Giles 'n' Tish Travelog

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Hi All

I hope you're all well and enjoying life.

We're writing to you today from Vietnam, but I'm not going to tell you about that yet as today's blog is all about another of Asia's jewels "Cambodia", a country that really did it for Giles and I - we LOVED it....

It's strange but I think that of all the places we've visited so far this place has had the most impact on us, all of it positive...

If I'm honest when we were planning this leg of our journey Cambodia actually sounded a tad daunting, and after the ease of Thailand we we expecting a hard time, but we were to be pleasantly surprised :-)

Before we arrived we did some background research on the country, reading everything we could in our well thumbed "Lonely Planet Guidebook" (a travellers best-friend). And boy what a shock - I'm not ashamed to say that reading about the country's history bought tears to our eyes :-( But I want this to be a happy blog so I am going to presume you all know the horrors this country has been through, and rather than bang on about them I'd like to instead tell you about how amazing the country and it's people are now.....

If anyone is interested I read a great book whilst there "Stay Alive My Son" by Pin Yathay, which is a survivors account of his escape from the Khmer Rouge into Thailand.  It is so well written that I felt I really understood the horrors the people had suffered and it made our visit to Phnom Penh very emotional and worthwhile too.

Our Cambodian adventure kicked off in Siem Reap - a tourist town next to the world famous temples of Angkor Wat, where we'd secured ourselves a stunning 5* hotel for a shockingly cheap price (it's off season so we got lucky).  We did the obligatory tour of the temples - they are huge, they are stunning and they are worth visiting :-) take a look at the pictures to see how wonderful they are.  We also took a day trip out to a nearby floating village which was cool, the scenery on the drive alone was exciting enough - these people can balance ANYTHING on their motorbikes/mopeds (think 20 mattresses, or a whole building sites worth of wood on the back of one bike!). But the real highlight of that day was that "Sei" our Tuk Tuk driver came along too and spent the day telling us about his life and giving us more insight into his country, again a few tears were shed by all on this day.

I feel that Sei actually warrants his own little section of today's blog as he was fantastic and became a real friend to us.  As I said he told us all about his life (it was very inspiring and interesting). We learnt about his childhood when he lived in the country with the wonderful water buffalos that are everywhere here, and that he was orphaned. We also heard all about his life today, he is 34, married and a new dad, his wife actually had a baby the day before we left. He owns his Tuk Tuk (with financial support from his Uncle) and lives in a very basic house which he built.  He made our stay in Siem Reap really great and we loved meeting up every evening for our ride to town, where we'd share stories and have a real laugh.  At the end of the week he actually gave us a gift of two pictures he'd made (shocking eh as it's usually the tourist giving the handouts!).  But he did alright from us too as we'd chosen to stay in town for 10 days (most people do 3 days max) and used him every night so he had a regular income at a quiet time of year, but he really deserved it. 

His stories actually inspired me to do something shocking too......

I decided to spend some of our travel fund each month sponsoring an underprivileged child, and after much research have put my money where my mouth is and am now friend/mentor to a young Cambodian girl via this fantastic organisation "CCF", for more info on the amazing work they are doing check out:

http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/index.html

    From Siem Reap we bussed it to the capital Phnom Penh, which is a tad different to the touristy town we'd been staying in!!  It's a very humbling place, and whilst there we visited the killing fields and S-21 where people were tortured and killed :-( This is not the kind of thing Giles and I normally choose to visit, but after reading the book I mentioned and talking to people we felt we should go, and we are both glad we did.  It was very sad but also something we're glad we saw as it made us angry at what people are capable of, and reminded us of how lucky we all are to live as/where we do.  The child I have sponsored lives in Phnom Penh, as most are found living/working on a dump there called Steung Meanchey, so the place felt very personal to us.  You can go and visit an orphanage here but we decided not to this time (we only had one day here), and instead plan to return in a few years and visit our child when we've built up a rapport with her :-)

So that was Cambodia, a very humbling place that has been through unbelievable horrors but seems to be moving forward in a positive fashion.  The people are very open and genuine and the countryside and ruins picturesque.  As I said this place did something to me and I'm glad that we have forged a link with it, this is somewhere I'd recommend and come back to again.

On that note I'll say goodbye and head out into the madness of HCMC in Vietnam (and boy that's another wild story.....)

XXX

Tash n Giles

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Hey All

I'd love to have been able to write today's "Hey All" in Thai - but let's face it unless a miracle happens it aint gonna happen :-(

Still on a positive note I am proud to report that we have bought an English/Southeast Asia phrase book and can merrily say "Hello", "Yes", "No" and "Thank You" in Thai, which is more than a lot of the farang's over here and something which the locals seem to appreciate. Our new language skills have gone down particularly well on a local construction site as we're now a hit with their security guard, the construction workers, oh and the fruit seller that visits them too!!!!  Any way fingers crossed we'll be fluent one day as we've got our eyes on a nice little beach apartment (I hate to admit it but we're dreaming of a life of fun in the sun).

So as you can guess I'm writing today's blog from the comfort of our fantastic hotel room in Hua Hin Thailand - oh my god this is heaven :-) but I guess that before I tell you about our Asian adventure - stories of CHICKEN FEET STEW here we come - I'd better finish off our Oz adventures......

I'm not going to write too much about the rest of the Australia trip as in all honesty it wasn't hugely different from the other entries, but I guess that there were one or two more highlights to share. 

Such as the HUGE and I mean HUGE crocs we spotted in Kakadu, I have to say that once you see these things up quite close in the wild they are a tad scary and a lot bigger than I'd expected!!, and mad locals fish right next to them, and yes they do once in a while end up not fishing but nicely decapitated, but hey ho each to their own eh!.  We were quite content to watch them from afar, or on a nice little boat tour where they leapt out of the water to eat pigs heads dangled from the boat for them!! 

Oh and Katherine gorge, which was probably my favourite place in the whole of the Oz adventure as it was just awe inspiring, we set out very early in the morning to visit this place and took 3 hours to clamber, jump and gaze at it in wonder - it's the place the trannies end up going up in ball gowns in the film "Priscilla queen of the desert", which I wanted to do too (surprise surprise) but we ended up going in shorts and SOCKS with our keen's on so I looked a right state again ;-) but I did manage to stand with my arms in the air in the place they did in the film in homage to them :-)

And finally Uluru (aka Ayers Rock), which was fantastic too.  Giles and I were a tad worried that we'd be uninspired by the rock but I have to say that when we got there and saw it, well it's got a real air of wonder about it.  We got right up close and it's hard to describe how amazing it looks, it's kind of smooth and well just unique.  We watched the sun set over it and that was cool, but to be honest just driving up to it and then walking around is pretty amazing.

We rounded off the Oz trip with a week in Melbourne, where we re-packed and did a little planning for the Asia leg of the trip, and before you knew it we were off on a nice BUMPY 9 hour flight to Bangkok.  The flight was so turbulent the aircrew spent most of it strapped in too!!. Oh and to top it off someone collapsed in their seat mid flight which caused quite a commotion and nicely gave us something new to worry about as the flight crew had to ride the bumps while reviving them!! All I could think of was - how unfortunate to have a heart attack over the sea as I don't think we'll be able to stop for a while yet! (I was concerned about them honestly) - but I'm happy to report that they made a full recovery so all in all it was a fun journey and one I don't think I'll forget in a long time....

So Thailand, god I love this country :-) It's our second time here but it's as fresh and exciting as before - they sure do a good line of fake bags here (please note I haven't changed much as I still have a designer bag fetish, they're just fake ones now!). [editors note:- Natasha bought 4 bags in less than one week!]

We spent our first week in Bangkok, which was as mad as usual and VERY hot - boy the humidity is a pain in the arse with hair like mine ;-) still at least Giles lives this annoyance too now as his hair is nice and long as well!. 

We spent many a happy day wandering round town, riding the BTS Sky Tram (which puts London Underground to shame), and relaxing in the air-conditioned comfort of the Siam Centre, where we watched the new Batman movie at the IMAX theatre.  We also re-visited the Golden Palace and rode the river on a local taxi boat (with about 100 other people!).

We ate at the local stalls and drank bottled water with ice (all of which the guidebooks tell you not to do! but we're still alive and our bottoms are functioning normally too ;-)).  But we did have one rather off putting meal at a stall where Giles thought he'd order what the locals were having, which looked like noodles with some kind of meat.... but they gave him CHICKENS FEET and god knows what else instead.  It was all I could do to hold on to the contents of my stomach, and I have to report Giles couldn't eat the feet (PHEW!), but sadly I couldn't eat a thing for a day either.... I nearly turned Veggie Tracy, but after a day decided I was OK and am back to eating chicken fried rice and pad thai nicely.

We then decided it was time to move on and hit the beach, so we caught the local train for £2.50 each to Hua Hin.  I have to say the train journey was a real scream.  It's not something I'd do again unless necessary as it was a tad HOT, they said our 2nd class carriage had air con - hmmmmmmmm - think desk fan on ceiling and open windows (fine when you're moving, HOT when your not!).  But travelling with the locals made it great fun.  For four hours people just kept walking past selling the most amazing and weird food imaginable, and the people in front of us seemed to buy just about everything (I cannot imagine how they ever got it all off the train as they had to contents of a small supermarket when we left).  We tried a new fruit which we think is unripe mango, which you eat dipped in chilly salt, and some wonderful coconut sweets which were neon coloured and must have had enough E numbers in to have us buzzing for weeks...

After 4.5hrs we arrived in Hua Hin and have been relaxing by the pool ever since - I'm honest at least eh! Yeap we've just been nice and lazy.... OK we have walked up and down the beach a few times (and it's a long beach), I've had the obligatory pedicure, and we go to the night market every evening.... Oh and we've planned the rest of our trip:

• Cambodia this Thursday
• Vietnam
• Laos
• Back to Hua Hin then.....
• France ;-)

So we've not been too naughty....

For now I guess that's all, I have to go and shower now or I'll miss the free taxi into town :-)

Miss you all, hope you're having fun at home, and don't forget to come out and visit us in France next season, we're counting on seeing you all so get booking those flights....

Lots of Love

XXX

Tash n Giles

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Hey All,

I hope life is treating you all as well as it is us, as we're fantastic :-)

In fact we've been having such an AMAZING time recently we've got plenty to write about......

We've just spent an amazing 3 weeks in the Kimberly's, the home of the fresh and salt water CROCODILE and some amazing landscapes - this place is REMOTE dudes (although unfortunately I don't think it's going to be like it much longer as we're told the roads have improved massively in the last year or so, which must be true as there were a few caravans out touring too!!).  Still at times we really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, and once or twice I'd have waves of awareness about how big and unpopulated this country is as you can drive for hours and hours and hours and see nothing but nature (we've never felt so remote in our lives!!).

OK now before I start I have to own up to something, we've visited numerous amazing places on this leg of the trip and I would love to be able to name them all for you - BUT I CAN'T!! The gossip mag supply has just been too great recently (and I have to get my fill before we head to Asia) so I have chosen to fill my mind with trash (so if you have any questions on Nicole and Keith's new baby ask away ;-)). I can however recount the amazing times we've had and hopefully the photos Giles puts together will shed more light on the technical side of things!

Where to start that's the next issue.....

Discovery One, was the name of the lovely little boat which we spent 8 days cruising the Kimberly coast and Prince Regent river on.  We joined the wonderful crew of 5 (you were all great guys so thanks for everything), and 21 other passengers (yes you were all GREAT too) as the sun set on the ocean outside of Derby.  Oh god I've just realised I've forgotten to mention the flight to Derby!!  We were picked up from Broome and flew in a tiny 5 seater Cessna over a bush fire, and what looked like miles of NOTHINGNESS with the pilot navigating by following the red dirt road.  It was a pretty impressive flight if not a little un-nerving as before we got on another pilot told us visibility was poor due to the fire and that he was surprised planes weren't colliding mid air - all adds to the fun eh!!!

Anyway we all arrived in one piece and the fun began.  Because of the tides and vastness of the area there was a lot of sailing to be done, so I managed to while away many a happy hour (no not the drinking kind!!) reading my book and staring out at wonderful rock formations, dolphins jumping our wake and colourful views. 

Without a boat you'd not be able to reach the places we did on Discovery One, so we've seen/swam in amazing rock pools and on deserted beaches with the most amazing white squeaky sand (a great natural exfoliant that sand was too).  We saw picturesque mangroves and waterfalls, were watched on the boat by a croc or two - and yes most of the places we swam in were croc habitat, but the crew are on constant watch (Ben we loved your leg knife!!), so you feel only a tad nervous (the rule is NO splashing, and make sure you stand next to someone smaller than you as they only go for small people, no wonder we were all so friendly in the water eh ;-)).  We also had a fun night at the races and visited a BIZZARE (in the nicest sense of the word) couple "Phil and Marion" who have set up home in the middle of nowhere "The Squatters Arms".  They now live a relaxed and hippy lifestyle (where Phil struts round in the latest Bond's underwear, which he got married in too, who needs clothes eh!), brewing their own beer and the lethal "Mango Madness".  And fill their time welcoming visitors for a chat, BBQ and swim in their freshwater pool, which is in fact an old disused water tank!!  Worryingly Giles rather took to their lifestyle and is trying to convince me that I'd love it too - I THINK NOT ;-)

The week ended as it started with another flight in the wonderful Cessna, this time from Cape Leveique (if I've spelt this incorrectly tough luck ;-) at least I've tried eh!!).  This was another wonderfully scenic and informative flight, which we all enjoyed BUT.... it was VERY VERY bumpy!! so I have to say I for one was amazingly happy to set foot on solid ground - I really can't tell how the pilot managed as we went up/down/left/right so many times you couldn't see anything out of any window - the only way to cope was to look at the floor!!!!

We then spent an wonderful week chilling out in Broome, where we lay in the sun on Cable beach and generally RELAXED :-) oh we did mange a sunset camel ride which was great fun too.

Then came the trip we'd all been waiting for, 12 nights sleeping under the stars and bouncing around in a 4X4 on the Gibb River Road :-) IT WAS FANTASTIC.....

Our Driver/Guide/Cook/Entertainer "Eddie" picked us up nice and early on the first morning and we were off, stopping along the way for the first of our daily firewood pickups (forget worrying about snakes in the bush we just tramped on through; making lots of noise, to get our hands on the good old snappy gum!).  There were only 4 of us in our group (5 if you count Eddie) so it was a really great personal tour.  I really hadn't got my head around what we were doing so was a tad nervous when Eddie pronounced that we were about to spend the 12 days getting MEGA dirty with little in the way of comfort - HE WASN'T JOKING - I was WORRIED - but I ended up LOVING IT ;-).

As on the boat trip we visited places few people do, and it really was fantastic. The gorges and waterfalls and beaches were fab, I took a few notes along the way that I feel sum up the trip so rather than waffle on will list them below :-)

1. It was like living the BBC TV show "Planet Earth"
2. I found frogs in my bikini which I'd left of a rock to dry overnight
3. The camp sites were remote and out of this world, we all loved King Edward River, you could imagine the water rushing over the nearby rocks in the wet season
4. We had to wash our clothes in the river!!
5. We washed in the river and showered under waterfalls
6. I learnt to make Damper, a bush style bread which you make in a camp oven buried in hot coals - YUMMY STUFF
7. We got filthy and cut all over collecting our daily fire wood - SNAPPY GUM RULES
8. We saw comet like shooting stars - they were like balls of fire falling to earth
9. We met the army who showed us photos of them fishing NAKED!!! (Sue didn't have her glasses on and couldn't tell he was naked so pointed at the pic and said "oh isn't it lovely" I fell about laughing)
10. We had a helicopter flight over the Mitchell Falls which was cool, but even better (shallow moment here) they weighed us first and we'd all lost weight so were nice and happy
11. Black/White Cockatoos woke us every morning
12. Eddie cooked a Roast Lamb over the fire which was just like home
13. All meals were cooked over the fire, no gas for us!
14. We got DIRTY, and a week later still can't get the red dirt out of our clothes
15. At the beach camp we looked like tramps as the sand was full of ash so you had BLACK legs, feet, hands - NICE
16. I learnt how to build a great fire - sadly I don't think I'll get to use this skill much in the UK ;-)
17. The roads were BUMPY BUMPY BUMPY but we did 90kpm as any slower is bad for the car and you
18. We slept outside in SWAGS - which is great for the body/soul/mind
19. I loved bush toilets, No 2 outside is GREAT :-O
20. Living in the bush is great for the soul, you should try in at least once
21. I nearly lost my Ray Ban's twice in gorges!!!
22. We drank from rivers - sod sanitised stuff eh
23. Giles rescued a turtle
24. We picked up a nice addiction to the choc drink Milo
25. We have cuts all over :-)
26. We are now fully skilled in bush survival
27. Most nights were FREEZING so we had to sleep fully clothed with beanies on too
28. We fed archer fish who spit at you!!
29. We sang round the camp fire and Eddie gave us a didgeridoo lesson - we SUCK at the didg!!
30. Even I got used to rising with the sun and sleeping when it went down
31. A wallaby hopped past Giles and my heads when we were sleeping under the stars with no mozzie net
32. I broke my SWAG so it was rather cold after that!!
33. We saw two 2.5mtr pythons dancing in the wild
34. Spynifex grass hurts when you tramp through it
35. I loved being woken by Eddie playing the didgeridoo on the last morning
36. Giles and I managed a nice swim at Edith falls and only read the croc awareness sign on the way out - oops!
37. I think I could get used to life in a combie van - hmmmm maybe that's another adventure idea

So that's all from us folks, right now we're chilling again in Darwin (boy it's hot here, so hot all their speed cameras melt!) before heading off to Kakadu tomorrow then it's the Ghan to Alice and Uluru!!

Miss you all

XXX

Tash n Giles

BTW a few shout outs:-

Congratulations to Giles cuz Richard on his Wedding

Good luck to Tracey & Mat for their nearly here Wedding

WELL DONE Neil on the brilliant time in the Tour de France

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Hey All

I know it's not been long since the last blog entry but we've been having such a fantastic time these past few days we felt we had to tell you all about it :-)

Where to start......

I guess I should begin by telling you about our last day in Kalbarri (that wonderful place we raved on about in the last blog entry!!).  As luck would have it on our last day there the town held it's annual crayfish and canoe festival which was brilliant :-) they laid on a cool band and had a crayfish cook-up too, oh and an AMAZING fireworks display which rivaled any I've seen before.  The event was actually pretty amazing for a town with a population of approximately 2000!! and we all had a really great evening. We even managed to mingle with the locals (and get asked a few times if we actually lived there so we must look relaxed as Kalbarri is one chilled town!).  We were also flattered when a few of the locals we'd met on our various excursions in the area introduced us to to their families and invited us all to dinner too (ah free food a backpackers dream!), but sadly we couldn't go as we were off bright and early the next day to another top destination "Monkey Mia".

Monkey Mia - stromatolites (these things ROCK baby;-) without them we might not be here, 10 points for anyone who knows what they are without googling them), dolphins, dugongs, turtles, pelicans and amazing sunsets, bliss...  Monkey Mia is a tiny beach resort which is famous for it's daily visits from a pod of wild dolphins, which the tourists get to feed a fish or two too.  And yes we obviously partook in this novel activity once or twice (ok once for me as this was an early morning activity and I'm NOT an early morning person!), but that really was only a small part or the place's charm.  We also took a few trips out on a famous catamaran called the "shotover" which Diana Ross among others has sailed upon (oh how exciting I hear you cry!), well Diana aside it was exciting as we spotted TONS of loggerhead turtles (like squirt from finding nemo) and a mum and baby dugong (which are members of the sea cow family, a bit like the manatees we swam with last year in Belize).  We also went on an aboriginal evening with a famous ex ozzie rules footballer "Darren Capes", who shared some local stories with us, introduced us to the smoking ceremony (once is enough thanks, as being covered in sandalwood is fun while you're outside, but not so good when you take your smokey selves back to you lovely kea!!, we still smell a good week later!).  He also played a tune or two on his digeredoo, and told us how to play one too - think blowing a raspberry with your lips and sucking in through your nose at the same time COMPLICATED eh!!, still I'm keen to try his technique out now so am on the lookout for a shop with one in so I can sneak over and give it a go!! (and don't fear I don't think I'll get in trouble when attempting this as I doubt the shopkeeper will notice, he'll just think someone has BAD WIND as I doubt I'll get a note out of the thing!).

From Monkey Mia we shared a longish drive to our favourite place yet "Coral Bay", which is a tiny resort (population 200) on the Ningaloo reef (for any divers out there this place is fantastic). We love it here so much we've actually changed our plans and returned for a second stay (we'd originally only planned to stay one day/night, however this place is SOOOOOOOOOOOO fabulous we've ditched our campsite in Exmouth and returned here for a week, so it's here you find me writing this).  This place is AWESOME, there is cool snorkelling off the beach, with as many if not more fish than the barrier reef!  In fact the other day I swam for ages with a turtle which surfaced right in front of me virtually knocking my mask off (I could have saved it the effort of surfacing and shared my snorkel with it as it was that interested in me).  They let you feed huge snappers off the beach at 3.30 each day too - you just have to bury your toes when partaking in this activity and not hold on to your food too long as they aint called snappers for nothing ;-).  But the BEST thing about here is.......

THE WHALE SHARKS :-)

We had an out of this world day out swimming with these totally AMAZING creatures - and boy did we swim with them.  These things are HUGE (our biggest one was 7m) and you get shockingly close to them!! (check out the snorkelers in the photos to get an idea of what I mean). For all you conversationalists out there don't panic the whole process is very strictly monitored by the government so no animals are upset or harmed in the process, mind you a few humans were near death as it's heart stoppingly good!.  Before you don your gear and get into the water the crew give you a safety briefing including telling you what to do should one of these gentle giants choose to chase you - pah we thought, this is just hype to get you gee' d up they'll never do that - OH YES THEY WILL!! on our first swim with them they decided to come right for us :-) and guess what it was probably one of the best moments of my life :-)  You can see from the photos how amazing this experience was, and yes these are real pics of our day, as they send a professional photographer down with you.  So we spent a blissful day hopping in and out of the water to swim with these amazing creatures (each time as good as the last), and were very lucky as the spotter plane located two as soon as our boat left the harbour which stayed with us all day.  After our experience it's hard to believe, but sometimes people go out and there are no whale sharks around or they dive as soon as they see humans so thank you whale sharks - you made our day :-)

So that's life up to now WE ARE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIVES KIDS ;-) it just keeps getting better and better dudes!!

Before I sign off here's some more info on whale sharks (from a leaflet I picked up so a tad more technical than you'd normally expect from me ;-)):

The mass spawning of more that 200 species of coral in March and April each year is part of a chain of biological events that heralds the arrival of the world's largest fish, the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) to Ningaloo Reef.  These gentle giants cruise the world's oceans in search of concentrations of plankton.

A fully grown whale shark can reach up to 18 metres in length, but more commonly, individuals encountered at Ningaloo Reef are between 4 and 12 metres long.  A 12 metre whale shark may weigh as much as 11 tonnes and have a mouth more than a metre wide - YIKES (I added a word can you guess which one!).

Cool huh :-)

Keep safe and happy all.

XX

Tash n Giles 

Perth  - Kalbarri

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Hey All

As promised here's another little blog update from down under, which I'm actually typing offline sat in the shade of our AMAZING 6 berth Kea Motor Home on a campsite in Kalbarri with the sound of the waves crashing and birds twittering all around.  I have to tell you we LOVE our Kea it's AMSOME (think luxury on wheels), in fact I personally love it so much that after a week and half of living in it I believe I could live in one of these things permanently, they are totally snazzy dudes! (god thinking about it it's actually a good thing that we do love it so much as we've got another 3.5 weeks to go you know!).

Anyway enough of me bigging up the vehicle (I'll quit that topic for a while otherwise you'll have a boring blog entry with Kea technical specs alone!!).  Oh but the facilities are so cool; TV & DVD, HOT HOT HOT shower, tons of space, and the cooking utensils  "ENOUGH" I hear you all cry ;-)

OK Perth, we arrived hoping for fun in the sun and we definitely got one of our wishes, it was FUN :-) but actually a tad chilly!! this was rather a shock for the three of us who had been expecting HEAT AND SUN, but especially for Giles and I who had packed nice and lightly, so ended up living in the one warm outfit we had for most of the week there :-).  Still the backpacks were nice and light so we looked like seasoned travellers at the airport, and grungy ones at the end of the week in Perth too - see we really are adapting to this lifestyle!.

Anyway Perth, it truly is a lovely city, it's small but has great amenities and a few cool attractions too - JUST OFF TO SORT ME WASHING OUT SO WILL BE BACK IN A MIN - OK I'm back so on with the story...  We had a few days out whilst there;

On day one we visited the Swan Bells (the entry to which was perfectly timed as we managed to dodge a rain storm), we then walked to the Botanical Gardens (which are amazing) but got rained into the Swan Brewery for a snazzy lunch instead - hard life eh! And we then managed to dodge the third storm of the day by sprinting into the Da Vinci Machines exhibition!! so the theme of this day was..... RAIN RAIN RAIN but FUN FUN FUN.

On day two we rented bikes and took the ferry to Rottnest Island, which we managed to cycle right round in record time.  This was mainly achieved due to the need to keep cycling to remain warm, and keep warm we did as Suze and I had mega sh*t gears on our bikes hence going uphill was one hell of a workout!  Oh and Suze and I looked particularly snazzy on this day as we ended up wearing our Keens (open sandals) and shorts with quokka themed Rottnest Island socks which we had purchased on arrival for warmth! (and shockingly someone commented on how nice we/the socks looked!).  The highlight of this day was meeting the the local wildlife "the quokkas" who are really cute little creatures, but sneaky too as we searched for them all the way round the island, finally meeting them at the end of our cycle back at the dock!!

Day three was spent on a open top bus tour, which among other things took you down the freeway!! but we did get to visit the botanical gardens and on this occasion the rain stayed away so we had real fun in the sun :-)

Our final day was spent on a boat trip to Freemantle, which is a really nice place, very picturesque.  The highlights of this day were the two near misses we had on the boat, one on the way out and one on the return trip - these Western Australians drive their boats like nutters (but it all makes for an interesting story eh!).

And then the day we had all been looking forward to arrived KEA pickup day :-)  Woo Hoo baby let the real fun begin....

We arrived nice and early to be shown our home for the next five weeks, and as mentioned it was brilliant (thanks go out to Suze for her research/choice of super van).  Once we'd been shown the gadgets onboard and given our safety instructions we were off.. first stop a supermarket to stock up on goodies for all the fantastic food we've been eating onboard :-) then off we headed to campsite number one at Wave Rock, which was a mere 300kms away.  This was a slight detour off the costal route we'd planned but one we had all voted worth doing - and it didn't disappoint.  We all took turns driving the van and it's actually very drivable (as long as you remember how high/long/wide it is ;-) (oh here's a chance to mention another gadget we have onboard; a nice TV which shows us the rear of the vehicle when reversing!!).  Anyway we arrived as the sunset - which was a little later than expected as you don't really want to be driving then because of kangaroos!! (the little blighters have a habit of leaping out in front of cars!!) and Suze parked up in the pitch black, but the site was brilliant, and on the following morning we discovered the rock was cool too.

The following day after exploring the area we moved on heading towards New Norcia, but as the drive was to be a long one we actually checked into a site in York for the night, which was again nice but now we're seasoned campers we all realise a little expensive ;-) (lesson number one don't let anyone rip you off just because you're driving the best van on the planet!).  The following day we continued onto New Norcia, which is a monastic town in the middle of nowhere, originally setup a long time ago to work with the aborigines, and still going strong now but with a new mission - producing bread, candles, beer etc...  The only buildings there are owned by the monks so we camped in a field and queued up the following morning to get the monks bread for breakfast ;-)

We then moved onto the Pinnacles desert, which is a stunning place and one which the photos will do more justice than I :-)

Our next major stop was Geraldton where we made camp for a few days.  This was the last major town on our route until we hit Broome in a few weeks time, and believe me it's tiny so not so major, cute though with a great art gallery and museum.  Whilst here we managed to run over Suze $600 brand new coco song reading glasses (Tracy please note the frames were knackered after this little treat, but the lenses survived so take heed and don't go near mobile homes wearing yours!!).  Whilst here Giles and I got asked if we were with the Kiev National Ballet who were in town, and was Giles the lead dancer (HA HA, I can hear you all tittering away now as I had a good belly laugh at this myself)!!

And finally we headed out to Kalbarri, where you find us now :-) they have a catch phrase here "Kalbarri you'll love it" and boy did they get that right as this is an AMAZING place.  Our caravan park is right on the ocean with daily pelican feeding at 8.45am.  The weather is fantastic, the town tiny but great, with an amazing fish BBQ joint called Finley's where we ate virtually the whole ocean the other night for next to nothing (with a good dose of ozzie humour and sarcasm thrown in for free!).  We've been sand boarding, which was totally gnarly dudes and a tad more gung ho than I'd expected (still I now realise I like the odd adrenaline rush now and again, I could do without the bruised ribs though).  And yesterday we went into the national park and canoed down one of the gorges, which was spectacular and really great fun too, especially as we got to do a bit of rock climbing rather than take the easy route back out again.

So that's our trip so far :-)  and as mentioned before, so far so good, it's been BRILLIANT FUN and something I'd highly recommend to any of you :-) 

Oh and on a final note I'll sign off saying that we've now named our van "Priscilla" after watching the movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert last night, which I loved and now have a longing to dress up like they did when we climb Kings Canyon in a few weeks time (uh oh watch out the red centre here I come!!).

Miss you all and wish you were here too, thanks for all the emails and facebook entries I promise to reply soon, the internet is rather sporadic here hence little chance for communication!!

Speak to ya later mates!

XXX

Tash n Giles