And the award for...

As I come to end of my trip I thought I should award some prizes for highlights along the way, so here we are, the Inaugural (and most likely Final) Away for a Daunder Awards:

Most wonderful swimming location

This is a toughie with nearly 20 places in contention, but first place goes jointly to Lake Wabby in Oz (for temperature, non-bitey* fishlife and being beautifully squeezed between a sand dune and a forest) and Pousada Piuval pool in the Pantanal (for the delight of floating around watching storks and caracaras wander around in the neighbouring grassland). Worthy runners up include the river in the Pantanal because I shared the water with caiman, piranhas and anacondas, the Garden of Eden because it did appear like paradise in the middle of the Kings Canyon hike in Oz and Millaa Millaa waterfall for solitude and looking just like a Herbal Essences ad (apparently it was).

Best toilets

Oh yes, you didn't expect boring awards like 'best city' did you? Although the 'open door' policy of the shack in the outback had its charm, the clear winner is this category is Jorn Utzon's ladies in the Sydney Opera House. One of the few parts of the interior actually designed by the main architect himself, it is, like the rest of the building, a quite beautiful piece of design and sculpture.

Best 'first'

So during the last eight and a half weeks I've sailed for the first time, scuba dived for the first time, fished for the first time, and had a seagull steal my lunch off my plate for the first time amongst others. I've also played around with a nice proper camera for the first time, and that's definitely something I'm going to have to carry on with when home, but of course, the second expensive hobby I now need to sustain, and the winner of this award, is scuba diving. Really loved it, and will definitely have to do it again - scuba holiday in 2011 anyone??

Sweatiest location

We have a strong contender in the Pantanal (hiking for three hours as the temperature reaches 35 degrees plus), but Singapore gets it for necessitating a clothing change just for stepping out the door at night.

Most rubbish Botanic Gardens

An outright winner with Buenos Aires' lacklustre attempt. Sydney and Singapore have nothing to fear just yet.

Best 'extras' included in the ticket price

El Querandi in Buenos Aires take this prize for surprising me with the fact that I received not only a choice of starter or dessert to accompany the tango show, but also an entire bottle of red wine. Shame I'd already had a huge meal of steak and red wine before arriving, but I gave it a decent shot, would have been rude not too ;)

Biggest challenge

Wrestling the piranha? Surviving Hervey Bay? No I think this award will go to working with Giles to cook food for 17 people over a campfire. When the evening temperature is still in the high twenties, you really don't want to be slaving over hot coals...and it doesn't help when you are short of equipment and the guide reckons that you can put potatoes into a stir fry whilst still raw. (We ended up making a kind of Outback Hotpot which seemed to work ok).

Most appreciated random act of kindness

Step forward lovely lady in Noosa, who rescued me when I realised I'd probably walked twenty minutes in the wrong direction in order to try and find the supermarket that was twenty minutes from the hostel. When I stopped her to check my new direction as she got in her car, she told me to jump in and detoured past Coles on her way home just for me.

Worst meal

I'd had some trouble finding good food in Australia, maybe it was because I was on a budget, maybe I was just unlucky, but one night - thoroughly fed up with mediocre food - I decided to splash out on a little Italian bistro which even had linen tablecloths. I introduce you to our outright winner: the unnamed (ok, forgotten) Italian in Hervey Bay**. I ordered penne with a spicy tomato sauce, so simple you couldn't possibly get it wrong, right? Oh no. Here is my reconstruction of the chef's actions:

1) Fry onion

2) Add entire jar of ready made sauce, e.g. Ragu

3) Add half a bottle of ready made Thai sweet chilli sauce

4) Put cooked penne into bowl, and drown with twice the volume of sauce

5) Add 'parmesan' (that goes stringy when melting)

I managed to eat about a fifth by scraping the sickly sweet fake sauce off the pasta, and was horrified to be offered a doggie bag of the remainder...politely declined.

Best play

Standing out in a field of, ahem, one...was the production of Hamlet that we went to see in Mumbai. A play within a play, it involved a troupe of clowns trying to put on Hamlet, and speaking in gibberish and occasional English, which worked wonderfully in demonstrating how you can get almost the entire gist of a conversation just from tone and body language.

Tastiest street food

Ok I admit it, there's no way I can properly tot up and then decide between all the great street and snack food I've had in the last two months, so the award goes to Pao de queijo in Brazil mainly because it's what I last ate...but also because this warm cheese bread found on almost every street corner is SO tasty. Definitely gonna miss it.

Most amusing animal/vegetable/mineral

I think only one creature actually made me laugh out loud during my trip, and that was the anhinga... As we paddled along the river in the Pantanal, we drifted under the overhanging trees and heard a rustling up ahead. As we got closer this became a full-on commotion, and suddenly a bird tumbled out in front of us, with a clumsy clatter it dropped into the water like a stone and disappeared. Initially concerned, I turned to Marcus who cheerfully informed me I'd just scared a bird to death! Thankfully he was kidding and explained this was actually the anhinga's defense strategy. It's similar to a cormorant, but not always the most, er, elegant when manoeuvering around...and that's the understatement of the year. I was chuckling for the next five minutes.

And now we come to our last prize for this evening...

Strangest sight

Now in this category you might be expecting weird wildlife, oddball human behaviour or fantastic geology; but without doubt the strangest thing I've seen on my travels was available to buy in the gift shop in Alice Springs airport. I present exhibit A (look closely now):

I mean I know Australia can be a little backward in places, but FLOPPY DISKS??

This concludes the awards ceremony for today, I hope you'll join in giving a hearty Yay, or Boo where appropriate, to all our winners! Thanks for watching the show everyone :)

*My toes were sharply nibbled at in the lagoon up in the hills of Parque Itacolomi, not happy about that!

**Remember how much I loved Hervey Bay?(!)