Freemantle

Had a very nice day in Freemantle, spent with Annette and Peter. They met us at the ship, then coffee in Freo, a drive to Kings park and then back to Freo for lunch. We had not seen them since 2009, so we were thrilled to spend time with them - thank you.

Survived the Storm

Well, we are now anchored off Esperance - sun shining and a lot calmer this morning. We have heard that Perth took a battering last night. Have not heard when we will be moving on. We are looking forward to catching up with Annette and Peter in Freemantle. A pic of the view from our balcony yesterday . 

The First Week

Well after boarding at Sydney we found our cabin and found that our bags were delivered very quickly. It was decided that the "domestic duties" ( unpacking) could wait and after lunch we went on deck to enjoy the Sailaway through Sydney Harbour - as beautiful as I remembered.

Two days and we embarked in Melbourne - meeting Megan for coffee, then Liz and Leanne for lunch. The next night was a bit rough and Peter came down with his first bout of seasickness.

He had recovered by Adelaide and once we docked we were met by another friend - again a lovely lunch and time to catch up.

We we're then told bad weather was expected , so a change of plans - full steam ahead for Esperance , where we will anchor to hopefully wait out the storm.  We now expect to arrive in Freemantle 1 day later. Unfortunately Colombo has been cancelled, and we will go straight to Dubai from Frmantle.

Gale force winds expected, so hope Peter will be ok.

2016 World Cruise

Well, we only have two days and we are leaving on our next adventure. After much deliberation, the cases are packed - they have only been undone and checked a dozen times....never mind if something is missing we will just buy it!
104 days on  the Sea Princess - neither of us are sure how we will cope, BUT we are so looking forward to seeing new places and meeting new friends.
Keep an eye out for posts, we will update as much as we can.

Here is to a good holiday.

2015 Holiday

 
Well after a bloody awful last twelve months, we have finally managed to get away in the van for a while. The original plan was to follow a couple of weeks after Sue and John Fahey and meet up north of Perth - we were delayed, so we have changed plans slightly and decided to go up through the centre and hopefully meet them at Kunnanurra or Broome.

Off we set on the 22 May, first stop near the river at Narrandera,

followed up the next night by a stop at Merbein, again on the river.

We then went to Burra, a nice little town, 

then to Port Augusta. We had previously avoided PA, but were pleasantly surprised, and managed to fit in a game of bowls.

After that off to Woomera, and managed to have a couple of drinks in the shipping container that was a bar. 

Only one night stay then off to Coober Pedy - well it rained for three days - red mud everywhere.

We then had a rethink and decided we would go straight to Alice Springs and hope for some warmer weather, stopping at Kulgera Pub overnight on the way.

Alice was very busy as the Finke Desert Race was on - buggys, bikes and cars everywhere. We had not had a good look around Alice the last time we were here, so this was our opportunity. We then went to Glen Helen Gorge Homestead  - west Macdonell ranges and a lovely place to stay. We had day trips and explored Goss Bluff ( a big crater) , Ochre Pits, Ellery Big Hole and found a few interesting possibilities for future bush camps.

Next we will turn our direction towards the highway and head for Katherine. 

8 September - Marseille

We cancelled our excursion to Axien Provence and decided to do our own thing, find somemfree wifi ( we quickly found out that was difficult to find). We got the shuttle bus onto the city and proceeded to walk Along the water front, where there were some market stalls.

We then took the little train for a city tour - this was an interesting ride through the narrow streets and up the hill to the cathedral. We stopped at the cathedral for about 15 minutes ( until the next little train arrived) and took in the sights and then returned to the waterfront .

On returning to the waterfront we thought we would walk to the shopping area , however we found the streets to be dirty and grubby and really nothing of interest so returned to the market on the waterfront.

After looking around we decided to return to the ship and have a relax . Sometimes. You do not make the right choice - we did not enjoy Marseille - next time we might try and see some of the country side.

7 September Barcelona

We decided to do our own thing on this day - so once the ship docked we departed to find the hop on hop off bus.

This provided us with a great overview of this city - we were not sure what to expect but found that we really liked what we saw,including the old bull fight ring that is no longer used.. Wonderful buildings - the architecture was brilliant. Modern and old at the same time. The Cathedral which is still under construction was something else - very difficult to describe.

We loved how they had incorporated the tram tracks into the lawn throughout the city.

We ended up in the middle of the city and had a lovely paella for lunch before heading off back to the ship - getting caught in a huge deluge of rain. Such fun, everyone one was wet.