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Tim and Em


45 Blog Entries
1 Trip
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Trips:

Round half the world!

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Byron Bay to Fraser Island

Fraser Island, Australia



We had to drag ourselves away from Byron Bay, as we really liked it there, but our next stop was Australia zoo, which was a 4 hour drive, so we were up and away bright and early (amazing I know!!). We weren't sure what to expect of the zoo, although lots of people had recommended it, but were really impressed with it! It was very interactive, and you could get up close and personal to the kangeroos and koalas which was brilliant.
I think our favourite bit was feeding the elephants - such a stange sensation, it felt like someone was hoovering your hand - with a bristly hoover!!

Had to take a picture of Tim jumping next to Steve Irwin (bless him) and have to include on here as due to my questionable photographic skills, it took me about 40 shots and 10 minutes to get this shot - must read the camera instructions!

We then stayed in Noosa for a night, which was a nice place - quite boutiquey with a nice river and lots of gorgeous houses.

The next day we headed to Rainbow Beach, so named because there are alledgedly 70 different colours of sand on the beach. What a gorgeous place - we walked along the beach and there was no-one there. It was quite bizzare as the cliffs next to the beach are made of sand, and the trees that are growing there literally fall off the cliff as the sand blows away. The next morning we got up at 5.30 AM to go and feed the dolphins at Tin Can bay , which was about half an hour away. The dolphins have been fed for years, and arrive at about 7.30 in the morning for a fish breakfast, and were very pleased to see us. I was humming the theme tune to flipper all day! We then hit the road again to Hervey Bay, where we were staying with Bill and Bev, friends of Tims Mum and Dads. After booking a trip to Fraser Island for the next day, Bill and Bev made us feel very welcome with a Roast Dinner! The roast pork has been cooked on the BBQ - amazing!!

We were then up early again the next day (anyone see a trend here - we are supposed to be on holiday!) and headed off to Fraser Island. We caught the barge across and were then greeted by a 4 wheel drive 52 seater coach! This was to be our carriage for the day. We then did a bit of an island tour, went on a walk through the rainforest and then stopped at Lake Mckenzie for a swim

. This is a freshwater lake in the middle of the island, with silicon sand thus almost white, the contrast with the blue water was amazing. Our guide Murray, had spent quite a long time telling us about the dingo's, so I was on watch for them - apparantly they can be attracted by flavoured lip balm, as it smells like food!

After the lake we then had lunch, which was very nice, and then headed up 75 mile beach, in the coach! It seemed slightly wrong that there were 75 miles of beautiful beach and you could not go in the sea (due to currents, jellyfish, sharks etc) and also the beach is used as a highway for buses, 4 x 4's and also as a landing strip for planes. There was a shipwreck on the beach which was pretty impressive, although we had to stay 3 metres away.To finish off the day, we saw a couple of dingo's on the way home!

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Thanks to Bill & Bev for putting us up, a proper bed was a luxury!! We had to be up early yet again the following day because of the long drive ahead of us.

permalink written by  Tim and Em on February 27, 2010 from Fraser Island, Australia
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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SYDNEY TO BYRON BAY

Byron Bay, Australia


Hope everyone out there is good!?

Its been a hectic week which has seen as pick up our campervan and drive from Sydney to Noosa. Selected highlights as follows:

We picked up our van on Monday 16th, she is a real beauty based on a VW LT35 van - she has air con, a toilet and a shower, time will tell if we love or loath the campervan lifestyle! After provisioning in the local supermarket, we headed out of Sydney - we drove over the harbour bridge - how cool is that!!


Our first stop was the Hunter Valley - wine country (ummm). Found a really good campsite at a place called Cessnock. Managed to suss out the van really quickly, hooking up to the electrics etc. Got chatting to some people on the campsite who were from Padstow - small world. After a sound nights sleep, we had to be up early, we had booked a tour of the smaller vineyards which would last pretty much all of the following day.

We were picked up at the campsite at 930 by the "wine rover", a rotund Aussie called Brian who was extremely knowledgeable about the area, history, wine and the vineyards. In all, we visited 5 vineyards, tasted 53 different ones and amazingly remained fairly sober!!

It felt very strange to be drinking wine at 10am in the morning but we managed! On our budget, we couldn't afford to buy any of the wine although we were very tempted. Think we both learned a little bit more about wine appreciation - berry overtones and all that stuff. There was also cheese and chocolate - heaven!

Due to the alcohol intake, we stayed a further night in Cessnock but set off the following day heading for a brief overnight stay at Port Macquerie. This was more to break up the drive than anything else. We have started to get very good at cooking on the barbeque - each campsite has a camp kitchen which included several barbeques (and Fahitas!!). Pretty much all waking hours are spent outside the van. Still very hot here and the initial sunburn is fading.

We then drove to Darlington Beach, decided to stay here on the recommendation of the folks we met from Padstow. Campsite was again a stone's throw from the beach. Again, a great campsite, each pitch was very roomy and lots of palm trees. Lots of wildlife around, had a close encouter with a kangaroo - was coming out of the toilet block late at night and there was a Roo just sitting there - very surreal! Went back to the van and said to Em, and so we both tip toed out and watched two kangeroos, one with a joey for about fifteen minutes which was very cool. A friendly possum also paid a visit~!

We then travelled on up the coast to Byron Bay, on the way we stopped at a small place called Angourie,

which had a massive breakwall, so we walked along and watched the surf for a while. Arriving in Byron Bay, we managed to get a campsite not too far away from the beach with a pool, which was a bonus.



The beach was beautiful and not very busy so spent quite a bit of time lazing around. We only intended to stay 2 nights, but extended to 3 as we were pretty relaxed and did not want to move!! We also went to Nimbin for the day, which was very very strange, almost a bit X files! Lots of tye dyed hippy types, with a cool museum which to be honest - did not really make much sense, but was interesting in its own special way!


permalink written by  Tim and Em on February 22, 2010 from Byron Bay, Australia
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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SYDNEY

Sydney, Australia


Amazing how much you can do in a week, we're loving Australia so far!! We arrived at Sydney airport to be greeted by a friendly face, I love being met at arrivals - thanks Michelle. Fot the first two night we stayed at John, Jan's and Michelle in Campbelltown just outside Sydney. Although still fairly tired, we wanted to crack on with our exploring with Michelle as our invaluable guide.

To start the morning, we had a hearty breakfast of steak, prawns and eggs (yes, thats right, breakfast!) First off we drove to Builli look out with has amazing views over the forrest to Woollengong. Then it as a short drive down into the valley to the beach, one minute we're looking at it from afar and the next minute we're on it!! The weather was really hot so our chief safety officer suggested just 30 minutes lazing on the beach.

We then went to Kiama - which was really beautiful, as was quite rugged (and reminded us slightly of cornwall - on a good day!) The fish and chips weren't bad either! On the way back we stopped off to meet some of Michelles friends - Terri and Craig.

On the second day, nursing a few areas of slight sunburn, we headed up to the blue mountains, the weather was cloudy and threatening rain, but it held off just long enough for us to have a walk around and take some pics. We went on the worlds steepest railway, which although short, was quite an experience! After mooching around Leura, Michelle then headed onto Sydney to our next hosts - Sam and Ian.

We spent Friday lazing around Newtown, it has a very chilled out vibe and is quite bohemian. To be honest, we started to struggle as the temperature was above 35 degrees so after a spot of lunch we headed back to the flat to put the air conditioning onto max! Once Ian and Sam arrived back from work we freshened up and headed downtown to meet Michelle and Nat. We went to a couple of bars on the "rocks" in Sydney and ended up in a bar with live music (of sorts). It was a fairly quiet night (not!) - see picture and we got back around 2am Saturday morning.

Not to be outdone, we had yet another BBQ breakfast/brunch where I featured as the guest chef. Then we all headed out and wandered various parts of Sydney for the obligatory tourist photo's of Sydney opera house and harbour bridge - nothing prepares you for physically seeing such iconic structures.

Also managed to cram in a few drinks at the opera bar directly underneath the opera house - nice!

So onto Sunday. Sam drove us to Bronte beach, again amazing even though it was drizzling with rain. From there we walked around the cliffs to Bondi for a nice romantic valentine's walk in the sand.

Ian treated us all to Champagne (show off!) which was nice although the walk back was a bit tougher because of it!

Sadly Ian and Sam had to go back to work on Monday so we headed solo over to Manly. We chilled on the beach and watched the surfers and then headed to a bar for an iced coffee. Again, the scenery was stunning (sorry will keep using these sorts of words).

We ate a good Thai farewell meal with Sam and Ian - the final bit of luxury before picking up our camper van the following day.



permalink written by  Tim and Em on February 17, 2010 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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24 HOURS IN HONG KONG

Hong Kong, Hong Kong


12 hours after tearful farewells at Heathrow we arrived at our first stop, a fleeting visit to Hong Kong. Despite being extremely tired, we decided not to succumb to sleep but to head straight out. Having been in Hong Kong numerous times, we wanted to go to somewhere we hadn't been before - shopping certainly wasn't on the cards due to budget and lack of luggage space!
We headed to Hong Kong Park via City Supermarket for some lunchtime snacks. The park is an oasis of green surrounded by Skyscrapers, there is a lake with Koi and turtles and a large aviary. We had a leisurely stroll and ate lunch on a park bench before heading to the aviary for a spot of bird watching - Bill Oddey eat your heart out!!

By this time we were starting to feel a bit weary so decided to have a relaxing foot massage before heading back to the hotel for a siesta. In the evening we met up with some friends (Martigne and James it was great to see you!) for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Central - check out a place called Bacar when you're in Hong Kong and be sure to order the tuna!

Although it was tempting to head to Wan Chai we decided to be sensible and go back to the hotel for a relatively early night as we had to be up at 6am the following morning to catch our flight to Sydney.


permalink written by  Tim and Em on February 11, 2010 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
tagged HongKong

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14 hours to go!

London, United Kingdom


We have packed our bags and are ready to go - well almost!! Had our last dinner in this country for some time..lovely steak and chips - had to go for something English! Anyway I am sure you are not all reading this to find out what we had for dinner - next stop is a short one in Hong Kong and then on to Sydney - will keep you posted...

permalink written by  Tim and Em on January 29, 2010 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Round half the world!
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