We realize we haven't written much in English, and that there are a few of you that that may be a problem for (Google Translate not withstanding) so we're going to try and post an succint version of where we've been and where we are:
We started out in South Africa in late January 2011. We stayed for a few days with some friends in Johannesburg, and made some new friends at St Augustine University. One of the highlights of Joburg is the Apartheid museum, which explains how the terrible system came to be, what it entailed, and how it ended. Then we rented a car and went for a month-long drive around the country, heading west from Joburg towards Upington. There we went to Augrabies Falls and also spent a day in Kalahari National Park. We later drove down to Cape Town via Calvinia, and admired the vast (and somewhat empty) countryside, at times the nearest town being 250km off... We spent just under a week in Cape Town, allowing time to go up to Table Mountain, to visit Robben Island prison, to go round the Cape of Good Hope, to visit the Cape Flats and also spend some time with some NGOs. Afterwards we headed over to Stellebosch, where the best South African wine is to be found. Stan's great-aunt May has started up a winery in this region a few years ago and staying with her we had the luck of being able to visit it and understand the wine-making process a little better, and also to be able to sample her delicious wines without having to drive afterwards. We also had a chance to visit the former French quarter of the budding Cape Colony: Franschoek, and the Huguenot museum. After a few days we headed East again, along the "Garden Route" but hit upon too much rain for our taste, so after passing through Mossel Bay and Knissna, we headed inland to Graff-Reinet in the Karoo region. There we enjoyed the sun and the friendlyness of the local people, and happened to meet the only French-speaker of the town by chance. We then headed down to Coffee bay, following the recommendation of a friend met along the way, and got the sunburn of a lifetime (both of us) we were more careful from then on. After that we made for Durban, the 3rd largest city of South Africa, with the largest indian population. We had a stroll through the Indian quarter, and a nice walk by the beach, before heading north to the Drakkensburg Mountains. In the Drakkensburg, just east of Lesotho, we camped and hiked for 2 days, completely to ourselves in the gorgeous landscapes, and afterwards headed south east again, all the way to the small town of Santa Lucia, caught between the estuary and the sea. In Santa Lucia we relaxed a bit, and enjoyed the beach (the Indian Ocean is much warmer than the Atlantic !!) the snorkling, and saw many wild animals in the reserve. We then went north to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game park, where we spent 2 days and one night, and saw many many neat animals, some very close-up (actually almost too close-up for our taste: rhinos and elephants are really very intimidating...). We finished up our tour of South Africa by going back to Joburg to give back our car, say our goodbyes, and catch a bus north to Malawi.
After 37 hours of bus, pausing only at the Zimbabwean, Mozambiquan and Malawian borders, we finally made it to Blantyre, Malawi. We spent about a week there, staying with some friends of Stan's family, the Borgsteins, an incredibly interesting family who have been living in Malawi for 2 generations. Not only did they let us stay with them, but they also introduced us to many different people and projects, allowing us to understand many aspects of life in the country. After a week we set off, first to the south, to climb Mount Mulanje, the highest point in between Mt Kilimanjaro and the Drakkensburg; it was tough going but we made it ! Then we caught a truck ride to Zomba, the former capital of the country. We then headed up to Mua, a Catholic mission founded in 1903 and home to the Kungoni Cultural center, which collects information on 3 of the major ethnic groups in Malawi: the Chewa, the Yao and the Ngoni, their rites of passage, their traditionnal dances. We also met father Boucher, an artist himself, who has made the mission a center for sculptors, painters and other artists to come train and work, and who told us all about "inculturation" and the process of telling the story of Jesus through local culture and metaphores so that it is closer to the local people. After a few days, we took several minibuses to the coast of lake Malawi, to Nkudzi Bay, where the Borgsteins have a lake house where we enjoyed the stunning beauty of the lake and its surroundings. Then we went north to spend a day on the secluded Domwe Island, before heading to the capital of the country Lilongwe. We rested a bit in Lilongwe, and took the time to visit the huge local market and busy city center, and then got on a bus to Nkotakota, where we caught the Ilala ferry at 2 in the morning. The Ilala is the age-old ferry that goes up and down the lake once a week, stoping on both sides and at the islands in the middle. We spent about 24hours on the boat, during which we saw the mozambiquan side (but didn't get off), stopped on Likoma Island to see the beautifal Anglican cathedral, and slept on the upper deck in the middle of a thunderstorm. Then in order to rest a bit, we spent a few days in Nkhata Bay. Rest we did because we both caught a pretty bad spout of tonsilitis at this point, but that didn't stop us from going to the beach again, meeting some very interesting people, like the very welcoming Father Sam of the local parish, and NGOs like the Micro loan foundation, and going to a cooking class in a local village. Then we took a minibus to Mzuzu, where we met Father Aidan, who runs a mental hospital belonging to the order of St John of God, and also a friend that Clem had made on a bus on a previous journey. After 2 days we went north to Karonaga, where we said our goodbyes to Lake Malawi's blue waters and then got a cab to the border with Tanzania.
We weren't originally planning on spending lots of time in Tanzania, but since we had 2 weeks on our hands before our flight to Israel, we decided to make the most of it. We took several buses, spending 3 days total in public transport, stopping overnight in Mbeya, Dar es Salaam, and finally arriving in the north of the country to Moshi, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. There we met Celine, a volunteer for Fidesco, who works in a hospital run by the sisters of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro, and we followed her around for 2 days, in order to get good video and photo footage of her for use by Fidesco. Then we decided to indulge ourselves in a safari, as Clem was disappointed of not seeing any lions in South Africa, so we joined a group that was going to Ngorogoro crater and Serengeti National Parc, and we did not regret it for an instant. The lanscapes and animals were mind-blowing, not only did we see lions but also the great wildebeast herd seasonal migration through the plains. We returned to Moshi to say our goodbyes to Celine and the sisters and then left for Zanzibar, the semi-independant island off the coast of Tanzania, to relax after the very intense last few days. Due to Clem's wallet and visa card being stolen in the north, there were some formalities to be seen to with the airline taking us to Israel, but we still had plenty of time to walk around Stone Town, and then to relax on the beach in Bwejuu, watch the fisherman go out and come in to sell their catch, collecting shells on the beach, and the like. We finally went back to Dar es Salaam to catch our flight to Israel.
We arrived in Jerusalem, Israel just in time for Palm Sunday and the rest of Holy Week, which we spent following Jesus Christ's footsteps around the Holy City. We then followed a group of volunteers and a fransiscan friar up to Galilea, to Nazareth, Tiberias, and Capharnaum, to discover where Christ spent his time preaching before he came to Jerusalem. Afterwards we decided to cross the 10 yard cement wall over into the West Bank, part of the Palestinian Territories, where we spent 5 days, exploring Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, the Dead Sea, and Ramallah. Then we came back into Israel, and visited the northern coast, and the Golan region, circled back through Galilea, went back to Haifa and then down to Tel Aviv and later Eilat at the Red Sea. We crossed over into Jordan, meeting a few friends at Petra for a few days. Finally, we crossed back over into Israel, and spent our last few days in Israel in Jerusalem.
We have now started the Asian leg of our trip, which will last for about 6 months. We arrived in Beijing, where we spent about a week, kindly hosted by Ségolène (thanks!). We then spent a few days near Datong, Wutai Shan and Pingyao, before going down to Shanghai, where we spent about 10 days, working in 2 day trips to Suzhou and Hangzhou with Edouard and JB. We then went back to Beijing for a few days, in order to get our visas for Mongolia sorted. We took the trans-mongolian train from Beijing to Ulaan Baator, and went out west of the capital, nearby the town of Rashant, to travel for local family to family by horseback and camelback, sleeping in gers as we went. We came back very happy but rather sore to UlaanBaatar just on time to enjoy the second and final day of Naadam, the national festival of "the 3 manly sports" of wrestling, archery and horse racing. Afterwards, we went back out in the countryside, this time to the mountainous and forresty east, in Terelj national park, also staying with families, camping out under our own tent this time.
We returned to China, and spent a few days in Xi'an, the city of the renown Terracota Army. We also climed up and down the beautiful (and crowded) peaks of Hua Shan, the sacred taoist mountain. We then took a 33 hour train ride west into Xinjiang, the "far-west" of China and home to many ethnic minorities, most notable among them the Uygurs. We started our journey through the region at Turpan, hottest place in China, where the most delicious grapes can be found. We then made a short stop in the regional capital Urumqi before boarding another train even further west; we had originally meant to stop in Kashgar, but we met a very nice english teacher on the train who invited us to visit her home town of Yecheng (Uygur name Karagilik) so we jumped on the occasion and stayed on the train. After Yecheng we continued on to Khotan, and then retraced our way to Kashgar. There we visited the main mosque, a beautiful tiled mosauleum, the colorful local markets and the unique sunday livestock market, where peasants comme from all over the region to buy and sell cows, sheep, goats, and donkeys. We then came back to the center of China, to the Gansu and Sichuan provinces, which are home to pockets of ethnic minorities, among which the tibetans (Tibet being so strictly controled by the government, it is a much less costly and much more authentic way of witnessing tibetan culture). We visited Labrang Monastary, where 700 tibetan monks in red robes live, the youngest being barely 6 years old. We were rushed to leae by the chinese authorities because of the arrival of the Panchen Lama, and continued on to the village of Langmusi, where we stayed a few days. There we took in the beauty of the mountains and of the colorful local tibetan population, and we had the occasion to make a day trip to a small remore village and another to a tibetain fair. We took a bus and finally made it to Chengdu, the regional capital of Sichuan, and we took in the relaxed atmosphere and enjoyed the parcs and tea houses.
We arrived in India mid-August, and started by spending a week in Delhi, where we did some sight-seeing (Humayun's tomb, the red fort, Old Delhi, Qutub Minar...) and also went to see the huge anti-corruption protests led by aging activist Anna Hazare. Thanks to a serrendipitous encounter, we were able to meet many nice and interesting people. Then Stan's parents joined us and we left Delhi with them to enjoy a 10 day tour of Rajasthan, a region of small kingdoms ruled by Marahajas until about 40 years ago. We started with the village of Mandawa, and then visited the cities of Bikaner, Jaisalmer (the golden city), Jodhpur (the blue city), Udaipur (the lake city), and Jaipur (the pink city). Then we headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, after which we said goodbye to Stan's parents, and took a night train to Mumbai (Bombay). In Mumbai, we visited some of the sights left over from the Brittsh colonial period, took a ferry to see the caves on Elephanta Island, and took a tour of various other sights of the economic capital of India : Haji Ali's tomb, Babulnath temple, Mount Mary church, Juhu beach, Crawford market... We were specially interested by Darhavi slum, a 1.7 km² area where over a million people live and work, which is one of the economic powerhouses of the city: plastic and aluminium are sorted and melted down to be resold and reused, textiles are dyed and sewn and pots are made. Then we headed south to Goa, a former portugese enclave, where many gigantic (and abandonned) churches are to be found. We took a train to Hampi, where we visited the ruins of Vijaynagar, the capital of an ancient imperial capital. Then we took two more trains to go to Mysore, where we visited a local palace and market. We headed further south to Kerala, stopping first at Cochin, then in the backwaters near Kottayam, where we spent a wonderful few days on the canals and in the rice fields, exploring the ancient christian roots of the local people. We went as far south as Trivandrum, nearly the tip of India, then took a train up the other side of the peninsula to Chennai (formerly called Madras). We then took another train (30h) north to Calcutta, where we spent a few days volunteering in a center for destitute and dying people run by the Missionnairies of Charity (sisters of Mother Theresa) : it was truly an incredibly enriching experience !! Then our friend Father Sam, from Malawi, joined us for a few days, and we went to Varanasi (also called Benares), the holy city for Hindu people, where people bath in the river Ganges, and are cremated on it's ghats. We finally went back to Calcutta, where we celebrated Clem and Father Sam's birthdays (same day !) and said goodbye to India.
We went back to China for our third and final time. We arrived in Chengdu (where we had left off), and made our way west, up into the mountains, to Litang, a tibetan village in Sichaun province. We crossed over into Yunnan province to the town of Shangr-la, where we met many interesting people, then took a bus to Dali, where we spent a few days relaxing at Jean-Yves place with some friends. Then we went further south to Xichuanbana region, at the border with Laos and Myanmar, but stayed on the chinese side. Then we went north to the regional capital of Kunming, and later took a train to Guilin, on the banks of the Li river. After a few days' rest, we took a night train to Shenzen and crossed over the border into Hong Kong. We spent a week exploring Hong Kong, also briefly visiting Shenzen and Macao.
We left Asia for Australia mid November. We started by spending 5 days or so with some friends in Melbourne. Then we rented a car and drove along the Great Ocean Road, and made our way back up the western coast to Sydney, passing via the Mornington peninsula, Wilson's Promontory, Canberra, Bateman's bay, and the Blue Mountains. We spent a few days tramping around Sydney : went to listen to a symphony at the Opera House, walked from Coogee to Bondi beach, went to an underground concert in a garage in Marricksville, picnicked in Glebe park, and walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Then we took a train up to Brisbane, where we spent our last few days in Australia walking around and enjoying the sun and heat (finally!).
We flew to New Zealand mid-December, and spent a few days in Auckland, the biggest city of the country. We loved the Maori displays at the Auckland museum, and also spent some time in the harbor of the City of Sails. We then took a bus to Wellington, the capital, at the bottom of the North Island. Realizing that Christmas was nearing and that this was summer vacation time for the kiwis, we took the last ferry with seats still available to the south island, and then hitchhiked our way to south as the buses were all booked up too, from Picton to Blenheim, then to Kaikoura, and finally to Christchurch. Upon arriving in Christchurch, we were quite shaken by the December 23rd earthquake, the 4th in a series of major earthquakes that have brought the city to its knees in the past 15 months. However, most of the fragile building having long collapsed or been brought down, there was no major new damage. We joined the local people for Christmas Carols in the park and went to midnight mass in one of the few churches still open to the public. We spent Christmas lunch with the brothers of St John and their guests. Clem's parents joined us after Christmas, and with them we embarked on a tour of the breathtaking landscapes of the south island : Akaora, lake Tekapo, Mt Cook, the lakes of Queenstown and Wanaka, Fox Glacier, the west coast, Abel Tasman national parc, and finally the vineyards of Marlborough. We then took the ferry up to the north island, passing through Wellington, tramping in Tongariro parc, simmering in hot springs at lake Taupo, and admiring the geothermic activity in Rotorua and Waimangu valley. We finally made it back to Auckland where we said goodbye to Clem's parents and caught our flight to South America.
We flew to Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile. We spent 3 days in Torres del Payne national parc. Then we crossed over into Argentine Patagonia, where we visited beautiful Perito Moreno glaciar. We then made our way northwards through Argentine Patagonia, stopping in los Antiguos, Lago Puelo and Bariloche. We stopped over in Sierra de la Ventana on our way to the capital : Buenos Aires. We spent a week there, walking around the capital, meeting random interesting people and enjoying the argentine way of life. We then took a bus to the west, to the region of Mendoza, where we first stopped in Monte Coman, a small town near San Rafael, and then continued on to the city of Mendoza, tasting many fine Argentine wines as we went. We continued to Córdoba, the second city of Argentina, where we met some friends and took in a lot of the colonial and religous heritage in the region. Then we headed back east to Rosario, home of the Che. We spent 3 days in San Ignacio, one of the former jesuit missions, before meeting Clem's dad for the weekend in Iguazu falls, and crossing over into Brasil.
We began our stay in Brasil by visiting the brasilian side of the Igazu falls. Then we went to spend a few very wet days at the beach in Florianopolis, and made our way to Saõ Paolo. We stayed for 2 days and then went to Rio de Janeiro for the famed carnaval. It was everything we expected to be and much more: we loved the general good spirit of the entire population getting dressed up and heading to the streets to dance as early as 9 in the morning on the saterday, and partying almost straight into Tuesday night... We went back to Sao Paolo to spend a few days getting to know the city better and spend some time with Clem's father who was working there at the time. Then we took a bus to Sao Jose dos Campos to visit some friends and then went on to Paraty, a beautiful sea-side village. We went back to Rio to check out the city when it's not carnaval, and had a bit of trouble with a lost bag, that was thankfully found a week later. We met some extremely friendly people in Belo Horizonte, and then went to the lovely town of Ouro Preto to relax for a few days. Then we took a bus to the state of Bahia, and met our friend Vianney in Salvador. We left the city to go spend a few days in the beautful Chapada Diamantina national parc, in Capao and Lencois. Then all 3 of us headed to Recife, to go and visit Aurelien. We enjoyed the beautiful beach at Porto Galhinas, the lovely colonial city of Olinda, and most of all catching up with our friends. We said goodbye to both of them and went north to Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon, where we stayed a few days before heading upriver to Santarem (having a bit of boat rouble along the way). We flew to Manaus, since taking the boat would not get us there on time for our flight out of the country.
We made a brief stop in Peru before leaving South America. 5 years ago Clem had spend 3 months in Piura, volunteering with Manitos Creciendo, a program that helps teenagers that have dropped out of school in order to help their family by working, giving them professional training in one of 4 different jobs, helping those who dropped out very young to learn to read and write, and do basic math, and involving the teenagers and their families in several workshops (non violence, self confidence, HIV prevention, etc). We thus returned to Piura after 5 years, to find that CANAT, the NGO that runs Manitos Creciendo, is still doing wonderful and very necessary work. We left Piura and crossed the border north to catch our flight to Mexico from Quito, Ecuador.
We then went to Mexico. We spent a few days on the most beautiful beach we'd ever seen, in Tulum, in the Yucatan peninsula, enjoying the sea, and the Maya ruins. Then we went inland to visit the Maya ruins at Coba, and then again at Chichen Itza. We then went to Merida, where we spent a few days, also making a short trip to visit Izamal. We went to Campeche, and then on again to Palenque, where we visited the goergeous Maya ruins lost in the surrounding jungle. We passed through Villahermosa on our way to Puebla, where we met our friends Benjamin and Mathilde, and stayed with their very welcoming family over the 5 de mayo holiday, commemorating the victory of the Mexican army over invading French troops 150 years ago. After a few days we breifly went to Cuernavaca, to visit Cath, who works with the elderly, and then we went to Mexico city. In the DF, we spent some time with Benjy's ever welcoming family, who showed us around the museums and city center, and even took us to a wrestling match . We were joined by our friend Anne who will be traveling with us for a few days. We went to Oaxaca, enjoying the enless celebrations which seem to happen here, and visiting the Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban, as well as a local Sunday market. We then took a bus to Veracruz and then onwards to a quiet beach at Tecolutla, where we got to see baby sea turtles up close and personal. We visited the ruins at El Tajin, and then made our way back to Mexico City. From there we took a day trip to visit the very impresive ruins of Teotihuacan, and enjoy the city a bit more. We got on a bus to San Miguel de Allende, bus unfortunately, about half way there, our bus crashed into another vehicle. We spent a day in the hospital, but are all all right. We decided to skip San Miguel and headed to Guanajuato instead, where we chilled out for a few days. Anne went back home and we then made our way to Guadalajara, and then took a 32h bus to cross the border into the US at Nogales.
We crossed into Arizona, and rented a car. Our first step was to head for the Grand Canyon, which Stan discovered for the 1st time. We then went north to Lake Powell, and then north again to catch a fleeting glimpse of Las Vegas, in Nevada, before making for California. We visited Los Angeles and San Diego, and headed north to San Francisco, where we spent 3 days. Then we took a greyhound bus up to Portland, and another to Seattle, before crossing into Canada. We spent a few days in Vancouver, before taking a 4 day scenic train across Canada all the way to Toronto. We spent a few wonderful days in Toronto with François-Olivier and Laurence, and then took another train eastwards, into French-speaking Canada, to the city of Quebec. We then carpooled down to Montreal, where we spent a few days with Raphaëlle and Etienne. Then w took a bus across the border to Boston, and spent a day visiting the city. We rented a car and drove up the coast to Ellsworth, Maine, to visit Diana and Terry. We drove back down to Boston, and then took a bus to New York City. We spent about a week in New York City, even making it out to Morristown, New Jersey where Clem grew up. We spent a few days in Philadelphia and have now made it to the last stop of the trip : Washington DC.
We have now finnished our trip. We returned to France for a couple months, to see our family and friends, and have now come to Toronto, Canada, to settle down.
We started out in South Africa in late January 2011. We stayed for a few days with some friends in Johannesburg, and made some new friends at St Augustine University. One of the highlights of Joburg is the Apartheid museum, which explains how the terrible system came to be, what it entailed, and how it ended. Then we rented a car and went for a month-long drive around the country, heading west from Joburg towards Upington. There we went to Augrabies Falls and also spent a day in Kalahari National Park. We later drove down to Cape Town via Calvinia, and admired the vast (and somewhat empty) countryside, at times the nearest town being 250km off... We spent just under a week in Cape Town, allowing time to go up to Table Mountain, to visit Robben Island prison, to go round the Cape of Good Hope, to visit the Cape Flats and also spend some time with some NGOs. Afterwards we headed over to Stellebosch, where the best South African wine is to be found. Stan's great-aunt May has started up a winery in this region a few years ago and staying with her we had the luck of being able to visit it and understand the wine-making process a little better, and also to be able to sample her delicious wines without having to drive afterwards. We also had a chance to visit the former French quarter of the budding Cape Colony: Franschoek, and the Huguenot museum. After a few days we headed East again, along the "Garden Route" but hit upon too much rain for our taste, so after passing through Mossel Bay and Knissna, we headed inland to Graff-Reinet in the Karoo region. There we enjoyed the sun and the friendlyness of the local people, and happened to meet the only French-speaker of the town by chance. We then headed down to Coffee bay, following the recommendation of a friend met along the way, and got the sunburn of a lifetime (both of us) we were more careful from then on. After that we made for Durban, the 3rd largest city of South Africa, with the largest indian population. We had a stroll through the Indian quarter, and a nice walk by the beach, before heading north to the Drakkensburg Mountains. In the Drakkensburg, just east of Lesotho, we camped and hiked for 2 days, completely to ourselves in the gorgeous landscapes, and afterwards headed south east again, all the way to the small town of Santa Lucia, caught between the estuary and the sea. In Santa Lucia we relaxed a bit, and enjoyed the beach (the Indian Ocean is much warmer than the Atlantic !!) the snorkling, and saw many wild animals in the reserve. We then went north to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game park, where we spent 2 days and one night, and saw many many neat animals, some very close-up (actually almost too close-up for our taste: rhinos and elephants are really very intimidating...). We finished up our tour of South Africa by going back to Joburg to give back our car, say our goodbyes, and catch a bus north to Malawi.
We weren't originally planning on spending lots of time in Tanzania, but since we had 2 weeks on our hands before our flight to Israel, we decided to make the most of it. We took several buses, spending 3 days total in public transport, stopping overnight in Mbeya, Dar es Salaam, and finally arriving in the north of the country to Moshi, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. There we met Celine, a volunteer for Fidesco, who works in a hospital run by the sisters of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro, and we followed her around for 2 days, in order to get good video and photo footage of her for use by Fidesco. Then we decided to indulge ourselves in a safari, as Clem was disappointed of not seeing any lions in South Africa, so we joined a group that was going to Ngorogoro crater and Serengeti National Parc, and we did not regret it for an instant. The lanscapes and animals were mind-blowing, not only did we see lions but also the great wildebeast herd seasonal migration through the plains. We returned to Moshi to say our goodbyes to Celine and the sisters and then left for Zanzibar, the semi-independant island off the coast of Tanzania, to relax after the very intense last few days. Due to Clem's wallet and visa card being stolen in the north, there were some formalities to be seen to with the airline taking us to Israel, but we still had plenty of time to walk around Stone Town, and then to relax on the beach in Bwejuu, watch the fisherman go out and come in to sell their catch, collecting shells on the beach, and the like. We finally went back to Dar es Salaam to catch our flight to Israel.
We have now started the Asian leg of our trip, which will last for about 6 months. We arrived in Beijing, where we spent about a week, kindly hosted by Ségolène (thanks!). We then spent a few days near Datong, Wutai Shan and Pingyao, before going down to Shanghai, where we spent about 10 days, working in 2 day trips to Suzhou and Hangzhou with Edouard and JB. We then went back to Beijing for a few days, in order to get our visas for Mongolia sorted. We took the trans-mongolian train from Beijing to Ulaan Baator, and went out west of the capital, nearby the town of Rashant, to travel for local family to family by horseback and camelback, sleeping in gers as we went. We came back very happy but rather sore to UlaanBaatar just on time to enjoy the second and final day of Naadam, the national festival of "the 3 manly sports" of wrestling, archery and horse racing. Afterwards, we went back out in the countryside, this time to the mountainous and forresty east, in Terelj national park, also staying with families, camping out under our own tent this time.
We left Asia for Australia mid November. We started by spending 5 days or so with some friends in Melbourne. Then we rented a car and drove along the Great Ocean Road, and made our way back up the western coast to Sydney, passing via the Mornington peninsula, Wilson's Promontory, Canberra, Bateman's bay, and the Blue Mountains. We spent a few days tramping around Sydney : went to listen to a symphony at the Opera House, walked from Coogee to Bondi beach, went to an underground concert in a garage in Marricksville, picnicked in Glebe park, and walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Then we took a train up to Brisbane, where we spent our last few days in Australia walking around and enjoying the sun and heat (finally!).
We made a brief stop in Peru before leaving South America. 5 years ago Clem had spend 3 months in Piura, volunteering with Manitos Creciendo, a program that helps teenagers that have dropped out of school in order to help their family by working, giving them professional training in one of 4 different jobs, helping those who dropped out very young to learn to read and write, and do basic math, and involving the teenagers and their families in several workshops (non violence, self confidence, HIV prevention, etc). We thus returned to Piura after 5 years, to find that CANAT, the NGO that runs Manitos Creciendo, is still doing wonderful and very necessary work. We left Piura and crossed the border north to catch our flight to Mexico from Quito, Ecuador.
We have now finnished our trip. We returned to France for a couple months, to see our family and friends, and have now come to Toronto, Canada, to settle down.
