We seem to have got out of Borneo at about the right time! Tension was building up between Malaysia and Indonesia over Borneo when new reserves of oil have been found and there is a dispute over who owns it. A sizeable contingent of both countries warships and F-16 fighterplanes are now stationed just off the Borneo coastline ready to scrap it out, although for now both sides have agreed to hold talks. Add to that, Borneo experienced 10ft waves whilst we were the...

We took a short flight from Singapore to the island of Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei ownership. We've come to Sabah which is in the Malaysian part in order to climb Mount Kinabalu and visit the rainforest where there is an Orang-utan rehabilitation sanctuary. Our first stop was the Kinabalu National Park, which is home to the highest mountain in South East Asia, with the peak at 4095m/13600ft. In comparison it's higher than ...

We are now in the northern most town of Australia, Darwin, after having travelled around some of the nearby National Parks, for a few days. Darwin has a much more tropical climate than the centre of the country, so whilst the temperature has reduced by 7-8 degrees, it is a lot more humid and uncomfortable. There are only two seasons here; the Wet and the Dry. Currently it is coming towards the end of the Wet. Whilst on our travels around the local area ...

Alice Springs is one of the few large towns in the whole of the Northern Territoy and the only one in the centre of Australia. The state istself is 7 times the size of the UK and only has 200,000 inhabitants. That is a lot of space per capita! Most of the land is arrid and dry with very little rainfall. We are here in the height of summer yet this is also the wet season. We have yet to seen a drop of rain or a river or creek bed with any water in it. We hat...

We arrived back from the Pacific Ocean yesterday after 5 days of great diving and wonderful company, aboard our boat the Taka. The boat was brand new and purpose built for diving expeditions, which makes life to much easier and the whole crew, from the chef to dive leader, were qualified dive masters or instructors - very reassuring! The advantage of a 'liveaboard' boat is that you don't waste time returning to land each day so you can get more dives in each day ...