(Photo from www.freefoto.com)

I’m from England and have travelled there a fair bit but generally if I want a holiday I head straight to somewhere else in Europe as I always thought that they have nicer beaches. That was until I was introduced to Norfolk!

I went to a tiny place in the middle of no where called Sea Pauling but the beach stretches on for miles so there are plenty of other towns to choose from if you want more excitement. I was told that when you see the beach you think you’re in India or something, I laughed at that comment and thought that the person was just exaggerating. I walked up the huge sand dunes and when I reached to the top I was shocked. The beach was stunning and I never imagined that there was a place so beautiful just three hours from London. Obviously the sea is freezing but the sunsets were amazing! Plus you can go sand dune surfing – its so much fun but very tiring walking back up!

If you head to Norwich, you can hire canal boat and cruise down the river stopping at little towns along the way and there are even small boats that drive you to you and seel drinks and ice-creams, random! Norwich also has a fairly good nightlife. I never thought I would say it but you can actually have an excellent holiday in England and the weather there in the summer gets really hot (I don’t know if it’s ever going to be quite hot enough to go in the sea though!)

Read more about where to go in England……

I can’t help it, I’m an explorer and as soon as I get to a new destination, I’m straight to explore and find out every possible thing to do! I arrived in Perth and did just that and found out that I can see penguins and seals in the wild, obviously excited (I never seen a real seal, apart from TV of course) and even better, the Penguin and Seal Island were only a 40 minute journey from Perth.

I hoped on the train and got to the jetty. You can actually walk through the water to Penguin Island as it was fairly shallow but not to Seal Island, so I got a boat. Seal Island is very small and is protected so you can’t get off the boat, but you get within 10 metres of the seals and they are so cute to watch. The boat also takes you to Penguin Island which you can get off.

Penguin Island is home to the Fairy Penguin, also known as the Small Penguin (what an inventive name!) As they only come out after dark it’s hard to see them during the day but they usually lie under boardwalks so I managed to see some. However, for those that miss out there is a discovery centre with Penguin feeding time so you get to see them in action as well, very cute! The island is also home to Giant Pelicans and there is a whole nesting ground, plus plenty of other wildlife like Sting Rays, a variety of birdlife and skinks (they look like a short snake with legs!) The beach is deserted and absolutely beautiful with crystal clear water so great for snorkelling. Brilliant if you love wildlife and nature!

Read more about animal places…….

I was in Bangkok and I wanted somewhere to go that I hadn’t been before. Anyway, I got chatting to one of the tuk-tuk drivers and his English was excellent and he told me about loads of places that I hadn’t heard of and hadn’t been to. We set of for Lumpini Park which has a huge night market, plus a huge area where you can sit and have dinner and/or a drink. There is a huge stage where bands perform and dancers too. It was an excellent night and the tuk-tuk driver took us for free so I bought him a drink and we all had a fabulous time.

I then travelled around Thailand for a while and a few months later I got back to Bangkok, I was sat outside having a drink with some other travellers and I bumped into the same tuk-tuk driver, he stayed for a drink and we got chatting and he said he would take us out again and as I had a great time last time I trusted him to pick a good place.

We arrived at the place and paid to get in and shortly realised it was a ping pong show (not the sport, but it involves ladies on stage – get the gist?) I found it embarrassing enough but just to be a bit worse, I had my mum with me, but hey, I was in Thailand so I suppose it something that has to be seen! The girls on stage started the show by shooting ping pong balls (with their lady bits) into pint glasses, then proceeded to pull out, scarfs, flags and even razor blades which they actually demonstrated cutting paper with first!

After that, it just got worse and worse (I’d rather not go into detail but believe me it was horrible!) I stared at the wall the whole time as I couldn’t look and then made a swifty exit! It certainly was an experience that I never expected to have!

Read more about Thailand……

Earthcore festival happens in two states in Australia every year and has been going for over ten years and takes place in two locations; New South Wales and Victoria. The only festival I had been to really was Glastonbury in England which is Europe’s third largest, so when I heard that Earthcore festival was on and it was one of the biggest in Australia I was really excited. Plus the festival was the week before my birthday, yay!

The day of the festival we headed out of Melbourne and drove through a lot of nothingness for about two hours and finally arrived at the festival entrance, where we then sat for four hours waiting to get in! The festival goes on for three days, or so the flyer says! We finally got through the gate at 10pm Friday and I went off to explore straight away.

The first thing that struck me was “where is the rest of the festival?’ It was tiny and hardly any people. I then found out that its always that small, usually attracting a tenth of Glastonbury at about 10,000 people (but I reckon its much less that that!) The partying stopped at 3am and then there was nothing till 12pm the following day! Three day festival? - I don’t think so!

The next day the heat kicked in and there was no shelter from trees and there were huge sand and dust clouds from where people were dancing on the dry ground – I thought it was smoke at first, ha ha! Luckily there was a river near by, loads of people swam naked but I’m a prude so went in with all my clothes on and when I got out even my jeans were dry in less that 20 minutes!

There was no ATM, no shop, nothing! Just a few dance areas and a bar, plus a couple of places to eat – not what I had expected at all but I still had a great time. Maybe Glastonbury isn’t the best festival to go to first!

Read about more parties around the world……

As I was travelling around Malaysia I discovered the beauty of Langkawi. The island itself is huge but there isn’t a great deal going on. On land there are a few waterfalls, and amazing white sand beaches that are totally deserted and a few temples. Although on land there isn’t a lot to keep you entertained for long, fortunately there is off land!

Langkawi has the best Marine National Park that I have ever been too, and the nicest water. I decided to take a day tour out on a sailing boat, no, not one of those posh ones, it looked like a pirate ship! The boat set sail and a drag net was put out (it’s basically a net that you can sit in, in the water, while sailing). Everyone else was too scared to go first so as usual I was the Guinea Pig. Stupidly I was wearing a bikini and a loose on at that, trying to keep my head above water whilst holding by bikini top over my boobs at the same time holding my bikini pants on to stop them floating away was almost impossible and I had visions of the bikini pants getting pulled off by the strong current I was fighting against and seeing them float off into the sunset with out me in them. Luckily I managed to keep everything on, without flashing anyone, I was very proud of myself! We then saw a huge Monitor Lizard (about 3 metres long) in the water near us swimming, at which most people freaked out and got out of the water, but they are harmless.

The boat stopped and we all went for a swim (except one man that refused to go in the water again after seeing the Monitor Lizard) and I thought there was a coconut floating next to me, until someone screamed and I realised it was a huge jelly fish. I don’t think I have ever moved that quickly in my life and jelly fish always sting me – not this time!

We visited deserted islands, had lunch, relaxed, swam and kayaked through caves. It was a day from heaven and a totally amazing experience and I can’t wait to go back!

Read more about beautiful places…….

If you are vegetarian and thinking about going to The Philippines, please, think again! I was warned about it before I went but like usual I took no notice and thought that it wouldn’t be as extreme as I had been told. Once again I was wrong!

People seem to survive on eating meat and cakes only, you can’t even find vegetables anywhere and that’s probably why every second shop is a pharmacy! I was there for 21 days and after six hours I was already wondering how I was going to manage.

In the odd restaurant there was a vegetarian option, although that was very rare and I was always asked what mean I would like with it but I spent most of the three weeks I was there eating cakes. Bakeries are open 24 hours, even in remote towns where there are hardly any people – very strange! Cake for breakfast, cake for lunch and, lucky me, cake for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I love cake but I was actually getting good at being healthy before all this!

As I travelled around some of the 7,000 islands of the Philippines, occasionally I was lucky enough to come across a Pizza Hut so I could actually eat “a real meal� and by the time that my 21 days were up I was craving vegetables, I would even dream of them. At least I finally found a way of getting my mind to stop thinking about cake all day, but it didn’t work for long!

Read more about mishaps in The Philippines……

( The 12 Apostles, photo by Robert S Butler)

The Great Ocean Road stretches along the coast not to far from Australia’s well loved Melbourne and it’s a great place for adventure, spotting wildlife, surfing and generally experiencing some of Victoria’s beauty. There are plenty of day tours, 2 day tours and even 3 day tours but its better to hire a car as there are so many things that the tours don’t cover and there is so much to see so you can travel at your own pace.

Along the great ocean road there are plenty of places that you can stop and see kangaroo’s and Koala’s which are funny, very lazy creatures but so cute! There is the Kennett River where you can hire kayaks and have a very good chance of seeing a Platypus. I love Australia’s animals; they really are like no other!

Torquay is a popular stop on the Greta Ocean Road, it’s a big surf town, freezing water but huge waves, I tried to put a toe in but it’s far too cold for me! Surfing competitions are often held in Torquay.

There are tree top walks through rainforests, famous rock formations like London Bridge (yes you guessed it, it looks like a bridge) and The Twelve Apostles; which are basically, now 8 bits of tall rock that jet out from the sea. There used to be 12 but some have since collapsed!

Slightly inland there are plenty of wineries to keep you entertained and also a volcanic crater. Its fantastic on a sunny day, very cold and not so much fun on a bad day – I have done both.

Read more about Australian wildlife……

(Photo taken by Trevor Lowe)

I remember going to Egypt to see the pyramids in Giza a few years back. I was really excited to be there even though I was melting due to the heat, and it wasn’t even summer! As soon as I got out of the car I was surrounded by Egyptian men that kept trying to grab me and put me on camels, in a scary way, not in a “please have a camel ride� kind of way. It really freaked me out and there were loads of guys like that, in the end my group had to join in with other people’s groups just for the safety in numbers and it didn’t seem to happen to anyone else – it’s always me!

The safety in numbers thing seemed to work better and as I began to relax I was able to admire the beauty of the pyramids and the sheer size of them. This trip was quite a while ago, back in the days where you could go inside a pyramid, to which I had no hesitation as I hadn’t really thought through what would be in there.

The entrance was pretty small so I had to duck down and there was a line of people going into the pyramid and a line of people coming out of the pyramid, all through the same little tunnel, all the people bending low. About half way down I freaked out, I couldn’t breathe and had a full blown panic attack, and soon realised that I was claustrophobic! Unfortunately there was nothing anyone could do, I had to continue to the bottom and then come back up in order to get out of the pyramid obviously I didn’t therefore pay much attention to what was inside the pyramid. All in all it was a crazy day!

Read more about Africa…….