Easter Sunday in Adelaide – It is a pity that the meaning of Easter has failed to break through the chocolate ceiling – Sailing from Adelaide -next stop Fremantle A gentle breeze as we leave Adelaide to define the flags. National flag of Australia flown as a respectful courtesy, Princess Cruise company flag and the […]
Ellice Is. gained independence from the UK on the 1st of October 1978 and anew country called Tuvalu was born. Tuvalu means ‘eight standing together’ meaning the eight island & atolls that make up the country. There are nine islands, but at the time of independence, only eight islands were inhabited. Tuvalu is the fourth […]
Sunrise as we approached the island. Dravuni Island is part of the Kadavu Group of islands, which are part of Fiji. It is a small island of about 0.8 sq km (0.3 sq miles) and the population is about 200 living in one village. It is one of the smallest populated islands in the Fijian […]
Landaura – launched 1946 – 7829 gt -broken up in Japan in 1972. My first visit to Bombay (as it was then) as a cadet opened my eyes to India with its teaming millions, garri wallers (motorised rickshaw now commonly called tuk tuks), honking horns, the constant ringing of bicycle bells, and the ever mouth- […]
After leaving Tarawa it was a short 805 mile flight to Funafuti, Tuvalu, but it still took about three hours in the HS 148. The aircraft carried more freight than it did passengers, because not many people visited Funafuti, other than returning residents, and the occasional businessman, i.e your truly. As we made our approach to […]
I knew that I had made an impression with this fellow – as soon as he saw me, he turned his back . . . We were visiting the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie, which is free to enter and all they ask is a donation to the work of looking after sick or injured […]
B.H.S = Boredom – Heat – Sand (and for my British readers BHS is not British Home Stores!) We sailed from Muscat for Doha, but for some reason, which I can’t remember, we were diverted to Bahrain, which is 130 km ( 81 miles) as the crow flies from Doha, but a little longer by […]
From our bedroom window we could see the top of San Cristóbal Hill and the white statue. Our friends from the UK had arrive while we were sight seeing via the Hop on Hop off bus, so during ‘Happy Hour’ in the Club Lounge we all decided to visit San Cristóbal Hill, the following day. The […]
I’ll never go abroad – which was a stupid comment that I made at thirteen, comes back to bite me. My first adventure abroad was just after I’d just turned sixteen in 1960. Billy Beedles, who was a family friend and a schoolteacher asked me to accompany him in August to help shepherd a […]
British merchant navy flag, with poppy – Ruby Princess flew the Red Duster. We anchored off the island of Lifou (New Caledonia) at 9.00 am on the 11th November, and many of us went ashore via tender. Maureen & I and our friends were walking to a lookout point when we heard the sound of […]
To read too many books is harmful’ according to Mau Tse-Tung. Yokohama, in Tokyo Bay, was our first port of call of our Japanese coastal trip. If I thought Singapore and Hong Kong were foreign, Yokohama was really ‘foreign’ The people were different from Chinese, very friendly, but different. Fortunately at that time the exchange […]
Thanks to Covid Maureen and I were unable to spend our Emirates frequent flyer points, which we had saved for a trip from Singapore to Sydney after cruising to Singapore.We were keen to spend the points before they were cancelled by the airline. After considering several options we finally decided to spend them on accommodation, […]
Port Arthur taken from the ship. Maureen and I attended a talk about Port Arthur and Hobart. At the end of the Port Arthur talk the speaker stated that we would be anchored off shore, because Port Arthur was not a port that could cope with a vessel of our size. In fact, all they […]
About an hour and a half from Cowra is Parkes, so name after Henry Parkes in 1873 later Sir Henry Parkes. Sir Henry in the town centre of Parkes. Parkes is now famous for the radio telescope that is located just outside of the town. It was built in 1961, but only the basic structure […]
