Author: Amy-lou

So after a lovely few weeks of WWOOFing in the bay of plenty, I’m now back in Auckland ready to set off for the start line of the Tour Aotearoa.

On my way back, I cycled through the lovely town of Thames at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula and up along a lovely coast road to Coromandel, intending to get the ferry around the beautiful coastline and through the islands to Auckland harbour. Unfortunately, things did not go to plan. Turns out, there had been a problem, leading to a ferry replacement bus service!

Still… I got home eventually, just with a bit less island spotting.

Since I got back to Auckland, I’ve been doing last minute preparations and on the countdown to the Tour Aotearoa, and tomorrow, I will be getting the shuttle bus up to Cape Reinga and the start line – eek!

For anyone wishing to follow my crazy journey, (I actually set off cycling the day after tomorrow on the 4th,) you can follow my progress using this link (all participants have to carry a GPS tracker.) Whilst I am cycling, I will not be blogging since I will not be taking my tablet with me, but I will be posting regular Instagram updates, including Berger H Elefant!

On the subject, if anyone would like to sponsor me on this crazy journey I’m setting off on, my fundraising page (for MND New Zealand) is here.

Wish me luck, and see you on the other side!

So as most of you are aware, I am due to set off on the 4th March on a 3000km North to South cycle trip of New Zealand, The Tour Aotearoa. Obviously, when doing a trip like this what to pack is a big consideration… so I have decided to take an elephant with me!

Okaaayyy, so it’s not an actual, full sized, living Elephant. It’s actually a small 3D sticker made by a street artist which I found on the streets of Berlin back in September, and it has inspired me to use the opportunity of this crazy bike trip to try to raise some money for MND New Zealand.

Berger H Elefant is a project set up by an artist from Berlin with Motor Neuron Disease (MND/ALS). They make lots of little elephants and leave them around the streets for people to find and take with them. They ask that if you take an elephant, you take it on your travels and upload a picture of it somewhere cool to social media. The idea being that this will bring a little joy to people who are no longer able to travel because of the disease, as well as raising awareness for the cause. Their website, Facebook and Instagram are all worth a look.

Anyways, having picked up the little elephant in Berlin and having not yet got around to posting any pictures with it, I’ve decided to take the opportunity of this cycle tour to do just that. One of the rules of the Tour Aotearoa is that you must submit photos from each of the 30 photo checkpoints along the route in order to prove that you followed the course correctly. So, guess who will be featuring in all of my 30 checkpoint photos? You guessed it – Berger H Elefant!

Alongside taking the photos, I have also decided to take the opportunity to raise some money for MND New Zealand. I have set up a fundraising page here, and will also be asking for small cash donations (into an envelope with an official MND fundraising sticker on it) from people I meet along the way. Please, if you’re reading this I would REALLY appreciate it if you could go onto my fundraising page and donate some sponsorship money, just a few quid/bucks will do. After all, I am cycling 3000kms with an ELEPHANT! 😛

I’m currently writing from Welcome Bay near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, NZ. I’ve been here for almost two weeks now (after returning to North Island post roadtrip, and after a brief pitstop in Auckland,) and while I’ve been here I’ve been mostly WWOOFing, and cycling.

WWOOF stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms, and it is a worldwide network of farms and smallholdings who need extra pairs of hands to help with organic farming (which is generally more labour intensive than if you use chemicals) and are willing to provide free accommodation and food to willing tourists like me in exchange for a few hours of work each day. I’ve used the network before in Spain and France and loved it. I really think it is a great way to see and get to know an area if you have the time available to spend in one place because it gives you an in into the daily life of the local community and people rather than just being a tourist. This current experience has only confirmed that opinion.

The farm where I am staying is run by Jane and Kevin who operate a business called Teacher in the Paddock – running day care, after school clubs and holiday schemes for children in which they learn about animals, plants and where our food comes from, and get to connect with nature. Their website and particularly their facebook page will give you a better idea of what they do (I even feature in some of the Facebook posts) but suffice to say that the children who come to Teacher in the Paddock have a wonderful time, and I generally have a lovely time helping out. On the days when there are no children in the morning I’ve been helping around the farm – feeding animals, chopping firewood, pruning trees and planting vegetables.

Aside from WWOOFing, the other thing that has been keeping me busy (you won’t be surprised to hear,) is cycling. After having about a month off after I finished my tour of Asia I am now firmly back in training for the Tour Aotearoa (3000km North to South tour of the whole length of New Zealand,) which I start on the 4th March. One of the reasons that I decided to come to this area is because I had been told by several people via the Facebook NZ cycle forum that it was a good area for cycling, with lots of active cycle groups, and it turns out they were right! Since being here I’ve been down on one occasion to a road racing club (who were way to fast for me and my heavy steel bike, but who were very friendly,) and out on a couple of rides with a gravel riding / cycling touring group who are more at my level. I also got invited along (through talking to people at the road racing meet,) to a meet up of people from the local cycle clubs who have either previously done the Tour Aotearoa or who are doing it this year – this was really great to talk about the route and the preparations that people are doing, and made me feel a lot more confident about the whole thing!

Club riding aside, I’ve generally been trying to do some sort of riding every day, though I vary the length depending on how much other stuff I have to get done. I’ve also been out on a few rides with Ray, a guy from the NZ cycle forum who used to be a very serious semi-professional mountain biker and triathlete but is now semi retired and recovering from a heart attack, and generally taking things a bit easier. However, he still knows all the routes and tracks in the area super well, so is an excellent guide! As well as a doing a few rides together around the Tauranga area, he took me last weekend driven to Rotorua to try out the mountain bike trails in the woods – this was my first time on mountain bike trails and it was heart in your mouth stuff, but very exhilarating! In fact, we are going tomorrow for another trip to Rotorua – this time I have chosen the trail: Te Ara Ahi, one of New Zealand’s 22 “great rides”. In theory this one shouldn’t be too technical but I’m still mentally preparing myself for anything it can throw at me. Wish me luck!

Kia Ora! (Hello in Maori). I’ve FINALLY managed to write this, having started it on my way back to Auckland after completing a fantastic roadtrip from Auckland in the North Island and down South islands west coast to Queenstown (with an awesome co-pilot!) and been trying to get around to finishing it ever since! One thing I discovered is that finding time for blogging is a lot harder when you have company, especially company that you haven’t seen for ages and want to spend all your time with. Also the combination of WWOOFing and cycling (which is what I’m doing now, more of that in another post,) leaves me with little time for much else. Anyway, here is the long-awaited round-up of mine and John’s adventures. Make yourselves comfortable – it’s a long one!

The trip didn’t quite start off as planned. John’s flight made it to Kuala Lumpur on time but couldn’t land due to adverse weather. Consequently the plane was re-routed to a different airport to refuel and wait out the storm, meaning that by the time they did eventually land in KL there was only just enough time for him and the other passengers to run and get the connecting flight to New Zealand, but apparently not enough time for them to load everyone’s luggage onto the connecting plane. Not ideal.

After a few lovely days exploring the Auckland area, and with luggage now eventually safely in tow, we picked up our hire car on Thursday morning as planned, and set off. Everything was looking good: the sun was shining, the road was clear… (strangely, google maps was showing a 45 minute delay and suggesting a different route, but that was obviously just a glitch as there wasn’t a car in sight,) we were ready to go!! Then, we turned a corner. Ah. Traffic. Should’ve listened.

After sitting in traffic for 45 minutes and after a bit more driving we eventually reached Hamilton, where we stopped in at the much-reccomended Hamilton Gardens. Normally, I wouldn’t expect gardens to be all that amazing but these really were good – each little garden had different theme, for example Chinese, Italian Renaissance, Indian Raj, and they were all brilliantly done, so at each turn it was like stepping into a fresh little wonderland! Next, we visited the Waitomo glowworm caves, where we walked through the caves learning all about glow works and their life cycle, before heading to Rotorua, where we stopped for the night.

On Friday, we visited the Te Puia centre for Maori culture and Geothermal wonders in Rotorua, which was just across where we had camped the previous night. There, we saw amazing geysers (which smelt of rotton egg due to the sulphurous gasses,) saw kiwis in the conservation centre, and watched a Maori cultural display in which I took part in a Poi dance and John took part in a Huka! After this, we drove off towards our next destination, Tongariro National park, stopping off on the way to visit the breathtaking Huka falls, to walk around the “Craters of the Moon” Geothermal activity park (which featured more sulphurous gasses emmiting from vents, bubbling mud pools, and cool views,) and to admire the views over lake Taupo, which we had learned the previous day was actually formed from the crater of a super volcano which errupted in around 200AD!

Saturday was the day for the Tongariro Crossing, a very popular and highly rated hike which includes passing by the shoulder of the mountain which was used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. We had been warned by everyone we had mentioned it to could be very changeable in terms of weather, but in the event we got very lucky, with clear skies, sunshine and glorious views over the amazing landscape which really looked as if it could belong on a different planet! At the top, there were some stunning sulphur lakes which looked so blue they could have been artificial! They were infact volcanically formed, and smelt of sulphur – a familiar smell from he previous day. In the afternoon we visited a lovely waterfall which was used as The forbidden pool / Gollum’s pool in the Lord of the Rings films, and took suitable touristy pictures crouching down by its edge.

The next day, we made the drive to Wellington, getting ready to bid farewell to the north island and car had been our faithful chariot as rode through it. We didn’t have a lot of time in Wellington, but did manage to visit the excellent Gallapoli exhibition at New Zealand’s national museum Te Papa, and in the evening took ourselves off to the cinema to watch the latest Star Wars movie.

On Monday, we were up bright and early for the crossing to South Island. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy so we didn’t get best view of small islands that we passed by, but the crossing was smooth and uneventful and got us to where needed to be. Once off the ferry, we picked up the hire car, and headed off towards Nelson. There, we had a lovely picnic before climbing up a hill to see the monument for the centre of New Zealand monument, and some stunning views (the sun had come out since we reached Picton). From there we headed around the coast to Kaiteriteri, which is known for its gorgeous beaches, as well as being the gateway to the Abel Tasman national park. Unfortunately on the way we had a little shock: we were driving along when “Pop!” the boot came open. We were sure we had shut it properly… best keep an eye on it.

In the evening at Kaiteriteri, we walked down to the beach, dipped our toes in the beautiful clear water, and thought about rounding the day off with fish and chips on the beach… until we discovered there was an hours’s wait to be served. Instead, we wondered back to the campsite and cooked dinner there, before setting off on an awesome night time adventure.

The information leaflet for the campsite had a “glow worm trail” marked on the map a little way out of the entrance to the campsite, and advised that we take our torches. Having already throurougly enjoyed the guided tour at Waitomo we were keen to see more of these little creatures (more accurately maggots than worms) so after dark we set off to explore it. The path that we found wound down through some woods to a point where a sign advised ” Start of glow worms. Turn off torches and hold on to the rope.” When we did so, we were suddenly surrounded my thousands of twinkling points of light (many more than we had seen in Waitomo) and continued to see ever more and more as we continued down the path, holding on to the rope to guide us as we moved forward through the dark forest. On the way back we were entertained by even more points of light as we stopped to marvel at the amazing clear sky’s and the visible milky way.

The next morning, we set out make the most of Kaiteriteri’s beautiful coastline by renting out a double sea kayak and going paddling along the coast. Along the way we saw beautiful bays, cool rock formations and some Cormorants sitting on the rocks. After a picnic by the beach, we set off in the car towards our destination for the next night: Westport. The journey to get there included driving down through the gorge created by the mighty Buller river, visiting Maruia falls (which were created in literally a matter of seconds in the 1929 earthquake,) walking across New Zealand’s longest swing bridge and making the return journey by tandom zipline! Unfornately it also included another moment of “pop!” – “oh no, the car boot!”

Much of Wednesday morning was taken up with me being on the phone (mostly on hold,) to the rental car people, while John stolidly took the tent down and prepared all our stuff for the onward journey, helped (or distracted) only by a cheeky Weka (NZ ground dwelling bird). I did eventually manage to get trough to someone vaguely competent, and they agreed to replace the car if we could get to their office in Greymouth, which happily is here we were headed anyway. On the way we stopped off to watch some cute seals in their colony, detour down a bumpy gravel road through a beautiful gorge, and visit the amazing Punakaki pancake rock formations. Once we had swapped our car in for one with a working boot, we decided that instead of staying around Greymouth, we would head up towards the mountain pass “Arthur’s Pass” for our fix of cool mountains and scenary – we weren’t disappointed!

The next day started off rather grey. However the scenary was still pretty and the car was full of great company, so in some ways it was actually quite bright. We stopped off in Hokitika to visit the National Kiwi Centre, (which as well as Kiwis also housed many other animals such as giant eels and tuataras,) then went down to the beach where we found loads of people making amazing sculptures out of driftwood. Next we went for a lovely drive through Hokitika gorge and around lake kaniere – by this time it was brightening up so we had picnic lunch in the sunshine next to a sparkling waterfall. In the afternoon we walked around a walkway suspended in the tree canopy in the brightn sunshine, sipped lemonade on the patio of the onsite cafe, and climbed up a hill to look down on the okarito lagoon. We then headed to our destination for the night, this time not a campsite but a hostel – what a treat!

On Friday we had booked a heli-hike on Franz Joseph Glacier followed by a session in thermal pools, so it was a rare day of no driving. We had a lazy morning then went a short stroll around the town, before heading down to the helicopter place. We had commented to each other that the tops of the mountains were looking rather but we hadn’t put two and two together. It was cancelled – too much cloud. We got a full refund and had the option to rebook for the following day, but the forecast for Saturday wasn’t looking too great either… Instead, we decided to make the best of the situation then carry on as planned. We hiked up as close as we could to the glacier on foot, enjoyed the hot pools, and spent some time in the hostel making plans for the rest of our trip.

Saturday was (as predicted) the day of the rain. Although, as we learned from the information boards in the visitor centre in Haast, many days on the west coast of the south island are the day of the rain. It started off moderately bright if a little cloudy, and we were able to see the mirror-like reflections of the mountains in Lake Mathieson, even if their peaks were covered in cloud. From there on in it started getting wetter. It didn’t stop. The day mainly consisted of driving along in the rain, walking along beaches in the rain, walking up to waterfalls in the rain, and filling the car up with condensation every time we got back in!

That was, until we crossed over the to the other side of the mountains. Evidently, the clouds bringing the weather east accross the Tasman Sea were all dumping their loads when they reached the southern Alps, thus inundating the infamous WET coast, but leaving the other side untroubled, and bathed in glorious sunshine. We cruised happily around the shores of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, climbed Mount Iron and took in the stunning views, and finished our day drinking cider on the shore of lake Wanaka as the sun went down.

We got up bright and early on Sunday morning to hike up Roy’s peak which overlooks lake Wanaka, and were rewarded with awe-inspiring view, including many spots further up the mountain that were actually better than the ‘famous’ Instagram spot. John suffered a little on the way back down in the heat, but all in all it was most definitely worth it – Wanaka really is a beautiful place! From Wanaka we headed up over the Cardrona pass to Arrowtown – this was a beautiful twisting mountain road with amazing views and was quite an adventure in itself! In Arrowtown, we walked along by the river and through the historic streets of this former goldmining town, visiting on the way the old settlement where Chinese gold mine workers used to live.

From this point on we had covered most of the distance in terms of driving so could relax a little more. On Monday we headed for lake Hayes with the intention of walking around by its shores, but when we found a shallow landing and a rope swing, this rapidly turned into an amazing morning of messing around in the water! After this, we headed up to Coronet peak ski field (no snow in the summer) where we took the gondola to the top to survey the amazing scenary from this high vantage point. We ended the day in Queenstown, walking around by the lake front and drinking yummy hot chocolate from a choclaterie!

The next day was our second attempt at a helicopter ride after the Franz Josef one didn’t work out, and boy was it second time lucky! After a beautiful drive along the shores of Lake Wakitipu to get to Glenorchy, we set off up in the helicopter along with three other passengers and the pilot, in beautiful sunshine, clear skies, and views from miles around. On the way out, me and John had the front seats and were able to stare down in awe and amazement as the pilot circled down closer and closer to the Mount Earnslaw hanging glacier, so that we were able see every crevice and shadow, the sparkle the sunlight on the snow, the amazing bright blue of the ice, and even a sprinkling of red dust blown accross from the Australian bush fires. The pilot then went and landed on nearby snow capped mountain and all got out walk around and admire the stunning alpine landscape, before getting back in for an awesome return journey. By the time we returned to the airfield all of us passengers were grinning like Cheshire cats and I for one was gibbering like an excited little chipmunk about how amazing it all was! We only really appreciated just how lucky we had been until afterwards though – that afternoon hazy clouds began to roll in, and though the weather remained pleasant over the next few days, the skies were never again clear like they had been for our helicopter ride – we really had got lucky!

After the helicopter ride, we relaxed in the sunshine together, and I can honestly say that John took me to paradise and back! 😉 Honestly… there is an actual place called Paradise near Glenorchy and John drove me all the way there and all the back, (what were you thinking?!) Also, if anybody is wondering: I’ve been to paradise, and there were horses there!

We continued with the adrenaline activity theme on Wednesday, when we went on a guided tour through the infamous Skippers canyon (a mountain road so steep, narrow and winding in places that rental cars aren’t insured on it,) and went on an exhilarating jet boat ride down the canyon itself – it was awesome! We also took the skyline gondola up to the life track in Queenstown, and zipped around the track for a few laps.

Thursday was John’s final day in New Zealand, so we had a chilled morning on the shores of Lake Wakitipu, and a chilled afternoon wondering around Queenstown before heading off to the airport. The trip had finally come to and end, and way too soon, but we had managed to fit a lot into the trip, and had the best time!

So long, my co-pilot! I’m striking out alone once again, but with a tonne of awesome memories to make me smile every day! 🙂

Some of you may have noticed a bit of a break in my blogging recently. Basically, after finishing off my cyclen ride in Kuala Lumpur I decided to have a bit of a break from social media while I let the achievement sink in and enjoyed some down time.

So, to update you, here is a brief summary of what I have been doing since my last post:

In Kuala Lumpur, I followed the self-guided walking trails set up by the tourist office around colonial architecture, through Chinatown, little India, and through the busy streets of the modern town. I learned about Malaysian history in the national museum, saw birdlife in the city avery and perused the exhibits in the Museum of Arabic art. I also collected a bike bag sent to me by possibly the nicest man in South East Asia (more about that in a minute,) and finally braved the journey from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore by bus with my bike in tow, including TWO HOUR queue to get through customs, during which I had to drag around the combined weight of my bike and all my bags – booo! 😦

By the time I got to Singapore, I was unsurprisingly a little tired. Happily for me, the hostel I had found to stay at was AMAZING and staying just for a few days made me feel entirely refreshed and happy. The facilities weren’t anything fancy, but the SK, the guy who runs it treated every guest like an old friend and made the whole place feel more like staying at a friend’s house than in a hostel. Even better, he is a cyclist himself and likes welcome other cyclists to stay his the hostel and help them along on their journeys. Prior to arriving, he had answered my questions via email about transporting my bike, reccomended a bus company that would transport it, and even arranged for his friend who was travelling from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to pick up a soft bike bag that he had and deliver it for me to use! While I was there, he helped me take apart, clean, and box up my bike ready for transporting it to New Zealand. I also shared dinner and drinks with him and some other guests on New Year’s Eve, before going out to watch the fireworks. On New Year’s Day, I started my year with a double park run (7:15am and 9am) – a plan that was made over beers with one of the other guests the previous evening, and an amazing way to start the new year!

After a few days of sight seeing in Singapore, I finally made the journey to New Zealand where I was greeted by my Aunty and Uncle, Carol and Graham, who are very generously letting me use their house as a base while I am journeying through New Zealand. The next few days with them were filled sunshine, walks along the beach and around the shoreline, a trip out around New Zealand’s idylic coastline on their boat, and being able to relax in a way that felt like luxury after being on the go for so long. I was also able reunite briefly with Fiona, who I met way back at the start of my trip on the journey from Poland to Russia, and has been travelling around New Zealand for the last month or so. I also took my faithful steed Shirley in for some TLC at the local bike shop.

Since Monday, I have been joined from England by my partner in crime, John, and on Thursday we set off on a joint kiwi adventure! Stories from the road to follow… 🙂

Yes! I made it! My cycling journey in SE Asia is complete! I am writing this from Kuala Lumpur, my final destination for cycling. Here is a quick summary of my final few days on and off the bike:

Firstly, the hills weren’t actually that bad. The biggest one, going up to the Cameron Highlands was very long, (about 30miles of up) but it never got very steep so it wasn’t actually that difficult. Additionally, going down the other side of it (on Christmas Day,) was a lot of fun and had some great views! The other hills were small by comparison and were also fine.

Secondly, after writing previously about how lucky I was to have seen Monkeys in the national park in Thailand, around this part of Malaysia they are literally everywhere! Cycling along I would often hear or see tree branches moving in the trees at the side of the road, and look up to see monkeys jumping between them! The power cables that run alongside the road in many places also seemed to serve as ‘Monkey highways’ that they would run along to and fro. I saw Monkeys of all shapes and sizes – from big ones with furry mane-like hair which I took to be the big males, to tiny little babies clinging on to their mother’s belly as she leaped and scampered around. They often seemed quite interested in me, and would often stop mid-run and peer down, but would immediately scarper as soon as I began slowing my bike down to stop, and before I could get anywhere near my camera!

Thirdly, this parts of Malaysia really is beautiful! In general, Malaysia is more developed than the other countries that I have ridden through so it would be easy to not really get an impression of the countryside if you just stuck to the highways. However as usual I chose to go the more interesting way rather than the quickest way, and boy was I rewarded for it! Instead of slogging along beside lanes of traffic, I spent my time cycling along quiet country roads through lushious countryside, sweeping hills and through forests echoing with the sounds of wildlife.

This beauty of Malaysia really is exemplified by countryside around the Cameron Highlands, where I took two rest days to explore. It consists of hills, beautiful man made terraced tea plantations, and best of all amazing natural forest!

The town itself is a little odd. It was first indentified as a possible sight for a hill settlement by a British colonial surveyor, William Cameron (who gave it his name) in 1885, but old William forgot to mark it’s location on his map, and they didn’t manage to find it again, and actually start building until the 1920’s! Nowadays, it’s a popular destination for Malaysians from nearby towns and cities as well as foreign tourists, and is being rapidly developed to meet the demand, resulting in lots of hastily put up and not too attractive concrete blocks and regular traffic jams on the narrow mountain roads (which I very much enjoyed smugly riding past on my bike!) The odd thing about it is that it’s colonial past is very much still a part of its character and indeed it’s draw for tourists – so tourists from all over Malaysia visit to pick their own strawberries on the strawberry farms, sit in cafés and enjoy cream teas with scones and strawberry jam, maybe play golf on the golf course, and if they are willing to pay three times as much as anywhere else, they can visit the old smokehouse hotel and restaurant, which is located in a Tudor style building and serves only traditional British food such as oxtail stew and dumplings, steak and kidney pie, and bubble and squeak! It’s rather bizarre!

Myself, I didn’t spend much time in the town apart from in the hostel and in the excellent and cheap Indian restaurant that I found. Instead, I spent my days exploring the hiking trails which spider out in all directions around the town.

Trails 10 & 4, which I explored on the morning of the first day were relatively easy trails quite close to the town, but were pleasant to walk along and 10 in particular had amazing views when you reached the peak Gunung Jasar (Jasar Hill). The sun was shining, which always helps, but due to the higher altitude the temperatures were a little cooler, which was very pleasant for walking. I made it back to town just as the clouds began to roll in looking like rain, and went off to munch on a delicious thali meal whilst I considered my options for the afternoon.

The thing was… it was probably going to rain, but whilst I had enjoyed the morning’s walks, I didn’t feel that I had done any serious hiking nor did I think I had really seen the best that the Cameron Highlands had to offer… and I only had one further day after this one before I had to get on my bike again and set off. I could just cut my losses and spend the afternoon reading or watching Netflix, but that didn’t strike me as very interesting. “Besides,” I thought, “I’m English, and I have a coat – I’m not going to melt!”

I’m SO glad that I decided to go out again! The trail that I decided to follow went mostly through forest, so being under the canopy I didn’t get that wet, and the forest in the rain was so completely amazing – it was just like nothing I had ever seen before! I literally felt like I had walked onto the set of a fantasy movie in the enchanted forest of the elves, only 100times better, because it was all real. It really was insane. Everything was too beautiful, the colours were too vivid, the forest just felt more alive than I ever could have imagined. The rainwater made all of the colours stand out, like when you put varnish on top of paint, and with the sunlight still trickling in through the trees, it also made everything sparkle. Moreover, the continued sunshine through the rain and the high levels of humidity that were around even before the rain led to the rainwater evaporating literally in front of your eyes in clouds of mist hung that around the forest and caught the slatted beams of sunlight beautifully. If you have ever been to one of those Christmas light shows where they illuminate the trees and the gardens for you to walk through, you will have an idea of the effect I am getting at, only this was just infinitely more marvellous because of the endless complexity and unlimited wonder – every way you turned there was something new to look at, and even just looking in one direction your gaze would be drawn deeper, and deeper, and deeper into the undergrowth, at every moment falling on something ever more beautiful and amazing. It wasn’t just the sights either – it was a feast for every one of the senses. The sound of the rain on the leaves came from every direction, along with the loud and varied calls of numerous birds, occasional crashes of branches as birds or monkeys leaped or landed into the water-laden canopy, trickling of water in some places as it ran through crevices in the rocks and the undergrowth, as well as the sound of my own breath and footsteps. On top of this the scents of the numerous tropical plants and trees and the musty scent of the damp undergrowth rose with the mist, and I could feel warm damp air and splashes drops of cool rain, as well the prickling of sweat on my skin as I worked my way through the forest.

By the time I got back I was pretty wet (even under the canopy if you stay out in it long enough you get wet,) but very glad that I had gone out. On the way back I bought a lovely warm cheese filled naan from the Indian restaurant which was made in front of me as a I waited in a traditional fire oven, went back to the hostel, stripped off my wet clothes, and settled down with a cup of tea.

The following day I went out to explore trails 6, 3, 2, which lead through forest adjoining the area that I had been in the previous day. I have to say that even without the rain the forest was exceptionally beautiful, but compared to the previous day when it had felt so incredibly alive – as if it were singing joyously and harmoniously at the top of its voice – now it seemed more subdued and restful – as though if it were happily dozing and waking, occasionally murmering something sweet before it nodded off again. The trails themselves were lots of fun – trail 2 in particular involved lots of steep up and down, clambering up on tree routes and balancing over streams, and I was pretty glad that I hadn’t been on that one when it was all slippery the previous day!

Now, After two more days of cycling, I have now reached Kuala Lumpur and have finally completed this part of my journey! In total, I have covered around 2800miles on my bike! Not bad I reckon!

Of course, this isn’t the end of my travels yet. The next stage is New Zealand and all the adventures that will entail. But first, I’m off to explore Kuala Lumpur, followed by New Year’s in Singapore! 🙂

Merry Christmas Everybody!! I’m setting off cycling again today after two rest days.

Here is a little Christmas song that I made up (to the tune of Jingle Bells):

…

Dashing down the hills, on a sturdy Surly bike,

Wave goodbye to The Cameron Highlands where I had a lovely hike!

Kuala Lumpur bound, just one sleep along the way,

Oh what fun to ride and sing a cycling song today!

…

Oh! Ring the bell! Ring the bell! Ring it all the way!

Oh what fun it is to ride on a bicycle today!

Hey! Ring the bell! Ring the bell! Ring it all the way!

Merry, merry Christmas and a happy holiday!

😀 🚲 🎄 🎉 💟

Georgetown, the capital of Penang Island, is known primarily for 3 things: multiculturalism, food, and street art. I’ve only been here for two and a bit days but I feel that I have managed to experience all three. It’s been a very enjoyable place to regroup and rest.

In particular, I’ve really enjoyed wondering around spotting exhibits from the “Marking George Town” sculpture project. This simple but effective idea consists of steel rod characatures dotted around the streets in significant locations around the historic streets, depicting a (usually humourous) scene connected to the history or culture of that street or district, with a short explanation next to it. For example one read: “A cannon shot fired during the 1867 Penang Riots made a large hole in this area, hence the name “Cannon street.” Another read: “Much of the traffic of pilgrims to and from the Muslim holy land for the Haj went through Acheen Street, where tickets for the trip were sold.” Another one read: “This is the place where the famous shoe designer Jimmy Choo started his apprenticeship.”

There are 52 scluptures all together – I don’t think I saw them all, but I saw lots. In any case walking around trying to spot them (armed with a map with their locations marked) is a really fun way to see the town, and you also get to learn lots of little interesting nuggets of information at the same time! There are also lots of other bits of cool street art dotted around, as well as quirky streets and interesting buildings. I definitely had fun exploring, and ate lots of nice food along the way!

Tomorrow, I am setting out on what will be the final section of my cycling journey, including another two rest days when I get to the mountains. I now only have 5 days of cycling left, and 7 total days (including rest days) until I arrive in Kuala Lumpar, my final destination for cycling. From there I will take the bus to Singapore and the plane to New Zealand. Not long left in Asia now at all!

My final few days of cycling do include a fair bit more climbing than my recent pancake-like costal cycling. It’s what you get for trying to visit pretty mountain scenary, but in any case I’m going to be rounding my trip off with a bang in terms of effortful cycling! Luckily I have taken the opportunity these last two rest days to stock up on lots of snacks to take with me to fuel me up the hills! Wish me luck!

Since leaving Khao Sok National park, I have basically headed for the West towards the Andaman coast, and then followed it down south. The Andaman coast is known for its lovely beaches, and is also west facing, meaning lots of opportunities for cool sunsets.

The first location that I would have got to on the coast, had I gone exactly straight on from Khao Sok would have been Phang-Nga, but I had read that the town itself of Phang-Nga, (unlike it’s associated beaches, which were further away,) isn’t actually that great… AND I had read about some pretty cool sounding natural attractions in the nearby slightly more inland national park of Thanbok Khorani, so I made a detour to go there instead.

Thanbok Khorani is a lesser visited attraction in this part of Thailand, although it is in the guidebooks, but efforts are being made to develop it into a hub for Community Based Tourism (CBT.) This model basically involves designing tourism around the existing community and using it to generate jobs for local people, for example as cooks, growers of produce for guest’s meals, drivers, and tour guides. Through working in the tourist industry the local people can also gain skills and qualifications, and much of the money generated goes back into the community. This is in contrast to the typical model of tourism where large companies from big cities move into rural areas to run tours, employ people from the city who are more qualified than the local people, and funnel the money back into their companies and the cities, without any benefit for the people were actually born and live in the places that the tourists are visiting.

I was told in detail about this great initiative, by Dende, the lovely owner of the homestay that I stayed in and one of the driving forces behind CBT in the area, in-between listening to and singing along with songs that he was playing on his guitar as we relaxed and socialised in the evening along with some of the other homestay guests. Songs included “don’t worry, be happy” – Bobby McFerrin, “One Love” – Bob Marley, and ” have you ever seen the rain?” – Credence Clearwater Revival, as well as some popular Thai songs. He also passed around a few little marracas, and people beat out rhythms like drums on their chairs and on the tables, so everyone there was involved in the music. It was a magical evening. The following morning I went and joined in on one of the CBT tours that he had been telling us about – a kayaking trip around the caves and Lagoons of the Thanbok Khorani national park – it was fantastic!

When I finally did reach the actual coast, it was at AO Nang beach, a popular tourist beach belonging to Krabi town. The buildings along the promenade were the typical tourist town disaster of tacky bars, restaurants, and ugly hotels, (there was even a car driving up and down the road by the beachfront with a recorded message in English loudly blaring out through a loudspeaker, extolling the virtues of one particular bar which, it boasted, had “drinks offers, beer pong, and even fuseball!” – ugh! ) However, the sunset that I watched from the beachfront was pretty spectacular, so that almost made up for it. I then snuggled down for the night in my hostel instead of hanging around disaster town, and went out to explore the beach some more just before dawn began to break. Amazingly, the whole place seemed a lot nicer without all the noise and people!

The next beach along that I arrived at was Pak Meng beach. This beach is only about a two hour drive further along from Ao Nang if you have a car but is largely undiscovered, (or at least not ruined,) by western tourists. It is apparently quite a popular location for Thai people to go on holiday. In my opinion, it was much nicer. After eating some delicious spicy rice from a seafront cafe I wondered up and down the beach happily looking at the amazing views and watching the little groups of children and families dotted around enjoying the sand. Gradually, the sun sunk into another amazing sunset. The area just behind the beach was grassy and quite quiet so I had decided to sleep out in the open (I had carried the gear for doing so with me on my bike so I figured I probably should make the most of it when the opportunity presented.) I settled down for the night in my bivvy listening to the noise of the sea and of the insects chirruping around me, and was rewarded the next morning with an amazing view to wake up to!

From Pak Meng, it was only a further two days until I reached the Malaysian border. While I was still roughly following the coastline, the actual road, though more or less parallel, was a little way in land, so I didn’t see any more beaches. Some notable things I did spot, however, where the many mosques along the road. Southern Thailand has a large Muslim population (possibly due to the influence of neighbouring officially Islam Malaysia,) and this influences both it’s cuisine and it’s architecture. Though I did spot the occasional temple, it was nothing like the quantity in the North of Thailand. In these parts, mosques are clearly in vogue.

The border crossing into Malaysia was the easiest one yet. It turns out that Brits don’t need a visa to enter Malaysia, so the border guard simply stamped my passport and I was through! No filling in forms, no standing in queues, no photos…nothing! It was great! Another surprising but convenient fact is that they use British plugs here,so no need for adapters. I’m assuming this is all linked to our previous colonial associations with Malaysia. In any case, I’m not complaining.

Having crossed the border, I carried on hugging the coastline – pedaling along by the seaside and through countyside on quite backroads, rather than following the main trunk roads which are further inland. It was amazing! I had missed out on watching the sunset from the seaside town I stopped in the day I arrived in Malaysia as I was feeling too tired and lazy to leave my hotel room, but the views along the road the following morning more than made up for it! To my right as I rode along was the sea, (which in the morning, was pretty far out from the shore,) and to my left were bright green waterlogged fields which I’m presuming were paddy fields (although the paddy harvest has already taken place in the other countries that I’ve been through, but I guess the seasons down here are different.) With so much water and nutrients around in the muddy sea flats on the one side and the fields on the other side, life was everywhere! Swarms of pretty, twinkling dragonflies flitted about, and there were SO many birds, of all shapes and sizes – taking off, landing, diving, and constantly chattering to each other. It wasn’t even like a “dawn chorus” thing as it carried on late into the morning for as long as I was along that road, there were just LOTS of birds!

Another thing that I spotted whilst pedaling along by the seaside were PEOPLE out in the mudflats. And when I say in, I mean in. They were dotted around all along the shore, thigh deep in the thick, oozing, squelchy mud. They were pulling behind them little carts which ran along the surface of the mudflats, presumably collecting shellfish or something. There were both men and women doing it and it did cross my mind that whilst in Muslim countries women are expected to dress modestly, sometimes there’s just not much you can do about it – everybody looks pretty much the same when they are covered in mud!

Eventually I did have to turn away from the quiet country roads and head for the highways in order to reach the place where I am writing this from: Georgetown, Penang Island. I am, however, still firmly “by the seaside” – you can’t really be much more by the seaside than on a small island! Now that I am here, I have a couple of days off to rest and to look around. Then, I am finally heading inland. To the mountains!

Whilst staying in Chiang Mai, I booked a 2day/1night excursion to Elephant Nature Park, an elephant sanctuary that had been reccomended to me when talking to people back in the UK. It was amazing! As well as learning loads about elephants and observing and learning about their natural behaviour, we got to take part in the feeding of the elephants, watch them bathing and playing in the river, walk around the park with the guide to visit and watch the different groups of elephants or ‘herds’ and even prepare and hand deliver special food for the oldest elephants, who have difficulty eating and need special care. We were also told about many of the backstories of the individual elephants, which were invariably very sad, but enlightening all the same. Elephants are thought to be as intelligent as dolphins, and under natural circumstances lead complex emotional lives with complex social connections. This is one of the reasons why it is now considered unethical for them to be used for days, weeks and months on end to give monotonous rides to tourists, and unfortunately also magnifies the suffering they experience when mistreated, as the mental scars are often much harder to heal than the physical ones. I met elephants who had dislocated hips or backs from being forced to pull heavy logs in the illegal logging trade, elephants who had scars and injuries from being used in forced breeding programs (which can lead to the bull elephants attacking the females,) elephants who had been blinded by years of being forced to perform under the harsh and damaging circus spotlights, and elephants with injuries to their feet and legs from stepping on landmines during farm work. In contrast to this, there was one adorable elephant named Faa mai who was the first to be born in the park and raised without mistreatment, and whose cheeky antics really shine a light on how downtrodden and unnatural the behaviour of some of the others is, as a result of their long term mental damage.

The philosphy of Elephant Nature Park is to give love and care to all of the elephants, and to give them the chance to live as naturally as possible. Among the many Elephant sanctuaries that are springing up around Thailand as more tourists become aware that riding elephants is unethical, Elephant Nature Park is leading the way, and both the park and it’s founder Lek have received international recognition for innovative practices in elephant care and conservation. In addition to elephants, they also take in dogs, cats, buffalo and horses (I’ve got a feeling they would find a way to care for pretty much any animal if it was in need,) lead reforestation and conservation programs in the local area, and work with local people to educate them about elephant care and help them run their own operations in a more ethical way. I felt honoured to be part of such of such a special place even for just a couple of days, and really enjoyed staying there amongst the animals.

Having left from Chinag Mai, and after two days spent on trains, (with a brief stop off in Bangkok on the way,) I arrived in Surat Thani, and decided to use my free day there to go and visit the monkey training college “First Monkey School.” I had been very curious when I first read about it and wanted to go and see for myself, and learn more. It turns out that coconut growing is a major industry in Southern Thailand, and most of the plantation owners use monkeys as working animals to climb up the tall trees and harvest the coconuts (I had no idea!) The thing is though, monkeys don’t naturally just climb trees and pass the coconuts down to humans, so they need training, and hence you need a monkey school. Farmers pay the equivalent of around £700 and the training lasts around 3-6 months depending on the monkey. However once trained, a monkey can harvest around 1000 coconuts per day, compared to around 100 per day for a fit and experienced person! The innovative thing about “First Monkey School” in Surat Thani compared to other monkey schools is that instead of the traditional ‘stick and carrot’ method of reward and punishment, it’s founder advocated an approach based on Buddhist teachings that involves spending time to understand the behaviour of monkeys and adapt it gradually through regular lessons, without the need for punishment. It is both more humane, and apparently more effective in the long term. In any case, my visit to the college was an entertaining and enjoyable experience, especially since it also involved lots of tasting of coconut and coconut ice-cream!

Carrying on the monkey theme, my next stop along the road was Kao Sok National Park, which is home to… (you guessed it!) … monkeys (or more precisely ‘spectacled langurs.’) I took a day off from cycling to go hiking in the national park, and was lucky enough to see some jumping around in the trees – I was so excited! In the same trip, I also saw a monitor lizard foraging around in the undergrowth, and heard some pretty amazing noises that were being produced by insects the trees! As was riding away from Kao Sok the following morning, all I could think of was how lucky I was to have seen these amazing creatures in the wild, on top of having visited the domesticated elephants and monkeys previously. I was just thinking this to myself when, all of sudden, what should I see coming along the road towards me, but an Elephant! I could hardly believe my eyes! He was just walking nonchalantly down the road, being herded along from behind by a guy on a motorbike!

To top it all off, today (Wednesday) I went kayaking this morning through another national park (Thanbok Khorani national park) and saw MORE monkeys (long tailed macaques) and ANOTHER monitor lizard! I’m certainly getting my fair share of exotic animals these last few weeks, and thoroughly enjoying it!