Up in Borneo

Made it to the top of Mount Kinabalu!!!

Going up was beautiful, well the vegetation was, although I did miss the monkey's cup, the not so beautiful part were the countless stairs, exhausting and painful those were. Spent a very short night in Pendant Hut before heading out at 2am for our summit climb. Sunrise at summit overlooking Borneo was incredible. Our climb down was another story, exhausting. Took us as long to get down as it did to get up, but in the end we all made it. Whew. Needless to say that 3 days later now I still scream whenever in sight of a flight of stairs. Should you want to go up here's the company we used http://www.x-trekkers.com/

Oh, and should you need to rest after your climb you can always check in at http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/kotakinabalu/rasariaresort. Needless to say, that our 24hrs there were bliss.

Moving on & Moving up

Enough with our Australian road trip, I'm off this time to Borneo, with a couple of girlfriends, in the attempt to reach the summit of Mount Kinabalu. Don't really know what to expect, especially since I haven't worn my trekking shoes since a trip to Kilimanjaro 5 years ago. All I can say at this point is when I see the above picture our climb seems very daunting and why we didn't instead opt for a girl's weekend at the beach remains a mystery to me. 

Have a great weekend.

Til next time Australia

Ended our road trip in sunny Melbourne running along Brighton beach admiring the colored beach huts and Melbourne skyline. We all loved our road trip. Bottom line is that I think we just love to be in Australia. We love the people, super friendly and relaxed, the countryside is incredibly beautiful, the beaches are out of this world and according to my kids nothing beats spotting koalas in the wild. 

Great Ocean Road

Southwest of Melbourne lies the Great Ocean Road. What a drive. The scenery is incredible including endless beaches with dramatic limestone cliffs, giant eucalyptus trees with hordes of koalas and cool trendy seaside towns our favorite being Lorne. Not to be missed along the drive are the Twelve Apostles, debate over how many there really are but who really cares, the scenery is pretty much breathtaking. The kids couldn't believe their luck at seeing so many koalas in the wild. How many times did I have to tell them that "no" they could not take one of them home. Unfortunately, no pics - camera died, that always seems to happen at the wrong moment. 

Have a great weekend.

On the road, Australia

Post Sydney, we headed South, direction Melbourne. Passed thru countless dairy farms, cattle farms (there's a difference), and coastal towns, but most of all it rained, so much that pretty soon the highway was under water. We spent a couple of nights close to Jervis Bay and Hyams Beach which boasts the whitest sand in the world. Unfortunately everything looked pretty grey to us.

Some of the fun things we did along the way included:

cuddling baby wombats at the Nowra Wildlife Park

running along the Seven Mile Beach, a favorite surfing spot when not raining

spotting kangaroos in the wild whilst driving around the Kangaroo Valley

and just hangin' with friends at their very cool "cabanas" in the quaint town of Berry

but most fun of all was celebrating Z's birthday and seeing her smile.

Our Australian Road Trip

First off on our road trip was a couple of days exploring Sydney. We loved the laid back sunny Sydney,  but all of us for different reasons. Here are our personal favorites:
For JD, it was without doubt hanging and eating at the Fish Market.
For Z, it was checking out the skaters at the Bondi Skaters Bowl and hanging out at Bondi beach.
For R, she loved strolling the streets of the Rocks.
For lil' O, his highlight was spotting a platypus at the aquarium.
and as for myself, I loved our dinner with friends at Bills, so good that it may deserve a post of its own.
Our stay in Sydney was definitely too short but the road was calling...

Back from "Down Under"

Just returned from our 10 day road trip that took us from Sydney to Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road. Loved it, although we had total crap weather. Never ending rain meant no surfing for us. Still sorting through my photos, so for now a small collage of pics taken in & around Sydney, included is the iconic Sydney Opera house, dah, Bondi beach, we never wanted to leave this has to be the coolest beach, the harbor at the Fish Market, remember Finding Nemo and the Bondi Skating Bowl where we checked out the cute Aussie boys. Promise a full report of our trip in a couple of days.