Andy's Travel Blog

The Sight of a Young, Homeless, Irishman, London, 2011

2011-04-11T17:05:00.003+01:00

Another, sorry brogue.
Blanket and dog,
Not schythe or bog,
In hand.
Isn't - Home - Grand.

Highlights from the British Museum

2009-10-11T21:41:00.003+01:00

The range of artefacts at the British Museum is incredible - the rosetta stone, cleopatra's mummy, mayan thingys ... amazing ... here's some of the highlights:

From The British Museum

the rosetta stone:

From The British Museum

An easter island statue:

From The British Museum

A totem pole:

From The British Museum

A Mayan carving:

From The British Museum

Cleopatra's Mummy:

From The British Museum

The West Highland Way

2009-08-08T14:31:00.002+01:00

9 Days on the West highland way. Amazing scenery - absolutely loved it. Here's the route we took:

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some of the photo highlights along the way:

First day. Just heading out from Millingavie.

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Just before Balmaha:

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Angus Beef???

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On top of Ben Lomond:

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Inversnaid:

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An Buachaill Etibh Mor. Pretty impressive mountain and one of the rockiest I saw around here. It looks even more impressive because it's surrounded by flat valey:

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Photograph of the trip I think. Look at the way the sun reflects off the rocks:

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On the old road to fort william:

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Ben Nevis looking over Fort William:

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Ad the end:

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A Scottish thistle:

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Leinster winning the Heineken Cup

2009-06-14T18:45:00.003+01:00

Pity it wasn't Munster, but a great game nonetheless and great to be at game live!

From glasgow-and-heineken-cup-26-5-2009

Warwick Castle

2009-06-14T18:28:00.003+01:00

Warwick Castle is the best preserved medieval castle in England ... I'm told. It looked pretty, but was incredibly touristy to the point of nausea.

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Glasgow Cathedral

2009-06-14T18:26:00.003+01:00

Worth visiting Glasgow Cathedral if you're ever in Glasgow. Quite nice ...

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Mount Brandon

2009-06-14T15:42:00.007+01:00

Myself and Rob hiked up the Pilgrim Trail to the peak of Mount Brandon (not to be confused with Brandon Peak, which is a mountain beside it!)

There's a small grotto near the beginning of the trail ... I guess part of the reason of how the trail got it's name.

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The route we took:

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Like Carauntoohil, there was a massive iron cross at the top of Brandon also.

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Roman Ruins

2009-05-20T22:22:00.003+01:00

On the way back from Scafell Pike we stopped in a small town called Ravenglass to check out ruins of an old Roman Bath house. Amazing to think they got this far - it was quite remote around here ... although it was a port town way back, so I guess that was the way.

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Scafell Pike

2009-05-20T22:15:00.006+01:00

This time it's England's highest mountain. By far the shortest of the hikes we've done so far. Very enjoyable and beautiful nonetheless.

View Scafell Pike Route in a larger map

Lake Wastwater, where we parked ...

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We took "The Lord's Rake" route up which was a little like a shorter version of the Devil's Ladder when heading up Carrauntoohil - Lots of scrambling, scree and loose rock - Lots of fun!!! ...

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I swear Nici didn't pose for this! ...

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At the top ...

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Then on the way down we had a massive thunderstorm - really, really massive. I've never been that close to lightening before!

The Boat Race

2009-03-30T22:11:00.005+01:00

I went to see The Boat Race mid-course, at Hammersmith Bridge. Oxford were a good length behind when they passed. Listen out for the guy in video shouting, "Oxford you're f***ed, you're f***ed Oxford!" ... Maybe that's what inspired them on to pull through to over a 2 length win over Cambridge by the end!

"The Clink"

2009-03-28T17:11:00.003Z

Ha ha, I didn't actually know that this was a real place. It where the reference, "sent to the clink" (Prison) comes from.

Clink street prison was a notorious medieval prison I'm told.

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2009-03-28T17:10:00.002Z

Sir Francis Drakes ship! and the worlds first maratime museum ...

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Sculpture on the South Bank

2009-03-28T17:08:00.002Z

A pretty neat sculpture on the South Bank in London ...

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The Matrix, London Style

2009-03-28T17:07:00.005Z

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Tate Modern

2009-03-28T17:07:00.002Z

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Players in a Tunnel

2009-03-28T16:41:00.003Z

Deliberately chosen I would think - a group belting out the four seasons in a tunnel on the south bank ...

St. Paul's Cathedral

2009-03-28T16:31:00.002Z

Yet another beautiful building in London. Built by Christopher Wren, the man who seems to have built everything in this city back then ...

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Monument

2009-03-28T16:13:00.003Z

Ever since I got to London the Monument was under scaffolding for renovations. This 61 meter tall structure was the tallest thing in the city for quite some time after it was erected 7 years after the great fire of London in in 1666. The height of the Monument is the exact distance that it is from the bakery on Pudding Lane where the fire started. Over three hundred years of city grime deposited on it has now been removed, while still preserving most of the original stonework. To look at, it's not that special, but when you know the history behind it it's pretty amazing. Worth waiting a year and a half to see.

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Road Trip to Cornwall

2009-03-28T16:04:00.000Z

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Cornwall Beaches

2009-03-28T16:03:00.003Z

Sennen Cove was this beautiful beach near lands end. There was a few other cracker as we headed up the coast too. Surfing heaven I'd say ...

From devon-and-cornwall-1-3-2009

Lands End

2009-03-28T14:19:00.005Z

The most westerly point in Britain. Over 800 miles to John 'O' Groats on the northern tip of Scotland. We here in March and was very obviously the low season despite the weather being lovely. They had this tasteless Victorian theme village built there, but it was all closed and abandoned looking. We were the only two people walking around and the car park was empty. Just after we took our obligatory photo at the Lands End sign a guy walked up and started dismantling it ... It was like the world fair had come and gone ... errie place - Quite different in the summer I'd say.

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St. Ive's

2009-03-28T14:16:00.005Z

This was a nice little spot. The town became a big artists haven early last century and still is today. Lovely beach (as is the case all over Cornwall) and a really cool little church up on top of a hill looking out onto the Atlantic.

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Buckfast Abbey

2009-03-28T14:14:00.006Z

We just had to stop here - Buckfast Abbey - the stuff of college legend when monk brew their legendary tonic wine. Sure enough , tucked away in the corner of the monks shop was the Buckfast Wine. I think that they're a little embarassed about the popularity of the wine.

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Salisbury Cathedral

2009-03-28T13:53:00.005Z

Passing through Salisbury we stopped at the very impressive Salisbury Cathedral. It's massive and I'd to stand well back to take a photo. Inside they have one of the original copies of the Magna Carta in the chapter house. I'd to be satisfied to see peer through the window at it as they closed by the time I got there. Great anyways though!

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Stone Henge

2009-03-28T13:42:00.006Z

Not far outside Salisbury we visited Stone Henge - the ancient stone circle of monoliths. I've probably got the historical terminology wrong there but you get the idea and it's very famous. You do get to go fairly close but you can't touch it. Pretty impressive nonetheless.

From devon-and-cornwall-1-3-2009

Vancouver, Whistler and British Colombia

2008-09-20T14:22:00.003+01:00

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We went on a holiday to visit our two friends from college who had moved to Vancouver. Quite a nice city. It near every kind of outdoors activity you could imagine. I loved it. Myself an Nici did a whole load of hiking that week. We also visited Whistler where the next Winter Olympics will be held. Normally when you think of Whistler you think of Skiing, but we were there at the wrong end of the calendar, just before the winter. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt that week, which was a bit weird and I thought I was jobless! Although being on holidays was probably the best at the time :-)

From Holiday in Vancouver 12-21.10.2008

I took a picture of these (Mapel??) Trees - Look how red they got in Autumn - I assume this is something you get in a country with real seasons :-)

From Holiday in Vancouver 12-21.10.2008

Shortly before Lehman Brothers Changed to Barclays

2008-09-01T14:14:00.001+01:00

You won't see this again ...

From New-York-August-2008

USA National Debt

2008-08-20T14:06:00.000+01:00

I took this only a few weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brother's, AIG, the American auto industry, etc. They never anticipated having to put another "1" on the end of this. When I came back again in November they had had to paste that one at the end ...

From New-York-August-2008

Back in New York

2008-08-20T13:44:00.001+01:00

I never grow tired of this city. I was sent over with work about three weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and made the most of it. They've upgraded all the screens in Times Square to HD now as well.

From New-York-August-2008

Here's the roof of Grand Central station. It's of the constellations, but in reverse because it's "how god would see them".

From New-York-August-2008

And a pretty spectacular view from the "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Center) ...

From New-York-August-2008

And on the weekend, curtosy of my generous cousins, we took a trip up state to Westpoint military academy. Here's a nice view of the Hudson Valley:

From New-York-August-2008

Like that Famous Painting

2008-08-15T13:53:00.002+01:00

There was a chair in a room in that house we stayed in the south of France and it looked just like that famous Van Gogh painting:

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Yeah, I know it's the mirror image, but you get the idea.

South of France

2008-08-15T13:24:00.001+01:00

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Jim, using his abyss of valuable contacts, sourced a gem of a house in the center of a postcard village in the south of France - St. Pierre des Champs. It was heaven - no mobile reception, no buses, no television, no internet. A mile up the hill we had a amazing views of the countryside, a mile in the other direction we were by a natural river pool and a mile in a different direction we were in the neighboring village. I even drank coffee there it was so nice. Other groups of a similar age were also on holiday in the village and they brought us to a fête in the neighbouring town. Pretty cool. We had rented a car also and took day trips to Toulouse and Barcelona. Pretty much the ideal holiday really - can't wait to do something similar again.

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Ben Nevis

2008-08-10T13:10:00.001+01:00

We couldn't have picked a worse day to climb Ben Nevis. Wet, windy and generally miserable. The top was fogged over, but, as I was told, this is nothing unusual even for a good day in Scotland. The mountain was 1300ish meters high. Quite a lot of people were training for the mountain race the next week ... lunatics ... I couldn't imagine running up the thing ... at least not in this state of fitness :-)

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Tower Bridge

2008-07-20T13:08:00.001+01:00

A nice bridge ... one of those images you think of when you think of London. It's actually ensured as a boat!

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Hyperbolic Crochet

2008-06-22T18:47:00.004+01:00

At first glance you see a coral reef ... at second glance you realise the whole thing is cleverly crafted from crochet. Denise, Nici's sister contributed to this exhibit at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank in London. ... After a third and more prolonged glance you realise that its not even a reef, but in actual fact a visual representation of Hyperbolic Mathematics!

Abbey Road

2008-06-22T18:43:00.003+01:00

Hopping out a St. John's Wood tube station we paid a visit to the Abbey Road Music Studios - Famously where the Beatles recorded their album and crossed the Zebra crossing ... and admittedly I'm not their ultimate groupy, but I couldn't resist the temptation to recreate the scene.

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Will Smith in Leicester Square

2008-06-19T20:49:00.004+01:00

Look who I bumped into in Leicester square ...

Glaty Mor and Galty Beag

2008-06-19T20:38:00.006+01:00

Myself, Rob and John climbed Galty Mor and Galty Beag. Very, very nice and I hadn't really heard of it before Rob suggested it. Quite a taxing climb at the start but once off the lower ground we were flying it. Really, really nice views along the way - much nicer than the like of Carauntoohil, although the mountains themselves were less moonscapy. Here's the route we took:

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Oasis

2008-05-26T17:17:00.003+01:00

Like a mirage in the desert we spotted an ice-cream van parked in the middle of nowhere on the way home ... we just had to stop!!!

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Climbing Snowdon - May 2008

2008-05-26T17:02:00.003+01:00

A gang of us head up Snowdon, Wales highest mountain, in the second week in May. We choose the less travelled Rhyd Ddhu route, staying at a campsite right at the base of the mountain. The other routes up are extremely touristy and there is even a railway all the way to the top, which is pretty nuts. When you do reach the peak it's packed with people and even though the view is quite nice, you do feel quite eager to get off the peak and return to a quieter path.

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We choose a pretty mental route on the way down which frightened the s*** out of me, but no harm, we made it down and were rewarded by stunning views of the lake and valley.

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London Eye, Part II

2008-05-05T12:40:00.000+01:00

So we finally had a chance to actually go up the London eye. A half hour roundtrip with some pretty nice views of London ...

April Snows

2008-05-05T12:23:00.000+01:00

Four seasons in one day guys. All of what you see below was gone by the afternoon, even our snowman. First time I've seen snow like this in years - and this is April, what's going on!!!

London Looking Good in the Nice Weather

2008-05-05T12:19:00.000+01:00

As the summer rolls in London is starting to look nicer and nicer ... here's a few early morning and blue sky shots ...

The Rosetta Stone

2008-03-15T23:03:00.000Z

I didn't get to see much else at the British Museum the day I went to the Terracotta Army, but there was one item I couldn't miss - The Rosetta Stone - It was the translations on this stone that allowed scholars to crack the meaning of hieroglyphs for the first time. Pretty impressive.

The Terracotta Army

2008-03-15T23:02:00.001Z

Managed to catch the Teraccota Army, which was on show in the British Museum, before it moved on in April. It was really cool and would make you want to go to China to see the rest of them. No photographs inside unfortunately, but I sneaked a few ...

... Okay, so it's not actually the terracotta army in the photo. It's actually look-alikes that school kids at the museum did. ... pretty cool though!

Canary Wharf

2007-12-12T21:07:00.001Z

I've been working around here for several months now. It's pretty impressive - especially the towers.

Babbage's Difference Engine and Calculators

2007-12-12T21:07:00.000Z

One Saturday morning we headed off to the Science Museum for a gawk. They some of Babbage's difference engines there to view - the oldest computers / calculators. Huge contraptions. Pretty cool stuff if you're a computer scientist.

The New Guinness Red ... hmmm :-)

2007-12-10T21:14:00.002Z

Guinness have brought out a new brew of Guinness called Guinness Red. I think it might only be available here in London - haven't seen it at home yet. It's pretty nice - subtly sweeter than the normal variety.

Sushi

2007-12-10T21:14:00.001Z

Tried Sushi for the first time ever. Pretty nice. Not nearly as fishy as I expected. John had a few more plates than I did ...

Fire in Stratford

2007-12-10T21:13:00.001Z

There was a huge fire out in stratford. We didn't know where it was coming from at first. It looked like Canary Wharf was on fire. The whole sky was full of smoke ...

NFL in Canary Wharf

2007-12-10T21:12:00.001Z

There was an NFL exhibition match in the city on the weekend. They brought an oversized player down to Canary Wharf ...

Taking Security to the Extreme in the Nanny State

2007-12-10T21:11:00.000Z

I think they're taking to counter terrorism to the extreme here ...

IMAX

2007-12-10T21:10:00.002Z

We went to the IMAX catch Beowulf. It's so big its incredible. The normal size cinema screen is dwarfed by it. And to make it even better we were watching in 3D - A what a film to pick for 3D :-)

The London Eye - Part 1

2007-12-10T21:10:00.001Z

I say part 1 because I still haven't gone up it - but it looks great on the South Bank. Watch this space ...

Greenwich Observatory

2007-12-10T21:05:00.001Z

I loved this place. Steeped in history. The Prime Meridian of the World. ... sounds very important. 0 degrees east and west is marked by a laser just outside the observatory ... hmm - or is it? Apparantly if you have your GPS receiver handy the meridian line is about 20 meters to the left - for "military reasons" so I'm told.

Apart from that, in the museum downstairs has Harrisson's H4 timepiece - amazing! The first accurate enough watch to calculate longtitude.

Upstairs in the observatory was a telescope where you could see Pluto.

Notting Hill Carnival

2007-12-10T21:04:00.002Z

Our first weekend here we randomly met an old friend of Nici's in the tube station. He brought us down to Notting Hill where the famous Carnival was on that weekend. It was pretty cool. It seemed like a really affluent area and completely shut down for the weekend - there was a really fun band dressed as superheroes, where we stopped for ages.

Trafalgar Square

2007-12-10T21:04:00.001Z

When I was here when I was a kid the big attraction was the millions of pigeons that lived in trafalgar square. However, some big spoil sport meany banned feeding the pigeons and now all that's left is protestors and random art on the empty fourth plinth.

The Millenium Dome

2007-12-10T21:03:00.001Z

The largest tent in the world, cost a billion to build, totally flopped when it opened, and in a last ditch effort to recoup some costs the UK government did what it does best and privatised ... within a very short space of time the newly rebranded "O2 Dome" became a big success. I'm yet to go to a gig there, but the cinema there is great :-)

The Sweet Free Checkout

2007-12-10T21:00:00.000Z

I'd like to see the one that isn't sweet free ...

Pop Art

2007-10-14T20:42:00.000+01:00

There was a pretty cool pop art exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery. Lot of Andy Warhol paintings - remember the Maryln Monroe screen prints?

Big Ben and the Houses of Parlaiment

2007-10-14T11:47:00.000+01:00

You can't go to London without going here. Henry VIII used to live here. ... so there's quite a lot of history attached ... all I wanted to see was big ben chime :-) ... although it was very impressive.

West End Theatre

2007-10-14T11:45:00.001+01:00

We tried out our first west end show - Footloose - great fun, we had a great view ... have to go see another one pretty soon :-)

The National Gallery

2007-10-14T11:44:00.001+01:00

We were walking around Trafalgar Square and noticed the National Gallery at its top end.

Walk in, turn right and staring you in the face are Van Gogh's sunflowers. What a start to a great collections. This place is a must see ... go have a look.

Welcome to London 25-8-2007 to ... whenever!

2007-10-14T11:41:00.000+01:00

Phew! After a hectic six weeks trying to get settled, I'm finally getting back to the blog. I'm in London now, and it seems I'll be here for quite some time to come. Lots to see, lots to do and I'll be a long time getting through it - loads of fun!

Climbing Carrauntoohil 16-8-2007

2007-08-16T21:42:00.000+01:00

Myself, Rob, John and Jim headed of to climb the tallest mountain in Ireland - Carrauntoohil. The mountain isn't far from Killorglin in Co. Kerry. There's two routes up the mountain. We decided to take the 'Devil's Ladder Route'. The devil's ladder is a small but very steep ridge that you have to climb at a certain point in the hike. The scenery here was spectacular - you wouln't think you were in Ireland at all. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get up and 2 1/2 to get get back at a fairly easy pace. I must try it from the other route the next time - the Carra Route. Beautiful!

The very top of the mountain was cloud covered and made the whole thing very errie. Somebody had managed to haul a giant, iron cross and haul it to the top at some stage over the years.

Puck Fair 10th to 13th -6-2007

2007-08-14T19:03:00.000+01:00

A few of us headed down to Puck Fair, in Killorglin, for the weekend. The Puck fair is a bizzare festival which kicks of with a goat, captured from the Kerry hills, that they hoist up onto a giant pedestal for the duration of the fair. Between putting him up and taking him down is three days of festival in the town. Here's a video of the goat (Jimmy) going up with "Puck ar Buile" theme tune being sung.

Killorglin's actually in a pretty beautiful part of the country. Not far away was Rossbeigh where we went for a swim on the second day.

The town is also on the edge of the Magillycuddyreeks mountain range, where Carountoohill, Ireland's tallest mountain is ... Very beautiful.

Sneem

2007-07-28T02:00:00.000+01:00

The hike to Sneem didn't have the same great views as the first day, but the terrain was just as hard! We finally got there after 8 eight hours - making much better time than the day before. Sneem, funnily, seemed like a smaller version of Kenmare or an even smaller version of Killarney. A nice town, good atmosphere, especially during the day as a constant stream of tour buses traffic people through the town.

Pub? Church?

2007-07-28T01:58:00.000+01:00

On the road to Sneem we passed this unusual pub made from a converted Church of Ireland church. I'll let you form your own opinions :-)

From Hike from Kil...

Kenmare

2007-07-28T01:54:00.000+01:00

After 9 hours our first days hiking finished in Kenmare. Quite a nice place - a bit like a miniature version of Killarney. We rested up big time for more of the same tomorrow, when we'd hike to Sneem.

From Hike from Kil...

The Windy Gap

2007-07-28T01:50:00.000+01:00

After a steady rise for a couple of hours, we got to the top of the windy gap. Looking back you can see the the entire Kenmare road, back to the national park. Looking the other direction you can see Kenmare and Kenmare bay, several miles ahead.

From Hike from Kil...

Oh, and yes, it is very, very windy!

The Old Kenmare Road

2007-07-28T01:37:00.000+01:00

The Old Kenmare road begins at the top of Torc Waterfall. It's a narrow windy track, over the mountains to Kenmare and is long closed to traffic. The trip affords some spectacular views and is very much untouched country. Lakes, waterfalls and freshwater streams dot the landscape and harly an animal is to be seen. No farming seems to be underway here now - all we saw was the occasional, ancient farm wall and at one stage what seems to be a graveyard with lots of burial mounds.

From Hike from Kil...

Occasionally you pass another hiker (usually German or Dutch the day we went), but apart from that you're on your own. Very quiet, very realxing. We had lunch beside a waterfall in the middle of nowhere ... say no more.

From Hike from Kil...

Torc Waterfall

2007-07-28T01:34:00.000+01:00

A little further on from Muckross was Torc Waterfall. Very pretty. After a steep climb to the top there was a very nice view of the lakes behind us. This was also the start of our trek up and over the mountains to Kenmare.

From Hike from Kil...

Muckross

2007-07-28T01:31:00.001+01:00

Muckross and Killarney have almost grown together at this stage and after a short stroll we'd arrived at Muckross Abbey and Muckross House. This was only mildly impressive - Far nicer were the lakes of Killarney that they stood beside.

From Hike from Kil...

Killarney

2007-07-28T01:27:00.000+01:00

Killarney, to me, seemed like one big Irish theme park. Lots of fun - carnivals, parties, street entertainment, cheap accomodation. We stayed in cheap hostel to get a comfortable night before setting off on our hike.

From Hike from Kil...

Hiking Killarney to Sneem 23-7-7

2007-07-28T01:24:00.000+01:00

Myself, Jim and John set off to hike some of the Kerry Way. The whole route is over 200km, but we only did about 60km, taking us from Killarney to Kenmare.

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The Lake and a Hike

2007-07-27T14:10:00.000+01:00

When we got to Lough Gur we hiked up a nearby hill to get a better view. Pretty spectacular, and a beautiful day for it too. A group of kids were kayaking on the lake below. Might be a good idea sometime. You could see the Galtees (I think!?) in the distance ... very nice.

From Trip to Lough...

The Old Wedge Tomb

2007-07-27T14:06:00.000+01:00

This is another 5,000 year old monument. Even more amazingly, an old woman lived in this tomb until the mid-eighteen hundreds. Another nice diversion on the way to the lake.

From Trip to Lough...

The Stone Circle

2007-07-27T14:03:00.000+01:00

'An Cloch Ciorcal' is about 5,000 years old. It's only amazing when you think of it that way, ... otherwise it's just a circle of big stones. Cool.

From Trip to Lough...

Lough Gur 15-7-7

2007-07-27T14:00:00.000+01:00

It's 20ish mile from Limerick to Lough Gur. Myself and John headed off on the bike for the day to see the lake and other bits and pieces along the way ... stone cirles, wedge tomb, the lake, lookout from an adjacent hill.

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2007-07-02T07:14:00.000+01:00

"But trust me on the sunscreen."
- Baz Lurhman

Finishing Up - 4th July 2007

2007-07-02T07:06:00.000+01:00

Wow, ... five and a bit months gone! That was quick! Can't believe we're just about finished. We fly back to Ireland for a few weeks on Thursday. The trip has done nothing for my travel bug, I'm afraid - Something tells me I'll start saving pretty much straight away when I get back for another expedition :-) ... anyone interested in coming? ;-)

Route Through Australia

2007-07-02T06:46:00.000+01:00

Here's a map of our route through Australia ...

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The Well Worn Shorts

2007-07-02T01:49:00.001+01:00

These aren't actually my shorts, they're John McCormack's. I'm not exactly sure how I got them but they've served me well. I think now, however, that they approach their end. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, you just can't sow a thing back together.

From Australia, Qu...

Green Shorts, 2000-2007

Brisbane 1st-4th July

2007-07-02T01:27:00.001+01:00

Our last stop. We have a couple of days here to get ourselves sorted out, tidied up, meet Nici's friend Shane and fly out! Where did the 5 months go!

Apart from that, there really isn't a whole lot to see in Brisbane - the XXXX Brewery, a few nice going out spots, but nothing you'd cross oceans for.

Fraser Island

2007-07-02T01:14:00.000+01:00

All over the country people had been saying Fraser Island was brilliant, so we had to make a stop here on our way down the east coast. The place did not disappoint! Fraser is the largest sand island in the world. The main highway on the island is actually a 75 mile long beach of beautiful powdery sand. My favourite spot there was lake McKenzie - It was a beautiful, crystal clear, freshwater lake nestled in the hills and swimming in it was so refreshing.

From Australia, Qu...

Fraser is particularly recommended for it pure bread dingos. Here's one digging for a buried fish.

From Australia, Qu...

Surfing

2007-07-02T01:09:00.000+01:00

I had always wanted to try surfing and where better than Queensland's sunshine coast. Noosa was a lovely spot for beaches and surf and there was a surfing school there run by a former surfing world champion called Merrick. Myself and Nici took a two hour lesson one of the mornings while we were there and it was absolutely great fun - I never expected it to be such a laugh. I can see why people get addicted to surfing! The instructors were quite good and both us managed to get standing up on our boards in the couple of hours we were there. I really want to try it again! I might even try it at home ... although I might have to suffer colder water.

Back in Noosa

2007-06-27T06:46:00.001+01:00

This is the only place in Australia I'd been before. I was sent here with work back in 2005 and it was the reason ever since that I'd wanted to come back to the country. I had wondered, after seeing so many other amazing things along the way, would it still seem as good - fortunately the place still held its own. The town has a national park right on its doorstep, there's several world class beaches, great weather, a lovely town ... and so on. We camped here in the campsite for a few nights and just enjoyed view.

From Australia, Qu...

The Ron of Argyll

2007-06-27T06:45:00.003+01:00

From Airlie beach we set sail for the Whitsundays Islands on the Ron of Argyle. It was a lovely, small, 2 masted Ketch and only had 12 guests on board. It was really special to travel around purely by the power of the wind (although we did have a motor for whenever the wind was too light). The boat is 80 years old next year and hosted famous guests such as King George V and Marylin Monroe. Our crew were really sound too - real stereotype surfer dudes.

From Australia, Qu...

Whitehaven Beach

2007-06-27T06:45:00.001+01:00

One of our stops around the Whitsundays was here at Whitehaven beach. From the lookout its one of the nicest beaches I've ever seen. The sand here is so pure and fine that it was used for making the lens on the Hubble Space telescope and this is still the sand that is used to clean its lens - Amazing!

From Australia, Qu...

The Wet Season that Never Ended

2007-06-23T03:19:00.000+01:00

The weather in the planet seems a little topsy turby this year. In Saigon the wet season came 2 months early and here, in tropical queensland, it hasn't stopped raining yet - well in to June. Some of the weather we've had around Cairns and Magnetic Island was cat! Things look like they'll clear up for Noosa and Brisbane though.

Magnetic Island

2007-06-20T05:17:00.001+01:00

We were unlucky with the weather here. Magnetic Island normally gets sunshine for 310 days of the year or something ridiculous like that. Didn't like the hostel place we stayed in either - unusually, the fact that we were camping in their campgrounds made it better not worse!

We left after a couple of nights - you really couldn't do anything here with the weather wet!

Cairns

2007-06-20T05:13:00.000+01:00

Cairns was an okay place, but it was really all the things that you could go see near Cairns that made the place. I really didn't like the hostel we stayed in there - really big, lots of rules, deposits for everything, staff hated their jobs ... Seems to be the way things are run here on the east coast, and I don't really like it ... no more really cosy, small hostels, lack of atmosphere, companies begin treating you like a child along with the other, younger, 18-20 year old backpackers. Hope things improve as we head down towards Brisbane.

Aherton Tableland

2007-06-18T12:03:00.002+01:00

A little bit inland from Cairns you have the Aherton Tablelands - A huge area of tropical rain forest. The weather was really, really wet so it was just how you'd imagine a real rain forest being. We went to see a curtain waterfall there called Millaa Millaa - It was where some Timotei shampoo commercial was filmed as well as the video for Peter Andre's song 'mysterious girl' video. Very nice, and got to swim in around it and even do an imitation of the Timotei ad.

From Australia, Qu...

Great Barrier Reef

2007-06-18T12:03:00.001+01:00

We headed out on a small boat to the Great Barrier reef for the day. It was a lot of fun. Despite the cloudy weather the water was still quite warm for snorkeling. The boat parked just off Green Island where we got to hang out for a couple of hours too. All very nice, but the snorkeling was no better than the reefs we saw in Ningaloo or in Thailand. The only difference, of course, was that you were on the largest reef system in the world, but it's very hard to get a sense of scope for this. I didn't get a marine camera this time, so no cool underwater photos. I was hoping to see really brightly coloured corals on the reef, but I didn't and was told why later. It turns out that red colours don't travel that well under water, so everything turns up as shades of blue and green and it isn't until you bring really strong lights down underwater that you get to bring up the colours - in other words the reef will only ever look colourful in photographs ... what a disappointment!

Computer Humour

2007-06-18T12:02:00.000+01:00

I spotted this boat in Cairns before we went out to the Great Barrier Reef ... clever!

Cairns to Brisbane 15th June - 4th July

2007-06-18T12:01:00.000+01:00

After a few days hanging around Sydney we flew up to Cairns. We'd catch the reef and Aherton Tablelands up here and then gradually make our way down the coast with stops at Magnetic Island, The Whitsundays, Noosa and Brisbane. Looking forward to it.

Bondi Beach

2007-06-18T12:00:00.001+01:00

Probably one of the most famous beaches on the planet, so I had to go see what all the fuss was about. To be honest the whole thing looked pretty ordinary - A little bit like Kilkee except in the middle of a big city. Surfing began here almost a hundred years ago.

The Sydney Opera House

2007-06-18T12:00:00.000+01:00

I think when you imagine Sydney you think of the opera house. A pretty impressive building ... but that's all :-)

Sydney Harbour Bridge

2007-06-18T11:59:00.000+01:00

$160 to climb the bridge - so I didn't do it. Still pretty good to see though. You can see the people climbing the bridge when you zoom right in - they're like little dots. It gives you an idea of how big it is!

Onto Sydney 11th June - 15th June 2007

2007-06-11T04:51:00.000+01:00

After dropping our car back in Melbourne we got a bus onto Sydney for a few days. This would be a short stop as we had a flight to catch to Cairns on Friday. We wouldn't get out to the blue mountains, but we'd manage to see the other famous things like the opera house and the harbour bridge.

The Grampians

2007-06-10T14:30:00.000+01:00

On the way back to Melbourne we passed through the Grampians mountain range for a look. They were a real surprise - amazing views, great walks and just generally nice.