In November Rodney and I flew right across Australia to the west coast, landing in Perth and meeting up with Caroline and Steve, who had flown over from Horsham in England, via her brother in Kuala Lumpur. It was a lovely trip, a short trip for us; only 11 nights spent in 4 different […]
“Everything is under control” Jorge Ndawa The flights to fly to Livingstone in Zambia were booked in October 2017. The ’Wildlife of Botswana’ tour with Bench Africa was also booked. Exciting! We checked the flights midweek. We got the packing done. We got a lift to the airport in plenty of time
There was no time to write about anything exciting….we were too busy skiing. But here’s a few photos of the beauty of Hakuba and some snow monkeys at Jigokudani, that we visited on a rainy ski day.
I didn’t get blogging on our travels around Vietnam. It was too hard when we were travelling with Kath and Terry; there was a lot of socialising to be done. But when it was just the two of us in SaPa, my notebook came out again and a little bit of scribbling started.
Colleen turned 60 and we all dressed in white….apart from the party girl who surprised us all in black. There were sailors and fairies, doctors and angels, Arabs and Romans, Greek goddesses and even the Ku Klux Clan. The Tooth Fairy, The White Pages, A White Out, The White House and White Lies were all there
The Blake’s 2017 ski trip took place in America, at a rather tumultuous time in American history. Trump was inaugurated as the new President on the very day we were flying over to the US of A from Australia. Our flight was delayed in Sydney by five hours, so it was midnight by the time we
At the very end of October Rodney flew up to Nepal with four good friends for another trek, this time in the Annapurna range. He completed a 10 day circular trek taking in part of the Annapurna base camp route via Ghandruk and then on to Khopra Ridge, returning via Ghorepani on part of the Annapurna
Today is the next day of the rest of your life And so it happened. We stepped out of Eileen The Campervan for the very last time. It was one of those important moments in life. One of those moments when you wonder if you have made the right decision, but tell yourself “of
Travel requires time and movement. We’ve got the movement, but have we got the time? We woke up on Friday morning to hear the alarming news that Britain had voted to leave Europe; let’s hope they can survive this decision. I’m finding it sad to think that there are so many people in Britain
Some of the best moments of our lives have happened while we’ve been travelling We popped Eileen in the car park and checked in to our friend, Maxime’s Le Parc Hotel in Obernai. We stayed here near the end of our first trip in Eileen, back in 2012 and in Bondi, in January, he
Yet another glorious day to be thankful Monday was one of those memorable days; both confusing and amazing. We left Camping Gaienhofen in Germany and drove into Switzerland to spend a couple of hours dawdling around Stein Am Rhein, a town full of beautifully painted buildings. When we strolled down to the edge of
Rain is definitely made of wet stuff Mid-morning, we left Austria and drove into Liechtenstein, another small principality tucked into a tiny corner of Europe. There were no guards on duty at the border controls, maybe they don’t work on Sundays, so we drove straight in. It rains there too and while we were
When you’re in a campervan wet weather is totally unwanted, a bit like finding a wet cowpat outside your campervan door. Not that this has happened to us and God forbid it ever does…… We left Natterersee and Innsbruck on Thursday morning and drove west along the Inn Valley to St Anton am Arlberg.
Life is definitely speeding up Goldenes Dachl is now a museum of everything about Emperor Maximillian I. We didn’t go in, but we rather liked the front porch; thought about putting one like it on the front of our house though it might be a little ostentatious in Naremburn…. We each purchased an ‘Innsbruck card’ and
Two small snails ‘hurried’ across our patio……. We were expecting rain on Saturday morning, but the clouds just hung gloomily in the sky, so mid-morning we set of into Cortina D’Ampezza. It was a lovely walk across flower-filled meadows to the picturesque town surrounded by the spectacularly dramatic Dolomites. We stayed for lunch and
Do a little happy dance. Do it today and smile On Wednesday night it wasn’t trains or terrible entertainment that kept us awake. Storms rumbled through constantly and at times the rain was hammering on the roof. Even though we knew we were going to leave San Marino in the morning, we hadn’t bothered
Life is more enjoyable when you have someone to share your stories with A couple of hours spent ambling around Peschici, a drive through Rodi Garganico, a drive around the Lago di Vareno and the Lago di Lesina completed our very enjoyable time in Puglia. Whether you want to call it Puglia or the
Some of the most amazing experiences in life happen when you’re travelling; when you leave the well-known and step into the unknown. Things will catch your attention, open your eyes and stir your mind. And hopefully the weather will be good……… Saturday heralded Rodney’s birthday, with a cooked breakfast, good showers and a farewell
If you want breakfast in bed, sleep in the kitchen …….…oh we are! The first town we drove through on Wednesday morning was thoroughly entertaining. Putignano, for us, was a chicane of jay-walking pedestrians, unexpected car doors opening, diagonally parked vehicles, some of them on zebra crossings and a few on junction corners, plus
Beguiling and bewitching, that’s a drawcard! It was a lovely drive west past endless Puglian dry stone walls enclosing ancient olive tree groves. Poppies and cornflowers were scattered through the grasses and the view of Ostuni looked fabulous in the hot morning sun. We drove through Cisternino and on to Locorotondo for Monday’s ‘morning meander’.
Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans I felt a little sad to leave our pitch at Fuscolaro, but we couldn’t stay there for ever, enjoying the good showers, the lovely beach and the peace and quiet; we had places to go and towns to see. We drove around
Up and down. East and West. Back and forth. It’s all in the art of travelling I loved waking to the sound of breaking waves and we had both become quite fond of our little spot of Paradise at Camping Paradise, so we cooked up a storm on Sunday morning, lazed on the
You will do foolish things in life, but make sure you do them with enthusiasm No more spectacular sights of the sun setting into the sea, but on Friday evening a full moon rose out of the ocean and created a lovely shimmering silver path across the sea to Eileen’s back window. A glimmer
Tu sei qui – you are here On Thursday morning, Etna’s peak was annoyingly covered in cloud. The grumbling had stopped, or at least we couldn’t hear it. On the road out of Nicolosi, the land was quarried on both sides and in between each quarry were huge mounds of solidified lava, interspersed with
Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted On another warm blue-sky day, we set off west to spend a couple of hours checking out the town we missed on our way east. The locals had told us that Noto was a ‘delightful little Baroque town’ and it proved to be just that, with gorgeous
Conversations and laughter Derek and Helen turned out to be Aussie-Poms, just like us, and they’re doing what we’re doing each year flying to England, picking up their campervan and nosing around Europe for months. They were two of life’s cheerful people, the sort who lift your day and leave you looking forward to
Stop, peer, look a bit puzzled, then smile and maybe even laugh “I’ve got it covered. If we go out to the bus stop just after 10am, we can’t possibly miss the 10:15 bus, or the 10:20 bus to the temples. After that there’s a half-hour wait”. We got there at 10:00am, along with
When all else fails, let off some steam We are definitely all tangled up in confusing weather. One day it is quite nice and the next day it’s pouring with rain. And the last time I checked, it is warmer and sunnier in autumn in Sydney AND in spring in Hertford. So what are
The element of surprise can often be wonderful. And sometimes not…… “Are we in Scotland or Sicily?” These were the first words Rodney uttered on Tuesday morning as the rain crashed down on Eileen’s roof and she swayed with every huge gust of wind. I peeked through the curtains and could see white horses
Sometimes the more you ponder, the more there is no real answer And on the last day of April on the coast of Calabria, we pulled out our swimmers and sat on the beach for a couple of hours soaking up the sun. We ate breakfast, lunch AND dinner outside and hoped that the winter
Blessed are the sunny wash days. “Don’t be silly”, I said. “That is far too far to drive in one day in Eileen”. “I’ll be tired, she’ll be tired, we’ll all be tired” But we did. 555 kilometres in all. On Tuesday. And all that time, the main thing we noticed was the number
Does the sun shine more brightly after rain? We left Camping Le Spere fairly early in the mist and rain, we knew it was going to be a very wriggly road down the Futa Pass to Florence, which it was. We then relied on the GPS to get us to, very new, Camping Firenze,
It is best to know what you are looking for, before you look for it. The drive south from Luzern was spectacular, really quite outstanding. Our first diversion was for Rodney to nose around Weggis for a while, to find the apartment that his family stayed at when he was only six years
Rodney loves the mountains, but I need a beach to make me truly happy, and I do understand that there will never be beaches with rolling surf anywhere up a mountain. But you can love a classic movie like The English Patient even if there isn’t a gorgeous actor like Jude Law in it, and
A good story needs an interesting life…… April 18th means we are in the second half of April, which is well into Spring and we would have thought it would be a bit warmer by now. So when I stepped outside early in the morning, I was a bit taken aback to find
When you have nothing else to do, do something. Four years ago we were campervan novices, but now we feel like seasoned veterans. That is until a policeman on a motorbike pulls you over and, rather dangerously, makes you back up the hard-shoulder of a freeway to the previous junction and asks you to
Drive, drive, drive your van gently to the sea Can travelling in Eileen get more glorious than this? We’re back on the road again and even in our fifth year, it still feels exciting. Our first night, actually make that two nights, were spent at the precariously sited Warren Campsite outside Folkestone. We were
So here we go, travelling from over here, to over there. Not sure where over there is, but at the end of this jaunt in Eileen, I guess we’ll find out. Just one Australian dollar can buy you an awful lot on a stopover from Sydney to London on Singapore Airlines. Yes, this
Life is definitely speeding up; every year seems to pass in a month and every month passes in a blink…………. It was a long, laboured journey from Sydney to Hakuba Goryu, very laboured. Thankyou Rosie for breaking us in gently with a lift to Sydney Airport and thankyou to American Express for the complimentary use
We spotted a Cambodian cookery book at Siem Reap airport: ‘From Spiders To Water Lilies – Creative Cambodian Cooking’. I didn’t buy a copy, only because I’m not sure if I would be able to source any fat spiders or fresh water lilies for the ingredients ….. And then it was all over, a
They’re everywhere in Asia. In Thailand, Laos Cambodia and we’ve also seen plenty of them in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong; sights and signs that make us chuckle, giggle, scratch our heads and even laugh out loud. It always adds to the joy of a journey, it always leaves a smile on our
When spending time at major sights around the world, the first day can seem like “Wow, amazing”. The second day is then “oh, this is quite interesting” and then the third can deteriorate into “Hmm, another lot of much the same” and then the whole experience can be dulled. So after having spent nearly
We had seen the Happy Painting Shop in Phnom Penh and Rodney had fallen in love with the brightness and happiness of the subjects. So when we wandered into the sister shop in Siem Reap, Rodney was ready to buy. The colourful pictures in our lounge have hung on the wall for 25 years
After nearly a month of travelling in Asia in a range of vehicles: bikes, taxis, tuk-tuks, an ancient Toyota Crown, metal open taxis, minibus, jumbos, buses, rót daang, and even an elephant, all in a variety of conditions and cleanliness (especially the elephant), it was then rather nice to be picked up and safely
The King Grand Boutique Hotel afforded us the tiniest, least ‘grand’ bedroom of this trip around Asia. I guess the operative word was ‘boutique’, not the word ‘grand’. The swimming pool in the lobby area and the swimming pool on the roof, were also, not grand at all, they were tiny; you couldn’t really
There we were sitting at a table outside a small restaurant in Phnom Penh, trying to have a conversation and waving away every street hawker who tried to peddle their wares. Even after all the times I’ve travelled in Asia, I still find it difficult to ignore, or say “no” to the constant stream
Wat Ounalom is the HQ of Buddhism in Cambodia. We expected big things, but discovered a muddle of buildings and temples spread over a whole block in Phnom Penh. The guidebook didn’t say much apart from the fact that there was an eyebrow hair, just one, belonging to Buddha, in one of the stupas.
Vientiane, the capitol of Laos……….. a curious place. The guide book said it was ‘languid to say the least’….? A friend told us that we really only needed to stay there for one night, but we had already booked for three. So we stayed for three nights and calmly looked for places of interest
The town of Luang Prabang, or at least the bits of the old town that we walked around, came as a pleasant surprise in Asia. There were real pavements, which made it easier to walk around and look at things, other than your feet. Constantly avoiding mud, puddles, lumps of concrete, drain holes, bits