We made it!! London to Perth without flying!!!

Back on dry land after days of seeing nothing but the Indian Ocean in all directions. After four months of taking a slice through a bit of the world, we're finally here and we didn't need to observe any seatbelt signs even once. Roughly 20000 miles, 18 countries, 14 different types of small change we'll now find floating among our possessions forever and at least 15 different ways to say 'hello', 'thank you' and 'is that your best price?'

We were taken to our container ship in Singapore last Monday and were fed a sturdy meal - the first of many. Overnight we were transfixed by the loading/ unloading operation in Singapore port - night was turned to day with bright lights and about 1600 containers were slotted in like a game of Tetris... or Jenga...

Our cabin was massive - we had the owner's suite with lounge/ study and a separate big bedroom with ensuite bathroom - it had a TV, a stereo and a fridge all firmly screwed down. We met the crew who were all Russian, Ukrainian or Filipino - the Russians were huge and gruff and didn't talk much, and the Filipinos were small, smiled all the time and talked a lot.

We sailed out the next afternoon through waters which are still subject to pirates - all external doors are kept locked at night until the ship reaches the Indian Ocean. The South China Sea was flat as a pancake and full of interesting islands and fishing boats. It took us two days to reach the Indian Ocean doing a steady 20 knots and after that there were no more islands, no more fishing boats, no more pirates. You wouldn't believe how monotonous it can be to watch the same shipping containers bobbing up and down against the horizon for 4 days. To pass the time we read (Anna Karenina - a very thick book), stood at the ship's bow watching flying fish, stood in the Bridge and discussed weather charts with the Navigators, played ping pong and watched DVDs. Despite the crew all saying the weather is always bad heading to Australia, we were very lucky and only had one day with quease-inducing swell.

Finally we saw a lighthouse on the horizon, and began to see beaches and slowly, slowly made our way towards Fremantle Port. It was strange enough coming back to Perth after 3 years away, and even stranger from this angle. The 220m long, 28000 ton boat was wrestled into its berth by a combination of pilots, tug boats and what looked like a couple of large floating bathtubs.

After being thoroughly scrutinised by Australian Customs we said goodbye to the Captain and briefly became minor celebrities among the stevedors who'd never seen backpackers get off one of these ships before and asked us lots of questions. Amazingly, Nicho's Mum had managed to find the gate to meet us - no mean feat at 9pm on a Sunday night, and after being briefly detained behind the barred gate, we were finally set free to drive off into the warm summer evening.

And so that must be the end of the travel blog - we feel like we've seen only a thin slice of the countries we've travelled through - while we haven't stayed long enough to get to know anywhere thoroughly, but we've got an impression of how places are linked to each other and how one place changes into the next.

I think for Lent we'll give up international travel.

Thanks for reading.