In our tightly packed Hyundai Getz we made our way to Helen’s freinds place not far from the Blue Moutains. Gael lives there with her husband Chris and 3 children Kye, Lace and Cove. Times have definitely changed since our Uni days together and it was just lovely to spend time with them all. The weather wasn’t particularly sunny so we were more than happy to chill out and have a good catch up.

Dave was taken out with the boys on a fishing trip along the Hawkesbury River with Kye coming up trumps with first catch of the day and later on Uncle Jonny brought home the bigger catch! Meanwhile Helen was laying low with Gael, Lace and Cove helping to entertain the little ones as and when was possible! Thanks to the Duffy family for making us feel so welcome! Hope to see them all again soon!

So onwards with our journey and as Gael and family don’t live too far from The Blue Mountains National Park we made our way along highway 32 eventually stopping at Wentworth Falls. It was really foggy so we couldn’t quite make out the views but it was definitely atmospheric enough to be there. Further along the drive we stopped at the more famous sights in this area including the Three Sisters.

We were there with hundreds of other tourists and made our way down part of the Giant Staircase to the Sisters before going to the Information Office to find out about camping in the area. We picked up some good advice from the friendly staff and made tracks to Katoomba. Here we re-fuelled on chai and food shopping whilst also enjoying a peek into some of the vintage and antique shops. It’s a street from another era and has a lot of charm about the place. Later that night we camped at the Old Ford Reserve Camping ground down in the Megalong Valley. It was a lovely spot for our first night of camping in Australia and it was free which is always a nice bonus.

The following morning we were up early and packed our backpacks for a hike down from Perry’s Lookdown. We’d been into the National Park office the day before in Blackburn and was informed this would be a good hike to get the hear rate pumping! It starts on a steep descent down to the Blue Gum Forest, you cover the ground pretty quickly but its tough in sections with steep steps and hand rails to help. Getting down was probably more challenging than heading back up again as it was pretty jarring on the legs, fortunately thanks to Amy and Amit who gave us some hiking poles we had something to help us get down and back up and we were really happy to have those with us. We stopped at Acai Camping ground at the bottom and then made our way back up again. In all it took us under 4 hours and we were happy to have the workout.

When we left the area we continued to drive through more National Park and bushland before stopping in Oberon where we decided to stay for the night in a holiday park. It was really good value for money at $24 for the 2 of us with good cooking and shower facilities, plus we were knackered after the walk in the heat and desperately wanted showers. It was a really lovely evening in Oberon and we drove out to a nearby reserve to watch the sun setting.

On the 19th we had a long drive ahead of us and drove south from Oberon towards Canberra via Goulbourn. We stopped after 2 hours of driving at the Wombeyan Caves, some 25km of gravel road away from the main road. It was like driving through real bushland and arriving at some hidden haven where campers were set up on lush green lawns and a little community of holiday makers right there. The site is surrounded by huge caves most of which are by guided tour only, but the Figtree Cave offers a self-guided tour which we decided to go on for $15 each. It was a short walk through forest into the cave where we had a small token to open the door. Inside the cave is vast with several chambers to walk through, at each section motion detectors sense your presence and a little voice over happens to take us through sections of the cave. We’re not really ones for staged things or over the top attractions but this was tastefully done and we were the only ones in the cave at the time so we took our time walking along the purpose built walkways. A nice little detour.

We continued our drive to Canberra and after setting off at 9am in the morning we arrived into Canberra just at around 3pm where we had a pretty unhelpful chat with one of the ladies at the information office. We just decided we would get some food for our evening meal, and then have a walk around Parliament House. There were quite a few tourists hovering outside Parliament House which is a very contemporary piece of architecture. After a few photos and having had enough of the intensity of the sun we were unsure where to camp for the night and drove through Queenbeyan before deciding we didn’t want to spend another $25 on camping fees to be on a road side. After a spot of internet research we found there would be a free camping reserve along highway 52 just before Braidwood, so we cooked our dinner on our one burner stove and then drove for another hour and a half. It was a bit too much driving for us that day and we were relieved to be in our tent by 9.30pm watching another episode of The Killing surrounded by other happy campers!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

This was to be 3 days of sheer relaxation and fun with Vic and Dave. Starting early we all piled into “Po” along with bedding, food, booze and games and set off for Picton. Dave G had arranged with his brother for a boat taxi to meet us at a pier east of Picton, so thanks to his brother’s boss we got a free taxi ride out to their bach in the Malborough Sounds. This would have cost $90 between us if we hadn’t had this ride! It took around 15 minutes in the speed boat to get to the Gillan bach house and we realised we would have passed the area the day before when we were on the ferry coming in. Dave’s brother was waiting for us at the jetty as he was then getting in the boat to go to work.

For the first part of the day we just chilled out, sat around the decking area, chatting, drinking tea, eating lunch and reading. The boys rigged up the fishing rods and the girls had a good catch up. We went out in their fishing boat for a few hours in the late afternoon, early evening with each of us having our own rod. This was Helen’s first stint at fishing and it was pretty unsuccessful, but for Dave G he got a trout and another mean looking fish. The trout went back in the sea and we kept the bigger fish for dinner later on. Vic and Dave R caught some spotties whilst Dave G kept on bringing in the fish, they were all small so we had to put them back in the sea. It was a lovely day weather wise and it was fun being out in the boat.

Back at the bach Dave G got the barbecue sizzling and we opened the wine. We enjoyed a fishy dinner, more wine and more of Vic’s birthday cake. It was a very funny evening indeed ending in part 1 of Cranium taking place.

The next day was equally as relaxing and hot. So after a lazy start we enjoyed more tea, more chat and a dive off the jetty into the freezing waters of the Malborough Sounds. We couldn’t quite manage the full swim out to the buoy but it was refreshing enough for us to spend a little while in the water before getting out. Back on deck we enjoyed lunch, relaxation and reading.

Later on we went out in the boat again and this time round Helen did catch some fish, she managed to get about 4 whilst Dave caught about 7, Vic 3 and Dave G got quite a few too. We weren’t counting but we caught a lot of spotties and as they are so small we just let them back into the sea again. Not pleasant but it’s better than killing them.

We went a little further in the boat around to Lochmara Bay and had a hot drink stop at the Lochmara Lodge. The day before a pod of dolphins were making their way around the Sounds so we kept our eyes open but there were none to be seen. Alas the chai and hot chocolate’s were a very good distraction. Back for our last night at the Gillan bach Vic cooked a lovely lentil and pasta dish and we finished Cranium, only to be defeated! The following day we helped to tidy the bach in preparation for the Gillan family Christmas holidays, we read and just enjoyed being outside in the warmth.

To sum up our experience we really enjoyed the Malborough Sauvignon Blanc wines, we loved just relaxing in the sun, reading and chatting with friends and it was so good to have a taste of home. The Malborough Sounds are pretty idyllic and the idea of a bach by the sea is very tempting indeed.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We started the day with a trip to a Pak’n'Save, there is one located 10 minutes north of Newmarket, although we stumbled across it. We stocked up with canned goods and a few essentials for cooking, although we would be coming back sooner than anticipated! Then we were set to go, a full tank of fuel set us back $60 and we were on our way north.

We drove up to Whananaki Bay which in total took around 5 hours from leaving with stops for lunch and a few sights along the way. We got our first taste of New Zealands rolling hillsides and for Po it was a chance for us to get her up and down some hills, gravel tracks and highways. The landscape is lush all around with rich greens, tree-life and birds everywhere and we were surprised at how quiet the roads were.

Having picked up a DOC camp guide booked for both North and South Island we picked out a campsite for the night at Whananaki, it’s south of the Bay of Islands and in a remote spot around 30km towards the coast from SH1. When we arrived it was all pretty straight forward, there was a camp host (this we were used to from camping in America) and there were pit toilets (same) but it was much nicer than most of the campsites we’d experience in the USA.

The facilities were really clean, and seemed brand new with cold showers to fit, plus we were right on a bay front. The sand was white and the sea was really calm, we picked out our spot and were proud of our first day out on the road. This campsite cost $8 each with an additional $2 fee for rubbish disposal bags and recycling. We explored the area and watched people trying to fish, we’ve inherited some fishing gear with the van so we’re thinking this is something that would be good to pick up at some stage.

Our first camping meal was left over curry from the night before and we enjoyed a full moon with some long exposures to capture the light over the campsite.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We got an early bus to Koh Kong, although as per usual it took over an hour to leave the city and then we were still stopping along the way to pick up other passengers, many of whom didn’t have seats so were sat on plastic chairs in the aisles. After around 5 hours or so we landed in Koh Kong at a bus stop a little way out of the main streets, tuk-tuk drivers once again were hassling us to take pick up into town, but we knew from the scale of the map that it wouldn’t be too far to walk. We met Ali and Carl who’d been traveling mainly in India on the bus and we all decided to walk in together. We landed at The Dugout Hotel, which is quite easy to find on the main street leading towards the market. The manager is Australian and pretty helpful when it comes to advice in the area, we opted for a room that was more than we were hoping to pay but thought we’d just stay there the one night. They have a small pool there too so we were keen to go in for a dip to cool down from the afternoon heat.

Later on we met up with Ali and went to have a chat with a local eco-tour operator ran by a friendly chap called Mr T, his office is located at Dugout, and they are owned by the same guy who runs the Oasis Bungalow resort a little way out of town. We found out about tours on offer and what was possible for us to do and see on Koh Kong Island, after going back and forth and realising we couldn’t stay on the Island, Mr T made a few calls and pretty much made up a tour for us on the spot. We could take a 2 day boat trip to Koh Kong Island, visit the beautiful beaches, have barbecues on the beach, all of our food and stay at a fishing village called Alatan that is connected to the island via stilts and wooden bridges. For the 4 of us to go it would cost $55 each! This was a good price considering the tours we had paid for in Vietnam. So we agreed and decided to leave the following day. If you do go to the tourist office at The Dugout please note that this isn’t a tour they do on a regular basis so don’t expect it to be advertised. They offer other types of tours including jungle treks and mountain biking in the area, Koh Kong itself doesn’t have much going on, it’s a small town which can be used as a handy base to go off and explore.

We were picked up at 8am and taken to the harbour where we had a boat, driver and guide waiting with us along with a fridge full of food. It was a long boat that they had decked out for our comfort, Mr T came along to make sure everything was ready and set up for us and off we went. The first part of the boat trip took around 2 hours and on the way we even bought our fish from a local fisher-mans boat! We took a brief stop at beach number 1, we all jumped off the boat and went for a swim in the crystal clear waters. The beach was beautiful with no-one else around so we were excited about going to the further afield beaches.

After around half an hour we carried on towards beach number 3, here we stopped and the driver threw in the anchor. We had until around 4pm here, and so we swam, sunbathed, ate a fantastic fish barbecue meal, swam some more, the guide built us a shelter from the sun, Carl tried to catch a crab and so on. All in all it was absolutely gorgeous, we had the whole place to ourselves, the sea was beautiful and clear and it was so serene. At last we had found a paradise. We had heard that not many people come to Koh Kong Island other than on day trips because the military operate the Island so it’s not the safest place to stay, also the trips only go when there are more than 4 people so this meant we didn’t see any other tourists, only fishing boats.

After a lazy afternoon on the beach we got back into our boat and made the hour journey to Alatan fishing village. We weren’t expecting what awaited us at all. The village is build up of around 50 or so houses all built on stilts going away from the Island for around 1km. As we arrived many local children were waiting for us, all shouting hello and smiling and laughing nervously in anticipation of our arrival. We instantly felt very humble and privileged to be there and were taken into the house which would be our base for our stay. As soon as we got inside the children were posing for photographs, asked Dave to do some English spelling and took us up onto the Island where their school is based. We were quite overwhelmed by the whole experience, they were so happy for us to be sharing their home with them, showing us around their school and attempting to speak English with us. The photography opportunities here were fantastic.

After an hour or so of playing with the children we sat down for dinner and enjoyed more fish, rice, salad and fruit. We had previously seen two full size snooker tables in one of the houses a little further away from where we were and asked if we could play some snooker/pool. We have no idea how easy or hard it was for them to get those things in there, we were amazed that they had them and they clearly kept them in mint condition. It was also amazing to see how each family have some way of making money; either by fishing, selling groceries, a little cafe at one end and then the snooker hall!

So we played for an hour until going to bed at around 10pm, we had an audience watching us the entire time and Helen didn’t play well at all. We kind of just wanted to be unseen at this moment in time wishing for a game of pool on a snooker table to end!! Unfortunately for us Ali and Carl beat us 2-0, but Helen always makes a point that pub sports…just ain’t her thing! ha ha!

So to our bedroom which our hosts had vacated for us for that night, 4 of us all lined up on a thin mattress, with water underneath and noises from loud televisions, babies’ crying and the like meant we were on for a restless night. Still the experience of being there far outweighed any of this and we were very happy to have stayed in Alatan that night.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

After a much needed lie in we got up and enjoyed a Wada breakfast eventually getting out at around midday to see some of Guilin’s sights. We booked ourselves onto a boat tour to take us to Yangshou the following day, the tour costs were pretty pricey but we thought it would be a nice alternative to getting another bus. So with this booked we went out on the local buses to central Guilin and made our way to the scenic Solitary Beauty Peak based at the very centre of all the Karst peaks in Guilin and now with the University Campus set around it. It was quite a pleasant walk to this area through side streets and alleys, close to the Li River. Guilin is built in and around these peaks and the central peak is supposed to be this one with a small shrine and temple on top. The peaks aren’t very high but they are extremely steep, the more touristy ones have steps up (like this one), and they don’t take very long to climb but as they jut out of the ground so suddenly you will always get good views up there.

This one was a little busy with other tourists but we took our time around the campus and tried to avoid the tourist traps. On top of the peak are a few souvenir shops one of which occupied a girl who was sleeping over her stall. They will fall asleep anywhere over here!

After the peak we took in a few more sights around the city and went to a slightly more westernised local restaurant but did enjoy the food and it was nice and cosy in there too. We continued to walk along the river side towards Elephant mountain which looked like a nicer area to walk but we’d already paid for the entrance to the Beauty Peak and decided to save a few pennies by bypassing other peaks. The Elephant peak area does look really nice though and is perhaps a better value walk for your money.

We found our bus back to Wada and went back to the hostel to chill out. Later on we enjoyed a few drinks in the bar and then went to the local shopping mall for some food in Japanese form. We finished the evening off with a walk back to the hostel and got an early night ready for our early pick up the next morning.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We went out for a bike ride with one of the Chinese girls’ Sylvia who was staying in the dorm with us, she was friends with another of the girls working at the hostel. It was good to have her with us as she could help us to find our way by asking the locals which way to such and such a place. She wanted to go to a specific village called Xixhou which is about 20km away from Dali old town. We wanted to cycle through some of the villages closer to the lake so we could explore the farmland, the most direct way would be to cycle along the high way for the entire ride but that’s no fun, so we compromised and spent some time cycling to the villages and some time catching up and taking the highway to the furthest place.

The farmland in Dali is very lush and extremely beautiful to photography. During our stay in Dali the sky was a perfect blue and it was a very comfortable temperature indeed, only being cold in the shade. By night it dropped significantly but we had electric blankets to cope with this!

So we took in the scenery around us, some farmland, some lake and some road. It was stunning. We got to Xixhou at around 3pm and ambled through the village market before stopping for some very good value soup rice noodles. For 3 of us to eat it cost around £2.80, and the food tasted really good. The only bad thing was a local guy pestering us for left over food and drink, he wouldn’t leave us alone and eventually got what he wanted. Still the setting took us away from this. We continued out of the village and took the road to some older parts of the area. Once more fantastic views, terraces and buildings surrounded us.

We decided to make our way back at around 4pm and set off for Dali. We were going quicker than Sylvia on her lady-like bike so we waited for her every so often, plus the drivers on the road aren’t the most reliable often overtaking two cars in one go so we wanted to make sure we were all with us. When we got back Sylvia joked about how fit we were compared to her and she said she’d only ever ridden a bike once before in her life. Considering this fact she did very well indeed.

When we got back we ate at an Indian restaurant down the road from our hostel and enjoyed more chai. Back at the hostel there were a few more travelers, Helen got chatting to Jane who she’d seen at various other places around China. It’s very easy to bump into people when you use Hostelworld for recommendations on where to stay. Many people also choose to travel through South China from Vietnam as it’s a good route and the weather is pretty good in Yunnan.

So it was our last night in Dali and we really loved the town and the hostel had a nice vibe too. We decided to nip back to Bakery 88 the next morning to get some take-away sandwiches with very good cheese and meat! Yum!! We also sneaked in a few more granola slices.

The bus back took the scenic route as part of the highway was closed but this wasn’t a bad thing as it meant we got to drive through some more beautiful countryside and villages. It was quite a luxury bus with only a few of us on board, and we got back to Cloudland at around 7pm. We had some food, chatted away and got ready for our flight to Guangzhou the following day.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

So the day has arrived to leave Japan and it’s time to live a cheaper life in China. We got up early and packed our bags. The boat was scheduled to leave Kobe at around 11am but we needed to check in before 10am. We ate breakfast in the Hostel 64 room and then headed off to the subway to catch a train to Kobe port. This involved a change onto a kind of monorail which took us to the port destination. We proceeded to head for check-in which involved a laser light shone onto your forehead, checking for any high fever symptoms. We passed with flying colours, paid for our one way ticket which cost 30,000 Yen, £300 (inc fuel surcharge) each for a twin room (special 1st class!) as we wanted to keep the gear with us as safe as possible and then we spotted a couple of Western faces.

We got chatting to Rick and Beth traveling from the UK and who are writing their own travel blog and then we boarded the Yanjing ferry to Tianjin together. The room was damn good and very spacious compared to some of the other rooms we have stayed in. En-suite with a shower and toilet which was ok, put it this way it was better to have this than the shared facilities, which were not that pleasant. You can stay cheaper in a mixed dorm of 12 or 16 people if you want to. We headed for an explore of our new home for the next few days. It takes just over two and a half days to reach China so we headed off around the ship with cameras in hand.

The highlight was a room in the depth of the boat with two table tennis tables. The gymnasium sign made us laugh, a storage room for carpets and knackered video game machines would have been more accurate. There appeared to be plenty of photography opportunities around the boat, the views on top promised to be very good and the other passengers just loved having there photos taken on deck, it felt like something out of a Carry On film. With blue sky and calm seas we headed off and as we left Kobe the sun shone brightly and the sea was very calm, it was a pretty cool experience.

We bought some food bits and bobs from the 7/11 for the trip and had some Japanese Yen, this is the only currency that they accept on board, however we quickly realised that we didn’t really have that much food, so a trip to the on board restaurant would have to be undertaken at some point. We found out from the literature that the breakfast was included in the price of the ticket so at least that was something. Pot Noodle style food from Japan is surprisingly good so this was our lunch on the first day.

We were called on deck for a drill in emergency evacuation, there we all stood in life jackets whilst the wind blasted our faces. The Brits had our own instruction which lasted half the time of the Chinese instructions, not sure what we missed there!? We were 2 of 96 passengers in total on board and found out there are 46 staff, it’s a funny staff to passenger ratio and made us giggle. There is the capacity to have 396 passengers in total on board and we couldn’t work out where they would all be if this was the case as the boat was feeling pretty full at this capacity.

On board we caught up with Rick and Beth and played cards into the evening and as the sun was starting to set we went up onto the top deck for superb views across the sea. We’re not entirely sure of our exact location at this point but it was the south Japanese coastline, the sunset was breathtaking and mesmerizing, the sea was extremely calm and we met our other western traveler JP from France. There was some evening entertainment planned, we were told it would start at 9pm but something that we eventually learned on this trip was that most things started half an hour before they let us know. We heard the singing, cheers and various performances downstairs whilst playing cards, so eventually we made our way down to join in the fun. It was a karaoke event with interludes of the ferry staff performing with musical instruments or singing. The audience cheered loudly and got behind their friends in the karaoke, it was a pretty raucous event for ferry entertainment. We we baffled by it all and carried on with a few more card games before heading to bed.

We decided to listen to some Adam and Joe podcasts that we’ve got with us on our travels before getting off to sleep. Anyone who knows us well will appreciate our love for Adam and Joe, and it kept us feeling all at home in our little cabin up in special first class…ha ha…we did feel a little too privileged.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)