The best of...

After 48 border crossings through 30 countries and 30 different airports in a year of travel, we have been back in the UK for four months now. It didn’t seem like a whole year since we left but while we were away a lot has happened; Euans sister has got engaged, a friend of mine has been married, 14 friends have had babies and another three are expecting and all this is obviously in addition to people moving houses, starting new jobs and so on.

What I still can’t believe is that during all our travels there were no major trip delays, our luggage arrived at the same time we did and we returned home intact with most of our gear (zip-off trouser bottoms aside - I now have a few pairs of shorts). Someone was clearly looking out for us.

The nature of our route saw us circumnavigate the globe and we’ve not counted the number of flights taken but, oddly enough, the airport we went through most (five times) was Guayaquil in Ecuador. I've roughly mapped out our route on a photo of Mer and Adams shower curtain (the best shower curtain I've ever seen!).



Over the past year, I rediscovered my passion for reading and read a total of 57 books in the time we were away. Euan needs to rediscover his golf talent, having only played two games, in Malawi and New Zealand (and on his first t-shot back at his home club in the UK, sent the ball skipping 50 yards down the fairway and off into the trees!).

How do you close off a whole year of travel? I’ve no idea but during the times when we were walking, waiting for buses, trains or had time to burn, we started to reflect on what we’d done, what we’d do again etc and this ‘best of…’ section was born. This seems an ideal way to close out but first, an explanation as to why the site is called ‘dessert monsters’ (it made sense at the time but its taken some explaining on the road as we gradually lost our sweet tooth and yes, shock horror, even declined desserts offered to us).

Euans mother, Margaret (below), is a gun at making great desserts and, before we left, we were happily sampling our way through her desserts and rating them as we went.



It was tempting-looking desserts like this, a pie with a layer of butterscotch sandwiched in between a buttery crust and fluffy meringue, that got the blog it’s title of 'dessert monsters'.



We've been asked so many questions about what was our favourite country, what would we have done differently etc that we decided to do a 'best of' section. In writing this, I also think back to all the amazing people that we've met over the past 12 months and may even write a section showing those who we spent time with, traveled and are still in touch with.... but for now, here are out best items, countries etc.

Best travel items:

Number 1
Kate: Crocs. They might possibly be the most ugly shoes on the planet but by God they’re functional. They dry in 10 minutes after wearing in water (showers, streams etc), let sand out the holes (when hiking in the desert) and weigh next to nothing. They’ve started conversations with adults and children alike in many countries and, despite the fact I often have no idea what is being said, I’ve managed to understand that is OK for a 30-something year old to wear green plastic shoes with a frog stuck to them.



Euan: King of Shaves oil. A 25ml bottle of shaving oil and it’s only 1/2 empty after a year of use.



Number 2
Kate: Euans sister, Katrina, bought me this dress from ‘White Stuff’ in the UK for my birthday before we left. It dries in about 10 minutes so is brilliant for travelling and I’ve worn it out, literally.



Euan: Flip flops. I started with Teva sandals but by the time we got to the second country (Syria) I had purchased some flip-flops from a street side stall for £0.75 equivalent.

Number 3
Kate: I bought this sarong from Thailand 8 years ago and its still going strong. It’s been a dress, skirt, towel, sheet, shade cloth and scarf and is only just showing signs of wear and tear.



Euan: Foldout wash bags from ‘Kathmandu’.



Best Temple

Baalbek in Lebanon just blew us away. The scale of the place is simply breathtaking (I’m circled in red in both photos to show the scale) and the fact that we had it all to ourselves added to the experience.





Favourite countries

Both: Namibia




Euan: New Zealand
Stunning landscapes, great food, easy-going kiwi attitude, friendly people and very backpacker-friendly.





South Africa



Kate: Tanzania & Uruguay

I don’t remember ever being speechless before, but I was the morning we saw the sun rise over the Ngorogoro Crater.



The Serengeti at dawn was almost as stunning.



and while Brazil had some stunning beaches, I think those in Zanzibar won hands down for tranquility.



The completely uncluttered landscape and the gaucho lifestyle in Uruguay completely grabbed me. It was the only country that I was genuinely upset to leave (apart from NZ but it's my home country and my family are there so of course I didn't want to leave).



Most scary moment….
When we hitched (yes, stupid on hindsight) a ride with some chaps in Jordan one night and they drove faster and faster, wouldn’t stop to let us out and started shouting and waving money at us. I really thought they weren’t going to stop and let us out so was getting ready to throw myself out the door and drag Euan (who was in the middle in the back) with me. Happy to say it didn't come to that but I hadn't ever before felt the chill of real fear, followed by a blast of adrenaline and hope I don't feel it again any time soon!

I have to add my best animal experience also and while it's difficult to choose, this has to be it (yes, not often are horses relegated to second place!):









Things we’d do differently….

• Print out cards with our names, email addresses and blog site to take with us;

• Investigate getting visas issued in foreign countries. I.e. getting an visa for India in South Africa in under 14 days is nigh impossible as we discovered and this forced us to change our route;

• Check up on and plan around national holidays (believe us, you do not want to be in China on a national holiday!);

• Get new passports before we left. We never thought we’d be in and out of Argentina nine times and every time we passed border control there was a whopping great stamp. Euan was pushing it by the time we got to the US but only an over-zealous official in Costa Rica really objected to stamping over other stamps;

• Pay a travel agent who knew what they were doing to sort out the OneWorld flights rather than attempt to do it ourselves.

The below is a fridge magnet that my mother gave me about 19 years ago and it is always with me at wherever is home at the time. I think she probably bought it for me because, at one time, I would have been the wee kid gazing up at a horse, dreaming away.



It might sound stupid but I thought of this fridge magnet while writing this because, over the past year, we have truly lived the dream and I, for one, have just done what I have always wanted to do.