Malamala Island, Fiji

Thursday 31 October 2013

St Michael's Mount, UK

I was reminded of a place we visited during our trip to the UK a couple of years ago while I was searching Pinterest the other day and thought it was worth a share.

It was a bit of a miserable day and it was really cold (to my standards anyway) but we weren't disappointed in visiting St Michael's Mount at all.  The official website link is here.

This is what it looks like from the mainland (the tide has come in in this photo).  It is a gorgeous old castle that is cut off from the mainland when the tide comes in.  There is a stone pathway from the mainland to the island which you walk across when the tide is out but is not accessible when the tide comes in as it covers in water.  One thing we did not know when we visited was that the tide comes in really quickly and covers the whole pathway to at least knee deep in about 10 minutes. 


Here's our story.  When we arrived it was a bit rainy so we decided to head into this gorgeous little cafe for a hot chocolate and cake while we waited for the rain to ease and to warm ourselves up.  Don't you love those skinny corner buildings?



Then we started our walk along the paved walkway to the castle.  You have to walk across some beach first like you can see in this picture.  The pathway is on the left just out of sight.


This is what the pathway looked like as we started the short walk across.


And below is a photo of the path once we had reached the other side (literally 10 minutes later).  Can you see that the tide has started coming in and covered the pathway?  Well we actually couldn't cross quick enough and ended up in the middle with very wet feet! (not good when you are already cold!). We still crossed to the other side wet feet and all.


Here is another shot of the pathway under water and can you see the people still trying to get across?  Mad I say, they were really walking in the cold water with their pants rolled up past their knees.


Once we were on the island the castle was just beautiful.  The one thing I love about England is all the history and buildings that are amazing.  I loved the stone walls that surrounded the castle and the archways and paths.









This was the little shop which of course I had to sticky beak in, really cute.






After a good look around the time came to get back to shore.  The tide was obviously still in so we had to catch this little boat back to the mainland for a small fee.


 And I thought I would finish with a picture when I was back on the mainland.  This place is totally worth a visit if you are close but I would recommend that you check the tide times first!


Tuesday 15 October 2013

Photo Share: Champagne Bay

Today is a photo share here on the blog.  I was looking through the photos from our P & O Cruise of the South Pacific and thought it would be nice to share a few from our day spent during our cruise at the gorgeous Champagne Bay.

We spent the day looking at the local market stalls, relaxing on the beach and swimming.  Nathan and Emma even got to taste some local fare and get up close and personal with the wildlife.



 Local market stalls

Our view of the ship




 Amazing and beautiful turquoise water

 Fresh crabs kept alive by the waves and then cooked by the locals for lunch


 Enjoying fresh coconut

 And the wildlife

 A great place for swimming

  Amazingly friendly locals and gorgeous little people

If you go searching for a cruise or have one booked and Champagne Bay is on the itinerary you won't be disappointed.

Monday 7 October 2013

10 Places to put on your travel list soon

I don't need any reason to travel somewhere, I am most happy when I am thinking about new adventures we're going to have or reminiscing about ones already had.  I love the whole concept of travel from the planning and anticipation leading up to the trip to actually experiencing it to remembering it later.

I found this on the internet and thought it was interesting and that I would share it.  There are so many places on this list that I would absolutely love to visit.... I better get working on them. It's also just a really interesting read.

(source: HERE)

Venice is on the top of my list.

I'll be helping Nathan pack for school camp tomorrow and I have a good travel tip relating to that so I'll be back with that when we're done and I have a photo.

*I just realised that the picture is too small to read on the blog so if you click on the source you'll be able to see it more clearly.  I can't get it to go any bigger*