Entries about tour

The next couple of parts of my trip were on organised tours. I had been informed that I simply couldn't miss either the Whitsundays or Fraser Island.

For my Whitsundays trip I booked with Wings. A sociable boat with a knowledgable crew, without the clipper boat's intense party atmosphere. There's not a whole lot of space on these boats so it's fairly important to find one that is likely to attract your kind of people. I think I got mine right.

This trip consisted of a lot of sunbathing on deck, plenty of snorkel spots, and a visit to the paradise like Whitehaven beach. Throw in great company and some cheeky evening ciders, and you have the recipe for a good old time. I felt like I was living a glamorous lifestyle, without any of the actual glamour on our boat of course.

I knew I was on the right boat when we met another group's crew member who asked if we were having a good time and swiftly told us we couldn't be having that much fun if no one had had sex in the jacuzzi yet. Wrong crowd buddy.

Anyway, I'd say the Whitsundays are a must-see, providing you're not prone to sea sickness. It's beautiful, unspoilt and relaxed.

My next leg of the journey was to Rainbow Beach ahead of my Fraser Island tour. Rainbow Beach is a small and somewhat charmless town that really is a stop off for Fraser Island tours.

I stayed at Dingo's hostel where the rooms and reception area were nice, but I was seriously unimpressed with the kitchen. Not only was it small, but severely under-equipped for the number of guests, and a lack of washing up liquid (combined with lazy backpackers) meant what little they had was truly disgusting.

I was therefore quite excited to head off on my Fraser Island tag along tour. These consist of groups of jeeps, one of which has a tour guide, the others are driven by participants.

Fraser Island is a huge sand island with natural lakes, rock pools and such like, but not a lot else. The beaches are roads and subject to the same, if not stricter, road laws as everywhere else. This meant that some party animals missed out on driving opportunities, especially over the Easter Weekend, following some intense partying each night!

There are genuinely beautiful parts of Fraser Island, Lake Mackenzie for example, and it's an unspoiled spot, despite the number of visitors. The Dingo tours are big on their partying so this was my first and only real experience with goon (cheap, rubbish wine in a bag!). I had great people in my car, our Fraser Family as we liked to call ourselves, and I think that really added to the trip. As with so many things, it was as fun as the people I spent time with, so really very fun!

Attending the wedding was a big focus of my time in Melbourne, but post-wedding, I did make it into the city to explore. As per my habit, I went on the free walking tour of Melbourne, and would you believe it, I bumped into Chryso, a former colleague of mine. I had just been coming round to the idea that the world was in fact much larger than we give it credit for, since I'd seen such a small percentage on it during my trip. But bumping into a former colleague, that was proof that it is in fact a small world!

I visited the excellent joint Andy Warhol and Ai Wei Wei exhibition at the National Gallery. I'm not sure if it will be on anywhere else, but I'd strongly recommend it if it comes to a city near you!

Before I left I also managed to see my friends Rama and Kariza who I'd met in Peru and saw Carly again for a spot of dinner at Victoria markets. So really I had a wonderfully sociable stay in Melbourne.

I also finally booked my East Coast adventure. As opposed to most of my time in South America, I discovered that I really needed to pre-book my East Coast trip, since everything from hostels to buses to tours books out ahead of time. So I swiftly got myself a couple of quotes and went with the cheaper option through Peter Pan's.

There are so many options when it comes to tours it can be overwhelming. Thanks to conversations I'd had with Carly and other people I'd met along the way, I knew vaguely what was out there, what to avoid, and the questions to ask. This definitely saved me time, and I'd like to think, money.

So here's what I booked ahead of time:

• Cairns: an Uncle Brian's Daintree rainforest tour and a Great Barrier Reef trip for my first ever snorkel and an introductory scuba dive.
• Airlie Beach: Whitsundays tour with Wings
• Rainbow Beach: Dingo's Fraser Island tour
• Byron Bay: surf class
• All bus tickets with Premier - far cheaper than Greyhound and fit my schedule
• All hostels

Whilst my itinerary had very little wiggle room, it was quite nice knowing it was all booked and paid for, so all I had to worry about was food and treats for the next three weeks.

So it turns out that flights to Uluru are really quite expensive so I flew from Syndey to Alice Springs and decided to go on a three day tour to visit Uluru.

Alice Springs is the biggest place for hours and hours in Australia's Red Centre and so it has kind of a weird mixture of people living there. It would seem that not many people are from Alice Springs, they tend to move there for work, or for many of the Aboriginal people living there, because they have been thrown out of their communities elsewhere.

Unfortunately, many of the Aboriginal people in Alice Springs have turned to drink and drugs, and so many tourists who meet an Aboriginal for the first time, really see those struggling to adapt to a life outside of their upbringing, this does nothing to mend a historically terrible relationship between the rest of Australia (mostly white Australians nee colonists, but not exclusively).

It's a pretty small town, considering it serves pretty much the whole of the middle of Australia. The most exciting thing I did when I arrived it purchase a rather expensive leather hat and fly net (very attractive and extremely necessary!). I'm actually very pleased with my hat, as you'll see from my photos!

The next morning I was picked up from my hostel at 6.30am but Justin, our tour leader for the next few days for my Alice to Alice tour with Adventure Tours.

Now I knew the Outback was huge, but let me just clarify, it's a really bloody large place. Alice Springs is 6 hours away from Uluru, and there is exactly one right turn. That's right, it's something like fourth ours on the first road, the big turn, followed by another two hours on the second road, and there's not a whole lot to see on the way.

We did stop at one service station that claims to be at the centre of the centre, but apparently there are many different definitions for that...I had a photo there anyway, because it seemed unlikely that I'd be at any of the other centres of the centre.

After we'd picked up some passengers from Uluru airport, we went straight to Kata Tjuta for a short walk through the domes. Kata Tjuta is not a very well known landmark, it gets forgotten next to the better known Uluru, or Ayers Rock, which you can just about see from there. But it's a beautiful natural landmark that really is worth a visit if you're in the area.

It was a short walk because it was a mere 43 degrees, which is, well very hot. Too hot to go for a long hike at any rate. That evening we went to watch the sunset at Uluru, which as you may know, glows a brilliant red when the sun sets and rises, as we saw the following morning.

Following a rather spectacular sunrise (it's absolutely worth the early morning), we went for the half base walk around Uluru. It was the first day of the year the the authorities had opened the path to climb Ayers Rock, and we were given the opportunity to do so. We were also given all the reasons why we shouldn't, the main one being that it's hugely disrespectful to the Aboriginal people who ask that people do not climb. I was therefore quite surprised and a bit disappointed that half of our group decided to climb it.

I however went on the half base walk, where you can read the aboriginal story which explains how Uluru came to exist, followed by a visit to the cultural centre during the hottest part of the day.

We then made the four hour journey to the Kings Canyon camp site, where for the second night we prepared to sleep in our swags, under the stars. Before we went to sleep, we joined another tour group for spot of star gazing and explanation of our breathtaking view of outer space.

We were up again at the crack of dawn to drive to Kings Canyon itself, for a hike. We went early firstly because it's far too hot in the middle of the day, and also because we had a six hour drive back to Alice Springs that afternoon.

Kings Canyon is actually a gorge, with a stunning view from the top, a Garden of Eden in the middle, a peaceful spot to rest out of the burning Outback sun. A lot of people miss this walk, but if you have the time and means to visit, then do stop by.

My visit to the Outback was unique to anywhere else I went on my trip, the distances are massive, and there are natural dangers (like 43 degree heat and snakes and such like, which thankfully I didn't see!) but if you're prepared and careful, it's an adventure worth having.

My tour in Peru included a visit to some islands on Lake Titicaca, culminating in a homestay.

We were given a list of things to bring, including a gift of useful food (rice, oats, fruit, veg...) and had a little time to prepare ourselves.

Lake Titicaca is the largest high-altitude body of water in the world at a mere 284m deep and 8500m square kilometres. What does that mean in real terms? It means that once we left the Puno shore, it really did feel as though we were at sea, not on a lake.

Our first stop was to one of the Uros Floating Islands. These are man-made islands, built from reeds. We were greeted by island inhabitants, invited into their homes to try on national dress, offered handicrafts for sale, and went on an a short ride on their 'Mercedes Benz' (a large boat made from reeds.

We then made our way to Isla Taquile, where the big attraction is that men have to impress a lady by knitting her a hat. If she reckons the hat isn't good enough, a woman can send the man away, in one fowl 'must-try-harder', he must go away and practice and try again when he has improved.

Finally we made our way to Island Amantaní where we would stay for the night. First there was the football match against local boys and then we met our hosts for the night and next day. Before heading 'home', local men and women in traditional dress performed a dance, dressed us up in traditional attire (I had 4 skirts on!) and we had to try and copy the dance. I'm sure we looked fairly ridiculous and may have butchered the moves, but it was pretty funny.

Kat and I made our way to our host house, having been warned that everything may be extremely basic. Turns out, Kat and I had our own bedroom and bathroom (albeit with a self flush system) - pretty swish! The house was more a collection of rooms added over time, as and when necessary. The kitchen was a small room, with an old school stove - fire below and a collection of pots to make everything in.

We were entertained by the middle granddaughter, a very confident 11 year who lives on the mainland, her younger brother of 8 and their cousin, also 8. Whilst their Grandmother, Aurora, speaks primarily Aymara, the kids only spoke castellano, which meant I was able to play mediator and we could all communicate!

The first game up was hide and seek, which unfortunately only lasted a single round since there was only one hiding place in the whole room. Pretty sure they loved it anyway.

Conversation turned to ghost stories with all the kids convinced they'd seen ghosts. It wasn't until dinner that the conversation got really weird, with one of the boys describing an alternative version of the Teletubbies where Tinkywinky decapitates Po. It was one of those moments where I was convinced my Spanish wasn't as good as I thought it was, but he repeated the story and I do believe I understood correctly.

The next morning, my vegetarian gluten free breakfast consisted of...5 boiled potatoes and a boiled egg. I'm not complaining, I was very full. In fact, I didn't finish all the potato, it was a bit much really so early in the day.

Our 'work' consisted of us watching Aurora milk the cow and us following whilst she herded the sheep. I managed to help by tying up the sheep in the field so they couldn't escape. We then helped to clear hay, or dried reeds, from another field. It wasn't hard core farm work, but it did give a glimpse into their daily lives.

It was a little sad knowing that Aurora spends most of the year alone. Her children and grandchildren live on the mainland; the kids spend their summers there helping out but none of them speak the native Aymara, so the language will die out with Aurora's generation. Who knows what will happen on the island? As more people leave and those who stay open their homes to tourism, the culture and traditions are bound to change. We'll have to wait and see.

I arrived in La Paz with my tour group, pretty tired after 3 weeks on the go. We went for a short walking tour and when we got back to the hotel, Simon was waiting for me there.

Simon and I spent the next morning perusing the extensive Witches Market with Sean. You see near enough the same thing in every shop, for near enough the same price, and whilst haggling is a thing there, it turns out Simon and I are not that good at it. When you convert the savings we made it probably comes to all of about £5. If you want all the typical souvenirs though, this is the place to come!

We decided not to stay an extra night in La Paz and head to Uyuni that night since we didn't have all the time in the world, so off to the bus station we went.

It turns out the buses in Bolivia are not as nice or comfy as the ones in Peru but it was cheap so that made up for it. We arrived at Uyuni at an unsociable 4am and found ourselves in a cafe with other weary travellers, waiting for the travel agencies to open.

We had been advised that it was cheaper to book directly in Uyuni, rather than La Paz, and the best way to find a company was to ask for recommendations. Guide books and online advice all said it was best to pay a little more for the safety and quality of the tour and in the end we followed a recommendation to book the three day tour with Red Planet.

I don't know if it was cheaper in the end as this tour was pretty prices compared to the others, but it came highly recommended and ran in English. It also turned out to be the same tour as Doriano was on (Doriano was part of my previous tour group) so that was added fun!

I think it was totally worth the effort to pay a little extra, as we had a fun comprehensive tour that included the Salt Flats themselves, the Cactus Island, stays in a salt hotel, a hotel with hot springs for a midnight dip. They catered well for vegetarian and gluten free so I wasn't hungry - what more can you ask for?!

The only thing I really knew about this part of Bolivia was the salt desert where you take fun perspective photos (which we took lots of!), so the rest was a bonus. The landscape is spectacular, and by doing a three day tour I saw way more than I was expecting. We saw mountains, volcanoes, lakes (including a red lake), flamingos and more.

I also met people who had already been to places I was planning to visit in Patagonia and so I got a lot of good information and advice, especially about hiking in the Torres del Paine national park in Chile (all the advice was super helpful, as I'll explain in a later post!).

The only negative thing was that Simon wasn't feeling well, so we had him dosed up on medicine so that he could still enjoy the tour.

We decided to get a bus straight to the border with Argentina, rather than stay in Uyuni. We wanted to get to Buenos Aires sooner rather than later, so we endured nearly 48 hours on buses. We put up with the border crossing, which was the most inefficient system I'd seen and was a little soul destroying (don't try and attempt it in a hurry!). Thankfully, the drive through northern Argentina is beautiful and it wasn't as uncomfortable as it could have been.

I have a feeling I missed some other exciting and interesting parts of Bolivia by rushing through, but time did not allow plenty of stops this time. Oh well, it's just somewhere I'll have to come back to!