Travel Photos - Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree Climb, Western Australia

We had a busy morning before our drive thru the Blackwood Valley. A daunting prospect first thing was a scale up the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree near Pemberton(http://www.pembertontourist.com.au/). The tree has been pegged with steel spikes in the side and you just start at the bottom and walk up - sounds easy except this tree is 75m (that's 230 feet) high and you're not roped in or clipped in or anything! There is a half way station which is good but this also gives you a chance to chicken out as its here that the tree starts to sway in high winds!



Photo above is actually 2 photos stitched together as I couldn't get the tree in one shot, its that tall. Squally showers and a sign advising us not to climb in the wet put us off our first attempt which saw us reach the first platform, roughly half way up.





Photo above is from the half way station looking down.





After this “practice run” and a break in the rain we did the job properly and made the top of the 75m tree to see mist rising over the top of the forest. Its 135 steel pegs to the top of the fire lookout tree in Warren NP and its quite tiring and you do use muscles that you don't normally use (unless you're a fire lookout in Warren NP that is). A great sense of achievement hits you when you reach the top. But there's only one way down!






Lookout trees were used as an ingenious way to spot bushfires in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The Karri tree is the tallest tree in Australia and the 3rd tallest in the world. The views are amazing, even on a damp day, the photo below shows the mists rising above the forests as viewed from the 'summit' of the tree lookout.

You can still climb the trees as they are open to the public, the ones we know of are:

The Gloucester Tree in the Gloucester National Park is only 3kms from the Post Office in Pemberton. This is 60m high. Great views.

The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree in the Warren National Park is a 15mins drive from the Pemberton township. It is 75m tall. Awesome.

The Diamond Tree in the Diamond Tree National Park is also a 15 minute drive from town.

You can get all the info you want by calling into the Pemberton Tourist Centre (http://www.pembertontourist.com.au/) for any information on these climbing Trees. They are open 7 days a week from 9am to 5pm.

Travel Photos - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

After breakfast, we popped down to see the falls – we couldn’t believe that we’d been in Victoria Falls for 3 days and hadn’t seen them yet. The falls have been hyped up since 1855 when Dr Livingstone first set eyes on them. As we got nearer the gentle rumble reminded us that this is one of the finest natural spectacles on earth. It’s a World Heritage Site and one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World – it’s the largest curtain of falling water on the planet! We weren’t disappointed – the spray covers you from head to toe – it’s actually really refreshing. The noise is amazing, the volume of water and the shear power is incredible – 9 million litres of water per second come over the falls in its height - it’s just such a fantastic site, just awesome!

The falls are located on the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is the name in use in Zimbabwe. The older, indigenous name of Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders) is the name in official use in Zambia. The World Heritage List recognises both names. While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is claimed to be the largest. This claim is based on a width of 1,708 metres (5,600 ft) and height of 108 meters (360 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. The falls' maximum flow rate compares well with that of other major waterfalls.

After a heavy night on a river cruise, aka booze cruise, we had fortunately not planned anything too demanding the next day. Helen and I went down to the border crossing and paid our $10 to go over to Zambia and see the falls from the Zambian side – they are supposed to be better from this side. They were, although with hangovers we didn’t completely appreciate them apart from the spray that we got – that really refreshed us temporarily. So we had seen the falls now from both the “Zim” and “Zam” sides.





The Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the Zambezi River just below the Victoria Falls and is built over the Second Gorge of the falls. As the river is the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the bridge links the two countries and has border posts on the approaches to both ends, at the towns of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Livingstone, Zambia.

That afternoon we took the Flight of Angels! This is a helicopter ride over the falls – the falls were called the “Smoke that Thunders” long before Dr Livingstone came around the corner. You can see why when you’re up in the air – you can see the mist or spray of the falls from over 30km away. It was our first time in a Helicopter, it was just amazing. The flight was incredible, you got to realise exactly were we’d walked in the morning and it made us realise the enormity of the falls. It’s just like a huge gash in the land that water just seems to be falling into at a huge rate – absolutely stunning.

After our flight over the falls the helicopter swooped down and flew down the mighty Zambezi over all the rapids that we’d rafted down a few days before – the rapids didn’t look as bad 50 feet off the river. It wasn’t until we saw a raft in the river that it made you realise what we had done – this put some perspective on the river and made us appreciate how huge some of the rapids were.

If you're going to Zimbabwe, you've got to do Victoria Falls (aswell as Antelope Park) and if you're coming all the way to Vic Falls, you've got to see them by Helicopter, a real must!

Travel Photos - Lion Walk, Antelope Park, Zimbabwe

During our travels in Africa, we visited Antelope Park (http://www.antelopepark.co.zw/) in Zimbabwe. Located just outside Gweru, the 3rd largest town in Zimbabwe, Antelope Park is a must see if you're coming to Zimbabwe. They say that you've got to see Victoria Falls when coming to Zimbabwe but hot on the trail of that is Antelope Park - you could spend weeks here quite easily, there is so much to do and see here - be sure to bring your cameras, its amazing. In fact, you could say that Antelope Park is what got Helen and I out travelling round the world.

Helen was thinking about leaving her job and her plan was, in between jobs, she would do some volunteer work. She'd done quite a bit of research in to this and was seriosuly considering it and had come across Antelope Park in her research. You could spend several weeks here, helping them research the lions and helping out on the rehabilitation projects they have going on here. Antelope Park is about all sorts of animals but it was the lions that Helen was particularly interested in.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was going to join her on 2 weeks holiday whilst she was out here when it suddenly dawned on us that we could both do something like that, then it got expanded to "lets travel to Africa for 2 months", then, well, "we could just go over to Nepal aswell whilst we were doing Africa" and before you know it, the plan was to go off travelling round the world. And we owe it all to Antelope Park!

Anyway, whilst at Antelope Park, one of the must do's is the walk with the lion "cubs" - this conjours up all sorts of images of fluffy little bundles of joy. We started off just walking out into the plains with a couple of guides. They explained that as part of the rehabilitation programme, they like to walk with the cubs to get them used to going out in their pride, we would be part of their pride today. We got so far and then saw our cubs, 3 of them, come running towards us. They looked like fully grown lions! All sorts of nightmares went through your mind at this point - had they let out the wrong lions? were these just 3 wild lions? were we breakfast for these 3 lions? etc etc. This was very scary as they came running at us. The guides were great, told us not to panic and we all calmed down. Besides we’d been given a stick each to pat the lion on the nose when they give us a “naughty look”. “When will we know what one of those is?” we asked, “oh, you’ll know” they said.

Their names were Phyre, Praise and Paka. They were about 18months old, stood about 1 metre high and nose to tail tip about 2.5 metres long. They were gorgeous.

The lions came amongst us and were just roaming free, just left to their own devices. At once point a lion lay down and we could crouch down (but not sit so you could get away quickly) next to it, that was amazing!

You were always on your guard, these were wild lions that were being rehabilitated to be let out into the wild, they weren't pets. At one point when we crouching by one of the lions it moved one of its paws a little quickly, we were up on our feet as quick as a flash. Their pads are enormous and they have claws!

Another lion got up a tree, almost on cue for a photo call and just lay in the tree with its front legs just resting over the branch of the tree – a perfect photo opportunity. It took the guides about 10 inutes to get her out of the tree. Volunteers were recording the behaviour of these 3 lions, whilst out on the walk all the time, what they ate, did, etc ready for their release.

Then towards the end, so that to leave us in no doubt whatsoever, they started to have a little fight over a sod of grass. The roars were real and very loud. They were so quick with their legs to hit each other on the nose – we had been sat next to these just 10 minutes before and that could easily be our forearm they were lashing out at. It was truly an amazing experience, wild lions just walking around the group, fantastic!

Travel Photos - White Water Rafting, Zambezi, Zimbabwe

One of our days in Vic Falls we went off in the morning for our White Water Rafting adventure. We had a large agricultural truck that we all had to clamber in and sit on the make shift seats that someone had put in the back of this truck – this was our transfer to the mighty Zambezi River. Helen was pretty calm I have to say, unusually so actually – she hates being dunked under water and yet here she was going white water rafting – I thought that she must know what she’s doing. They showed us a video of what may happen when we get thrown out of the raft. This detailed being sucked under by eddies, raft flipping over on top of us and the technique of getting back in the raft which involves someone dunking you under so that the life vest will pop you back up and give you enough momentum to pull us back in the raft. I turned to Helen thinking, excellent adventure, to see her crying – and she hadn’t even reached the river yet! She hadn’t thought that she may be thrown from the raft, let alone sucked under by eddie currents! I managed to calm her down a little but she was a little anxious to say the least.





We got to the river, or should I say the cliff above the river. The river looked quit calm and peaceful from up here. We had to walk, in our flip flops, down a wooden ladder built out of tree branches, to the river, 300 metres below where we were standing. A bit hectic. We reached the Zambezi river to meet our raft guides. We proceeded to have a practice of jumping out of the raft and getting back in, all in calm water, not much of a realistic practice I thought.


We setoff – some of the rapids are scary enough to have names – Washing Machine, Terminator 1 and 2, Double Trouble, Oblivion etc. Others were just numbers like Rapid # 14. The first “rapid” we came to wasn’t even named and wasn’t really a rapid, just a ripple in the water but it flipped about 5 of us out nevertheless including Helen and I. We got Helen back in but she looked petrified. I asked her whether she wanted to go in the safety raft (which still had to shoot the rapids) and she later said that she just wanted to be with me as she knew I would look after her. It turns out that this was probably the best thing for her.





We went down all the rapids, some of the better rapids I've uploaded videos of - Rapid 11 (no name) is above.






Above here is Rapid 13, named "The Mother". It was an odd thing, the rapids that looked really bad from a distance, we just floated over and the rapids that looked like we'd just float over gave us a really hard time, or threw us out of the raft or just simply flipped us, very weird.








Rapid 16B (above) flipped the raft completely so that Helen and I were just flipped 6 foot in the air over the top of the raft and plonked in the water which was just sucking you under and throwing you further down the river – all pretty amazing and adrenalin pumping stuff – I loved it. Helen was getting used to it but couldn’t really say that she was liking any of it really. The other boat in our group wanting to emulate our flip but couldn't, so they just dived into the Zambezi - Mad!







Rapid 18 - Oblivion (video above, photo below) was an interesting one.





We got down it having gone over 2 grade 5 rapids, these are the largest grade rapid that you can go over in a commercial trip, it was amazing. You could tell when there was a good rapid coming up, you could hear it before you could see it, that just added to the moment. One of the rapids, The Washing Machine I think, just kept the boat stationery but still it was riding the waves, just like a bucking broncho, it seemed like ages we were in it but we eventually got out and continued on our way.





Some of the highlights are shown in the video above.





Later on down the river, they let us just jump in the river and float down the rapids, they were only grade 2’s, this was quite exhilarating – Helen stayed in the boat and was worried for me but it was all fine. One of our guides in the kayak went for a surf - see video above.

It was such a fantastic adventure, I’d definitely do it all over again but don’t think I can say the same for Helen but I was still so proud of her for completing it. What a day!

Travel Photos - Skydive Swakopmund, Namibia

Our Oasis leader had taken bookings some days before for Skydiving here in Swakopmund and to many people’s surprise, 23 out of 25 of us on the overland truck were signed up, even Vera and Malcolm! I wasn’t nervous, I knew I would be just before jumping out, but not now, I was really looking forward to it. It was one of my things to do on our travels anyway, I hadn’t imagined doing it in Namibia but heh, what the hell! Helen was also doing it which was great.

We got to the club to find a well organised skydive club. We were with Ground Rush Adventures in Swakopmund (http://www.skydiveswakop.com.na/) At the club we were told that they were short of instructors so we could only do it 2 at a time, so there may be a bit of a wait for some of us. This may or may not have suited us. Fortunately the sky dive club had a bar, so a couple, not many, of beers did the trick. The first few guys went up and 15 minutes later came back on such a high it was amazing just to watch. We all ran out onto the runway to see the first few come back, they were all grinning from ear to ear. A party atmosphere soon developed, with people either drinking excessively after their jump or slowly before the jump. We seemed to be quite a long way down the list; once Vera and Neil came back all smiles, this relaxed Helen. She saw how they had such a great time and weren’t at all scared that she seemed to lose some of her fear.

It was soon our turn and as we donned jumpsuits and met our instructors/tandem masters (I had Henrie and Helen had Eddie with Mathias jumping to video us) I began to get really excited. I’d wanted to skydive ever since seeing the film Pointbreak with Keanu Reeves. I wanted to feel the exhilaration of free fall, having your arms and legs out in a star shape just hurtling towards the earth at over 100mph! And the idea of "jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane" also appealed. They gave us some simple instructions which I have to say I probably wasn’t concentrating on – apparently there were 3 things before you jumped, head back, arms crossed until we clear of the plane and something else which escaped me. Helen seemed quiet but just that, not nervous at all, just quiet; although you never can tell. We crossed the runway in our tight jumpsuits, which just added to the whole experience – they were bright orange! We boarded our plane to discover that the pilot looked like a beach bum with flip flops, the plane was stuck together with sticky tape on the windows and the plane itself was just a Cessna with the back seats taken out! This wasn’t the time to start thinking about health and safety stuff like that, I had to concentrate on enjoying the adrenaline pumping round my body.



We got on the plane, all bundled together and in the right sequence so that we could jump together, bearing in mind that we had to strap two lots of people together during the flight. As we took off, the plane was really small and it reminded me of our flight to Zanzibar, although we weren’t about to “jump out of a perfectly good airplane” on that trip. I started to talk to Henrie, just to take my mind off what we were about to do. Henrie chatted back but Eddie (Helen’s tandem guy) was very quiet but that suited Helen, she just wanted to be in control of her own thoughts. The plane climbed and climbed and Henrie’s altimeter click over until we just approaching 10,000 feet. 2 minutes to go. Henrie and Eddie strapped us in so that they were behind us. Henrie gave a few last words of advice, this could have been anything really, I just wasn’t listening. I heard the bit about edging to the edge of the door and I would be dangling outside whilst he sat just inside the door. God! What am I doing? Am I completely insane? Helen looked really worried, but I tried to smile to her to comfort her but I think the look on my face, which wasn’t a smile apparently, just made her feel worse.




Then Mathias edged towards the door and opened it up like a roller door on a stationery cupboard. The noise was amazing s the wind whistled around the aircraft. He then stepped out onto the wing strut – this slightly panicked me but then no time to think about that as Henrie gestured for us to edge towards the door – what the hell was I doing? – a quick question to check that Henrie had actually strapped us together and before I knew I was dangling out of the plane whilst Henrie sat on the edge pointing to first Helen and the Mathias, he pulled my head back and then we were off! The initial sinking feeling you get as you launch yourself off anything (cliffs, planes, ropes, rollercoasters) lasted about 2 seconds and then, Oh my God, we were free falling! We did seem to be doing rather a lot of tumbling. This lasted for about 20 seconds or so.




Eventually Henrie sorted us out and we were actually free falling in the star position. I could see the whole skeleton coast, we were miles up, literally but there was no feeling of height at all. It was an amazing feeling, I was loving it. After about what seemed like only 2-3 seconds of free falling in the star position, Henrie gave the up signal to signify that the chute was going to be pulled and then we were floating down. Henrie gave me a go on the rip cords to control the shoot left and right and the speed of descent. This was also amazing. Before I knew it the ground started to approach us very quickly, we landed as smooth as anything. What a fabulous feeling, what a high. I instantly turned round to Henrie to hug him, right at that moment I loved him, I loved everyone, what an amazing experience. Fi came running up and hugged me, it was such a feeling of elation. Helen was soon down on the ground aswell, also on a high. We hugged each other. Helen was glad to be down on the ground, I would happily do it again right now!



In the Skydive club, we sank a couple of beers quite quickly whilst they prepared the video they’d just shot of us. 10 minutes and 2 beers later, they were showing our skydive. As I came out of the plane, I just tumbled for about 20 seconds, everyone just turned and looked at me, oh my God they were all saying. It hadn’t felt that bad up there but it looked really bad. Henrie came back from another jump and laughed and also said he wouldn’t go with me again! It turned out that the 3 simple things they’d told us about, well I’d only done 2 of them! I’d forgotten to put my legs under the fuselage which creates the dish shape necessary for hitting the freefall position as soon as we leave the aircraft! Ooops! I felt cheated that I hadn’t had my 30 seconds of freefall like others had, after all that’s what I wanted to do it for. We’d had a good time anyway and the evening continued with a very boozy affair and a traditional brai (barbecue with plenty of meat) which we all thoroughly enjoyed and can’t remember much about after midnight. What a brilliant day it had been.



Needless to say, I went back the next day and did it all again and properly this time. My tandem master was Eddie the second time, Henrie was apparently "busy" that day!

Travel Photos - Zorbing, Rotorua, New Zealand

From Hobbiton (aka Matamata) we cruised east towards Rotorua and stopped for a quick burst of zorbing. Relatively new and all the rage – the Zorb looked a bit dull to me after all the adrenalin pumping activities we’ve experienced but I was wrong. It was brilliant fun and we laughed and laughed all the wet, slidy way down –twice!


The guys at Zorb Rotorua (http://www.zorb.com/zorb/rotorua/) were very friendly and hospitable. You have your choice of the wiggly route down or straight down the hill, we tried both but straight down is more fun and faster! There's really nothing like it - its just one of those things you have to try before you die. And so simple.....



.....get in this big ball.....





.....at the top of the hill.....







.....we'll just put some water in there with you!....







.....when we tell you, stand up and walk forward.....





.....enjoy the ride down.....






.....drop out the other end.....





.....victory jump with mad Kiwi.....

Great fun - do it!

Travel Photos - Walking in the Drakensberg, South Africa

We had been touring the garden route in South Africa and on our way to Johannesburg, we called in at the Drakensberg mountains for a few days. We based ourselves at a rather plush lodge, Inkosana Lodge (http://www.inkosana.co.za/). Although it calls itself a backpackers, its a rather up market backpackers and you really need your own transport to get to it and to get around here. The meals at the lodge are excellent and the grounds have great gardens and spectacular views of the high peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains.



The host here at Inkosana is a serious walker/trekker and mountaineer from what I could establish although he's quite shy. We opted to stay in one of the thatched rondavels that have their own bathroom with an open air/ensuite shower, very comfortable. Inkosana is highly recommended for both location, facilities and atmosphere.



We did some low level walks to start with in the rolling, lower hills of the Little 'Berg. The scenery here was fantastic although we were hampered with bad weather on our visit but the scenery was still great. You could see for miles even in this weather, it'd be fantastic on a clear day.


The terrain just looked like it had been played with by some giant and molded to suit there needs at that particular time. It was good to be active again having spent so long in trucks and the car, but I had forgotten what a tiring pastime it was!

The landscape here is both beautiful and dramatic. Gigantic hills roll into infinity cloaked in a soft green baize which as they tower upwards gives way to the rocky outcrops of the rugged mountain peaks.


In fact, Drakensberg means “Dragon mountain” and the grey craggy band which runs round the hills in the Monks Cowl area suggests that whilst arguing about the rights to the mountains, the legendary dragons divided the land by cutting though it with a blunt knife.

We walked Mandi Falls, Blind Mans Corner and Sterkhorn. We then went on to to tackle the 1 day hike to Sentinel Peak/Beacon Buttress and Tugela Falls. There are 2 stunning trails to the Tugela Falls. The most spectacular trail is to the top of Mount-Aux-Sources, which starts at the Sentinel car park at Witsieshoek via Phuthadjhaba from where it is a relatively easy climb to the top of the Amphitheatre, however it does take about 4.5 to 8 hours round trip depending on fitness level. You can gain easy access to the summit via two chain ladders . These chain ladders are a great adenaline rush - there are no clip in rails and both ladders are used for going up and down. The ladder ascent is over vertical rockface and is probably about 100m. Coming down is probably the worst bit or best depending on your point of view. The views are spectacular from the ladders, if you can look that is.

Once at the top, its a short walk to the edge of the escarpment and to Tugela Falls.

Tugela Falls is the world's second highest waterfall. The total drop in five free-leaping falls is 3,110 feet or 947m. The drop off is vertical, so tread carefully, the views are out of this world, what an awesome place and walk! If you're only going to do one walk in the Drakensberg, make it this one!