it) and one of the Moari Wrasse, they should get uploaded tomorrow.

On arriving back at our hostel we found out that an English guy had pentrated the wreck today, whilst diving from another diveboat (twice - he was pulled out and bollocked once, and then went back in...). He now faces the prospect of being deported from Australia, or at least a few nights in jail and a whopping fine - serves him right.

Tonight is the last night we are a threesome - we're off to Airlie Beach tomorrow for the Whitsunday's (we're praying the winds will have dropped), and Pat's off home. After 8 weeks travelling together we've only had 2 or 3 rows all of which after we'd both consumed a few too many shandies and we've all got on really well. Believe it or not it's the most time we've spent together since I went off to uni some 10 years ago...Whilst it'll be nice to get some privacy back I'm gonna miss the old sod...we're going for a meal tonight and no doubt we'll raise a toast to our Aussie adventure...(just to rub it in Pat we've halfway through Aus and still have NZ/South America to go...tee hee!)


Daniel Cornwell 6/26/2003 10:03:00 AM

Monday, June 23, 2003

Yesterday we visited the ReefHQ which is a huge aqarium. We saw a variety of fish, all along the lines of the ones we'll see for real over the next few days. We also went for a drink with Helen and Rich who were both looking well. We swapped stories about the places each other had been and tentatively agreed to meet in Perth later in July. It was good to see them both again. We made it an early night, which was only disturbed (ironically) by a disturbed sounding woman going on about her friend's sombrero at 1am...

So that's it for Townsville really - next 'blog will be after the diving, and when we have to bid adios to my brother - he flies back to Manchester on Friday, via Townsville, Brisbane, Singapore and Heathrow airports...sounds like fun.


Daniel Cornwell 6/23/2003 02:44:00 AM

Saturday, June 21, 2003

Well here we are, in Townsville staying at another great guest house. Not alot to do tonight other than watch the Poms getting a bashing from the Wallabies hence we're off to the pub shortly. One thing we didn't know is that this is a US Navy port and one of it's ships has turned up today after 6 months at sea. Great 3,000 rabid Yanks wandering around trying to get drunk and/or laid...should make for an interesting night at the very least.

Helen and Rich are arriving tomorrow so we're meeting up to go round the aquarium and for beers tomorrow night before they head up the coast to some sort of hippie commune (their words) for a few days...

Daniel Cornwell 6/21/2003 08:35:00 AM

Friday, June 20, 2003

Just as an addendum to that last one we're getting some weird hits from people typing strange things into search engine ('Paul outbreak boyband' is by far the weirdest so far) so to try to improve the accuracy of hits I am putting a load of words below that should help us get the right sort of traffic.

round the world trip journal diary tour australia travel travelling asia china laos vietnam cambodia thailand diving british airways (tempting to put 'are shit' after that one)

Will keep you all informed of the progress.
Daniel Cornwell 6/20/2003 10:22:00 AM

Cairns, for those of you who don't know, is most definitely not the state capital of Queensland as per my email...just having an off moment on that one...it is of course Brisbane, home of the Broncos (and Gordon Tallis - grrrrrrrrrr!). Either way it's a pretty cool place absolutely teeming with backpackers. We have been staying at 'Tropic Days' for the last couple of nights, run by Gabriel - a 16 stone 6 foot plus Aussie dude...and it's great. If only all hostels were like this...friendly, inviting, knowledgable, well equipped and just a ball of fun really. Part of the deal with staying there is that you get a free meal every night at 'The Woolshed'. On arriving it's a bit like a soup kitchen with 10s of hungry emaciated backpackers (and me!) queuing for free food. When you enter you can upgrade to a better meal by paying about 2 quid. I had steak on both nights we went and it was marvellous...steak, chips, veg, pepper sauce for 2 or 3 quid...MAGIC! Having said that at around 10pm when food stops being served it just basically becomes one big student night complete with bad dancing, awful music and hilarious drunk 18 y.o.'s. It couldn't have been all bad as we stumbled out at around 1am the first night.

Cairns itself is quite a cool place - the city centre is new thanks to some hurricane or other a few years back and it shows. We spent most of yesterday booking stuff for the trip down south and we now have the following to look forward to:

23-26 June - 4 day, 3 night liveaboard diving...got it at a stupidly cheap price, and they come highly recommended. Apparently they've got all new equipment and a new boat to boot. One of the sites we are going to is the SS Yongala which is one of the most famous wreck sites in the world - for info click here.
27 June - Jen and I travel from Townsville to Airlie Beach (by bus) where we stay for a couple of days before we head out to the Whitsunday Islands with these guys on 29 June for three days. Pat leaves us here and is flying to Brisbane before the long haul back to the UK. On our first ever sailing adventure we are on this boat and the company comes highly recommend it. Helen and Rich have had an awful time on there one by the sound of things so we thought we'd go for one a little higher than our budget...it'll be interesting to see if our dinghy sinks, or if the crew have never sailed a sailing boat before...I bloody hope not.

After that we have got connections through to Hervey Bay (for Fraser Island - going to go 4WD/camping ourselves and hire stuff when we get there), and onto Noosa before hitting Brisbane on or avround the 14th July. The 16th of July is State of Origin III (which is now sold out) and we've got tickets!!

We also booked a car for today and tomorrow mainly so we can get down to Townsville tomorrow, but also it gave us the opportunity to explore the Atherton Tablelands today (not Table-lamps as Pat thought they were called). At the Budget rent-a-car place they very kindly offered to upgrade our Renault Clio to a 3.5 litre automatic Mitsubushi beast for a whole 2 dollars (80p) a day...it was a really tough decision. Girl's car or Animal - you decide... So off we went and had a great day. The landscape itself is mostly ex-volcanic areas thuis there are a few craters and the like and some hills that look like volcanoes...We also went to Lake Berrine which is a deasd ringer for Coniston, and had a cracking couple of hours watching the wildlife (2 pelican's that you could get within a couple of feet of were the highlight) and having a lazy lunch. We also managed to visit 'The Crater', Barron Falls, and a couple of massive fig trees that were over 40 metres round the base. Both were also over 50m tall and over 500 years old, they are basically parasites that have lived off the other trees and now stand up of their own accord long after the other trees have died.

In other news I have broken the first bed on our travels - no real story other than the fact that one of the supports underneath buckled and then the bloody thing snapped. We bent it back into shape but it was well and truely 'fubar'ed - Gabriel said he wasn't surprised - the manufacturer went out of business a few years ago apparently...

Pat did a skydive today from 15,000 feet. He said it was utterly amazing but on the downside it was all over within about 7 minutes (and wasn't cheap - over 200 quid). He got the piccies done and there are a couple below.



Daniel Cornwell 6/20/2003 10:02:00 AM

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Just as a follow-up to yesterday's post here are the piccies - most are the ones Jen and I took, the YMCA one is from Pat's site.

Me in Alice Springs (sporting new NSWRL State of Origin top) with a sign saying how far London is away (15,030 km); Jen and I at the King's Canyon



Us at the King's Canyon again and first night around the campfire.



Group shot at the Olga's and mini-group shot (l-r Pat, Eva, Jen, Rachel, Me) at the Olga's



Us at Ayer's Rock (Uluru) and a picture of it as it starts to turn a different colour (sunset)



Group shot at the rock (l-r Stuart, Me, Jen, Pat, James Sylvia, Rachel, Robyn, Myriam - crouching); mini-gp shot on the alk round the base



YMCA on the bus; us on a camel (can't remember if this one was called 'Psycho' or 'Killer')



Us at 'The Last Supper' and the quote of the trip...


Daniel Cornwell 6/18/2003 01:20:00 AM

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

'Any Adventure.
Anywhere in the World.
I will take you there...'

This quote will have a real relevance - trust me...you'll just have to read the rest to find out why...

So we're back - and in three days we've (been) driven over 1,600 kms, have walked over 20 (more than I have walked cumatively in the last 3 years yet alone days...), and have both ridden and eaten camel (although not the same ones). More importantly we've had a bloody great time. The hardest part on the first morning was getting up, which we somehow managed and stumbled onto the 'Mulga's Tours' bus at around 6.30am. Darrin - our driver, guide, storyteller, and all-round nutter for the next 3 days seemed chirpier than most and we were soon on our way. As an ice-breaker he got everyone to get up and tell all about themselves. The best confession surely came from Claudia who confessed about the time when she hadn't worked for any exams...the only way she could get out of it was for a couple of 'friends' to break her fingers by slamming them between two desks. Her teachers then let her pass the year and not stay down a year...NICE! Introductions done we headed off on our big adventure. We truely were an international bus, made up of the following people (apologies to anyone who's name we've spelt wrong...:
2 Swedes - Magnus and Johanna - he is a chef, (oh how we laughed when we mentioned the Muppets and the Swedish chef, unsurprisingly having worked in London for a year he'd heard it a few time before...)
2 Germans (the by now famous Claudia, and Eva - not travelling together though)
1 Frenchwoman - Myriam (travelling for the moment with Claudia)
1 Canadian - Kian, who sports a great tattoo on his chest
1 Scot - Stuart, just sporting new dreadlocks
1 Japanese girl who's name I can't spell (SORRY!)
The rest of us were all Poms - Me, Jen, and Pat obviously and:
Jess, Robyn, and Maura - on Gap year off to uni later in the year - lucky sods...(also big Vic & Bob fans, great renditions of said funnyman's work on night 2 - 'I love the smell of....'etc etc....)
James - Alan Partridge in diguise, very funny (dirty) Leeds fan
Rachel - Mad Tate Modern woman - great laugh, known now for an appalling redition for the Vall-der-ee, Vall-der-ahhh song...we have the evidence on video...
oh, and one mad 'lazy bastard' Aussie guide...

The ice-breaker seemed to work and we were all getting on really well by the time we got to our first turning which, Darrin explained, would be a rare occurance. From that point every junction got rapturous applause and wild cheers, we even did a 'U-ie' to the bemusement of a couple in a campervan and went absolutely nuts...guess you had to be there for that one really. The first port of call was to be the King's Canyon (named, according to Darrin, after Elvis after it's discovery in the late 1800's). Lots of opportunities for ooh's and ahhh's on the walk around it...truely breathtaking views - it is, after all, the biggest canyon in the world as the Grand Canyon is actually a gorge not a canyon...technically...Anyhoo, off to the waterhole where a few brave souls dived in and promptly jumped straight back out. I would love to repeat on here what those hardy guys said as they entered the water but as it's just 4-letter words I will spare you the details. I think the only people to do it were Stuart (he's from Scotland and has been in Loch Lomond in the winter so he was fine), James (twice) and Eva & Rachel - who'd borrwed Jen's swimming cossie for the dubious pleasure. We all stayed on the side and ate snakes given to us by Darrin. (Jelly ones)

After the walk we stopped off for tea (Camel con Carne, or Chilli con Camel depending on your view) before heading off for our first night in the outback...beers were drunk and the name game was played - Stuart coming up with inspired 'Pontius Pilate' when presented with the letter P. Utter genius. James kept us entertained with his encyclopadic knowledge of Alan Partridge, we all had a go on a genuine didgereedoo and Pat lost at the drinking games - badly...

Up at 6ish for our trip to the Olga's - these are basically loads of round(ish) rocks that you can walk through and are even more sacred to the Aboriginals than Uluru. It was exceptional, the walk taking in some great Kodak moments and our first group photo - to appear here soon hopefully. We made it to Uluru for sunset, and had a nice cold beer whilst watching the sun go down. If you were wondering it really does change colour, and is as spectacular is it is in all the photos world-wide. Again, loads of piccies and another group shot were had. Night number two was much colder than the first night - and we had a bloody early start - 6am...not great after a few cheeky beers and a 1.30 bed-time...God I feel old...

Anyhow, we made it to Uluru but couldn't climb it due to high winds...this solved a nasty dliemma as the Aboriginals are not keen for you to climb it anyway (interestingly if you do they call you Minga's - bit harsh they don't even know us - it means 'ants' in their language btw). So, we set off on the 10 km base walk - walking round the whole thing. The stragglers - Me, Jen, Pat, Eva, Rachel and the Japanese girl (sorry again) made it back one whole hour after the rest of 'em...by which time James had taken to the mike for some impromtu karaoke, safe to say a career in singing does not beckon, although stand-up maybe a possibility...

So, to the end of our trip - a short stop at a camel farm for a quick ride and lark around with a friendly dingo (ironically named after Lindy Chamberlain's daughter), followed by arrival back in Alice. What to make of the 3 days? Unbelievable! The sites themselves were interesting but the whole trip was made great rather than just good due to a couple of other things...namely:

Darrin - this guy is an absolute headcase, but he can tell a great story, build a ripping fire and can gell a grroup of people together really quickly - we cannot recommend him and the tour itself highly enough.
The people - we're pretty convinced we'll never get a group like this on a tour again. Everyone out for a good time, friendly, fun, no egos, just a great bunch of people having a great time...we'll hopefully be staying in touch with a few and have invited Eva over to ours when she's next in England...she's reciprocated too

Ahhh to the quote...I didn't hear it - we have it though thanks it to the three Pommie girls (Maura, Robyn and Jess)...it was said by a love-struck guy to his girlfriend whilst watching the sunset at Uluru - the girls somehow managed not to vomit. It became the quote of the trip (along with Eva's 'I want to be a pussy!') instantly and was written ceremonially on the windscreen in marker pen.

The trip iteslf was basic yes, but the swags were great and relatively warm - hey we also got to stay in areas with no other people and as above, our guide was exceptional. I would recommend Mulga's tours and Annie's Place to anyone and can honestly say it's been 3 of the best days we've had since we've been away. Photos should appear here tomorrow. Off to Cairns tomorrow afternoon for some sun (it was -2 last night) and some diving...can't wait.
Daniel Cornwell 6/17/2003 10:26:00 AM

Saturday, June 14, 2003

Just a very quick one - we're in Alice Springs, and have booked a 'no frills' 3 day tour to Uluru. We're also going to King's Canyon too. Both nights are out under the stars and we're sleeping in a 'swag bag' - I always thought that was what burglers carried. It was -2 last night so in preperation we bought ourselves a new beanie hat each. We're booked into a great hostel who're also running the tour so should be a laugh...there's 29 of us and all but 6 are women so Pat's a happy man...

Daniel Cornwell 6/14/2003 06:29:00 AM

Friday, June 13, 2003

Jen outside her hotel (!) Notice that it's shut - this picture was taken at about 9pm!!!! Us on a ferry - me 'CM4'-ing and Jen asleep - some would say our joint fave past-times...



It's the Dan and Jen wildlife show - A penguin at night (using Jen's camera on nightshot); seals and Kangaroos - all Kangaroo Island.







The Remarkable Rocks and Dan & Pat; Dan & Jen



Jen & Sunset over Kangaroo Island, and our resident Kanga at night!


Daniel Cornwell 6/13/2003 06:25:00 AM

Our last day on KI was spent pretty much in the van as Jen was feeling a bit rough and the waether was awful. In the evening the local pub came and picked us up (!) and we had a few beers and a bottle of locally made wine which wasn't half bad. The bloke that gave us a life in spent 20 mins saying we'd done the right thing by not drinking and driving etc etc...and then promptly wolfed down 2 bottles of wine with his wife...someone else dropped us back - thank God!

We boarded the ferry back to the mainland this morning after spending 20 minutes watching it get battered by the waves on it's way over...and the trip back wasn't any smoother. It was like a scene from a film as things rolled across tables and people formed an orderly queue to go and be sick in the toilets. None of us succumbed though although Pat said he would have had we been an extra 10 minutes or so...

A couple of hours, and an altercation with a lorry driver, later (he even gave me the 'birdy' - what a friendly chap!) we arrived in Adelaide at Backpack Oz. They very kindly picked us up from the 'campervan deposit place' and although basic the place is excellent - free videos, pool table, lift to the airport tomorrow, and most importantly of all, friendly and informative staff. Adelaide itself seems to have it's fair share of nutters/weirdos. So far we've had sightings of at least 3 Tourette's sufferers, and enough grungey types to fill a Soundgarden concert 30 times over. No-one seems very friendly either - maybe it's the weather as it's currently pissing it down.

Luke (our mate from Melbourne) sent us a text messgae saying he'd bumped into Jason McCartney in the street and told him about the '3 Poms' trip to the footy' and said to say 'Hi!' to the Roos new English fans...cool eh? Kind of. So off to Uluru over the course of the next few days - no idea how we're going to get there or on what kind of tour, but either way unlikely to be any updates (other than photos that I'm trying to upload now) for a few days - not until we reach Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef anyway...



Daniel Cornwell 6/13/2003 06:22:00 AM

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Wednesday was a real wildlife day. We started at Seal Bay and spent some time on the beach on a tour of the sea-lion breeding centre. There were no barriers and we were allowed within about 5 metres of the animals. One pup even came right up to us for photos. Great fun. We then went over to the New Zealand Fur Seals Colony (over 10,000 of them here but you couldn't get as close) and saw Admiralty Arch which will eventually erode to leave an island. Our final stop was at the 'Remarkable Rocks' - huge rocks that were formed thousands of years ago by the volcanic activity in the region and have subsequently been weathered so they now resemble Henry Moore sculptures. We got there for sunset and got some great piccies.

Over night we found out why Kangaroo Island is so named as a 'roo decided to use our van for shelter from the wind and took up residence by our driver's side door. He also kept sniffing round for food but we heeded the warnings not to feed so he left hungry. He didn't keep us awake too long, and by the time we got up this morning he'd gone...

We spent half an hour this morning on a 'Koala Walk' and, by jove, we saw some in the wild for the first time. They were, predictably, all asleep and about 30 foot up in trees...ho hum, at least we saw some though. Jen is feeling a little under the weather with a stomach bug so we've decided today will be a nothing day and will probably get to the campsite fairly early. Tomorrow morning we're on the ferry at 10.30 and should be dropping the van in Adelaide around 2pm (ish). We are flying to Alice Springs at 9.40am on Saturday and wil then do a 3 day trip to Ayers Rock (Uluru) with some camping involved (oh goody!) no doubt.

Daniel Cornwell 6/12/2003 02:45:00 AM

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

So unsurprisingly the whales decided to do a no show. Still no spottings and although we waited for about 1/2 an hour at the spotting platform they didn't turn up on cue as we'd hoped. The next drive was all set to be a bit of a trek (although nothing of what was to come the next day...) and with that in mind we decided to visit Cape Bridgewater. The sign said '600m past headland - allow 2 hours' and a couple returning to the car park confirmed that it was a 'tough walk'. Being the supreme athletes that we are we decided 'what the hell' and set off in pursuit of our goal - a colony of seals which live on the cape, sheltered from all the rough seas and bad weather. En route we passed Victoria's tallest cliff (130m) and eventually we reached a couple of viewing platforms which enabled us to get a good (but not amazing) view of the seals doing their thing. Some were playing energetically, some diving for fish, some just lazing around catching some rays...I wonder what type of seal I'd be...? After a few minutes scrambling down the cliff to get a better view and some photos (Mum would have had a fit - 'Daniel, don't go down there it's cordoned off for a reason' etc etc...) we headed back, knackered but pretty happy with the whole walk and wildlife. Next stop the blowholes (just big crashing waves really) and petrified forest which was basically a load of trees that got covered in limestone or something tens of thousands of years ago. The trees then rotted from the inside of their new cases and thus a kind of stone forest was born. Eerie, weird but strangely interesting.

So, head down and onto Mount Gambier - which was once volcanic. All that remains now is a huge crater which is now a reservoir and provides all the local community with drinking water. It's meant to be grey in the winter but it looks very blue on our photo! The night out here was hilarious given that we went to an Irish Bar for tea and at 8.45 gut turfed out as they were closing...an Irish Bar. ON BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY...(why do the Aussies get a day off for the Queen's birthday and we don't...? (answers on a postcard to John Howard, c/o Australia)

On waking up we decided to make the trek towards Adelaide in order to jump on a ferry to Kangaroo Island either Tuesday evening or Wednesday...however, when we rang the ferry company they said we needed to pre-book because our van is over 5m long..D'oh! So we decided to put the maniac driver (me) in charge and proceded to aim to drive 300 km in 3 1/2 hours. In a 6m long, 3.3m tall campervan. On B roads. Well we were doing OK 'til we got stuck behind the learner motorbiker, the trail of cars that pulled out in front of him, and an ice-cream truck and with 1/2 an hour to go we still had about 50kms to drive. I will spare you of the full details but safe to say we made the ferry with Jen feeling so sick she could barely stand and Pat also looking green. Hey I was fine though!!!

Kangaroo Island is great - not just Kangars here but loads of wildlife. Last night we went to the Penguin Centre in Penneshaw and saw them in their natural habitat as they came home from a hard day at the ocean. It was a great hour or so and I managed to take a couple of pictures too to add to the Cornwell wildlife collection. One humerous moment was when an American with a 2 foot mullet (perfectly groomed I kid you not about the length - Billy Ray Cyrus would have been soooooooo proud) arrived and I proceded along the lines of the following conversation with Pat:

Me: 'What do Penguins eat?'
P: 'Fish'
Me: 'What sort of fish?'
P: 'I dunno, mackerel...?'
Jen: 'No, mullet surely...'
Pat: 'Do they? Oh I dunno....'

So us being childish didn't work because Pat didn't get the joke. Oh how we laughed.

Afterwards we went for a beer in a place straight out of Hicksville, Tennessee, where Jen stroked a little puppy and the bloke at the bar said something along the lines of 'you won't do that in 10 months' without knowing we own a dog twice the size of his house (probably) - oh the irony....they were all leathered and were not the friendliest Aussies so after one beer we moved on...back to bed...wimps that we are. Today we've found an internet cafe (yay!) as Pat can't get GPRS an the island - in fact no phone signal here - and we're now off to explore - more seals, and hopefully some koalas and the like.

One thing we have noticed about Aussies is that they like to abbreviate everything by putting an 'O' on the end of everything...so far we've had:

Vego - vegetarian
Smoko - smoke break
Rego - car registration
Spazzo - offensive remark against an opposing player in the 'footy'

...to name but a few...


Daniel Cornwell 6/11/2003 01:12:00 AM

Sunday, June 08, 2003

Time for some more pictures - first up, me and Jen on a very famous street...that's Harold's house in the background apparently; and also the night out with Flic & Luke, l-r Pat, Nick, Flic, Luke, Kim, Dan - Jen's taking the photo.



Metropolitan, cosmopolitan Melbourne by night, and the two of us stood outside the stadium with the scoreline and Jason McCartney towering over us.



A couple from the Great Ocean Road...2 tourists and...a) The 12 (alledgedly) Apostles, b) London Bridge (is falling down, falling down...)


Daniel Cornwell 6/08/2003 11:00:00 AM

Our first night away was spent in Lorne where we managed to see absolutely nothing. We arrived at dusk and then did a big shop before being far too tired to do anything other than sleep. This morning we went to a waterfall (Erskine Falls) that was pretty unspectacular, before heading off towards the most famous parts of the Great Ocean Road. The 12 Apostles are 12 sandstone rocks hundreds of feet high that have formed over the years due to erosion from the tide. We could only spot 10 1/2 though. Maybe Judas had persuaded a couple to crumble and the 1/2 was a lamb or something...anyhow - great views and piccie opportunities. We also saw 'London Bridge' which used to be a bridge but is now an island. There is a reputedly funny story about the day the middle section collapsed leaving the island...a man and women were on it and were eventually rescued later on that day after being filmed by a passing news helicopter. HIS wife wasn't too impressed...when she saw them both on the news...neither was his boss as he'd rung in sick that morning.

So here we sit in Warrnambool - some 400 km into our 2nd road trip - it was a little further than we thought but the only other stay-in-able room en route was in a a place called Peterborough and you know my feelings on that one. Warrnambool is one of the best places in the world to whale watch, as the whales migrate for the summer or winter - can't remember which. Having said that they haven't made and apprarances so far this year...let's hope their alarm is set for June 10th this year as that's what we're doing tomorrow. Pat is looking into the possibility of diving with Great White's - we're going to have to pass on it due to cost but if he does it we'll meet up with him later.till no idea on our route/itinery from here - just see how it goes really.

Daniel Cornwell 6/08/2003 09:45:00 AM

Saturday, June 07, 2003

Another in a series of great nights out. We started out at a bar where the Poms whooped the Aussies at pool (2-0 - read it and weep!) and Pat was in exceptional form potting a couple of long ones en route. For tea we had 'ParmaGarna' which is basically a piece of chicken wrapped in ham, a tomato sauce, and covered in cheese. Just to finish the lard fest they then bung it on a bed of chips, to appease the girls they added some lettuce and the like. The gang had expanded to 7 and was soon to be 10 when we finally made it to an Irish Bar which was actually rather good. Interestingly, being the king of facial hair, Luke's friends also wore similar pogs - every one of them sporting a fetching beard of some description. Even the girls. Not really.

Anyhow we chatted and drank until the small hours, one of the most interesting thints we covered being 'Scavenger Hunt' which happens at Melbourne Uni every year and it is basically a big...Scavenger Hunt. What happens is that the previous years winners get to write a list of around 3-600 items for teams to collate in a 24 hour period. The teams are then awarded points based on the difficulty of the item. e.g. The most naked people up a tree photo - 500 points, a fire engine 1000 points, and a police car door 5000 points. Luke is captain of a team that has finished 2nd on a number of occasions...he didn't manage the police car door but did manage getting the boys in red to drive their engine around to the judging panel. He also onced changed his name by deed-poll to the name of his team (His name became 'I. I.' - I think that one was 1,000 points...). Why don't they have uni events like that back home...pure genious, pure carnage.

Feeling decidedly worse for wear in the morning (we didn't get to sleep til after 5am - rock and roll !!!!) we had a bit of a walk round Melbourne. It's much more cosmopolitan and multi-cultural than Sydney, and has loads of great little spots and excellent bars and cafes.

In the evening one event I had really been waiting for - AFL - the footy. Now it's not footy as we know it but 36 (18 on each team) rabid Aussies running around a cricket pitch trying to kick a rugby shaped ball through some posts - mayhem. Last's night game was played at the 50,000 all-seater Telstra Dome - and last night it was bursting at the seams with over 43,000 crammed in for the local derby between Richmond Tigers and North Mebourne Kangaroos - the 'home' team. The match itself took on a huge significance as the 'Roos' number 5 - Jason McCartney - was severely burnt in the Bali bombings and last night was his comeback match after 8 months out with horrific injuries. It was a truely moving spectacle as a number of teams who lost players were represented by fellow team-mates at the start of the match. Jason himself wore a shirt with 88/202 stitched onto it in remembrance of the 88 Aussies and 202 poeple that died last October, and received an exceptional ovation from both sets of fans at the start of the game, despite only being named on the subs bench. So the scene was set...on the walk to the ground I had secretly decided I would cheer for Richmond as they play in black and amber (Cambridge) and the Roos play in blue and white (Boro Scum) and it is against all my principles to cheer for anything in blue and white, hell I even boycotted Thomas Cook for 5 years when they sponsored Boro...BUT the Aussie guy I sat next to was a Roos season ticket holder and he was such a nice guy, explaining all the rules, and exchanging sporting anecdotes that I did the unthinkable...cheered for a team in blue and white. By the end of the 100 minutes play (spread over 4 quarters) I was as wrapped up as anyone...

It was a great match - Luke said we'd chosen a hell of a game to go to afterwards...and going into the final 1/4 the scene was set with the scores within 3 points. Then the moment the whole crowd (and to be honest me, being a bit of a sentimentalist, too) had been waiting for. With the Roos trailing by 3, McCartney, obviously struggling to keep pace with the game somehow managed to catch a ball (a mark) some 25 yards out and thus had the opportunity, with about 5 mins to go, of kicking a goal to put the Roos into the lead by 3. The whole crowd roared as he stepped up and cooly slotted the ball over. He was mobbed, fans hugged each other and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. The drama clearly hadn't ended as the Tigers went straight up the other end and slotted a goal of their own. So, into the last 2 mins and the Roos attacking saw them in good field position, but without a clear opportunity until their number 5 somehow managed to get a scuffed kick away under pressure which was taken on the full by another forward for an easy goal and a 3 point victory. It was fitting that when the final siren sounded Jason McCartney has the ball in his hands and was then surrounded by not just his team-mates but the players from Richmond. All around us grown men were shedding tears, yet were exhalted, there was no doubt we had been a part of something that'll go down in Aussie sporting folk historty for decades to come. He was then hoisted shoulder-high and did an impromptu press conference where he announced his retirement, which was no real surprise as footy is a hell of a physical sport and he could only play with full compression suit and gloves. He has agreed to stay on with the club until the end of the season and has then got a role lined up in the media - good luck to him too. Having been a sports fan since my father first took me to football matches when I was 10 I have seen many memorable things both live and on telly...Cambridge at the Millennium (although we got hammered), the Eagles winning at Wembley, Goran winning Wimbledown etc etc...but this was possibly the most emotional sporting night I have ever witnessed - absolutely magical...we were so lucky to be a part of it. (Click HERE for offical webisite and aftermatch comments)

So, we said our goodbye's to Luke and Flic - you won't find 2 nicer people, and extended invites to England - hopefully one day they'll be able to take us up on the offer...if not I could always get a gang together and visit them for Scav Hunt!!! We're now in the campervan office and, after having a good look at the 2 1/2 berth van have decided to go for the 4 berth one instead so they're spending a couple of hours cleaning it for us. Not sure of our route yet but we'll be taking in most of the Great Ocean Road en route to Adelaide. We also want to get to Phillip and Kangaroo Islands and do a bit of whale-watching. We're disappointed to be leaving Melbourne so soon, it's a great city, really vibrant but very different to Sydney. Who knows, one day we may be back, I for one, hope so.

Daniel Cornwell 6/07/2003 02:42:00 AM

Thursday, June 05, 2003

Just a very quick shout to my brother's mate Laura...THANKS for paying the China cheque in - much appreciated. She's looking after all the post when my bro's out here and has already paid the cheque in - so Laura we'll raise a glass to you tonight when we're meeting up with Luke and Flic whom we met in Chengdu - China. We've already had Nando's with Luke though at lunch time...


Daniel Cornwell 6/05/2003 06:23:00 AM

The Neighbours set then...erm well it was a street called Pin Oak Court (not Ramsay Street) but the houses were vaguely recognisable. We also got to see Erinsborough High (called Blackburn English School). There was no sign of Bouncer, Helen Daniels or Cody, although I've been told they're all dead. We're not staying for the meet the Neighbours night on Monday where Dr Karl Kennedy is the special guest star...gutted eh?

We have also changed our itinery to the following:

17 July (Day after State of Origin III) - Brisbane to Darwin
26 July - Darwin to Perth
16 Aug - Perth to Brisbane
17 Aug - Brisbane to Auckland
1 Oct - Auckland to Santiago
8 Nov - Rio to Lima (via Santiago)
20 Dec - Quito to Madrid
27 Dec - Madrid to Barcelona
2 Jan (2004!!!) - Barcelona to MANCHESTER - HOME! So we won't be back for Xmas (which we wanted to be) but if we were we'd have had to rush everything to the extent that we would miss out on South America. Also it means I can hit the job market at the best time of year...it'll be strange being on the other side of the desk...


Daniel Cornwell 6/05/2003 05:49:00 AM

McDonald's with an internet cafe - I kid you not. Now if they served beer and showed footy what reason would there ever be to leave? Here are some piccies for you via my brother (again).

Firstly my homage to the king of all kings, and a shimmery one of us wine-tasting in the Hunter Valley.



Pat, Bob, Koala, and Me; wallaby grabbing Jen's hand as she feeds it sugarpuffs.



My brother and me (how camp??) waiting for the white water rafting; us in the sea at Bryon Bay - it was bloody cold.



Jen silhouetted on Byron Bay beach; us just after a race - l-r Pat, Rich, Jen and me...Rich won - GIT!!!




Daniel Cornwell 6/05/2003 12:08:00 AM

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

A great night out followed, and an inpromptu dip in said freezing sea at around 10pm...all good fun. Yesterday (Tuesday) we decided, despite the freezing rain and cloudy weather, to head to the biggest and best water park in Aus. It was great fun - there were about 10 'rides' and they seemingly had catered for all forms of falling down a slide - some lying down, some sitting up, some head first. There was also a massive wavepool where I proceded to nearly drown - how ironic would that have been given the amount of time we've spent on the actual sea in real waves...?

The trip to the water park was not without event however, as Helen decided instead to go to the cinema and as she did so, she turned my phone off...when she tried to turn it back on she realised she didn't know the PIN. We'd already emailed though and we managed to arrange a place to pick her up...we were nearly down to 4 not 5...anyhow, a mad adash up the coast to Brisbane followed and we managed to find a space at a campsite despite it being the National Caravan and Motorhome show just up the road. They did stick us on an 'emergency' stand at first but when we realised we were on about a 20 degree incline (thus, no sleep) we managed to persuade them to move us...

The park was miles from anywhere so we settled down for the night with some of the Hunter Valley wine and Peter Kay - Live from the top of the Tower ('Garlic bread?, bread with garlic on it....') before bedding down for the night. The rain did not abait however and pretty much all of us had a broken night's sleep whilst the storm continued outside.

So 5 has become 3 - travelling with 2 others we'd previously not met (Helen & Rich) was for the most part great fun. I am sure they are looking forward to their privacy a little as I know we are...I don't think we annoyed each other that much although a couple of times the atmostphere was a little charged...hey what do you expect with 5 people in the space of a jail cell for 12 days!! Either way we're all still friends (I hope) and we've vowed to meet up in Cairns in about 2-3 weeks for some fun and diving. This afternoon, in order to kill time before our flight we went to see 'Old School' - funny in parts but no real storyline...it killed a couple of hours though, and we've now arrived at Brisbane airport for our 6pm (ish) flight. Next stop Melbourne where we meet with Luke & Flic (the most bearded man in the world and his Dentist friend - we met them in Chengdu), we are going to tour the Neighbours set, and also go to an Aussie Rules match, hopefully at the MCG on Saturday. From there we head off down the Great Ocean Road before winding up in Adelaide on the 14th in preparation for the trip up to Ayres Rock (Uluru). En route we are trying to fix up a 'dive with Great White Sharks in a cage' type thing...not sure where or when yet but apparently you can do it in Aus.

Oh and while I remember part 5 (or something) in a series of 'our faith in humanity is restored...'. We have received a cheque for 160 quid from CTS (China Travel Service) Hong Kong Ltd. for the flights we cancelled and we thought we had no hope of getting a refund for...yay! This means with BA's 300 we actually about broke even getting out of China. Certainly helps. Also we're now booked onto the Neighbours tour - going tomorrow - we will be going to Ramsey Street and will get to see Erinsborough High (whatever that is) and hear some new storylines...can't wait.


Daniel Cornwell 6/04/2003 06:00:00 AM

Monday, June 02, 2003

Nothing really to report other than that we had a great night out with good beer, great food and a couple of weird but good bands. This morning we went for a swim in the sea and proceded to get buffeted about by wind and currents before heading into town. We are currently finalising our route for the next few weeks...more specifically Melbourne to Adelaide from 4-14 June.
Daniel Cornwell 6/02/2003 04:19:00 AM

Sunday, June 01, 2003

So I've not written for a couple of days which usually means we're having a good time right? RIGHT! The horse riding was a blast even if I did get the worlds only gay horse to ride on...well 'Trooper' was described as 'having a boyfriend'. He's a gelding though, and so is his partner...confused...? I was...anyhow, enough about horse sexuality and onto the riding. We went through about 10 km of rainforest and although we were promised that there were Koalas we didn't see any. The trip took us through some lovely scenery and my 'usually lazy bugger' of a horse even managed a trot or two. Poor sod. He did look truely knackered at the end. The estate on which the horse riding is set has been owned by the people who took us riding for about 5 years and they own 400 acres - read it and weep. You can buy a 5 bed house with 5 acres out here (albeit 20 km from the coast) for about $500,000 Aus...about 200k to you and me. Ho hum...will someone remind me why we live in England again....?

In the evening we all went bowling and Rich topped the scoring charts with a whopping 177. Both me and Pat managed creditable averages of about 125. Jen wasn't last so she was chuffed! We thought it'd be rude not to visit the pub Russell Crowe had a big drunken fight in a few months before his wedding (he lives just up the road), but the big burly and thick as pig-shit bouncers barred Jen and Helen's entry on the grounds that 'you need ID if you are under 32'. I nearly asked if he meant IQ or age, as he would clearly have needed ID for the former. Ho hum...trip back to the van and an early night where Jen, Helen and Pat all tied last and were all shit-heads. I'm not telling you who lost the play-off they decided to have to choose a clear 'winner'. She won't let me.

On the evening (before the cards) we booked onto a day's white water rafting on the Nymboida River for the following day (yesterday). It proved to be great fun although we did nearly flip the boat on one of the more dangerous sections. We knew we were in trouble when the guide's command changed from 'get down, get down' to 'f**ing get down - NOW!' Very amusing. A great BBQ was had by all before we headed back.

An early night then, and then an early(ish) start to get to where we are now (Byron Bay - not the internet cafe). First impressions are good, although loads of travellers and, ahem, alternative lifestyle people (see Khao Sarn Rd for details). Should be good fun for a day at the beach and possibly a day's diving before we head North to Surfer's Paradise and Brisbane. The van has to be back on Wednesday by 4.30pm and anyhow, our flight to Melbourne is at 5.50ish...it's a Qantas internal so let's hope there's no nutters with wooden stakes.


Daniel Cornwell 6/01/2003 05:37:00 AM

Friday, May 30, 2003

10 Things we love about Australia - in no particular order...

1. The bluntness of their signs - e.g. FOXOFF (fox poison laid here), Stop, Revive, Survive (road safety - stop every 2 hours), 'Will all shoplifters please smile for the cameras on the way out' and 'Free lift to police cell for all thieves...'
2. Pubs are open 24 hours and by law all of them have hotel rooms...so if you've had one too many...
3. The people are so goddamn funny, self-depricating humour, everything's done with a smile
4. SPORT is so important here - they live and breathe it (even if it is the ones played by men with odd shaped balls)
5. The weather is (generally) great - even in winter
6. Their animals (roos, wallabies, koalas et al) are so much more cuddly and fun than our wild animals (ferrets, rats rabbits etc...)
7. They worship eating - fast food abounds, every town has a KFC/McDonalds and copious amounts of kebab houses
8. The beer is served in pumps that are so cold they ice up...honestly!
9. Facilities for travellers are unbelieveable, yet they don't look to fleece you. Sydney is such a travel friendly city - such a contrast from London.
10. The wide open spaces, scenery, lack of traffic jams, well signposted areas...I could go on...

Things we hate

1. They always beat us at sport
2. Their country's infrastructure is so much better than ours
3. They get taxed around 30p (total) in the pound - that includes all GST/income tax - everything

That's about it...and to honest all 3 bad ones are things that are good about Aus anyway. I would move out here without a second thought but it's not as easy for Jen as last time we looked into it (about 2 years ago) there was a surplus of dentists in the major cities making it pretty difficult for her to move...ho hum, only 7 months til we're back in England and all it has to offer....

Daniel Cornwell 5/30/2003 01:12:00 AM

Thursday, May 29, 2003

Port Macquarie was a one-nighter - not a whole lot in that particular town. Very funny when we tried to get some food at about 9.15pm - everywhere was shut as (according to a taxi driver) 'everywhere shuts at 9 sun-thurs'. We did find a chinese that was open though and had a bloody awful one. We did find one fantastic place however - a Koala sanctuary. Here we got the opportunity to have photos taken with the cuddly buggers and also got to feed Kangaroos and Wallabies for an hour or so...very cathartic. We now reside in Coff's Harbour - between Byron Bay and Port Macquarie, and probably about half way (or just over) on our jhourney up the coast. It's OK here - Jen has badgered me into going horse-riding tomorrow...Pat is considering doing a skydive whilst H & R are off sea-kayaking...we should hit Bryon Bay on Saturday all being well.


Daniel Cornwell 5/29/2003 01:05:00 PM

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

The Hunter Valley is huge - we found this out when we decided to walk from the first group of wineries to the second - 3 1/2 kms away, in the rain. We started the day at The Hunter Valley Cheese Factory, where we tasted a variety of great cheeses and finally settled on the priciest but most amazing tasting cheese I think I have ever tasted. It is a 3-year old blue cheese that's soaked in port - amazing. Then off to our first winery - McGuigan's, run by Bruce (not Barry). Here we booked on a tour where we were shown the whole wine making process from picking to cellar. No bottling though as that takes place else where. The guy showing us around had a real enthusiasm and knowledge and we learnt loads about Oaking, Fermentation etc... that I am sure we won't remember past tomorrow. After a good tasting session we settled on a Shiraz and walked to another couple of wineries after lunch.

The 3km walk ended at Lindeman's and Rosemount Estate where we sampled some of the more mass market stuff which tasted just fine too. Last year Lindeman's exported 23 million bottles to the UK and their Bin 65 Chardonnay is the 2nd best selling wine in Aus. It's easy to see why - they're a slick operation and, again, knowledgabloe staff led to an interesting tasting/buying session. I was so comfortable there that I even found time for a little nap - much to the amusement of said staff.

So, a bus ride back and tea of chicken chasseur to come, tomorrow we're starting the real long haul up the coast with me and Jen driving (eek) the first port (quite literally) of call is Port Macquairie where we are hoping to do some white ater rafting and the like.We will hopefully manage to get better weather as it's horrid here - it's that really fine rain that soaks you through (copyright Peter Kay - 'it's spitting...').
Daniel Cornwell 5/27/2003 08:30:00 AM

Monday, May 26, 2003

Our campsite in the Hunter Valley is great - we've got a powered site with an en-suite toilet and shower, it's funny but 6 months ago I never thought things like that would be a luxury...Last night was quite eventful - whilst Rich was cooking his steak (that he's looked forward to for days) something plasticy set on fire behind the grill causing some fairly toxic smoke and more than a bit of panic before we managed to find the fire extinguisher and put the inferno out...

Couple of pints at a bad Irish pub was needed after that so that was what we had. Today is 'winery' day - we are starting bizarrely enough at a cheese factory and then we're off to Tyrrells - one of the oldest vineyards in Aus. They do a full tour and free tasting and no doubt we will buy some wine to accompany tea. We're off on a long drive tomorrow again so have got to cram in as much as we can today.

Daniel Cornwell 5/26/2003 11:23:00 PM

Sunday, May 25, 2003

The weather here is bloody awful - max of about 6 degrees today and the blooming fog isn't lifting. Not letting that daunt thus we went out searching for the Blue Mountains and we saw at least a little of them. We started off with a train journey on the world's steepest furnicular railway, which lasted all of 3 minutes and was more akin to a kind of bad rollercoaster. The funniest part was when they played the Indiana Jones music at the start...classic. It was, in fact, an ex-mining track from the late 19th/early 20th century and led us down to an area they have now boarded called, imaginatively, 'The Boardwalk'; no sign of Bruce Willis or The Drifters under it, however. We spent a good hour or so walking through the rainforest and got some great views of 'The Three Sisters'. The Three Sisters is a rock formation which, legend has it, are made of local aboriginal women who got turned to stone. They would have been hundreds of feet tall so we thought that particular tale may be more than a little unlikely. In order to ascend we took the Sceniscender - which is basically a cable car. We managed to get a couple of shots before the mist descended and we retreated back to the Campervan. I spent the afternoon sorting through photos and there are a few below courtesy of Pat's laptop and GPRS phone - very slow internet on the move - wahey!! Tonight Jen is determined not to be the shithead and seeing as H & R are so bloody good at the game the likelihood is that it'll be me as it is my turn. Tomorrow we're up early as it's over to The Hunter Valley - we're going to visit a few wineries and sample their wares so tomorrow night's edition may be a little confused...

As I've said above, thought it about time to upload a few piccies...hope you like them...

Sydney - us at the Aussie Stadium for the rugby, and a photo of our 'BridgeClimb (Tm)' photos...



Sydney at Sunset, and me on the Manly ferry with the Opera House in the background.



Us at the Sydney Opera House, and us on Manly beach.



The only time we'll ever be anywhere near an Olympic Podium, and us (me looking very camp) on Bondi beach.



Me with my fave big fiah - a clown anenemefish, unfortunatey it costs $140 (AUS) and is bigger than my rucksack...and finally us with the 3 sisters rock formation in the background - the Blue Mountains...


Daniel Cornwell 5/25/2003 10:15:00 AM

Friday night was a kind of non-event really proving we are all absolutely useless at partying. We didn't even manage a game of cards and, after watching the rugby on TV, had an early night in preperation of the campervan-picking-up morning ahead.

Arriving at Britz Rentals (ironically a German firm) we saw an assortment of campervans from brank spanking new to old and knackered, some looking like the one of that backpacker that was murdered a few years back. Obviously preparing for the worst we signed our papers and were pleasantly surprised, nay amazed, when we received a brand spanking new Mercedes with only 15,000 miles on the clock. After fannying around for about half an hour putting things in cupboards and the like Pat voluteered for the first drive of the day - Sydney to Byron Bay and then onto Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. The good news is that I got to sit up front as navigator, and after hitting a curb a couple of times we arrived at the place where Cook discovered Australia some 250-odd years ago. If you're wondering why it was good to sit up front...a) I didn't get abuse from people in cars with reference to my brothers driving....one particularly amusing bus driver signaled to the other three that they would need a drink or two and should stop at a nearby pub, and b) I got to play Championship Manager for a full 2 hours as Pat has bought a cable that converts cigarette lighters into mains plugs - amazing eh?

Byron Bay was a bit of a non-event really given that we didn't manage to find the memorial or the historic landing site. We did find a fish and chip shop called Danny's though so it wasn't all bad. The trip to Katoomba was pretty uneventful, only one obscene hand signal from another driver, and no accidents. I'll stop at this juncture to describe the van...well it's kinda great, we've got all the amenities you need, shower, bog, toaster, fridge et al...and we've even got a heater that we found we needed last night as it's bloody freezing here. Katoomba is the gateway to the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are supposed to be one of the most spectacular areas of natural beauty in Aus (other than Kylie's backside of course). I say suppose because we have been surrounded in fog since arriving. To be honest we don't know if the mountains are there - let alone if they are blue. Nethertheless, invigored by a great big Mum-esque casserole last night we are doing the typical Brit abroad thing by not letting the weather affect us so we're off on a hill-walk today. There is also talk of a cable car and train at some point...

Katoomba itself is similar to any number of resort villages in the Lake District, with a good mix of tourist and local amenities and we have to keep reminding ourselves where we are - it feels just like home. Bizarrely enough, to emphasis this my brother stated 'We could be in Norfolk' this morning....well quite. Tomorrow we're off up to the wine-making districts of the Hunter Valley after an early start.

One other slightly bizarre note of interest - last nights card game (round 2) ending in a victory for Tricky Dicky, with Jen last (Helen won before with Pat last). Technically speaking, and due to the name of the game Jen is now the 'Shithead', and Pat is relieved of those duties...please don't ask.

Daniel Cornwell 5/25/2003 12:59:00 AM

Friday, May 23, 2003

We decided (one day late) to take a trip out to Bondi Beach. After about 309 mins on a bus and 30 mins walking after we missed the stop we should have got off at we finally arrived at the famous sand-pit. It was pretty much like the Cornish coast although the surf was a bit higher and it was a little warmer. We then walked about 6 km from Bondi through a town called Bronte (no sisters on view) and through to Coogee which is a bit like Blackpool, withour the raw sewage. It was f aun way to spend the afternoon even tough our feet hurt now. In the evenihng we met up with Vanessa wjhom we met in Thailand and went out for Nando's and a coule of drinks. Pat stayed out (we were knackered) and had a very interesting evening spent in the company of an Aussie butter called Mick. at was so scared of the sinister Mick that when said headcase went for a loo-break Pat sprinted out of the door and ran home...

After an early start this morning we made it up to Taronga Zoo where I made the mistake of spekaing my thoughts out loud on the ferry over there. What I said was 'I dunno why we're going here I bloody hate zoos'. At least the Yanks in front laughed... As expected there were some cuddly Koalas and sleeping kangaroos and that was about it. Pretty poor to be honest but hey I felt fairly vindicated...we then went for a bit to eat and a trip round Sydney Aquarium which was everything the zoo wasn't - informative, interesting and incredibly large meaning the fish got a reasonable tank space. There were a few triggerfish and some very cute clown anemone fish (my faves - see sections on diving) and also a Giant Crested Maori Wrasse - a great way to spend an afternoon. On the way back we stopped off for a couple of games of pool and I remain underfeated in the Antipodes...

Daniel Cornwell 5/23/2003 07:52:00 AM

Thursday, May 22, 2003

The Olympic Park is amazing. A huge site containing what was a 110,000 all-seater stadium (it now only holds 80,000 - they reduced the capacity after the Olympics), the Aquatics Centre, a couple of other stadia, oh and a McDonalds. There are numerous exhibits that have gone on show since the Olympics. Perhaps the most impressive are a couple of exhibits near the main entrance of Stadium Australia (now named The Telstra Stadium). One of these is a set of poles with the names of all 74,000 voluteers who helped with the smooth running of the games - there are 5 Cornwells on there - wonder if we're related to any? There is also what also looks like a beahc hut but is basically 12 TVs done in a circle inside the roof where they play a rolling 2 hour tape of the Olympics with all the best bit. So we got to see Sir Steve Redgrave doing his bit in really dramatic and well-edited fashion. Great.

We managed to get a couple of concession tickets for the Stadium tour and duly spent about 90 mins being showed roundthe huge complex. It is so well planned and built it really makes you wonder if we've got what it takes to do something like this and to be honest the only pang I had of real disappointment in the whole thing was along the lines of 'Why can't Britain do something like this...?' The site itself of course is huge and are we ever going to be able to find an accessible site of that size in London - of course not (if we did the cost of the land would be too much anyway...) therefore why do we persist with a London bid not Birmingham/Manchester etc...? Anyway back to the stadium. We got to see the changing rooms, commentary suites, Gold and Platinum members areas and even got to stand on one of the genuine podiums from the games and had our photo taken. Not quite a perfect photo as those masters of one-up-manship the Aussies make sure that every photo has a huge beaming Aussie flag in the background - nice touch! Before the Olympics you could buy a ticket for the Platinum Area for $34,000 (AUS) - about 15 grand. This gives you 2 tickets to every event to be held at the stadium for 33 years, in the best seats, with bar and food thrown in...hmmmm tempting eh? Unsurprisingly since these limited tickets went on sale only 2 have since chenged hands (after the Olympics) for over $70,000. Sounds like a great initial investment to me...

Arriving back we decided to venture out to Hard Rock Cafe and great fun was had by all, cocktails, shooters, vodka redbull, guinness (!) and some great food was consumed but we all feel a little worse for wear this morning. We think it was the richness of the food. Off out now to Bondi beach and we're going to do a 6 km (!) cliff-top walk to Bronte and Coogee. Should be fun.

Daniel Cornwell 5/22/2003 02:26:00 AM

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Well it's now my birthday and I am 28. I got a number of presents...an apron and big jar of marmite from Mum and Stepdad, a 'rub my tummy make me smile - Happy Buddha t-shirt', a 'dive sites of Australia book', and a couple of presents my brother had obviously spent alot of time getting. One - a signed Cambridge United 'Happy 28th Birthday Daniel' picture and the other - a NEW RUGBY TOP. Those of you not familiar with the rugby top saga - I had my house rugby top for 14 years until a trip to a Thai dive site when it fell of the back of the boat and is now presumably a house for fish and the like. They don't make the same top any more so my brother had one commissioned just to appease all you sarky sods who like to comment about how 'I can't believe you've still got that top' and then smirked inwardly when I lost it...it's back - coming to a photo near you soon.

The weather's not good enough for the planned party on Bondi Beach so we're off to the Olympic Village to see Stadium Australia et al. No idea what we're up to tonight, sure it'll be raucous though.

Daniel Cornwell 5/21/2003 01:43:00 AM

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Our first real day exploring Sydney has been a resounding success...what a great city! Our early start of 8am (weird to think that it was still 11pm last night back home) was a real struggle, but struggle we did and we made it in time for the bridge climb. Since it's opening as a tourist attraction in 1998 over 1 million people have climbed the 1,439 steps and walked the 1.8kms to the summit of Sydney Harbour Bridge (these are stats for the round trip). The summit is 139m above sea level and, after a good hour and a half's climb/walk, we reached our goal. The views were stunning, from Sydney Opera House to the Blue Mountains over 100kms away in the distance. Our guide, Mel, was excellent and even organised an impromptu performance of 'Happy Birthday to You' at the top, albeit a day early. Despite originally having a lifespan of only 70 years (this has recently been extended to 300 hundred years - hey it was finished in 1932 - you do the 'Math') the bridge built at the cost of 16 lives and with over 1 million rivets to it's name is something of a national symbol and climbing it was, for once, something I was glad Jen talked me into.

I went for lunch with an ex-colleague of mine from my MP days - Guy Baynes. He hasn't lost any of his boyish good looks and sparkling repartee (!) and we shared a couple of old anecdotes and grievances before departing - me to the Opera House and him to work. We agreed to meet up for a beer tomorrow night. Guy has been the custodian of all our guidebooks for Aus/NZ and South America as well as our 'Teach Yourself Spanish' book. We have no excuses for not starting now. Cheers for looking after them, see you tomorrow.

The opera house was built in the 60s and the estimated cost was $7m (AUS). The Scandanavian designer who won a competition to design it went so overbudget that the government took control of the building resulting in him leaving before it was finished. To this day he has still not seen it completed. Maybe he was some sort of Anti-Australian corporate spy as the eventual cost to the Aussie taxpayer was a whopping $103m (AUS). Remember this was in the 1960s!! He's now 87 so I guess he'll never see it, as he declines the annual invitation sent via the Australian government.

After the opera house we jumped on the ferry to Manly, and spent some time on the beach watching a bloke with a metal detector (he found $3 in the half hour we were spectating - it's all action here you know ) and some surfers with varying degrees of ability. All good fun. After an amazing hot melted chocolate drink we just made it back for tea of Bangers and Mash! Tonight we're off to the cinema to see the Matrix Reloaded as we (well H & R) found some cheap tickets and stop off at a bar to see in my birthday with a cheeky half. We have no plan for tomorrow except to go out, have a few beers and go dancing. Should be great fun. Also should have some pictures up at somepoint tomorrow.

Daniel Cornwell 5/20/2003 09:50:00 AM

Monday, May 19, 2003

We've spent the morning having our first look at Sydney. First impressions are great - really bright and airy, with a great mix of modern and contemporary architecture. After a great baguette lunch and a quick haircut, where the barber was moaning about illegal immigrants, we had a quick run around the shops. Fortunately the girls had already decided they wanted to go off on their own so we were spared the 'women shopping' routine...For our sins our only responsibilty was to decide on, and buy, the food for the next couple of days. As we are on a pretty strict budget here we also vowed not to spend money on anything else...oops!

The sum total of our escapade is as follows:

One Set of BBQ tongs/slice/fork (bargain of the day at $8 (all prices in Aus dollars - divide by 2.5 for UKP)
One CD/MP3 Cassette Adapter so we can listen to to music on the car stereo - $30
A Bullmastiff Coaster - $5 (Pressie for Jen - we're both missing the dog)
A BBQ Grill Set - $18
An Adaptor to turn 12V cigarette lighter into 240V so we can use Pat's laptop on the move ($80)
Pressie for Jen - $enough
Food/Wine/Booze shop - $190 (!)

So it's mince, mashed potato and peas tonight and sausages and mash tomorrow. Great to be cooking again...tomorrow we're going up the Harbour Bridge on the Bridge Climb and exploring the rest of the Manly and the harbour. Hopefully the weather will hold up as it has been lovely and sunny today. Am also meeting with an ex-Michael Page colleague for lunch tomorrow. He too has left MP and now works for TMP!! Who'd ever be mad enough to do that???

In other news Rich has now confided that he has fired over 10,000 rounds whilst in the TA and he spent all his formative years training in the gym and kickboxing. I am scared. If you never hear from us again you know why...If you read this Rich - only joking big man!!

Daniel Cornwell 5/19/2003 07:03:00 AM

Sunday, May 18, 2003

'We love ya mate' - and so do 'Crazy John's' the biggest mobile phone retailer in Aus. The reason I mention this is that a) It was repeted ad nauseum at the rugby match this afternoon and b) from the little we've seen from Aus so far 'we lova ya too, erm ,mate...'

Singapore was fun, we find the place more than a little sterile at the best of times though, and without the hustle and bustle of hundreds of tourists and locals it was a bit weird and almost more sterile than usual. Raffles haven't developed a BOGOF mentality and we duly paid $64 (Singapore Dollars) for 4 Slings. We spent the afternoon buying Pat a new camera (well he bought it not us but you know what I mean) and then returned to the centre for a few beers and a meal at a Teppenyaki place - they cook all the food at your table and it was great! Couple of piccies below, Raffles then Teppenyaki.



After a few hours sleep we wearily met up again at the airport and managed somehow to blag Helen and Rich into the Club Class lounge. We were informed that our upgrade request (we were top of the queue) was looking unlikely as Business Class was full....bugger! It duly was, no one dropped out or died or anything and we took our places in Economy albeit in the additional legroom seats. The flight was smooth and we arrived in Sydney at around 6.30 local time - that's 9 hours (we think) ahead of the UK.

Our hostel is in King's Cross and it is less than salubrious, but at least it's reasonably affordable - $75 (AUS) for a night for a triple room and we've got our own cooking facilities and sofa so it can't be all bad. Hell they even carried the FA Cup final live last night and I managed to turn the contrast down just enough as not to keep anyone awake...good game I thought...shame about the result. The football was only interrupted by police sirens, screaming prostitutes, and drunk Aussies. This all occured on the streets outside, not at the Millenium Stadium; well, to my knowledge anyway.

This morning was a kind of sorting out/washing clothes morning which we duly did. We've booked a 6-berth campervan and are off up the coast via the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley (major wine-producing region) from Saturday. We have also sorted a kind of itinery (that's the royal we - it was Helen really) which will mean we're going to take in a whole lot of stuff over the next few days. The harbour bridge, opera house, Manly ferry (ferry to Manly not just a ferry for 'Manly' blokes), a couple of museums, The Rocks - they're all on the agenda. As I am 28 on Wednesday obviously we're taking things a little easy on Thursday but we have yet to sort any kind of itinery for the 21st...ideas on a postcard. We wanted to have a BBQ on Bondi beach but unfortunately the weather is cold and rainy at the mo although we're promised a heatwave by the weekend...

In readiness for the big trip north and as an aside we decided to come up with our 'on-the-road' names - the rules were that they had to be a pun on a musical artist/band and involve driving and our names. We came up with the following:

Van HELEN
Steeleye-SDAN
RICHARD ClayderVan
JEN Van Jovi
PATsy Transit (Kensit)

At the time very funny, not as funny now they're written - any better ones on a postcard to the usual address...

This afternoon we went to see Sydney City Roosters Vs the Newcastle Knights (Rugby League not some kind of Chicken Vs Medievil Man combat game). All great fun and a win for the home team (defending NRL Champions) by 34-14. The man of the match was one of only 2 'poms' playing over here - Adrian Morley. Depite him being ex-(dirty)Leeds we cheered him throughout.

Tonight we're cooking pasta and a tomato sauce and will undoubtedly polish some off the ridiculously cheap wine - less than 3 quid for a bottle of Rosemount Estate - marvellous. Jen's happy as she's got the wine option in addition to the alcopop option. I'm happy 'cos I've found salt and vinegar crisps - even if they taste like Sainsbury's own broand not Walkers...beggers and all that...

You will all be extremely pleased to know that tea last night consisted of a massive donner kebab and chilli sauce - my first in about 6 months - WONDERFUL!!!



Daniel Cornwell 5/18/2003 07:29:00 AM

Friday, May 16, 2003

Sorry we haven't written for a few days - everywhere we've been either hasn't had access or Blogger was down. Oh well here we are anyway in bustling Singapore. Just to update you on the last few days - we left Koh Tao for Samui where we went on another dive trip to 'Sail Rock' which has a vertical chimney. I felt bad again (all light-headed etc...) so Jen did the chimney with someone else. Vis was poor again so not a great dives diving all in all. After this we had a couple of games of bowling yesterday before meeting up with Pat again in readiness for our flight to Singapore.

We flew with Bangkok Airways on a propellor plane which is usually against all my morals but it was actually really good. Excellent service and with only 25 passengers (and 70 seats) there was more than enough space to spread out. There was also free beer and wine and an OKish lasagne.

So here we are in singapore - we're staying in 5* luxury once again (haha) here and it is wonderful - they upgraded us to a premier room (on the 11th floor, basically one down from a suite) free of charge and considering we're paying 100$ less than rack rate for one night (the other is free) it's as cheap as staying in a hostel for 2 nights...marvellous. Pat's got an ethernet connection in his room too so he's a happy bunny.

After a good night's sleep we trundled into town via Underwater World (shut - going back later) and the cable car (glass bottomed and all - gave us a great view of, erm, a couple of ferries) and met up with Helen and Rich. We had a Singapore Sling in Raffles and Burger King (Pat wants to compare fast food throughout the world) and got all exciting about our forthcoming campervan adventure. We've pretty much decided that our first 'trip' in Aus will be 12 days travelling via Campervan/Motorhome up the coast from Sydney to Brisbane via wineries, Byron Bay and Surfer's Paradis - me on a surfboard - do they make 'em big enough....? Rich appears to be either a) a fantastic outdoor adventurist, or b) a complete nutter (or both) as he proceded to tell us about how to skin a leg of lamb and cook roadkill (I've made that bit up) and the like...they've even got a stove and a couple of pans so we can cook potatoes too...should be a laugh. We've also kind of floated the idea of the four of us (less Pat when he's gone home) travelling through the outback to Western Australia...have to see how we get on for 12 days first we all agree...

So, tonight we're meeting up again for a few beers (they've gone off to do all the wandering around type stuff we did a couple of years ago) and we're off to play mini-golf and see the fishies. The next time I update this we'll be on the other side of the world...

Daniel Cornwell 5/16/2003 06:56:00 AM

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

The 'music' was there again in full effect the next night. At around 2.30am we decided to go down to check that it was our resort making the noise in readiness of our 'toy throwing' session at reception the next day. The sight that greeted us was not only bad music but of Phil Stephens doing his patented dance. Whilst hammered. Hilarious. It is a kind of throwback to the early 90s rave (little fish big fish cardboard box) and is his speciality - I remember it well from the Page days. It was incredibly reassuring to see all the Divemasters and Instructors we were trusting with our wellbeing absolutely slaughtered just 5 hours before they were due on the first boat of the day.

We complained the next day and got a reduced room rate, an apology, and cheaper fun dives - all without me getting stroppy (honestly I didn't even raise my voice!). We also explained we would be writing to PADI about a number of safety issues on the boat. At this point it was very funny to see Phil skulk out of the adjoining internet cafe without being noticed. I have never known him so quiet - who says there's no poetic justice in this world...We spent the rest of the day debating what to do and when to get to Samui/Singapore etc...

Pat then threw a bit of a curveball when he announced he wanted to stay a couple of days to complete his advanced course. We had already decided we wanted away from Ban's and onto Singapore (and Aus) so we decided to leave him there a couple of days and hook up with him on the 15th in order to fly to Singapore. He seemed happy with this as it enabled him to do the course with an instructor he trusted and a group he liked. Fair dos. So here we sit in Ko Samui - staying at the same place we did back in February - creatures of habit us.

It has been a pretty entertaining day all in all. On the ferry we overheard some Thai guy telling someone about some friends of his who flew (last week) from Singapore to Sydney and were quarantined just because they left the airport area in Singapore. Alarm bells started ringing. He also said he'd read it in the Bangkok Post. Now as the literacy rate in Thailand is very low and this bloke only spoke broken English (the Post is written in English not Thai) we found this a little unlikely but decided it may be an idea to check if there was any credence to his story. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone I called BA. If you remember we've been having problems on and off for 2 months and they haven't replied to any of our 4 emails in the last 6 weeks. Eventually we got through to Customer Relations and more specifically a woman named Allison. She recapped our problems, read all the emails (which they had got, just not replied to) and, firstly, apologised profusely and unreservedly. She explained that the emails were being taken so seriously they had been referred up (yay!) and that it finally hit the Duty Manager's desk on the 12th (yesterday). She seemed genuinely aggrieved on our behalf and said she would take personal control of the matter and sort it our for us 'within a couple of hours'. And she did.

Following us faxing over the receipts from China and explaining the Singapore scenar