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

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

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

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.

Hiking Killarney to Sneem 23-7-7

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.






My Maps Plus - Embed Google My Maps into your website or blog.

Lough Gur 15-7-7

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.





My Maps Plus - Embed Google My Maps into your website or blog.

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

Finishing Up - 4th July 2007

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

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





My Maps Plus - Embed Google My Maps into your website or blog.

Cairns to Brisbane 15th June - 4th July

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.

Onto Sydney 11th June - 15th June 2007

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.

Heading East 30th May 2007

After three weeks from Darwin to Perth it was time to head east. Our first stop is Adelaide. We'll try to get to Melbourne to visit Conor then ... then we'll see how far up the east coast we can get!

Down the Mid-west 11th- May 2007

After Broom we left the Kimberley and headed down through the Mid-west towards Perth. The distances here become huge and we'd easily clock up 1000km in a days driving at times. Stops included Coral Bay, Monkey Mia, Kalbarri, Cervantes, Hutt River Principality. ... Plenty to keep us occupied.

Onto the Kimberly (3rd-23rd May 2007)

After returning for the Red Center we spent one more day in Darwin before heading west. Over the border, into Western Australia, we enter the Kimberley - a huge area about the size of Poland but the population of Clonmel. We spent a week here exploring. We headed to Kununnura, El Questro on the Gibbs River road, off road to the Bungle Bungles and finishing at Broome in the west Kimberly.

From Australia, Th...

To The Red Center (25th April - 1st May 2007)

After the Kakadu trip our next destination was to the "Red Center", deep in the south of the Northern Territory, to see Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tuta (The Olgas), King's Canyon and whatever else looked interesting along the way. We rented a car for what was going to be a mammoth 4500km trip!

Top end Touring 21st-24th April 2007

After a few days of settling into Australia we headed off on a tour of Litchfield, Katherine and Kakadu. Plenty of climbing, swimming, crocs, Aboriginal culture, etc. There was a group of 9 plus a tour guide - lots of fun :-)

G'Day From Darwin - 17-4-2007

A late night flight out of Singapore brought us to Darwin, Australia at 5:30a.m. Don't know exactly how long we'll stay here. Gonna use it as a base to get to Kakadu and Litchfield national parks and Katherine Gorge ... Lets see how it goes ;-)

Singapore - 12-4-2007

On the road again, leaving Melaka and Malaysia for Singapore. Singapore is an island, a city and a country - how strange! Ever since we left Bangkok, heading south it has been getting more western and here it reaches it zenith. This is an ultra clean, flash, wealthy, big, big city and prices are completely back to normal here. We've found a really nice hostel called Sleepy Sam's in Kampong Glam (kind of an Arab, Muslim, Indian district). We'll stay here for four days until our flight to Darwin on the 16th.

From Singapore Photos

Map of South East Asia Trip

All the names of places I've been throwing around might be starting to get a little confusing. Click here to see a map that gives a rough outline of the route we took in south east Asia ... or below:



My Maps Plus - Embed Google My Maps into your website or blog.

On to Malaysia - 6-4-2007

After Krabi we have to leave Thailand and make our way down through Malaysia to Singapore for our flight to Australia on the 16th. Plenty of time. We're gonna try make stops in Georgetown (Penang), Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Singapore. Should take a little over a week.

Moving South 26-3-2007

Next we went down south to hit some of the islands. Koh Samui, Koh Phan Ngan, then back to the mainland at Krabi. We really wanted to see Ang Thong marine park (where "the beach" was set) and catch a full moon party at Hat Rin. We'd spend about a week and a half around here before heading on to Malaysia.