Articles from this Category
25 October 2011
Crew, stowaway, freeloader or extra passenger? We pushed off from Labuanbajo harbour around 7:30am on our lovely comfy boat with what I thought were 4 crew members. As it turned out, one of them was an Indonesian passenger … I think the crew had smuggled him on even though we had paid for the entire […]
24 October 2011
We walked around Labuanbajo, in the land of Komodo dragons, and enquired about dive trips. Day trips are common and overnight trips require the right numbers in the travelling party. Every shop had the same offerings at the same price … except Labuan Bajo Dive Club which was IDR50,000 cheaper. That little difference in price […]
24 October 2011
Above: Sunset as viewed from our accommodation. Today we did a full day’s outing from 0800 to 1700 with two dives. Like many people, we skipped the optional third dive but couldn’t return until everyone was done. First up was Manta Point (Karang Makassar) where we saw four manta rays and an eagle ray. It […]
23 October 2011
We hired a motorbike today with the intention of going out of town, including to a waterfall. We didn’t get very far … about 10 minutes out of town, the road disappeared into a bumpy dirt track. We pushed on for about a further 10 minutes and decided that the ride was far too uncomfortable […]
22 October 2011
We didn’t have much time this morning before our 1140 flight from Bali to Labuanbajo. We walked out of our hotel to grab some breakfast. Unfortunately at 8am, there was not much choice. Kuta is rather touristy and it was only pricey cafes or McDonalds and KFC … nothing cheap or local. Our Lion Wings […]
21 October 2011
Due to the 5 hour time difference we woke early and walked to the airport for some breakfast before our 3 hour flight to Bali. We essentially had had an afternoon and an overnight in Bali for all the things I had in mind. Lengthy immigration queues ate into this time. We headed out within […]
4 September 2011
Today we took what was described as one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world … the TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth on the West Coast, passing through the Southern Alps including Arthur’s Pass. As it was spring, we could see the mountains were still beautifully snow-capped. It was sunny and the snowy […]
3 September 2011
The heart of Christchurch is one of few places in New Zealand that looks old … this is a fairly young country compared to, say, Europe. The city centre had a good collection of buildings that made New Zealand look like it had some architectural history. Unfortunately a lot of this was destroyed in the […]
21 August 2011
Above: Colour of the water looks good but it wasn’t a good day. We had planned on doing two dives today with Seahawk Divers. But as a sweetener for our failed sighting of whale-sharks yesterday, they offered either a repeat excursion or a complimentary dive. When we turned up in the morning, the weather was still […]
20 August 2011
Above: Not a very successful day. Swimming or snorkelling with the whale-sharks is one of the most highly-rated adventures in Isla Mujeres. We reported at 0800 to Sea Hawk dive centre and as soon as they had a confirmed location for the sharks (by radio from a spotter craft), we set off. It was a 40km […]