Just a quick update to let you know we fly out tonight to our beloved Tasmania.

It has been a day of packing and trying to not exceed Jetstar’s baggage limits.  We have dehydrated a few meals but will do most of the shopping in Launceston tomorrow before we head up to Cradle Mountain.

The plan is for a couple of nights around Cradle for New Year, maybe at Scott Kilvett and then Lake Ball.

Then, back into civilisation and down to Lake St Clair and into Pine Valley.

We have hired a car and will end up at Hobart for a night or two.

Phew, quick trip but really looking forward to a stroll.

Have  a great New Year, where ever you are, and thanks very much for your support in 2011.

Frank and Sue

Sorry we have been a bit quiet recently but it was the busy run up to our holiday time and then travelling to Cambodia. Yes, this article comes to you from Siem Reap, Cambodia.

A few of you regulars will recall we visited Cambodia this time last year, travelling around a lot of the country over nearly 4 weeks. This time we decided to focus on one area, Siem Reap. It is the location to base yourself and visit many temples or “Wats”.

This trip is for 10 days and is a combination of exploring the area and having a break. Last year we travelled a lot and saw a lot of this fascinating country. This year we have based ourselves in Siem Reap at the same hotel so only one lot of unpacking of our gear and no timetables or travel plans to worry about.

We arrived a week ago and there was a lot of flooding across the north of Cambodia. Many of the roads to the temples were under water, as was the centre of town. There was also a lot of flood damage to homes and farms in the region.

Floods in Siem Reap - the roads held a lot of water

As part of our accommodation we have exclusive access to a Tuk Tuk from dawn to 10pm. Mr Tola the driver has been great and it makes getting around very easy. Last year we had to negotiate a price with a new driver most trips and then explain where we wanted to go, getting lost several times.

The first day we visited the famous Angkor Wat

View from Angkor Wat back to main gates

There are metres and metres of amazing bas reliefs around most of the Temple.

Close up of a bas relief - Angkor Wat

Playing with the panorama on our new camera.

Panorama of the Angkor Wat entrance with the moat

We even ran into some local wildlife near a small temple.

Local tree snake - harmless according to our Tuk Tuk driver

These are the gates to Angkor Thom, a very large complex of temples. This was taken late in the afternoon, after the coach loads of tourists from across Asia had departed for the day. It is a terrific time of the day to explore.

The entrance gates to Angkor Thom - taken in the evening

The monks who live in the area have a prayer session in the evening.

A monk at Angkor Thom

Bayon, one of the huge structures in Angkor Thom.

Bayon - every tower has four massive stone faces

This temple was way out the back of the complex, small but beautiful.

A small temple at Angkor Thom

The Tomb Raider temple – Ta Prohn is worth getting to early in the morning. It is very popular, sometimes with a long queue to have your photo taken under “that” tree.

Ta Prohm, where the 'Tomb Raider tree' lives. This is one of the walls in the same temple.

Eating and drinking in Cambodia is very inexpensive. We usually spend about $10 for lunch and $20 for dinner for the two of us. That includes drinks.

One of Sue's favourite meals - salad

We are not sure if the alcohol is locally produced but the prices are cheap.

Pub St in town is the backpacker, cheap eating and drinking area. These prices are for a "jug" in $US

So there you go. As we sit here, it is 6:30 am, temp is 28 c, humidity about 99%, it is raining heavily and we are about to head out on one last explore. Time to buy a poncho!

By the way, we have shared a lot more photo’s of this trip over on Our Hiking Blog’s facebook page, jump over and check them out if you are a Facebook user.

Many readers know we love the Cradle Mountain area in Tasmania. In fact, we love all things Tasmanian and spend as much time there as possible.

For example, Sue is hiking the Overland Track with some mates before Easter. Due to work committments Frank will meet her in Hobart and then we have a few days planned at Bruny Island.  We get down there as much as possible. (and would move there in a flash if we could sort it)

We have been thinking about creating a free resource for visitors to Cradle Mountain (and Tasmania)  for some time.  There is a great Parks Tasmania website plus  many others that focus on accommodation at Cradle Mountain.  We saw a “hole” in the market which combines lots of information about Cradle (and animals, walks, activities) with accommodation reviews etc.

To encourage visitors to the site we have created  two free offerings:

- Five fun things to do at Cradle mountain – a downloadable guide

- Cradle Mountain day walk map – a simple map including where to see wombats, platypus etc

If you want to check them out. please head over to our new site Cradlemountain.net

Sorry, but you need to “sign up” to download them.

The advantage of signing up is?

We have also created a free Cradle Mountain.net eMagazine that you will automatically receive within a couple of days of subscribing.  From there on, there will be eight editions a year, full of Cradle Mountain (and Tasmania) news, information and (we hope) fun.

So, to grab the free stuff, click on this link:  Cradle Mountain.net , throw in your email address – there might be a popup or there is a spot on the right hand side –  and wait for your delivery.

This is the cover of the Welcome to Cradle Mountain eMagazine.

Just to confirm, we have never, and will never share your email address. We hate spam too!

In addition, you can “unsubscribe” from receiving the free magazine at any time.

Back to normal programming next time!

It is a tiring thing being a tourist or backpacker or whatever we have been doing in Cambodia.

After a four hour taxi trip from Rainbow Lodge ( near the Thailand border on the west of Cambodia) to Kampot in the south east corner of Cambodia we enjoyed a day around the area and then escaped to the coastal village of Kep for a “well earned break”.

Now Kep has a story too long and complex for here but let’s just summarise.

- a beautiful little beach town that was very trendy and used as a holiday escape by many wealthy Cambodians and , especially French expats from the 1900′s to the 1960′s.
- when the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 they targeted Kep as a symbol of all things bad and they destroyed every French colonial era mansion and villa that was there and killed or “retrained” many of the people.

Below are a few examples of what these relics look like now.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s “holiday house”, note the bullet holes in the walls.

Many are overgrown and have squatters or people who look after them for the current owners. Rarely are they rebuilt, just bulldozed.

It would have been a wonderful, vibrant place before the destruction. We rode a moto around town bewildered by the senseless bloody waste.

Kep does have many redeeming features and is slowly recovering from the holocaust. The tourist trade is recovering and there are now several hotels and guest houses where you can stay a few days and enjoy the area.  We chose the Veranda Natural Resort. It is a beautiful, well managed place with excellent facililites and wonderful staff.  A little pricy by Cambodian terms (we paid US$70 for a top line room for  the first night – see the video)  

Most of the resort has fantastic views across the Gulf of Thailand. We were lucky to catch this sunset one night.

Our last two nights were in a more humble bungalow ($US36 per night) It was very close to probably the best pool we had swum in for years!

Here ends our posts on Cambodia. We hope you have enjoyed the diversion from the normal topics we cover at Our Hiking Blog. Give us a few days to recover and get back into the swing of things here with more information on getting into the outdoors!

We are not sure what convinced us to do the full day trek at Rainbow Lodge.

Was it the chance to explore the Cambodian Jungle with an experienced guide?

Or the opportunity to see some unusual wildlife, creatures and/or bugs?

Or was it that we both have English relatives back somewhere and the need to go out in the midday sun and “explore the tropics” was overwhelming?

Whatever the case we loaded up with two litres of water each, layers of DEET, shoes and a warning from G that there were a few leeches on this trip. Mr Lei, our Khmer guide, headed off in front with a machete.

Because we are posting this from Cambodia, the following are some images and dot points outlining the adventure!

Most of the trek was through bamboo jungle, it was bloody hot and humid. We had NEVER sweated that much in our lives. We are talking dripping, saturated clothes type sweating.

The pace was great, Mr Lei led well and we stopped frequently for breaks or to check out the wildlife. For more detail on what you can see, check out the Rainbow Lodge website.

Rainbow Lodge had prepared lunch and nibbles. It was great and we stopped at the swimming hole below for over an hour. The water was excellent, clean and cool (ish)

The afternoon trek was similar to the morning. Still very hot and humid. The goal was the Tatai Waterfall and a final swim for the day.

We had had some trouble with leeches over the day despite slathering out ankles with DEET etc. Luckily it was very dry walking, we were told the leeches were much more active in the wet! This little unit had a great drink. It was one Frank missed.

The anticoagulant they use is amazing, needed a few beers to replace fluid volume on our return….

The Tatai Falls, it was a very refreshing swimming hole before our boat trap back to the Lodge.

In summary, hot, hot walking in a fascinating place. Would recommend long pants, gaiters and plenty of DEET to protect your legs from leeches. Great swimming holes and interesting scenery.

The experience for us started with a 6 hour bus trip from Phnom Phen where we had been bombarded with the sights and sounds of Cambodia’s largest city for three days. We were well ready to leave. To us Phnom Phen was a busy, dirty and hassly place with few redeeming features. Stories of bag snatches and rip offs abound and we found ourselves, when on the street, constantly on guard. This was not the case in the rest of Cambodia.

Rainbow Lodge, as we sit and gaze across the jungle to the Kep river the stillness and happy chatter of the staff in the background is incredibly relaxing. For the first time in two weeks traveling around Cambodia we have found an oasis, a place unlike anywhere else we have experienced in this corruption and poverty ridden country.

To understand the background of Rainbow Lodge , it is probably best to check out their very detailed and informative website. In short, it is an eco lodge situated in the Cardamon Mountains, on the edge of the Kep river. The lodge is very close to the Thai border i.e far western Cambodia.

The boat trip to Rainbow Lodge, a great way to start a quiet holiday

With seven units and a large common area it has the feel of flash camping. Excellent rooms, terrific service and wonderful meals. The ambiance is relaxed and generous with delightful staff and plenty of options for those looking for jungle trekking, checking out a huge diversity of bugs, butterflies, moths and other weird creatures including some fascinating snakes. In addition, the river is great for swimming or exploring in one of the kayaks that are freely available to guests.

We enjoyed four nights at Rainbow Lodge and had some great chats with Janet and G the British couple who are both terrific hosts and very committed environmentalists and our sort of people i.e. ” greenies” .

We paid US$60 per night which included all meals. This is slightly above ” normal” Cambodian rates but worth every cent for the location, isolation and facilities. Drinks, boat trips and treks were additional. We spent about $80 over 5 days including a full day jungle trek with guide and boat trip.

This swimming hole under a small waterfall was about 30 minutes very slow paddle from the Lodge.

From the common area towards our room. We were in the “orange room”. The whole resort is about 1.5 metres off the ground.

Our friendly lizard, each room seems to have one of these beautiful creatures who’s job it is to eat the bugs!

— Up next, our jungle trek, give us a couple of days, we are off to Kep tomorrow ….

Cooking classes are a great way to meet other travelers and experience how food is created in a country you are visiting.

One of the interesting things about Asian countries is their fresh food markets and we always take a wander through them to get an understanding of how things are done and what the locals eat.

Every cooking class we have enjoyed always starts with a visit to the market to purchase the food for the class.

Ok, frogs legs were not on our menu but they WERE available at the market……

So was a terrific choice of turtles (? Tortoises)

We bought a stack of different, fresh ingredients and made our own green curry paste for the first recipe, including our own coconut milk. ( following the amount of work and sweat involved, go for the store bought green curry paste and cans of coconut milk…..)

Cooking school guru, very funny man who started a restaurant with his brothers 10 yrs ago at 17 yo ( sorry, can’t recall his name). Note, like most thinks in Cambodia it all happened on the street.

Sue working the wok. This was a slow cook dish, gently adding the coconut milk as it evaporated

The finished dish, green chicken, curry with coconut end morning glory.

Time about 2.5 hrs
Cost: $8 each
Included: drinking water , iced coffee with sweet milk, all ingredients ,three great meals.

Recommended +++

A bus from Siem Reip to Battambang is about $6, it is air conditioned and homogenized. It takes about 4 hrs. Alternatively there is a boat costing anything from $15 – $25 depending on who is trying to take a percentage or rip you off. We paid $18 each.

Pick up started with us predictably failing to set our alarm properly and waking up, bags not packed or very organized with 45 minutes before our pick up time. We made it on time and had a bit of fun as the mini bus slowly filled up as we dropped by various hostels and backpacker places picking up passengers. The 7 am boat departure time was now heading out to about 7:45 but the crew was very relaxed and the skipper, who looked all of 16, took off with a roar.

Heading off from Siem Riep about 8 am – mainly travelers, the locals take the bus

Lunch break. This was after 4 hrs. As we jumped off, junior, the skipper announced we were half way there with 4 hrs to go!

Typical scenes of life on the river. It’s level was down and was quite difficult to navigate. We ran a ground a couple of times and broke down twice.

.

Just about there, a very hot, tired and worn out group of “adventurers” who by now had worked out why the locals take the bus.

Worth it? Yes! A great trip with a wonderful insight into life on the river. Do it again? Maybe, but we’d take a cushion next time…….

Our driver from the airport, to our hotel Borann ,is a master salesman and we ended up hiring him for two days to explore the temples.

The first evening was to “watch the sunset”, we headed off past Angkor Wat to “the spot”. Joining us were 300 or 400 other hopefuls.  Following a “fair climb”we watched as cloud turned to heavy cloud and then a magnificant thunderstorm.  We waited it out for 20 minutes in our poncos as the sun disappeared.  Thinking all hope was lost of a great sunset we headed down the mountain again (there were only about 20 people left ) and sought the refuge of our car and driver.

Heading back to Siem Reap a beautiful, strong, golden sunset peeked through the jungle.  The monsonal storm had tricked us and the best sunset for days eluded our camera….

We did get a few shots of the crowd.

For the next two days we explored a LOT of temples. They are magnificant, they are over the top, they are MAGIC and huge and old and well, spectacular.

Lunch for two rarely costs more than $US10 including drinks

Tomb Raider anyone?

There were eight of these life sized elephants at this temple (Sue is the tour guide and knows all their names but she is asleep as Frank writes this up)

The last Wat for the day, Angkor Wat. Mindblowing. Our photography can’t do it justice. More looking around Siem Reap today and then busing up to Phnon Pean, the capital.

Not sure if it is politically correct to single out female outdoor bloggers but we are today anyway.

Why?

Because these four ladies have some great adventures, they write really interesting pieces and they love to share (and encourage) others.

In addition, they are really nice helpful people and love encouraging women to get out onto a track or trail and enjoy a hiking adventure.

Dressed in Dirt – Tips and tales of a female backpacker

Adelaide (Addy) is quirky, yep, she even describes herself as “a little bit silly. No, very silly.”  That’s why we love her.  She is as sharp as a whip, clever and writes interesting pieces.  She is also regularly out in the bush doing some great trips.

From Addy:

I have lately been craving the communion I feel with a group of women in the outdoors. Many of us were not exposed to backpacking growing up, and it is fun to practice these skills together. Learning to take care of myself in the woods has been a really empowering experience for me, and I want to share that with others.

Lady on a Rock
We have been following Christie’s adventures as she thru-hiked 550 miles (885 km) on the Pacific Crest Trail this American spring /summer.

We enjoyed reading her posts and watching her videos because, she not only succeeded in her goal of walking a long section of the PCT, she also managed to “conquer” technology and post updates via her iPhone on a regular basis.

From Christie:

I am a backpacker, gear lover, learner, climber, Christian, mountain biker, teacher, runner, hiker, wife, mother, grandmother, trip planner, photographer, and researcher.

I am a lady that loves the back country and above all I want ultralight equipment that is safe and comfortable, but at the same time I want to look as cool as possible. (ed: she succeeded in her coolness)

Hike Bike Travel – Leigh

Leigh is a real “goer”.  She is a prolific writer, traveler and adventurer.

Just this year she has hiked the Dingle Way and Kerry Way in Ireland, hiked the Cumbria Way and West Highland Way in Great Britain, biked the Napa and Sonoma regions of California, biked Tucson to the Mexican border and is currently on a three week trip to PEI, the Cabot Trail and the Iles de la Madeleine.

She also writes terrific free travel guides, of which there are now 19 available.

From Leigh:

I’m a travel and adventure addict. I love most outdoor activities – especially hiking, biking, sea kayaking, canoeing and skiing. I also love the odd wildly epic day.

Calipidder – Rebecca Sowards-Emmerd

Rebecca is a terrific blogger and person.  We don’t think she is ever at home unless it is to resupply or sit around and drink boutique beers planning her next trip.  Cannot for the life of us work out where she squeezes in time to earn enough money to fund her trips!

Based in California, Rebecca hits the Sierra Nevada regularly and covers a wide range of topics on her site, including cooking up some very nice fish that she loves to catch.

From Calipidder:

I usually get out for several week-ish long trips a year, and many more weekends. I estimate that I spend 30-50 nights a year in my tent while backpacking; even more nights can be counted if car camping is included.

My dream vacation would be to spend months hiking along the John Muir Trail, taking every opportunity to explore side trails, bag peaks, fish, and relax indefinitely at favorite camp spots.

Keen observers will note the lack of any Australian women in this list.

This is not from the want of trying to include some (even one!) We haven’t discovered an Australian site maintained by a woman, which is pretty sad.

Can you suggest any additional sites run by a women we could include in this list?

Or, are you a female hiker who would love to share stories about your adventures? Please contact us, we would be keen to help you get started.

One of the reasons we manage Our Hiking Blog is the community of terrific people that are part of this site. We are in contact with many people from across the world who all have a shared love and passion of the outdoors. It is great fun to meet new people and read their stories or help them out with information.

A few months ago we were contacted by Pete who was planning to move back to Australia from the USA. He had lived in the US (California, NY, Oregon) since 1997 and had picked up a new job in Hobart. He was asking for recommendations about the best hiking books that contained walks suitable with young childern.

We kept up some correpondance and Pete recommended a book by William L Sullivan – Listening for Coyote – A walk across Oregon’s Wilderness. A couple of weeks ago it arrived in the mail from Pete.

Well, hats off to Pete, it is a terrific read. Sullivan describes his sixty five day (2190 km – 1,361 mile) journey across Oregon from Cape Blanco to Hat Point , Hells Canyon on what he calls the New Oregon Trail.

While it is an epic solo adventure, and a huge achievement,  what really appealed about the book is that Sullivan is a thinker and story teller.  As much as reading about the practicalities of the journey was interesting, it was often his reflections and interactions with other people and animals that brought this book above the level of the ordinary.

Highly recommend for anyone who likes to get immersed in a great adventure read to try and beg, borrow or steal it.  Don’t worry Pete, I will mail it back this week!

Do you have any other books to recommend?
Have you read Listening for Coyote – A walk across Oregon’s Wilderness?
We would love to read your ideas and feedback, drop us a note below.