La Solana, Pedreguer, Spain

This week I'm in Spain!  Today we got up early and ate breakfast quickly because we decided to climb the mountain opposite our villa  in search of the goats we see each morning.  They seem to disappear for the rest of the day!  As soon as me and my family were ready, we drove to the bottom of the mountain.  We parked the car and then started the long climb up La Solana (the mountain) in the heat of the midday sun.

It was hard work and seemed to take forever, but well worth it for the fantastic views from the top.  We could not only see our villa, but also all the way to Ondara and even the sea!!  There was no sign of any goats though!  We took some pics, and by then were just too hot and so we had our drinks and then started to head back down.  When we reached the bottom we were boiling and drove back to the villa, where for the rest of that day we relaxed by the pool.  We had no more energy left for anything else, so an early night was on the top of my list, especially as we're going to the Aquarium, l'Oceanografic in Valencia tomorrow.  But I still wonder where those goats go? - my guess is they try to find some shade for the rest of the day!!

L'Oceonografic, Valencia, Spain

This morning we got up and ready to go out quickly.  In about an hour my Mum, Dad, Sister and I were setting off in the car for a 1 hour journey to Valencia. We were going to visit the Aquarium called l'Oceonografic and have a look round Valencia.

When we arrived we parked in an underground car park and then headed for the Aquarium. We got to the Aquarium and saw how long the queue was, it went out of the entrance gates and right round the corner! So we decided to look round Valencia, and we were also gasping for a drink as it was boiling hot.

After a few minutes of walking, we went into a shop called El Court Ingles and into their cafe to get a drink.  The cafe was on the top floor and it was lovely sitting and admiring the views of the city from up there. Once we had finished our drinks and paid the bill, we looked around the shop.

We started to get hungry and so we left the shop and walked round the city trying to find a restaurant.  Not long afterwards we found a shopping center and went inside to get some tapas.

After we had eaten we went back to the Aquarium and we were amazed and delighted to see that the queue was gone! So we bought tickets and went inside to explore. We even saw sharks and Beluga whales!

Beluga Whale

Finally, once we had looked around everywhere, we went to the gift shop and bought some souvenirs. Then we went back to the car park and drove home. Despite costing us 100 euros for a family ticket, we all thought that it was well worth it!

Racetrack Playa, USA

This morning we were on our way to Death Valley before the sun rose.  We were early to try and avoid the heat of the midday sun.  Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in the USA, so it was a good idea to avoid the sun at its hottest.  I actually went to Racetrack Playa, which is in the Death Valley National Park, in California, in the USA.  Racetrack Playa is a dry lakebed in an endorheic basin which means it is surrounded by gigantic mountains, and when it rains there are no rivers for the water to escape, so it collects in the lakebed.  The reason Racetrack Playa is so fantastic, is because loads of enormous rocks move by themselves!  That's right, they move by themselves and the only theory scientists have is that the lakebed gets wet from rainfall and turns to wet, slippery clay, which the 90mph wind is able to blow the rocks over the smooth surface.

We saw these huge tracks, 8-30 cm wide, 2-3 cm deep and hundreds of metres long behind massive 320 kg rocks that are made of dolomite, which is a type of stone that comes from cliffs to the south of the lakebed.  The mystery of the rocks is that no-one has actually witnessed them move before and sadly today we didn't either.

It was an awesome place, but hard to manage there for very long because of the searing heat and dry atmosphere.  Now I'm really curious to find out how the rocks actually move, I hope the answer is discovered in the near future!

Deer Cave, Malaysia

Today I went somewhere very exciting and amaaazing!  I went on a short 30 minute flight to Deer Cave, which was a lot faster than getting there by a 6 hour boat ride!  Deer Cave is in Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysia on the island of Borne.  Apparently it's called Deer Cave because of all the deer that lick salt off the rocks in the entrance!

The cave is a whopping 174m wide, 122m high and has two extremely large entrances that create a 100m long path through the limestone mountain.  Scientists even say that you could fly a jumbo jet through it (although no-one has tried it because it's too dangerous).

Now here's the wildlife part:  Deer Cave has an enormous amount of bats, an estimated 5 million, that have created a gigantic mound of guano and covered the surface of the cave in guano (bat droppings).  Millions of cockroaches and other bugs feed off this constant supply of food and also eat anything that fall into it.  Yuck!  That was my least favourite part about the trip.  All the creepy crawlies freaked me out and gave me the shivers, Brrrr!

I did an activity called caving whilst I was in the cave.  Caving is climbing the walls of the massive mountain of limestone.  It was really fun and exhilarating!

The view was breathtaking, especially outside one of the entrances where there was a mass of luscious green rainforest spreading over thousands of metres.

It was a trip I will never forget and I will recommend it to as many people as possible!

The Forbidden City, China

This week I'm in the capital of China, Beijing, so I'm going to be visiting all the famous landmarks here.  Guess where I went today?  It's the largest wooden palace complex in the world, it's on the UNESCO World Heritage List and it's separated from the rest of Beijing by a large moat and tall walls?  The Forbidden City!

Did you know that the reason it's called the Forbidden City is because it was forbidden for everyone except the Emperor, Empress, the Emperor's wives, concubines and their servants called Eunuchs to enter it.  Also, the reason the Forbidden City was built was, for the Emperor, Empress, wives and concubines to live in, so the Emperor could get away from his enemies in Nanjing and so that he could be closer to the front line of the war with Mongolia.  From 1407 to 1912 there has been 24 Emperors that have lived there!

I hired a tour guide so that I could get a better experience.  They showed me all the interesting places in the Forbidden City that you would normally miss.

It was a great day out - I will definitely go back if I'm ever in Beijing again!