Top 10 activities on our trip

We've been asked about what the best activities on our trip were. There are so many memorable things that we've done together in our year away, its difficult to distil this to just ten, especially with a 'late contender' from our recent time in Borneo.

As we talked about this as a family and also started trying to rank them, we found it very hard to compare, say, the thrill of swimming with a sea-lion with the wonder of staring in awe at one of the highest mountains in the world.

So we decided to just put a list together of the things we enjoyed the most, not to worry too much about the order of them and not to feel guilty about many other things we enjoyed doing that aren't on this list too.

Skydive Taupo, New Zealand

Ready to jump.....(as if you have much choice at this stage!)

No doubt about the biggest adrenalin rush of all - Skydiving.

Whooooo-hoooo!

Snorkelling with sealions at La Loberia, Galapagos, Ecuador

Sunset at La Loberia

Amazingly, this is something you can do quite easily in the Galapagos - and it's free.  La Loberia is a deserted beach on the small island of San Cristobal, with sealions everywhere - you are very much on their beach. The younger ones in particular are very playful, they swim right up to you at high speed, inches from your face, and then arch away, or they'll swim rapidly around you in circles. There is always a large bull sealion patrolling to remind you not to get too close!

Observing amazing wildlife by boat and on horseback in the Pantanal, Brazil

Horse ride at sunset along the river bank on obedient horses!

We spent a few days in the Pantanal, and were amazed by the abundance and richness of wildlife there.  It was a fantastic experience for the boys, already fascinated by animals thanks to Steve Backshall's Deadly 60, to have so many up-close wildlife encounters. The caiman, jabiru, great black hawk (especially the one with the water cobra in its talons!) giant otter, hyacinth macaw, piranha and of course toucan are just a few we remember seeing there. 

The caimen are so still, sometimes you don't
see them even if you are really close!

Sandboarding and surfing in Cabo Polonio, Uruguay

Fabry, the boys and Louis' new birthday gift!

We're sure Louis won't forget his 9th birthday.  

Staying at the tiny, remote and querky coastal village of Cabo Polonio, Louis had a sandboarding lesson in the morning and a surfing lesson in the afternoon. 

Fabry, the sandboarding teacher even gave Louis the sandboard they were practicing on as a gift, afterwards!

Frankie had a go too!

Louis getting the hang of the waves

Dolphin and whale watching at Puerto Pyramides, Valdes Peninsula, Argentina

One of the whales duly obliged with this classic pose

The Valdes peninsula is famous for the orcas that beach themselves in February to catch and feed on unsuspecting young seals.  

We were there in December so missed this (perhaps just as well...the boys might have been a little upset!) but did get to see the orcas from a distance, as well as marvelling at the majestic southern right whales passing directly under the boat.

We were leaning out over the front and this 15 metre
beauty passed by directly underneath

Buller Gorge Jetboat, South Island, New Zealand
The Shotover ride in Queenstown normally gets all the attention but this trip on Buller Gorge, also on the South Island, is longer, less busy, cheaper, just as fast and definitely very exhilarating!

High-speed thrills

Did I mention you get a bit wet?

Trekking to Poon Hill, Nepal
We did a five-day trek in the Annapurna region of the Himalayas. It was a real challenge (especially the going up part!) and gave the boys a strong sense of achievement, especially when we reached 10,000 feet and were rewarded with memorable views of some of the Top 10 highest mountains in the world.

Annapurna South, at 8,091m, 10th highest mountain in the world

With our guide, Ratna and Dhaulagiri, 8167m, in the background

Machupachare, the famous, sacred, 'Fishtail', just before sunrise

White water rafting and "cool river running" in San Rafael, Argentina
We rafted a few times on the Atuel river, and Louis and I also went down in a kind of converted inner tube, which they call "Cool River".  It kept you very close to the action! My father came over from England and celebrated his 80th by white-water rafting with us too!

Rafting on 31st December - great way to see out the old year!

Louis and Frankie loved getting wet!

Louis getting face to face with a rapid while "Cool river" running

Tropical island hopping on Ovalau, Fiji
We spent three weeks in Fiji, mainly at Bobo's Farm.  As well as introducing us to the wonderfully hospitable villagers of Rukuruku and guiding us on hikes into the jungle, Bobo took us to the the most beautiful local islands enjoying excellent snorkelling, drinking and eating fresh coconuts, and sampling the fish he'd just caught with his spear!

Approaching Mystery Island

Just moored on our very own Moloi Island, only surfaces at low tide!

Going home to Rukuruku

Amazing wildlife in the tropical rainforests of Borneo

Frankie with a crested lizard

In our month in Borneo, we stayed in jungle camps and wooden shacks to experience wildlife encounters we'll never forget.  We saw orangutans, proboscis monkeys, silver-leaf monkeys, huntsman spiders, snakes, frogs, lizards, bats (over 2 million of them) and more - it's a very long list!

Proboscis monkey having a bad day

The youth of today are so uninhibited.....

2 million bats head out of their cave each night here in Mulu, Borneo

Icebergs and glaciers in Patagonia, Argentina
We spent three weeks in Patagonia and got up close to the amazing - and advancing - Perito Moreno glacier. We saw an enormous shard the size of a house slide into the water - and our treks took us to the windiest and coldest parts of our entire trip.

Ice crashing into the water at the giant arch that heads the glacier

Real icebergs!

Not surprisingly, the ice is very cold

Travelling around Western Australia in an RV

Breakfast on the beach at Cape Range

We spent a month - and 5,000 kilometres - working our way up the west coast and returned on an inland route back to Perth. The spectacular Cape Range National Park, the beautiful, rugged gorges of the Karijini, and the endless salt flats of Lake Ballard were three of the many highlights.

The unusual statues dotted around the vast salt flats of Lake Ballard

Paragliding over Lima, Peru

A great introduction to alternative air travel, over the beaches, parks and traffic of Lima.

All good up here....

I'm loving this!

Yes I know.  There are more than 10. Sorry.

Awesome Cabo Polonio - by Frankie

My favourite new sport - hammock flinging!

We arrived at Cabo Polonio by 4x4 over the dunes.  Cabo Polonio only has 50 people in it and 5 children. In our hostel there are broken sun glasses, a dead fishing rope that I don’t think you would catch many fish on and a rusty saw. On the third day I started doing things where Louis pushed me on a hammock and my record is Louis flinging me 5 1/2 metres. 

Just now we saw a big frog that swallowed a bug.  The shower is weird because you have to put a match in this bucket thing to make the water warm.  Our room is the smallest we have had so far on our trip, but to make up for it, it has got a double swing! (select "Read more" below to continue)

My extremely sporty 9th Birthday - by Louis

Eeeeeee! I'm 9 today!

We woke up and I was 9.  It didn’t feel any different to yesterday when I was 8, but I knew that it was my birthday and I was so excited.  

We began to open my presents, I got a Generala (also named as Yahtzee, Five Dice and Kniffel) Uno Dice, a multi-coloured skipping rope, a sand-boarding lesson and a surfing lesson. The sand-boarding was at 10:00 and the surfing was at 4:00 in the afternoon.  

After that we decided to read some of my birthday messages that luckily had been sent the day before so I was able to read them on my birthday, because in Cabo Polonio there is no internet. 

Happy Birthday to me!

Then we had breakfast, we had some cornflakes, some toast with jam and some fruit.  After that we headed off to the sand dunes with our teacher.  First we went down a small one and after a few goes we had that sussed out so then we went on to a bigger one. We fell over a few times and rubbed some go-faster wax on the bottom of the board and we wanted to stay on that one but we moved on.  We found ourselves on a slope that was virtually vertical and that time I asked to move on because the slopes a little further on were not quite as long on that side and Fabry actually let me.  The slopes were shorter and steeper and I zoomed down and almost went to the beach. When we had had enough we saw our teacher writing on the back of the board "Happy Birthday" and he gave the board to me as a present!!

I meant to do that!!!!

That's better.......

Happy Louis with unexpected birthday gift from teacher Fabry!

Next we went to lunch and had an omelette then it was time for my surf lesson.  We went to get our surfboards and walked down to the beach and we did some stretching, and some surfing skills on the sand to help my muscle memory with the surfing.  We got in and I was a bit cold because I only had a short wetsuit on and the water on this beach was colder than on the other beach we'd been to the previous day. He pushed me to catch the wave and I stood up the first time and it was a amazing. Mummy and Daddy were cheering me on and after a few goes I really got the hang of it.

The best moment of my birthday!

When we got back to our hostel we literally left immediately to go to the place we had booked at lunchtime, it had a lovely name called La Golosa (something to do with greedy) we had lovely food.  Frankie, Mummy and I had spaghetti bolognese with special prawn sauce, it was so lovely and sweet. When we were walking back Daddy said we were going to a pudding place and when we got there I saw people lighting candles from the lanterns and bringing them inside. I started getting a feeling that I was in for a little surprise like a birthday cake and everybody started singing "Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Louis, Happy birthday to you!"  It was a lovely peach cake with chocolate drops to make my name "Louis 9". It was lovely unfortunately a girl staying at the hostel ate half my cake because I left it in the fridge.  She said she needed a top up from her 6 burgers and 10 pancakes at lunchtime!!!!

Wow my face is red!

It was a lovely birthday and one I will remember for the whole of my life.

Back to basics in beautiful Cabo Polonio

Expectations were running high for our trip to Cabo Polonio although precisely what we were expecting was hard to pin down.  Our primary reason for going there was for Louis to have an adventurous and memorable 9th birthday.

You read about how there is no internet, no mains electricity or water and no roads, so you can only reach Cabo Polonio by a dune-riding 4x4. But in some way, focusing on what isn't there is a distraction from its real value.  People are there because they love being there, and its easy to see why. The two beautiful sandy beaches are joined by a rocky point, marked by a lighthouse and home to one of the largest sea lion colonies in South America.  The beaches are set at about 45 degrees to each other, so you are never far from the sound of crashing waves. Small colourful shacks, no two the same, dot the grassy landscape, seemingly in random positions, with the exception of those alongside the sandy path that passes as “main street.”  They all have a rustic and dated feel to them thanks in part to the Uruguayan government forbidding new builds. 

Cabo Polonia from the lighthouse

"Main street!"

The locals here - about 70 apparently - exude a certain calm and contentment. You hear varied stories of how people ending up here.  For example, someone who used to visit as a child and always yearned to return; a lawyer who jacked it all in mid-career and set up a charming little restaurant with pasta sauces better than we've ever tasted; a surf teacher who has lived and surfed all over the world but prefers to live and surf here; passing backpackers who decided to come here and set up a hostel of their own; and people born here who just never found a good enough reason to leave - everyone has a story to tell. 

And at this time of year, at least, it is peaceful and quiet - high season doesn't start for another month, so quite a few places are still closed. There's just one little convenience store, thankfully with a green flag fluttering high above it so you can orientate yourself, where you can get fruit, veg, water and other essentials for preparing your own meals.

Hostels on the beach

Cosy room with sea view!

We stayed at Cabo Polonio Hostel, a quaint, charming old place on the beach, some hammocks outside and an assortment of memorabilia to attest to the years of backpackers passing through. The small TV set on the sand dune in front is a reminder that this is indeed, "something completely different." There is a laid-back feel to the place, and the long wooden table outside encourages conviviality and sharing of travel stories amongst backpackers and staff alike. Somehow the gas-powered shower is all part of the charm, even though you irrationally fear it might explode at any moment when it’s lit. 
There is a tiny primary school with one teacher serving the five primary school age children that live here. Watching our boys writing their journals at the table in the open fronted hostel, occasionally looking to the sea for inspiration or distraction, gave us a momentary insight into the appeal of school here. 

The safari style 4x4s

We’ve not seen more than half a dozen people on the beach at once, perhaps less a reflection of the weather and more an indication of how few people there are here, even including those passing through.  The exception is when the big 4x4 safari style trucks occasionally rumble onto the beach, the occupants waving and cheering when they pass you, reminiscent of a school outing for some very lucky children. 

It has been a special five days for our family here. Ambling along the beach on long walks together, some lazy hammock time, some homeschooling (even in Cabo Polonia, sorry kids!) swimming and jumping in the waves, enjoying surfing lessons and sand-boarding, climbing - and drawing - the lighthouse, watching the sea lions play, whilst getting to know new people that both come and go as well as reside here. 

The highlight was Louis’ 9th birthday. After waking in our double bunked-dorm, and wishing Louis Happy Birthday, followed by a dozy rendition of the song, we opened a few small presents we’d picked up in a store in Montevideo.  Luckily, Sebastian, who worked at the hostel, had been able to arrange both a sand-boarding lesson and a surfing lesson, as we’d hoped.  Louis surprised even himself by remaining on his feet for much of both. To cap it all, the lady next door even managed to bake a lovely peach and chocolate cake for Louis at a day’s notice.  The candlelight rendition of Happy Birthday that evening as we brought Louis the cake at the table outside is one of his many happy memories from the day.

Louis’ memorable and adventurous birthday had been achieved, and he is busy writing his version!