Category Archives: Beach

Animal Eyes

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This gallery contains 10 photos.

“animals eyes have the power to speak a great language” – Martin Buber – Kalathas Beach – Crete – Greece ❤ June 2013  ❤ Gouverneto Monastery – Akrotiri – Crete – Greece ❤ June 2013  ❤ Exo-Gonia – Santorini – Cyclades – Greece … Continue reading →

TRAVEL TREASURE #6 – A Dizzy Dance with Dolphins

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So here’s your weekly fix of Travel Treasure; you just gotta do, what you gotta do, to get a dolphin’s attention!

Prepare to be inspired and why not share your treasure too?

 A Dizzy Dance with Dolphins

by Emily-Ann Elliott of ‘The Grown Up Gap Year’

© Emily-Ann Elliott

© Emily-Ann Elliott

Swimming with dolphins in New Zealand.

Jumping into the icy cold, choppy, seawater took my breath away and it took me a few moments to notice that I wasn’t alone. A beady eye was looking at with me with interest and then another one appeared, and another, and another…

Before I knew it I was absolutely surrounded by dolphins, swimming beneath me and back flipping next to me.

My visit to Kaikoura came about as part of my 30b430 trip, where I ticked off 30 things around the world I’d always wanted to do before my 30th birthday. Our morning began at 5.30am and as we sat in the boat bleary eyed, the crew warned us that they couldn’t guarantee that we’d actually see anything. But just 25 minutes later we started to spot some dolphins following us. Now I’ve seen the odd dolphin before, but I’ve never experienced a whole pod and seeing around 400 together was an incredible sight.

We jumped into the water and began to make the silly squeaking sounds we’d been told would attract the dolphins’ attention. My self-consciousness instantly vanished as the dolphins curiously moved closer to check out these strange creatures.

Dusky dolphins are one of the smallest species, but they were still the same length as me and I couldn’t believe the speed at which they swam. To be so close to wild animals was such a fantastic feeling and I kept ending up with mouthfuls of seawater as I was laughing so much.

The crew told us a good way to play with the dolphins is to make eye contact with them before swimming around in a circle, which might encourage them to copy you. I decided to give it a go and caught the attention of one before madly trying to propel myself around. It looked at me quizzically, as if to say: “Okay, so we’re playing this game?”, before swimming around me so quickly that it made me dizzy.

It was one of the most amazing moments of my trip and is something I will treasure forever.

 ❤ Emily-Ann blogs at Grown Up Gap Year  ❤

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❤ TRAVEL TREASURE #5 ❤

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TRAVEL TREASURE #2 – Backpacking ASIA – The Good, The Bad & The (very) Ugly.

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It’s been a great week at MostlyVictoria – The Travel Treasure Collection has been a real hit! So with excitement and anticipation, we have our second entry – be inspired and share your treasure too.

Sleeper Trains, Cockroaches and White Sandy Beaches

by Gabriella Sears

© Gabriella Sears

© Gabriella Sears

Bright blue seas. Tuk Tuks. Ping Pong shows. Mopeds. Buckets. Tubing. Temples. Elephant riding. Water Buffalo riding. 10 minutes of torrential rain directly followed by 40 degrees of scorching sunshine. I can only be talking about one place. Having spent 6 weeks travelling around Asia (Thailand Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) I was lucky enough (or unlucky enough?!) to see the good, the bad and the (very) ugly parts of backpacking.

One major revelation was that I now know how much I have taken English Taxi Drivers for granted. Being able to hop in a taxi and know they won’t rip you off for all you have is a definite rarity in Asia. Another rarity? Toilets. Well, when I say toilets, I mean the toilets we are used to. A toilet with a seat that is. Oh and a flush. Asian toilets have neither. They are, in basic terms, a hole in the floor. There, on top of a mountain travelling from Vientiene to Vang Vieng in Laos, having just spent the last 4 hours dodging landslides, a seated (western-style) toilet made that trip worthwhile! It is also the only time when a toilet with a glass floor to ceiling window is acceptable! A loo with a view!

The complications and confusions when trying to organise tickets with very limited English spoken, the near death experiences when crossing roads in Vietnam (moped roulette it should be called) and the culinary delights of dog, cat, turtle, snake and rat being freely available in many road side huts, together with an incredible world wonder, Halong Bay, Tomb Raider temples in Angkor Wat, snorkelling with sharks in Shark bay, Koh Tau and lazing around on the beaches you could only imagine having in paradise, have all contributed to the trip of a lifetime.

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Summer of freedom – week 2 – Rethymno to Heraklion – Crete

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“Travelling”… it sounds glamorous right?? Yet for mid to long term travel it does involve some daily ‘chores’ – unless you have a bottomless pit of cash (alas we have don’t). But we do have a daily budget – its reasonably … Continue reading →

Summer of freedom – week 1 – Stavros to Rethymno – Crete

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How did we end up here? How is this my reality? Is this really happening? All questions I have been trying to get my head around this week. So far here’s what I have come up with – it starts … Continue reading →