Rae Dyer

I went back to work today. - end of blog -

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Haha, no it wasn't that bad but I have been reflecting on what the highlights have been over the past 10 weeks and am finding it difficult to distill it down, so I have decided to apply a criteria. Naturally the highlight for me was catching up with old friends and making new ones, (always about the people) but the places also deserve attention.

The first criteria was that the list contains only experiences and locations.
The second criteria I have applied was, would I do it again and/or did it leave me wanting more.

Again the list far exceeded the 10 but now, I think I am there...

Number 10 - Crocodile Valley Campsite, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.

Paradise in the middle of nowhere! The campsite was on a river with wild animals and this is the place where we had to pitch our tents quite far apart so the elephants could pass through at night. We were surrounded by wildlife, saw lions with their cubs only metres from the safari truck and the camp itself had a beautiful bar area, swimming pool and hot showers with a monsoon shower head. As far as campsites go, this was hard to top.

Number 9 - My birthday, the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

The village walk on this day was just lovely. We saw people harvesting rice, we drank banana beer and the lunch was delicious. After that we travelled to our campsite where I was treated after dinner with a Masai song and a birthday cake. The tent was pitched on beautiful soft grass and I slept perfectly in the tranquility of the mountains. It's a birthday I won't forget.

Number 8 - Blue Dot Festival, Jodrell Bank, England.

I wrote a blog post about the humans of Blue Dot but the event itself was pretty spectacular as well. The musical line up was excellent from the beginners stage to the big stage under the telescope. The light installations at night were just gorgeous and the science presentations and discussions during the day were really interesting. What a fortunate accident to stumble onto this at the last minute.

Number 7 - Liverpool, England.

This was just a lovely surprise. The weather was warm here and it was where I ditched the van for a couple of days in exchange for a hotel on the waterfront with a shower and a TV! The Beatles tour was well worn but also intimate with the guide pulling out his guitar at various locations and singing a Beatles song to the half a dozen of us on the top of an open bus. The setting, the food, the coffee and the beer were all good in Liverpool.

Number 6 - The Lost Gardens of Heligan, St Austell, England.

I could have moved in here. When I think of Heligan I smile. Being a lover of Gardens and the great outdoors this was always going to hit the sweet spot but it was better than I could possibly have imagined and I stayed there for hours. I rolled out my sarong at one point and just laid on the grass staring up at the sky. Mother Nature at her absolute finest.

Number 5 - Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Vast open spaces like outback Australia with animals everywhere. We did several days on game drives and every time was different. We saw all the usual suspects with the added bonus of two leopards and a hungry cheetah. I loved that cheetah it was so beautiful and she took off after some impala but fortunately for me, not her, the impala lived to see another day.

Number 4 - Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk, England.

This was by far the largest music and cultural festival I have experienced and certainly the only one with resident pink sheep. It was 4 days of constant entertainment some names I knew, many I didn't but I loved everything from the comedy to the cabaret, to the 1975's and Fat Boy Slim, and the food forage walking tour around the forest followed by a breakfast Bloody Mary. Good old fashioned festival fun for number four. Hot tip, if you ever find yourself in a Campervan at Latitude, skip the open plan shower and take a bucket.

Number 3 - Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Arriving in Zanzibar was so exciting, the ferry terminal was wall to wall with people and the buzz incredible. It was an infectious energy and after some long days on the truck it was just what we all needed. We saw an incredible sunset from a rooftop, ate street food at the night market (hellllooo Zanzibar soup!!!) and over the few days also managed to snorkel on a reef and drink cocktails on snow white sand. I thought I would like Zanzibar, but it's number 3 for a reason, it stands high on the list of all my holiday experiences and definitely left me wanting more.

Number 2 - Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.

This was natures giant zoo. A 20km wide volcanic crater filled from every angle with animals. The drive around the crater's rim was in a rainforest with a mist so thick it was difficult to see anything other than smokey green and a few baboon, but arriving at the edge and driving down into the crater was just sensational. The wildebeests were walking in formation, there were huddles of zebra, so many hippos in the pond you could mistake it for logs in the water and in the far distance a sea of pink flamingos. It was the nature experience of a lifetime and one I would do again in a heartbeat.

And the experience that through this process claims the top spot is .....

Number 1 - Lisbon, Portugal.

Portugal wasn't part of the plan but again just a reminder that plans are never set in stone. Sometimes they are made and go exactly the way you envisage and other times they don't, but for me Lisbon was a happy accident. The sun shone all week, I body surfed at the beach twice, road an electric bike around the mountain, went to a private concert in a castle, had dinner in a very cool part of the city with a new friend, didn't have to worry about coriander in my food, and took a train trip to an old royal castle. It was mostly easy because I had a fully self contained apartment, I shopped at the markets and cooked my dinner once, but mostly I went out so I could practice my Span-Francais-Portuguese with the locals. I was obviously so good at it they respectfully responded in English.

Si Obrigada Au Revoir Lisboa, and to every other experience that taught me something or made me smile, I say Thank You.Read more