It's a dull wet London Monday.

Hey, let's go to Spain instead!

And let's do some walking there. For a month. Yeah!

In a few hours we jump on the Eurostar to Paris, then to Biarritz, cross the border into north-eastern Spain tomorrow and begin the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

The Camino is an ancient religious pilgrimage to the town of Santiago de

Compostela, where they say the remains of the less famous brother, St James, were found.

Each year thousands of people put right foot in front of left foot and walk one of the many routes across Spain and France to reach the town. Some people even walk straight out their front door and across Europe to get there.

We just want a good long walk.

The most popular route to Santiago de Compostela goes through inland Spain, but the allure of the sea was just too strong so we're taking the Camino del Norte - the northern route from Irun through San Sebastian, Bilbao, Guernica etc.

Stay tuned for a month of great views, revelations, sore feet, soggy packs, Spanish food n wine, troubles with translation, and the struggles of a hungry vegetarian in the land of chorizo.

What have we been doing?

Wow we have just been so busy working working working for the past three months that I haven't had a second to blog.

That's a big fat lie.

We've been in Europe for more than three months now and the time has just flown. I took a break from the blog because a) I wanted a break from it, and b) I kind of lost the flow. But I'm back now, look out!

Here's a rough rundown of what we've done in our time here since November (!):

* spent a lot of time just hanging in London with Angus, Chris, Mon, Karla, Chris, Magda and new friends.

* spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortably cold.

* saw lots of snow in lots of places. Slipped over in it lots of times.

* went to Brighton (3 times!), Oxford, Aylesbury, Gloucester, Bristol, Godalming, Rye, Cornwall, Devon, Glastonbury...and a few other towns to visit friends, rellies, or just to have a look-see.

* France! The francofile returned to his place of birth, and I met him there two weeks later. The highlight so far.

* I did some temp work zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and half-heartedly looked for 'proper work'.

* gigs, markets, gigs, markets, museums, gardens, sights.

* indulged at Christmas with a little family of friends away from home.

* fun New Years (with Mon fresh off the boat woohoo). Partied.

* got homesick.

* got a bit pasty and soft.

* tried not to spend all our money. This place is expensive!

* baked! We just spend two weeks house-sitting Chris and Magda's basement flat in Islington and went into mega domestic mode. Stef the baker of bread re-emerged after a travel-induced hiatus. He was very welcome. His bread is awesome.

* wondered what we should do next!

So that gives you an idea of how we've spent one of the coldest winters in years in London. Next I would like some sun please.

GOODBYE INDIA

Today is our last day in India. It has been more than three months since we landed in Delhi in the midnight rain on July 27.

Will I be sad to leave tomorrow?

NO!

I am ready to go. I am exhausted.

Things I am looking forward to:
Drinking water from a tap
Wearing pants that are made from less than 10 square metres of fabric
Less time spent on the loo
Full-sized towels
Breathing in through my nose more often
No thongs in the shower (depending of course on how clean Angus and Chris' shower is)
Soy milk!
Non-Indian food. Any kind.
Less ghee
Anonymity (i.e. being stared at by every man on the street)

We have had an amazing time here. We have met great, interesting people, we've made Indian and French and Norwegian friends, we've tasted more flavours than imaginable, and we've seen so many sights.

Things I will miss:
The friendliness of the people here
The head wiggle
Nice hotels
Shopping
The food. Maybe. In a while.
The colours - saris, dyes, flowers, paints, religious posters, in the food...
Heat
The rupee.

Over and out for now. See you in London!

The Houseboat

We spent one lovely and very expensive night on a houseboat called Angel Queen in the backwaters of Kerala. It was a smallish boat (some can hold conferences, a jacuzzi, ten bedrooms...) but felt like a palace floating through the flotsam.

It was beautiful, even if I did regret swimming in the water when I saw people pooing in it the next day. Ah well what can you do, this is India.

Spice tour

We spent a few days in Thekkady - a beautiful Keralan hill town famous for its Tiger Sanctuary (where I saw no tigers but two ELEPHANTS!) and also for spices. We stayed at a guesthouse that backed onto the reserve so woke and fell asleep to the sounds of birds, monkeys and wild boars. It was so nice to be in the jungle, to see so much green and so much mist. To be so far from a desert!

The town was very quiet because earlier in the season there was a terrible boating accident on the lake in the sanctuary. Over 40 people were killed when many people apparently rushed onto the upper deck to get a better look at the view and the boat capsized.

Again I think how lucky we are to be Australian - this time because we are (almost all) taught to swim at a very young age.

Outside of the sanctuary, the town is surrounded by delicious plantations - forests of cardamom, cinnamon, coffee, tea.

We went on a short tour of an excellent spice garden with a very proud Abraham (you may have seen him on BBC's Around the World in 80 Gardens):

He showed us how cinnamon actually grows on a plant:

The tiniest chillies can be the deadliest:

My favourite (cocoa!):

and who knew 'Allspice' was a single plant? I always thought it was a mixture of all spices. I swear I could identify distinct spices in that mix!

I now want a spice garden.

Haircut

One day, a little boy called Stefan wanted to get his hair cut.

He found an Indian barber who didn't speak English.

The style was touch and go for a while there...
And at times it was pretty scary...

But he survived, and his haircut even looked good. And although it cost more than when his girlfriend cuts it for free, the grand total was less than $3, so he was pleased.

The End.

Kochin

We are in The South!

We got the overnight train from Bikaner back to Delhi and went straight to the airport at 6am - just in time for our midday flight which was delayed by another two hours. Two flights and a lightning quick stop in Hyderabad later we were in Cochi/Kochin on the west coast of Kerala, on the ocean, with greenness and lushness and coconuts and pineapples and mangoes and men wearing dotis.

Aside from the heat, I think the doti is perhaps most responsible for the laid back atmosphere of this area. The doti is basically a bed sheet worn by local men as a sarong, or at times tucked up into itself to resemble a nappy. Can't help but feel relaxed when all the men look like this. And I am happy to report near to ZERO hassle from these nappy clad men too. Ahhhhhhhh this is nice.

It's lovely here. We feel like we are in another country. After all the travel and the belly sickness we have just been chilling out, doing some yoga again, eating dosai (savoury pancake) and getting ready to board a houseboat to cruise the backwaters.

It's fascinating too - it's a very Christian area, with Christian iconography worshipped with the enthusiasim of the hindus and some Jewish history thrown in for good measure. It was colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British and is now Communist. And it seems to work!

We did spend one day doing some proper sightseeing in Cochi. We got the ferry across to Fort Cochin (no sign of any fort-age but we believe them) and took the above pics.

Now we are in Allepey, and tomorrow we board our houseboat! More pics surely from that.