We sailed from Puerto Montt at 5.00 pm for our next port of call, which was Puerto Chacabuco. We passed a number of islands off the Patagonian coast, and experienced the majestic fjords that made one think of Norway. The area known as Patagonia is split between Chile & Argentina, but I must admit I […]
HMT Dunera (B.1937) She is shown as a troop ship when visiting Malta, I think the photo was taken in the 1950’s. A couple of years ago Maureen and I completed a road trip around NSW, South Australia and Victoria. During the trip I planned to drive from Beechworth to Mildura; both towns are in […]
Our destination was to be Calcutta – I’ll use the names of each port as it was named in the 1960’s. After sailing from Karachi our first destination was Kandla, which is in the Gulf of Kutch in the Gujarat State of India. Gujarat is the red area The pink dot is Kandla & the […]
Madrid Station – was spotlessly clean, and very impressive. Our four nights in Barcelona just flew past, and on the final morning we were once again making our way to the railway station for the rail trip to Madrid. Once more we paid a little more for the extra room, but this time we were […]
Sunrise over New Caledonia For a time I was in a business partnership with a Frenchman, who lived in Tahiti and later moved to New Caledonia before finally moving to Sydney. I can remember him saying that for a Frenchman working for the French government and being posted to one of the French colonies in […]
The area on the northern part of the South Island of New Zealand is known as Marlborough Sounds, which consists of a number of ancient, drowned valleys. One of the main bodies of water is called Queen Charlotte Sounds and it is this Sound that we entered to make our way to Picton. It was […]
The advert was attractive for a weekend cruise that was classed as a ‘taster’ – a cruise that people might take to see if they would like cruising for their next holiday. The ship was Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas and we hadn’t sailed with Royal Caribbean before, although we have sailed with two […]
Our next stop was Tallinn, which is the capital of Estonia. Estonia’s flag is blue, black & white as you see in the photograph. The blue, black and white flag was consecrated by the members of the Estonian Students’ Society on the 4 June 1884. Apparently there are a number of reason why they have such […]
Never mind clocks & watches and all that accurate stuff, when in Fiji one must get used to Fiji time . . . Just after sunrise we approached our berth at Suva, Fiji. Abel Tasman was the first European to sight Fiji in 1643, and this was followed by Captain Cook in 1770. It was […]
Madrid Station – was spotlessly clean, and very impressive. Our four nights in Barcelona just flew past, and on the final morning we were once again making our way to the railway station for the rail trip to Madrid. Once more we paid a little more for the extra room, but this time we were […]
The first train arrived in Parramatta on the 26th September 1855. The first steam train in Australia ran in 1854 from Melbourne to Port Melbourne and by the time of federation in 1901 the network had grown to over 20,000 kms (12,500 miles). Today in Thirlmere, about a thirty-minute drive from Mittagong is the largest […]
This was the second part of our ‘back to back’ cruising from Sydney in Diamond Princess. We spent a day in Yokohama before sailing to cruise the Japanese coast and a single foreign port in South Korea, Busan, which is across from Japan via the southern part of the Sea of Japan. We would stay […]
We sailed from Southampton the day after we’d arrived with a fresh group of students. This voyage was to Vigo, again, and later Cadiz, where according to Sir Francis Drake he ‘Singed the King’s Beard’ . Sir Francis Drake Singed a King’s Beard in 1587. Drake’s original map, the pink arrow shows how he approached Cadiz harbour. Spain […]
Our next port was Lyttleton, the gateway to Christchurch. Part of Lyttleton harbour We had visited Christchurch on our last trip via Akaroa, because Lyttleton port was still out of action due to the earthquake. When we booked this cruise we were hoping that we would visit Christchurch via Akaroa again because during our last […]
