4 Rivers Floating Eco-Lodge

Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27th March

A marked change from the bustle, buzz and Dickensian conditions (for the poor) of much of Phnom Penh as a 6 hour drive

A four seater scooter

and a short boat ride brought us to this floating lodge ...

It's still very hot but being by the river helps considerably. The lodge employs young locals and, we think, gives them good employment opportunities ... The only other work locally is farming, fishing and little else, all at probably not much above subsistence level. The staff are wonderful ... This has been a sobering and humbling experience for us both and not for further blog commentary.

So, onto lighter things.

Our 'tent' is like a proper room but it's made of canvas which is structured onto a tent frame and we also have a fully functioning bathroom. If you want you can just jump into the river to cool down, although as I'm such a pathetic swimmer I haven't managed that yet. The little elephants are folded towels - aren't they brilliant?

Last night we went on a trip down the Tatai river to see the sunset:

Today, another boat trip to waterfalls where you could swim and sit under the falls. Even I managed it, and it was the coolest I've been in Cambodia so far! Hopefully tonight we'll go and see some fireflies...

 

... And a few more shots as the sun goes down

Controlled forest fire as a backdrop

 

Lodges just visible

 

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Cambodia

Monday 25th March

Well this is going to be a difficult one, given that you're all under 6 feet of snow, but we are not gloating but MELTING and actually it's not much fun being at 38C (100F in old money), watching the sweat trickle down each others' noses. I've never been anywhere so hot in my life, not even Zambia, and Singapore at the weekend was positively Arctic in comparison. But today's been a really interesting day in Phnom Penh. We've got a 'bespoke tour' for this week, which means we have a personal guide and driver. Cushy, I can hear those of you muttering who've been round the world on an ox cart with a rucksack and a pair of flip-flops, but in this heat and city it's the best idea. And it's good to have someone else telling me stuff- it's usually me with my head in a guide book.

Our hotel's absolutely fabulous; it's what these days they call 'boutique' and they upgraded us to a suite (no idea why but we weren't going to argue) so we've got a living room, bedroom and bathroom all to ourselves. The outside's lovely

 

and food is good.

Restaurant in the city

Sightseeing today was a real mix of experiences and emotions, as you can imagine. Following a tour of the King's Palace with a visit to the Killing Fields was extreme. I don't have any way to describe the latter so it's best not to try. Our guide's father had been killed by the Khmer Rouge; his family had been forced out of the city into the countryside when he was 1 month old. We also visited Tuol Sleng detention centre which is now a museum. 10,000 prisoners were kept there over 3 years. 7 survived.

The centre of the city has some wonderful buildings like the King's Palace, museums and temples, but the outskirts of the city are filthy and poverty stricken. The average wage is about £500 a year. But the people are lovely, so friendly and open. Our guide was of the opinion that the economy is growing, but we found it difficult being the rich Western tourists even though tourism is a major industry and is of huge benefit to the country.

Kings Palace

Two local lobsters!!

Anyway... Tomorrow we're leaving the city and heading west to the rainforest where we're staying on the river in some sort of floating lodge. We'll keep you posted.

 

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Banks Peninsula

Sunday 17th March

We set off for our 2 day trek around the Peninsula which is about an hour's drive from Christchurch. You can do the walk either in 2 or 4 days so we opted for 2 otherwise you'd be hanging around all day and not walking much on the 4 day option. For some strange reason you spend the first night in a hut even though you don't go there till the evening. I thought it would be because you were in the middle of nowhere, but it was only 10 mins drive from the town. I am still puzzled...

Anyway, the promised rain happened. It blew a gale all Sunday night and the next morning we set off in the rain. It rained all day. It did not stop. No views from the summit, as you can see

Things looked up in the afternoon when we hit the coastal path; some really lovely headlands, a very quirky shelter

and a seal colony (complete with lashing rain)

You walk on land belonging to private landowners and they're responsible for the accommodation. The quirky shelter was the creation of those who owned the hut for our overnight stay. It turned out that the 'accommodation' was the result of some drug-addled escapee from the 60s whose imagination led them to create a sort of glade with lots of little huts. The glade was dark, dripping and dank. Here's the shower

 

Yes it's very pretty, but one of the walls is a tree trunk and bits of it are open to the elements. We spent about 15 mins stumbling around trying to locate the 2 day walkers' hut. Finally we discovered a sign, opened the door, to discover a hut about half the size of the average garden shed, with 2 child-sized bunks and some sort of weird calor gas thing. Our lawn mower has more space. Bear in mind I was cold, soaked to the skin and had been thinking of a hot shower for the past 5 miles. And here's some idiot telling me to sleep in a cupboard. With nowhere to dry anything, and a suggestion/instruction that as the 'hut' is so small, to leave rucksacks outside. My Mountain Hut Circle of Hell just got a whole lot bigger.

It's worth mentioning that by this stage The Editor was in an exercise-induced 'tired and emotional state' exacerbated by entirely unrealistic expectations about what our accommodation would comprise: nothing less than a rural Ritz would have sufficed ... Fortunately she didn't locate the owners as she roamed the encampment in search of satisfaction. A woman in search of a hot shower and fine accommodation is indeed a sight to behold... (I'll get my coat now ...)




We rebelled, ignoring this sign

and took up residence in a hut which we think 'they' didn't want us to use as it was for 6 and we are only 2. Sterling work from Steve who lit the wood stove and cooked the dinner whilst folk in a neighbouring hut took pity on me and let me sit by their fire so I could get over the hysterics in a warm place. And I never did get a shower...

Our forbidden hut starting to look cosy

Here's the route.

 

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Little blue penguins

Thursday 14 March

As a loyal reader has pointed out, if you click (or perhaps double click) on any of the photos you can access a higher-quality image, pan and zoom in ... and now over to the Editor

We left the Catlins Coast at Nugget Point: a literal and metaphorical high with tremendous cliff top views and even an albatross, which was pointed out to us as it flew over the sea.

The Nuggets

Next stop was the Otago Peninsula on the south-east coast. It's famous for its penguins, so I was a driven woman, determined to spot some. Easier said than done - the yellow-eyed ones are moulting and are therefore elusive at this time of year; the little blue ones only come ashore at night. So we duly set out to join a guided group on the beach at dusk, and the penguins arrived, and they were gorgeous. They are officially called 'Little Blue Penguins' as they are so small, about a foot in height, and they are blue. They arrive on the beach in groups, or 'rafts' as the warden called them, and the really magic thing was that only a small section of the beach was illuminated, so you couldn't see them swim in and then suddenly there was a gang of about 25 on the rocks. They made their way up (for them) a steep slope to get to their nests. Here's one of the resident photographer's videos:

Today and tomorrow we're heading up to Christchurch to begin a 2 day trek on the Banks Peninsula. You've perhaps heard there's a drought in NZ which has been terrific for us but not so good for the rest...just looked at the weather and the first storm for ages has been predicted. Sod's law! Mustn't grumble, though, given all the sun we've had.







 

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Videos on the blog

It seems that the few short video clips we have posted don't seem to work from within the email notifications which I guess some of you rely on for the (innumerable?) updates to our blog ... If this is indeed the case then it's probably best to go to the full blog site at 2inavan.blogspot.co.uk (or something like that!) ... On the other hand you might be happier with the black rectangles ...

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Sea Lions and the South #2

Wednesday March 13th

Rather a quiet day - not much driving, no towns to speak of, a small waterfall here and there (obligatory photo below)

... Just gently pottering along and around the south coast of South Island. Stopped off at at lovely little campsite at Surat Bay. A walk, a pre-dinner run(route Here ) some more skinny-dipping (getting a bit cooler now! Brrrrr!) and yet more sea lions littering the beach. Absolutely stunning...

Oh I do like to run beside the seaside...

The sea lions

The sea lions

 

Baby poser

 

Fat Duck / L'enclume dish

 

"Oh, good grief, it's that blooming photographer again! If I growl, do you think he'll go away?"

... And as the sun had had enough for the day, the Editor snapped a snap ...

 

 

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Sea-lions and the South

Tuesday 12th March

Today is Tuesday, so it must be Sea-lions Day. We headed out onto the Catlins coastline which is the most south you can get. First stop was Waipapa Point, and the guidebook promised us sea-lions. Well, as we all know, guide books' promises don't always live up to expectations so we weren't holding our breaths. Oh ye of little faith! There they were, and here they are:

A couple dozing in the sun

I am confident that this clip will 'go viral': if cats and singing fishmongers can, then why not sea-lions? And then what fame and fortune will be in store for the resident photographer?

I hadn't actually seen this notice... Probably a good thing! (We are peering down at a sea-lion, not a tsunami.)

There were also some weird and wonderful seaweedy/kelpy things:

Untimely ripped from an alien pod ...

Threatening ribbons of ????

A ravenous shoal heads for shore ...

Next stop, Slope Point, the most southerly point of NZ, and the most south in the world either of us has ever been. It was beautiful.

Two pensioners going south at the southernmost tip of the South Island

Looking south, I guess

The final bay was billed as 'one of the world's finest Jurassic era fossil forests' and it even had a yellow-eyed penguin sunning itself although you weren't allowed to go near it, as they are an endangered species.

Penguin just visible centre shot ...

I have to admit that the petrified forest description didn't really excite, having viewed what I imagined to be similar things elsewhere. However, this was really impressive; there were virtually whole trees to be seen, as per description, petrified ... Brilliant!

 

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