Entries about nature

Although it didn't seem far on the map, it still took us an hour to get there. Upon arrival at this former quarry pit that has been converted into an ecological attraction, we made our way down the slopes and after entering gained view of the two biomes and surrounding landscaped gardens.

We started by exploring the gardens, which contain plants from the local area and the country as a whole, before making our way to the Tropical Biome. In here, there are an array of tropical plants, and a few animals that live in a tropical climate, kept at 28˚C and at the correct level of humidity.

After viewing the interesting alternate climate, we crossed the bridge and entered the Mediterranean biome. Less interesting as we had seen this climate for real many times, it was still clever how the plants can survive outside their natural area and it was very well kept.

Eventually we headed back to the car to continue our journey for the day. Our next stop was not far away - the small fishing village of Mevagissey, around 20 minutes on the other side of St. Austell.

We didn't stop long here, but enough time to wander around and get a feel for a real Cornish fishing village. Our next stop was Falmouth, which still took almost an hour to reach. Here we would stop at the Pendennis Castle, with views over the estuary where many small boats are moored.

By this time it was getting late so after driving back through Falmouth, through some of the streets that felt like they belonged on the other side of the English Channel, we headed back to our hotel.

After having dinner at the restaurant next door we chilled for the evening when a sore throat started to come on! The following morning after a nice rest the sore throat was still there but nevertheless we progressed with our final full day in Cornwall.

We first started at St. Michael's Mount, a tidal island located off the coast near Penzance. Wanting to be able to walk along the causeway we checked the tidal times and thus went there first thing.

After parking we walked along the beautiful causeway and walked into the port where the shops were beginning to open. It was a very small quaint place and after buying some souvenirs we continued with today's trip by heading down to Land's End.

Although it didn't seem far on the map, again it took much longer than expected. After about 40 minutes we arrived at the very commercialised attraction, bought some souvenirs, and took in views of the last point on Great Britain.

The next place on our list was the Minack Theatre, located just around the corner. This theatre is built into the cliff face and has beautiful views of the sea and nearby beaches. At the time we were there, rehearsals for the next play were taking place so we got to witness a performance without having to pay for it!

After this we headed down to Lizard Point, the southernmost point on Great Britain, and the only bit located below 50˚N. Unlike Land's End this was not as commercialised, but still had stunning cliffs.

On our way back from Lizard Point we stopped off at Loe Bar, a tombolo which has created a lake in a former estuary.

After walking along the Cornish coast we had just one more place to visit whilst down here, and that was the town of St. Ives. By this time however I was fed up of the other tourists, from being downright inconsiderate to the worst of what England can offer. It's almost as if all the manners that English people have suddenly disappears the moment they are on holiday. Everytime we saw some nice people, they turned out to be foreign!

Upon arriving in St. Ives it was a mess. Car parks were located all around the town, which was completely incapable with coping. It has small winding extremely hilly streets which end up on the main promenade, full of people who couldn't care less if they were about to be ran over. And yet there is no way around it, as there is a one way loop. When you eventually end up where you need to be it turns out the car park is full anyway. What the town needs is a large car park outside that can cope with all visitors, with a bus/footpath into the town. All roads beyond this point being pedestrianised and for locals only. The amount of money that the council make from car parking could easily fund this but simple disorganisation and mismanagement prevents it.

To make matters worse, when we finally found a car park with spaces, the machines went down preventing anyone from buying a ticket. However as the town did look beautiful we went out of our way in order to pay it a visit.

We didn't stay overly long, with the skanky tourists, the harassing seagulls starting to grate, as well as the time getting on, so after a walk around the town and relax on the beach we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a chilled evening.

After breakfast the following morning, we got the rest of our bits together and headed on our way back home. Again this would take hours, so we made a few stops en route.

After an hour we still hadn't reached where we left the main road to the Eden Project, but the further we got out of Cornwall the better the roads tended to get. We branched off as we got to the Cornwall/Devon border and headed into Dartmoor. Again many winding roads, but as we drove through the moorland we did see lots of scenery and wild animals.

After a brief stop at the visitor centre we continued the long drive through the winding roads of Devon, before eventually making it towards Exeter, and onwards home. Managing to dodge an 90 minute traffic jam by whizzing around the local roads near Salisbury we eventually made it home just before rush hour!

850 miles in the last five days, but we had managed to see such beautiful scenery. Had the other tourists not lost their manners it would have been more enjoyable but it was still a nice trip away.

Waking up, I had quite a dry mouth and with just dry wafers to eat I had a relatively light breakfast before joining half the group downstairs to grab the minibus for our excursion to the Ala Archa mountains.

Upon arrival Noel was shocked to discover we were going hiking - despite this being on all the literature and in the announcement the previous day, and so with him staying in the restaurant and enjoying the views the rest of us made our way up the mountains, past a sign informing us that it was "prohibited to disunity and mangal". That's me not mangaling here then!

With it being the autumn, as we had made our way north through the region it was becoming colder and colder, and so by now the north facing mountains were already starting to become covered in snow, although it was a fine temperature for hiking.

Making our way up the mountains quickly became a hard task, and with many of us exhausted from two weeks of non-stop travel it was unsurprising that the majority of the group had already turned back before the halfway mark.

As we proceeded towards a flatter part of the hike I could see where we were headed, and with a dip before another climb, the thought of an incline on the way back sealed my decision to start my descent - for I had already gained beautiful views of the Tian Shan mountains on foot.

Taking a leisurely walk back down I met the rest of the group in the restaurant and started to enjoy the warmth of the room as well as the sit down. Hoping the rest of the group would soon rejoin us, I started to feel physically drained, and before I knew it my eyes were shutting and my head was feeling heavy. And then....bash....

A short time later, I awoke to find myself lying on the tiled floor with my fellow travellers panicking around me as I had just fell off my chair and fainted. Now with a bruised head and a bruised ego I had to explain that I was in fact fine, just completely exhausted - the hike having finished me off.

By this point everyone was making their return and so getting onto the minibus we headed back to the hostel. Once we had arrived I was then able to get into bed and try and recover from the physical draining of the morning. With Richard having also had an accident the night before - tripping over a wire and cutting his face, our room might as well has a red cross placed upon it!

As I had already seen much of Bishkek, I spent the rest of the day in bed, popping out only for a short walk to the nearest fast food restaurant - "Big Mack" in order to replenish my calories. However as the exhaustion was so great it was still a struggle to eat the entire meal and not long after I headed back to bed for another rest and sleep before the final full day of the tour.

Despite staying in the capital for two days already, we were only just making our way into the city centre to take a look around. Starting on Laugavegur - the main shopping street, we made our way along to the harbour, visiting the Harpa concert hall and the flee market, before heading into the old city centre.

Buying some souvenirs we then arrived at the Parliament, a very small town hall sized building, lost amongst the taller surrounding buildings, before heading back towards Laugavegur and Hallgrim's Cathedral.

The cathedral is situated behind a statue of Leif Erikson, the first man to make it to the Americas, and was finished less than thirty years ago. A tower inside gives great views of the city, and after taking a look around we walked back to the car paying a nominal amount for our car parking and having lunch back at the apartment.

Having a little rest we then headed back into the car and out of the city to the Þingvellir National Park, for a walk around the rift valley where the original parliament was located in the 10th century. Heading back to the apartment for dinner we then went out again to the city for a few drinks. Two drinks, around two thirds of the UK size quickly added up to £18 and after breaking the bank, we headed to a pub with live music.

Not knowing what to expect, we were quickly bombarded by a drag act blasting out her own composition of synth in Icelandic. Thirty minutes later the next act came out in a silver glittery niqab. As she started singing, it quickly became clear that this was the same person. Saturday nights in Iceland. What a time to be alive!

Catching the last bus back we had just one day of the holiday left to go.

After taking the Ryanair flight from Luton we arrived at the tiny airport in Kerry and waited for the bus to take us the town of Killarney where we would base ourselves for the two night trip.

We had decided to visit Kerry as there had been nowhere particular in Ireland that we really wanted to visit - rather just an experience of traditional Ireland that we were intrigued. And with the flight from Luton and the Ring of Kerry, Killarney had settled that for us. As we had taken an afternoon flight, by the time we ate than then reached our room in a B&B, there wasn't much else we intended to do that evening, and so we just settled in before the next day when we had booked an excursion to take us around the Ring of Kerry.

Ring of Kerry

Celtic Cross

After waking up and taking a filling breakfast, we walked 5 minutes around the corner to the office to get our tickets and board our coach. Unsurprisingly it was filled with Americans - a staple of any tour, which provided my sister and me with a laugh.

On the way to the airport the previous day, we had seen a lady walking a greyhound - to which my dad but in my conversation to announce that "there's a woman walking her donkey". This had given my sister and I a good laugh all day, and as we began the tour of the Ring of Kerry, suddenly what did we see - a man posing with a donkey. Of course we were in stitches as this - and immediately started taking pictures to tell dad about the "man walking his dog".

The Ring of Kerry itself was nice, but not a lot to it - lots of nice scenery, but as the weather was bad there wasn't much else to look at. However the American behind me had clearly never seen a sheep before, and began pointing every single one out to her son (who had also strapped in a toy one on the coach).

After pointing out a baby sheep (aka a lamb), I began to joke with my sister making "Baa" noises - to which she told me, I was "good at sheep impressions" before telling me that she was going to London and needed to "get [her] some Pound!". I agreed that she did, before turning back around and laughing. Coming back to Killarney we took a little walk around the town finding Penneys as well as getting some souvenirs.

Our final day had an afternoon flight, so we spent the day walking around Killarney, starting with a walk down to Ross Castle and Lough Leane where there were great views as well as a lot of wind, before making our way back to the town to carry out some more shopping and enjoying the local culture to mark the end of our brief, but interesting trip to the other British Isles nation.

Johan came to visit me and we then travelled up to visit Sandy in Leeds, visiting Malham and Skipton again as well as spending lots of time together.