I've had the climb of my life Rising over the northern half of Lombok, the mighty Gunung Rinjani (3726m) is Indonesia's second highest volcano and has spiritual gravitas. Balinese Hindus and Sasak Muslims consider it sacred and make pilgrimages to its peak and lake to leave offerings to the gods. But we were after a more earthly satisfaction. As part of our desire to climb anything we saw and the fact that we've summited higher mountains before, we thought it w...

Gili Billies - Just over one week in and we're still in 'holiday' mode. And what an amazing place to have a holiday. We'd initially planned to stay on Gili T for three days to do a spot of diving and chill out. But the lure of this beautiful island, absolutely amazing dive sites, the Advanced PADI qualification and general slow pace of life meant we've stayed for five nights. Of course it's a very touristy island, but 19 metres under water, it's just you an...

The Itchy and Scratchy Show - So it feels like the tour has really begun now. We've left Bali behind with well over 400 mosquito bites between us as not so little souvenirs (the photo shows the extent of some of the damage as well as records the progress of the facial and mane growth). Kuta in Bali, where we stayed, was a strange kinda place. Massively developed and spoilt and catering for both the Aussie package tourist (Perth is only 3 hours away and so it's ...

When Life becomes a full-time job - 'Do nothing' has never really been part of our vocabulary. So, even as we sit here on Legian Beach in Seminyak, Bali, we've compiled a list of the main things we want to do during our six-month trip. Obviously, important tasks of this week like 'drink a lot of beer', 'have lots of cheap massages on the beach' and 'find a bar showing the FA Cup Final' don't count. If nothing else, the list will stop Nicola from just wanting to ...