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.

Paragliding over Lima

Last week we were in Lima, on a brief one day stopover en route to another brief one day stopover in Sao Paolo, before re-establishing our journey south through South America that we were on before the Galapagos.

Enjoying the sunset

We’d got to the hostal last night at about 11pm, after a full day on planes and in airports, so in the morning, given we had some time, we had some downtime together watching Spiderman 3.  The last time we watched a movie together, about 5 weeks ago in Ubatuba, Frankie had been on the lookout for any teary moments - whch duly came towards the end of “Fried Green Tomatoes" and he took delight in pointing this out (to be fair, it reminded me of doing the same with my parents when I was little though.) Funnily enough this time around with Spiderman 3, during a slushy scene about being best friends, it was Frankies turn, and he smiled through his tears as I looked at him.  He said “I was just trying to get some water into my eyes, Daddy!”

......I see, so you basically just walk off the cliff, right?

In the afternoon, we headed down to the park at Miraflores that runs along the coast, and instantly noticed the colourful paragliders in the air, sometimes slowly making a winding turn, sometimes seemingly rushing past at speed. You could see that some were tandem riders so I went to enquire as to the minimum age for a ride. Apparently it was 5, although I didn’t see any children there. It was 150 soles, about £35 each, not within our daily budget, however this was one of those things you say to yourself, "how often will we get the chance to just turn up and do this?" - and what a great backdrop, being able to enjoy the coastline of Lima at the same time. I asked Louis if he fancied doing this as an early birthday present, he said he’d do it if I would.  Deal.

Are we supposed to go that close?

After briefly returning to our room to exchange flipflops for trainers, and getting a fleece, we headed back to the seafront, and I went over to meet Rafael, our pilot.  There wasn’t much in the way of a briefing, you just put the harness on, he gets on with a bit of faffing to line up the parachute, you follow his instruction to stand “here...... no here,” you then take a few steps, and suddenly the air fills the parachute and you’re up.  Looking down I could see the busy road below that borders the sea dotted by surfers. 

I didn't bother with the video, hopefully if Louis agreed to go then we could get one done for him. Speaking to Rafael, he explained that we were going about 45 miles an hour as we whooshed back on ourselves towards the somewhat iconic lighthouse. We descended below the level of the clifftop park where Jules and the boys were, and nearer the grey, very hard and not even slightly bouncy road below, and our conversation moved on to the mechanics of the flight. Even though it was in Spanish, I understood enough to learn that we'd been powered by the cold winds coming in off the sea, hitting the cliffs and being pushed upwards, therefore my "clever Daddy" speech earlier with the boys about circling eagles and thermals was in hindsight somewhat wide of the mark, even if the principle holds true.  I was really enjoying the ride and looked forward to get down and see the boys faces, and find out how they felt about it. I waved at someone on about the tenth floor of a building that we were flying surprisingly close to, who waved back. I shouted that I'll swoop past for a drink on the way back, which might have been funnier if I'd at least said it in Spanish instead of English...

I was wondering when we'd start some sort of discussion about landing, but as we approached I realised there wouldn't be one, "just keep your legs up in the air", he requested, before executing a very smooth and straightforward landing and promptly receiving my profuse thanks. Louis was still filming me when I landed, and I wondered whether he'd filmed the entire flight, in which case 9 minutes of this will be a dot in the sky. Asking Louis what he thought, he confirmed that it looked like really great fun and that he definitely wanted to do it........meanwhile Jules was getting ready too, and Frankie was left as the guardian of our bags as I followed Louis out towards Rafael and his big blue parachute. 

Here we go then.....

As I began to film Louis preparing, the camera bleeped.  Card full. I quickly went back and deleted some of the previous footage of the tiny dot in the sky to make room for Louis as Rafael calmly helped Louis get his gear on. There was an extra person with a yellow jacket who helps you take off, as the giant parachute and the winds can introduce a little unpredictability. It looked like they were trying to get on board a reluctant camel, as they lifted off the ground slightly and then came down again rather clumsily without actually getting anywhere.  Rafael had explained that with the lighter load of children, you don't go as fast, so that explained why he wasn't just running off the side of the cliff as he did with me. That said, moments later they were airborne, and Louis waved with a little whoop of delight. They turned and as the wind got behind them, picked up speed and flew off toward the picturesque black and white striped lighthouse.

I'm loving this

Hello down there!

Shortly afterwards, Jules was up with another pilot and able to enjoy a view of Louis flying from her own flight. It's left little Frankie on his own, and I went over to him and asked him how he was feeling. "I really want to do this too Daddy, can I do it?"  I was delight he'd changed from his earlier "50% status" and quickly sorted out the "it was all my stupid fault, not yours" sworn statement paperwork, a prerequisite for such activity.

No going back now then.....

Thank you thank you thank you!

Frankie said he was a little bit nervous but not too scared and if Louis could do it then so could he. Rafael landed with a very smiley Louis, and we congratulated Louis on how well he'd done.  After transferring all the gear onto a willing and enthusiastic Frankie, and being joined now by a vary happy Jules who had just had a safe landing of her own, we watched Frankie take off and enjoy the experience, making a very picturesque silhouette against the setting sun and also as he rounded the lighthouse. 

Frankie gets a closer view of the lighthouse

This is brilliant!

Thanks Rafael, you're a great pilot!

The boys have written up their separate blog entries about their experiences.  All in all this transformed a quick city stopover into a highlight of its own!