Cycling from Auckland to Gisborne

Over Christmas we headed to New Zealand to do a cool cycle ride. From Auckland we headed South and then after visiting all the volcanic stuff around Rotarua, we headed up into the hills and via a dirt road across to Lake Waikaremoana - a really unspoilt area of New Zealand. From there we eventually descended to the coast and then cycled North to Gisborne on the East Coast.



Full Screen Slideshow Here

Masai Village Slideshow

The School in Lake Baringo

Full Screen Slideshow Here

The Orphanage

The orphanage has changed, now instead of a boundary wall it has 3 floors, loads of students living there and even boys rather than just girls. They even have students at the university in Nairobi.......

Full Screen Slideshow Here

Sepilok Orang-Utan rehab centre

We also visited Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre to see the Orang-Utans that come in from the jungle to get an occasional feed. We saw three young males who hung around for a few hours before heading off to the jungle.



Here's a slideshow of the Orang-Utans:



We stayed at the Sepilok Jungle resort where they found a really small owl that had fallen out of it's nest in the night:

Climbing Mount Kinabalu (4095m)

We spent a few days in Mt Kinabalu national park before climbing the mountain. Obviously we didn't plan ahead and book permits, but once we arrived it was easy enough to get a cancellation and a completely unnecessary guide (apart from for the local economy). We started at 1800m, spent 3 hours walking up to 3200m where we stayed the night (with a very annoying snoring Cantonese man) and at 3.45am we woke up and spent another 1 1/2 hours walking to the top in the moonlight. It was high so the altitude was a factor but really easy compared to other things I've done. The last 700m of rock was superb.



Here's a slideshow of the climb:



FULL SCREEN SLIDESHOW

The Rest of Kenya

Over the 10 days we were in Kenya we visited an orphanage near Nairobi, camped in Lake Nukuru national park and spent the day in the park, went to Lake Bagoria to see the geysers, camped at Lake Baringo and had a boat trip as well as visiting a local school, visited Nukuru town, camped at Lake Naivasha , climbed the nearbye Longonot volcano and had a cream tea on the lawn at Elsamere (Joy Adamson's house), we visited the Masai Mara and also a Masai village, we drove across rivers, got stuck loads of times and had one hell of an adventure.

I didn't take many photos, most of my time I was videoing the trip - to be edited later. We both enjoyed it more than last year - we had a great atmosphere on the truck, perhaps because of the conditions, perhaps the kids were just a good mix - I don't know. I finally have students who can embarass me thanks to Isabelle telling them a little too much about the occasional romantic gesture I might make. The older students made it so easy for everyone to become a big gang and it was quite sad to split up at the end. There's almost a shared feeling when you walk round school and see the other members of 'TRUCK A'

Masai Village

We visited a Masai village on the way back to Nairobi from the Masai Mara. We were already in the rainy season and the roads were getting worse.

The village experience was superb for the students, a big village with maybe 20 huts and about 100 people living there. The warriors had been dragged in from the surrounding area and danced for everyone. The kids didn't even notice the cow dung everywhere, they were gradually becoming relaxed in this environment.

Orphanage Slideshow

Just a few slides from the orphanage

Another trip to Tai Long Wan

We've just spent 4 days at Tai Long Wan - the place is really the best place in HK. Craig, Sonya & Isabella, Pam, Bryce and Lexi went down on Friday and we joined them on Saturday. It's a big beach with big waves and we had great weather. I took along a waterproof camera case to see what it would be like taking photos in the waves and some of them have come out good.

You can click on the photos in the slideshow to see more info about them.



On the Monday when Pam, Lexi, Bryce and Craig left we had some great fun floating out their bags to a speedboat in a little rubber dingy - trying to get through the surf. We managed to get everything out without any mishaps but there was some serious adrenalin on the way. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera.

Lantern Festival

We headed down to Hung Shing Yeh beach for Lantern Festival - there were loads of people just sat around all over the beach. Lexi came down and we took a load of silly photos with glo-sticks

Leh Polo match

Completely by chance we heard some horses walking down a little path near our guest house. We decided to follow them and discovered a Polo match going on. It was superb, really fast and quite dangerous as a spectator. The horses are all Zanskar ponies, small and perfect for high altitude. At 3,500m they ran constantly for about an hour.

Ladakhi portraits slideshow

Across Zanskar Trek

We walked from Lamayuru to Darcha - a journey of about 400km through very high mountains - we crossed three 5000m passes.

India Slideshow

We spent about 6 weeks travelling around Northern India, visiting Delhi, Leh, trekking for four weeks and then heading to Rajasthan:

Kalaw to Inle Lake trek

At Easter 2006 while travelling in Myanmar we did a 4 day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake staying in people's houses and Monasteries.

Myanmar Slideshow and Map

Easter 2006 we travelled around Myanmar, visiting Yangon (Rangoon), Kalaw, Inle Lake, Mandalay and Bagan. Despite the evil government we gave no money to them apart from their tax on our plane ticket and the occasional hotel tax. Many local people benefited from our visit.

Cycling around Thailand

This is a slide show of a 600km cycle ride around NW Thailand, starting and finishing in Chiang Mai. We cycled for 7 days out of the 11 days we had there and travelled through Mae Malae, Mae Sae, Pai, Soppong, Cave Lodge, Mae Hong Son,Khun Yuam, Mae Chaem, Doi Inthanon and Chom Tong

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Lamma Slideshow

This is a series of slides with a commentary about Lamma Island

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Kenya

In November 2005 we took 61 students from our school to Kenya, we flew into Nairobi, visited Nukuru NP, Naivasha, Lake Baringo, Lake Bunyoni and the Masai Mara.