Paragliding in Rio - Brazil

The Place: Took a tandem paraglide onto the beach ´Praia de Pepino´ in São Conrado - Rio de Janeiro.
Some features: It offers a typical Rio view of tall buildings lining the beach, looming green and black hills in the background, with a view one of the biggest favellas ´Rocinho´ aswell. It´s an great when you feel like you´re sitting on fresh air high above the city. The glider who took me, Eduardo, tried to get as close to the tall buildings as possible on the decent which was an amazing experience.
Strange occurence: Having heard I was in Rio with my capoeira group (a few of us did the glide), as soon as we landed my guide started playing capoeira with me there and then on the grass!

Recreio - Brazil

The place: Our group stayed in Recreio, about an hour and a half outside of Rio. We rented two neighbouring apartments just across the road from the beach.

Some features: Really chilled vibe, morning swims, cafe's with live forro, and samba music at night, cool coffee shops and lots of relaxation.

New Years Eve - Sydney

The Event: Together with Ilse, Nick, Frances, Paul and Karen found a spot early on in the day to witness Sydney's spectacular fireworks at the harbour bridge to bring in 2008! The lights of the city, boats and fireworks iluminating the water were incredible to see, and the festivities were amazing!

Monkey Mia - Western Australia

The Place: Our road trip took us as far up the west coast as Monkey Mia.
Some features: Viewing dolphins and pelicans up close on the beach. Spotting dugongs and visiting a pearl farm out at sea on a guided boat trip. Seeing more stromatolites just off a beach made up entirely of shells. The shells are so compressed that they used to cut bricks of shell out of the ground to use for building. Ate out in a restaurant in Denham close by made out of these shell bricks. Snorkelling 'The Gregories', one of many beautiful locations in the two large bays of Monkey Mia. While snorkeling swam over sting rays and got close to more dolphins that were swimming in the bay.

Strange Observation: The soft sand road to the snorkel spot made for some great 4x4 driving, with warnings to watch out for bilbies!

Lancelin - Western Australia

The Place: Set off from Perth on a road trip with Ilse, Nick and Darren. About 1.5 hrs up the west coast of Australia from Perth we stayed 3 nights in Lancelin at Lancelin Lodge.

Some features: This spot is a a wind/kite-surfer's haven, so we were in the company of many foreign (mainly German and English) tourists who had come here with that in mind. We all had a go at windsurfing the first afternoon, hiring our boards, with Darren and Ilse both trying for the first time. Next day with the wind died down we spent sandboarding followed by windsurfing (Nick kitesurfing) and that eve went for sundowners in the dunes. We spent evenings enjoying sundowners either overlooking the beach or on top of the dunes. This spot was really great - so we made sure to book a spot here for our return journey to Perth from Monkey Mia, affording us the opportunity for more great windsurfing!

Kalbarri - Western Australia

The Place: With destination Kalbarri in mind, an 8hr drive from Lancelin, Christmas day ended up being a continuous string of cool surprises.

Some features: After our first stop off at the Pinnacles which was planned, we then found numerous other cool places along the way, including a lake (Lake Thetis) containing stromatolites (living 'rocks' which are the oldest form of life on earth), a beach (Kangaroo point) where we swam with pelicans flying over our heads, the Natural bridge (see pic with Ilse) which is a feature that lies close to Kalbarri, and a sunset kangaroo chase (Nic and I had to do a little bit of bundu bashing before I finally got this shot of one of the 2 kangaroos we saw hopping about). A perfect ending to a brilliant day was Darren's gourmet Christmas meal of chicken, prawns, and beef all cooked to perfection in his secret recipe marinades.

The next day was spent snorkelling and playing frisbee before setting off for Monkey Mia.

The Pinnacles - Western Australia

The Place: Set off after an festive Christmas breakfast with the other winsurfing tourists at Lancelin Lodge to the Pinnacles on route to Kalbarri.

Some features: The Pinnacles are great to see, and whats also quite an experience (and a very Aussie one) is the intense heat and the amount of flies that surround you. At one time you might find 20 flies sitting on you, while some get right in your ears, crawl up your nose or sit on your eyes not to be deterred by the constant slapping of your hand on your face!

Uluru - Australia

The Place: In the Red Centre of Australia, Ayers Rock (Uluru) stands 348km high and 9.4km in circumference.

Some features: Spent an afternoon exploring the rock from its base. Saw it change colour from red to gold at sun set. Woke up at 4.30am to observe the rock at sunrise. Just as amazing was the colours of the sky and land, with bright greens, reds, whites and yellows all around.

Kata Tjutu - Australia

The Place: 43 km from Uluru, Kata Tjuta (meaning 'many heads') rises more than 500m out of the ground. It's a collection of more than 36 heads and is considered sacred to the Anangu people who are the traditional owners of this land. Unlike Uluru which is sandstone, these structures are formed from conglomerate rock.

Some features: Spent the day walking different routes in some areas of these incredible outcrops, inluding the 7.4km Valley of the Winds walk which took us right inbetween these looming domes, showing us a great view of the flat and vast outback. Waited for sunset and was lucky enough to see a rainbow stretching out over the heads.

Sydney Beaches - Australia

The Beaches: Spent the day just chilling on Bondi beach with Ilse after her arrival. It's is a great hangout for surfing backpackers. Arriving there immediately puts you in holiday mode where you can just chill on the beach or go for beer and a burger at beachfront cafe.

Played some frisbee and tried out a boomerang on Palm beach with Ilse, Nick and Lindsay. Spent a day on the beaches of Manly.

Strange Observation: The Aussie's seem to take Christmas to a whole new level! There are stuffed Santa's hanging from balconies, climbing the walls of houses, and riding motorbikes on the road sides. Dressing up as Santa is popular too, as evidenced by the Santa party in the Manly beach surf pavilion - pictured above.

Sydney - Australia

The Place: What was almost a splash landing, touched down on the mini peninsula runway strip of Sydney airport after 24 hrs from London via Singapore.

Some features: Great to see that a major city can be as relaxed as Sydney. Met Nick and stayed at his place right on the waters edge. From there, getting into the city was a 10 minute ferry trip almost directly from his door step to the cities edge.

Had a great time seeing the activities around the harbour bridge and opera house - including the Scots college's +-50 strong, marching rendition of Walzing Matilda on a bagpipes & drums, and two aborigines playing traditional music on their didgeridoo and sticks mixed with electro phunk.

From the botanical gardens you get an amazing view of the opera house and bridge, with bats and cockatoo's that fly freely around the park.

Met a phillipino third order apostelic nun in a boomerang shop. After a lengthy chat she kindly went to fetch her veil for me to take a picture of her.

Visited the Taronga zoo to get a good look at some aussie animals. The zoo was a huge highlight with great bird shows, brilliant views of the city and funky wildlife including wombats, wallabies, potoroos, gliders, tasmanian devils, and the duck-billed platypus.

Strange observation: Watching a game of chess in the city park is wierd when the guy dominating the game is dressed in dirty clothes and is shouting obscenities to his park mates (also playing chess).