Geo: -37.1538, 142.512Victoria: Thursday 7th Tower Hill to Thursday !4th at Halls Gap in the GrampiansWe continued along the coast visiting the 12 Apostles, London Bridge etc, all features produced by the weathering of the limestone cliffs. It is an interesting drive, so much so that one day we only managed to travel 50 miles instead of the 100 we had planned. En route we visited an artisan cheesery (we tasted 9 cheeses and came away with 2 - delicious) and then a chocolate maker. Surprisingly (and to those who know we are chocoholics) that visit was most disappointing as they seemed to put liquorice in everything. At Mait's Rest we did a walk through bush consisting of a mix of plants but predominately tall tree ferns, very different from the Australian bush I had expected.Then ... read more

Geo: 25.7024, 32.6421At last Swanning around is finally on the move again! As most of you know our plans to set off to Costa Rica with Paul and Sheila were blown off course as Jim had a medical problem. We felt very guilty about letting them down but they seem to be having a great time and have posted some fantastic pictures on their blog. It has only whetted our appetite to visit Costa Rica even more, so we hope to get there next autumn, but unfortunately without Paul & Sheila.Thankfully Jim's operation seems to have been very successful, and although still tiring quickly,he is fine. We are so grateful to Paul and Angela whose barn we were staying in, and who made us feel at home and reassured us that we could stay as long ... read more

Geo: 21.0243, 105.855Hoi An is the place we liked most in Vietnam. A small town with an unspoiled old quarter, it is touristy but in a gentle way. We stayed four nights but would have spent more time if there had not been other areas to visit. The old buildings, including houses, temples, Chinese assembly halls (used for worship and business) and museums are all about two hundred years old, built when Hoi An was a prosperous trading centre before the river silted up. They can all be visited on a multi ticket but we also went to a house that has remained independent. The owner, a retired maths teacher of 69 showed us around and then sat and talked to us about his family, past and present, the house and the changes taking place in ... read more

Geo: 11.5588, 104.917The trip across from Thailand to Cambodia proved simpler than the guide books suggest. The train to the town near the Thai border, (there are only 2 each day), took six hours but cost only £1. Then we had to take a tuk-tuk to the border itself, stopping en route to collect a Cambodian visa from the Consulate office. Of course that meant filling in a form and attaching a photograph but I noticed while it was being processed that on the floor at the back of the office were stacks of hundreds of such completed forms – just resting there as if they had no homes to go to. So perhaps our forms will spend their lives there, but at least we were given a visa. Then it was a quick march through ... read more

Geo: 9.53567, 99.9357Not blogged (if there is such a verb) for a while as we have been lazing about on beaches most of the time. We recovered from Semporna by relaxing at The Beach House Hostel in Koto Kinabalu. There was plenty of communal space and our room was simple but clean and spacious. As it was at the beach away from the town it gave us a different perspective of KK. It seemed to be used frequently by an organisation arranging school trips, that include some voluntary work. The first school party was from Ilfracombe, and they were quite young. They had expected to travel out to an island where the 'reward' for their efforts was to be the opportunity to learn to dive. However, their travel company seemed to have booked them on to ... read more