A holiday from holidaying

Sunny England

Back on a plane instead of a van and am flying myself to London to take a break from all this intense holidaying. As much as taking a break from a holiday sounds ridiculous there is a small element of truth in it; call it catching my breath. On both the tours I have done and the time I spent with Roger in-between it has been go go go the entire time. The most time I've spent in one spot was 5 days in Panama City and 6 days in New York, everything else apart from that has been at best 3 days, mostly 1 or 2 night stays. As soon as I get the chance to stop somewhere, especially now I'm on my own, I realise how exhausted I am. Living out of a backpack which you have to lug around everywhere you go can be a pain in the arse. I am quite happy to dedicate this entire month to sitting on a couch in front of a T.V. but I highly doubt that will happen.

My first few days in London was all business as I had to organise a visa for Ghana and send that back to Australia, buy a tent and a mattress and send it to my next tour companies HQ so they can pack it on the truck before it gets shipped to Morocco as well as restocking on basics and grabbing some more clothes etc. for the coming months in Africaland. Mix this in with a bit of sightseeing, checking out the British Museum, catching up with a friend I met in Colombia and a few drinks in the evenings and my 3 nights in London had soon come to an end.

Street art in London

 

Sand sculpture art on the edge of the Thames

 

From London I caught a bus to Oxford to check it out and to catch up with Lydia, a friend from my travels in Central America. The city is bustling and much bigger than I expected and there are students absolutely everywhere, 90% of them riding bikes with stereotypical reading glasses on. It is also full of tourists but I couldn't find anything remarkable about the city myself. It was nice but not amazing, with no real drawcard or standout attractions. The nightlife here with such a young population is supposed to be fairly good but I never had the energy to check it out.

After Oxford I made my way down to Bournemouth on the southern coast after an impromptu invite from a friend via Facebook that I travelled with in Bolivia and Peru in 2010. Kate and Richard were kind enough to put me up in their house for 2 amazing nights, made all the better by their 2 beautiful young sons Rowan and Samuel. Tasting the local badger beer, catching up on old times including watching some video footage of our time in Peru, yummy home cooked food which I have not had for so long and playing card games that I learnt years ago and have passed onto countless other travellers was the order of the day. After helping Richards friend move some furniture from storage into his new house in the morning we hit the road on 2 mountain bikes just after lunch, making for a forest that had some good trails. Fortunately for me (I was stuffed), when we got to the forest there was a car rally on so we got to stand around and watch that for a while. All up once we got home we had ridden approximately 14 miles which was not bad for a first effort.

 

The next morning before leaving we had a walk and then lunch on the waterfront in Bournemouth and the weather was atrocious. As Ollie Williams would say - its raining sideways!

 

 

The Fridge Tavern

 

Bournemouth Waterfront with Kate, Richard, Rowan & Samuel



 

Back to London, a city to which I have been to so many times yet have always managed to miss doing all the main tourist attractions. Not this time however as I put in a stellar effort and walked over 10 miles starting in Shepherds Bush>Natural History Museum>Buckingham Palace>Westminster/Big Ben>London Eye>Tate Modern>Tower Bridge>Tower of London.

Natural History Museum

Buckingham Palace

Westminster

Tower of London

Tower Bridge



Absolutely exhausted I got myself back to my hostel as the next morning I had a 9.5 hour bus ride (which ended up taking 11.5 hours) to Edinburgh. I do like to make a point of not travelling to places I've already been but Edinburgh held a special place with me, being the city I lived in for about 4 months in 2007/2008. I am also planning on going to Ireland and wanted to go via the ferry so this was the perfect stepping stone. Nostalgia kicked in the minute the bus drove into the city, driving past familiar landmarks and drinking holes, none less than my old work Deacon Brodies which is on the Royal Mile only about 500 metres down from Edinburgh Castle. I managed to get myself on a walking tour the next morning, something I never managed to do while I was living there.

 

Statue of the dog that returned to his owners grave every day for 14 years

Deacon Brodies - My old work

Edinburgh Castle

National Monument

Edinburgh skyline

 

So far my "time off" in the UK is not really going according to plan, moving from one place to another like they're going out of fashion. The few times I have slowed down however I've got itchy feet rather quickly. Moving around and being active has just become second nature, a far cry from when I was doing nightshift back at 000 and my body didn't function at all on my days off. I think this is for the better and I am still absolutely loving being on the road. 5 months away and its amazing to think that I'm only ¼ of the way into my trip. If I had to come home tomorrow I would be utterly disappointed and probably back on a plane within a week, I still have plenty of juice left that's for sure. I think the bet my brother put on me coming home before I was due is even more incentive to keep myself on the road, though not as much as the love of travelling. 

 

 

 

more...

 

 

 

 

The Circle Is Complete

Back to NYC

My time in the US is coming to an end. I found myself back in New York where I left Roger and started my tour with G adventures almost 2 months ago. The trip has taken me right around the country, through approximately 25 states visiting most of its highlights and meeting some incredible people.

My route around the US

 

 

As you can see on the map above we travelled from New Orleans up to Memphis to visit Elvis, continuing to Nashville to become country & western fans, a night in a place called Wytheville then into Washington which was pretty much closed down (all the tourist attractions anyway) due to the government shutdown then finally up the highway to return to New York. New Orleans was probably one of my favourite cities on the tour. The French Quarter is where all the action is and Bourbon St is at the epicentre. It is a 20 something's paradise full of bars, restaurants, live music and gentleman clubs, effectively a poor mans Vegas. During the day I did a swamp tour and saw some alligators and by night we attacked Bourbon St with full vigour, starting off by watching a replay of the AFL Grand Final then hitting many of the bars, walking along the st with our various cocktail concoctions.

 

 

Feeding the gators

 

 

 

If New Orleans was a night of sin and devilry then we made up for it in Memphis where we visited Graceland and paid our respect to one of the biggest and best singers and performers ever, Mr Elvis Presley. His house is actually much smaller than I imagined, no bigger than the average Australian home and I picked up an appreciation for his music that I never knew I had. Same story in Nashville where we spent the evening in the main st going to Honky Tonk bars and listening to country music which I surprisingly found very easy to get into. The people in Nashville just lived and breathed country music and they made the atmosphere fantastic singing every song at the top of their voices. In Memphis we also had the opportunity to drop into Sun Records Recording Studio where names like Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison were discovered. Music was the flavour of the last leg of the tour for sure.

 

Elvis' humble mansion

These outfits were in his racquetball court which was converted to a museum type room

R.I.P.

Elvis' plane aptly named after his only daughter

One of his many cars

 

Where Elvis amongst other artists hit it off

 

Rocking some tunes in the recording studio

 

Washington was not as exciting the second time I went and I spent most of my time just wondering and admiring the architecture. Unfortunately for most of the group the American government shutdown closed all the monuments, memorials and museums. Luckily I had already been there with Roger and this did not affect me. Arlington Cemetery was however open and we had the privilege of going there in the afternoon and watching the changing of the guard.

 

Arlington Cemetery

Changing of the guard

Back to the White House

Rocker & a photographer

 

 

I now find myself in New York enjoying some quality time alone, in a bed, not a tent. I have given myself a week in the big apple to catch up on emails, my blog, visas in preparation for Africa and other mundane activities as well as the usual touristy stuff. I am really enjoying the lifestyle here though, the hostel I spent most of my time at was just off Broadway near the top of Central Park and there is always plenty to do and many great places to eat :)

 

Packing up our tents for the final time

Circle is complete - back in New York

 

 

Another tour ended and another lot of hard goodbyes. Once again I have met a fantastic bunch of people and it doesn't get any easier saying goodbye. When you are together 24 hours a day you get to know everyone fairly well and I have definitely made some lifelong friends. Farewell to everyone I travelled with in the US, safe travels and good luck.

 

Final dinner with the group

 

 

 

more...

 

 

 

Chasing Shadows

Heading back east

The trip west with the sun at our backs on the chilly mornings has turned around and we are now chasing our shadows eastbound across Southern USA. This section of the trip really drives home the emphasis placed on "big" in America whether it be man made or natural. From Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley to the 35km bridge to get to New Orleans everything around here is just plain big........ including the people at Wal-Mart.

My 1st bear sighting

Death Valley

So from San Francisco we drove to Bishop for a night then onto Las Vegas, going through Death Valley on the way. Vegas was awesome, the atmosphere is electric and everything is over the top. We hired a bus bus to drive us up and down the strip on the 1st night then gambled and drunk the night away.

Bellagios

Vegas

Our Vegas party bus

From the bright lights of Vegas it was just a days drive to get to the Grand Canyon, cruising along part of route 66 as we went. Upon arrival our guide made us all close our eyes as he led us to a viewing platform. Words cannot describe the Canyon or the colors I saw that day. The pictures I took dont really do it justice either but that didnt stop me taking hundreds. It was hard to cut down the photos im putting on this blog down to 5. The morning after arriving we hiked down Kaibab trail, which leads down the side of the canyon, to watch the sunrise. Im more of a sunset fan for a couple of reasons but this one was pretty special.

Sunrise over the Grand Canyon

Kaibab trail

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

1 more days drive after the canyon bought us to Monument Valley. The valley is full of red sand that gets in everything so the mini sandstorm we experienced on the way was not the most promising start. Upon arrival it had calmed a little but we still managed to get sand in every crevice you can imagine. After driving around and grabbing some photos we were lucky enough to be able to camp in the valley overnight, under the shadow of the mesas.
The night was spent in a traditional hogan with all 11 of the group sleeping in the 1 room, captivated by the deep & wise voice of our Indian guide Cecil telling us stories of his youth and his tribe, the Navajo. We then drifted to sleep under the starry sky to the soothing and peaceful snoring of Amir.

Monument Valley

Weeeeeeeeeee

An artist at work

Some long drives were on the menu from here on. From Monument Valley we kicked on to Durango checking out Mesa Verde on the way.

Mesa Verde

From Santa Fe to Roswell to Carlsbad Caverns to San Antonio the drives were up to 450 miles per day! Each of these towns had their own charm. By now we were all experts at setting up and packing up our tents and the campsite. The usual routine involved waking up around 7am, rolling up sleeping bags, matresses, repacking backpacks, showering, a cereal breakfast then loading up the trailer. All this generally took me 1.5 hours so 7am departures could mean a 5:30 wake up :/

Roswell museum

Carlsbad Caverns

San Antonio Riverwalk

This leg of the trip puts me in New Orleans from where I will pick up from in my next blog.



more...