Entry 9: Pantanal, Parati, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Newcastle, Byron Bay, Brisbane, Noosa, Gagaju, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Town of 1770

Hello everybody.

Well, here it is, my first blog entry of 2008. I know it's been a while in coming, but good things come to those who wait....and often mediocre things too.

Before I go on about what I've been up to since November, some of you might have noticed that I've made a few changes to the design of my blog. Jealousy is a powerful emotion, and after looking at the blog of the friends I am currently staying with (Steve/Hexham and Lou) I realised mine was not only aesthetically inadequate, but also severely under used, so I'm going to try to be a little more regular with my updates in future....though please don't hold me to that.

Anyway, lots of stuff has happened since I last updated you all. I now find myself in Sydney, home of the Opera House, Bondi Beach and Juninho (he's currently playing for Sydney FC, I didn't realise it until I arrived though).

My last few weeks in South America were fantastic. The Pantanal was a huge nature reserve populated by all kinds of animals, though sadly we didn't really see many of them. I think the highlight of my time there, along with playing lots of volleyball and sleeping in hammocks, was probably the moment a travelling companion, Stuart, emptied his boot out to find a huge tarantula had made his footwear home. That gave us all quite a fright as you can imagine. Upon later investigation Stuart found that this spider just happened to be one of the most deadly in the world, and if he had been unlucky enough to have been bitten by it then he would have probably been dead within 15 minutes.

After the Pantanal came Parati. A chance to soak up a little beach time and take a trip out on a boat for a day. I'd love to tell you how I expanded my knowledge of sailing, assisting the crew with the rigging on the starboard and that type of thing, but we basically just took a s**t load of alcohol and spent the day getting trolleyed.

From here I arrived in Rio. What a city. On reflection Rio was my favourite city in South America. Buenos Aires was incredible, but Rio had a little something that not even BA could match. Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer were both breathtaking, and so should have been the Maracana, if they hadn't shut it for the week to prepare for the Police concert. I hold Sting personally responsible for me missing out on one of the most impressive football stadiums in the world, so if anyone knows the man maybe you should suggest he doesn't show his face around the streets of Mickleover once I return home...otherwise blood will be spilt.

Other highlights of Rio would definitely be the street party in which we were dazzled by a full samba band for hours, before then seeing in the sunset on Copacabana beach, hang-gliding over the city, sun-bathing on Ipanema beach, and the favella tour.

The favellas, for anyone who doesn't know, are the slums in Rio. Ruled by the drug lords, they are a huge labyrinth of shacks, over which the Brazilian government has no control. A moment that I will never forget was when I was wandering around one such favella on a Saturday afternoon, when I saw a lad, about my height, dressed similarly to me in shorts, flip-flops and a football shirt, holding the biggest sub-machine gun I have ever seen. If you put that thing against him vertically I'm sure it would have been about 2 foot taller than him. I considered asking the lad to pose for a photo, but quickly had the presence of mind to think that maybe that wasn't the best of ideas and I should just let him carry on with his business.

And so it was, that after a few days in Rio my time in South America came to an end. I loved South America and would recommend to anyone who wants to listen that they should get over there as quickly as possible. I wouldn’t have had half the fun I did if I hadn’t have made some fantastic friends along the way though, so it was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to many of the people I had met over the previous weeks and months, to start my next adventure, Australia.

Right, it's nearly 2 in the morning here now so I'm gonna head off to bed. I'll get the second half of this tale finished tomorrow night.