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Indonesia – Sumatra – volcanoes and lakes
From jungle humidity of Bukit Lawang to the cool air of the Sumatran highlands, a 2 day stay in Berastagi. The village is culturally dominated by the Karo people, the main highlights of this village are the active volcanoes of Mount Sinabung and Mount Sibayak ( you can climb this one) the golden Buddhist temple of Lumbini and a fruit market. As we were recovering from our 3 day trek we chose not to climb a volcano but we did chill out around town…… We have just spent a few tranquil days on the beautiful island of Samosir in Lake Toba, Sumatra. This is the heartland of the Batak people.…
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NZ Road Trip: Queenstown To Milford Sound
Heading out of Queenstown towards our next destination we detour first to the small but absorbing Arrowtown, another gold rush town but one with an additional draw. Like Reefton before on this NZ odyssey Arrowtown has all of the classic looks of a gold rush town, so reminiscent of those in California and, we are sure, other locations worldwide, its main street looking like something from the Wild West. But there’s an additional twist here in the shape of the reconstructed and renovated Chinese village where the homes of emigrants from that country came in search of fortune. How odd it must have been to hear rumours – rumours is…
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Rotorua: Boiling Mud And Urban Volcanoes
We’ve read several times that as you approach Rotorua, it’s possible to smell the town before you ever see it. Well it’s not strictly true but the pungent odour of sulphur hits us as soon as we open the car door and, as we are to discover, permeates through this most unusual city 24/7. The smell emanates, of course, from the excessive geothermal activity taking place just below ground level – the whole city of Rotorua is built over a caldera formed during a volcanic eruption around 240,000 years ago, and there is certainly no mistaking the level of activity still present today. It’s impossible to miss, in fact. But…
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NZ Road Trip: The Coromandel Peninsula
Time is an illusion, it has often been said. Somehow in the process of returning home from California and then heading out here to New Zealand we have moved forward 21 hours, meaning that we’ve lost, somewhere, almost a full day of our lives. Whilst the 8 hours from California was effectively repaying the 8 we gained on the way out there, we won’t be reimbursed the other 13 until we go home from NZ in mid April. Given that delay, wouldn’t it be good if, like a savings account, it was possible to earn interest on the time invested? You know, be given bonus time in return for investment.…
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To The Lake City Of Udaipur
Suddenly I feel like I’m on television, on a travel documentary or similar, at that point when the presenter turns either to the camera or to their co-presenter and makes a poignant comment indicating just how special is the moment, and then looks wistfully out at the scene before them. It really is like that, just as awe inspiring, just as exotic. We’ve just arrived in Udaipur, late afternoon, and we’re standing on the balcony of our haveli gazing at the scene before us: classic India, maybe even classic Asia. The lake – Lake Pichola – is flat calm, the amazing City Palace sits away to our left, temples and…
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Our Week In Pictures
Saw this in Ljubljana, it gelled with us.. “We travel not in order to escape life, but in order that life may not escape us”. Monday morning, woke in a village named Vopovjle near Ljubljana airport, flew to Belgrade where our connecting flight was delayed and left us stuck in the terminal for five hours before we flew on to Sarajevo. Hard to comprehend that the bustling city of Sarajevo was ravaged by warfare, genocide and war crime atrocities a little over 30 years ago. The scars are visible but so is the conciliation in a city where mosques sit beside Christian churches and a line in the street depicts…
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From Portugal To Sardinia Via A Learning Curve Or Two
For the true traveller there is something immensely satisfying about completing a long and convoluted journey independently, so the fact that this lengthy trek from Portugal to Sardinia goes without major hitch gives us plenty of reasons to be cheerful. A short walk to Olhão train station, a quick train ride to Faro town, followed by the Number 16 bus to the airport, brings us to the clutches of Ryanair, who cause the only moment of angst when the word “delayed” makes an unwelcome appearance on the departure board. We easily make up the lost time though when we land at Barcelona and find ourselves in what must be a…
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Exploring The Algarve In High Season: Olhão, Tavira And Faro
The good news starts as soon as we arrive in Olhão. There, in the uppermost in-tray of the offices of our corporate airbnb host, is the Jiffy envelope I’ve been hoping to see, the one containing my replacement debit and credit cards and driving licence, all present and correct and ready for action. End of saga, at last. Incident forgotten. Having signed off in Carvoeiro with a proper Brits-on-holiday night, dancing to a very decent live band in the main square, we head along the Algarve coast to Olhão, a place recommended to us by, amongst others, Michaela’s Mum. Carvoeiro, holiday hotspot as it is, has been fun and we’ve…
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The Salar de Uyuni: Part 1
We are lucky enough to have seen many wonderful places around the world on our travels, yet this journey through Peru and Bolivia had already become one of our best ever trips even before we headed towards Uyuni. From Uyuni we set out on a 3-day journey which took us to some of the most incredible places and unbelievable natural sights we have ever seen, so much so that Michaela commented that it felt like we were moving from one National Geographic cover to another. A truly amazing journey with so many pinch-yourself moments…. When we first heard about the remote town of Uyuni and its incredible salt flats, we…
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Oasis Days: Pisco, Desert Wine And An Earthquake
Carlos in Nasca asked us one of the funniest and most unusual questions we’ve ever been asked on our travels. The conversation went along the lines of… “So, in England it rains a lot, yes?” “Well, yes, on lots of days” “And sometimes it rains at night?” “Yes” “And you can hear that it is raining?” “Well….yes” “I cannot understand. How would you be able to sleep if you can hear the rain?” So here speaks a man whose whole life has been spent in the desert, a man who cannot even conceive of a world where you would be able to fall asleep to the sound of rain. Doesn’t…
