I had the pleasure at the beginning of the month of visiting one of my best friends from my time in Madrid. I’d booked a long weekend to visit Philippe in Brussels and was very much looking forward to seeing him for the first time in almost a year and half. In that time, we’ve both had some incredible experiences and returned to our respective home countries. Naturally we had a lot to catch up on. It was a fantastic weekend despite the mother of all hangovers (sat, sun & mon). No plans, just catching up and taking in another…
Returning to Blighty unemployed, I figured I’d have plenty of time to catch up with this blog. Reality was that I was worse at updating it since returning then when I was actually on the road. Distractions, catching up, work and general faffing are equally to blame for this. We returned in time for Christmas, enabling me to catch up with friends and family. It was fantastic seeing people after so long, and even more fun seeing their reaction when they figured out who this hairy mess was. Thanks to Facebook party invites I even managed to surprise a selection…
Returning to the main land from Taveuni on a twelve hour overnight crossing we had half a day to stock up on supplies before moving on to Caqalai (pronounced Thangalai, obviously). This small paradisaical island, described as the near perfect backpackers resort in the guide book (I can’t bring myself to write those two words), is east of the main island of Vitu Levu and is part of the Lomaiviti island group. On a par with Koh Wai in Thailand and if it wasn’t for the weather we had I might even had said that Caqalai was better. The island’s…
After being greeted by a live band in Nadi Airport and passing immigration (the passport is looking pretty good now) we were met by Nathalie, an old Uni house mate and as of recently girlfriend of a very good friend of mine back in London (I think I can claim some credit for that ïŠ ). Nathalie, once recovered from the shock of how much hair I’d amassed over the last 11 months or so, lead us to our nearby hostel, serving as our local guide. She had just started her own round the world trip, going the opposite direction…
We met this friendly Belgian couple on the Milford Sound cruise only to discover that they too were travelling around New Zealand via camper van and actually had planned pretty much the same route as us. We said our goodbyes expecting to bump into each other somewhere on route. More by chance than by planning we actually spent time with them on everyday of the following nine. Most evenings we spent in the same camp / rest areas and ended up playing some unique Belgian card games (anyone heard of Boonanza?) over food and drinks while getting to know each…
I write this from Sydney. I have a headache and I am absolutely shattered. I’ve spent the last week and a bit attempting to fix the van, running between mechanics, stressing, frequently visiting Super Cheap Auto (Australia’s Halfords equivalent), faffing and abusing the hospitality of friends. Needless to say, I will write up about all that at a later date when I’m able to look back at it and smile but for the moment I am over a month and some 10 posts behind with this blog. Casting my mind back… The Great Barrier Reef. The worlds largest living collective…
This, I’m afraid, is a bit of a half hearted attempt at a post. Sitting in the cold in Sydney it is hard to think back to what the 35 degree tropical islands of the Philippines were really like. In fact the last place we stayed at, Panglao Island, was much like the other places we visited in the Philippines. Beautiful soft white sand, coral reefs off the beach, expensive package holiday resorts and distinctly German menus in the restaurants (not a bad thing in itself but while in the Philippines it would make sense to eat Filipino food thus…
I’ve been too busy doing pretty much nothing over the last week to bother posting anything here. Met up with some familiar faces though, which was nice. I might get round to posting something about that this week. For the time being here is my June Photo… Sunset over Coron Town, Philippines.