Blackman’s Swamp in 1870 We had five nights in Cowra and planned to have three nights at Blackman’s Swamp. We left Cowra on Friday, but after we received a phone call that Maureen was booked into hospital on Tuesday we decided to cut our visit to Blackman’s Swamp to just two nights. Just to make […]

We sailed from Thailand for Vietnam’s southern main port of Ho Cha Minh (used to be called Saigon), and once again we couldn’t get too close to Ho Cha Minh city because of our size. We berthed at Phu My, which is a 90 minute drive from Ho Cha Minh city via the fleet of buses waiting for […]

I’m late I’m late for a very important date. We still had to call at Doha (Qatar), Dammam (Saudi Arabia), Bahrain Island, Kuwait and finally Basrah (Iraq), which is about 90 miles up the Shatt al-Arab from the Persian Gulf. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers meet and become the Shatt-al-Arab and in English this means The […]

Our cabin (or to be PC our stateroom) The balcony was a decent size, with a table, two chairs and two foot stools. The Atrium or Piazza as it is called in this class of ship, covered three decks in the centre of the vessel. Each early evening a female string quartet, or a small jazz […]

You can sail the Danube or the Mekong or even the Amazon for pleasure, and not have a worry, but I doubt that you would choose to sail up or down the Shatt Al Arab for your annual holiday. The map will give you an idea of where we were heading  – we bunkered (refuelled) […]

A quiet town with a very unusual historical link. We took a ship’s cruise, because I was unable to find a ‘walker’ guide. Another temple – Kehi Jingu Shrine, or as the locals call it “Kei-san,” I took the above photo, but as usual you couldn’t get a clear shot for the tourists :- o) This shot […]

We were advised that we would not get wet when rafting, because we would be sitting on small seats that would keep our clothes from being wet. That was a joke! We watched as the rafts were being created from poles of bamboo. The rafts are floated down river carrying the ‘dry’ tourists and dismantled […]

One leaving the Royal Flying Doctor we had to find a cold drink so we decided to visit Bell’s Milk Bar , which is an icon in Broken Hill, and not far from the airport. Bell’s goes back to 1893, but is now stuck in the 1950’s. Regardless of Bell’s age the drinks were cold and […]

You can sail the Danube or the Mekong or even the Amazon for pleasure, and not have a worry, but I doubt that you would choose to sail up or down the Shatt Al Arab for your annual holiday. The map will give you an idea of where we were heading  – we bunkered (refuelled) […]

One leaving the Royal Flying Doctor we had to find a cold drink so we decided to visit Bell’s Milk Bar , which is an icon in Broken Hill, and not far from the airport. Bell’s goes back to 1893, but is now stuck in the 1950’s. Regardless of Bell’s age the drinks were cold and […]

A few years ago, my wife & I, and a friend of ours, stayed in Penang, and during our time there we decided to visit the Cheong Fatt Tze museum, which was a short walk from our hotel. We had to book a time to be allowed in to the museum, and waited outside, with […]

We sailed for the Beagle Channel at midnight on our way to Ushuaia in Argentina. We would have a day of cruising the Beagle Channel. The morning brought some dramatic views – the above and the one below were taken from our balcony. We didn’t have any idea what the day would bring for our […]

Travel often pops up in various conversations and those who know me have suggested that I should put down some of my experiences. At first I was reluctant, because I didn’t think people would be interested in the travels of an unknown traveler. When my grandchildren started to ask questions I thought perhaps I should […]

During our visit to Hanoi we’d booked to visit Halong Bay for an overnight sail. The drive was about three and a half hours. It was an interesting trip, particularly watching the motorbike drivers taking live pigs to market on the back of their bikes. The pigs didn’t seem distressed, perhaps they were used to days […]