Gibb River Road Trip - Manning Gorge

talk about heaven. we camped at mt barnett camp ground, right outside the manning gorge walk entrance.  the campsite was nice and quiet and well spaced out.  we slept really well and enjoyed the beautiful stars.  next morning got up at 5am and started on the walk to manning gorge.  it ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours round trip and was worth every step. in fact, i wish this walk was in derby because i would definitely go every day. this i what i've been missing.  it had sandy beaches, beautiful river, craggy rocks, and a beautiful gorge at the end.  we also spotted wallaroo's on the way!  saw the sunrise.  the gorge and it's waterfall was heavenly. next time i plan to swim when there :) see more photos here at Gibb River Road Trip 2011

rinjani volcano trek - lombok

once we got into bali - at 6am - we hailed a taxi with a fair amount of trouble and went to padang bai to catch a fast boat to lombok port (teluk nara) where our tour guide was waiting for us to drive us to senaru.  the boat trip was rather bumpy but beautiful. lombok turned out to be an incredible island. it's relatively untouched by tourism and so much more beautiful overall. it was a great way to see more of local life.  we embarked on a 4 day/3 night trek of the second highest volcano in indonesia (rinjani). it was one of the hardest and steepest treks i've been on but also one of the most beautiful. i saw my first shooting star on this trip which was exciting. our guide and porters were incredible. they carried so much weight and ran up and down the mountains in just flip flops, barely breaking a sweat.  this trek was one of my favorite parts of our trip. see more photos in this album

how we met

My dream was to travel. As soon as I had a job and some money I started doing just that and my first destination, and my first real vacation in ten years, was Peru. I had always wanted to see Machu Picchu and Peru in general so I got a few friends together and we planned our trip for early August 2008. Our first destination was Lima to Cusco and then the next day off on the 4 days Lares Trek to Machu Picchu. We went for our briefing the night before and someone said “oh and Jose will be your guide.” I turned around and there he was and I was smitten. I felt safe and comfortable with him leading our group and he took good care of us, and of me. When I was really cold he gave me his pants, and when I was sick in Aguas Calientes he checked on me and then he invited me out (with the group) for the night the trek was over (7th). Anyway I ended up meeting him at the bar and then we went dancing and long story short we hit it off and decided to date long distance. My plan was to come back to see him the following summer but he asked me to visit earlier...so i returned to see him for the 2008 holidays. Click on my When We Met Album to see our pics (via picassa) from when we first met. You can also access the same photos by going to the photo page and viewing the embedded slideshow there :)