Posts Tagged ‘National parks’

Time To Unplug, Leave The Grid And Get Back To Nature

Posted on: July 14th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

“Life gets complicated, then you travel and everything balances out”

I read this somewhere and man is it true! Let me ask you a question, when is the last time you went somewhere totally off the grid for more than a few days?

Many people would answer never, but in today’s high paced, high stress modern world we are constantly bombarded with notifications, advertising and media.

Thanks to smart phones work and distraction now follows us home and even to bed at night…it is increasingly important to get away from it all for a while.

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Our happy place in New Zealand

 

Luckily New Zealand has a lot of places where you can get away from it all and Karen and I recently went to one of the prettiest lakes in the country for 5 nights.

This special place is called Lake Waikarimoana and my father who lives 5 hours drive away has been bringing his boat here for years.

 

The lake that time forgot

You have to drive through miles of gravel roads to reach this place. There is no internet, not even a mobile phone signal.

Lake Waikarimoana is surrounded by some of the most pristine forest in New Zealand’s north island, as it is protected as a national park.

Travel with a difference

Hiking to a waterfall was actually one of the prettiest walks we have done anywhere in the world.

 

If you don’t have a boat you can stay at one of a handful of campgrounds which have basic faculties such as toilets, showers, covered areas and BBQ’s you can use to cook your meals.

The 54 square kilometer lake has a hiking trail all the way around it which takes 4 days to walk (44km) and is dotted with waterfalls, pristine native forest and stunning empty beaches.

Lake Waikarimoana

One of the waterfalls around the lake, you could swim here too.

 

Thanks to Dad’s boat we were able to travel away from the main camp sites (and other people) and claim 1 of many amazing, secluded camping sites around the lake with no road or hiking trail access.

We had our own private beach and were woken at 5.30am every morning by a cacophony of native New Zealand bird song.

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Our private beach was a definite highlight.

 

The lake itself is filled with huge rainbow and brown trout, so my Dad went fishing a couple of times and caught a delicious dinner for us.

For 5 days we swam, read books, went on hikes, relaxed, day-dreamed, listened to the birds and drunk good New Zealand wine.

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Hiking around the lake made you realize how far away from anything you were, nothing but nature as far as the eye could see!

 

No smart phone zone

So what was it like being away from concrete, traffic, TV and internet for 5 whole days?

Heaven actually, you really find yourself unwinding, de-stressing and getting back to just being, instead of reacting to everything around you.

Spending time just being present, enjoying nature, food, drink and conversation with zero modern day distractions is highly recommended.

We found it to be so good for our headspace and our souls, by the end of it we felt so relaxed, centered and calm.

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The view from our accommodation was to die for!

 

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Wild Adventures In Borneo

Posted on: June 30th, 2016 by Andrej and Karen

Do you want a real travel adventure?

Borneo evokes romantic notions of huge swathes of unexplored deep, dark and steamy jungle crawling with wild life and indigenous tribes…

It is indeed that, but it’s also a very friendly country that’s easy to travel in.

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Borneo is the nature lovers ultimate paradise

 

The first of my friends I ever heard talking about Borneo told me it is home to the oldest rainforest in the world; 130 million years old, it is also the 3rd largest island in the world and is home to more plant species than anywhere else on earth!

Borneo travel

Here we are exploring the rain-forest.

 

We went to Borneo!

I had this amazing romanticized vision of Borneo as this misty forested paradise inhabited with Orangutans, pygmy elephants and giant flowers and insects…let me tell you the reality is even better, it’s like Jurassic Park but real (and no dinosaurs sorry)!

Adventure in Borneo

This prehistoric looking insect was actually very friendly

 

One of the top things people like to do in Borneo is get out into the user friendly and very well organized National Parks to see some of Borneo’s amazing flora and fauna first hand.

While we were there recently, we decided to go to one of the country’s most popular: Mulu National Park in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. This is supposed to be one of the best national parks in Asia.

Exploring jungles of Borneo

We really loved Mulu National Park

 

Why is Mulu National Park worth a visit?

  • Mulu park is a UNESCO world heritage area, that makes it pretty important on a global scale. Mulu is listed because of its important biodiversity and geological formations.
  • It is home to some of the world’s highest concentrations of plant and animal species. Think 8 species of Hornbill and 27 types of bats found in the park!
Jungle adventure travel

There sure are loads of plants in Mulu national park!

 

  • Mulu is revered for the huge geological significance of its vast cave systems and famous rock pinnacles.
  • This place has the world’s largest known cave chamber which is so big it can fit 40 Boeing 747’s wing to wing!
  • Also Deer cave is one of the largest single cave passages in the world…and every night you can watch 3 million bats fly out of it at dusk!

Basically Mulu is like natures theme park and as we found out there was heaps to do and see here.

There are a multitude of tours you can book and go on with guides, or simply go by yourself, which is mostly what we did.

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It seems like everything in Mulu is huge. Look at this leaf!

 

Mulu sure is a one horse town, it has an airport (because it is just so remote) a hotel, various guest houses, restaurants and a couple of tribal villages…that’s it.

The whole community is set up to support the awesome national park and everything is within walking distance so you don’t need transport.

Luxury travel with a shoestring budget

What other National Park has its own airport?

 

Mulu even has a special 5 star Marriot resort for its more well-heeled visitors!

The national park is made up of km after km of good quality board walks and well-marked out trails.

Some tours are multi day adventures, like going to see the stunning limestone pinnacles (which is one of the main attractions of the park) and other trails can be knocked over in a couple of hours.

Travel with free food and accomodation

One of the great self-guided walking trails

 

The deal is you pay a single entrance fee that last for 5 days then you can choose a guest house (of which there were about 10) outside the park’s entrance and come and go from the park as you please.

It’s very easy to have a multi-day itinerary of tours you have booked, walks you want to go on by yourself and plenty of chill out time.

 

So what did we do in Mulu?

  1. Went on a guided tour of Deer and Lang caves seeing the millions (literally) of swiftlets and bats that nest in there. Now we can say we have officially been to one of the biggest caves in the world.
  1. Did an amazing tree-top walk on one of the world’s longest canopy rope bridges. This was a real highlight of our trip to Mulu.
Jungle adventure in Borneo

Mulu’s canopy walk is one of the world’s longest.

 

  1. A guided wildlife spotting night walk, this was very cool. Our guide knew exactly what kind of animals to spot where. We saw loads of cool stuff from giant insects and moths to huge geckos, frogs and sleeping birds. This was my favorite activity mostly because I got to touch lots of the insects!
Exploring Southeast Asia

We were quiet not to wake the birds on the night walk

 

  1. Went up the huge bird spotting tower to view birds and humongous stick insects and katydids in the rainforest canopy. This gets pretty crowded, so the best time to go is at break of dawn when you will have the least company and the birds will be most active.
  1. Went on some amazing self-guided walks by ourselves, on these walks we saw the most variety of wildlife because we were very quiet and by ourselves. We took picnic lunches and made a day of it.
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This cool Pill bug rolled into a ball as big as a Kinder surprise!

 

  1. Hanging out at the awesome Mulu restaurant in the park, this was the best place to eat in town, with loads of space, a nice view, great food and the only WiFi in Mulu! It was a great place to chill with other travelers and talk about your adventures and what you had seen!
  1. The bat exodus: this nightly event is gob-smacking. You get to watch 3 million wrinkle-nosed bats exit Deer cave each dusk winding and reeling through the sky as one organism to avoid the bat hawks and other birds of prey looking for a batty snack. This is one of nature’s coolest events!
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The “bat exodus” was one of the coolest spectacles of nature we had ever seen.

 

We absolutely loved the pristine nature amazing wildlife and peace and quiet of Mulu National Park, we will definitely go back and recommend you go see it for yourself!

World travel for less

if you want to see loads of nature up close and personal go to Borneo

If Swapping at a destination like this, and traveling the world virtually for free sounds like something you’d like to try, Click Here get our free guide that teaches you exactly how we do it.