So we are finally back on line and recovered from the flight over. It was a good flight but oh so long because we spent an additional 1 hour and 40 mins in the plane waiting to take off from Hong Kong airport. The pilot said it was because the Chinese were controlling the airspace but we think it was just a busy airport. Everyone on the plane was beside themselves by the time we finally left Hong Kong still facing another 12 hours in the plane. We said goodbye to Carla and Brent after landing at Heathrow – they went to get a hire car and were heading for Dover. We waited another 5 hours for our 35 minute flight to Dublin where we collected our hire car, which ended up being an i40 Hyundai. ... read more

Final Blog Update 18 August 2011 Wednesday -27 July Day Trip to the Orkney Islands Today we set out early at 6.30am from our B&B in Tain to drive to the highest point north in mainland UK called John o Groats. Even though it was only about 100 miles, the road was narrow, steep and windy and the scenery was really beautiful in the bright, morning sunshine. The unusually sunny morning made the views even nicer. We followed the cliff tops of Scotland all the way north, looking out over the North Sea. We could see three oil rig platforms in the distance. We arrived at John o Groats about 8.30am for a 9 am ferry departure. The little harbour was quite dissappointing to look at – not much at all and the only castle on ... read more

Monday 27 June 2011 We finally made it to the little village of Stoke-by-Clare where we are staying at Hope Cottage (only 260 years old). Our trip started with a delay when the plane coming from South Africa to Sydney was held up because of problems with the volcanic ash coming from the South American volcano. Graham was loading the luggage into the car to head to the Canberra airport when Qantas rang to tell us we had been booked on a 5pm flight to Sydney because the Sydney London flight had been delayed by about 3 hours. Of course there was nothing left in our fridge and the heating had been turned off so we headed to our neighbours house where Noel and Halina looked after us with 5 star accommodation and food for the ... read more