Australia

So I jumped the gun slightly on posting my Indonesia blog before we left but only due to one event which I think you will all enjoy. We headed to the airport at about 9pm for our flight at midnight. We packed up the mini buses and when we got to the airport unloaded all the bags grabbed our own ones and went to check in...Only to discover that Brian had picked up the wrong bag at the hotel!! After a couple of frantic phone calls to get in touch with the hotel and to try to reach Rachel to explain the situation to her we eventually established that he had left his bag at the hotel but thankfully it was still there and hadn’t been picked up by the person who owned the bag we had! A taxi was arranged and the bag made its way to the airport and we all checked in without any hassle (my bag was 15.7kgs!! Go me!!!) Anyway the only reason I tell this story is that we had been joking with Rachel whose job looking after us officially ended once we got on those mini buses that we would be ringing her or coming back to the hotel because someone would have a problem with flights or something. We didn’t think that this joke would jinx us and that it would actually happen!! Anyway the flight went without any incidents and we landed in Darwin at 4am...another hour and a half ahead of home...that’s eight and a half hours ahead for those of you who may have lost count!!! After years of watching Border Patrol and all those programmes on TV I was slightly nervous going through customs as I was waiting to be picked out and have my bag thoroughly searched...luckily the cute little dog passed my bag and I was officially in Darwin. Slight aside here...considering I entered the country on a Working Holiday Visa they asked very little questions and all I got was the bog standard entrance stamp...bit of a letdown after all the cool stamps and visas I have gotten throughout the trip!! We walked into the arrivals hall to be greeted by Steve who was going to be our driver for the 2 weeks of the Oz trip. As we walked out to the bus that was to be our new home I was excited but knew I was going to be terribly disappointed as it was never going to be as cool as our big orange truck...I was not wrong as it is a white 24 seater mini bus so nothing too exciting. The only thing that did make me smile was the trailer that is attached to the back to transport all our bags (as there is very little room on the bus itself) is the same colour orange as our truck....so the truck lives on with us J we got lost TWICE on the bus that day...attempting to get out of the airport car park!!! All I could think was 5 minutes without Rachel and we had lost a big, 5 minutes on the new truck and we had gotten lost twice in a CARARK!!! I won’t go into too much detail about our first day in Darwin as it was all a bit higgledy piggledy due both to the lack of sleep, as very few of us had managed to sleep on the short flight, and also the mix up with the equipment that some of us had posted from Nepal after losing the truck. We did get some time to explore Darwin which is a fairly nice place but very quiet. We arrived there at about 7.30 in the morning and the place was dead considering it was a working day! But I saw their little Christchurch, the Old Town Hall and the famous Brown’s Mart theatre (think it may just be famous to Aussie’s cause I have never heard of it!!) That evening we headed to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market. We had a wander around and walked down to have a quick look at the beach before heading back to the bus to head to camp. We were all fairly tired at this stage and just needed sleep but it was nice to see the market all the same. We were staying in a campsite on our first night which we were all thankful for as it meant a shower after the flight and a long sticky day!! As some of our equipment had got caught up in customs some of us were without tents and sleeping equipment but we came across some very nice people who were staying in the campsite who offered us tents and an abundance of blankets and sleeping bags so in the end everyone had a home. That night however there was a massive storm and most people got flooded out of their tents due to the rain and sheltered in the cooking area and the shower block. There were massive roles of thunder going on for longer than I had ever heard and I loved it....but still managed to sleep through a good portion of it due to the lack of sleep over the previous few days!! The following day we got up and headed back to the airport to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we got all the equipment through as quickly as possible. It took a couple of hours but in the end there were no problems and we were back on the road to head to Ubirr in Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is a World Heritage listed site and covers 19,804sq metres in the Northern Territory. The park is home to 1,600 plant species, 275 bird types, 75 reptile species, 25 species of frog and a rough estimate of 10,000 species of insects. When we arrived at Ubirr, Steve told us that there was a viewpoint to watch sunset from and examples of Aborigine rock art along the way. So we set off and discovered lots of the art with information points telling us what the drawings meant. Once we reached Ubirr Rock we climbed up it and found ourselves on top of a large rock plateau that looks out over the park. We got some stunning views and at one point I turned around to take a picture to find some sort of bird of prey (I’m not the most avid of bird watchers so I can’t be more precise) at eye level with me about 10 feet off to me left. It was amazing!!! We settled ourselves down for what we had been promised would be an amazing sunset...but once again the UKtoOz curse struck and we had storm clouds moving in! We still got to see some of the sunset but then big drops of rain started plopping down on us so we retreated quickly and headed back to the bus to head to camp. And wait for this, our campsite was at a place called Malabanjbajdju!! I popped this in here so that when I come home and tell stories and simply talk about “a place in Australia” you will understand why I either a) don’t remember the names of the places or b) just can’t bloody pronounce them!! Our camp that night was a bush camp with no facilities, but we had a nice dinner consisting of kangaroo chilli con carne. Then it was bed time before an early start the next day.

On our third day in Australia we headed first to Nourlangie which again had many example of Aborigine art. We came across one story about an evil spirit called Nabulwinjbulwinj (pronounced apparently as Nar-bull-win-bull-win) who eats females after striking them down with a yam!! We don’t know why he does this or why, if he has yams at his disposal to throw at women, he doesn’t just eat the yams!!! We then arrived at another viewpoint, this one called Gunwarddehwardde. Even though at this stage it was only about 9am the sun was starting to get really hot so we didn’t hang around too long before we headed back to the bus. Our next stop was the Anbangbang (Arn-barng-barng apparently!) Billabong. We did a 2.5km walk around the billabong where we saw a load of wild (and noisy) cockatoos. Despite the warnings about crocodiles we didn’t come across any and we had an uneventful but beautiful walk getting to see Nourlangie, where we had just been, from a distance. Our next stop then was the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre where there was lots of information about the Bininj and Mungguy clans who look after the park with the help of the government. To give people an insight into the history and culture of the park they have told some of the stories that have been handed down to them by their ancestors, which explains their beliefs and also interprets some of the rock paintings we had seen. Being completely honest I don’t remember many of the stories with too much detail...the only thing that I can really remember is wondering how they managed to come up with these stories about their own culture and that. Some of them are pretty out there and involve grasshopper people and a lightening man and then the dude who eats women!! Some of the guys were then going on a boat trip on the yellow river, I passed on the boat trip but did a short walk on a little board walk out to have a look at the river which was really still and peaceful. Steve then drove those of us who didn’t do the boat trip to a place called Cooinda where some people used the pool. I just had a sneaky shower in the campsite and freshened up with a nice cold shower. When the boat trippers got back we headed off on the road again to head towards Harriet’s Rest where we were due to camp for the night. However because we had got all the days sight-seeing over nice and early (everything I have just mentioned was done by 1pm!!) we were able to go a little further up the road and get closer to Katherine where our activities were based the following day.

It was another early morning start (you’ll probably start to notice a pattern!!) but we were glad of it as the heat and humidity meant it was impossible to stay in the tent past sunrise anyway! We headed to the Nitmiluk Visitors Centre to get some information on the walks we could do around Katherine Gorge and then we set off. Most of us chose to do the short walk and my little group chose to do the really, really short walk...but ended up doing the whole 3.7km walk that we were trying to avoid! In the end it was actually quite rewarding as we got to see some of the wildlife of the park before we came across the gorge itself. And as usual, it was spectacular. Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge) is 18,000 hectares and consists of 13 naturally carved gorges along the river through the Arnhem Land Plateau. The viewing point above the gorge was spectacular and I couldn’t get over how still the water was. We saw a couple of canoes on the river (probably the best way to see the gorge) and even they only caused the slightest ripples on the water. We stood and took it all in for awhile and then headed back to the visitors centre. Along the way we stumbles across a small group of wallabies having a little feed and even saw one with a little baby in her pouch which we got quite excited about! Once everyone was back from their exploring we headed then to Mataranka where we had a chance to get into the Mataranka Thermal Pools. I gave this a miss and instead had a little walk around the pools and made sure to keep an eye on the thousands of bats that were sleeping the trees. The bats are fruit bats or flying foxes and there were literally thousands of them covering very space on every tree. And even though it was day time they were still making plenty of noise and flying around the place...and they were fecking huge too!! Luckily I managed to avoid getting crapped on and my relaxing walk turned into a very quick dash through the paths because I was a little freaked out in all honesty!! When I was finished being bullied by big bats I went and had a walk around the Mataranka Homestead. Mataranka is known as the “Capital of the Never Never” thanks to a book that was written by a woman called Jeanie Gunn in 1908. She wrote a book about her experiences in the Outback and it was made into a film years later (both called We of the Never Never) there is a replica of the Gunns house at the Homestead and it is the set that was used for the movie. Even though I had never heard of either the book or the movie it was still cool to see it and walk around...and I might be more likely to watch it in the future!! It was also at the homestead where we came across a very relaxed wallaby relaxing in the shade by hiding out under the pool table which was just ridiculously cute!! We then headed off to our campsite for a lovely relaxing evening and yet another fantastic sunset.

The following morning our first stop was at Gorrie Airfield which was used during World War 2. There wasn’t much to see there really except for the runway which was pretty run down. The only notable thing that happened there was as we drove back out from the airfield to the main road we disturbed a couple who had obviously come of the main road for some privacy and instead got interrupted in a rather compromising position by a bus full of tourists! We gave them a little beep and drove on!! We then drove on to Daly Waters. Our first stop was at the Daly Waters airstrip which is what made Daly Waters a place where people actually came to live!! It is the site of Australia’s first international airfield but then focus turned to military air traffic during WW2. It has not been in use since 1965 but the original hangar is still there and houses a small exhibition giving details on the history of the airfield, including the fact the 2 Aborigines were employed to refuel the planes at a time when the Aborigine people weren’t recognised as citizens. Our next stop then was to stop at the famous Daly Waters Pub. It was first opened in 1930 and got its license in 1938 ) I guess out in the middle of nowhere you can get away with not having a license for 8 years!!) The pub is quite small but manages to have a lot of crap in it! Tourists going through like to add to the memorabilia on the walls which range from GAA jerseys (this every county was covered!!) to bras and underwear, ID cards (including a few Garda Age Cards!!) and flags from every country you can think of! I’m telling you, dusting the place must be a nightmare!! Our camp site that evening was at the foot of the Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) This is a small formation of rocks that are precariously balanced on one another and gave us a slight preview as to what we would see when we reached the famous Devils Marbles. Once again we got an amazing sunset which turned the rocks a beautiful colour that I watched in wonderment as they changed. It was a really nice campsite although we all woke up with a tonne of red sand in our tents the following day!!

The next day we stopped first at the Mary Ann Dam. In all honesty I had a quick peek at the dam and then dived into a nice shower before hand washing most of my clothes so I would be semi clean for the coming week!! Once we were all relatively clean we then headed down to the Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) where I really couldn’t believe my eyes. Once again they are a formation of rocks that balance on each other in a gravity defying way!! There will be a massive boulder bigger than the size of a house balancing on top of a rock the size of a car!! It was crazy to look at it but I loved exploring them. I think my favourite part of it was finding a rock that looked like it had been sliced in two with a knife. The two sides were flat and smooth as anything and again I couldn’t figure out how they were split so smoothly! When we were finished crawling all over the rocks we had a quick lunch in the shade at the base of the rocks and once more hit the Stuart Highway to Connor’s Well where we set up camp for the night.

We next headed to Alice Springs where there seemed to be some civilisation once again! We arrived pretty early in the morning and the first thing we all did was head for some breakfast and to find some internet to let people know that we were still alive and hadn’t perished in the middle of nowhere never to be seen again! I did a little tourist stuff in Alice Springs finding the Old Gaol that was built in 1907. It was stuck in between two huge modern buildings which made it kind of quirky. I also found The Residency which is basically where royals and dignitaries stayed when they visited Alice Springs. It was built in 1927 and the information board outside seemed to take some pride in the fact that when Queen Elizabeth and her family visited in 1963, Prince Charles got food poisoning!! Steve also brought us to Anzac Hill which gave us a view out over the whole town, there was nothing that spectacular about the view but it was still nice to see! We were camping at a proper camp site that night and not bush camping so we all got nice long showers and had a toilet block to enjoy for a night before heading back out into the bush for pretty much the rest of the trip.

Our next major destination was what we had all been waiting for in Oz...Uluru (Ayers Rock) we had a slight delay on this day as we stopped at one of the few petrol stations on the road for fuel only to be informed that they had no diesel in stock. So Steve had to unhook the trailer, leave us all at the petrol station and drive an hour or so back to the previous station and hope that he made it before running out of fuel!! He did and he arrived back with a full tank so that we could complete our journey to Uluru. Uluru is 348 metres high, 3.6km long, 1.9km wide and covers just over 3sqkm. It was formed 550 million years ago by the Earths crust being lifted and folded and pushed against each other with sediment settling. My first glimpse of Uluru was weird! I’m not sure what I was expecting or how I thought I would react or feel but whatever it was it wasn’t how I did feel. We drove right up to it and got out to go for walks around it. I did the half walk which was about 5km and that was enough for me in the heat. When I imagined Uluru from the pictures I had seen I thought it was a soft rock and kind of sandy or something, and that it was smooth and just that iconic table shape with no texture or anything to it. I was completely wrong!! The rock is not just one smooth rock wall it has indents and parts that are higher up stick out a bit more than the lower down part of the rock. There are holes and little caves all over it. Waterfalls run down the sides during the rainy season. The rock isn’t as red as the impression I had gotten from the pictures. But aside from it being totally different to what I thought...I still loved it. It was amazing to see. To try and come up with words to describe its height and expanse is just impossible and I tried even to stand at the base of it and to get the top of the rock in the picture too but there just wasn’t enough space, it was either cut the top out or cut me out!! The walk around it was good though and there were information boards all around it telling us about the different Aborigine stories and why Uluru is such a sacred site to them. To be honest I think they have amazing imaginations! From different shapes in the rocks and even a dark ribbon going through a lighter shade of rock they have these wonderful stories about how these things are their culture. And I can gladly say that I had my dinner (and breakfast the following day) looking at Uluru as it changed with the sun going down (or up) it was actually pretty special for me watching the sun set on Uluru as it was the 13^th of October which is a special day for most of my family so it was a nice place to be sitting and thinking about everyone from back home in such a humbling setting. So the following morning we went back to Uluru. Some of the guys had decided to try to the Uluru climb so we dropped them off and kept our fingers crossed that the climb would be open as it was closed the previous day. The rest of us went around to the sunrise viewing point and I think I preferred this to sunset. It was still pitch black when we got there and we could just make out the silhouette of the rock in the darkness but best of all it had an amazing full moon shining over it. As it got a little bit lighter we were able to take photos of it with the dark sky behind it and the moon shining brightly. Then as the sun came up the sky got brighter and bluer and we watched it until the moon had disappeared and it was nice and warm with the sun in the sky. We then went back around to the start of the climb to pick up the other guys who unfortunately had not been able to climb as the winds were too high at the summit. Once we were all back together it was time to drive 50km over to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) to explore them. Kata Tjuta is a huge pile of domed rocks (36 in all) that have also been around for 500 million years and formed in a similar way to Uluru. The tallest one (Olga) stands at 536 metres high. They are spread over 35 sqkm and have a circumference of over 20km. Kata Tjuta means “many heads” and when you see them from a difference you can see how they get their name and also there is an Aborigines story behind them that gives “many heads” a further meaning. We spent about 2 hours walking up through them and again seeing some fantastic scenery.

The next day we were in South Australia and our first stop was Coober Pedy. Hmm what exactly can I say about Coober Pedy...it is the opal mining capital of the world apparently...and it doesn’t open till 10 on a Saturday morning. Which really wasn’t much use to us and we were there ay 8am on a Saturday! So we drove about the town for a little and then saw a sign that said “scenic views of Cobber Pedy”. So we all point Steve in that direction and stopped at this view point. Before I go any further I will tell you that the signs said things like scenic, beautiful and breathtaking. We got off the bus to have a look...and promptly all burst out laughing!! All we saw was mounds of rocks that had been mined with a few run down ramshackle buildings in the town!! It gave us all a great laugh though and showed us what we were in for in Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is pretty cool on paper, everyone lives in cave houses as it keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter when the temperature goes to extremes. They do have supermarkets and shops above ground now but all the houses and the tourist accommodation is all underground!! We visited the Old Timers Mine for a tour around an old mine and cave house. It was fairly small but fun none the less to see the mine and how small the mines were. And I liked seeing the cave house which was lived in up until 1990 when the mine was turned into the museum and the family moved out. Since the museum has opened people can no longer look for opals in the mine but there is still plenty of opal around and one stream (that’s what the call it) was found when they started doing the museum and is apparently worth about 40,000 dollars!! So not much to say about Coober Pedy really, but here are some interesting facts!! Coober Pedy when translated means “white man in a hole”!! It was in 1914 that opal was first discovered at Coober Pedy when a 14 year old boy discovered a gemstone. He was in a group of people including his father who were out searching for gold. Since then people from over 50 nations have moved to Coober Pedy to make their fortune...some of them have been successful, and some of them less so. In the two hours we were there I encountered 2 Indians, a Russian, an English woman and a couple of Chinese people. The population of Coober Pedy is 3,500 with 60% of them being European (us Europeans wanting to make a quick fortune!!) Oh and when you search for opals, you can tell people you went “noodling”!! And so that pretty much sums up Coober Pedy! Glad I saw it, was a bit of an anomaly but as our saying went after each stop in the Outback, “I wouldn’t want to live there”!!!

Coober Pedy was our last stop of note before we finally took a left turn and left the Stuart Highway...we didn’t really have a choice in all honesty as once we got Port Augusta if we didn’t turn we were all going for a dip in the Southern Ocean.  We stopped off for a couple of hours in Broken Hill. We found another sign for a viewing point...made the same mistake again and decided to go have a look...nothing of note to report (surprise, surprise!!!) We did go to McDonalds though and find a shopping centre which seemed to mark our road back to civilisation!! Our next stop after that was Dubbo, where again it was an Outback town but in Dubbo we found actual PEOPLE!!! Coober Pedy and Broken Hill were like ghost towns with a really eerie feeling that we were the only ones who had survived a zombie attack or something like that! But in Dubbo there were people in the shops and on the streets and actual traffic on the road! We also found a pub that was open so took great pleasure in going in for a cold drink...and I felt instantly at home due to the betting screens that were all over one of the walls and horse racing was on the screens!! Dubbo still didn’t have too anything exciting in it but it was yet another step in the direction of normality!! We had an amazing camp site that night in the middle of nowhere. Now I know I’ve been going on about the whole of the Outback being the middle of nowhere, but this middle of nowhere felt like home! We drove through fields with cattle and sheep in them and stopped at the end of a track beside a lake that we watched the sunset go down behind. We all pitched our tents and sat around sitting on the grass (not the red sand!!) and chatted the night away while cook group out did themselves with steak, rice and cheesy broccoli! And Steve treated us once again with cake and custard for dessert (no family, it wasn’t as good as my custard but it was still pretty damn good considering it was cooked on a camp fire!!!) it was a very relaxed evening around the campfire and brought it home for me that we were very close to the end of the trip and that nights like this were to be treasured.

Our last full day and night were spent in the Blue Mountains...and they reminded me of home! Finally after 2 weeks of flat, barren nothingness as far as the eye could see we came across hills and green trees and, well LIFE, to be totally honest!!! As we drove through the hills it started to feel more like a lived in country, than the deserted Outback! The Blue Mountains were great; we stopped in Lithgow a little town just up the road from Lake Lyle where we would be spending our last night. Lithgow was a nice little town and once again our return to civilisation was evident after coming across the local library and actually finding people in it!!! Once we had all stocked up for the campsite (beer and wine for our last night!!) we headed further up into the mountains and to yet another spectacular camp. We were literally on the bank of the beautiful Lake Lyle and got to watch the sun go down over it. I’m not sure if we were all sensing that we wouldn’t be spending much time in our tents from then on in but once again we congregated around the tents and beer bottles were opened and wine popped (myself and Rosie indulging in Sparkling Jacobs Creek...thinking of you Amy xx) We had quite a laugh before enjoying our last supper...a full blown BBQ with steak, pork and chicken (the sausages were kept aside for our last truck breakfast the following morning!!) When dinner was over we all huddled in around the fire and reminded each other of funny stories, what we loved most and best about the trip and basically just reminisced on what had been exactly what we all thought it would be...the trip of a lifetime. Bit by bit we drifted off into our tents, not wanting the night to end but knowing that we couldn’t sit there forever no matter how much we may have wanted to. The next morning I got up to open the tent and find a mist down over the lake and the sun starting to come up...and it was a truly magical scene. I stood and took it in for a few minutes before having my last truck breakfast, flapping my last dishes and dismantling my tent home for the last time. Funnily enough throughout the whole Oz leg of the trip we had been ready before departure time every morning, either because it was too hot to stay in our tents up in the north or because we were all bloody freezing early in the morning down in the south and just wanted to get back on the bus!! On the last day though we were a half hour late leaving...something of a psychological factor for most of us I think, not wanting it all to end! We eventually did all get packed up though and our last stop before hitting Sydney was to go to Katoomba to see the Three Sisters, a rock formation in the middle of the Blue Mountains. We all get out at the view point (an actual view point this time!!) and took in the amazing scenery in front of us. We had a group photo taken and stood in silence for a few minutes as we took in all that was in front of us and contemplated the goodbyes that lay ahead. We, rather reluctantly, headed back to the bus for the last time and drove the last couple of hours to the place we had been trying to reach for so long, Sydney. As we drove closer and the buildings got bigger and closer together I started looking out the windows, waiting for a glimpse of something that I recognised...and then I saw the Harbour Bridge and with that the biggest smile on my face. That first glimpse of it was all I needed to know that the last 7 months were worth it, and the best 7 months of my life. We drove through the city and then Steve dropped us off on Macquarie Road where we walked to the end of the street and had the Sydney Opera House to the right and the Harbour Bridge to the left. I stood in amazement of the two and couldn’t actually believe that after seeing all those pictures that I was actually standing in front of that iconic building. We also had our own welcoming committee with Greg waiting at the side of the road for us with a big orange sign congratulating us for “making it”!!! It was great to see a familiar face when we got there and once we had taken the last group pictures we all headed back to the bus to take our bags off it for the last time. And once we did that do you think we moved??? Of course not, we stood there for about 10 minutes talking with no one wanting to go anywhere and start the goodbyes!! So we all picked up our bags and walked to Circular Quay and got a drink at a cafe together...and then arranged to go for dinner the following evening!! When we did start moving from the coffee shop we put on quite a confusing show for the other customers as we all stood up, hugged each other. Looking like we were saying goodbye and kept saying “see you tomorrow”!! I could see the puzzled looks on some people’s faces but it just felt like our little secret! Myself and Joe then headed to our hostel and once we found it we found we had been guided in the right direction once again by Rachel after finding ourselves in what I will go so far as to say the best hostel I have possibly ever stayed in! The staff are amazing and gave us loads of information; the whole place is spotless and has a real homey feel to it! So we settled in got some dinner and went to our beds for the first time without our UKtoOz family all around us.

And so UKtoOz Odyssey Overland April 2011 is officially over. I can say, hand on heart that I had the time of my life. I can’t say that it’s what I thought it was going to be and that is only because I don’t really know what I thought it was going to be. I don’t think anyone could honestly say they knew exactly what was in store for us on the trip but what I can say it that I loved every minute of it. From camping in the snow, to our own little wedding, days without showers, sweating away covered from head to toe in Iran, being escorted through Pakistan, being stalked by tuk tuk drivers in India, falling in love with Nepal and being so glad to get to spend a month there, bathing with elephants, seeing wild rhinos, the tears of the Punhill trek, the disappointment of losing the truck, Greg and not getting to go to China and Tibet, the ping pong show in Bangkok, the Wats in Cambodia, 3 weeks exploring the wonders of Vietnam and loving every minute of it, the crazy unexpected night in Godmothers in our first night in HCMC, Kev’s Karaoke birthday in Hue, tubing in Laos, zip lining in Chiang Mai, the day trip around Kuala Lumpur, beating Australia and Dublin getting the All Ireland in Singapore, the shitness of Jakarta and the bed bugs to the absolute stunningness of Mount Bromo, relaxing resort style in Bali and roughing it in the Outback for two weeks it has been one hell of a trip with experiences of every kind and every kind of experience that I never want to forget. And along with all these memories I have made some amazing friends, some who I have already said bye to, and some that I am lucky enough I will see again very soon...and one in particular that I don’t seem to be able to get rid of (not that I want to J)

UKtoOz has been 100% worth it. After all the disappointment with two cancellations before I even got on the road with another (now bankrupt!!!) company I think I am a true believer now in the saying “what’s meant to be”. The people who I spent my time with on this trip have truly become friends for life and I now share some of my greatest memories with them. I will treasure the memories and have (literally) thousands of pictures to document the fun and laughter we have all shared together for the past 28 weeks.

And so the trip is over....but the adventure is not!! I am in my new home of Sydney, Australia, starting a new life for myself doing all kinds of crazy grown up stuff like looking for jobs and flats and about to embark on another great adventure in what I can already tell is going to be a great place to be. So although the trip is over, keep an eye on the blog, I may have a few stories to fill you in on from Australia. I hope you all enjoyed the blog and hearing all my stories, I loved being able to share them all with you and hope some of our crazy adventures made you laugh a little.

Love always,

Orla

Indonesia

We were up bright and early on our last morning in Singapore to head off with our bags on our backs to tackle the Singapore Underground at rush hour. We got a few strange looks...and a few rather unappreciative ones when we all squeezed onto an already “snug” carriage with all our bags! We arrived at the Harbour Front and went and checked in our bags then waited around for a short time before getting on the ferry that was bringing us to the island of Batam...our first stop in Indonesia. I had a very odd experience where we arrived in Indonesia before we left Singapore. We left Singapore at 8.22 according to the clock at the ferry port...and arrived in Batam at 8.17 as per their clock! Indonesia is an hour behind Singapore so it was pretty cool to see that we arrived before we left...real life time travel!!! We then sorted out our visas and then piled into taxis to take us to our hotel. The day was spent doing not very much as Batam is a place with not very much! The most exciting thing we did was venture down to the super market to get supplies for the adventure we were to embark upon the following day! That night we decided to do the easiest thing and stay at the hotel for dinner...which turned out to be somewhat of a nightmare for some people. We all turned up ordered our food...and one by one the dishes came out. In a painfully slow way and in no order whatsoever!! Dee and Andy ordered their food together, Andy was served within 15 minutes, and Dee was left waiting! Some of us had ordered before them and hadn’t been served. After about 2 hours sitting at the table most of us had been fed. Kev had been the first to order and after most the rest of us were fed, he was told that they didn’t have Lemon Chicken, Dee was faced with the same problem...so they both changed their order to Sweet and Sour chicken, a dish that they knew that had cause some of the other guys had already ordered it. About 20 minutes after this after a couple more dishes were brought out the waiter returned to tell Dee and Kev that there was no chicken left!! At this stage our group had been sitting in the restaurant (the only people there!!!) for nearly 3 hours! So Dee and Kev cut their losses and went out to find somewhere else to eat. When Dee went to pay for her drink the waiter explained to her the reason service was so slow....you’re going to love this! When we placed our order the waiter wrote each individual order down on a separate bill and handed them to the chef one by one, when he was finished with one dish the waiter would give him the next order “so that the chef wouldn’t get confused”!!! Dee came out and told us this and we all sat there flabbergasted!! Definitely the oddest run restaurant I have come across on the whole trip! What type of place has a chef that can only handle one dish at a time...this was made slightly more flummoxing as some of us had ordered the same dish, such and the Sweet and Sour, so would it not have made more sense for the waiter to give in all 4 orders for that dish at the same time and save the chef, and us, some time!! Anyway very shortly after that we all left for our rooms as it was coming up to about 11 at this stage anyway!!

The following day was the beginning of another epic trip...I’ve talked before about our 28 hour bus trip. Today we were embarking upon a 30 hour ferry ride to the island of Java!! So we got up, sorted our stuff out and put everything we would need to the top of our bags (sleeping liners, pyjamas, wash stuff) and had our food supplies in hand too. Rachel had warned us that although food is supplied by the ferry it was fish head curry so if we didn’t feel like tasting the local delicacy to bring some supplies. So we all boarded the ferry with crackers, cheese and a large amount of pot noodles!! Thankfully the ferry was only delayed by about an hour or so...an hour which I slept through! When we got on the ferry it was slightly nightmarish! We had all our bags with us and assigned bunks so we had to go on the hunt for those. One ship worker took pity on us and brought us to our bunks but seemed to circle back around and took us to a different deck, pointed to a row of beds and told us we were there. We looked at the number and said no we aren’t and went back down to where we thought we were supposed to be. Turns out the ship worker had walked by our bunks but there were already people on them and a large amount of shouting going on so he walked us past them. We went back down and found someone else who shooed 20 people out of our bunks. They didn’t seem to appreciate it and we gathered a rather large crowd as they stood and stared at us, one for being the only white people on a massive ferry and two for booting people out of the beds they were already quite comfortable in!!! We got ourselves settled as comfortably as we could and started to take in our surroundings! The ship was pretty big and the decks were pretty much totally open with no dividing walls with rows and rows of beds from one end to the other. When the ferry did set off we all passed the first few hours by reading, watching movies or sleeping! Our dinner consisted of pot noodle in surprise flavours as we haven’t yet mastered the Indonesian language. Dinner was an upgrade on last year Rachel said as instead of just a fish head in the curry and rice this year passengers got a whole fish to themselves! I did NOT indulge (surprise surprise) but a couple of the guys did and said it wasn’t that bad. I took their word for it and tucked into my Pot Noodle. Some people fell asleep fairly easy while others (like me) struggled to sleep in part because of the snoring and in part because I was just wide awake...possibly due to the fact that I knew there was cockroaches crawling around and all that was between me and them was a thin silk sleeping bag liner!! We had noticed the cockroaches as soon as we got on the ferry. Granted they weren’t as big as the ones we have seen in various places, these ones were minute in comparison but it still is a slight deterrent from sleep when you know that they are creeping about beneath your mattress and pop up every now and then and creep up the piece of wood that is right by your head! Made for some good entertainment for the locals when I squealed a couple of times when there was one right by my head...a little kid was my hero cause he just scooped one or two of them up with his hand when he saw my jump 5 feet away from the head of my bed!!! I did get a couple of hours sleep though but everyone got very loud at about 6am so it wasn’t a great sleep in the end!! I plugged in my IPod and tried to ignore everything going on about me and gave up at about 8 and got up and got dressed. There was a bit of excitement that morning when we saw 3 workers go down the stairs right beside us with fire extinguishing equipment in their hands. Now throughout the journey the captain had made numerous announcements but of course we didn’t understand a word of any of it!! So when this happened and an announcement was made once again we were in the dark so we told ourselves it was just a drill....and then the fire alarm started going off!! We had a look at the picture notices and decided it was just a drill...until the alarm pattern changed slightly, and then minutes later two guys came around to tell us all where our life jackets were, how to put them on and to show us where the whistle was located on them!!! We all just sat there for awhile and observed the locals, as none of them seemed too worried or didn’t seem to be making a mad dash for the doors we sat tight and eventually the alarm stopped and everyone went back about their business...not that anyone was doing anything too exciting before that!! The day again was spent reading and watching movies with a few naps thrown in for good measure. We also managed to catch an amazing sunset from the boat that evening. We sat out on the barriers for about an hour watching it and taking it all in. Then once it was dark we went back inside to wait around until we docked. A couple of hours later an announcement was made and everyone cheered, we all perked up and a few locals said “one hour” to us and we took that to mean one hour from docking. In reality it was probably another two hours...and it definitely felt like that as we all just wanted to get the hell off of the boat at that stage! We did eventually dock and got plagued by porters wanting to carry our bags (thanks but I’ve carried it this bloody far around the world, I think I can managed to get it off a ferry, thanks very much!) and taxi drivers wanting to bring us to hotels. We did eventually get taxis sorted and hopped into them. I was on one with Dee, Andy and Bui and when the driver turned on the engine the radio started hopping with full on rave music!! We all started laughing and started pulling a few “stack the shelves” type moves...to which the locals looking in the window got a great laugh out of!! We presumed the driver would turn the music down now that he had passengers in his car...we were sadly mistaken!! It stayed just as loud and after a few minutes when the novelty had worn off I remember Rachel had said the taxi drive was about 45 minutes long! I broke the news to the others and we settles ourselves in for a rave on the way to the hotel!! I’m not joking when I say this dude was close to his 60s if not already in them and his head was bopping away to the beat of the music and his hand would join in every now and then! It was actually quite good fun to watch...except for when he was too busy dancing to take a corner at a normal speed!! We made it to the hostel uninjured, aside from slightly sensitive ears, and then we got our rooms sorted. It wasn’t exactly luxury but the rooms had a fan and a bed so I was happy enough with that. We headed out for some very quick food and then headed to bed. We could see a few mosquitoes in the room so I slept in my liner, despite the heat and it turned out to be a god send as the following morning I woke up with bed bug bites all over my arms and shoulders!! I even got one greedy bug that bit me on the very tip of my nose! So our first day in Jakarta did not get off to a great start. The day continued to get worse when I got bad news from home and that on top of the bed bugs suddenly made Jakarta one of the worst places on the trip!! We spent the day walking around a few shopping centres that were absolutely huge and full of Louis Vuitton and the likes of that and then headed back to the hostel to try sort out a room. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately they didn’t have any more rooms so we grabbed our bags and moved to a different place that thankfully was bed bug free!! Day 2 in Jakarta wasn’t a whole lot better but I did give it a chance to change my perceptions of it by going for a walk to the National Monument. The Monument itself was really nice and was in the middle of a lovely park but getting there I took my life into my hands as they don’t really like footpaths and they do like 5 lane roads so trying to get from A to B means dodging a lot of traffic! I did have one very nice army dude help me across a road at one stage, he just swanned out into the middle of the road, stopped all the traffic and told me to “have a very nice day, miss”!!!

The next day was an early start for us all as we headed to Yogycarta (pronounced Yogikarta of Jogja to the locals) the train journey was good fun and it was nice to be on a different mode of transport. On the trip now we have done planes, trains numerous different types of automobiles and a couple of ferries for good measure!! I didn’t use the toilet on the train but some of the others told me that the toilet consisted of a hole in the floor of the train where whatever you did just dropped out onto the tracks. Can’t exactly be environmentally friendly I’m sure but at least the train didn’t get smelly!!! When we arrived in Jogja we headed to the hotel sorted rooms and then went in the hunt for a TV with the rugby on it. Turns out Indonesia isn’t that bothered with rugby so it took us a couple of attempts...and when we did it was pretty crap reception that kept jumping and had no commentary to listen to!! Later that evening we went to meet Supy, a local tour guide who had lots of stuff available for us to do! I was actually really excited as it had been awhile since we had been somewhere that had stuff to keep us entertained! We all listened, signed up to different things and then ended up in bed very early that evening as the following day our day began at 4am!!

Our first full day in Jogja was pretty cool. We got picked up at 4am to go up to Mount Merapi to watch sunrise. It was about an hours drive and then we had to walk for about 20 minutes up to the view point to watch the sun come up behind the volcano. As with Punhill our hope for an amazing sunrise was dampened as we climbed higher and the clouds descended upon us. We stood and waited and then before we knew it, it was bright out and there was no sunrise to be scene. However when the sky did brighten it gave me a chance to take in my surroundings and some of the cloud did start to clear so we could see down the mountain which is when I could start to see the destruction. Merapi had erupted in 2006 killing 2 people, but it erupted again in 2010 killing 250 people and causing 90% destruction of the surrounding area. Where the view point was, was a village called Kinahrejo but due to the eruption the village was completely destroyed. When the cloud lifted we started to see where some houses were being rebuilt but the most obvious thing to see was the trees. All the trees were bent clean in two at the base and completely charred. We were told that Merapi doesn’t erupt with lava but has scalding hot mud and once it gains momentum it moves at an astonishing 400km per hour, so there is absolutely no chance to escape it. As I explored some more I realised we were standing in the ruins of houses. There were odd shoes all over the place and broken crockery. We could see clothes half buried and I even came across a dresser that was buried in ash up to the top of its legs. There were still the remains of some walls and in one place I found a while tiles platform that used to be someone’s bathroom. It was heart breaking to see it and to come to the realisation that these people are left with nothing when the volcano erupts. Outside one of the coffee huts there was, well I suppose a shrine type thing where the locals had gathered some of the things that they found among the ruins. There was a melted stereo, a couple of motorbike helmets, a plastic crate with melted coke bottles in it and a gas lantern. All these items were melted and burned and it just brought it home even more exactly how hot the mud is. We did managed to get a very brief glimpse of Merapi when the clouds cleared momentarily and the sun shone down on it, we all took a very quick pictured and were satisfied that that was probably as good as we were going to get so we headed back down to the vans. The next stop was Kraton, the Sultan’s Palace. Only a few of us decided to go here so the vans split up and off we headed. We got dropped off at what we thought was the palace and headed in to have a look around. A tour guide joined us and explained everything to us...not that there was a lot to explain. What he showed us I can only describe as a glorified gazebo and I found it hard to believe that this was where the Sultan actually lived of did anything. Compared to some of the palaces we have seen, such as Bangkok and Phnom Penh, this one would have been less than a garden shed compared to them, there was even corrugated iron on part of the roof!!! The guide gave us a number of different facts, including how many sons each Sultan had had during their rein; here is a small run down of the figures (and bear in mind it is just the sons that are counted, we have no idea how many daughters they each had!!). The 4^th sultan had 6 wives and 18 sons. The 5^th Sultan had 5 wives and 9 sons, 6^th had 6 wives 20 sons, 8^th had 13 wives and 41 sons. 9^th had 5 wives and 22 sons while the present Sultan (the 10^th) has only 1 wife and 5 daughters. As he has no sons when he dies the sultancy will be passed onto his younger brother as a woman cannot be sultan. You may have noticed I missed Sultan number 7 and that’s because the guide was very proud of telling us his figures...and we were quite shocked hearing them!! This dude had FORTY wives and 78 sons!!! Found it kinda hard to get my head around those figures but there ya go!! The guide eventually explained to us that this was just where the Sultan did some ceremonial things and that he in fact lived behind a big white wall...so we saw the gate to the palace and then the tour seemed to be over. Or so we thought! Instead the guide took us on a little walk outside and brought us to a batik workshop. Batik is the traditional art of Indonesia and is done using wax. We got a little demonstration and then of course they tried to get us to buy something. Once they realised that wasn’t going to happen we headed back towards the palace, for the guide to tell us if we had more time that if we walked around the corner we could see the rest of the palace!! We stood there and checked a couple of times over if we were understanding him right and walked around the corner to eventually find the place we were supposed to have been dropped in the first place!! We only had about half an hour left before we had to meet the driver again so we quickly made the decision to go in and see what we could find. It was slightly more impressive than the first place but again nothing compared to the palaces we have seen. There were lots of different exhibitions to look at but due to our limited time we didn’t really stay very long at them, so we wandered around quickly. We were on our way out when we passed a larger outdoor platform and noticed a lot of locals all dressed up and positioning themselves around different instruments. We stopped for a minute to see what was going on and got a little taste of traditional music and singing. It was a bit weird and sounded like a choir of high pitched little girls more so that maturing Indonesian women!! We headed back to the hotel not long after that and a nap was in store for me before chilling out for the rest of the day.

 The following day was yet another early start with pick up from the hotel at 5am. We were headed to Borobudur Temple to watch sunrise. However as we gathered at the hotel we all noticed that the sun was already rising so figured that the temple wasn’t that far away....it was an hour away so we observed an ok sunrise from the window of the van. When we arrived at the temple we saw a sign that said it didn’t open until 6 so we were never actually going to catch sunrise so that was slightly annoying as most of us would have gone for sunset instead. However it was not a wasted trip as we got a really good guide who gave us a lot of information of the temple. When we went in we first all had to put sarongs on us. This is something that only used to be done to people with short shirts or shorts on, but recently the Buddhist community had insisted that all visitors to the temple wear it to preserve the traditional and culture of the religion. As we walked up towards the temple our guide told us that when restoration work on the temple began in 1973, the government decided to create a park around the temple to help preserve it...and then he told us in order to do this the government had uprooted a whole village, including our guide’s home. He told us his house used to be situated right where the entrance building to the park was. We were all slightly stunned that this guy had been uprooted and could point out where his house was and not seem too upset about it!! Anyway as we walked towards the temple he told us that Borobudur was the largest Buddhist Temple in the world and it is 300 years older than Angkor Wat. I was quite stunned at this as we had all seen Angkor Wat and knew that it was pretty bloody old!! And I have to say I found it so much more stunning and beautiful than Angkor Wat. The Temple is built from 2 million pieces of rock from Mount Merapi and there are 505 statues throughout the temple that are carved from one piece of stone each. It was absolutely huge. Buddhists who come to worship at the temple start at the east gate and walk the whole circumference in a clockwise direction. They do this for the 10 levels of the temple. On the first level after every 3 steps they must stop and kiss the ground making the first walk around the temple pretty hard work. There is also carved pictures the whole way around the temple that tell stories that the Buddhists must read to learn the teachings of their religion. Once a worshiper has walked the whole way around all 10 levels they will have walked 5km!! Our guide explained a number of the carvings along the way and it was really interesting to see the interpretations and what they are supposed to represent and teach Buddhists. The guide also told us that the steps towards the bottom of the temple are quite large and steep but as you climb closer to the top the steps aren’t as steep and are smaller. This apparently is a metaphor for life itself. Our guide told us that the steps symbolise the trip to heaven and how hard it is to get there. The carvings on the walls are also harder to interpret as one climbs up the temple. As a worshipper gets closer to the top of the temple the steps aren’t as steep. This according to the guide means that like the carvings, life gets harder as we got along but if one understands life lessons they ultimately will have an easier assent to heaven, while if they don’t fully understand the lessons earlier in life they will never proceed to the next level and therefore never reach Nirvana. It seemed quite nice symbolism for the Buddhist way of life I thought. Our guide left us on the 7^th level to go and explore the top 3 levels ourselves and it was here that a couple of security guards became our educators by showing and explaining pictures from the last clean up after the last eruption of mount Merapi. The temple was covered in ash and over 2,000 volunteers helped to clean up but first sweeping and trowelling away the worst of the ash. They then used power water hoses to remove the last of the ash to clean it up properly. The temple is quite high with very steep steps and to get the buckets of ash they collected down from the top levels they formed a chain of people and passed the buckets the whole way town to waiting trucks for it to be transported away. The pictures were really cool to look at and it was nice to think that so many people had worked together to clean up the temple and keep it looking amazing.

When we were finished at Borobudur it was back in the bus to head to Prambanan temple. This is the largest Hindu temple in the world. It was much less impressive than Borobudur. UNESCO has listed it as a World Heritage Site but as of yet they have not been able to invest very much money in it, so it is still very much in ruins. The construction of Prambanan began in 856 AD. It was destroyed in an earthquake in the 16 century and restoration began in 1930 and is still begin restored today. The main temple to Shiva is closed to the public as it has been structurally damaged in a number of earthquakes so it is unsafe until UNESCO restores it properly. We did get to go into a couple of the smaller temples but I was enjoying this temple much less than the last, possibly in part to the fact that I couldn’t understand a lot of what the guide was saying. Though at this temple the government had also decided to build a park so uprooted a whole village!! The temple was absolutely huge and the carvings were very intricate on it but again there was scaffolding and railings around a lot of them so it was hard to fully appreciate them. The guide also told us that there was little overland train we could get to bring us to the 3 other temples within the park. We all got very excited at the prospect of a little train (think Dublin Zoo!!!) and we hopped on it to go check out the other temples. The first two we weren’t actually sure if they were the temples we were supposed to be looking at as they were really just piles of rubble but when we got to the third one we knew that yes the piles of rubble were the 2 other temples, though they looked so small I would call them shrines before I’d call them a temple! Anyway the 3^rd temple, Sewu Temple, was pretty cool so the train stopped for 5 minutes to let us have a look. Sewu Temple is a Buddhist Temple and has a large temple surrounded by 240 smaller temples. Again most of them were destroyed making the Temple much shorter that it should have been. We headed back then to the minivan and spent the rest of the day chilling out once again, though I was slightly productive and got accommodation booked for the first week in Sydney (thanks Rhona!!)

After the disappointment of the non sunrise at Merapi and Punhill all those months ago and then Borobudur not working out I had pretty much given up on getting a lovely sunrise somewhere spectacular!! In Jogja, Supy (the tour guide) told us about a trip we could do to Mount Bromo for sunrise and to go see the crater of the volcano. I had pretty much ruled myself out thinking that I couldn’t take any more disappointment but when we were on Merapi and talking about Bromo Rhona and 3 words that made me go “oh shit” and knew that I had to give it a go! And those words were “third time lucky”!! And so those 3 little words pretty much made up my mind and I decided to give it one last go! So for the 4^th day in a row I was up extremely early to get a mini bus to a village just down from Mount Bromo where we were going to spend the night. 6 of us decided to do this trip while everyone else did one last night bus and headed to Bali. The journey to Bromo was fairly uneventful and we arrived at our hotel at about 9 that evening. None of us were particularly hungry and with a 3.30 (yes make that FIVE mornings in a row!!!) start the next day we hit the hay fairly early!! If we had any fear that we were going to sleep in we needn’t have worried as at 3.30 on the dot our door was hammered down to tell us to wake up! We all put on long trousers, long sleeves, socks, fleeces and wind sheeters and headed out into the cold brisk air of 2,300 metres. We piled into jeeps and headed up the steep hill to the view point at 2,706 metres where we were going to watch sunrise from. When the jeep stopped we had a small bit of a surprise when we discovered we had to walk to the rest of the way to the viewpoint, which was a very steep, windy climb. But we all made it up and made it up for sunrise! Yep that’s right, we got sunrise!! And it was amazing. It made up for all the disappointment of the other ones we had tried and it was in the most magical setting. At one side of the view point was the sun coming up and at the other side was a view out over the 3 volcanoes, Mount Batok (2,440m), Mount Bromo (2,392 M) and Mount Semeru (a staggering 3,676m). It was absolutely stunning. I could try for pages and pages to try and explain what it was like and what it felt like but I would never be able to do it any justice and make you understand just how amazing it was. Even the (250!!!) pictures that I took don’t capture how beautiful it was. They make a pretty good attempt at it but they still don’t do it any justice! To look out over the volcanoes with a sheet of perfectly still cloud covering the ground and these 3 amazing mountains rising up out of it was mesmerising. And when the sun started to get higher there was a pinky, orange glow cast over the cloud making it luck completely different and even more magical. We stood there for ages watching the clouds and colours changing, not wanting to a miss a thing. Eventually we realised we couldn’t stand there forever and we headed back down to the jeep. Of course we stopped to take numerous more pictures along the way and as always it took us about a quarter of the time to get back down as it did going up! When we got back down we then headed over to Mount Bromo itself to climb up to the crater. Again it was another steep climb, made all the more difficult by the thick sand and ash that covered the ground making it difficult to walk in. As we walked from the jeep across the flat before we started to climb, I noticed what I thought was some kind of mirage. Out of the mist I could see the outline of a temple and then when I looked around there was suddenly a volcano right beside me!! So that might give you an idea of how thick this mist was that I practically walked into a bloody volcano!! We kept walking anyway and then the mist cleared and we saw where we were supposed to go...and once again it was a steep climb, but helped somewhat by steps up the really, really steep part. We kept walking and hit the steps and they may have been more of a hindrance as they were covered in ash so we had to step very carefully. When we got to the top though, it was amazing. The crater was absolutely huge! I can’t even give an estimate as to what size it was all I can say is that standing at the edge of it I couldn’t fit the whole thing into my camera! And standing at the edge was a bit scary too. At its worst it was about 2 feet wide with a steep drop on either side...one side was down the way we came up which was scary but at least if we fell and went that way we wouldn’t die!! The other side was straight down into the crater itself and if I went that way there was nothing that was going to stop me getting up close and personal with the smoking hole!! I was kind of surprised that it was actually smoking but it was cool to see it too and to actually understand that it is an active volcano. We had a bit of a morbid moment and wondered if anyone had ever fallen in so when we got to the internet later we looked into it and although we couldn’t find numbers we found out that people had fallen in. In fact the website stated that there are regular sacrifices to the volcano and many times a year human sacrifices when over eager tourists fall into the crater!! And I can understand why, most people there (including myself) had a backpack and as it was so narrow that when you tried to go by someone without pushing them to their death you generally ended up bopping someone else behind you with a bag!! Needless to say I didn’t spend very long up there...enough time to get a few pictures and take it all in and then get the hell out of there before I didn’t come back down from Bromo!!! It was an amazing experience though and once again it’s been one of the highlights of my trip. It was amazing and seeing the sky change as the sun came up across the clouds and mist was absolutely magical. We headed back to the hotel then and had a shower (they had told us the night before we would have time to have a shower after the trip and we thought that was very considerate of them but then with the amount of dust and ash we realised it was actually a necessity!!!) and breakfast. Then it was back in mini vans to go to Probolinggo and then get on a bigger bus that was going to bring us to Bali. The journey wasn’t all that interesting, two things of note happened. One just before we got on the ferry to take us from Java to Bali we stopped to take on a delivery...of freaking FISH!!! So we all got stuck with a rather unpleasant smell for the remainder of the journey...and the bus guys knew it as they were spraying air freshener into the air conditioner machine!!! The second thing was the ferry itself. We got on it expecting it to be about 15 minutes long and as we could see how close Bali was but we seemed to head towards it...and then stop the engine and float about for about an hour. We got very disoriented as we just drifted and the boat kept turning so in the end we couldn’t see which side was Bali and which was Java as it got really dark! We entertained ourselves though by first watching the sunset over the volcanoes and then getting a pot noodle and having dinner sitting up at the front of the boat! The boat did eventually dock and we got back on the bus and drove to Denpasar in Bali. From there we got taxis sorted and headed to Kuta where we were staying for the few days we were in Bali. When we found the hotel we found out that everyone else was out but after such a long day those of us who did the Bromo trip pretty much found our rooms and crashed!

I slept till 1pm the next day and when I got up my day consisted of having lunch and chilling out at the hotel. And this pretty much sums up most of the few days in Bali. I mixed it up every now and then by going down to the beach to watch sunset one night and by doing a little bit of shopping too but Kuta is kinda like the Aussie Magaluf with bars and clubs everywhere and beach bound people throughout the day. After overlanding, as much as I enjoyed being stationary for 6 days I also wasn’t really in the mood for a beach holiday type thing! On our 5^th day there we all headed out on a day trip that involved cycling 22km through Bali. It was a really fun day, though at the start it was marred once again by cloud which blocked our view of yet another volcano!!! We were driven up the hill and stopped off in a coffee plantation where some people sampled Lewak Coffee. This is the coffee where they feed coffee beans to a little racoon looking animal. This animal can’t digest the beans so poops them out. They are then collected and roasted and Bob's your uncle there’s your coffee bean!!! We then drove further up the mountain to a viewpoint for the volcano (non-existent view once again) and then we hopped on our bikes and started our cycle. In all honesty it wasn’t that hard work!! I don’t think I touched my pedals for the first 5 or 6 km as it was all downhill and the only thing I had to do was use my breaks to make sure I didn’t take flight!! There were some pretty hairy hills and I was just glad I wasn’t having to cycle up them!! I was having a few issues with my breaks though so how I didn’t crash into someone I have no idea! Seeing Bali like this was really nice. As I said all I had experienced was the holiday resort but this was a million miles away from that! As I was on a bike it was kinda hard to take pictures, what I really needed was a video camera on top of my helmet to take it all in! The first thing we came across in a village was women walking to a temple to give their offerings. However the day we did the cycle was a particular festival in the Hindu religion so the offerings were very elaborate. We saw women walking with the offering pot on top of their heads but it was amazingly ornate. They were about 2 feet high and made of all different kinds of fruits and rice cakes and had lots of decorations on them. And if that was picturesque enough the village itself was all decorated using natural things such as bamboo and grasses. We also came across some people decorating the entrance to a temple again using bamboo and grass but they twisted it and wound it beautifully making the most intricate decorations. We also passed an old man sitting at the side of the road making massive kites out of little sticks and black bags for a group of excited children who then realised them off into the air and passed a million paddy fields...one of which was covered in a load of ducks who seemed to be enjoying splashing around in the waterlogged field!!! It was little things like this that made the trip for me. But I also enjoyed freewheeling down steep hills and going round corners only to discover that there were 5 more twisting corners before the road levelled out and I was actually able to slow down properly!!! We also stopped at a traditional Balinese house where we met the family who lived there. The houses are completely self contained with one building with 2 or 3 rooms in it for each family (the son and his wife and kids) and then another building with the kitchen in it which was where the grandparents of the family slept. Then outside was a pig and cockerels...fighting cockerels to be exact. They asked if we wanted a demonstration which we all quickly but politely declined. Cock fighting is one was that they make some extra money. If their bird wins they get the money that was bet on the fight and they get to keep the losing bird. Out behind the houses was a long field which was where they grew all their food and crops including avocado, coconuts and things like corn and rice. They also had 4 cows but as they are sacred it the Hindu religion they aren’t milked or bred for meat and are instead used for their dung which is made into cow pats and used to fuel the fire where they cook their food and get heat from. The families are so self contained that when they build their houses they also build a small temple out the back within its own walls and this is where they bury their dead too, so the families are independent from birth to death. It was pretty cool to see the house and how they live and to meet the 90 year old granny who sat in front of us washing her teeth with leaves and the children who ranged in age from about 5 to 12. After 22km we put the bikes back on the vans and were driven the rest of the way back...which was just as well as the roads started to get pretty hairy and went up and down which I’m not sure I could have handled!!!

That night was Rachel’s last night with us before we took our flight to Darwin the next day so when we got back from the biking we all went and got ourselves ready for dinner and then headed out. We had a lovely meal with some great company and then headed to a Reggae bar for a few drinks before moving on to a night club. This night club offered free drinks with VIP passes from 10 to 11 and girls got an extra half hour! We all went in and headed to get a drink...I couldn’t even finish mine!! I’m not sure if they were just laced with alcohol or if they just genuinely tasted manky but I ended up taking a couple of sips and putting my cup down (yes, this trip has ruined my tolerance to drink for those of you who are wondering what has happened to me!!!) Still had an absolutely brilliant night though and headed in to the dance floor...only for us all to end up on the stage/podium area dancing with scantily clad dancers (one of which we are nearly certain was a lady boy!!!) it was great fun though and we bopped and raved the night away till the wee hours when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer!!!

And so this is where blog number 18 ends...and also where the start of the end begins. We leave for Darwin later tonight and then we are officially in our last country. Still can’t quite comprehend exactly how quick the whole trip has gone. I have extremely mixed feelings about it being the end...very excited to be getting to a new country and looking forward to all the adventures that await me once I get to Sydney...but also not looking forward to this part of my adventure being over and saying goodbye to everyone. It’s very odd to think that I am not going to see everyone every day!! And it’s going to be even weirder not having Rachel there every day to look after us but also just to hang out with us. But that’s how it goes, a trip like this was always going to be hard to say goodbye to...but luckily I have two weeks left and am feeling sad enough about the trip ending already to really enjoy everything Australia is going to throw at me...including the two weeks of bush camping we are about to embark upon!!! I have to say (and never thought that I would say this!!) but I can’t wait to get into my tent and get back to basics and cooking dinner over a camp fire!! I really have missed that part of the trip and the adventure and to do it in Australia in the middle of the Outback is going to be an amazing way to spend two weeks! Here’s hoping for plenty of clear skies to see that stars, and most importantly the moon J so if I disappear for the next two weeks you all know now that I am literally in the middle of nowhere but I will be keeping up to date on my blog so I will be able to fill you all in once I hit Sydney and get back to civilisation!!!