Land Ahoy!

We've decided to go back to our pirate island once again. This time we're taking a tent and a treasure map - 'this time next year Rodney we'll be millionaires.'

Over the last couple of days we've been busy busy with a trip to Poring Hot Springs. I've got to say that the Hot Springs were possibly the weirdest thing we've found. I'm not sure what we were expecting really, but what we got were hundreds of tiny swimming pools with taps to fill them up. As it was absolutely pouring with rain, we decided to explore some of the trails first though, and ended up on a canopy walkway. I've honestly never seen rain like it - even in Madagascar, but maybe that's because we weren't caught in a storm whilst in the forest there. It could be the trees that amplified the effect, but it seemed like the heavens had literally opened and someone had forgotten how to turn the tap off. The walkway must have been 50m high, and was one of those 'wobbly bridge' type structures. Absolutely brilliant - if ever you want to witness things from a monkey's eye-view, this is the place to do it.

We were also lucky enough to see the Rafflesia in bloom. It's the world's largest flower and only opens for a couple of days a year. The taxi driver had asked if we'd like to see it, and it was very cool, but not cool enough to pay the rather large amount they requested on our return to the main road. Thankfully Verity haggled them/bullied them down to a more reasonable offering and we scarpered fairly sharpish. (Having met the smaller group of Cardiff travellers yesterday, we found they'd been well and truly ripped off, so we did rather well in the end!)

Anyway my fellow pirateers are awaiting my presence, and so I must depart for fresh shores. Ta-ra me hearties!