Blog breather

In case you're wondering if I've dropped off a cliff (which wasn't that far from happening) or generally given up on the blog, rest assured a whole swathe of South American stories (including the aforementioned dicing with cliff faces) are written and will eventually hit cyber space.

Unfortunately, these "written" stories are written in the "old school" sense of the world, and presently reside on various tattered pages of a school notebook I picked up in Mangalore. As said notebook tends not to be on my person on a regular basis, and as finding time to get on the internet is becoming progressively harder (read: impossible) as time runs out on my travels, enacting the transfer from ink-stained paper to LED-framed electronic images is proving damn difficult.

Give it just a few more days, however, and The Daily Rod will be issuing stories (albeit backdated ones) faster than David Cameron's twitter feed.

UPDATE:
- Read all about Valparaíso here, or Mendoza here.

Halfway House update

I am now officially edging towards my return to the UK; 14th January 2010 marks the exact halfway point of my travels - 106 days gone, 106 to go. Google Maps provides a nice geographic summary of where I've been, although to see the full details you'll have to follow this link and go through the pages on the left hand side - only so many journeys can be displayed at once on the blog.


View Gap Year Travels in a larger map

About 2 months ago I was asked to provide a brief summary of where I'd been for those who couldn't be bothered to read all the blogs, so better late than never here it is (the links will provide details):

• India: Mumbai, Nashik, Mangalore, Bangalore
• Singapore and Kuala Lumpur
• Australia: Melbourne, the Victoria Bush, The Great Ocean Road, Sydney, Queensland

Thanks to all sorts of reasons (lack of time, crap/expensive internet, getting cameras stolen), various bits and pieces of this blog have been updated in a totally piecemeal fashion (in particular photographs), meaning non-RSS feed readers may end up missing out on goldmines of stories due to the chronological sorting of blog entries. The purpose of this update is to bring things vaguely up to date... and as such, you can now:

• See photos of Boxing Day at the MCG and koalas on Phillip Island
  
• Meet the menagerie of animals at my cousin's place
• Hear about my fantastic ascent of Sydney Harbour Bridge (and see me at the top)
  
• Read about my camera getting stolen.
  

The camera getting stolen means that pending a new camera, blogs are supplemented by photos from the internet/other sources rather than yours truly. Events since then include:

• Fraser Island's fun-filled adventures
  
• Scuba diving in the Whitsundays (now including missing photos of Whitehaven Beach)
  
• The highs and lows of my trip to Magnetic Island.

Still interested? Thought not...

Tidying up the blog...

Now that I can upload things, I've taken time to beautify a few of my earlier blog entries with relevant photographs. As such, you can now check out new images at the following (n.b. you can enlarge any photo to its true size by clicking on it):

• Auntie Martha at 96 not out
• Bullet holes in Leopold's and a dubbawalla "Backing the Bid" in Mumbai
  
• My talk about England at my cousin's school
  
• My grandfather's godson with me; and Kyemala the 285-year-0ld "Backing the Bid"
• Lalbagh Gardens in Bangalore, and serious tigers in Bannergatta National Park

Also, those of you that saw my recent post entitled "Simple Things..." may be wondering what's happened to it. Basically, for chronology purposes, I backdated it so that it appears in the order in which is took place - i.e. 26th October 2009. So, anyone who hasn't already seen the video/photos in it should check it out!