Hong Kong to York

We left Hong Kong at 23.00, and arrived in London at 05.30. All smooth as we got home via the train from Kings Cross.

Here is another shot of the urban density of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong 2

We took a ferry to one of the islands, had a meal and a stroll. Hong Kong was all I expected and a bit more really. Quite a place.

Hong Kong 1

Hong Kong was incredible from the word go, we took the train to the centre, then another train to our hotel in Sai Wan. Came out of the tube to see a narrow street between huge tall blocks of flats with a road flyover high above us and right between the buildings: pure Bladerunner. The receptionist at the hotel is great and she directs us to a place to eat that might [just might] be able to cater for vegetarians. She was right, we had a really good meal.

Melbourne to Hong Kong

We were up at 5 this morning to check in for our flight to Hong Kong. As with everywhere else with this trip it was all new to me. Took the flight which was with Cathay Pacific and was fine. We flew from Melbourne to Hong Kong, pretty much due north crossing the desert heart of Australia, passing over Alice Springs and Darwen. It was amazing looking at such a bleak arid landscape, a real eye-opener to the strange continent of Australia. I was the only one on the plane looking out at the desert. Cabin crew "you might want to shut the blind, there is no view". Me "there is".

Melbourne 4

Today we went on a wine, cheese and chocolate tour of the Yarra valley on a coach from Melbourne. Danielle organised it for us, and it was really good! We came away with a 20 year old port, a variety of chocolates for gifts and some vege crisps. We met some New Zealanders on the trip;
Me "A relative of mine walked from North Cape to Bluff, (the entire length of New Zealand) you might have heard of him, but you probably haven't, Reed."
She "AH Reed? the publisher, oh yes we've heard of him."
Me "The book is not that great, lots of cups of tea in schools and churches"
She "He came to my school when he was on his walk, and had a cup of tea with us".
This made my day. [part 1]

We got back to town then got a cab out to a hotel at the airport in readiness for an early start tomorrow. The driver is Turkish Cypriot now settled in Australia. We had a really interesting conversation all journey, he was an uplifting fellow. I mentioned that one of my favourite songs is Turkish, but I did not know who it was by. I play it on my phone, he Shazams it, tells me it is by Selda Bagcan then plays me some of her other big tunes. Technology bringing us together. This made my day [part 2]

Wine tasting at a winery in the Yarra Valley

Melbourne 3

The second day of the conference, another busy day for Danielle with her presentation which closes the whole event [over 700 delegates] to come.
I walked through the city towards St Kilda, and came across some Melbourne bike hire bikes, $3 a day. So I undocked one and set off on the coast route down to Black Rock. A great ride with views across the bay. At one stage I thought I was looking at an island in the bay, then realised it was actually an enormous container boat, huge beyond belief. I then followed a cycle lane up to another route that follows a creek and then the Yarra river all the way back to the city centre, where I docked the bike and walked to the hotel.

The bike (on the ground), the cyclepath, and Melbourne in the distance.

Melbourne 2

Danielle was at her conference all day so I walked up the Yarra River trail from the centre of the City, where I took this photo. The house in the middle distance looked amazingly unreal with the CBD behind it. I was surprised that it came through OK on the photo. I walked back on an old railway line along Park St, then down past the Zoo and the University [two sides of the same coin] and back to the city centre.
In the evening we were invited to a Japanese meal in a Tatami room with three other people from the conference. It was a great meal, and really good company.

Melbourne 1

We drove into Melbourne [a bit of a spaghetti of freeways and sliproads and roadworks], handed the van back then got a taxi to the hotel where we are staying for Danielle's conference. The taxi driver gave us the lowdown on all things Aussie Rules Football which was of some interest. The hotel was great and right in the city centre [or CBD as the Australians call it]. We had a quick whizz round the city, a south Indian vegetarian lunch, then Danielle got to work. I had a good walk around the city. It is a buzzing place, seems even better than Sydney on first acquaintance.

Coast 4

Another cold night, another beautiful morning. We first walked the Snowy River footpath through the woods and down to the lagoon. This was another well laid out path, we saw a Kangaroo in the woods on the way (I am getting a little used to them) and had a good walk. We drove on the same road towards Melbourne. We are listening to Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty which is set in Sydney Australia and is an absolutely brilliant book which gives us a lot to talk about. We arrived at Warrunga and stayed on another good site, walked into town to get some wine at Aldi then cooked our last meal using up all the bits.

Coast 3

Danielle on the beach

We set off from Tuross Head and drove south west on the highway that follows the coast but spends a lot of time inland parallelling the coast. It is a magnificent road and we had it pretty much to ourselves, traffic was at a minimum. We stopped in a little town and found the only place open for a coffee. At first the patron seemed a bit off-hand, but as seems to be the way in rural Australia, he soon opened up and talked about all sorts; the Aborigine rituals that took place in the area, the art that he has started to paint and so forth. We pushed on, and stopped at a rest-place deep in the forest. We followed a sign to a footpath that took us through and explained the rainforest. It was fantastic, a landscape that was new to me and really well described. We had it to ourselves. Eventually we dropped down to the coast at Marlo where the Snowy River reaches the sea. We found yet another really nice campsite, set up camp, then walked into the village and saw Pelicans at dusk on the estuary. We were cooking in the van, but to make our meal complete there was even a chippie fired up just by the campsite. Good chips too.

Coast 2

What a day. We were just about to leave the motel when our host offered us another night at half price. Yes. He also told us about a market at the local town that sounded good - paella, music, produce etc. So off we went and had a great time at the market buying honey [Danielle talking to the beekeeper in the jargon] merino socks [Me "are they from local sheep?". Bloke "well they come from Australia"] spinach, quiche and a vegan paella [stallholder "my daughter is vegan so I thought I'd have a go"].
Next we went to a sea water lagoon, we pulled up in the van and saw no one at all. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen and there was no one there on the most perfect day you could imagine, bright sun, warm, still. We had our picnic lunch then walked round the lake and saw Black Swans and Pelicans. I love Pelicans, and these were the first I had seen since the inland lakes of Ohrid and Struga in Macedonia, and Kastoria in Greece in 1984. They are the most magnificent of birds, and three were here just for us. Next we walked along the beach, not a soul in sight again, and finally to our motel where we cooked a wedding anniversary meal and polished off a bottle of finest Australian table wine.

Coast 1

We moved on through a wet and miserable Great Dividing Range until the skies cleared and a long long descent took us down to the ocean highway. We felt that we could do with a comfort night and so booked a motel down by the coast at Tuross, with beautiful bays and the mountains behind. Ate in a downhome Aussie pub. The food is fine, the beer is terrible.

The view from Tuross

The Tableland

The water pump had packed up in the van. We rang Sydney, within 10 minutes they had arranged for us to take the van round to a local garage. We had to wait another half hour, [complementary coffee and somewhere to sit] and it was fixed. Amazing.
So we set off with Priscilla Queen of the Desert [the GPS] who tried to take us under a 2.5 metre bridge [we are 3 metres high] which was totally unsigned save from a stencilled height on the bridge which luckily I saw. So we detoured around and saw a lot of trains in sidings, and then a roundhouse which was a rail museum. I was all for pushing on, but Danielle persuaded me to stop and look around. I am glad that we did. It is safe to say that we were the only guests that day, but we got a guided tour by a man who had worked all his life on the railways of New South Wales as a fireman on steam trains, and then on diesels. He was a great guide, and really brought the story alive for us. It felt a real privilege to hear him talk. This railcar in the photo was used as the "Paybus" once a month, when it would bring the men's wages to them out in the wilds of central Australia. It was raided once [crew killed, money lost] but carried on for many years. Later the same vehicle was used to transport the Queen on a royal visit in the 70s.

Blue Mountains 3

Freezing at night, warm in our van with the heater churning around. Headed into the Southern Tableland, sheep ranches, virtually no people and beautiful land. We had a great walk in the forest, more shy wallabies and some frankly scary massive parrots. We dropped down and down from the plateau to the Abercrombie River, crossing on a rickety wooden bridge, then climbing up again to finally arrive at Goulburn which has all the flavour of a mid-western town, one long main street, the vibe of an agricultural working town. Good campsite again, and a great Indian takeaway to boot.

Walking in forest, occasionally the light will shine through dense plantations and somehow bring that forbidding darkness to life.

Blue Mountains 2

A beautiful morning with clear cool mountain air and lovely blue skies. We got provisions in Blackheath then drove across the plateau to the Great Dividing Range where we had a couple of nice walks in the high forest. In one, all alone and away from everyone, we came face to face with our first marsupials. Having spoken to people we think they were Wallabies rather than Kangaroos, either way we were a little unsure how to react. I wouldn't say scared, but quite pleased when they chose to hop off into the woods. A pretty amazing sight. We drove past the Jerolan caves deep in the forest then climbed to Oberon, the highest township in the Blue Mountains. A real mountain town that seemed very American in atmosphere.

Blue Mountains 1

For our first day in the Blue Mountains we walked along the rim of the gorge beneath the Three Sisters then plunged down and along tracks through the wondrous forest before climbing back up to the rim up the Giants Staircase which was fun - 900 steps.
The Blue Mountains are actually a mountain plateau at around 1000 metres altitude with deep wide gorges working their way through the plateau. Hard to explain but great to experience. We then drove on to the next township of Blackheath and camped in the van at a site there.

Sydney 4

We started off with a run together down to Mrs McQuarrie's Chair then back through the parks. A bit of rain in the air. This was probably my first run for about a year, so well done Danielle for dragging me out. I enjoyed it.
We took a taxi to the terminal zone of the Airport with an amusing and somewhat worrying cabbie, "Bali, that's where I like to go. You're King there, you can do what you want". He took us to the depot where we picked up our campervan for our first ever campervan trip. The magnitude of our adventure was put in perspective somewhat by the Israeli family in front of us: they were hiring a van for four months and driving to Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwen then back down the east coast. The family of two parents and three boys under 10 did not look like they would fit in the van for one day, let alone 120. We wish them well.
Took us a while to work everything out, but I think we are getting there. Before sleeping in the van we had one last AirB&B treat in the Blue Mountains. A place called Frog Hollow which had a frog chorus at night and kookarburra and cockatoo in the morning.

Walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge - not something we fancied doing.

Sydney 3

We took the ferry to Manly then walked through forest, past beaches, and with views across the water, on the Manley-Spit Walkway. Then we got the bus back from Spit, a good day out.

Sydney 2

A Saturday in Sydney. First off we walked around the corner from our hotel to a great little breakfast place. Next we walked through parks all the way down through the botanic gardens to the waterfront. Next was Sydney Opera House, where we saw the matinee performance of Aida. A crazy over the top production which gave us plenty to talk about. The building, and the theatre itself are fantastic; great architecture, no doubt about it. After that we walked through the city and had a buffet supper at the top of the Sydney Tower, incredible view of the city. We were there one and a half full circles as the tower rotates at a rate of once and hour.

From left, we have the Sydney Tower, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge.

Sydney 1

Danielle was working on her first day in Sydney, moving around the city and catching up with various Charitable Foundations. We had time to get our bearings in the beautiful city and walk through the parks and neighbourhoods. It is a great great place to wander.

In the evening I walked down to meet Danielle in a great district with steps and narrow streets. Climbed some steps looked behind me, saw this cityscape.

Singapore to Australia

After the tropical climate of Singapore we hopped overnight on a Qantas flight to Sydney where it is effectively winter. The weather is great for us though; like a normal English summer really. This shot is from a pleasingly quiet Changi airport; free usb charging and wi-fi.
Singapore was fascinating and much more rewarding than we imagined it might be, a pretty good post-colonial success story.

Singapore 3

A really hot day had us struggling. Walked round Chinatown which was a bustling crowded antidote to the pedestrian friendly walk of yesterday.

This Hindu temple was a real respite; tea rooms [felt like a place you would get in India] incense burning at shrines, shade.

Singapore 2

Our first day walking around Singapore was a great day. Started off walking around to marina with incredible buildings all around. Looked round the Design Museum whilst there was a torrential storm for an hour, then carried on through the gardens and flower dome and super-trees. A pretty amazing experience for both of us. In the evening we ate at a restaurant in the National Gallery which was the best veggie food I have had for a long while. Great day.
This shot was taken in one of the malls.

Singapore 1

Danielle and I flew from Heathrow to Singapore. It was the first time either of us have been, and was a pretty mindblowing place to arrive at in the evening. This is the view from the top of our hotel. Looking forward to exploring!

Uncle Geoff 2

I always liked this shot of Uncle Geoff and Rowan at the village pond in Stratton Audley where Geoff farmed. It was taken in 2010.

Uncle Geoff

I only ever had one Uncle, my Mother's sister's husband Geoff. He died last week after having dementia for the last year or so. He was already ill when this photo was taken but I think you can see his humour and love of life clear enough. Rest in peace.

22nd Wedding Anniversary

En route from the Quaker Meeting House in St Martins Lane to Pegs Club in Covent Garden 22 years ago.

Cannonbury 2

One last shot from Cannonbury. 37 years since I moved in there.