New Zealand - Marlborough

To get to Marlborough from the West Coast involved another crossing of the mountains that run along NZ's South island. This time the Lewis Pass, another challenge for our little 'chugger'. Glad to say that we made it without any problems (it is proving to be a sturdy little van - touch wood!) and ended up in Hanmer Springs. This is not only a ski resort (with one lift enough of a challenge for JP, but one wonders what other people see in it), but also, as the name would suggest, the happy owner of freshwater springs, and warm ones at that! Slowly getting used to the more relaxed lifstyle, we decided to spend the remainder of the day there, dipping in and out of pools with temperatures between 28C (the coldest) and 41C (the warmest - and the smelliest). With the sun out in its full glory, this turned out to be a most enjoyable day.

Relaxed and revitalised we set off to the Marlborough coast from there. As we had an early start and the weather was gorgeous, we chose the scenic route. And that's where our relaxedness ended - we expected that the scenic route involved kilometers and kilometers of twists and turns through seriously mountainous terrain and that there wouldn't be very many gas stations, but we hadn't expected our fuel economy to halve. So, going on empty we rolled into Kaikoura, our next stop, where we filled the 60 liter tank with 59 liters of gas. In 15 hours we went from feeling pampered in thermal mineral springs to feeling anxious about running out of gas. Still, we made it!

Kaikoura has a gorgeous setting - right at the sea with the mountains we had just crossed in the background. However, this is not the main reason people visit Kaikoura - whales are. This is the place on mainland NZ (and apparently in the rest of the world) where whales can be seen closest to shore. So, on board a fast catamaran we went for our go at whale spotting.

It has to be said, this was one of the most professionally run activities we've done so far this trip and it didn't disappoint - we saw two sperm whales (for those interested - we'll explain later) coming up for air and diving under again. However, what neither of us had taken seriously, the warnings for sea-sickness, turned out to be all too appropriate. First JP, later Nicola turned a grim colour green. Never have horizons and mountain peaks been studied so intensively, all to try to get to grips with the ongoing swell that caused us to feel like you do after a heavy night drinking. Fortunately it ended before one of us got properly sick, but the remainder of the day we felt as if we had taken a beating. In 20 hours from feeling pampered in thermal mineral springs to feeling beaten up. Still, we saw whales!

After a fish & chips, to line the stomach, we set out for a walk along the shore line to spot seals. Unfortunately the trail turned out to be different from the one indicated on the map, so it became of bit of exploring. With the tide coming in, our window was getting smaller but some good old-fashioned scouting helped us to find the way eventually. In 25 hours from feeling pampered in thermal mineral springs to feeling lost. Still, we saw seals!

After all this excitement, Blenheim was a more subdued event. Blenheim is Marlborough's capital of wine and as 40% of NZ's wine is grown in this area, this means something. Tens of winehouses have their home in Blenheim (and neighbouring Renwick) and we visited a selection. Given that we were still stocked up from our last wine trip (in Queenstown) we limited ourselves mainly to tasting. Which was equally (if not more) enjoyable. Added bonus for Nicola was the presence of a 'boutique' chocolate factory, basically every girl's dream. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that we ended up with some of this as well.


To show the diversity of Marlborough, our last day was spent in Picton (from where we'll take the ferry to the North Island). Picton is on the Marlborough Sounds, a 40 meter deep sunken river bed with access to open sea, full of sealife. By now we had seen albatrosses, fur seals and whales from up close, but dolphins (dusky dolphins to be precise) only through our binoculars. Picton offered the perfect opportunity to rectify this, as the Sounds are regularly visited by dolphins (including Orkas!), while they also house some unique birdlife.

On board another catamaran (glad to say not in open sea this time, so no greenness) we cruised the Sounds, indeed seeing dolphins surfing the bow of our boat (Hector dolphins, which are only found around NZ) less than one meter away. Mission accomplished! With the added bonus of some very special birds, including more albatrosses ('wandering' this time), saddlebacks (only 20 years ago only 39(!) were alive) and more shags (this time the 'little', the 'spotted' and, the very promisingly named 'king shag'). And as it was sunny, it became a nice afternoon on the water, allowing us to re-acquaint ourselves with this after our Kaikoura experience. A welcome re-acquaintance, given that tomorrow we will cross Cook's Strait in three hours to get to the North Island.

Which leaves us with reflecting back on our time here so far. Time has flown by, we've seen so many unique animals, we've done so many different things, we've been in so many different landscapes, it has been absolutely amazing. Let's see what the North Island has in store......

New Zealand - West Coast

In the previous entry we mentioned the transfer from the Southern Alps to the West Coast. This is a trip that involves crossing a pass (the Haast Pass, at 593 meters not that high, but enough of a challenge for our poor camper van), which is located in Mount Aspiring National Park. Another massive national park, with incredibly beautiful scenery and sights, such as 90 foot high waterfalls. Unfortunately walking was impossible, as the main tracks were inaccessible for our transport, but a few small strolls gave us still a good impression of the stunning beauty of this part of New Zealand.

From Mount Aspiring you end up on the West Coast (that is, if you follow our route), initially dominated by two impressive glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox), which make their way down to almost sea level and (rumour has it) the peaks of the gigantic Mount Cook and Mount Tasman (NZ's highest peaks at over 3,000 meters). But, as you would assume by now, weather conditions didn't allow us to have a clear view - in one priceless moment we saw Mount Tasman through the clouds (although we had a perfect view of both peaks a few days later, from a hundred kilomters away!). The same weather conditions meant that our planned walk on a glacier was not going to be - mist and rain made this activity less tempting, so it is another one for the 'to do' list. On the positive, we managed to walk up to both 'terminal ends' (which is where the glacier ceases to exist as a glacier and springs a river) and see the incredible amount of ice and the blue icepeaks and experience the outer-worldy landscape.

The remainder of the West Coast is perhaps best summarised by Captain Cook's (he's the guy who 'discovered' NZ for Great Britain) reaction when he saw it - 'move on, too rugged to be inhabitated'. For us that meant more stuning views of amazing coastlines, with settlements few and far between. With the weather now seriously taking a turn for the better (back to 28 to 30 degrees Celsius), we slowed down from the relentless pace we had maintained so far, limiting our sightseeing to fur seals and coastal rockformations with blowholes and spent a few hours on the various campsites - relaxing. Who would have thought that ?

To put the people that are getting worried now at ease - for the next few days we had a busy schedule planned in Marlborough, the land of wine and lots more.....

New Zealand - Southern Alps

Our first destination in the Southern Alps was Queenstown, which is surrounded by mountain ranges with intriguing names like the Pisa Range and the Remarkables. The latter, besides appearing in various (digitally modified) guises in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, also house a ski area, which makes Queenstown NZ's version of an upmarket ski-resort. For the first time since leaving Christchurch (or perhaps Singapore ?) we were in a town that oozed a bit of lifestyle. Which suited us well, given that we felt obliged to be in a proper Irish bar to bring a toast to St Patrick. Queenstown also doubles up as the capital for extreme adventure, with aerial activities such as bungee-jumping and the 'giant swing' on offer or more water-based adventures focused around the Shotover river.

These differing activities bring a good mix of people to the town: on one hand wealthy tourist and kiwi's that are attracted by the resort-style atmosphere (more expensive sport cars here than anywhere else so far in NZ and loads of Japanese), on the other hand lots of proper and young budget travellers looking for the adrenaline kick that extreme adventure brings. The first group mainly housed in expensive hotels, the second mainly in old vans (even ours was beginning to look distinctively modern) or even older station wagons.

We like to think we hovered somewhere in between, further evidenced by our choice of activity. Some (light but fun) adventure in the form of a jet boat (basically a jet-ski behaving like a boat: extremely fast and agile in very shallow water) over the Shotover river and the lake on which Queenstown is perched. JP ended up very wet having sat in one of the wettest seats - we found this out at the end! Combined with wine-tasting (and buying for consumption during the remainder of our time down under) and sightseeing of an old gold miner's village (Arrowtown - which happens to have an interesting Chinese link, for those interested we'll go in detail upon return!). As you can see, a bit of both worlds! And oh yes, we did say 'cheers' to St Patrick, together with a few hundred travellers in a proper Irish pub with proper live (and non-live) Irish music.

From Queenstown it was onwards and upwards (eg further to the North) to Wanaka, a small village on another, equally beautiful lake surrounded by stunning mountains. Here we reverted to what we do very well by now - walking. Up and down a hill, amazing views! The village didn't have too much else to do, so with a take-away pizza we were back at our campsite, preparing for the next day's transfer, that would bring us to the West Coast.

For the people that have been in New Zealand, you may wonder, what about Milford Sound (a massive, 1,200 meter deep fjord) ? Believe us, we have tried to get there, but bad weather conditions three days in a row didn't allow us to get there. So, we figured, a good thing to add onto the 'to do' list for the next time in NZ. Because by now we are both convinced that this will have to be on the cards!

New Zealand - Catlin's Coast

After our first nights in the campervan, for Nicola the first ever!, where we had to settle in our routine of making the bed, cooking on barbecues and walking to the amenities, we started our trip around the South Island. As the weather forecasts were predicting a serious change in weather, we had decided to make our way clockwise, as this would limit the 'weather damage'. And a weather change it was - from tranquil summer-weather with temperatures around 28C to stormy and rainy autumn weather with maximums around 8C (and a wind-chill that made it feel like freezing).

So our first real distance travelled, along the Inland Scenic Highway, was a lot of 'Inland' and 'Highway', but little 'Scenic' - our vision wasn't any further than 500 meters, with low-hanging clouds. Which meant we had 'fabulous' views of Mt Summer and Mt Hutt and their ski areas, as far as the base of the mountains was concerned - we didn't see any of the peaks.

What we did see, however, was sheep, and loads of them. A well-known statistic, we guess, says that there are 10 sheep for every kiwi (that is, a New Zealand person in this case, if it were the famous bird the ratio would be a lot higher), so with 4 million New Zealanders that adds up to 40 million sheep. You see them everywhere on the West Coast, in their hundreds and thousands. More than once on our travels we got stuck behind a flock of sheep, had to circumnavigate free roaming sheep and even ended up, involuntarily, herding five loose sheep from our van.

With the weather turning colder, weather and windier by the hour, we made our way to the Catlin's Coast. These conditions are not so good for sunbathing, but great to watch the abundant and unique wildlife for which New Zealand is renown. But not before we had bought some new hardcore thermal clothing (as with good foresight we had just shipped everything warm home)- windchill temperatures were now dropping below zero.

In a few days, we saw royal albatrosses (massive seabirds with a wing-span of 3 meters plus that can travel 1,000 kilometers per day at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, that fly around the antarctic several times per year), yellow-eyed penguins (apparently very rare species, that are moulting at this period of the year, so are standing ashore like tin soldiers sheltered by bushes, during which period they loose approximately 30% of their body weight), blue-eyed penguins, fur seals, sea lions and the unfortunately named 'pied shag', which we leave to every body's own interpretation.
The benefit of the weather was that these are the conditions most sea animals prefer, so the 'spotting' was good. We were glad, however, that we had our new thermal wear to keep us warm.....

With every mile from Christchurch, the landscape became more rugged and empty. Villages indicated on map or roadsigns as seemingly significant settlements have less than a few hundred inhabitants (notable exception Oamara - a lovely coastal town that seems to have stepped out of a 19th century English picture book). This makes for little in terms of restaurants, bars, etc. but for great landscapes, with intermittently cliffs, rocky outcrops, native forests, waterfalls, rolling hills, petrified forests, blowholes and strange boulders at Moeraki, dishing up breathtaking views. Every mile there's a photo opportunity, so be prepared for when we get home!

After travelling along the coast for a few days, we made it to Invercargill, New Zealand's most southern city of any significance. By this time, the weather was clearing up, the winds from the Antarctic giving way for more moderate conditions. Uplifted by this change in weather (three days of wind and rain is enough) we started our trip to the Southern Alps, as the name indicates an alpine area, where lakes and mountains create mesmerising views......

New Zealand - Christchurch

When we left home in January, New Zealand seemed so far away, both in distance and in time. But both have flown by and there we were - in Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand's South Island. Before we left, everybody that had been to New Zealand had 'warned' us about the stunning beauty, so to say that we were brimming with anticipation would be an understatement.

Another thing that people (both fellow travellers and kiwi's) had told us was that March is traditionally a 'shoulder-season', which means that accommodation is easy to get, that things can be arranged while there, in general, it is supposedly a relatively quiet (yet weatherwise good) period to visit. A prediction that was proven wrong.
As we were not completely sure when we would get to New Zealand, we had held off booking a campervan till a few weeks before we would get here - it being a shoulder season this shouldn't be an issue. So imagine our surprise that our first ventures into getting our preferred mode of transport and lodging only gave 'fully booked' replies. As we later found out - many people (and judging by the demographics at the campsites, mainly retirees) had travelled to NZ on the same premise during February and booked out the whole stock of available vans. Which left us with an ever-more frantic search - by the time we were in Singapore we had half a dozen companies on the case. Fortunately one of them had good news for us - they found us a van for a price that met our budget (being travellers, there are some restrictions....).

So, when we got to Christchurch we were picked up by our van rental company in somehting that surely couldn't be our van. When JP went the first time to Australia in a campervan (1995 - 1996) this model was around AND was considered to be old-fashioned. A quick look at the license registration documentation showed that this baby had been around since 1991, which means no such 'luxuries' as power steering, radio-CD or airconditioning, as the rental guy said: 'When it gets warm, you just open up the windows.....'. After the first shock, we had to accept that this what was going to be our 'home' for the next weeks. And now, after initially having jealously scrutinised all other vans on the campsite, we have started to enjoy the fact that ours is the oldest around - which makes it kind of unique - and refer proudly as 'our little van'. In Dutch - 'gezellig'! Let's hope that it survives the mileage we are planning to do - roughly 4,000 kilometers in 3.5 weeks!

Christchurch is nothing to write home about - really. But given that this is a blog we'll do it anyway. With 300,000 inhabitants it has the feel of a small city, with a compact city centre where some colonial buildings compete with a few modern developments. Most striking in either category are the cathedral on the main square and the art gallery. Besides that, there are lots of parks, where, we guess, very fortunate and rich young children from the private schools around them play cricket and tennis as part of their favoured upbringing. In many ways, we felt Christchurch to be more English than England - with many of the institutions and traditions of pre-colonial England still in tact.

As Christchurch was short on sights, we spent most of the day planning for our trip around the country - we had a rough outline of what we wanted to see and do, but with the wealth of Tourist Information available in Christchurch (NZ has wholeheartedly embraced tourism and everywhere (as we later found out even in the smallest villages) there are literally hundreds of free and useful maps and brochures available) we were now able to put a bit more flesh on the bones. Having done that we set out for New Zealand's vast hinterland.....

Australia - Northern Territory

A new country, a new continent, a new experience beckoned - the Northern Territory in Australia. Both of us having been to Australia (Oz) before, neither of us had been in the Outback. And that is where the Northern Territory (NT) is!

This became apparent on arrival in Darwin, which with 75,000 people is the Territory's largest city, but with three main roads nothing more than a provincial town in many respects. Having landed at 04.30am local time and picked up our car, our plan to stroll the streets of Darwin before getting breakfast was quickly abandoned - there are no streets to stroll to fill 3 hours. So, in the cosiness of our car, we debated our plan for the next few days, as one bit of information we got at the car rental location had somewhat messed up our planning:

Two days before we arrived, the NT was hit by a massive tropical storm, leaving all the roads to Kakadu National Park and all of its sights bar one inaccessible. This situation was to last for about a week. And we had intended to go to Kakadu National Park.....

Fortunately, NT is big, very big, incredibly big, so there were other parts that were accessible. A quick session at the Visitor Information Centre in Darwin helped us to re-plan our route, but the floods were to remain a key part of our trip:
- the holiday park we stayed at, had been covered in a meter of water by the flood, so it was damp;
- the swimming holes were all closed, partly due to the strong currents that the high water causes, partly due to the fact that saltwater crocodiles ('salties') could have swum up the river;
- some parts of the road were missing or covered in potholes and
- every next rain shower (and there were quite a few, even though most part of the days it was over 35 degrees and sunny!) caused a new flooding, meaning that we had to navigate massive pools with our normal road car.

However, all of these are mere impracticalities that can be overcome, especially given what the NT has to offer ..... Massive, vast National Parks with stunning scenery (bright blue skies, deep red soil, vibrant green from all the plants that sprung up, white foam on the waterfalls) and amazing wildlife (toads, lizards (small and large - we saw one that was 1.5 meters long!), birds - such as cockatoos and Loree's, wallabies, kangaroos, dingoes) - we saw it all.

Also, this is the land of the Aboriginals. Their influence is seen in the naming of the main sights and the stories that are being told about the history of some sights, but it was disheartening to see so many of them wandering the streets, displaced in their own territory.

But, back to wildlife - wise from our lesson in Sarawak, we went first to a sort of safari-park, where all NT animals can be seen in real-artificial habitats. This way we could at least claim that we saw them. Fortunately we were also lucky enough to see them all in 'real life'. And we were lucky NOT to see any crocodiles - a visit to a crocodile farm had made us familiar with the 'salties' and the freshwater crocs ('freshies'), and neither of us was too keen to be re-acquainted in the wild.

One final word on the 'outback' - it is an amazing place, where the distances are enormous (in three days we travelled 1,200 kilometer, only to see five places of any significance, but strangely encouraged by the road signs that indicate places that are more than this distance away!) and the population is sparse (one of the more densely counties we travelled through had 1534 inhabitants on 1,650 square kilometre - now compare this to the Netherlands!).

Four days in Oz flew by. When we came back to Darwin from exploring the Outback, it was strange (and a pity!) to think that we would leave the country already. However, another amazing experience is awaiting us - New Zealand. About which more in the next posting.....

Singapore

We arrived in Singapore in the early afternoon after a surprisingly quick journey given that we had to take a flight to JB, then two buses and pass through Malyasia and Singapore immigration. This involved us getting off the bus with all our luggage at the Malaysia exit point, getting on again once we passed through, driving for 5 minutes to get off the bus again at the Singaporian entrance point (also with all our luggage), passing through immigration and then getting on the bus again! All this and with stairs to climb up and down at each of the check points.

So we had entered our 5th country on our travels and the most 'western' city in Asia, complete with signs warning us that chewing gum and jay walking were illegal and punishable with fines of 2000SD.
Not surpirisngly then, the first impressions were of a very tidy, wealthy, cosmopolitan city composed of many skyscapers, tourists and business people. This was probably enhanced by our choice of accomodation in the tallest building in Singapore - complete with balcony and a funny feeling when you looked over the edge! You may have guessed that this wasn't budget accomodation but we have to take advantage of the quality hotel offers in Asia, it's all part of the experience!

Unfortunately Nicola was feeling pretty rough with a cold (even 2 months in 30 plus temperatures doesn't reduce her ability to catch every cold going!) so after exploring the local area (Raffles hotel - the best hotel in Singapore and the shopping mall nearby) the rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out at the hotel. After dosing up with cold and flu tablets we headed down to the river front for a meal, surrounded by the lit-up skyscrapers of Singapore's Financial District. The meal was good quality but our most expensive meal by far - a bit of a re-introduction to the cost of living and eating out in the 'western world'!

Our second day in Singapore began with the quest to find a laundrette - the not so glamorous side of travelling. Given that we had been in the jungle for 3 days in wet and humid condidtions, the laundry was proper 'dirty laundry'. Needless to say we felt obliged to warn the laundry lady who took it very well!
With the laundrette being near to the many shopping malls on Orchard Road, we took the opportunity to have a look (and enjoy the airconditioning). We succumbed only to buying CD's with the justifcation that we be put to good use when we are in Australia and New Zealand. Following a very nice and very cheap lunch in a more 'local' shopping mall, JP decided to have his hair cut in one of the many hair salons in the malls. Given that it had been 3 months since the last haircut, it was more than overdue as he was starting to sport a 70s look! JPs only concern was that he would end up with a south east asian style, but in reality she did a fantastic job and it has been mentioned that it was one of the best haircuts ever. The only negative (?) was that she shaved off his sideburns!!!!

After picking up the laundry (hurray for clean non smelly clothes!) and a couple of hours on the internet planning New Zealand (getting hold of a campervan was starting to prove difficult) it was already evening. We were slightly disappointed that we had ended up doing more 'chores' than sightseeing but such is life and we found a local asian food court which had very nice chinese seafood including chilli salt squid. We also learnt that a small portion was more than enough for one so we left feeling pretty full after our 4 dishes (but this was at least justified for Nicola with her 'feed a cold, starve a fever', mantra).

Our flight the following day to Darwin, Australia, did not leave until 10.30 pm so we had the full day to plan a walking tour of Singapre to make up for our lack of sightseeing the previous day. We began with a walk through China Town, which comprised many highrise buildings as well as a couple of temples (one the nicest we have seen to date), many chinese food courts and a street with beautifully restored chinese houses (now home to chic bars, expensive restaurants and marketing agencies). It was a big mix of old interspersed with new, but it highlighted to us that once you scratch the surface of Singapore you realise you are still in South East Asia, despite the western facade. Following this we walked up too many steps in the humid heat to Fort Canning Park, which was pleasant but nothing much to talk about as the fort was no longer. After lunch, where we had a tasty chicken and rice claypot, we walked on to Little India (pretty average) and the Arab quarter, which was obviously quite wealthy given the nice streets and beautiful mosque building. Finally we walked to the river to see the Singapore Merlion monument. After a refreshing drink and cool down in a shopping mall we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and set off to the airport via the metro to make our overnight flight to Darwin.

Malaysia - Sarawak (Borneo)

An early start, our flight to Kuching left Johor Bahru at 07.00 in the morning, meant we landed in Kuching in good time. By the time that we had checked in at the hotel, most Sarawakians were still having breakfast, but at least it meant we had enough time to look around Kuching and make our plans for the following days.

Kuching itself was described to us as a very clean, calm city, something that seems unthinkable in South-East Asia, where noise and chaos are always battling it out for prominence. However, it turned out to be true - Kuching is a very clean city, a well laid-out riverfront, well-kept lawns and a nice mix of colonial (British), Malaysian, Indian and Chinese influences. No need to say we checked out the sites that come with these cultural groups and had a sample of the food (Indian rotis - again!, barbecued fish with sambal (again!) and various nasi dishes (again!), all very nice though).
But Kuching was also a lot more 'obviously tropical' than the other places we had visited so far - always covered in clouds with regular daily showers (humid!), warm and the rainforest almost continuing into the heart of the city.

Enjoying our stay in Kuching, this was not the main reason why we came to Sarawak - the wildlife was. Sarawak is part of East Malaysia, two more or less independent provinces (which means more stamps in our passports!) that are situated on Borneo (this island also holds Brunei and the Indonesian Kalimantan). This part of Malaysia is renowned for its National Parks, mainly rainforest, that (still) cover large areas. Because of this, wildlife is abundant, for example it is is one of the last places on earth where one finds Orang Utans and the only place where one can see the Probiscis monkey. And these two primates where our target for the trip.....

To see an Orang Utan was in theory a fairly simple task - there is a rehabilitation centre where Orang Utans that are deserted by their parents or found in captivity, are being taught how to live in the wild. The centre is about 35 kilometres from Kuching, so nothing too difficult. Apart from the fact that March is still the 'fruiting season' in Malyasia, which means that there is so much food available in the forest that they tend to avoid the feeding places where they have to eat being observed by tens of tourists. The day before a mother and her young had ventured towards the feeding place, but we guess she must have been discouraged by the busloads of Japanese that poured onto the viewing platform, so she stayed in the forest when we were there. The tour buses were on a tight schedule, so the viewing platform emptied halfway through the session, but this didn't help - the Orang Utans still chose to remain in the forest. But, as we don't give up easily, we tagged on to a Park Ranger and walked the trails of the park, in search of the elusive animals. Unfortunately to no avail - so the first part of our mission was a failure, although the beauty of the forest made up for it a bit.

Well aware that Nature does at it wants, we set out to Bako National Park the next day. As this Park can only be reached by boat (when the tide is right, and even then the boat-ride is quite an experience) and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to increase our chances of seeing animals, we decided to spend a few days, to make it worth our while.

The accommodation can only be described as very basic, with brown water that is collected from the jungle streams, facilities that need a good clean and food that is verging on the boring (and that in Malaysia!?).
However, that is not what most people (including us) go there for, everyone wants to see 'wildlife'. And that request is almost fulfilled 'on demand' - between lunch and dinner on the first day we had seen a wild boar (during our stay we also saw his partner and their offspring), tens of little monkeys (macaques), several green vipers, pitcher plants (carnivorous plants) and Probiscis Monkeys (the males look like potbellied, big-nosed, grumpy old men), and that doesn't even include the animals in our room! Heartened by this success, we joined a 'night safari', which is nothing more than a guided tour through the jungle, lit up by a few torches. However, it is quite an experience, the jungle being full of noise and animals, such as frogs, snakes, bats, birds, geckos, stick insects, spiders in all sizes and fireflies.

The second day we spent walking a big loop through the park, a route that took us from 08.00 in the morning to 17.00 in the evening (we could have been back earlier if only Nicola would have managed to climb a rock with the rope provided!). By that time, we were both drenched - first from having a swim in one of the rock pools, then from the strain of walking in 30 degrees with 95% humidity, then from having fallen over on the waterlogged paths (JP's specialty) and finally from being caught in a rain shower. However, the scenery was worth the effort.

On our way back to Kuching, we evaluated this mission as accomplished - we saw the Probiscis, saw many more animals and did a great walk. So, all in all, Sarawak had shown itself from its best side. But, after the 'suffering' in the jungle, we were ready for some western luxury, and where else to get this in South East Asia then in Singapore.....