After our trip to Darwin last year, we have been confined to Adelaide and with no good news on the horizon about overseas trips we decided to go "overseas" in Australia. Thus a holiday in Tasmania seemed attractive. I had driven around the island in 1965 during May school holidays with my parents and had only been back to Hobart for a weekend since. Fletcher has visited many times but mainly for Athletics meets in Hobart and Launceston, so a thorough exploration seemed necessary. We have planned two weeks, hiring a car but booking ahead for accommodation and some special sightseeing trips. Thanks to Claire at Top Deck Travel, this was organised superbly. Fortunately, Jetstar has a direct Adelaide-Hobart flight so no transitioning through Tullamarine. We left Adelaide airport at 5-30pm on the 15th. The only ... read more

Lucy, Rowan , Sam and Tracey had bought us a trip out to the Tiwi Islands as my birthday and Fletcher's Father's Day present. This was planned for Friday morning. I was sure that the ferry left at 8-30am so we planned to have a taxi collect us from the hotel at 8 and it was only a 5 minute drive to Cullen Bay where the terminal is situated. We went down to the lobby at 7-55 and the taxi was waiting so we set out. I got out the ticket to check and suddenly read that the departure time was 8am! We arrived at the Terminal about 8-02 and while Fletcher paid the taxi driver I ran up the steps and along the quay and could see the ferry just pulling out from the dock. ... read more

After another magnificent lunch we arrived into Alice Springs at 1pm. There are excursions included in the fare and we had opted for the Alice Explorer. There was another out to Simpson's Gap but Ken and Edna had taken us there last year. We were the second to last group off the train and had to wear masks for about 100 metres until we had given our border entry forms to the police on the platform. Then it was into the bus and off. Our driver was very glad to see us as this was his first job for four months.We drove around the town and our first stop was at a Reptile Park. This turned out to be suprisingly good ad the presenter was an enthusiast who knew his stuff. Inside there were many, various ... read more

Monday morning we relaxed in the hotel. About 1pm we requisitioned a car to take us out to the Torch hotel as we wanted to visit the Villagio Mall which is next to the Stadium and the Torch. We had a quick look inside the Torch which is an amazing building, then walked through the adjoining tunnel that connects to the shopping centre. This place is huge!! It is designed to mimic an Italian landscape with paintings of Italian type houses, a ceiling painted as a sky and a canal on which travel gondolas! We went first to an area called Gondolandia. This is a theme park aimed at children with rides, rollercoasters and plenty of electronic games. It is vast. We explored further and looked into one wing which contained all the expensive shops such ... read more

Wednesday and Thursday were Congress days. This is the four yearly meeting where new elections take place and issues are debated by delegates from all the member countries. Athletics has more member countries than any other sport in the world. Fletcher is an Area Delegate but this year was also asked to be a Scrutineer during the voting process. He was fully occupied on both days and started his mornings at 8am. While he was busy there was not much for me to do, especially here. In former years the local organising committee would offer day trips for "Accompanying Persons" as we are designated. We visited the Great Wall in Beijing and the Kremlin in Moscow, but here there was nothing planned. So I spent the two days resting in the hotel as it was far ... read more