Blimey Pimey , wow wow wow, fantabuloso and that's it in a nut shell!!!. this is absolutely an iconic city. It probably ranks pretty high on my list of the most “to be seen cities” together with Venice, Shanghi and Rio not that I am name dropping you understand. It is truly lovely and what is more my hotel window overlooks the opera house so I wake up to a harbour view dominated by that love it or hate it architecture.. It is a city to drink up the atmosphere , mingle with the crowds walk along the famous circular keys and have some vino in the sun looking at the bridge and the opera house - and of course we did that several times!!!! It is a sight of which I just cannot get enough ... read more

Getting from Fraser Island to Noosa just a 45 minute ferry ride and 2 hours drive away was the first little blip in the itinerary.Nothing had been arranged and nothing seemed to coordinate. The ferry arrived after the greyhound bus had left and the only other way was to take bus /taxi to the train station in a different small town from the ferry port, train it to another town, and then a further bus , it would have taken all day for 200 kms in the heat- not good. So the resort booked me a taxi at vast expense and I mean vast expense , I could have hired a car for a week on what it was going to cost! Every day life here is very expensive food, travel, drink eating out etc .I ... read more

Jules and Sue arrived and we have had a splendid time mostly eating, drinking, talking, and keeping cool in the pool! They had a day in the rain and found the botanical gardens and an art gallery while i had a day trip to the rain forest . We Ventured into Cairns which is a city of around 140,000, it is not as pretty as port Douglas but I liked it , the night markets sell everything and there is an abundance of restaurants to choose from along the esplanade . It is here in the late afternoon that the fit and not so fit take their exercise walking running jogging or cycling its up to you. It is in this part of town that the locals and tourists share their environment with nature,crabs , migrating ... read more

Having travelled a third of the way northwards along Australia's mighty west coast, the southwest beckoned , but before that I had a grand weekend catching up with my second cousin Jon and his wife Penny and with friends of Lesley, Con and Liz. Both couples were very generous of their time and company and we spent happy hours talking about all sorts. It was great to renew relationships and make new ones so thank you guys for your generosity and I look forward to seeing you in my neck of the woods when you next make it across the oceans and entertaining you !. I spent Monday sipping wine for most of the day and felt rather unwell the next! I took a tour to the wineries in Swan valley just 20 minutes from Perth ... read more

Arrived in Perth in the early hours of last Friday morning , it is now sunday- well it was when I first posted this - it is now tuesday 24th !.I had huge problems uploading the photos but have now managed to do it in the wilds of the australian outback (9 For the next blog!) So much has happened between then and now that it seems more like weeks than days! The weather is hotting up after some unseasonable cool and rainy bits in perth Perth was founded on the lovely Swan River ( named because of the black swans nesting there) in 1829 by captain James sterling who thought the land was fertile and worth having for the Empire, while the French and the Dutch before him didnt ! The town of Feemantle some ... read more