Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: The Best Laid Plans, OR The last Post (cue music)

It is with sadness that we come to write the final blog post – some five months earlier than we had originally planned. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we find it necessary to make our way back to England – at least for the next few months.

As some of you know already, Gillie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when we were in Cape Town, which means she has to inject insulin and manage her diet etc very carefully. We realised that SE Asia and Eastern Europe were probably not that conducive to balancing her system, so we will be coming back to the UK next week to register with a doctor asap. We had already bought our flights to Bali so decided to enjoy our last three weeks on this lovely island, sweltering under 35C heat and 90% humidity. It does rain sometimes – just to make you all feel better.

One of the highlights of our stay in Sydney – and there were many – was a trip to the Hunter Valley, one of Australia’s premier wine growing regions. The girls bought us the trip for a Christmas present and we were blessed with a lovely warm weekend and visits to five wineries, a vodka distillery and cheese factory. It was great!

As usual, we had a fantastic time staying with the girls – Emily and Craig kindly put up with us for nearly four weeks apart from a brief house sit in Mortdale – a Sydney suburb - in a lovely house with two Australian Kelpies. Our hosts Pat and Trish were charming and extremely friendly. We’d love to sit for them again if our timings coincide, hint, hint…

Several days were spent at the beach, watching the surfers and generally soaking up rays and relaxing – got to have a tan when we get back to the UK in February!

Another highlight was spending Australia Day at Coogee Pavilion, where we sat all day in the rooftop restaurant and ate delicious food, watching Aussies celebrate their national day and all things Aussie, i.e. drinking beer. Gillie insisted that we walk back to Bondi along the cliff walk – quite a long way in the heat - and it’s fair to say we were quite tired by the time we got back.

Sadly, the 30^thJanuary came around all too quickly and we set off for the airport. Craig had kindly lent us his car, so we made our way to Kingsford Smith without a hitch – until we reached the airport, where we missed the turning to the car park. Airports are very unforgiving if you go slightly wrong and Emily and Andy spent a very frustrating 45 minutes or more stuck in a horrendous jam under a tunnel while trying to find our way back to the car park, having dropped off Holly and Gillie at Departures.

Anyway, we said our sad goodbyes and boarded the aircraft to Bali where we arrived in good time and were very grateful to find the taxi driver we had booked there to meet us at the airport. There followed a fraught time en route to our villa as the rules of driving in Bali are pretty much non-existent. Rather like India. Don’t look behind when you pull out into traffic; mopeds and scooters are omnipresent – particularly on the very narrow pavements – as if they didn’t have enough room on the road (they didn’t).

We became quite fearless at not giving way to scooters on the pavements and crossing scary junctions by simply waving our arms, putting our heads down and simply going for it. Squeaky bum time.

Our first port of call was Seminyak, where we stayed at a delightful little villa with rabbits in the garden. We were joined for a few days by a lovely Russian family with two girls – four and six – who were very sad when they had to leave and say goodbye to the bunnies. We enjoyed rabbit pie the next day (joke).

Seminyak is apparently quieter than Kuta and Sanur, and we were there in the off-season. You could have fooled us! Walking to the beach or into town were exercises in fear management at times. The Balinese are charming people – friendly and helpful, even when trying to run you over!

The beach at Seminyak is not the most attractive as it is made up of volcanic sand, but the surf is fearsome and we enjoyed several days lazing on sun beds, politely refusing offers of kites, sunglasses, watches etc, but giving in to temptation for pedicures, foot massages and scarves. They are persistent but friendly and take rejection with a smile (mostly).

We were able to view some spectacular sunsets (see below) and escaped some spectacular downpours – taking shelter in beach bars (where else?).

We decided that our stay in Seminyak would be mostly relaxing, so didn’t plan any trips; we’d save that for Ubud. Apart from the sunsets, another most enjoyable occasion was when Andy discovered an Aussie bar (there are lots) that was going to show the Ireland/England Six Nations rugby game. It kicked off at 12.45 am and was attended by three England supporters and several very noisy Ireland fans who made no secret of the fact that Ireland were going to trounce England. After about 60 minutes, the Irish contingent had gone strangely quiet. Andy went back feeling very smug.

No such luck for the England/France clash, no bars to be found, but the result was also very satisfying.

Ubud was the resort where we decided to explore some of Bali. Situated inland, so no beach to distract us, we made the most of our time, taking a tour to temples, waterfalls, beaches and hot springs – as if we needed them! Part of the trip involved the mandatory stop at a Luwak Coffee plantation. You may not know this, but it is apparently the 'most expensive coffee in the world'. The process for making it so exclusive that it only happens in Bali (apparently) and involves feeding coffee beans to the Luwak cat, then going out into the forest to collect the cat's poo the following day and extracting the beans and then grinding, roasting etc! Not quite sure why, or indeed how, this process was discovered, but the coffee was quite nice (and not very expensive!).

One evening, we walked up to the Royal Palace and watched a performance by Balinese dancers – the type that so captivated Artaud when he saw them at the Exposition Coloniale in Paris in 1931. The skill and discipline they showed was mesmerizing and Artaud’s ideas were much influenced by the forms and style they displayed. Another bucket list moment.

Another trip we made was to the Sacred Monkey Forest - just a short walk from our villa. This is a conservation area in the middle of Ubud where a tribe of monkeys are able to live and be cared for. There are lots of signs out saying how to behave - don't look them in the eye as it can be taken for a sign of aggression; no sudden movements; keep a close watch on personal possessions etc. etc. We were somewhat apprehensive when we entered, expecting to be set upon by gangs of thieving aggressive monkeys, but they largely ignored us and got on with eating, grooming and play-fighting each other (not the eating bit!). It was a lovely day.

Because we were away from all the nightlife (or so we thought – in fact there’s loads of it in Ubud!), we wanted to see some of the countryside. But that’s easier said than done, as Ubud sprawls and to reach the start of our walk, we had to brave the busy streets (see previously). That made us pretty hot and sweaty before we even started. Having said that, we found a rather wonderful walk through the rice paddies that surround the town. We set off in the morning, thinking we would escape the heat of the day – no such luck! It was a great walk, following a clear path all the way up and then all the way back again! We stopped for lunch at a charming warung looking over the rice fields, then went back to our villa (sounds posh, eh?) to cool down in the pool before venturing out that night for dinner at Siam Sally’s – apparently an Ubud institution that has live music five nights out of seven – mostly blues and blues rock. Fantastic.

Our last excursion was to the ‘world-famous closed market’ in the centre of the town, where we spent some money on fripperies, including a hand-carved tenor ukulele for IDR250,000 – about £13.90!

Having spent a most enjoyable week in Ubud, we decamped to our final destination, Ulu Watu, on the southwestern tip of the island. Our villa overlooks the sea and the resort sits on the cliff top, about 10 minutes from the nearest paradise beach. Andy has had to take this on Gillie’s word as he has been confined to barracks since we arrived with a case of ‘Bali Belly’ Hey ho.

Only four days before we return now. But we are already planning our next trip to Japan for the rugby world cup final, then off around SE Asia to hook up with the girls somewhere for Christmas!

Take care, see you soon x

PS. Oh dear it’s all my fault! I always thought I was such a healthy person but since I hit 70, I seem to be falling apart. Hopefully the dear old NHS will set me back on the straight and narrow. I must however pay tribute to the doctors at the Christiaan Barnard Hospital in Cape Town who put me on daily insulin, this has made me feel so much better. I now need to get my dietary requirements sorted and then we can look forward to continuing our travels next autumn.

Andy has been amazing, so supportive and patient during the worry of it all xx [aw shucks – ed.]. I was determined that the diagnosis wasn’t going to spoil our trip and it hasn’t. Now it’s time for me to look after him, as ever since we arrived at this VERY EXPENSIVE villa he has hardly dared leave, so I’ve been doing all the exploring and taking photos to share. I have to say that if you are going to be ill there are worse places than being able to sit in a rocking chair on a balcony overlooking the sea watching the warm breeze ruffle the frangipani flowers in the trees! Fingers crossed he’ll be able to join me tomorrow on one of the paradise beaches just 10 minutes walk from our lovely home.

So no bees in bonnets this time, just a sadness that our travels have come to a premature end after just five months. Earth is such a wonderful planet there is so much to see and do. I’ll end therefore with a feeling of excitement and optimism of what the future holds for us.

Much much love to you all

Gillie xxxxxxxx