Lombok is always described as Bali’s little tourism brother, quieter and less developed. This suits us perfectly and after visiting it briefly in 2016 we were keen to see more.

Initially we had planned to visit the central highlands, similar to Munduk in Bali. However in light of the high degree of James moaning from our Munduk trip we sacrificed waterfalls and rice paddy’s for the surf. We’d heard cool things about Kuta (the Lombok version not the party Bali version), described as a laid back surfing paradise and so diverted for a few more days on the beach.

We were excited for pristine sandy beaches and good surf, however, I’m sorry to say that Kuta disappointed ☹️. Like Ubud it was traffic crazy, but this time lacking the charm of the Bali towns. When you visit a place it can be hard to articulate the reasons why the love somewhere, we find this is often even harder when the vibe is a little off. For sure the people on Lombok are different, customer service is lower down their priority order, which when then combined with a more pushy approach to tourists felt a little abrasive. This is no different than lots of other parts of the world, much of Africa for example, but compared the the Balinese who are so laid back, it was a stark comparison.

This was also the first time in the holiday that I had been so acutely aware of poverty and I felt uncomfortable about the living conditions for some families. Squatting by the side of a fume filled road in a sewerage drain, mothers and children sold jewellery to tourists and later slept on the floor in plywood single room homes by the side of the same road.

The final stark difference was the rubbish and trash everywhere. Some areas looked filthy, plastic accumulating outside of buildings, in dry river beds and on many beaches.

Bali and Lombok struggle with overwhelmed local landfills given high tourist numbers. But Bali also has stricter bans on single use plastics and tourist hubs invest more in clean up activities. I think the reality is that these struggles are more visible on Lombok than Bali but they exist on both.

So should we even be visiting? If we are putting obvious strain on the environment is it better for tourists to stay away? Our response is to travel carefully – avoiding plastics, utilising our own refillable water bottles (we have our own water filter just in case), and spending money directly with local people as much as possible so money flows into the community avoiding the agencies.

This part of the trip was an important reminder that fortunes for people are mainly set when they are born and there is a shitty unfairness in the reality that a person born in Indonesia faces different life opportunities to someone born in the U.K. A positive attitude can only get you so far in life!

When we travel with James we talk about these differences so he can increase his empathy and understanding of the world. We’re hoping this information is sinking in, evidence right now suggests empathy is much higher for animals and the planet as a whole than humans!!

We did make the most of our time in Kuta. A fun family surfing lesson gave James the chance to practice the skills he developed in Panama nearly 7 years ago. He did fabulous, although I think he still prefers to be in the waves rather than on them.

Tampah beach is looked after and cleaned by locals, giving us a beautiful morning on pristine sand (except for a rogue washed up baby Portuguese Man O War 😬).

And the ‘highlight’ of the Kuta trip was a visit to Gua Sanur the local bat cave which defies words and pictures, but let me try my best.

You descend a set of rickety metal steps into a wide opening of the cave. At this point the floor is already covered in hundreds of cockroaches, who have the good grace not to crawl up your legs – for that I am thankful. Walk 20 metres further and you have greater numbers of cockroaches, thousands of fruit bats hanging and swarming above with the not so gentle buzz of both filling the air. This noise is punctuated by the occasional plop of bat shit onto our colourful umbrellas thankfully provided by the guide! If this were not enough torchlight pin points reticulated pythons, hanging from and hiding in crevices waiting to pounce on the passing bats.

Oh, and then there’s the smell. It says a lot about the above that the smell was actually the least worse part of this adventure.

Encouraged by our guide we snuck under a low hanging cave ledge, carefully not touching the floor, to spot spider bats. If it weren’t for the fact that we’d had to leave our umbrellas behind (they wouldn’t fit under the gap) this was my favourite bit – cockroaches and pythons were gone and these more chilled bats eat my nemesis – mosquitoes!

Sadly we had to retrace our footsteps to get out of the place.

We had varying perspectives on this specific adventure – James was delighted (his hero Steve Backshall did something similar in Deadly 60). John was thrilled by the opportunity to be so close to nature.

I was horrified and I don’t think James could understand why I would come into the cave given how it made me feel. I didn’t want to miss out of course, but mainly I believe that as we grow older our world can easily get smaller and so pushing the boundaries on what we are willing to do is a good thing to do. That said, I don’t intend to repeat it. Ever!!!

Our driver for the day (the wonderful Morin), despite being terrified of snakes, had chosen to join us in his flip-flops (like the guide) for this part of the trip.

The Gili islands are hyped as being idyllic tropical paradise but after the disappointment of the also hyped Kuta we were slightly worried they would be a dud.

We’d been warned that the port of Bangsal on Lombok was a hornets nest of touts for the tourist speed boats. Thankfully, Morin, our trusty driver took us directly to the ticket shed for the public boat to our first stop, Gili Air. The boat was a simple wooden affair with bench seats and worrying only 2 life vests. We shared the ride mainly with locals with a smattering of backpackers.

Gili Air is small, maybe 30 mins walk from end to end, with a criss-cross of sandy and semi paved tracks. But most importantly, no noisy polluting motorbikes! The only transport on the island are horse carts, push bikes and electric scooters. Paradise? Not quite, but still pretty nice and a good place to relax.

A couple of months before heading to Indonesia we’d discovered that James was old enough to do a PADI Bubblemaker scuba diving course – a short theory session on the essentials, a pool dive to learn some basic skills then a shallow introductory 2m sea dive. James was keen to try, especially given his future career aspirations to become a marine biologist. But we have to admit that our motives were partially selfish. Since James was born our scuba diving has taken a back seat because one of us has to stay back with James. So the hope is that when he’s old enough (12) to do his PADI Open Water qualification we can dive as a family, so this would be a positive step in that direction.

His dive buddy was Mark, a gentle bearded giant from Perth and they made an unlikely pair. Alex the instructor was a legend and really looked after James, and was very patient, apparently even when James spent his time chasing fish rather than paying attention.

The theory and pool session went smoothly which was a relief as James is not known for his listening to instructions skills. We’d prepared ourselves for it being a 2m sea dive maybe 5m at the deepest. When his instructor told us he’d be going down to 12m on a full ‘try dive’ from a boat, James was super excited at the prospect, we were too but we were also secretly terrified. I wouldn’t call us helicopter parents but it was a pretty nerve wracking 40 minutes waiting for them to surface. Scuba gets a clear thumbs up from James and we are so proud of him for being so confident in the water and giving it a try at such a young age.

Lucy also took the opportunity to go out on a dive, her first in almost 10 years! She was rewarded with turtles and some white tip reef sharks. I had a head cold and didn’t want to risk not being able to equalise so stayed ashore to watch James do his pool lesson.

We spent the rest of our time exploring the island and Miss Daisy made a return. Lucy and James on an electric scooter and me following on a rusty single speed pedal bike. Turtle point was our favourite, a black sand beach with azure waters on the east coast, where green turtles come to graze on the seagrass a few metres from the shore. Hours were spent playing in the waves and following huge turtles as they lazily munched away. Having our own transport also enabled Lucy to be in her natural environment, exploring the islands boutique shops.

Next stop Gili Meno, a 10 minute boat ride away. Lucy’s liking of fancy-pants hotels was satiated as our villa was lush with a pool which stretched almost onto the beach. Gili Meno is known as the honeymoon island and is even quieter with far less tourist infrastructure (thankfully less shops) than Gili Air. So much so that all fresh water has to be boated in and apparently work on laying fresh water pipes from Lombok ground to a halt thanks to government corruption.

With nothing ‘to do’ other than cycle around the island, undertake pre-breakfast (high tide) DIY family paddle board/snorkelling trips to the outer reef, visit another turtle sanctuary, eat good food and drink sundowners it was a great way to spend the last couple of days of our travels. 

Next stop a couple of days in Singapore, via Jakarta.

When we visited Indonesia 10 years ago we struck Komodo off the options list because it was so remote – to see the dragons requires a boat trip, ideally a live aboard, plus quite a bit of patience. Even we appreciated that it was not an ideal location for a holiday with a 5 month old.

The stars aligned this time: James loves all animals and is going through a reptile phase, we can (generally) trust him to be on a boat and not fall overboard, he was super keen to see Komodo dragons in the wild following a school Komodo project and he loves spending time in the sea.

Wanting to make the most of the national park we quickly chose a 3 day live aboard giving us chance to see the dragons but also the wonderful sea life around this part of the world. The Komodo National Park protects the dragons whose numbers are now thankfully broadly stable at around 3,500, though they do remain endangered, the park also preserves amazing marine life and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Never one to think things through too carefully I hadn’t considered the reality of being at sea for 3 days and put from my mind the unfortunate “vomit comet” incident from last year’s Easter holiday (Cornwall to Isles of Scilly lovely day trip NOT!!!!!!).

In the spirit of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy (James and I have just finished this), I’m going to get to the point on the vomit thing, rather than withhold to create suspense. The reality is so extreme I can just get on with it.

Good news. James and I were not sea sick.

Bad news. James was sick ALL OVER the floor of the plane on the runway before taking off, flying out to Komodo. What kind of stupid plane doesn’t have sick bags!

James is fine btw but we had a horrid flight (as did several close by passengers 🙈🙊🙉) and we were concerned for the return of Bali-belly…this is not our first rodeo – it would of course put a stop to our Komodo trip.

Better or worse, you decide, this was actually caused by a rogue chocolate brownie in the airport hiding a few walnuts, which he is allergic too. We watched him closely as he has only a mild allergy and since he recovered quickly we didn’t provide any medicine. Turns out this was quite a mistake to make and his stomach wanted rid of the walnuts several hours later.

Our AI travel best friend helped us figure out the cause, but then put us on high alert by telling us he’d had a secondary allergic response and needed close monitoring overnight. Whilst likely an overreaction, I bunked in with James so I could regularly check on his breathing, an action which annoyed James greatly when he woke the following morning and found his mum there.

We were all therefore incredibly relieved when James sprang out of bed the following morning declaring he was ready for dragons and snorkelling. Phew!!

We’d carefully chosen our live aboard to minimise the chances of karaoke parties, which apparently are quite a thing. Happily we were paired up with two Dutch families with nearly grown up kids, who were awesome fellow boat passengers. We’ll even forgive them causing the karaoke death of Bohemian Rhapsody on the final night 🤣😬😳!!!

The boat was lush. We had a balcony over the rear of the ship, offering a gorgeous shaded spot to chill and enjoy the view. The top deck was a sun terrace and bean bags were placed at the front of the ship for an easy relax and snooze. Food was amazing with enough French fries to keep James happy, although we were rather more careful than usual about the risk of nuts…funny that!

Our 3 day trip consisted of Komodo dragons, lots of snorkelling with turtles and stingrays, jumping from the boat, looking for baby reef sharks, short sunset hikes and bat watching (all 10,000 of them!). Plus of course cruising along carefree, enjoying seeing a truly unique part of the world.

If John were writing this blog he would tell you that from crossing between Bali and Komodo we have passed the Wallace line, though disappointingly for him once again this was by air. Basically strong currents and a deep trench remained through the ice age keeping these two pieces of land separate and so despite close proximity this is the point where animals and plants materially differ between mammals to the north west and marsupials to the south east. Almost no animals cross this line – not even birds!

So, it was amazing to be here and so see such beautiful natural wildlife. But it was also busy…high winds hit and one of the main park straights was closed for a portion of the trip. That meant more tourists than usual in the same area. We’re not talking Disneyland busy (not that I’ve been) nor Ubud either but it was busier than we might like.

A detour to a small island known for its black tip reef sharks had become a nursery for a crowd of tourists who didn’t know how to snorkel. Imagine the noise they made when some of them spotted sharks in the water 🤣🤣.

Sunset hikes on islands were at times less peaceful than we might have liked and one evening I thought we may as well have been on board a neighbouring Chinese rave ship given how the noise carried over water. We could actually see the people onboard bopping up and down to the crazy disco music!!!

Taking 3 days at sea also curtailed the options for exercise, which frankly was rather blissful. Though on the last day John and I took the opportunity to swim to a local beach – maybe 300m away from our boat. Usually we would take the small speed boat, but since James was now pretty proficient on a paddle board he would paddle and we would swim alongside. Or so we thought, as the current swiftly took James away to the right of the island and left us swimming after him with rather more urgency that we had planned. Never fear though, our new Dutch friends on the boat spotted this and sent the speed boat driving to check on him. James’ response to all of this when he finally arrived on the island was “I beat you!” It seems he was in an invisible race and was completely oblivious to the fact that he was being swept away and giving his parents a better than expected swim workout!

Rinca Island was our destination for the big Komodo visit and we happily arrived ahead of the day-trippers from the mainland.

I still don’t really know how to write about the dragons. We knew we would have a hard time spotting them in the wild, plus it was mating season where the dragons are busy with…erm…other things. We had also heard rumours of the odd Komodo dragon being placed strategically near the rangers station, drugged up to enable tourists to get the desired insta shot.

The reality was a modest walk around the forest, where we were lucky enough to spot 8-10 dragons. And honestly, these lizards are extraordinary. Forget for a second that they’re cannibals (yes, they eat their own young) and that the females can reproduce without males – they’re just otherworldly creatures full stop. They lumber around like they’ve got all the time in the world, then suddenly move terrifyingly fast when they want to 😳. They taste the air with these absurdly long tongues, flicking them out constantly, and every so often one would crack its jaw open wide like it was about to breathe fire. Happy to report: it cannot.

Our guide was from the local town – a 6 hour walk from the park, working 10 days on/off leaving his family at home, working for no salary – only board and lodgings. If you’re wondering why he would do that, the opportunity to learn to speak English and work with tourists was so beyond his wildest dreams that this opportunity was a major achievement for him. He shared with us that David Attenborough spent 5 days in his family house during 7 months of filming on the island. When I told him that Sir David is a major celeb in our house and our country he was visibly delighted.

We believe the dragons hang around the tourist trail in bigger numbers because, well, there’s food there to tempt them — fair enough, really. They’re wild animals living out in rugged, remote terrain, and tourists only get one day to try and spot these amazing creatures. On balance, I’m fine with it: tourism keeps the national park going, the dragons are still roaming pretty freely, and the overall population stays protected.

Komodo has been a real highlight of our Indonesia adventure so far. Part of this was for sure seeing Komodo dragons in the wild, made even more special by living on such an amazing boat for a few days with great company.

Sad as we are to leave we are excited for the next part of our trip – revisiting Lombok and journeying on to the Gili Islands.

Jungle trails. Bracing waterfall pools. Mopeds on mountain roads. Now we are talking!

The last time we rode mopeds was 3 years ago in Koh Phangan where we met Frenchie no. 2 family 😘 and spent our time happily buzzing around the island together. This time the roads were steeper and more potholed, the number of dogs laid in the road was greater and James much bigger. Back then he was small enough to sit up front but now he had to ride pillion, which caused a few tense moments going up crazily steep hills wondering whether he’d remember to keep holding on.

One thing that hasn’t changed though is James’s love for speed. “Why is mummy riding so slowly?”, “Go on daddy, overtake mummy so I can shout hurry up Miss Daisy as we go past”, “Can you go down the next hill faster”. Clearly James had mistaken a family holiday for MotoGP 🤪

Our first foray was to an organic coffee farm further up the mountain – via the backroads so that Miss Daisy could get used to the roads. I spent a fascinating half hour chatting with the farmer about soil health, shade trees and how organic farming supports biodiversity. Sadly, I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my cup of his finest Arabica contained enough undrinkable sludge to stand a spoon upright. The real surprise? Organic Luwak coffee (yes, the one involving Civet poo) actually tastes pretty good!

The beauty of having mopeds is the freedom to explore. Much to James’s annoyance we visited more waterfalls and went on a guided walk through a protected rainforest on the side of a crater lake. The rainforest is one of the few remaining pockets of native mountain forest in Bali, protecting everything from giant trees and rare birds to the streams that feed the crater lake. Thankfully our guide distracted James from complaining too much by feeding him interesting nature facts. She even wove James a traditional headdress, which he wore proudly for the rest of the walk. Although we didn’t dare point out that he may regret the photos in later life 🤣 The complaining about having to walk was also reduced by canoeing back across the lake to our starting point.

With our mopeds doing most of the leg work, one afternoon Lucy decided it was time to get some exercise. Lucy enjoyed a 3 km run along the scenic but very steep rice terrace trails so much that I thought I’d give it a go. One wrong turn later I got completely lost and I’d inadvertently turned it into a 7 km adventure and only got home by asking bewildered rice farmers for directions back to town. Note to self: Google maps is completely useless without my reading glasses!

A couple of days before arriving in Munduk James asked “Mummy, when do you think you will teach me how to cook?” (No gender stereotyping here 😳). Enter Rumah Tua’s Balinese Cooking Class.

Rumah, holiday let manager, fixer, entrepreneur, chef and mother, was so generous, kind and patient with James. She didn’t waste any time putting him to work chopping, grinding, grating and frying. The number of ingredients and work (no blenders used here folks) that goes into Balinese food is staggering. The end result was delicious, although we aren’t confident that James will be able to recreate it when we get back home.

It was sad to give the mopeds back but it was time to head down the mountain to Pemuteran on the north west coast. After the traffic and bustle of southern Bali, Pemuteran felt like a quiet backwater – Although it still has its fair share of noisy motorbikes. But, it isn’t just a sleepy beach town. It’s quietly become one of Bali’s conservation success stories.

A short swim off its black sand beach is Bio Rock, the world’s largest reef restoration project. Then there’s the Reef Seen turtle sanctuary, who buy wild sea turtle eggs that local fishermen find on the beaches. The eggs are then safely incubated, hatched, and the young turtles raised in tanks for a few weeks until they are strong enough to survive in the wild. This compensates the locals and protects the eggs from predators and illegal wildlife markets, giving them around ten times better odds of surviving in the wild.

Also, a 45 minute speedboat ride away is Menjangan island, a marine protected area and no take zone, managed and policed by the local community. All this from a small town with a chilled vibe with just a handful of dive shops, cafes and restaurants.

Snorkelling in the crystal clear waters of Menjangan we found some of the best condition coral we’ve seen for many years. No sign of bleaching, overfishing, litter or anchor damage. The fish diversity was incredible and James got to swim alongside several critically endangered hawksbill turtles which left us all buzzing. It’s easy to feel gloomy about the state of our oceans, but places like Menjangan remind you how quickly nature can recover and thrive when people decide to protect it.

The rest of our time was spent enjoying the chilled vibe, cool cafes and beach front restaurants, and of course repeated visits to see the super cute baby turtles. James also got plenty of time to hone his Paddle boarding skills by ferrying Lucy around to the bay. This more sedate form of transport suited Miss Daisy nicely.

Fully recharged, we were ready for our next adventure. A flight east to the island of Flores  – home of remote islands and the Komodo dragons!

I have a confession to make….I like a nice hotel. I mean I’ve always liked a nice hotel, but my joy definitely increases these days with in room trinkets, a pool with a view, a general bougee atmosphere and a set of dumbbells in a hotel gym. No prizes for guessing this is Lucy writing this blog. John is still happy with a hammock under the stars and a towel on the beach; although let’s be clear – he also appears to take significant enjoyment from tofu scramble for breakfast!

When planning a holiday, John seems to take the lead in the itinerary and I love, love, love finding the accommodation. I remember 10 years ago we paid £11 a night for a bright baby friendly room, outdoor cute bathroom and shared pool in central Ubud. This is really similar to the one we just stayed in, in Nusa Lembongan (about £40 a night these days it seems). And it was nice…but not as nice as the one I booked for Ubud 🤩🤩🤩. Ubud is a crazy, busy town which has long outgrown its road network. Even 10 years ago it was too popular for its own good and today that’s definitely true.

So a bougee tranquil hotel was essential you see…somewhere to escape the noise and traffic.

It’s hard to explain Ubud. A town that these days seems visibly still connected to the capital Denpasar. At first glance it is two frantically busy roads, with eye watering pollution and insufficient pavements meaning that at any moment you can be clipped by a car or worse still fall into a drainage ditch. Sounds tempting right?

Look again and just off the main drag you find yourself in an urban rice-paddy flanked by uber cute cafes serving awesome food and coffee. Dare to go further and you can find yourself in heavenly jungle and countryside with only the semi constant passing of motorbikes on infeasibly small paths reminding you that you are close to town.

On each visit to Ubud I am overwhelmed by and slightly recoil against the craziness and by the end of each visit I am its biggest fan 😻.

Returning to Ubud was essential but also risky. 10 years ago we loved it and stumbled upon an evening walk, baby in sling, across a rice paddy searching out somewhere that sounded too good to be true – Sweet Orange Warung. A beautiful cafe, with delicious food, off the beaten track and an owner that took off with our baby whilst we enjoyed the tranquility and amazing dinner.

Deciding to retrace our steps to Sweet Orange left us wondering whether is would still be as beautiful. Plus, it’s a traditional Warung, serving Indonesian food and we know already how much James loves such a thing. This had disaster written all over it!!

Thankfully Sweet Orange knows how to roll with the times. The place still exists, food just as exquisite, a small extension to the grounds with massages now on offer. The food remains unmistakably Indonesian but with enough variety to offer sweetcorn fritters and rice for James and the winning formula…a cake fridge!!!

We happily ate our meal, looking out over the rice paddy and thanked our lucky stars that the universe had been so relatively kind to us over the past decade.

It is fair to say the rest of Bali and frankly Indonesia has a lot to live up to!

We continued north through Bali, John in particular wanted to visit the highlands and so we settled on staying a few nights in Munduk. 2 hours north of Ubud, Munduk sits on a mountainous ridge; land falling steeply away on either side into valleys of rice paddies and spice plantations. I won’t lie – the journey up here gave me the ick. I was prepared for hairpin turns and heights but hadn’t expected mild vertigo feeling from driving along with the valley on both sides.

Munduk is noticeably cooler, mainly in the evenings and so much more quiet than Ubud. The real attraction of the place is not the dawn chorus of cockerels, dogs and motorbikes(!!), it is the dozens of waterfalls, one of Bali’s most sacred temples (less interesting to us), plus spice and coffee plantations.

We arrived hoping to have a small break from the beach / pool life for a few days, enjoy some cooler weather and annoy James greatly with a few of ‘those walks’.

Given the above it was surprising that James was surprised that less than an hour after arrival we had found and departed for an afternoon waterfall hike. Since we are good parents this had been paired with a packet of mentos and a promise of some screen-time if all went well.

All did not go well. The walk was amazing, and believe me we’ve see a lot of waterfalls in our time. To be fair to James, we were walking for a few hours, it was incredibly steep and he’s not yet match fit for such hikes. Happily the boys got a cool off in a natural pool under one of the waterfalls and we made it back before sundown to have a nice feed in one of the local Warungs.

We are making progress with James eating Indonesian food. We’re pretending there are no western restaurants and James eats some version of local food whilst moaning heavily. I know some people will feel we are tough on him, but we know that he is actually ok with this food and we really want him to be confident when he travels later in life by himself to try and enjoy local food.

To make the most of Munduk we wanted to hire motorbikes and I was persuaded to give it a go when I saw a 10 year old local kid competently navigating the steep hills. Regular readers will know this is not our first experience of motorbikes – with mixed previous success!

To be continued…

When we first started the babybarrettravels blog we set off with a 5 month old who had to be carried around in a sling. Baby Barrett was small enough to lay of top of our trusty travel bag. 10 years later he’s big enough to carry it!

Deciding where to spend the school summer holidays has its challenges. With southern Europe getting hotter, the southern hemisphere is winter and rainy season in much of SE Asia – our choices in July and August are limited. Not to mention a war in the Middle East reducing flight options and local fuel availability making some destinations unrealistic. So this time we decided to break the old travel adage of never going back to somewhere you’ve been before. 

10 years ago we flew to Bali for a brief visit on our maternity leave grand tour. We loved it, despite a few hiccups along the way including James experiencing ‘Bali-belly’ and passing it on to both of us!! Needless to say we have packed the hand sanitiser this time…

This time we’ll be spending longer there so we can explore some different parts the island. Then onto Flores and Komodo national park, before heading to Lombok and the Gili islands, with a brief stop in Singapore on the way home. 

Before we left home, London was facing a series of stifling heatwaves. So the irony of escaping to an equally hot Indonesia was not lost on us. Nor were the carbon emissions from our long haul flight.

On landing, things in Bali felt familiar – the humidity, the ubiquitous smell of incense, friendly welcoming people, mopeds everywhere and tasty food for the grown ups – James does not concur because of the unusual flavours and is asking for fries with every meal – we are working on this!

We had a couple of days chilling in Sanur to recover from jet lag before taking a short boat ride to Nusa Lembongan – a small island off Bali’s south coast.

Our time on Nusa Lembongan was spent playing in the sea, chilling by the pool, going on a disappointing canoe ride through a mangrove forest, and watching the sunset with cold beers whilst James played in the waves.

The highlight was easily snorkelling with manta rays in crystal clear water, albeit with quite a lot of swell. Having 2m giants glide underneath you almost within touching distance is just spell binding – time just seems to stand still. A family memory that will stay with us forever.

Our next destination is back on Bali, inland to Ubud.

Our final destination was to head east, staying just outside Carmel. For the final few nights we would essentially be neighbours with Brad Pitt and Clint Eastwood (I mean they live a few miles from our hotel but who’s counting). 

We were excited to see the sea again but had done very little by way of planning these last few days, we’d even changed the hotel mid holiday. As we travel we always remind ourselves what we like / dislike and so it works to keep things open. 

The way back to the coast was lovely. We managed to avoid crazy highways and cut across a couple of mountain ranges. We watched the vegetation shift from scorched to lush and there was a definite shift in wealth as the manicured private estates popped up alongside vineyards. 

The agriculture in this area is vast. I was born in Lincolnshire and so am no stranger to a field of onions 😂. Turns out this central valley area in California accounts for half of all fruit and vegetables grown in the US. It also generates 20% of the milk consumed, although having seen the cows tolerating the heat with no fresh grass I’m wondering quite a bit about animal welfare. 

But here’s the thing – the area is bone dry. Left without irrigation the crops would definitely fail. In recent years the main reservoir (Shasta) shrunk to less than 25% of its capacity and farmland went unfarmed as a result. 

I’m sure you didn’t tune into the blog for an agriculture update (though my Dad will be delighted with this content), but as we travel we constantly get reminded that the world is changing and we like to share that reality. 

Back to Carmel. Some quick research told us that Monterey nearby was a hot spot for Whale watching. We thought we were out of season right down this coast but it turns out humpback whales love the area and the deep trenches and so we spent one of last mornings out at sea. If you’ve read a few of our blogs you’ll know we whale watch a lot!  I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it. There was an embarrassment of sea life including loads of sea lions hunting together in the deep and a large number of humpbacks across several different sights. I think we probably saw 20 humpback whales including some who chose to get unbelievably close. 

California has also got one thing particularly right, bottom trawling is not legal across the state waters except in a very small area where strict rules are placed on how it is done. There are also a number of no fish zones which has allowed sea life of all kinds to recover. This includes sea otters being abundant, although this is not from personal experience as these guys remained firmly out of site for all of our California holiday!

Being back by the sea was amazing and John was totally in his element with miles of visible kelp that he was desperate to inspect at close quarters. Sadly timing was not right for a scuba dive and John stayed on land as he wasn’t entirely sure a beach dip would be safe from rocks, strong currents…and white sharks, who also enjoy the seas around this area!!

As our time in California comes to an end we played the usual game of ‘could we live here’. The answer for sure was yes we could, but it was the coastal areas that we loved the most. Admittedly it might be quite rainy in the winter, but the bright sunshine and foggy interludes are awesome and the sea line is amazing. Americans in this part of the world seemed pretty cool too. Friendly, and sometimes spontaneously apolitically telling us ‘I didn’t vote for that a$$hole’. I can’t think what they might be referring to 😆*.

* Note this will only be published upon exiting US customs 😳

It was time to head to the big draw national park, Yosemite. But first we had to negotiate route 49 with its 100+ hairpin bends and sheer drop offs. Our online research found an ex-US forces guy say he was less scared when driving through a minefield than he was driving route 49. Having survived the insane Italian drivers on the lake Como mountain roads I was adamant that it would be fine. Admittedly we did need to stop the car once because James felt sick, but I think the ex-forces guy was being a bit dramatic.

Yosemite had captured my imagination since I was a kid. Listening to my dad and his friend energetically discuss the merits of famous black and white Ansel Adams photos. Then later in life reading about John Muir’s conservation work, and climbers’ death-defying attempts to scale El Capitan, the 2300m granite monolith which towers over the valley. So I was excited to finally get to experience the majesty of the place for myself.

However, we’d heard it was very busy and recently scarred by the hordes of Tahoe, we feared the worst. Learning from our Tahoe experience, each morning we set our alarm for 6am to get into the park ahead of the crowds. Yosemite delivered. The breathtaking vistas from Glacier Point and Tunnel View. A hike up Sentinel Dome and the vertigo inducing Taft Point, where we even saw a bear! And an epic 14km hike up (and back down) part of the Mist Trail to Vernal falls which nearly broke James… followed by a 20 minute wait for an iced coffee in the visitors center cafe which nearly broke Lucy.

However, the most memorable experience was my birthday dinner – cheese and wine by the river in the grounds of our lodge, complete with improvised cake and candle. Why has it taken me to be 52 years old to discover the delights of having cheese and wine whilst paddling in a river to keep cool in the searing heat? Love to Lucy and James for arranging and making it so special ❤️

Next on the agenda was Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, 200 km further south. This time there were no winding mountain passes, just 3.5 hours of driving through the agricultural central valley. Literally km after km of orchards and maize fields and the occasional backwater town.

Our holiday home was an annex of a cute cottage in Three Rivers whose garden backs onto the stunning Kaweah River. Complete with a 50-60m long crystal clear swimming hole full of fish, we had it pretty much to ourselves apart from a few locals. Just the tonic after the busy Yosemite.

An hours drive up yet more very winding mountain roads was Sequoia national park. Home to the largest tree in the planet, the General Sherman, and many other behemoths. The costal redwoods earlier in the trip were big, but the giant sequoias are something else.

We spent a few hours wandering the trails marvelling at their colossal size but most of our time was spent playing in the rapids and jumping off rocks into our back garden river. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to skip Kings Canyon and chill by the river for our remaining days inland before heading back to the coast.

Route 299 is famous, look it up. A beautiful drive, which can be extremely tricky in winter. But also one where we had heard travel sickness was likely. Someone we met in Trinidad said that their kid was sick 5 times on the 299. I’m not sure if we’ve covered it much but James gets travel sick and in Canada this worried us a lot, albeit unnecessarily. On a couple of our California drives so far we had found ourselves on some pretty windy roads and James had complained (and honestly I didn’t feel brilliant either).

So, in the face of potential adversity, let the planning commence. Extra travel sickness meds (in case drugs in California are better) including some for me, I mean why not. Sweets as a reward for the drive as we progressed (for James and me), a paper grocery bag lined with plastic bag, kindly donated by a shop assistant who also thought we faced adversity. We were all set.

Thankfully this concern was a total anti climax. I can promise you the 299 is a pussy cat and we arrived on schedule (and vomit free) for white water rafting with Six Rivers Rafting. If you read the Canada blog you’ll know rafting didn’t go well – glacial water, James up front, first rapids = furious, freezing 7 year old. I’m delighted to say that the combination of the warmer water and better prepped parents (wetsuit even though it wasn’t essential) meant that we all had an amazing afternoon on the rapids. Shout out to our river guide Raven who was fun, informative and amazing at her job. We were able to do some cliff jumps and swim through rapids which James was totally game for. He even took the front seat for the final set of class 3 rapids – maybe next year he will also paddle 😆. 

We continued the long day of driving (happily uneventfully) on to our next location. We were going camping at Mill Creek Resort. Well, glamping really given we had a safari tent already erected, proper beds, a camping cooking kit and most excitingly a special key…which let you into the camping equivalent of premium economy toilets. Hurrah!

Camping was fab, if you can ignore the fact that you end up filthy, smell of smoke and your bathroom is a 200m walk away. James certainly ignored all of the above and showed his best caveman skills being a diligent fire starter morning, noon and night.

We also managed to acquire a couple of pets whilst camping. A little frog made its home in our tent and a mouse woke us up each night and it took us until the final night to catch the little blighter eating its way through our Ritz biscuits…good job it didn’t try to nab the trail mix – there would have been hell to pay!

We’d travelled all this way east to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park. Spectacular with more types of volcanoes than I knew existed, cool geothermal areas, beautiful lakes and great hiking trails. It was popular but not too busy and was a really beautiful day. We also managed ‘one of those walks’ to Bumpass Hell, to view the biggest geothermal area in the park. Named after Kendal Vanhook Bumpass who came to the area believing he could make his fortune and unfortunately fell into a boiling mud pool, resulting in a leg amputation!!!

After the confidence boosting route 299 we decided last minute to travel cross country to our next stop – Lake Tahoe. It was a 4.5 hour ride which turned out to be a great decision. We found a swimming hole / waterfall just off the road and we had it entirely to ourselves…which is good because my bikini was up the hill in the car 😳. In the U.K. a place like this would be mobbed with people and here we were, completely alone.

We knew Lake Tahoe would be busier than our campsite but we were also looking forward to the civilisation. Map research suggested there would be great restaurants and breweries within walking distance and we would busy ourselves swimming in crystal clear bays around the lake.

However, we failed to consider two things – (1) the sheer number of people, (2) the highway ring-road around the Lake, 6 lanes wide outside our hotel. As a result it’s close to impossible to park at any of the bays and beaches.

The blog on section on Tahoe is therefore short. It goes something like this – don’t bother in August. It reminded us of a mix between Kandy (popular Sri Lankan city with a big lake and noisy road which we left as quickly as possible) and Las Vegas (same noisy feel to a much lesser degree and less gambling…at least on the Californian side of the Stateline).

We eventually found our feet and made the best of it including a 6am alarm call to be able to park and make it to Chimney Beach.

After much effort we also managed to go rafting on the Truckee river, but the hordes meant it was more people-soup than a tranquil float down the river.

We were happy to leave…next stop Yosemite and a birthday celebration 🥳.

Having almost recovered from jet lag we headed out of the city. First stop, Sonoma, in the heart of wine tasting country. Keen to sample the local produce but not wanting to drink-drive we were responsible parents and hired bikes, then cycled to the wineries instead🤪 

Thankfully there were no injuries and the wine was delicious. In payback for making James endure winery visits he was placated with plenty of time playing in the hotel pool.

Being a nature nerd I was really excited about the next couple of destinations, Mendocino and Trinidad. Located on the rugged and often mist shrouded northern Pacific coast, they are surrounded by vast forests and the last remaining stands of old-growth costal redwoods. 

This was bad news for James though, as it meant plenty of opportunities for ‘one of those walks’ which have become a point of strong contention on our travels. 

On our first night in Mendocino we were greeted by a Tsunami warning. A large earthquake had hit eastern Russia and the resulting wave was due to reach us around midnight. Thankfully our accommodation was on a hill 50m above the beach so we could sleep easy and by the time it did hit the wave was barely noticeable.

It didn’t deter us from the following day’s adventure. We rented an outrigger canoe and paddled up Big River estuary. Within minutes it felt like we were miles away from civilisation with trees towering above us on either side. After an hour or so of paddling we decided to stop for a swim. The water was even warm enough for Lucy to get in, albeit very briefly. Then, just as we were getting back on the canoe a family of otters joined us. They splashed around, ate a fish and played for a few spellbinding minutes, then swam off to do more otter things elsewhere.

Much to James’ annoyance there were indeed plenty of opportunities for walks along wild headlands and amongst the redwoods. The highlights being the Avenue of the Giants and Redwood National Park. Walking through temperate rainforests with colossal trees over 100m tall, some of which have been alive for over 2000 years, is both humbling and awe inspiring. Well, it was for me but for Lucy and James I suspect they were just a bunch of big trees. 

One of the forests’ residents did capture the imagination of all of us though – banana slugs! They even come in all the banana colours; unripe green, ripe yellow and over ripe mottled yellow-brown. And apparently their skin contains a chemical that acts like Novocaine and when licked makes your tongue numb. What fool would try doing that? 😳

On our last day in Trinidad the coastal mist cleared to reveal crystal clear blue skies reminiscent of our travels in New Zealand. So we spent the day exploring a local cove. It was a glorious day exploring rock pools, basking in the sun and playing beach olympics. It was so warm we even braved a swim in the bracing Pacific… when I say we, Lucy opted out 🥶

For the next stage of our journey we turn inland and head to Lassen Volcanic national park – via white water rafting in the Trinity river.

Here we go, 4 weeks in California. Aiming to match (or beat?!) our best family holiday yet in Canada two summers ago. We’ve got cities, vineyards, seascapes, volcanoes and mountains coming our way.

First stop San Francisco. As usual, bedding down in the nearest city for a few days whilst the jet lag subsides. We stayed in a little AirBnB in Russian Hill (next Nob Hill no less 🤣).

Regular readers will know that we don’t love cities…and yes we know we live in London. But we were excited, San Fran looked promising – nice climate, stuff to do, easy to get around, Crossfit boxes 😉…

We’d heard about San Francisco fog and that was totally correct. Despite beautiful bright afternoons that reminded us of New Zealand, the mornings were drizzly and chilly.

We weren’t put off, and the following morning after putting on all our warm weather clothes, we headed straight to Alcatraz. A short ferry hop from the mainland with the real highlight being the self guided audio tour. Total result that we didn’t have to list to an overly excitable American talk for an ever lasting time (unbearable even without jet lag). Instead we heard from actual prison officers and inmates as we toured the main part of the prison. The prison conditions were ghastly, near full time cell confinement (5ft by 9ft) and a taste of what the pitch black isolation cells would have felt like – totally horrific. It was also weird to hear about the inmates – Al Capone, the Birdman but also others that aren’t famous but had committed awful crimes. You can’t help but wonder what must have happened to a person to lead them to a life like that. It all sounds very morbid but it did captivate James…albeit not as much as the ~5k cormorants nesting on the island. He adored them despite the stink!

We staggered through the rest of the first full day, choosing an open top bus tour as the best way to see the city whilst also taking it easy as jet lag hit full force in the afternoon. Despite being touristy we love a ‘hop on and off’ bus tour…with the last one being in Cartagena in Colombia 🇨🇴.

We got a great view of stunning parts of the city including Golden Gate park and a big reason for bus ride – a trip over Golden Gate Bridge – on the top deck!

More and more I am finding myself having moments where ‘younger Lucy’ would have had a whole load more fun than this current older version. This was one of those moments…sitting on the top deck, wind blasting across the bay, staring carefully at the middle of the bus, pretending not to have a gentle form of vertigo. Needless to say James thought this was hilarious with my nerves only added to his joy!

We rewarded our survival with burgers and a tasty beer in Cow Hollow. Apparently an area where trendy, affluent young professionals live…we fitted right in 🤣.

The next day was spent at the Exploratorium. San Francisco’s Science Museum for Kids. Happy James = happy parents = guilt free trip to the local wine bar afterwards. Perfect!

We’ve already started to notice how friendly the locals and fellow tourists are. It’s easy to strike up a conversation and people seem super kind, interested and full of recommendations. It also seems to be very kid friendly…as long as you do not let them sit at a bar!!

A final highlight of San Francisco was the autonomous taxis run by Waymo. In the downtown district they are everywhere and even the Uber drivers are complimentary about the their driving skills!

Overall San Fran is a cool city. Clean, safe, nice neighbourhoods and much quieter than London. I would suggest in general staying clear of the very central areas, around the Civic Centre. Like Vancouver (though not to the same extent) it is super sad to see the effect Fentanyl is having on people.

City time complete, it’s time to collect the car and head north…