22 Dec 2013 4 Comments
in Family Gap Year Tags: Bali, Christmas in Bali, Homemade Christmas Tree, Indonesia, Penang, Sumatra
Season’s Greetings from Bali. to our friends, families and blog readers – hope you have a fun and peaceful holiday time and a very Happy New Year 2014.
Christmas Bali Style
Hope you enjoy the little bit of festive frivolity that follows as much as we enjoyed making it! More
21 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in Family Gap Year, Travelling
Our last installment for South America and mainland Chile, as we arrive back in Santiago from the deep south with a week to spare before we fly to Easter Island and beyond, Pacific island hopping!
It’s two months since we were last in Santiago. Since then we’ve made a huge loop around the bottom half of South America, first crossing to Iguazu Falls in Argentina, making side trips to Brazil, Parguay and Uruguay, down to the far south of Argentina and Tierre Del Fuego, back to Chile, out to the Falklands and finally up to Santiago again – in total about 4000km by air, 1200km by ferry through Patagonia and the remaining 5000km or so on buses!
yum! Love the food in Santiago 🙂
A week in Santiago
Ten and a half hours overnight and we arrive in Santiago about 7am. We had semi-cama seats – literally ‘half bed’ but frankly not resembling any kind of bed in my book and a far cry from the wonderful flat bed experience we just got to enjoy that one time in Argentina
17 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in Family Gap Year Tags: Chile, Lake Villarrica, Pucon, Puerto Montt, South America
Part 2 of our final two weeks in South America, as we hot foot it back to Santiago from the deep south with a plane to catch that we`re keen not to to alter for a third time….
Lakes and Volcanoes
We’re up early on our fourth and final morning aboard ‘Evangelista’, to pack, have a final breakfast, disembark and get a taxi to the Croatia Apart Hotel, Puerto Montt. We have had a fabulous time cruising the Chilean Fjords on the Navimag ferry.
Patricio, the friendly taxi driver who takes us agrees to come back in an hour to take us for a tour around Llanquihue Lake (the second biggest lake in South America) Petrohue falls & Calbuco Volcano, and visit some German villages – we shower up quickly and head off. We have great day with him even though the weather is rubbish! He is a super guide and by day’s end we feel we have another lifelong friend! We see waterfalls dropping over volcanic rock just 144 yrs old, go up the volcano Calbuco as far as the snow for a snowball fight and pick up some volcanic rock samples!
A day of adventure around Puerto Montt
16 Dec 2013 5 Comments
in Family Gap Year, Top Experiences, Travelling Tags: Chile, Chilean Fjords, Navimag, Patagonia, Puerto Montt, Puerto Natales, Punta Arenas, South America
Map of Chile (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Finally, the last instalments of our nine months in South America are ready to share, as we hot foot it back to Santiago from the deep south. With around 3000km to travel two thirds of the length of the most slender country in the world through fjords, volcanoes, lakes and national parks flanked by the Pacific and the Andes, and with a plane to catch in just over two weeks that we`re keen not to to alter for a third time!
This is Part One – in which we bus overland from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales then cruise on the Navimag ferry through the Chilean fjords to Puerto Montt…..
We arrive back from the Falklands to Punta Arenas in Chile’s deep south Patagonia on the day before Easter. The children would have loved the flight to have been cancelled again as it was on the way out as we would have got `stuck` in the Falklands for Easter Sunday, but it wasn’t to be! .
Views from Navimag, day 2, cruising through the Chilean fjords
01 Dec 2013 7 Comments
in Family Gap Year, Top Experiences Tags: Ayung River, Bali, earthquake, Green School, Indonesia, Sumatra, Ubud
The Clark family are still alive …. And we’ve just enjoyed an amazing month in Bali and now we’re in Sumatra…
Royal funeral ‘celebrations’ in Ubud’s streets
Our Asian adventure is still just beginning but it feels as if we’re on the home straight! Last week we reached 500 days of travelling More
01 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in Family Gap Year, Top Experiences Tags: Easter Island, Isla De Pascua, Moai, Pacific Island, pacific island hopping, Rapa Nui, South America
Easter Island sunset
We arrive in Easter island from Santiago on our first of many hops (well leaps) across the Pacific on our way to Australia and Asia. 3700km off mainland Chile, a 6 hour flight, part of Chile, Spanish name Isla de Pascua, indigenous name Rapa Nui, the same name given to the indigenous Polynesian population and local language.The population of 6700 live in the one peaceful, pretty town of Hanga Nui – with one main street and a handful of shops and cafes, mostly Rapa Nui people, though an increasing number of mainland Chilean people have settled here too. .
16 Nov 2013 2 Comments
Note from Mo. I didn’t really mean to reblog this, I hit a button in my WordPress app and hey presto it was there, but I’m happy I did. Typhoon Haiyan has been so much in our minds this week. The Philippines is not so far away from where we are, and one of the destinations on our gap year list. The devastation that the storms have left is so tragic and shocking. Aside from donating to emergency relief I was also reading about how one could volunteer through social media – take a look at this post from a cruising family I like to follow I haven’t figured it out yet, but we could probably sit and do this for a day in Bali, where we’re lucky to be safe, far away from storms.
The tragic Typhoon Haiyan that ripped through the Philippines a week ago today left behind a trail of destruction, death and sorrow that continues to unfold. Words cannot express the utter despair that remains in the aftermath of the storm. The images of destruction, desperation and fear remind us how powerless we are and how fragile life can be especially in the face of Mother Nature. Thousands of people have lost their lives in just a blink of an eye and the exact number of casualties is yet to fully be known.
As we know, images are powerful reminders of our hopes and of our fears. A picture can paint a thousand words.
Thanks to my work as an advocate and voice for Save the Children, I was able to get access to exclusive photos from Typhoon Haiyan as well as speak with Francine Uenuma, Director of Media and Communications…
View original post 693 more words
30 Aug 2013 10 Comments
in Family Gap Year, Looking Back Tags: Cook Islands, Easter Island, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Pacific Island, pacific island hopping, Pacific Ocean, Tonga, Vanuatu
Sorry we’ve been rather quiet for a few weeks and thanks for the check ups! We’re still alive, arrived safely in Sydney this week! We’ve spent 4 months crossing the Pacific. We’ve seen the tsunami warnings, dodged the earthquakes, survived the sharks and sea snakes, survived the 24 hour ferry crossings, even got by without much wi-fi(!) and now we’ve made it safely back from the summit of erupting Mt Yasur volcano. It’s been erupting almost continuously for over 800 years and we stood on its edge and watched it blow!
There she blows!
11 Jul 2013 14 Comments
in Adventure, Family Gap Year, Looking Back Tags: agroventures, auckland, Cook Island, Kia Ora, New Zealand, Pacific Ocean, Shweeb, Southern Hemisphere, stardome, waitangi
Kia Ora! Hello, Greetings!
A year ago today we flew out of London, Heathrow on our way to Rio to begin our family gap year and round the world adventure! We’ve travelled for 365 days! We’re half way there, enjoying time in New Zealand.
Ready to fly – at Heathrow a year ago and in New Zealand today!
24 Jun 2013 4 Comments
in Family Gap Year Tags: Argentina, Beagle Channel, Punta Arenas, Tiera del Fuego, Tiera del Fuego National Park, Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia
19-23 March 2013.
Ushuaia. The most southerly town in Argentina. The pretty port looks south over the Beagle channel and the West, North and East are surrounded by imposing snowy peaks and the Martial Glacier and ski runs can be seen looking back from the town.
Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, the end of the world, just a few hundred km from Antarctica and showing Malvinas as (Arg) owned with Pt Argentino as the capital instead of Stanley!
Tierra del Fuego is the most southerly inhabited land and closest place to Antarctica, with exception of South Orkney with its Argentine naval base, another territory claimed by both Argentina and the UK! Cruises to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia. The museums, shops, trips and restaurants are called Fin del Mundo This or End of the World That. Strictly speaking, the town of Puerto Williams is the most southerly town, across the Beagle channel in Chile but it’s expensive to get there! In Ushuaia, they don’t split hairs and are happy to claim end of the world fame so we decide that’s good enough for us too! More
Ben
Lara
Martin Clark
Mo
Zoe
The Clark Family's Amazing Adventures 