A Travel Story by Belinda and Patrick Peck
Colombia has been on our radar for the last 15 years and we were about to make it a reality! We had heard many good reports of Colombia and were not to be disappointed!
We crossed into Colombia in the mountains and the heavens opened as we drove on a road in great condition and with hardly any traffic to Pamplona. Pamplona was around 3000m high, so we were very wet and cold when we arrived, but enjoyed the awesome mountain riding.
January 1 saw us off on an early start from Medellin to Hacienda Napoles, the ranch of the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, thought to be in the top 10 richest people in the world at his death. Over the years this enormous ranch had been converted to a family attraction, with water slides, tourist trains and a zoo containing one very lethargic tiger from Africa! The remains of his ruined home were plastered with photos of the carnage that Pablo bought down on Medellin. Anyone who got in his way was executed, usually with a bomb, killing many innocent people.
The first pleasant surprise crossing the border to Ecuador was the price drop for fuel from US$1.30/litre in Colombia to .40cents/litre. We drove straight to Quito airport (Ecaudor Capital), bought a ticket to Galapagos Islands (Santa Cruz Island) for the next morning and found a nearby cheap Hotel that had secure parking where we could store the bike and our riding gear for 2 weeks charging us $20 , which we thought was a bargain! There are 3 main islands with airports, Santa Cruz was the most logical place for us as most cruise ships leave from there and it was in the middle.
Leaving the Ecuador border we pass through Sallalan, but instead of turning South we head North West to the coast where we remember were beautiful beaches. Just north of Mancura, to Punta Del Sal we stayed at our favourite Hotel "Caballito de Mar", with fond memories from our 2001 South American trip.
Finally, our last trip report from our last trip (only 3 months later)!
Well staying in one place lasted 6 months!! Those that know us well are not surprised that we are hitting the road again in a weeks time! We have had a wonderful time renting our 2 spare rooms in our inner city apartment in Cairns through airbnb.com.au/rooms/6546886, meeting 55 wonderful people from many different countries.
Airbnb and us is a perfect match and we now have 55 new friends around the world!
 smallest.jpg)
Hello troops, Well here we are 5 months later preparing to return home from our Caribbean trip! This trip was all about Caribbean Islands and finding the best way to visit them. We started off with 2 X 10 day "Princess" cruises of the Eastern and Western Caribbean. The trip the week before Christmas was half the price of the Christmas trip, with no kids, compared to the Christmas trip with lots of kids running around pressing every button in the elevator! Valuable lesson for you all!
While Belinda and I were at home in Cairns for the winter, Brett and Yvonne our hosts in Adelaide who generously stored our XTZ750 shipped their bikes to Vladivostok Russia. Over four months they rode their Dr650 and a XT250 through Mongolia to Bulgaria where they stored their bikes til their return.
Belinda was born in Adeliade so we had plenty of rellies to visit and i had my very own travel guide to show me all the secret gems around the area.
Our intention was to ride Perth to Cairns but little did we know that Covid 19 was appearing on the horizon. December is always too hot to head north so we headed south to Albany and Esperance to find some fantastic gems. We arrived back in Perth area early Feb to catch another Cruise to Singapore and Japan to try a bit of skiing before returning to Perth to continue the bike trip north in April. Covid would become too hot around the world to continue travelling so we were sent home to Cairns, where we spent 14 days in isolation at home.
Borders between Perth and Cairns are now Covid open, but for how long.
Lets give it a go, but it's getting hot and humid in Cairns so let's fly to Perth, pick up the bike and let's explore the area some more before heading north towards Broome in April when it starts to cool down enough for comfortable riding.
Early April we headed north to Kalbarri , only to run headlong into a Cyclone. Half the homes there lost their roofs from the 210 kms/h winds. Luckily our airbnb home was a brick 2 story house with a generator and we were living on the ground floor.
The house lost its roo very early, half landed across the street after snapping timber power pole and strewed live electrical wires up and down the street. The other half landed in the driveway. After two days of cleanup we decided to vacate to allow accomodation for tradies and SES staff to carry out more essential work.
Next significant stop was Karigini National Park just east of Port Hedland and then on to Broome where we rondezvous with old Dutch friends we met on our 2001 trip to South America and are now working in Broome for a Helicopter company.
Our Cairns friends Grant Davis and Susan Markwell , had arrived in Broome to partake in a 10 day Kimberly cruise on the northern WA coast and thought it a good idea for us to do the same.
A must see while up north is the Bungle Bungles, a strange mountain range carved by millions of years of erosion, but spectacular non the less. accomodation was expensive at the campground where a very small donger(cabin) was $350/night so we chose the cheaper option of an eco tent with a concrete floor and bathroom, minimum 2 nights for $500.
In Kathrine we were hosted by on old friend and workmate Olivia Thompson, who showed us around the area and introduced us to the Katherine hot springs of crystal clear flowing mineral water.
Normanton , at the bottom of the Gulf, had a lifesize statue of the biggest croc ever seen or killed in the area.
We really felt close to home when we hit Innot Hot Springs , only 150kms from Cairns on a Saturday night to witnessed a local band entertaining tourists and locals alike.
Irvinebank was the new home of a Cairns friend and Yoga instructor Jeany , where we took her kids for a run around the block. Unfortunately the local police station was on that block and we got pulled up and reprimanded for only having bicycle helmets on the two kids. I told the officer that in S/E Asia it is OK to have up to 6 kids on the motorcycle but he didn't see the connection. Luckily I only got a warning.