Marg and Rob Humphrey

MargAndRob

Marg and Rob Humphrey

Marg and Rob purchased a Horizon Wattle (Mercedes Sprinter) motorhome built by Ballina Campers and planned to circumnavigate Australia over the following couple of years, collecting it just after Rob retired in May 2011.
The couple of years grew out to over 4 years during which time we travelled from Brisbane to Perth return accross the Nullarbor both ways in 2011; in 2012 we travelled various places on the East Coast of Australia. The highlight of the year was our October November trip to Port Douglas which included the total eclipse of the sun. 2013 saw us do a 'Lap' or 'Trip around the block' as it is often called, circumnavigating Australia and then in 2014 we travelled to Tasmania in Feb and March, and then followed with another visit to our family in Perth including the Murray River and WA Goldfields and spending Christmas with our family in Perth and camping in Cape Le Grand National Park. Our final trip in 2015 was to Central Queensland with the highlight being a few days in Carnarvon Gorge.
We decided to advertise the motorhome for sale after we returned from Carnarvon Gorge, and it was sold for cash within 48 hours of publishing the ad.
A real change of pace followed in October 2015 with a 10 day P & O cruise to PNG.
What is next? Our next blog will introduce you to Sporty and CC. Just be patient and all will be revealed shortly.



Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Airlie Beach September 5th 2019

The next section of our journey is to sail from Darwin to Airlie Beach in Queensland. We will sail across the Gulf of Carpentaria and south of Papua New Guinea. At the closest point between PNG and Australia is a cluster of small islands, Thursday Island being probably one of the best know, but not the largest. Prince of Wales Island is the largest, but our cruise will pass a number of the Torres Straight islands including St Joseph's and Kiriri (Hammond) Islands. It takes a couple of days to come around the top of the Northern Territory and cross the Gulf of Carpentaria. Unlike our flight to Singapore, this was calm sailing all the way as Pacific Dawn is actually a wonderfully stable ship even with winds and currents pushing her around. The top of ... read more
Navigation Map on CC TV
Navigation Map on CC TV
The Northern Islands

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Darwin » City of Darwin August 31st 2019

Having left Komodo Island, we had more sea days as we cruised east to Darwin, our next port of call. We were to arrive around 4.00pm, but we were delayed as another vessel was berthed at our wharf. There are many things that happen along the way while at sea, most are enjoyable and entertaining, but for some, a perfectly good cruise can turn into a nightmare. This cruise was no different. One passenger took very seriously ill about 7 hours after departure from Singapore. Another tripped on the deck and broke an arm. Closer to Darwin, another passenger took ill and the care flight helicopter met Pacific Dawn at sea to winch up a patient and take them to Darwin's Hospital. The evacuation is a slow and precise flight process in co-ordination with the ship's ... read more
Pacific Dawn all lit up
Rescue at sea
Rescue at sea

Asia » Indonesia » Komodo August 29th 2019

If there was a reason to take this cruise, it was the unique wild life of Komodo Island. The Dawn was quite late leaving Bali due to the late return of one of the tours. The Captain apologised and expected to maybe peg back half of that time but having us a little late at Komodo Island. As it it happened, the southern leg was good sailing and the total time was made up. That was until the ship turned and approached the channel into Komodo Island. There was a huge outbound current as evidenced on my cell phone photo with many upwellings showing the contrary conditions. We lost about half an hour due to this current. Before travelling, I had looked at landscape photos of Komodo Island to gauge if I would be fit enough ... read more
Komodo Island
Komodo Island
Komodo Island

Asia » Indonesia » Bali August 28th 2019

Why is it that so many people regularly cruise around Asia and the Pacific on P&O? Our experience is that there is consistently friendly service from the crew. This was certainly our experience on this cruise again. There are so many activities for anyone and everyone to find something quite stimulating. A great variety of music, comedians, magicians, lectures, trivia, deck & outdoor activities, dress up activities, and food! It was interesting to see how much redecoration had taken place since our cruise to Vanuatu. There was much new carpet in the public areas, but you had to have a sharp eye to pick the changes. generally the same colour mix, but with subtlety different patterns. I had images on my mobile phone of the last cruise, and we could see those changes. Most would not ... read more
Gary Starr on stage
Anchored at Bali
Anchored at Bali

Asia » Singapore » Singapore Harbour August 25th 2019

Sunday morning, we were up early having planned with Mary to do the Sentosa Island cable car before boarding the ship. Marg and I went to a beaut little bakery (Vietnamese?) just behind the Lavender MRT Station. We had sampled lots of their fine food over the past two days. Then, into a cab from the hotel to the starting point for the journey, likely to take about an hour return. We struck a good taxi driver again who pointed out many historical buildings as we wound our way across the central area of Singapore. Once again, $9.00 was a cheap fare for the three of us. Once onto the cable car, we had great views of Singapore Harbour, hundreds of freight ships at anchor, interesting buildings, and as expected our first look at the Pacific ... read more
Sentosa Cable Car
Sentosa Cable Car
Sentosa Cable Car

Asia » Singapore » Jurong West August 24th 2019

Not only did we meet up with David and Mary in Singapore, but Julia and Eric, mutual friends who also did a last minute booking on the same cruise. For the Saturday, we talked about various things to do, and finally settled on the Jurong Bird Park. I had not heard of this amazing place until recently, and was surprised to learn that it has been operating for about 90 years. From the Hotel Boss, we were able to get a people mover to take all 6 of us out to the bird park for $32.00 This was good value financially, but also the driver talked about so many interesting things about life in Singapore, the journey flew past in no time. We arrived at the park just in time for the Flying Bird Show. We ... read more
Jurong Bird Park
Jurong Bir Park
Jurong Bird Park

Asia » Singapore » Singapore Harbour August 23rd 2019

Early afternoon we met up with Mary and David in the hotel foyer, and planned a trip to the Gardens by the Bay for the afternoon and evening. This would introduce us to the MRT system in Singapore which is both quite cheap and very frequent and useful. Getting on at Lavender Station, we were amazed at the politeness of the locals - 4 seniors get on and immediately 4 seats were vacated for us. After a quick change of trains, we were soon at the Bayside and, walking through a rather long concourse, arrived outside the gardens. One thing we notice is that there are no seats for the public in the stations or on concourses between services. So the locals sit on the floors. Seniors can get down should they choose. However, based on ... read more
Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the Bay

Asia » Singapore » Changi August 22nd 2019

Our travel friends Mary and David had planned to do a P & O relocation cruise Singapore to Brisbane and invited Marg and I to travel with them. However, I (Rob) had a bowel cancer screening test that was too close to the departure date to risk a booking. The good news was that the report cam back no pullups, no cancer, all clear. Having contacted a local cruise specialist agent, I found we were able to get a reasonable cabin right at the last minute. Several attempts to get accommodation and flight details from David proved evasive and fruitless, so in the end I just had to ask more directly advising that we had been able to book a two berth cabin. They had booked a Singapore Airline flight, but we got a great deal ... read more
Emirates 777ER
Final Approch
Orchids in the arrivals hall.

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Nelson Bay April 21st 2018

t is a long time since we posted a blog. We have mostly been at home due to family and medical issues, but have taken a three week break top visit family in NSW and then wander home to Brisbane along the mid north coast. We stayed for a week at Birubi Bach, Anna Bay initially. This is a very popular destination with surfing, swimming, sand tobogganing and camel rides through the dunes. As it happened, we had a short but quite severe storm after sunset that partially destroyed our wind out awning having torn the vinyl roof. A mere 5 minutes of destruction that damaged our van, the one parked adjacent to us (more severely than ours) and ripped a large oak tree at the entrance to the caravan park in half blocking the road. ... read more
13 ANZAC Memorial Walk
03 Birubi Beach
01 Birubi Beach

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Hervey Bay August 30th 2016

rWe have been visiting Hervey Bay off and on for over 20 years and have been amazed at its growth. Both the local population has grown, as has the tourist trade. The city has over 50,000 population, and at anytime, this sheltered bay attracts many visitors. Number one attraction during August to October is whale watching. The Southern Hump Back Whales migrate from Antarctic waters north as far as New Guinea for the birth of their young, and then head south from August. The north bound migration uses currents that by pass Hervey bay, where as the currents on the south bound leg bring these not so beautiful mammals into the bay. Mothers and their young seem to spend more time as they fatten up the young before heading into icy waters. The babies put on ... read more
Boys Toys - Hervey Bay Marina
Heading east to Fraser Island
Fraser fore shore




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