Australia...

Yes, surprisingly the landscape was also pretty good in Australia. So, as well as trying out several new activities here including rock climbing, sand boarding and whale shark swimming, I was able to appreciate some of what nature had to offer. I hope the following gives a taste of what I've seen here...

Victoria coastline as seen from above (from a brief helicopter trip over the Great Coast Road)..

Wet man with rock formations, Grampians, Victoria..

Novice spiderman tries (and mostly fails) to find his feet in the Grampians..

Sunrise at Monkey Mia on the Western Australian Coast..

..And sunset from sand dunes on the Western Australian coast..

And yes, I did get to meet skippy's cousins...

And some of his perhaps slightly too friendly chums..

Anyway, that's probably it from crazy Australia for now- Next and final stop is Hong Kong, before the return to merry old England, now less than a month away!! Bye for now..

New Zealand South Island landscape..

I guess the most impressive thing about the South Island of New Zealand is the landscape of mountains, and the very varied coastline. I was able to experience quite a lot of this in my wanderings over the 3 weeks I was there, the following being some of the highlights (as always, click on images to get full size and effect!)...

Mount Cook on a clear day! (fairly unusual apparently)..

Doubtful Sound on a not so clear a day (fairly usual apparently)..

One of the many water falls in Doubtful Sound (also fairly usual with all the rain!)..

Snow on the pass to Doubtful Sound- the first for me since Patagonia back in December..

The sky off the coast of the Catlans..

More sea and sky off the coast of the Catlans..

Railway station and sky, Oamaru

Yellow Eyed Penguin gets a look in on the Otago Peninsula, near Denedin

The sky also dominates in Abel Tasmin National Park


And yes, before you ask I was there (and didn't just get the pictures from the internet)- I hope this kayaking action shot from Abel Tasmin proves it...!

Salt, water and clouds in Bolivia..

Some of the most amazing scenery I saw on my trip back down was in Bolivia, especially the Salt Flats near Uyuni, which I reached via train from Oruro (once the road blockade outside La Paz was lifted, thankfully just before I needed to go there..). The following are sights from the train trip, and the 3 day jeep trip I did over the Bolivian Salt Flats..

Water and sky from the train, near Oruro, Bolivia

Sunset from the train, near Oruro, Bolivia

Saltflats, near Uyuni, Bolivia

Cactus (some over 2000 years old!), Saltflats, near Uyuni, Bolivia

Flamingo browses lake, near Uyuni, Bolivia

Deadly lake (!!), near Uyuni, Bolivia

Old buildings of South America...

Yup, there's some fairly old man-made stuff out there in north-western South America, and I got to see a few examples on my trip from the Carribean Coast of Colombia back down to Santiago in Chile. Just to give you a taster, this is some of the things I saw (nice colours I hear you say)....


Colourful buildings, Cartagena, Colombia

More colourful buildings, Cartagena, Colombia


Inside of ancient Pyramid, Trujillo, Peru

Ancient city of Chan Chan, Trujillo, Peru

Terrace, Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu in the Mist, Peru

Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu, Peru

Cathedral at night, Cusco, Peru

Cemetry, Cusco, Peru


Colourful street, Valparaiso, Chile

Last couple of months...

I have not uploaded anything for a while, so thought I would put up some photos while I'm still on the road. So, following Colombia, headed back to Ecuador, dashed down to Cusco in Peru and then headed into Bolivia to see the famous salt flats. Then went back into Chile to get down to Santiago for flight over to New Zealand. Having spent around 3 weeks on south island of New Zealand, came to Australia, firstly around Melbourne and then to the West Coast where I am now.. Many of my photos from this time are buildings and landscapes (surprising really..), so the following posts have a lot of these sorts of photos (as always, if you want to see them bigger, just click on them) ...I hope you enjoy!!..