Tasmanian Devils....

Monday, we left Singapore in the early hours of the morning to complete our long haul to Australia. The flight to Melbourne took 8 hours. Then we had to connect with a flight to Hobart arriving there at 5pm.

Tuesday, we picked up a Mitsubishi Lancer and set off to Port Arthur. This was Australia’s most infamous penal settlement dating back to 1830. We visited the ruins of the Penitentiary, the Asylum the Hospital and the Solitary Cells where multi offending convicts would be left in a cell 6 foot square in total darkness for up to 3 months. We also had a cruise around the bay and saw Dead Island where those who perished were buried. The centre was closed in 1849. Our accommodation for the night was The Fox and Hounds a motel styled after an old English pub.

Highlight of the day: Our ground floor room faced the inlet from the sea, a lovely view to wake up to with the sun sparkling on the sea and surounded by tall eucalyptus trees.

Wednesday started bright and sunny but by noon, the rain had arrived. We called in at Sorell for supplies and had a late lunch by Spiky Bridge that had been built by convicts in 1840. Arriving in Bicheno, we settled into our room at Harvey Farm Lodge before visiting the Blowhole; we had seen this back in the Seventies.

Highlight of the day: was that we revisited the rocks by the Blowhole after dark to see the Fairy Penguins coming out from the sea and waddling up to their burrows in the bushes to feed their young. We saw more than twenty penguins passing within a couple of feet from us and we could hear their young crying out from their burrows to be fed.

Thursday morning, the sun streamed in at 6.00 am so we made an early start for the Freycinet Peninsula National Park. We did a bushwalk up to the lookout point above Wineglass Bay. (The advice was that the walk was not suitable for the elderly or the infirm. What an invitation!!). It was a hard walk, steep in places but after an hour, we reached the lookout and it was well worth the effort looking down on to a wide bay with pristine white sand and azure blue sea. We had camped there 45 years ago so very memorable. Walking through the bush, the scent from the eucalyptus trees was strong and being early spring, the wattle had bright yellow flowers. By noon, the temperature was up to about 20 degrees, very pleasant.

At the end of the walk, we were greeted by a very tame little wallaby. It was so cute.

Back in the car, we stopped off at Honeymoon Bay, Sleepy Bay and walked around the headland at Tourville Lighthouse where we saw another wallaby.

We drove back to Bicheno in the afternoon, to get more photos of the Blowhole, this time with blue sky! Then we headed across towards the main central highway leading north towards Launceston where we are staying at the Hideaway Boutique Hotel (formerly Fiona's B&B).

Highlight of the day: definitely the view of Wineglass Bay.

Singapore Blog

Blog Singapore
Come fly with me......
Australia here we come again, living the dream! Fiona kindly dropped us off at Heathrow Terminal 2 at 7.30 am on Wednesday 20th September. Our flight with Singapore Airlines (an A380-800 airbus) took off at 11.50 am. Our flightpath took us over Eastern Europe, across Afghanistan, Northern India and down over the Bay of Bengal, Thailand, Malaysia arriving in Singapore at 7.30 am Thursday morning. 13 hours was a l-o-n-g flight and not able to get much sleep. Par for the course, they say!
Our stopover hotel was the Peninsular Excelsior, very close to Clarke Quay in the centre of the city. With Singapore Airlines we were given a stopover voucher entitling us to free use of the Hopon Hopoff bus and entry into many of the delights Singapore has to offer.
Singapore is a very clean, vibrant city with much to see and the people are very friendly and helpful. However, like most cities, there is a lot of construction work taking place.
Our first visit on the itinerary was to the Botanical Gardens. It was amazing to see broad leaved European trees and plants sitting alongside much tropical vegetation. We even saw an African sausage tree. |The orchids were amazing with so many varieties. Interestingly in the Celebrity Garden all the small varieties were attributed to females eg Princess Diana and Angela Merkel while the larger blooms were dedicated to male celebs!
In the afternoon, we went on a river cruise, from Clarke Quay to Boat Quay and then Marina Bay where the Merlion (symbol of Singapore is a white lion with a mermaid’ tail) sits and the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel stands. Completed in 2010, it comprises of three very tall blocks on top of which is a boat shaped construction. We believe most of the F1 fraternity stayed there last week for the Grand Prix. We  saw the main stand, starting grid and pits and we criss crossed the circuit on our bus rides. 

Highlight of the day: the beautiful orchids.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Marina Bay Gardens built on reclaimed land. There are two domes: one is the Cloud Dome. Once inside one was greeted by a huge waterfall dropping from the top of the dome. We worked our way to the top which had vegetation typical of that  from the high mountain regions of the world. Following a tree top trail, we wended our way downwards through simulated different climatic regions, going through the crystal mountain and finally the Secret Garden of the Jungle floor. It was amazing. Underground, was a display with videos showing how ‘man’ is gradually destroying our planet by pollution, industrialisation and over farming. The next dome was dedicated to gardens of the various continents and was dominated by a huge display of pumpkins for the Harvest Festival. We made our way back to the hotel for an afternoon swim.
Then in the evening we took a shuttle bus to the Night Safari Park. It was an extremely busy place, but well organised chaos. We boarded an open tram and spent the next 45 minutes travelling through the park in the dark, seeing giraffes, elephants, rhino, hyenas, hippos, a white lion and a Malayan tiger amongst many other animals. 

Highlight of the day: The tree walk in the Cloud Dome.

This morning, Sunday, we went on the Singapore Flyer, a larger version of the London Eye. That was very interesting too seeing all the skyscrapers and different districts of Singapore.
So tonight, we find ourselves at Changi airport waiting for  the flight to Melbourne at 02.00 hrs ( 10 hrs flight). We will catch a connecting flight to Hobart around 4.00pm tomorrow. So we’ll catch up with the blog again in a day or two. Watch this space! 

Highlight of the day: Seeing Singapore from the top of the Flyer.

"Living the Dream"

We both turned seventy during this last year and with Sheila 'armed' with a new hip and raring to go, 2017 has definitely been our year for travelling and 'turning yesterday's dreams into tomorrow's memories'.

We began the year with a trip to Tenerife, followed in April with a lovely week with all the family in North Wales. At the end of May, we spent a week in Skiathos, Greece. In July, we sauntered down the Loire Valley in our motorhome and on to the Ile de Re where we enjoyed several jaunts a bicyclette with friends!  Not content with that, we had an unexpected bonus of a week in Luxembourg in August, camping at Valkenburg (Holland) and  at  Reisdorf on the banks of the River Sure, an idyllic location and perfect for more cycling.

So now to the main adventure of the year. On Wednesday 20th September, we will be flying with Singapore Airlines to Australia including a 3 night stopover in Singapore.

We have called this: 'Living the Dream - from Port Arthur to Cape Tribulation'.

Our first port of call will be Tasmania for a week, revisiting places that we first went to in the 70s. Then we fly to Melbourne staying with our friends for a few days before collecting our rental campervan whence we will head forth around Victoria. From the Grampians up to the Murray River we shall head over the Snowy Mountains to southern New South Wales and then northwards up the East Coast to Queensland and Cape Tribulation. Towards the end of November we will fly back to London via another stopover in  Singapore.

If you wish to,  please feel free to follow our progress in this blog which we will try to update as much as possible. Thank you. 

Sheila and Peter