Blogs from Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 19

Sorry folks, I forgot to include the croc picture. Cheers ... read more

From Saigon we headed across to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I had thought that one of the night buses in Vietnam was the bumpiest journey of my life (imagine being woken up as your whole body has left the bed you are laying on) but i was wrong. It was impossible to read as my body jolted relentlessly from side to side, with my arms also moving all over the place but in different directions to the rest of my body. A strange experience. We arrived in Phnom Penh expecting the worst as we had heard from other people that it wasn't the nicest of cities. Maybe because of this review we were pleasantly surprised. The Cambodian people were all very friendly and we spent the afternoon at the national museum and then walked down the ... read more

It was minus 4 in Canberra when I left last Monday morning but that did not worry me as I was heading for Darwin where I would be spending the week. The weather report was showing a ‘cool’ 30 degrees, was I looking forward to that? Caroline dropped me off at the airport early so that she could head straight to the office, and I had a couple of hours to kill, so grabbed a coffee and sat in the lounge, with newspaper. It truly was a beautiful day in Canberra, really sunny but to bl**dy cold for me, I do like the warmth in my bones. My flight was called, I had checked in the day before so I knew where I was sitting, by the window where I like to be. The flight time ... read more

After a few days in Darwin we flew to Gove to visit Ann and Bernie. It was great to catch up with them and as usual the hospitality was turned up to the max. They had managed to swap their ute for a mates Land Cruiser so that we could all explore the sights of Gove. Gove is solely a bauxite mining town (and also a life support system for the indigeneous population). In fact Rio Tinto just signed a new deal with the traditional land owners to the tune of $700 million, nice addition to your other benefits. There is a lot of red dust but also a lot of colour in the rocks and cliff faces around the coastline. We feasted on mud crab washed down with a few bubbles and John learnt how ... read more

On our way again This is the year of the big cruise. We are joining the Dawn Princess in Dubai, and cruising around the Mediterranean, then up to le Havre, ending the cruise in Dover. We are going to be a little on tenterhooks today with the Chilean ash cloud disrupting domestic flights to Melbourne. While currently all appears okay, we will need to decide whether to risk a flight to Melbourne, or find another way there. Aside from that, we are about as prepared as we are going to be, and just need pack the dinner suit and a few other odds and ends to be ready to go. ... read more