Wednesday 5 February we were up early, packed up, in readiness to pick up our hire car. We had to be ready early as the water in our Perth apartment was going to be turned off at 9 am. We had received advance notice of this so made sure all our laundry was done and we had spare kettles / jugs of water for washing up etc prior to departure.

At 10.20 am we left the apartment by Uber to the airport. We found the Ace hire cars’ office easily enough and went in – a bit early as the car was booked from 12 noon. To our delight it was ready – a Mazda CX30 this time and a bit smaller than before thankfully….

Richard drove towards Margaret River and the first thing we realised was that there was incompatibility between the brand new car (only had 500kms on the clock) and our old iPhones, so not able to use the Apple / Google combination for navigation on the dummy screen. Oh well, never mind, we’ll manage using the phone on its own. Then we realised that there was no USB plug – only C type – so again our old phone could not be charged. But, against every eventually, I’d packed a power pack into our luggage just in case. Could you guess I used to be a Girl Guide LOL.

About 1pm we were feeling peckish and came off the main road to a small town cafe where we had a fabulous lunch before continuing to Margaret River. We were told we ‘had arrived’ on the phone but couldn’t physically see the building…. So we drove around again and looked harder – eventually we sussed it out – drove in and checked in. The name of the apartments was actually hidden by the extensive foliage outside. These serviced apartments had a 24 hour reception on duty to help us – although on check in day the woman was not particularly welcoming. We picked up the keys and drove down to the allocated car parking area – let ourselves in – and were wowed by the size of the place. Absolutely huge, especially compared to Perth.

After resting up for a while – and a little unpacking – we headed up the Main Street towards the Settlers Tavern where we enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and dinner. Richard enjoyed his (fish and chips) but mine was just too fatty (beef brisket sandwich)! My bad choice I guess…

Back to the apartment we enjoyed a pontoonie although Richard was complaining of the cold – the air conditioning wasn’t that fierce and I was enjoying it…but hey ho!

Thursday morning we popped into the information centre in town and booked a full-day wine tour for Friday. We had a basic breakfast in the cafe and then shopped in IGA for some provisions. We also found out that Busselton (where we wanted to visit the pier / underwater observatory) had a swim meet on the Saturday and a cruise ship was scheduled for the Sunday. Desperate to avoid both of these busy events we were able to book our tram tickets online for 1pm departure.

We arrived early and managed to find a four hour free parking slot – very happy at that! We headed into the Brewery on the promenade for ice creams (I know a bit bizarre) before heading over to the jetty office to sort out our physical tram tickets.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tram ride up and down the second longest leisure pier in the world (at 1.8 kms) – with our local one in Southend-on-Sea being the longest at 2.14 kms. So that means we have been on the longest leisure pier in the northern hemisphere and the longest leisure pier in the southern hemisphere. Not many people can say that LOL.

The observatory at the end of the pier was interesting despite the throngs of tourists trying to check out the windows for sharks LOL.

Afterwards Richard decided he quite fancied the look of the dirt roads and we took off chucking up red dust and sand around us. OMG the car rattled like it was being shaken and was so uncomfortable – not sure the rental company would be too happy about that! Eventually we ended up at Cape Naturaliste lighthouse and a lookout which wasn’t that good to be fair. Moving on we headed to the surfing lookouts at the end of the Margaret River and enjoyed watching the surfers in action – it was absolutely wild out there! We met a guy with a small parrot on a lead – he’d rescued it after it fell from its nest – and it was very protective, clearly having imprinted on him as a parent. Not wanting to get bitten we moved to the lower side of the wall where we were not perceived as a threat…. Afterwards we returned to our apartments and stayed in to enjoy a home-cooked dinner.

Friday morning we were picked up at 9.10 am for our wine tour – the small minibus was filled exclusively with British tourists so it was quite fun to hear what they were up to. The driver / tour guide was very knowledgeable about wine and the history of the area so we were delighted by our tour selection. Have to say we found the scenery around the Margaret River area absolutely stunning…

The first winery was Leeuwin Estate which is a pretty fancy corporate place famous for hosting big name concerts back in the day. Now it is concentrating mainly on the wedding market and even has a helicopter pad available for that special day! Nice tastings and I particularly enjoyed both the Sauvignon Blanc (Art Series) and the Prelude Vineyards Chardonnay. Now I’m not a Chardonnay fan – disliking the intensity of the flavour from the oak barrels – but this won me over. Fabulous! And we were also won over by the friendly kookaburra sitting on the small wall in the manicured gardens.

This was followed by a visit to Brown Hill which was like comparing chalk and cheese. A family-run winery operating out of one big shed where we had the tasting. The women talking us through all the options was incredibly informative, had a sense of humour and we enjoyed patting her collie dog LOL. This winery does not sell outside of the immediate area and is not to be found in bottle shops….so decided to take the rare opportunity to purchase a bottle for later.

Then it was onto Xanadu which is also very large and very corporate. Again a good tasting but the formality meant it wasn’t quite as enjoyable…. We then headed into their on-site restaurant and had a fabulous lunch (with the most amazing potatoes ever!) which had been pre-arranged through our driver.

After lunch (which came with complimentary wine of course LOL) we headed to McHenry Hohnen. Another small family-run brewery which we enjoyed very much – especially the cheese plate that came with it. My favourite this time was the very pale rose….

Then it was time for chocolate! So we headed to Temper Temper artisan chocolatiers which is based in Cowaramup a delightful village based mid way between the surf and the vines…. We had a tasting – of course LOL – and came away with a few pieces for later.

And so this was the end of the gourmet wine tour and we said our farewells to the gang and returned to Margaret River. We got dropped off at the top end of the high street and had a beer in the local bar…followed by a wine bar further down the road – but was driven out by the live singer who was doing some original dirge…all about saving the planet…. We then visited the Tavern for the last time…before returning back to our apartment for an early night. Had been a pretty full-on day!

Saturday morning we drove to Leeuwen Lighthouse and enjoyed the historical nature of the place with its renovated buildings, films and maps and charts….what a terrible coast this is! Can see why there were so many wrecks back in the day before proper charts became available. And the mixing of the two oceans….

This is also the place for a beautiful memorial to those navy sailors who had served and since perished….

Driving on we headed to Augusta and enjoyed views along the coast before settling into the local hotel for a basic lunch (tiger prawn salad) and watched the Australian Royal Navy band setting up for an afternoon concert. We later found out this was a memorial concert in relation to a Navy disaster when 12 people were swept off a Royal Australian Navy vessel called Nizam by a freak wave and who were not recovered….. Sadly we were on a mission to see other things otherwise I would have quite liked to have stopped to listen for a while…

We then headed to Hamelin Bay where we walked the beach and checked out the sting rays that frequent the shallows…. Was lovely!

Afterwards we headed back to our accommodation and picked up a curry takeout along the way for another quiet night in.

Sunday we were up early and drove to Perth (3+ hours) – we had hoped to go via Fremantle and see the Sunday markets but on arrival we could not find a parking space anywhere! Absolutely manic…. So after driving around for quite a while we decided to leave it behind and head back to Perth – and check out King’s Park once again. This time we wanted to explore the war memorial in more depth and enjoyed an ice cream as well.

See there were a few McCarthy’s listed but none for my maiden name….so from convict stock or settlers….that will be the question!?!

Moving on we headed to our accommodation for the night – a B&B near the airport. We drove to the address given to us by Booking.com and was told to wait when we rang the bell. Then this guy came from next door to say we were staying there and he let us into our allocated room. It was absolutely huge with a fab en-suite bathroom. Once the guy had left I checked out the rest of the property while Richard emptied the car…. There was a communal kitchen, patio, lounge etc. And was obviously newly renovated. Very different to anywhere we had stayed before…but…who cares it is only for one night!

We went out and walked to the local pub – called Around the Corner – and it was a bit sketchy in places. But, never mind, we had a lovely dinner and good drinks all at very reasonable prices. Later on we walked back and had an early night. The bed was comfortable with quality linen and thoroughly enjoyed….

So that bring’s this part of our Australian adventure to a close.
Check back soon for some more.

Bye for now Jan

Friday 31 January we were up very early, checked out, and got a cab across to the domestic terminal at Brisbane airport. It wasn’t too far away and seemed odd that it cost less for a taxi than it would for both of us to go on the hotel’s shuttle bus…. Check in / security clearance for the domestic flight was easy so we quickly headed to the food court for some breakfast.

The flight was on time (9am) and we were delighted that our Apple Air Tags confirmed our bags had been loaded on board. We took off and settled down to read some books – this flight was not too long (five and a half hours) or a full service one. So no seat-back screens to while away the time on movies etc. But we didn’t mind….coffee / tea and water were served free of charge…but everything else was at a cost. We changed our watches to the Perth timezone and, about an hour before landing, we had a glass of wine and some cheese and biscuits. Very nice.

Once we had landed security was easy again although there was a long terminal walk with our bags to find the uber that we had ordered. We drove away from the airport and arrived at the road where our apartment was located around 1pm. But the road was sealed off with roadworks going on….never mind….the uber driver was great and he went around again so that we could enter. We were dropped off quickly and made our way up the 12 steep steps to the front of the apartment block – one of the workmen who was digging up the road helped me with my luggage LOL. We sat on some benches and reviewed the access information – well it was a lock box on the wall with security boxes inside…so followed the instructions and, voila, I had the keys and security fob. So we quickly went upstairs to have a look around. The apartment seemed dark on arrival and very small compared to the beautifully-shot promotional photos. Never mind, it had everything we could possibly need…. And we had been naughty accessing it earlier than the official check in time of 3 pm LOL.

After we had got ourselves familiarised and semi-organised we headed out down to the Elizabeth Wharf area so we could check out where we were going in the morning as we had a return ferry ticket to Rottnest Island booked. Mission accomplished – by now we were getting pretty hot – so headed to the Hilton Hotel bar on the roof for some views over the Swan River.

We enjoyed that very much before heading back up the hill towards our apartment having found a recommended Thai restaurant en route called the Long Chim which was located in the basement of the historical State Buildings.

We didn’t have a reservation so we had to sit in the bar area rather than the restaurant itself but that didn’t matter as we weren’t exactly dressed to the nines either LOL. Had a lovely meal but mine was so heavily laced with fresh chilli that, despite doing my best to avoid eating them all, upset my stomach. We didn’t find anything on the wine list that inspired so we decided just to have water as we ate our main course. Was absolutely delicious and great service / fresh food. So we headed back to our apartment for an early night.

Saturday morning we were up early and walked down to Elizabeth Quay, found pontoon 3 and swapped our online tickets for real physical ones. We headed into the nearby cafe for a drink and we waited forever for my sparkling water to come along…. Finally it was time to board the ferry and we managed to get seats on the top deck – we had lathered up heavily with our factor 50+ suntan lotion in advance – and met a lady who worked for one of the mining companies (they are huge here in Australia) who was in Perth for a conference with some colleagues. She was a bit standoffish to start with but warmed up and we enjoyed chatting to her during the journey.

We admired the scenery as we headed out to sea and, finally, arrived at Rottnest Island. We didn’t have a tour booked nor did we have bicycles booked either (the main form of transport on the island). For those that know me well, will also know that I’m not actually able to ride a pushbike as I have no sense of balance. Probably the reason why I was never sea sick on the boat….

Anyway – we were hungry – so headed towards the first eatery we came across to be told that the kitchen was closed and they were not serving. The next place – a nice looking hotel – had the same response although was definitely a bit friendlier and helpful. So we wandered off on her recommendation and stopped off – Richard enjoyed his pancakes and I had the healthy fruit and yoghurt option. Very nice it was too….

Afterwards we headed up to the Main Street with the intention of going on the hop on-hop off bus. Two single deckers were circling the island on an hourly basis. Thought it might be a bit more regular than that…. And the queues were horrendous for both purchasing tickets and to get on the actual bus. We got lucky in the queue as a quokka decided to come by and say hi. After that bit of excitement we got on the next bus and, by this time, we were lucky to be one of the first ones boarding so got a seat. Only a single decker but they were being counted on by one of the guides so all the standing room was taken up too.

Of course the minute we got off the bus – at a lookout place – we lost our seating privilege and, for the rest of the day, we had to stand up on buses as they circled the island and we got on and off. Pretty tiring to say the least. Final stop was a beach which we enjoyed just sitting in the shade looking out at the boats anchored off…. People were bobbing and swimming but, despite having our swimmers in the bag, weren’t convinced this was a safe activity as they have big dangerous sharks here LOL. Throughly enjoyed the wild and spectacular coastline of this island – and check out the mares tails in the sky warning of strong wind. At least it kept the temperature down a bit (was 30+ degrees centigrade)…

Finally we arrived back from where we had started and went to the hotel for a drink. There was a DJ entertaining the crowd and we enjoyed listening to his tunes and watching the quokkas wandering around trying to get fed by the tourists. Of course we didn’t feed them but many people were….. You are not supposed to touch them either but of course people were…. They might look cute but actually they can be quite aggressive and despite their reputation we never saw one smile either LOL.

We found a bar closer to the main wharf and headed there for a final beer…. Anyway, time to go, and down the wharf we went to board our boat. The wind had really picked up 25 knots + so we knew it was going to be lumpy on the way back – so we elected to sit in the air conditioning downstairs this time LOL. We also enjoyed a few beers as we were sitting pretty much next to the guy serving….

Off the ferry and we headed into the pub called the Lucky Shag and sat outside on their waterfront terrace. Anyway, we enjoyed some more music, chatted to some Americans who lived nearby and we reckon they were spooks from Pine Gap as they were very secretive about their work…. Anyway, we had the taste for it by now, so swapped to wine and, eventually, wobbled up the hill towards our apartment. Had been a fantastic day!

Sunday, we had planned to go to Fremantle Markets on public transport. But having done two 15k step days consecutively, Richard decided I needed a bit of a break! I wasn’t arguing with that…the heat just completely zaps everything…so I focussed on doing some laundry and getting a blog done and published. Later on – mid afternoon – we headed out again towards the harbour looking for somewhere to eat but, this is Perth, and most eateries shut their kitchens during the afternoon (around 3pm) and reopen them again around 5.30 pm for dinner. So out of luck unless we wanted fast food (which we didn’t) and so we walked a huge circuitous route anyway, clocking up 10k steps. Oh well, so much for giving my legs a breather LOL. Having failed miserably to get fed we decided to go shopping and picked up some provisions for cooking / eating dinner in our apartment. So in the end we had a quiet night in enjoying some home cooked grub.

Monday morning we were up a bit later as we were going out at lunchtime on an organised tour. This was into the Pinnacles Desert to see the sunset, have a BBQ dinner, and star gaze through a large reflecting telescope that had been set up by the guides. Anyway, we were picked up right on time and met the rest of the small group. They were mainly Asian – Korean, Japanese and Chinese. Plus the odd Brit, Australian and German thrown into the mix. The driver was pretty entertaining but, as we were at the back of the bus, we couldn’t always hear him too well as his microphone had failed!

The first stop of the day – about an hour and a half later – was to a bakery, ice creamery and toilets in a small town called Lancelin. Pretty remote to say the least! At this stage we met up with another minibus doing the same excursion from the same company and we travelled in company after this. Anyway, the next stop was to the sand dunes to go sand boarding….and our guide asked us if we actually wanted to do this. Think we may have been age profiled LOL. We confirmed that we weren’t bothered…having done it before….so he offered to drop us off at the Lancelin Sands Hotel where we could enjoy a view over the water / walk up to the lookout / and generally while away some time while all the youngsters got covered in sand! We thanked him and took him up on the kind offer…. So we were dropped off, Richard went for a walk up to the top of the lookout, and I sat down with a glass of wine in hand. And lovely it was too! We enjoyed checking out the langoustine fishing boats who were pulling hard on their moorings behind the reef. Finally Richard returned and he joined me…. By now we should be going so we walked back out to the car park to rejoin our minibus – then the two minibuses returned – and gave everyone a break. So we stayed put and had another!

After about another 10 minutes or so we all took off towards the Pinnacles Desert. On entry into the National Park we stopped at the toilet blocks for a comfort break first and picked up a couple more tourists who were joining just for this part of the trip. We drove into this moonscape – OMG how fascinating – absolutely blown away by it all. We took a few photos before climbing a rock for a good view when the sun went down. I got a bit tired of clinging to the top of a rock so headed back to the minibuses where the drivers were organising dinner…and enjoyed the sunset from ground level.

Richard returned and we had cheese and biscuits – wine was on offer – but decided to go for a hot drink as by now the wind had turned very chilly. Of course we had not brought our jackets with us…. So we huddled down together and enjoyed our BBQ sausages and fresh bread / salads before wrapping ourselves up in a blanket to keep warm. By now one of the guides had set up the telescope so encouraged everyone to have a look at the moon – and showed us how to take photos of it too. So here you are….enjoy!

The guide was very knowledgeable and, although it was not a completely dark night and too early in the season for the Milky Way to show itself, we watched as the planets and stars revealed themselves to us. Was lovely. All too soon the show was over and time to return to our apartment, a two hour trip back for the driver. So we were dropped off just after 11.30 pm having thoroughly enjoyed our tourist excursion.

Tuesday morning we went out for breakfast down near the Wharf and then got on the Hop On Hop Off Tourist Bus. We stayed on enjoying the sights of the city as we decided to not get off until we reached King’s Park as we fancied checking it out.

We arrived at the Park but were too slow to organise ourselves getting off at the right stop so stayed on for another couple – and then decided to walk back to the original bus stop through the botanical gardens, admire the views of the city from various lookouts, take in the war memorial etc etc. Of course, like mad dogs and Englishmen, we were out in the midday sun without any water with us. What idiots – you would have thought we would have learnt by now?!? So to start off we decided to hydrate in a cafe we came across near a child’s play area (plus dinosaur of course) before starting our walk. Richard told me it wasn’t far and led by goggle maps off we trotted…. It wasn’t the nice lawned park we had been expecting as it was largely bush and sparse vegetation on red dust paths in places…. Sometimes it was pretty hilly too. It even had a glass bridge into the tree canopy… But worth it for the spectacular views over the city.

Couldn’t believe how many joggers passed us along the way too. Anyway, a while later, and only 11k steps to our name in 39 degrees Celsius heat we arrived at the first car park and found another cafe and had a restorative glass of water to recover. We were both absolutely shattered.

We had made arrangements to meet Richard and Hannah (and their daughters Sophie and Abigail) later in the afternoon at a waterfront East End pub called The Royal. So we decided not to wait for the next bus and got an uber back to our apartment where we enjoyed restorative showers / clean clothes / and a rest up before heading to the pub as previously arranged. Richard and Hannah had both worked with Richard in London before they moved to Australia and had become a couple after relocating here. So was lovely to see them and to catch up on their news…. Oh yes and the pizza was pretty good too LOL. Lovely family and another great reunion!

So that concludes our stay in Perth but not in Western Australia – on Wednesday we checked out of our Perth city centre apartment and collected another hire car to do some more exploring of the area.

So bye for now and come back soon for the next instalment. Jan

Friday morning (24 January) we checked out of our apartment in Caloundra and drove towards West End, Brisbane. Having arrived early we headed into the ice cream shop to have dessert before lunch LOL. Subsequently we met up with Ryan (who Richard used to work with in London). Ryan was working from home that day and, as it was school holidays, he was joined by his two beautiful young daughters who were not going to miss out on the opportunity to have pizza followed by ice cream. The girls were not shy at all and were very assertive – particularly about their view that pineapple was born to be eaten on a pizza LOL – and it was a lot of fun. After lunch we headed down to the mall and ended up in Anita Gelato where the girls were able to choose from a huge variety of flavours.

Sadly it was all too soon to say goodbye so we said our fond farewells and headed back to our car. We then drove towards Riverside Marina on the Brisbane River where Russ and Barb have their boat SV Happy Hour moored. They had already sent a message to let us know that Russ was home earlier than expected from work so we went straight there. We were greeted at the barrier by Russ and Barb (although we went to the wrong one to start with doh!) and then walked down to the boat having conveniently parked the car at the top of their pontoon. We had packed an overnight bag / toiletries etc so left the rest of our luggage in the car – there is no room for hard shelled suitcases on a boat! We had a lovely evening chatting and catching up on their news since we had seen them in London last year. This was the start of a bank holiday weekend in Australia as Sunday was Australia Day – or invasion day according to the First Nations people. Russ did his usual whipping up of a culinary feast of a chicken stir fry – was lovely. Then we headed early to bed….by which time a storm had started so we watched the lightning striking from the comfort of our bunk through the port. Felt quite nostalgic….

Saturday morning we had a leisurely start and Russ cooked us an eggs and bacon breakfast – and delicious it was too. Before we had even got up he and Barb had made fresh sausage rolls and baked a selection of cup cakes. Wow! They have more appliances in their boat galley than I have in my kitchen at home….

We showered ashore and bumped into John Hembrow near the office who used to run the Down Under Rally which we had participated in back in the day – he is working at Rivergate as a dockmaster on weekends / holidays. Was nice to see him although he was a bit stressed by the demands of a superyacht!

We spent the day playing card games – introducing them to Five Crowns (where I wiped the floor with them all) – we then played Sequence where Russ and I teamed up and beat Barb and Richard, followed by our first introduction to Upsies / Downsies which was fun although took a lot of concentration LOL. Throughout the day we were drinking and eating…and laughing very hard. Was great fun before we called it a day and had an early night.

Sunday we headed over to Fort Lytton and joined the first walking tour of the day.

Oh yes and there was a heatwave! Most of the tour was out in the full sun and by the time we finished I looked like I’d just come out of the shower….have never felt so hot and bothered in all my life! Was an interesting tour seeing all the armaments in preparation for an invasion during the Second World War which, of course, never happened so the guns or mines were never fired in anger.

Back to the marina we continued playing games – this time it was Barb & Richard’s turn to beat us in Sequence so we made it the World Series which was the best of three games (totalling nine games including the day before). Oh they revelled in their victory and refused to play any more having secured the crown! So back to Five Crowns and I won one, Russell won one too. So in total I won twice, Richard lost twice, Russell won one and Barb won one. It all got very competitive as the wine and laughter flowed…. Russ cooked us burgers for dinner which was very nice – always surprises me though that Australians put beetroot and pineapple on a burger – but everyone to their own LOL.

Monday was a Bank Holiday so Russ didn’t have to go to work. We had another leisurely start and Russ cooked us pancakes for breakfast. Followed by more sausages rolls, wahoo fish bites and other nibbles / lollies. (Explanation required here – lollies are what the Australians call sweets. Think skittles etc). Thankfully a slightly less hot and humid day so we enjoyed just sitting around chatting, eating and playing games again. But we did have a walk after breakfast around the marina to have a little look around. So not completely lazy!

A competitive afternoon of gaming followed with Upsies / Downsies starting us off which Russ won. Then a hand of Phase 10 which I won. Then Five Crowns again which I won and then Barb won. For dinner we had sausages and mash for dinner. We had another early night as Russ had to leave for work at 4.30 am the following morning. So we said our sad farewells…the time had gone so quickly…and we had had lots of laughter and lots of eating!

Tuesday morning Barb did our breakfast whilst we had our onshore showers. We repacked the car and said our sad farewells. We had enjoyed being back on a boat again even if it was a catamaran LOL. We headed to Margate first – and we had a few hours to kill – so decided to try and get me a haircut as it was getting pretty wild and out of control LOL. Managed with the first saloon of the day so pretty happy whilst Richard took himself off for a coffee. Very reasonably priced too…. Leaving Margate behind we then went to Radcliffe for a spot of lunch and to see the Bee Gees. We sat on the pier for a while watching all the kids jumping in and having fun…

Afterwards we headed to Woody Point to see Tom and Diane (who used to own SV Avalon) but whom have now decided to settle in Australia. We admired their beautifully refurbished apartment and then headed to their rooftop terrace for bubbles overlooking the expanse of water that is Moreton Bay. Also grateful that we were able to use the visitor spot in their gated car parking facility so we didn’t have to worry about leaving our car full of our junk on the street.

After enjoying the bubbles we walked to the pub for dinner which was at least downhill. But my legs were feeling it in the heat and after a nice meal and good evening Tom very kindly offered to get an Uber back which I gratefully accepted. And we were the last punters to leave the pub – which used to happen when we met them on the Down Under Rally! Back at their apartment we had some pontoonies before retiring to bed. Was so lovely to catch up with them.

In the morning we went out for breakfast – Richard drove as Tom and Diane were going to walk back. Leaving them having said our sad farewells we headed to Brighton and Sandgate before returning towards Brisbane and Remmant where we were going to visit with Ed & Yvonne (who used to own SV Steelee). Yvonne laid on a wonderful charcuterie board for nibbles with a glass or two in the garden before we had a lovely lamb dinner on the deck of their amazing Queenslander home. Such a lovely evening….and so to bed.

In the morning Ed cooked us breakfast on the BBQ on the deck and we just sat around chatting.

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye again and we drove towards Brisbane Airport – filled up on petrol – then checked into the Pullman Hotel. We looked like the poor relations with our assortment of bags and cases – one of the jobs was to get all our stuff back into cases / hand luggage bags for the morning’s flight to Perth.

Have to say we were completely blown away by everybody’s hospitality whilst we revisited Queensland. Amazing friendships are formed by cruising couples even though most have sold up and moved on since we last saw them – the bonds remain…. Was just so lovely to catch up!

Having checked into our room we then drove to Ace cars where we returned our hire car, retracing our steps back to the hotel utilising the complimentary shuttle bus. We decided to enjoy the afternoon and laid by the pool and had a late lunch – deciding that all this entertainment was pretty bad for the weight – and vowed to do better whilst we were on our own going forward LOL. Later on we returned to the room, repacked and weighed our suitcases and had a quiet night in.

So that concludes this part of our Australian adventure. Come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now. Jan

Monday 20 January we departed Byron Bay in New South Wales towards Caloundra.

First stop en route was the Boatworks, our home for a lot of our time during Covid and after Richard’s heart attack which amazingly is almost five years ago now!   On arrival we headed into the on-site restaurant The Galley and waited to be seated.   David spotted us, looked confused for a little while, then rushed over to envelop us in bear hugs.   “Richard and Jan you came back!”    We settled down to some breakfast – which was excellent as always – and caught up with David and Cara who genuinely seemed very pleased to see us. Cara said she hadn’t smiled so much for weeks!   How nice is that?!? And of course we forgot to take photos in the moment…..

Tearing ourselves away we headed to the office – Amy was working and came out straight away for a bear hug.  She looked really well.   Danielle was also working but on a break at that moment in time so we headed into the yard to see if we could find Nikki. We were directed to the super yacht yard (which had been transformed with new huge sheds) and much of the old ‘storage’ area was now kitted out with new units / workshops. We asked one of the guys to radio Nikki which he did as two people were looking for her – tracked down and waiting in place – we drove around the corner. She was absolutely delighted to see us and we got more bear hugs. Saying fond farewells to Nikki we headed back to the office and this time found Danielle – wow she looked completely different having lost lots of weight – just younger and more vibrant. So we caught up with her for a little while and then sadly we left the Boatworks behind….

First stop was the mall to pick up some chocolate gifts then onwards to Upper Coomera where we had arranged to visit with Tim and Naoko. Tim was delighted to see us but Naoko looked a bit shocked as Tim had forgotten to tell her so she quickly jumped in the car and headed out shopping herself. Naoko is an excellent host so clearly felt the need to pick up some provisions – all a bit strange as we had reminded Tim that we were coming only the day before!

While Naoko was out we looked at Tim’s ongoing projects and discussed ideas for taking it all forward. He desperately wants to get the big boat launched this year so he can take his fellow veterans out sailing to improve their mental health. Tim suffers from PTSD himself so the projects keep him busy although with his scatter gun approach their fabulous home is surrounded by bits and pieces and resembles a works yard!! Naoko returned and proceeded to lay out a fabulous charcuterie board which we tucked into. She also persuaded me to have a glass of wine as Richard promised he would do the driving….she had even remembered what type I liked and had picked up a couple of bottles specifically. So it seemed rude not to LOL. Here we are with Tim and his dog….

Our visit was over all too soon and it was time to head up the coast towards Caloudra. We arrived around 5pm but found the reception to the building closed. Hmmm….so called the listed number and was talked through instructions of how to get access to the underground car park, the apartment keys etc. Managed all that and we rushed upstairs to have a look. The apartment was huge, quite old fashioned and could do with some upgrades here and there. But a wrap-around balcony looking down towards the sea was very welcome…. Sadly I could not find a washing machine although I was convinced that the description had talked about laundry facilities. Oh well, never mind….

Having made ourselves at home we headed down the road to the promenade and into the Drift Bar.

This had been our favourite watering hole many years previously and we were surprised by how quiet it was – but, hey, it’s a Monday so what did we expect?!? We had a couple of drinks listening to the live music which was a young hippie chick dressed in Mary Quant type fashion. She had a good repertoire but, just like her clothes, was a bit dated LOL. Sadly her voice was a bit weak and didn’t really engage with the room. The Drift Bar appear to position their nightly live music offering as background rather than entertainment.

We had some potato wedges for our tea and were amazed by the sound of the parakeets as they returned to their trees opposite to roost for the night. Quite amazing that such little things can be so very loud. Anyway, had been a busy day, so we headed back to our apartment for an early night.

Tuesday morning we were up early and I did some hand washing and got all that out on the balcony on the airer. After breakfast we headed out to the nearest large supermarket for supplies and picked up some cheap giant prawns – cooked, cleaned and peeled – and later we realised that we had got 35 for the princely sum of £13. Fantastic!

On our way back we had some brunch – just a toastie – and chatted to the receptionist in our building. She showed me the laundry room which was coin operated. Excellent – will use that later on before we depart.

We then headed to the beach – this used to be the main channel between the mainland and Bribie Island – and the tide used to race through, which is where we really enjoyed drifting along in the current. In January 2022 Bribie Island was broken through by the sea in a storm and this has now become the dominant entrance so the Caloundra bar is infilling with sand and closing over and a huge sand bar now blocks the main channel. Which has meant that the sea is shallow, warm, and a bit lagoon like instead. So we joined all the other families and enjoyed bobbing for a while. We were amazed to see people walking and driving across to Bribie too. Amazing changes brought about by nature.

Back to the apartment we had a delicious prawn salad for tea followed by a glass or two on the balcony – where it was so windy the washing had been blown over…. So we ended up back in the Drift Bar for a nightcap and then home for the night.

Wednesday morning we awoke early as we had planned to meet Sandy and Nigel – but sadly, Nigel had gone down with the lurgy so we postponed the trip and hope to see them later in our travels. There was a severe heatwave warning so we decided it was way too hot for the beach and headed into the mountains instead. We thought it would be cooler in the mountains but that was not to be the case. First stop was Montville which was a historic old town and very cute. We stopped at the Poets Cafe for lunch and enjoyed great food and iced smoothies. Richard wanted to walk around to get some photos but, the trek back up the hill to our car in the heat did me in, so he continued on his own and I escaped to the air conditioned comfort. We had already agreed that I was driving from here too….

Leaving Montville behind we headed to Garrad’s lookout for views over the countryside which was absolutely spectacular. So lush and green….

Then we decided to return to Caloundra via the supermarket and back to the apartment. The air conditioning in the apartment was only in the lounge – fans in the bedroom – so we camped in front of the TV for a few hours. Later on as it cooled down for the day we headed back to the Drift Bar for a couple of cold ones before returning to our apartment to finish off the prawns for supper. Afterwards we vegged in front of the TV but sadly the viewing opportunities were a little limited – either the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne or the Trump Inauguration – before turning in for the night.

Thursday was another extreme heat warning day (think 40 degrees centigrade) so I spent some time in the laundry as we were leaving the following day. Having completed all that Richard took me out for brunch where we ended up in the Coffee Club on the seafront – which was new since our last visit here.

Back to the apartment we decided against returning to the beach as it was way too hot so decided to stay put. So I took the opportunity to blog …. Later on we got cleaned up and headed out to the Drift Bar which was still quiet, although there were lots of volley ball players turning up for the long bank holiday weekend’s tournament. Richard had captured the activity setting up this tournament on the beach earlier.

So back to bed having readied ourselves for our morning departure. So come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now

Jan

 

We packed up our apartment in Terrigal and took off around 9 am on Thursday 16 January. The rain was just starting as we drove out of the secure car park and it quickly became heavy…and then it became biblical…and, as we joined the motorway it was downright dangerous. We couldn’t see the road ahead and we pulled off at the first opportunity to a service station. We sat there for a while but there was no sign of this abating any time soon – but it did start to ease enough for Richard to be confident in driving again. So we headed back onto the motorway and carried on. This was supposed to be a seven hour drive anyway so not exactly the best start to the day. Suddenly the torrential rain started again and this time there was thunder and lightning thrown into the mix – think they call this a supercell storm and we pulled off the road again. We found a local KFC as this would, at least, give us access to toilet facilities. We weren’t happy when an UTE pulled in alongside us and, in her hurry to get out of the rain, the blonde airhead whacked our door with hers…. I needed the loo so quickly got out – checked the door (couldn’t see any obvious damage) – and headed into KFC. OMG it was like Armageddon as I came out and looked across the main road, to see water bubbling up from the storm drains and it was flooding the roads pretty quickly. So we needed to get out of here quickly before becoming stranded! We drove on and, as we pullled away, we could see that flooding was going to be a serious issue for the residential properties very soon.

Relieved to be leaving that behind we were delighted when the weather cleared up a bit and the rain started to ease. We pulled into the next service station to get fuel to find all the pumps cordoned off…we used their facilities anyway and got a couple of wraps for lunch…to find that the station had been hit by lightning and that’s why the pumps were inoperable. It was a pretty big storm if the size of the hailstones were anything to go by as reported by Higgins Storm Chasers,

Luckily for us we still had half a tank we were just using this opportunity to change drivers. So I took over and continued north towards Byron Bay, our next destination. The rain continued on / off all day and we finally arrived at our Air BnB at 7pm. We found the cul-de-sac easily and the apartment – which was actually a loft apartment / granny annex in the bottom of the proprietor’s garden with separate access. We had stopped off at the bottle shop on the way and picked up some provisions at the grocery store too so had an early night after a long and quite challenging nine hour road trip.

Friday morning we decided to explore and headed first to the lighthouse. We were lucky to get parked about two thirds of the way up the hill and walked the rest. The forecast was for dangerous surf in the region and boy was the area getting pounded…. Was really hot so we stopped at the cafe for a cold recuperative drink before moving on.

Next stop was Ballina – this has an inlet which is notorious in big swells – so we wanted to walk the sea walls and have a look. OMG the sea was raging and this would not be a day to either enter or leave this area for sure – absolutely treacherous. We bumped into some locals who knew someone in London and did we know them?? It’s amazing how many times we get asked this type of question LOL. No concept of how heavily populated the UK is.

After Ballina we headed to the hinterland and enjoyed a walk around Bangalow – quite a historic old town. Very charming and we enjoyed checking it out.

Afterwards we headed towards Mullumbimby for the Crystal Castle and Shambhala Gardens This is like a theme park for crystal lovers and it is home to the largest natural crystals where we did actually sit in an ancient amethyst cave.

We wandered the tranquil gardens too, including a Kalachakra Stupa (sacred monument to Tibetan Buddhists to represent universal divinity). This is unique in the Southern Hemisphere and only the seventh in the world. We span the beautiful brass prayer wheels and walked around the stupa to lend wings to prayers of peace. Felt quite serene.

Check out some of the huge natural crystals which are allegedly the biggest and most beautiful crystals in the world.

We also visited the Peace Dome and joined in on a healing meditation session where we listened to Crystal Singing Bowls being played which was fascinating. All very zen LOL.

Moving on we returned to Byron Bay and visited the historic Northern pub – which was very very noisy and the live music wasn’t to our taste. We then found Woolworths to pick up some more supplies before going to the Tree House for dinner followed by a short walk along the beach before returning back to our loft.

Saturday we headed to the town of Mullumbimby and found it was market day. So we parked up and wandered through checking out the ‘magic people’ along the way. So this was full of hippies – young and old alike – and we were even offered blue methylated spirits by a couple of people LOL. In the middle of the stalls there were two guys playing live music so we grabbed a coffee and sat down to watch them.

Sadly very quickly the rains returned and we headed back to the car. Such a shame…. This didn’t stop us though as next stop was Scarabelot’s lookout where we watched the clouds scuttling across the sky.

Having left the countryside behind we headed back to Byron Bay and wandered around the main drag Jonson Street. Not a lot going on – lots of tourists like us – but didn’t quite have the hippy vibe that we had been expecting. Oh well, guess places change over time. We walked to the Beach House Hotel on the promenade and enjoyed a drink with snacks and live music. Afterwards we went to main beach to have a look but found it very busy. Of course the rain returned again so we headed back to our loft and had a quiet night in doing the laundry!

Sunday morning we awoke to a kookaburra singing away on our fence outside the door. Love these birds! We had decided that this was going to be “a sitting overlooking the beach” kind of day but, of course, the minute we got parked and found a bench to sit on the rain started again. What a shame!

So back to the apartment we go…. I decided to use the unexpected free time to write the Terrigal blog. In the evening we returned to the Tree House for dinner – good food and a great happening place, very popular with locals, tourists and backpackers alike. Was a good evening – Richard was very good and let me have a glass of wine whilst he was the designated driver. Arriving back we had some wine in front of the TV before climbing the stairs to bed. Had been a good last night in Byron Bay, just a shame that the weather didn’t play ball for our time there.

In the morning we were moving on again – returning to Queensland after a two and a half year absence – to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. Bye for now and come back soon for the next part of our Australian adventure.

Jan

Thursday 9 January we were up early, packed, had breakfast, paid our bill and drove to Terrigal on the Central Coast away from the beautiful Blue Mountains. It was still drizzly but not too bad. We deliberately drove via the mountain roads rather than via Sydney and I drove most of the way this time but felt nervous about close quarters and parking the beast so handed over the reins to Richard just before we arrived in Terrigal.

I enjoyed driving this vehicle but found the wing mirrors a bit too large as they impeded visibility at times….we arrived just after 2pm, just in time to check into our Air BnB apartment. We found the key box, located the secure car park entrance we needed to find our allocated space inside the multi-storey apartment block, parked up, located the correct lift block and headed to our apartment. This was lovely! Very modern, fresh and spacious with separate kitchen, bedroom, wet room, utility room, lounge, dining area and balcony (overlooking the Crowne Plaza hotel). Very nice too!

We emptied the car and then headed out again to the local supermarket for some shopping. We didn’t realise that our nearest Coles supermarket was actually at the huge Erina Fair shopping mall so we enjoyed the familiarity of returning to the place. Back to our apartment we decided not to go out for the evening so had a basic dinner of jacket potato with beans and cheese for tea. Wanted something simple…. We then spent the rest of the evening vegging out in front of the TV (which we had forgotten was pretty dire with lots of UK repeats / programme copies). Oh well, never mind…

Friday morning we headed over to Avoca Beach – our favourite in the area – but it was a bit drizzly so we checked out the Surf Club and enjoyed watching the surfers / life guards in action.

Afterwards we headed back to Erina Fair for more shopping – this time our mission was to pick up some desserts for the evening as we were going over to see Hayley and her family for a BBQ. We had never met her mum, dad or nan (Heather) so that was great to see them, along with our great nephews Jack and Adam too. Heather has been a supporter / follower of the blog for a long time so it was nice to see her in person, especially as she is now 93 years old! What a great lady….

Was a lovely evening and we enjoyed checking out all the renovations that had been done to the house since our last visit – the new kitchen, the pool, the new furniture in the lounge, newly redecorated walls etc. The changes were stunning and made such a difference to the house. Looking forward to staying there again at the end of our trip in March. Budd remembered his best friend Richard so got the zoomies a couple of times but otherwise he was pretty well behaved LOL. While we were there we picked up our shade tent which we had left in the garage on our departure in May 2022. So we were now equipped for the beach again…yay….we just needed some sunshine LOL. After leaving the BBQ we headed back to our apartment and had a final glass of wine in front of the TV. Well final for me, first few for Richard as he had been the designated driver.

Saturday morning – Happy Birthday to me! Had a leisurely start (after opening my cards – thanks to everyone that was organised enough to give them to me in advance) – eggs on toast for breakfast and then headed to the beach as the sun had finally come out! We were well equipped with shade, drinks and sun tan lotion and had fun. We both got a bit of sun but found it very intense. Our UK factor 30 suntan lotion really wasn’t up to the job so we need to get a stronger one next time we are out and about. After a few hours we headed to the surf club for some nibbles before returning to the apartment. We had a leisurely afternoon and did some laundry.

Later on we walked to our favourite Indian restaurant The Grand Palace and met Jamie there. We caught up and enjoyed sharing our birthdays together for the first time in many years (his was the previous week). Was really lovely. Afterwards we headed back to our apartment for a nightcap and so to bed. Had been a great day.

Sunday we were having a lay in when we could hear this alarm going off…..evacuate now….evacuate now…. We honestly thought it was the hotel across the road but when I went out onto the balcony and saw people on the street below (as well as fire engines) realised it was actually our building! We opened the apartment door, got the full force of the tannoy announcement, vacated and found the emergency stairs. Got downstairs onto the street – grateful to be only on the 2nd floor – and were given the all clear pretty quickly. Phew! That was an unexpected start to our day. Have to say the alarm was not a sound either of us had heard before which is why it didn’t register immediately…very strange noise….

In the afternoon we decided to go on a Terrigal pub crawl – wandered down the promenade admiring the beach (which was much narrower than from memory) and then went to the Caribbean rooftop bar, Mumbo Jumbos. Bit of a grubby place to be honest but they served cold beer and we could watch people below so it fitted the bill….

Leaving that behind we headed to the Beach House which is part of the Crowne Plaza. This was really busy and had a live band so we stayed a while. Was great….

Later on we returned to our apartment across the street and had dinner at home.

Monday morning we were out shopping again – picked up some factor 50+ suntan lotion – and went to Avoca beach again. This time we were getting constant warnings about bluebottles (jellyfish) in the sea from the lifeguards. We did set up the shade tent but also went for long walks as well in the sand watching out for the tiny jellyfish which resemble Portuguese man-of-war with their ‘sail’ and have very long and thin stinging tentacles, looking for all intents and purposes like a cotton thread – impossible to watch for in the surf although easier to spot on the beach. Not nice. Lots of kids were getting stung and there was no way I was heading into the surf without a wet suit LOL.

In the afternoon we headed back to the apartment having had enough sun – the sand was so hot it was impossible to walk on without shoes – and had a quiet afternoon doing more laundry, Richard also vacuumed the car and the apartment while I did the Blue Mountains blog.

Tuesday morning we got up early and headed over to pick up Adam and Jack. They are still on school holidays so we had offered them a day out of their choice. Well, they had chosen a two hour Splash and Slide Dolphin Watching cruise which departed from Nelson Bay at 12.30 pm. This was over a two hour drive from their home so we left at 9.30, having first deposited food in the fridge for dinner later, and took off. Richard was driving and it was challenging in places because of all the varying speed limits – we really don’t know what constitutes the difference between a 60 kph and a 80 kph road other than the changing sign to warn you. NSW is very sneaky with speed cameras located in unmarked parked vehicles alongside the road with little or no warning so Richard was trying to keep within the limit at all times although Jack (who is a budding petrol head and now learning to drive at 16 years of age) was now commenting too. Poor Richard – getting suggestions / comments from two of us – and Adam just went to sleep as he is a tired boy most of the time LOL. And that’s without the dangerous behaviours of some of the Australian drivers – no courtesy shown, don’t look before pulling out in front of you (resulting in one emergency stop to avoid a collision) and constant ‘undertaking’.

On arrival in Nelson Bay we were very lucky to find a long-stay (9 hour) free car parking space and went for ice cream. We then boarded the boat and were overtaken by a huge Arab family group pushing for space, Luckily we were able to get seated at the bow on this large motor catamaran so took our places and weren’t going to give them up for anyone LOL. We sat tight as we pulled away from the dock and headed into the bay…. It was pretty windy so didn’t really feel the sun so it was lovely.

Eventually dolphins were spotted in the shallower water and we watched them for a while. Everyone was pretty excited to see them but, of course, we were pretty blasé having watched dolphins play around our bow on Morphie on numerous occasions. So nice that we saw a them but shame that they were so far in the distance.

The crew then picked up a mooring ball and deployed the boom net and the slide. Jack decided not to go in the water declaring it too cold – I was never going to do it to be honest – Adam and Richard thought about it but the whole area was rammed, so they decided against. Oh well, never mind…

After a couple of hours cruising around we returned to the dock and got off. Jack was hungry by now – and we know that most places close their kitchens in the afternoon – decided it would have to be a fast food place so we could guarantee service. So we headed to the nearest KFC, placed our order and sat down. Jack wanted to eat in the car not inside the restaurant but we over-ruled him – as we didn’t want the smell nor the potential for mess inside our hire car. We then lived to regret that decision because the Arab family came in and the boys ran amok – including one lad who was so tubby he had an overhanging belly and moobs without a shirt on. This actually offended me when I’m trying to eat and I was seriously hoping the young manager would ask the family to ensure the lad was appropriately attired but, no, everyone seemed very nervous about this big group spending a fortune on a mountain of food…. Oh well…just confirmed Jack’s view that these places are not nice LOL (although he enjoys the food).

We packed up and headed back home with the boys who by now were flagging and snoozed all the way back. On arrival I took over the new kitchen and cooked us all a lasagne and made salad for dinner. We had a nice evening before heading back to Terrigal for pontoonies. And OMG did I get burnt to a crisp on this trip….everyone else was fine…just me! Clearly I need to learn how to apply suntan lotion LOL

Wednesday was sadly our last day in Terrigal and we had a few admin things to do – first was to renew our Medicare cards (required by our travel insurance policy) – this usually involves a difficult session at the local office but I found a get-around online – so tick, all done. Richard needed new flip flops (or thongs as they are called here) and had his eye on a nice pair at the Ripcurl store just down the road….so we headed down there and purchased them. So he now has a pair for ‘best’ LOL.

Later on we spent a few more hours on Avoca Beach before returning to the apartment. Having got ourselves cleaned up we then headed out to meet Jamie for a Thai dinner and to say our farewells for now. Lovely time together as always. We had to curtail it though as a big thunderstorm came through and we wanted to get back. On arrival back in Terrigal we stood on the balcony and watched this incessant lightning all around…pretty impressive to say the least….

So that wraps up our time in Terrigal – so bye for now and return soon for our next instalment of this Australian adventure.

Jan

Monday 6 January we left Sydney behind and, in a Tesla Uber (first for us), we headed to Mascot to pick up our hire car. The driver dropped us off and, heading into the office, we realised that this was not Ace where we had made the rental car reservation. Luckily it was only across the road so we manhandled our luggage to the correct office. A really useful woman helped us with our reservation and we were delighted to find that our car was ready for us (30+ minutes earlier than booked). We did the paperwork then headed out to load up the car – a white Toyota, a Corolla Cross SUV, which is a hybrid (not a chargeable one). So a different driving experience for sure and was a bit larger than we had been expecting.

The vehicle was in good order and we worked out the controls and took off towards the Blue Mountains with Richard behind the wheel We knew the check in at our hotel was 3pm but decided to drive directly there first….we arrived at around 1.30 pm, parked in the car park and I headed into reception. Luck was on our side for the second time in a day, as our room was ready! So picked up the key and returned to Richard and we got our luggage installed in the room.

As it was a lovely sunny day we headed out to explore and went straight to the Three Sisters viewpoint – but struggled to get parked. Eventually, having gone around a few times, we picked up a metered parking spot and were not impressed to have to pay $8 for two hours….welcome to tourist Australia! We enjoyed checking out the rock formations – absolutely stunning scenery all around – before finally, having had a restorative ice cream to recover from the heat, we headed back in the car to the Katoomba Falls.

We followed the path and came across the Falls which were small but pretty nevertheless. Leaving the scenery behind we headed into town to pick up some supplies at the supermarket followed by an excellent Thai dinner in Katoomba high street having been fleeced for more parking fees. Back to the hotel we enjoyed the spectacular views from the terrace with a glass of wine watching the rain clouds build over the hills…. The bar guy was a trainee, according to his badge, and although incredibly welcoming and friendly he was tortoise-like in his delivery LOL.

So back to our room for an early night and we were watching TV in bed (surprised to be able to get UK news channels) when the lightning started. So we turned every thing off, drew back the curtains, and laid in bed and watched the show. Then the thunder started…this was going to be a doozy! Oh, and of course, we had really heavy rain to accompany it. We snuggled down and, eventually, fell asleep to the sound of the angry weather.

Tuesday morning it was raining, hard, and the clouds had descended upon us. So we had a leisurely breakfast (which wasn’t so good sadly although the fat toast was superb) and then decided to stay put. And although breakfast was included in our room rate, barista coffee wasn’t, so got grabbed by the wait staff as we left for a measly $3! Felt this was a bit swingeing as we had a few more days – if they had explained we would have happily signed the chit on another occasion. The trainee waiter told us everything was included and we could have whatever we wanted! We decided to stay put in the lounge area and I started on the Sydney blog. Later on we decided to go out – feeling a bit stir crazy – so headed to another small historical town Leura. We managed to get parked easily (along with another expensive meter cost) and got soaked walking around the corner to a small cafe. We had a coffee and muffin and decided to return to the hotel. This was not a day to be out and about for sure – it was really quite cold.

In the afternoon we lounged in our room – I finished and published the Sydney blog – before getting ready to go to dinner in the hotel restaurant. We weren’t expecting too much after the average breakfast but the menu was good so we went straight in for main courses. Richard had beef cheeks and I had shoulder of lamb. Well, it was absolutely fantastic – especially the creamy mash sides! We also met a nice couple on the adjoining table who were from London, Ontario, and had stopped off in the Blue Mountains before travelling to Melbourne for the tennis. We never got offered deserts – shambolic inexperienced service just about sums this place up – so left for the night.

Wednesday it was still raining although not quite as heavy and as we were above 1000 metres we were inside the low clouds. Here we are checking out the view LOL.

We decided to head off to Scenic World which is a bit like a theme park – we started by talking to the animated dinosaurs at the entrance which was fun. Some of the kids were quite frightened by them surprisingly.

As the park had only just opened for the day there were few people around so we wanted to go on the Skyway first across the ravine – having purchased waterproof ponchos to keep us a bit drier and warmer. Obviously we couldn’t see a thing…what a shame! We wandered around for a little while on the other side before catching a return trip back to base.

Then we went on the train which is the steepest cable-driven funicular railway in the world, with the steepest incline an astonishing 52 degrees. Passengers embark on a thrilling, unique journey in the 84 seat glass roofed red train carriage. The train travels through sandstone cliffs, through a rock tunnel beside the tree covered Orphan Rock, before emerging to stunning panoramic views of the lush, ancient rainforest

The railway line was originally built to service the coal mine – when an entrepreneur decided to build a carriage for guests that could take people up and down on a weekend with tea, scones and cake at the bottom. This was for the princely sum of sixpence which was a large sum of money back in 1928. This was before decimalisation of course so at that point this was half a shilling of which there was 20 to the pound. And yes I’m old enough to remember this changing to 100 (new) pence to the pound back in 1971.

The train was fantastic – a very strange angle to climb into with the tilted seats – and Richard pushed the button to have a ‘cliff hanger’ ride which tilts the seats even more! Felt very smooth at the start then suddenly we are tumbling down between rocks…cliff hanger was the right word LOL.

At the bottom we decided to walk through the rainforest on a loop which incorporated Dinosaur World. Obviously all animated LOL. The elevated boardwalk path was great and we enjoyed checking out all the trees as we wandered around. It had stopped raining and, because we were in the bottom of the ravine, we were no longer visually impaired by the clouds either. We reached the end of the path and returned to the main area via the cable car – again nothing to be seen. At the top we had a coke and sat down for a while to rest the weary legs after quite a lot of steps, stairs and slopes. Having met a new friend in the main reception area and Richard had a silly half hour LOL.

We decided we wanted to ride the train again as this was the best experience by a long way and this time we did the cliff hanger ride up and straight back….going up backwards looking down the cliff was very unusual to say the least.

Anyway, after this we headed out to Wentworth Falls….and could see nothing! Here is our best picture of the day checking out the scenery LOL.

Richard was determined to see the Falls so he took himself off on a hike down the hill leaving me at the top in the rain. He was gone for more than 40 minutes so I was starting to worry a bit – he had the Australian phone with our data plan and the car keys – so I was pretty useless if anything had happened! He came back, soaked through, and puffing a bit – said the walk was much tougher than the information boards had led him to believe. But he did make it to the bottom and got some shots of the waterfalls which were quite pretty.

We then headed back to the supermarket for more supplies as we had found a really nice NZ Sauvignon Blanc for $10 a bottle which was a bargain….so wanted to get some for our next stop which was an apartment in Terrigal on the Central Coast.

Back at the hotel we were both wet and cold so headed to our room for a restorative hot shower. Got cleaned up and went to the lounge – we didn’t fancy the posh restaurant again – and decided to have a bottle of wine with some bar snacks. We ordered a club sandwich each and played UNO. Eventually after quite a wait the sandwiches turned up. They were supposed to come with string fries but instead it was huge fat chips…that’s fine prefer them anyway…but the sandwich was not the triple decker we anticipated. So it was toasted ciabatta, cremated fried egg, burnt and dry chicken schnitzel, tomatoes, lettuce and some unrecognisable mayonnaise. This was not freshly made (despite the time taken) and it was horrible! We picked at it and ate bits – my chicken wasn’t as bad as Richard’s – but felt very disappointed by this offering. So clearly the chef can do fine dining but nothing else! What a shame for our last night in this beautiful historic hotel. We finished our game of UNO (and yes I won) and headed back to our room.

So that finishes the blog in the Blue Mountains – come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now, Jan

Sunday 30 December we were picked up by Alison at 3am to head to Heathrow. Thankfully the fog that had blighted airport departures/arrivals in recent days had started to disperse. Arriving in good time for check in (even allowing for the additional hour required for flights travelling to the Middle East). We were straight onto the machines (having already checked in online) but the machine said ‘no’ and we had to wait for a human to check our documents. Finally we were given the all clear to go to the baggage drop machines which was quick and simple and we were finally free to clear through security. Security queues were minimal and we were delighted that new scanners had been installed at Terminal 4 at Heathrow which meant that we didn’t have to decant most of our belongings to go through the scanner (including the electronics and liquids).

We then headed to Costa Coffee before making our way to a seating area where we waited for our gate information to become available. The airport was pretty quiet so it wasn’t too much of a struggle sitting around waiting…..once we were informed of the gate number we made our way there….only to find there was in fact a 30 minute delay to our flight (although relieved to find the plane parked there in readiness). Finally we boarded and we were very happy to have secured upstairs seats on the double decker A380, 2nd row back in their small dedicated economy section (just behind the business class bar). Much better than being in the main body of the plane downstairs in rows of economy seating which means usually that your choice of meal is unavailable by the time they get to you LOL. So we settled in quite happy for the first six and a half hour flight. Unfortunately the woman in front of me was pretty inconsiderate in that she preferred her seat reclined, even during meal service. This pattern continued throughout the flight and I just had to suck it up! Eventually we landed at Doha and disembarked…we found the Red Bar and purchased their cheapest bottle of wine at £53. Wow! But actually considering Qatar is a ‘dry’ country suppose we were lucky to be able to purchase alcohol at all LOL

After a couple of hours we made our way to the next gate to rejoin another A380 aircraft. Again, happy to be 2nd row back in the upstairs economy compartment. This journey was also somewhat marred by the irritating German woman in front who appeared to be unable to manage her seat controls – so it was up, back, back, back, back, up, back throughout the 14 hour flight. At this stage I have to ask why me??!!?? LOL

We arrived into Sydney and got through immigration quickly using the e-Gates and, after retrieving our baggage which took a while (although with the Apple tags we knew they had arrived in Sydney with us) we headed over to the red channel to clear customs. If in doubt you declare everything in Australia – they are pretty hot on everything – so we declared our tea bags, our prescription medication and our packet sauces (as we intend to self cater throughout this trip). Quickly we were cleared and off to exit the airport. We booked an Uber to bring us direct to the Rocks area of Sydney which was to our base for the next 7 days. We arrived, got checked in, dumped our bags in our basic but completely acceptable en-suite room and headed to the roof top bar to check out the view. This did not disappoint although the wine selection was awful! Anyway, after a very long travelling time (28 hours door to door) we didn’t linger for too long before heading to bed.

For those wondering where this gem of a place is…well sit down prepare for a surprise…it is the Sydney Youth Hostel, The Rocks. Not the sort of place we would usually stay but getting a room with a view for New Year’s Eve in this area is very difficult.

After a really good night’s sleep, we woke up reasonably early and headed to the breakfast buffet – basic but adequate – and met some Australians who lived in the country who had come here to watch the fireworks too.

We headed out with a shopping list of things to do – the most important was to check the credit on our Opal cards (which we had from last time) so we could use the transport system here in Sydney. But this became insignificant when we realised that we had no internet coverage so couldn’t use our phones to navigate around the city LOL. Way too expensive to use our UK plan here so the need for a local SIM became the number one target. We walked for miles…it was very hot and humid….and the crowds were building. At every turn we increasingly came across security checks and areas sealed off for the NYE event….and there were security officials and police everywhere. So after scrambling through crowds we called it a day and returned to the sanctity of our room. Amazing that by 12 noon many public locations to watch the fireworks were at capacity and people were being turned away. Can’t imagine waiting 12 hours or longer sitting around on blankets for the event to begin! Complete madness.

At around 6.30 pm we headed to the rooftop bar, received our wrist bands, enjoyed our complimentary first Prosecco of the night and found somewhere to sit. At which point the food started circulating on platters….sushi, oysters, tiger prawns, satay, beef sliders, curry puffs….which continued to be served throughout the night. We knew the NYE party (which was included in our room rate) said that food was included, but this was exceptional in both quality and quantity.

Around 8pm a male singer / guitarist started on his set and he was amazing. The youngish crowd were keen to engage and the dance floor was full….despite the music being more our era. Check out the crowds below us lining the streets…..and the tall riggers all lit up for the party…

Anyway, around 8.50 the guy took a break and the countdown started for the first fireworks of the night at 9pm. These were noisy, amazing, inspirational and emotional all at the same time. This was bucket list stuff….and it wasn’t even midnight yet!

After these we enjoyed listening to the guy again and chatting to our neighbours – who were from Lincoln here to explore the East Coast by renting an RV up north (Cairns) to drive back towards Sydney over a 11 week period. We discussed problems with securing house / travel insurance that we had encountered in trying to put this trip together which, thankfully, we had both overcome but agreed that it had been a more difficult process than it should have been!

At 11.50 pm we were each handed another complimentary glass of Prosecco and made our way to the rail in preparation for the big show. At midnight, the church bell rang and the city exploded before our eyes – the noise was something else – and the smoke created was significant. We could also see people on privately owned penthouse balconies doing their own thing…guess that would cost more than a lottery win LOL. And they had the same view as us!

Anyway, as you can probably tell, we would recommend this place for New Year’s Eve festivities. It is not as cheap as its name suggests but considerably less than the 5-star swanky places around whom don’t even have a rooftop bar for guests to watch the fireworks…..So win win for sure.

New Year’s Day we were back out on a mission to get our list completed – but, of course, it is a public holiday so many stores were closed. First stop was the Hat Shop where we picked up some nice breathable matching ones then jumped on the Big Bus for the Hop on Hop Off City Tour. We managed to get seats on the top deck and enjoyed the breeze but the hard moulded plastic seats were incredibly uncomfortable.

We didn’t particularly want to visit any of the stops as we realised that we had seen much of this the last time we were here. Feeling uninspired and very hot and bothered we got off the bus having done the whole loop and started walking. We found a supermarket (closed), couldn’t find a Telstra store that was open (for the SIM card) and having got our Opal cards sorted we returned to the hostel on the train network. Enjoyed the historic Museum station…

We went to a local old pub for an early dinner and, realising just how tired we were, went back and crashed. Another 10k steps day in the bag…phew! Finding this a bit challenging in the heat and humidity as my legs still hadn’t recovered from the long flight.

Thursday 2 January we finally found a Mall that was open and had a Telstra store. So SIM card purchased and Coles supermarket visited, we headed back to the hostel. We picked up their WiFi and got our Australian SIM up and running. Was very pleased to be connected again LOL.

At lunch time we went back down all the steps to the Fortune of War pub – Sydney’s oldest – where we had agreed to meet Ernest and his son Jack. Thought Jack might be shy around strangers but he wasn’t and completely embraced us (literally at times LOL). As it was a cruise ship day the area was rammed so we picked up Ernest’s van and headed out on a drive around. First stop was a famous pie shop Harry’s Cafe de Wheels which was opened (originally in 1936) and then again in 1945 near the Naval Dockyard in Woolloomooloo when Harry Edwards realised that it was impossible to get good late night food anywhere in Sydney. The wheels came because of a by-law at the time that food trucks needed to move 12 inches each day to remain legal – so it was dutifully moved every night to comply. And it serves amazing pies / hot dogs etc….in fact the day we were there we had to queue up for at least 10 minutes. And yum….probably the best pie we’ve had in Sydney….

Moving on we headed to Rushcutters Bay (which is the location for the start of the Sydney to Hobart race) and where Ernest and his family had been based prior to their circumnavigation when he was a child. Very brave back in the day without all the things we take for granted now like GPS etc and his parents were complete novices. Ernest never lost his love for the ocean and now lives on his boat SV Crossbones. We originally met him in Cuba and multiple times in Queensland during the covid restrictions. Such a great bloke and, as this was the first time we saw him with one of his sons, we realised he was a great father too….

We continued down the coast stopping at various bays and coastlines admiring the scenery – interesting to drive through some very affluent neighbourhoods and some not so…. We travelled beyond Bondi Beach and continued following the coastline trying not be pranked by Jack along the way LOL. Oh yes and admiring how a Ferrari managed to smash into someone’s property in the middle of the afternoon.

After a really nice visit catching up with Ernest he drove us back to the hostel – thank you guys for a great tour – and then went to the rooftop bar for a BBQ. It was nice but chilly so we decided to have an early night. We did try to buy a bottle from the bar to take to our room but was told that this was against the rules so definitely not allowed. Guess they don’t want people partying in the rooms…and there can’t be one rule for a couple of oldies sharing a private room versus a dorm full of backpackers.

Friday 3 January we went out and about and decided to explore by Ferry….so took the 90 minute trip to Parramatta. The river was nice to check out but, because of the height of the tide, we couldn’t get under the final bridge and had to get a bus replacement for the last 10 minutes or so. Arriving into Parramatta we went for a wander into the mall and that was about it. We headed back to the quay to find a huge queue waiting for the first ferry of the day…we managed to get onto the boat when it arrived noticing that it had dropped its navigation lights on the top deck to get under the final bridge. The water level had dropped but not significantly…

On the return trip we got off early at Darling Harbour and had happy hour Indian beers and snacks for a late brunch. Lovely it was too…. We then walked back up the steps (and there are lots of them in the Rocks area) to the hostel, got cleaned up, and headed back down to the quay to meet Richard’s ex-NDY colleagues in the Cruise Bar on the dock. The scenery was marred by a huge ship but, not long as we all met up, it departed so the Opera House came into view again. Sam and her parents (who are currently over from the UK visiting) arrived first shortly followed by Margaret and her husband and young son. Her husband and son left us shortly afterwards having done the introductions and left Margaret with us. `It was a lot of fun as they all caught up on their respective news….

Saturday 4 January we explored again using the train / tram network – this time we headed to Chinatown and eventually ended up in Paddy’s Market which was good as I needed to buy a pink hat (explanation later LOL). Afterwards we had some Chinese street food before returning to Darling Harbour where we had a couple of beers watching the acrobats who were running a training school during the Sydney Festival. Lots of fun! We then walked back to Circular Quay and had a drink in a lovely Turkish restaurant before heading back up to the hostel for the night. All those steps!

Sunday 5 January we were up early and got kitted out all in pink to go to the cricket. This was the final test between Indian and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This was held at the Sydney Cricket Ground and all monies raised were for the McGrath foundation which is a cancer charity (hence the pink). And boy was it a sea of pink! We used the light rail network to go from Circular Quay to Moore Park. On arrival we met up with my nephew Jamie and one of his son’s Adam. Was lovely to see them again after such a long time….

It was such a fun atmosphere and Australia needed to bowl India out so they had the target for the day. The match started well for Australia – the crowd were completely engrossed – and we had to learn lots of Aussie slang and hand signals for fours as well as take part in Mexican waves. We had lots of Indians in the audience too and the noise of the drums and musical instruments was pretty loud. Finally Australia were batting for the cup……and the crowd got louder and louder LOL. Eventually at around 2.30 pm the final ball was bowled and Australia hit a six. The crowd erupted. This was the first time that Australia had won the cup for 10 years! A historic moment and we were there to see it. So grateful to Jamie for inviting us along to be part of this day. Plus the Foundation raised over 6mn AU $ too….amazing!

Although sitting in full sun for much of the day in 38 degree centigrade temperatures was pretty brutal – and even though we happily indulged when the men came round with sun tan lotion for all and water refills we still managed to get a little crisp in places….my neck got burnt between my bandana and my blouse. Damn….

After the cricket we headed back on the Light Rail to Circular Quay – was like a commuter day in London LOL. We were enticed back into the Cruise Bar by a really good two piece band – the girl had an amazing voice and her rendition of Amy Whitehouse was as good as any.

But it was dead….nobody around….perhaps all the cricket fans peaked too early LOL?? Anyway we decided to check out the Rocks to see if we could find somewhere to have dinner before returning back up the hill. We ended up in Munich Brauhaus which was strange but fun. We had a reasonable meal and bottle of wine before retiring. Pretty early by our standards because we had to pack for our morning departure.

Monday morning we checked out and stayed in the hostel whilst we chatted to some young British backpacker women who were all travelling solo. One of the best things about being in the hostel was mingling with such a variety of guests of different ages / nationalities and backgrounds. Anyway, so that wraps up our stay in Sydney – come back soon for the next instalment of our Australian adventure.

Bye for now, Jan

Friday 26 April we checked out of Zimbabwe and flew back to Cape Town.

We landed at 4.20 pm and was picked up by Francois to take us to our next, and final, destination, Hout Bay. We arrived at our accommodation, Hout Bay Manor Hotel, around an hour later. Not a particularly impressive building from the street but our Xhosa room was fabulous and we were very happy! In respect of the name of the room, Xhosa are the second largest ethnic group in South Africa after the Zulus and live traditionally in the Eastern Cape province. By now we were pretty tired so chilled for a little while before trying out the bar and then heading into the restaurant for dinner. This was getting quite late in the season so we found ourselves to be pretty much the only guests apart from some hotel executives who had come in from Johannesburg to train the local staff. The dinner was absolutely fantastic! And so to bed.

Saturday we had a leisurely start and then headed down to breakfast – again, was excellent. We then decided to walk to the wharf as we were booked on a seal watching tour at noon. It was so hot and there were not many people around on foot so we did get a few strange looks from locals as we marched on past LOL.

At the wharf we found our tour operator and checked in to find that there was an earlier boat going which had space so we swapped our tickets and went on board. Was an interesting motor out to the seals – quite choppy seas and very windy – but, of course, we enjoyed it. We were happy to find shelter at the stern of the boat while everyone was squished into the bow for the best views LOL. But it meant we were able to chill a little and enjoy the sights of leaving the harbour behind including some seals inside the harbour. This is a stop on many circumnavigator’s route so we were looking around for international boats and one of the reasons why we had chosen this as our final stop because we had been told that it was stunningly beautiful. Anyway, will let the photos do the talking.

We arrived at the offshore seal colony and enjoyed their antics in and out of the water. The water was not very clear because of strong winds but, even so, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Upsettingly this seal colony is currently at risk because a number of dead seals have recently tested positive for rabies and they have been attacking surfers and other tourists along the coast. The only known case of a seal contracting rabies dates back to 1980 and was in Norway, so this is a terrifying incidence as they are believed to have become the first marine mammals in the world to experience an outbreak of rabies. There are an estimated two million Cape fur seals which live along the cost of southern Africa across dozens of countries. Very disturbing news indeed…

Back at the dock we were met by the wandering minstrels and enjoyed watching these old guys playing up to the audience. Then Richard decided to make friends with a local seal who had been found, trapped in fishing gear, by a local who now makes a living by feeding him fish and letting tourists get up close and personal for photos. Then we came across an old lady who had adopted one as a pup – so it was my turn to get up close! Was a lot of fun…. Afterwards we had a little meander around the market stalls set up throughout the harbour.

We then walked along the beach back towards town – rather than the hot and dusty road – to a ‘beach bar’ for a few hours to chill expecting feet in the sand sort of place. But it actually was a rather smart bistro just off the sand spit. Very busy (it was a Saturday after all) and we were allocated a table outside but in the shade (thankfully). We thoroughly enjoyed fish and chips and a few cold beers while we watched the world go by…..

As we were running low on drinking vouchers (or tipping vouchers LOL) we headed to the modern shopping mall and found an ATM (heavily guarded by armed security) and picked up supplies in Woolworths. We then started to walk back to the hotel with our goodies when the heavens opened….and then the thunderstorm started. Locals were going crazy and running around clearly quite threatened by this. We didn’t think much of it, to be honest, and carried on our way. Arriving back at the hotel we were surprised to see the staff hanging out the doors watching the lightning display. We just assumed that this was normal weather well, it turns out, that in this particular area thunderstorms are quite rare hence the reaction. Anyway, back to our room, and that is where we stayed chilling out with a glass of wine and watching movies.

Sunday morning we had another great breakfast and then headed out to explore the local market. We liked a few items but the only thing that really took our eye was a painting that was not going to travel well and was too expensive too….clearly the market holders here are used to tourists and priced accordingly. But it was fun to see all the different artisan creations on offer. Afterwards we headed out in a different direction (having previously checked with Francois which areas were safe as Hout Bay has two huge townships one on either side of town). The first picture is a very small part of one of the townships but the second picture is the more affluent part of town. Interestingly people that are born in the townships often remain there for life – even if they become relatively wealthy and successful – so within these areas you can find some relatively decent housing alongside shops. We were offered a township tour but decided that this was definitely not something that we were interested in.

We went back to the Mall to explore a bit more then ended up in the Coffee Collective enjoying their gardens and marvelling at the pieces of art made up of recycled coffee pods.

Then we headed to the English pub masquerading as a sports bar – and it had started drizzling again – so, as the football was on we thought we’d go and spend a few hours here. But, after having a single drink – we weren’t particularly comfortable. So returned and enjoyed drinks in our hotels gardens as the sun had come out again. Very nice.

Then we headed upstairs to our room to watch the football (COYS and, of course, we lost!). Never mind we then cleaned up and had another fantastic dinner in the restaurant. So a bit about the property – the Hout Bay Manor is a luxury boutique hotel, developed around a gorgeous restored manor house, originally built on Kronendal Estate in 1871. With its Colonial architecture, the exterior facade and courtyard gives you the feeling of stepping into a bygone era– and then as you walk through the front door you are transported into a delightful fusion of African, European and Asian cultures. The sometimes quirky, Afro-European interior decor makes you feel like you are in a contemporary art gallery, and features lots of extra-personal treats like help-yourself liquorice allsorts and marshmallows found in big glass jars in all the hallways. Absolutely stunning…so here are some photos for you to enjoy…..and yes even the public toilets were fancy LOL!

Monday was very sadly our last day in South Africa so we packed and enjoyed a leisurely late breakfast before then sitting in the hotel gardens – we had hoped for some pool time but it was a little ‘public’ as it was overlooked by the restaurant patio and was completely in the shade. Although boiling hot in the sun it was actually quite chilly out of it…. So we just sat in the gardens reading books and enjoyed our last few hours.

We had a late checkout at 2pm so got ourselves ready and went downstairs to pay our bill – and were surprised by little gifts. Such a great place and such lovely people…. We then took ourselves outside and waited for Francois who, as always, arrived punctually at 2.30 pm to take us to the airport for our 6.40 pm flight to London where we said our sad farewells – Francois and his family had looked after us so well throughout our trip. Anyone interested in following in our shoes we highly recommend this company – they operate as Jarat Tours (www.jarattours.co.za).

Check in was very efficient and quick – although immigration and security was pretty slow and unfriendly again sigh…. We then walked towards our gate – doing a bit of shopping on the way LOL – to wait for our flight. We had a toastie whilst waiting and then, suddenly, it was time to depart. It was completely chaotic as they kept moving the mobile airport barrier lines around so everybody sort of hung around in the middle near the gate entrance waiting for their group to be called as they were not sure whether to take the left or right-handed lines. Luckily we were travelling premium economy so ours were obvious but the economy people were being moved all over the place so felt quite sorry for them, especially the ones with small tired toddlers…..

And finally, we were boarded, we took our seats and settled in for the long flight home. This had been a holiday of a lifetime and it completely blew us away at every turn – it was so much better than we had expected – just fantastic. Again kudos to Hayes and Jarvis who had helped put together our personalised private itinerary.

So that brings us to the end of the blogs for now. I’m not advised to fly post-operatively until middle of November so we are planning a return to Australia at the end of the year and are hoping to be in Sydney for New Year’s Eve and to see both family and friends across the country. So another big adventure to come and looking forward to that… I’m in full ideas mode right now LOL.

So bye for now and see you all again later in the year.

Jan

Tuesday 23 April we were up at the crack of dawn for our 6.45 am transfer to Cape Town airport. Francois was punctual and, with a hotel takeaway breakfast in hand, we took off to the airport. Having said farewell to Francois we got through the check in process very quickly. We then sat and ate our breakfast as we knew that food / drinks would not be allowed through security (as this was an international security check this time). We proceeded to immigration to depart South Africa but there was only one desk open (manned by a very surly woman) so it was a long queue and we were very grateful that we had plenty of time. Finally we were through (phew!) and walked through the terminal to find our departure gate.

Boarding the flight we were pleasantly surprised by the size of the seats, the only downside was the huge crowd of Turkish women travelling together who were completely over-excited, very noisy and their single tour guide was clearly struggling to keep them all in check LOL. Sadly for us we were positioned right in the middle of this group. The flight took off on time and we settled in – the food offering was good and they even offered wine so that was a bonus! We landed at Victoria Falls Airport and were met with this huge queue snaking for miles and, to top it off, it was very hot with no air conditioning. We didn’t understand why the people were moving so slowly until we came across an official who was monitoring the queue and who then handed us two documents to fill in for our individual Zimbabwe visas. I had checked online but these documents were not available online so we had to suck it up and try to complete them manually as we snaked through the queue. Not the easiest task when juggling hand luggage too! At the end of the line, our documents were checked and we were sent to a visa desk. I had the US $55 each ready in small change (as instructed by our SA concierge) and we ended up behind the Turkish women who continued to cause chaos. We chatted to a lone elderly American lady in front of us who had missed her internal US flights so was now joining her tour group in Zimbabwe rather than Cape Town. We felt quite sorry for her as she was clearly exhausted and a bit discombobulated. She was next in line and I was surprised that they only charged her $30 for her visa. Then it was our turn, and we were charged the expected $55 each. Checking this out later it seems that Americans, Australians and New Zealanders get charged $30; UK and Irish $55; Canadians $75. Very curious pricing structure ?!?

By now pretty hot and bothered, we were pleased to see our bags waiting for us near the carousel so we headed towards the exit where we were met by our driver. As we left the airport building we were treated to a tribal dancing group welcome. Great introduction!

In our private minibus (thankfully with air conditioning) we headed towards our hotel the Ilala Lodge Hotel which was actually located within the Victoria Falls settlement.

We arrived, were welcomed by a refreshing cold drink, checked in and headed to our room. We felt like we had stepped back in time by the old colonial feel of the place but it had a lot of charm. Our room was huge with a great bathroom and balcony overlooking the gardens / bush and, as a gift, our SA concierge had organised a cold bottle of bubbly to be waiting for us. Very nice! We spotted some monkeys straight away outside so knew to keep our balcony door shut at all times LOL. They can certainly wreck havoc if they get into your room…. This hotel had a bit of a resort feel to it with a couple of pools and a nice pool-side bar so we were looking forward to relaxing a bit too after such a busy schedule up to this point.

But that had to wait as we quickly unpacked for the time we were going to be here – put our valuables away in the safe – and headed out to be met by another driver who was going to take us to see the Victoria Falls, by helicopter! We checked in at the little shack servicing the landing pads and waited our turn. There were two helicopters doing the loop over the Falls so we weren’t sure whether we would get put in with others so were absolutely delighted when it was our turn and it was just us. Richard sat in the co-pilot seat and I sat in the back with fantastic views. OMG what an experience, an absolute thrill. We loved it!

By the time we were returned to our hotel we were pretty tired as it had been a very long day. So we sat at the bar, had a snack and a bottle of wine talking about our day, before retiring to bed…..

Wednesday we had a leisurely start and our first breakfast experience – which was a great buffet supplemented by a full hot a la carte offering. Initially we sat outside on the terrace but were bothered by wasps so moved inside for the rest of the service. It was absolutely fantastic!

At 10.00 am we were picked up again to be taken to Victoria Falls National Park where we were booked on a private walking tour. We were given waterproofs and had hats so were ready for every eventuality. So a bit about Victoria Falls – we were on the Zimbabwe side so our walking path came to an end at the Victoria Bridge (and no we didn’t see anybody bungee jumping) as we had no plans on crossing into Zambia. We were there in ‘high water season’ but the Falls were only operating at around 50% strength according to our guide because the rains had failed earlier in the year. A few facts – the falls are a World Heritage Site and the largest on earth. They were discovered by Livingstone 1855 (hence the statue) and they are 1708m wide (5604 ft) by 108m high (354 ft). When running at full capacity over 17 cubic metres or 481,386 cubic feet fall over the edge per minute. What an amazing natural place! The noise of the falls was spectacular – sounding like thunder at times – and we experienced regular cold showers from the mist soaking us as we got a bit close to the edge hence the dishevelled look. We both thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience…

We asked the driver about wandering the town and he asked what did we need? I said I wanted to go to the chemist (still struggling on and off with an upset stomach and getting low on the medication front) so he took us there as he could see that the heat and humidity had us flagging a bit at this stage. Managed to buy 20 Imodium tablets for $2 over the counter – what a bargain! Back at the hotel we decided it was now time to relax….so went to our room…got ready…and retired to the pool for the rest of the day. While we were there we saw an elephant family visit the waterhole and some more baboons hanging around. Lots and lots of birdlife too. Fantastic! We spent the afternoon there and did a bit of bobbing in the pool too with a glass of wine, of course, LOL.

The sun was very intense so we spent most of our time in the shade apart from time spent in the bubbling pool – afterwards we relaxed on our balcony watching the wildlife below. The baboons were out playing on the grass so Richard was very naughty and threw over chocolate muffins – have to say they seemed to enjoy them LOL. We also spotted some other wildlife and was pleased that we didn’t have a ground floor room at this stage!

We then had a snooze before getting ready to go for dinner. We sat outside on the dining veranda and tucked into three courses which was really good. Then it was time to call it a day so headed back to our room for a final glass before bed.

Thursday morning we had another leisurely start and went out to the local artisan markets for a wander around. We did manage to come back with some beautiful wooden bowls which weren’t on the list of things to get….but always nice to support the locals a bit. We enjoyed haggling with them too…

After shopping we went back to the pool for a few hours before getting ready to go out for a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi river. We were picked up at 5pm by the tour operator and driven off to meet the boat, Malachite. We were greeted by a cold towel on arrival, a cocktail and then taken upstairs to take our seats. We were able to get seats on the rail and nobody else joined us so we had a good time enjoying the sights of the upmarket lodges that line the water combined with the regular canapes being delivered and, of course, more drinks LOL.

Then the sun started dipping, the river got busy, and we were treated to the most fantastic sunset over the water. Now we are obviously used to watery sunsets but this was just spectacular. After the sun had sunk below the horizon we were taken downstairs to our allocated dinner table and were served with our meal (which we had selected earlier). There were two chefs cooking on the boat in the tiniest galley you had ever seen. The food they turned out was absolutely fantastic and way beyond our expectations. Another amazing experience…just wow!

Back at the hotel we had some wine in the bar and, as the only guests, got chatting to the bartenders to realise that they were watching an English premier league football match on the phone (Brighton & Hove Albion -v- Manchester City). So we chatted about soccer with them for a while before heading to our room saying our sad farewells as we were leaving the following morning. Tourists tend to come here for a day or so to do the Falls and then move on – very few people stayed here as long as we did. Shame, actually, as it had such a lot to offer over and above the excursions.

Friday morning we got up reasonably early, had some breakfast, and then packed ready for our 10.30 am pick up to the airport. We had an interesting drive to the airport – the (new) driver telling us that he wanted to come to England as he was an experienced farmer and he thought that we might need someone to look after our cows for us! We explained that you have to get a work permit to come to the UK and didn’t think that farming would count as an approved profession for visa purposes. He really thought that a few months work in the UK would be enough to set himself up at home for life. Very sad and quite deluded. Zimbabwe is very poor but they have their governments to blame for that…and I’ll leave it there rather than comment on the politics that had brought them to this state. Of course Richard felt sorry for the guy so his tip was larger than normal….

So that ends this part of our African adventure, please come back soon for the final chapter.

Bye for now. Jan