29 July – 12 Oct 2006
1.
As of Saturday 29 July we are on our trip around the world sponsored by Qantas Frequent Flyer program (that is we managed to save enough points to purchase around the world tickets and planned far enough ahead to book the flights 11 months ago).
We are allowed five stops - Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, London and Bangkok - and will be away for 76 days or 11 weeks. So we will be sending the odd email to let you know of our travels and would love to hear how things are going at your end.
Our first stop was Maui in Hawaii. Kate had organized a condo on the north west side of the island. This meant a Dash 8 flight from Honolulu to a small airstrip nearby. This flight was delayed at Honolulu because we were the only English speaking passengers. The Americans require English speaking - 35 pound lifting persons to sit adjacent to the wing exits. Should there be an emergency such passengers are required to lift the exit doors inwards and obey instructions from the flight steward. All the other passengers were Japanese! Eventually a lovely Japanese - speaking Hawaiian native was found to give a safety briefing.
As we descended after an uneventful flight it started to get bumpy and it was obvious we were going to land in high winds. We skimmed in over pineapple fields and had the roughest landing on the tiny strip - the steward informed us it was one of the better ones and that normally it was a lot rougher. It made me wonder how long the plane was going to last!
Our condo was just down the hill from the airport so we toddled down towing our bags on one of the few footpaths available on the island, or so it seemed to us. We had to find a shop fairly quickly as we were getting rather hungry so we walked off down what seemed like the only other footpath on the island to the supermarket which was supposed to be only "three minutes away" - in a car we found out after a half hour walk!
Our intention was to walk, use public transport or hire bicycles. After two days we gave up and hired a car. The place is set up for cars only and despite the complaints of the locals fuel is cheap by our standards - less than $1 per litre.
Our condo opened onto the shoreline so we had lovely views towards the nearby island of Moloki and all the passing boats. We swam and snorkeled off the rocky shore and, on one occasion saw turtles. The turtles were plentiful (at least from the shoreline) but the water just off our condo was rather murky because of the persistent trade winds which came up on most days. So although they were there we couldn't see them.
Needless to say the water temperature was delightful and "no pain".
The weather on most days was in the high twenties and the humidity not too uncomfortable so it was a very pleasant change from the negative temperatures of a Canberra morning! The people are very relaxed and quite laid back - with a bit of an effort they were even able to understand our accents!
After five days we headed back to Honolulu and a connecting flight to San Francisco. This was a domestic flight with American Airlines and whilst it left at 1 pm and arrived at 8.30 pm turned out to be only a 4.5 hour flight because of the 3 hour time difference. We expected a meal on a flight of this length and were caught out badly. We purchased a sandwich to tide us over but we will know in future to find out - food is very important to us!!!
We are now at Sea Ranch which is about a three hour drive north of San Francisco on the coast. We are staying with Lisa, Jim, Ethen and Miranda in their delightful holiday house. The setting is an old ranch which was subdivided about thirty years ago with strict covenants on the siting of the houses, house cladding and garden layouts. The result is a very pleasant setting of widely spaced wooden houses which are a weathered grey colour, low shrubbery and beautiful views over the nearby cliffs to the water below from all the houses. Although their house is over thirty years old you would never know it as the design seems timeless with high cathedral ceilings with full length windows. Internal walls are of Western red cedar and roof lining is rough sawn pine. The cost of such timber use in Australia would be prohibitive but obviously they are local species here.
We have walked along the cliffs and watched the plentiful seals resting and fishing in the nearby kelp forests. Deer are also plentiful and we have seen the odd jack rabbit which I would swear were hares. So far we haven't seen any raccoons yet but Ethen promises to show us some before we leave.
Although the kids have been riding the waves and paddling the water is far too cold for us. We have paddled but my feet ache the water is so cold. It is a shame because it would be fun to swim with the seals and we understand that abalone are relatively plentiful. The water is very clear and there is obviously plentiful fish if the diving pelicans are any indication.
So it off northwards tomorrow. We plan to travel through Oregon and Washington and may even get to Canada. We have about two weeks here before meeting up with Julia in New York.
2.
After a wonderful few days with our very hospital American friends we headed north up the Pacific coast. The roads are tortuously slow with 15 mph corners and very few straights. The surface however is brilliant with beautiful hotmix surfaces the norm - fantastic bike and motor bike riding. We saw quite a number of touring cyclists but it is very challenging territory with steep hills and fairly narrow roads with little shoulders. Cars travel fairly fast so I think we would think carefully before attempting such a trip.
The weather is frequently overcast and the sea fog seems to hang out to sea (at least whilst we have been here). The result is a grey landscape into the weathered wooden houses blend beautifully.
We stopped at a couple of small towns on the coast some of which are now largely catering to tourism but others were working towns with healthy fishing and forestry industries. Not far further we came into the redwood forests - which are stunning! Stayed at Eureka overnight at a very ordinary Motel - good to start low and work up!
Next day we diverted to a forest reserve named after Lady Bird Johnston who was the incunbant in the White House when the reserve was declared. We climbed up a steep bitumen road for probably about 8 km coming into cloud. Just as we parked a large log truck passed us going down which astounded me. It was a very narrow and windy steep downhill run to the coast but they obviously take it in their stride. For those interested they use timber jinkers but unlike Australian ones they need a crane at either end to load them onto the back of the truck - a disadvantage in Australia. They do however track perfectly because of the extended hitching point - hence they can negotiate very tight corners without going all over the road.
The rest of the day was spent driving through amazing forests heading inland to join up with Interstate 5. A straight run up along this highway covered most of Oregon in one day and we arrived in Portland which is at the northern end of Oregon. We had intended to drive to Canada on this road but decided that it was just too much driving and not enough sightseeing so have changed to a more leisurely route.
Driving on the wrong side of the road is a bit nerve racking at first but we are slowly getting used to it. I did have the idea that we would get away from traffic once we got away from San Francisco but this has proved to be wrong. It might be the time of year (summer) but all the main roads are full of cars, 4WDs, log trucks and any number of RVs (motorhomes and caravans).
As most who drive here soon observe the RVs are amazing. Full bus sized, specially made they cruise along at 100 km towing a large 4WD or the equivalent, and not just on the flat. We passed one going up a fairly steep hill which was still doing about 90 kph with a large 4WD on the back. It had a small sign saying 300 brake horsepower! Most of the caravans are like semi trailers i.e. they are hitched into the back of a ute. There are more of them in Australia now but here they are the norm. Rolo will be glad to hear we have seen two Avans!
We stayed two nights in Portland and spent the day looking over the "World Forestry Centre" which I had had some dealings with in my job. Although "World" mostly means USA there was some space devoted to world forestry. It was a most interesting display - even had a simulation machine of a mechanised tree feller. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Portland, a most interesting city. Kate managed to find the Columbia store and purchase some shorts which she is most pleased with.
After leaving Portland we diverted east for a visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. Without going into a boring background of how it was set up by the Evergreen Corporation it is sufficient to say that it is in the middle of nowhere and is a most amazing museum. Its greatest claim to fame is that it houses the Spruce Goose. Howard Hughes built this flying boat towards the end of the war mostly from wood and it is still the largest aircraft to fly. It has eight engines and is truly massive - even a jumbo jet is smaller. It only flew once and now has been lovingly restored and is the centre piece of the museum. Actually it dominates!! Lots of other planes are parked under it including the fastest ever built - the black bird stealth plane. I think Kate was a reluctant visitor but quickly became fascinated as it was so well done.
My favourite was a Mustang which was built towards the end of WW11. I grew up near Moorabinn Airport in Melbourne and there were a couple of these planes hangered there in the 1950s. They have a very distinctive sound from their massive single engine - quite unmistakeable. They could fly at over 40000 ft and for long distances - to accompany the long distance bombers flying from England to the continent during WW11.
We travelled west after this heading towards the inland north south route on the other side of the Cascades. We stopped overnight at Detroit Lake which is a picture postcard location on a lake which was in fact a dammed river used for hydro electricity. The place was crowded with campers and boaters. It didn't take long to walk over the town and the highlight was walking past the sheriff's office to see a sign saying that a cougar had been sighted in the town a few days before! I think it is the nearest we will get to one but we would have liked to have seen one (from the safety of our car of course!!).
Next day we stopped at Three Sisters and did a looped tour of the sights nearby. The town is named after the nearby three snow capped mountains (extinct volcanoes) nearby. The highlight was viewing a nearby forest fire which was burning about 6-8 km away. From our vantage point at about 5500 ft we were able to observe aerial water bombing with large tanker aircraft. I had read about it but obviously never seen it as we generally only use helicopters in Australia. It was hard to tell if they were doing any good and we didn't have the time to wait around.
In the afternoon we arrived at Bend and decided to stay for two nights. Spent a lazy day looking over the High Desert Museum - once again a very well done Museum. It was interesting to see this after visiting a similar display at Alice Springs last year. Although birds featured in a raptor display they don't seem to be so important as in Australia. Perhaps it is because of the high density of people and mammals. The emphasis in this museum was on the native indians and early explorers.
We are off south today to visit Crater Lake.
3.
We are now in Scunthorpe in North Linconshire, England staying with Jenny's parents, Dave and Jill. We flew from New York on Saturday night and spent most of Sunday waiting on platforms for connecting trains to here. Unfortunately for us, track works, a long weekend and a cancelled train due to a suicide up the line from us meant we had a long day waiting for four trains. The trans Atlantic trip has taken some adjustment too as it only takes about six hours but our watches needed to go back five hours. Consequently we were very grateful for the very warm reception and comfortable bed. It was also very pleasant to see Ben again - the whole point for the trip!!
But back a bit - I think we were in California with Lisa, Jim, Ethan and Miranda when last we wrote. We spent two nights there enjoying the Californian late summer on their beautiful property. They kindly took us to the Napa Valley where we visited two wineries. I found the vineyards fascinating. There was no evidence of mechanisation in harvesting - according to one guide the grapes were too valuable and would be damaged in the harvesting operation. Cynical me thought that they have a ready supply of cheap labour from south of the border and can do it cheaper manually! We did an interesting winery tour and tasted some foul wines (not just the ignorant writer's opinion either - noone liked them). We also tasted some fine wines at Jim and Lisa's favourite winery and now we know why. A great day, thank you Lisa and Jim.
There is a saying among caravanners and campers that Milton (my brother in law) and I have used for years - "He who has the most toys wins" - as a way of describing the best setups. Well as far as I am concerned Jim has topped us all. I just happened to notice on our second day at Citrus Heights a red convertible sports car in a side garage. On closer examination of the badgework I realised it was a Porshe Boxter! Even better Jim very generously gave me a ride in it on the next night. There is nothing quite like the sound of that flat six cylinder motor when it is given a bit of freedom to get going. Even more generously Jim gave me a drive and then both he and Lisa insisted that I take Kate for a spin - fantastic!! What a magnificent car!
Our flight to New York was uneventful if a bit long as we had to stop at Dallas Fort Wirth on the way. This is a huge airport and whilst we had 1.5 hours between flights we couldn't have walked to our terminal in adequate time it is that large and spread out. Fortunately driverless trains are used in airports now to ferry passengers between terminals, carparks, hotels and car rental sites which at first is a bit disconcerting!
At Newark airport in New Jersey we managed to find the train station and bought tickets to Penn Station on Manhatten. Unfortunately we got on the wrong train - not used to privatised train companies competing for the same destination on the same track. Fortunately the conductor took pity on us and let us stay on the train to our destination.
Whilst waiting for the train by ourselves in the waiting room we overheard a sob story from a young man who had lost his wallet at the airport. He had just come into the waiting room and was not in our view but we could hear him quite clearly. We heard him telling hospital staff other doctors would have to cover for him as he had no money to travel into the hospital. He said that he had been to the police and that his credit cards had been safely stopped. His story was so good that we were both going to go over to him and offer him some money when our train arrived and we couldn't offer. A little later it occurred to us that it was probably an elaborate hoax and that we had only been saved by the train - just a little too perfect tale or are we just getting too cynical?
Anyway we managed to find our way to the large youth hostel which Kate had booked and met up with Julia who had flown in the night before. Unfortunately they had stuffed up our booking and we were in a six-bedder with other people instead of a three bedder by ourselves. Negotiations for correction of the situation failed and after a protracted session on the internet and phone calls we took a cab to the Holiday Inn in Soho near the Chinese area in Lafayette Street.
The taxi trip was an experience in itself - essentially it is a drag race from one set of lights to the next red light intersperced with horn blowing to warn pedestrians crossing against the lights. The philosophy seems to be that the faster you go the more lights you will get through. Although the speed limit is 40kph it is not uncommon to be flying along at 80kph. Fortunately we escaped without incident and, to me, at a relatively inexpensive cost.
As an aside, noone seems to be worried about speeding in the USA. Although there are warning signs of "radar control" everyone seems to be doing at least 20 kph over the limit. Whilst driving in Oregon I was constantly being overtaken and the heavier the traffic the worse it seemed. It takes a bit of getting used to after the constant harrassment in Australia for being just a bit over the limit!!
Although the accommodation was a bit substandard after the other Holiday Inns we had been used to, we decided to stay here for our seven days despite the cost. I will remember it for a long time as the internet charges were horrendous. We had got used to free internet in other Holiday Inns but this one charged $1 for four minutes - $US15 per hour!! So that is my excuse for not writing sooner!!
New York is huge and a bit hard to come to terms with at first. Apart from my usual problem in the northern hemisphere of lacking any sense of direction - the direction of the sun is all wrong - it is very flat and distinguishing landmarks are hard to see. We lined up for the double decker bus tour which took three days to complete - a downtown tour, an uptown tour and a Brooklyn tour across the river. These tours took us to most of the main tourist attractions but there was so much detail imparted by the tour guides that it all became a bit much after a while and merged into a blur.
We managed to get tickets to a matinee performance of Mamma Mia which Kate enjoyed enormously "best live show she had ever seen", walked in Central Park, celebrated Kate's birthday with a night out at Enricos on Blekker Street, ran along the footpaths adjoining the Hudson River and walked and subwayed through most districts in the city.
After Julia left for Canada we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was mind boggling. I think you would need days to do it justice. It has an amazing collection of Egyptian art and artifacts which we were told was the second or third best in the world. The modern art section was stunning with lots of famous artists - the highlight was a wall full of Picasos. Some of the exhibits were amazing in their scale - there was a cricket oval sized gallery with an Egyptian temple and entrance way; a re-creation of a room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright which was stunning - all round windows and beautiful timber; and a two story facade of a former bank form the 1800s. We both wished we had greater stamina but our legs gave out after about five hours.
Finally we did a ferry tour of New York Harbour getting close up to the Statue of Liberty and seeing the tall buildings from a different perspective.
4.
A bit slow in getting started on this one as the French keyboards have a few letters in the wrong places. The a q w m z and full stop are all situated differently so touch typing is very difficult for this decrepit individual. Dont know how you managed to write your emails, Heather.
When I last wrote I think we were in Scunthorpe with Ben and Jennys parents, Jill and Dave. We took a trip up to Stirling in Scotland to see Jenny and to drop off some of their possesions. Although it was about six hours of motorway driving it was hard work as the roads are very busy with three lanes of constantly changing trucks, cars, motorhomes, caravans etc.
Their new flat is in a wonderful position right in the middle of town below the fort and Jenny was very well although finding the new full time teaching job challenging.
Back in Scunthorpe on the following Saturday we mounted our new touring bicycles at the crack of dawn with panniers loaded with clothes and rode them to the station to catch the train to Plymouth, about six hours trip. Travelling with bicycles on trains in the UK is challenging as Rob Caune our friend in London warned us. We had booked this trip over the internet prior to leaving Australia but were unable to book the bikes. When we got to the UK we tried to book the bicycles but found the four places available on the train were already booked. So custmer relations on Virgin Trains managed to book the bikes on an earlier train but couldnt change our tickets - another phone call! Yes we could change our tickets but instead of the advance purchase price of 44 pounds it would cost 189 pounds. No way were we going to pay that!!
So off we went on the earlier train with Kate wondering and worrying qll the way whether we were going to be thrown off the train by the conductor because our tickets were for the next train (our bikes were fine). Which is what happened to one cyclist who got on without booking when the baggage area became too crowded. Fortunately our trip was uneventful.
(Wow, I have managed to hit a combination of keys which have converted this keyboard to Querty do I can touch type again!)
Safely in Plymouth we rode to the ferry terminal to book our bikes for the trip to Roscoff in Brittany, once again we couldn't do this on the internet. Fortunately no problem, so after a pleasant night in Plymouth we caught the ferry to Roscoff next morning in the misty rain. We had hoped to enjoy the voyage across the channel but for most of the way we couldn't see more than a couple of hundred metres which wasn't much fun! Still we had a pleasant introduction to the French way of life or rather food when lunch time came around. We didn't wish to spend a lot of money so while Kate was sleeping off the travel sickness Quell she had taken when the boat got a bit of a rock up, I purchased some chips and a hot dog. Wow what the French can do to a hot dog! Apart from the nice sausage the roll was a bagette ..... amazing taste!
After arriving at Roscoff at 3 pm we planned to ride to Treflez to Jenny's Uncle and Aunty's house and spend the next two weeks using it as a base for a holiday with Ben and Jenny and Julia. We had to ride about 30 kilometres with loaded bikes which should have been no problem. Alas our intermittent running had not retained the level of fitness we had hoped for so it was a bit of a struggle! To add to our woes we had some difficulty finding the place. Without going into a long explanation we eventually found the place with the help of an old woman and some broken French. Boy were we grateful to arrive. The saga hadn't finished there however.
Next morning we had to ride to Brest airport (about 35 km unloaded this time) to pick up our leased car and meet Ben. We set off in plenty of time and even stopped for a coffee. Although the traffic was fairly heavy we were treated with great respect and thought we had arrived in cycling paradise!! Unfortunately we arrived unexpectedly at a motorway. We had been following the signs to Brest and had not been taking too much notice of the route numbers. After scratching our heads we asked a young man where we were and fortunately he had some English. We discovered we were about 15 kilometres out of our way and we only had about 45 minutes to be at our prearranged meeting for picking up the car!! We headed down onto the freeway but were waved back by a passing motorist who left us in no doubt that we were not to go down there! Cyclists are banned!
So it was a mad panic along rural lanes paralleling the freeway to reach the airport for these tired little hungry rabbits - not much open on Sunday nights for purchasing ingredients for breakfast and the bar we got coffee in had no food! Funnily enough our car man wasn't there (Ben was) so after enquiries at the car hire place he was summonsed. A bit later he arrived - he had expected us on the previous day!! Fortunately he wasn't upset and we rapidly got acquainted with our new car. I won't say which of us made the mistake of putting in the wrong date and therefore costing us a day extra charges but it wasn't the Frenchman and it wasn't the person who gets me to type these emails!
Our new Citroen C4 is a delight! It has a 1.6 litre turbo charged intercooled diesel which is amazingly powerful - feels like a V8 with the low down pull. And the economy is fantastic, with a range of over 1000 km I think we are getting close to 5 litres per 100 km travelling at freemay speed.
Julia arrived safely on the following Thursday after the airlines loosing her bag on the trip to Toronto. At last report they had located it but because her ticket was with an airline which is about to fold, and she was flying with another airline, and she had moved from Canada to the UK, and because she had flown to Brittany, and because she was returning to New York etc etc etc they have been unable to reunite Julia and her bag. She has been given some money to get by but hopes they can reunite her with her belongings.
Brittany has been very kind to us with beautiful weather, about 20-23 degrees every day with little rain. It is supposed to be cool and wet. The countryside is a patchwork of cultivated fields which go right to the roadside - fences where they exist are overgrown stone ones and any dairy cattle are contained with electric fences. The herds are quite small by Australian standards - about 40 cows at most, probably limited by the need to house them during winter. The crops are mostly vegetables - cauliflowers, cabbages, zucchinis, carrots, the famous Brittany onions and lettuces. Corn or maize is also grown extensively and harvested by a mulching machine at ground level for fodder (we think). Seems they store it as silage above ground covered by plastic and earth.
The highlight has been the food. We have been living on bagettes and frequenting the local restaurants for the farmers lunches (multiple courses and a bottle of water and light red wine) and at other times for the evening meal. We are yet to be disappointed with the food here!! In order to justify all this eating we have been running together on the nearby beaches and riding bikes to local attractions. It has been great fun having the family together on the other side of the world - just a shame Jenny couldnt make it.
Kate has been improving her French and Ben has shown a talent. Kinda been forced on him for survival as he flew to Brest on a cheap flight two days before we arrived. He was going to depend on Jenny (who is fluent) but unfortunately with her new job she was unable to join us. So he is rolling his Rs with the best of them. Julia and I have not had the opportunity for much interaction with the locals, living with those two extroverts (at least that is the excuse we are currently using!!).
Last Saturday we finished our Brittany holiday, dropped Ben and Julia at the airport and drove to Thomas home in Roen. Thomas visited Australia twice as a French exchange student staying with Julie at Warragul in Victoria. We got to know him when he visited Canberra - we took him to visit Sydney. Patrick and Cathy, Thomas parents, treated us to a six course home cooked dinner party French style - fantastic!! We have been getting on famously with our broken French and their much better English. They are great hosts!
Roen is a wonderful city and with locals telling us where to go we have been having a great time. But more next time! We have a few more days in France then back to the UK and London to visit Rob and Christy.
5.
Back in England with a proper keyboard!! I did manage to convert the French keyboard to the standard querty one but after I logged out of Hotmail it reverted to the French layout again. I tried but could never find out how I managed to convert it in the first place - one of the mysteries of life!
We stayed in Roen for three nights with Thomas parents, Patrick and Cathy, enjoying their wonderful hospitality and the sights and sounds of the city. Although heavily bombed in WW2 much of the old town survived and it was wonderful to wander through the tiny streets with wonky buildings at all angles showing the great antiquity of the place. They live about 2 km high above the city and we walked down on our first day (Sunday) when we were lucky to see many of the major buildings open to the public. There seems to be a massive church at every corner all of which are Catholic. Seems the royalty built one to balance the indiscretions of their relationships - buying their way into heaven, or so the locals tell us! We struggled back up the hill after 4 hours of wandering.
The next day we finished the walking tour we had started on our bikes and rode up and down the river pathway. On both occasions we saw luxury barges tied up at the wharf. These apparently journey up and down the 200 km of river to Paris treating guests to magnificent views of the French countryside in 5 star luxury, or so it seemed to these envious observers. We found out how useful our very low ranged gears were on the way back as we ascended the hill home. Kate thought it was easier than walking but perhaps that was because we hadn't been on our feet for four hours!
We headed for the Normandy coast at Fecamp which looks much like the coast at Dover. Probably logical as the white rock makng up the cliffs looks identical! We wandered the town and came upon the Benedictine distillery. The building is magnificent housing a collection of ancient art work which can be viewed as part of the self guided tour of the distillery. We even sampled a Benedictine cocktail which was delightful - even got the recipe! The straight stuff is too powerful for me!
From there we wandered northwards along the coastal backroads barely making 40 kph because of their narrow, winding nature. Apparently it is a favoured haunt of cyclists if the signing is any indication. There were signs everywhere warning of cyclists' presence. Although we didn't see many we thought it would be a fantastic area to tour in. We stayed in the lovely coastal town of Dieppe that night wandering the old streets in the evening.
Just outside the town is the Green highway. This is a 40 km rail trail French style. In contrast to the efforts in Australia the old line has been converted into a cycling highway of high quality hotmix bitumen which is 3-4 metres wide - fantastic for recreational cycling. It was being used by locals as well as tourists and considering it was outside the holiday period it was surprising how many bikes we passed. We rode for 20 km inland before returning to our start point. We had hoped to have lunch at one of the villages along the way but unfortunately they were too small to support a restaurant.
We did have one problem with the bike on this trip - my chain broke or came apart. I guess it hadn't been joined properly as the rivet had worked its way out. Fortunately I had my compact tool kit (a present from friends on my 50th - very grateful to have it on this occasion - thanks guys!) which had a chain breaker so was able to fix the break rapidly.
Onwards to Calais for the night up one of the magnificent freeways at 130 kph. We found a hotel in the heart of the city and thought we would do a quick recce for the morning to make sure we had time to drop off the car and get on the ferry. About an hour later we returned to the hotel defeated. It seems a ferry went beserk some time ago and drove through the end of a wharf. This necessitated a diversion for people coming from Calais as the repair work has been held up for some time due to a difference of opinion between the insurance company and the authorities. Things are so different sometimes but so similar on others!! Turned out we had only missed one turn and had become confused because we had returned to the motorway - this was the way in!!
The ferry crossing to Dover next morning was uneventful on a lovely clear day. We could see the UK before we started and we didn't even have to pay for our bikes! The fun started when we reached London after the rail triip from Dover. We arrived at Victoria Station and had to navigate our way by bicycle to Rotherhithe where Rob and Christie live. On our previous trips here we had done our movements around the city using the "mole technique". You navigate the Underground to where you want to go, pop up, look around, pop down into the Underground again go to the next destination, pop up, look around, pop down etc. It does nothing for getting a general picture of the city and with my usual problems of being disoriented as to where north is in the northern hemisphere it took a £5 A-Z directory and 45 minutes to decide which direction to go. Kate was very patient!
Needless to say London traffic is fairly horrendous and all the more so when you don't know where you are going. The street names change frequently even on the same route so there were many stops and walks before we reached our destination. Things have improved with the traffic as there are now some bike lanes and you can use the dedicated bus lanes. Also the drivers are more tolerant of cyclists and they don't travel very fast in inner London. It was a warm afternoon and evening and we had a very refreshing ale (Kate) and cider (me) while we waited for Rob to get home.
We had a few more drinks over tea whilst catching up with Rob and Christie - very pleasant. Their apartment occupies the 5th and top floors of a tower block facing south so it gets lovely sunshine and has views of Tower Bridge, the London Eye and lots of other buildings. It is also next to one of the old wharf areas so there is a lake area separated from the Thames by a lock which is about 500 m long - used for sail boat training. Fantastic spot.
Next day we went to the Tate Gallery and looked at two floors of amazing artwork before our legs gave out. Apart from the art the visitors made an interesting spectacle - lots of school children studying and drawing the art work, presumeably as part of their art studies. On one occasion I was taken aback by five gorgeous black schoolgirls sprawling on chairs with somewhat bored looks on their faces - I wasn't sure it wasn't a work of art!! I would have loved to take a photo but wasn't game! After crossing the Millenium Bridge we had lunch and wandered the city till our legs gave out again. Back into the Underground and back to our temporary refuge.
On the weekend Rob and Christie took us down to the New Forest area where Rob was competing in a half ironman triathlon. Christie took us on a loop ride on our bikes along narrow country lanes through many small villages - it took most of the day so we didn't get to see Rob competing. Rob came 18th overall in a field of 300 and won his age group - a great effort! We really enjoyed our weekend with Rob and Christie and wished we could have stayed to sample the delights of London longer - thanks guys!
Next day we had another ride through London to Kings Cross Station fully loaded for our trip to Stirling. It was bucketting down when we left so we got fairly wet despite raincoats and mudguards. Fortunately it wasn't very cold so we suffered no ill effects. This time the traffic was lighter and because we knew where we were going and what to expect it didn't seem so bad. Almost a pleasant way of getting around! Not sure Kate would agree!
Much of these travelogues concerns the journey and not so much the destination - seems to be the theme of this holiday. The train trip to Stirling was no exception. At Edinburgh we found out that there were engineering works at Stirling so the train wasn't running. After a few anxious moments we discovered that we need to travel to a station on a nearby line and connect by bus. When we got to that station we had to get our bikes onto a double decker bus for the final leg. This proved interesting but we finally got panniers and bikes loaded. There followed the ride from hell!! I didn't appreciate how fast double decker buses could corner! Fortunately we were on the botom floor as we would have been terrified on the upper level. I had to get Kate to look across the bus as her eyes were coming out on stalks as we negotiated roundabouts. Fortunately top speed of double deckers is limited so he couldn't go too fast on the straight stretches. The funny thing was that the locals didn't bat an eye!
So we are based in Stirling for the next week or so and hopefully will do some trips away. Ben and Jenny have settled into their jobs and Ben has even managed to get some days off. Hopefully we can do some trips.
6.
I think we had just arrived in Stirling, Scotland when last I wrote. Scotland was very kind to us with the weather - although it rained regularly it didn't stop us doing anything and the temperatures were very mild.
Ben and Jenny's flat was located on the old town right in the centre of things. Unfortunately at night time on certain days of the week this made things fairly noisy. We were woken on a couple of nights by revellers making their way home from the nightspots. I think the old town provided good echos for these happy people as they kept singing and shouting - a bit like singing or whistling in the shower, or so it seemed to me. The flat faces south and has those lovely double glazed English windows which can be opened inwards at the top about 6 inches or pivotted at either side to open fully inwards. When closed they are also very soundproof. Wish I could afford to install similar window at home!
We spend the four remaining weekdays exploring the town and local countryside. We did a few runs, one in the misty morning rain which was not unpleasant although we arrived home soaked. Ben managed to get three days off so took us in his little Vauxhall diesel car (given to him by a friend on her departure from the UK) around the local area.
One of the highlights for me was a visit to the Falkirk Wheel. What is the Falkirk Wheel I hear you ask? It is a marvelous piece of engineering which has replace more than six locks on the canal which joins Edinburgh and Glasgow. The waterways department is restoring the canals in the UK faster than they were originally built due, I suppose, to demand from the public for recreational facilities. So they have been restoring this canal and replaced the multiple locks needed to get over the nearby hill with the Falkirk Wheel. This has now become a major tourist attraction.
If you can envisage sitting in a boat in the Falkirk Wheel lock you would see two giant arms attached to the lock at either end. Directly above you you would see another bit of lock attached to the other ends of the arms (effectively the arms are wheels). As the arms turn (they are pivotted in the middle) your bit of lock would gradually move sideways and upwards and the bit of lock above you would also move sideways and downwards, both bits of the lock are full of water (effectively like a big barrell turning). Cunningly the bits of lock stay horizontal - all the water remains in the lock. After the arms have rotated 180 degrees your bit of lock would be on the top and the other bit would be on the bottom. (The whole process takes a couple of minutes and once the rotation is complete the respective lock doors can be opened to the adjoining canals and the boats can continue on their way either about 50 ft higher or lower than when they arrived at the lock. One of the beauties of this system is that it takes no water to operate as the bits of lock are always filled to lock level. (With conventional locks you always loose a lock full of water downwards with each complete cycle).
Now the question which springs to mind is what happens if one lock is full of boats and the other section is empty of boats will the system become unbalanced? We were told that each part of the lock could hold about 8 narrow boats. Have a think about it! A fella called Archimedes might be able to help you. Answer at end!
Travelling by train we also spent a day in Dublin. Ben and Jenny had spent most of 2005 living there so Ben was able to escort us around the highlights and we also did the red bus tour. There are some amazing old buildings which were built when the Glasgow was the centre of tobacco trade. Once again the weather held so we could sit on the top deck of the open double decker - this time at a much more sedate pace!
On the weekend we travelled with Jenny, who had been working hard at the local high school, to the Island of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. We had a lovely time touring the island on the narrow roads (you had to back up to a passing spot if someone came the other way!) and stayed in the lovely harbour village overnight. We did some walks and even travelled on a narrow gauge railway to a nearby castle - it was supposed to be a steam train (we had seen it from the ferry on the previous day) but they had a sick staff member so they had to bring out the diesel which was not nearly so romantic! There seem to be castles and forts all over this part of Scotland which perhaps reflects that turbulent and violent history! Travelling home through the highlands on Sunday afternoon was beautiful with abundant rains overnight making the local rivers run bankers.
During the following week we travelled to Dundee where Ben works and met him for lunch. He travels by train for an hour each way and is now an expert on world affairs as he reads the excellent UK newspapers from cover to cover on the train. Being on the east coast Dundee is in a rain shadow so gets slightly less cloud and slightly more sun than other parts of Scotland. It is a delightful town on the Firth of Tay and we spent a pleasant afternoon wandering along the Firth in Ben's car before picking him up from work and joining the evening rush along the motorway back to Stirling. Some people here seem to commute long distances to work if the crowded motorways are anything to judge by.
We also put our bikes to good use wandering through the local villages and staying off the main roads. During one of our rides we picked up a National Bike Route out of Stirling. Being curious and not knowing where it went we dutifully followed the signs along a back road, a busy minor road then onto a bypassed road alongside another busy road. There was even a recently-restored ancient stone bridge which had been a key route centuries ago - all very pleasant.
We then saw a sign which we thought might bring us back to Stirling by a different route (turns out it was just the angle it was positioned at and we should have retraced our route to get back to Striling). There followed a couple of hours trying to find our way around some minor road works, following a lane to a dead end, wandering through a deserted chock farm, retracing our steps to find the missed sign, following a footpath alongside the Forth River, being caught in a thunderstorm and finally emerging into a village which originally serviced the huge storage sheds we had been passing. Turns out the sheds were bond storage facilities for oak barrels full of whisky. There were acres of them and we had no idea that there were so many oak barrels in the world let alone this small area of Scotland!! At this stage we realised the route continued on to places further along the Forth rather than Stirling so we decided to abandon the cycle route and seek another way back to Stirling. Turned out we were only a kilometre from where we had made our wrong turn so it wasn't far back - we had done a large loop!
At the end of the week we packed up our bikes into cardboard boxes obtained from the local bike shop loaded them onto Ben's car in the pouring rain (fortunately I had bought a tarpaulin for the job) and drove to Edinburgh airport and a boarded a flight to Heathrow. This got around the problem of travelling with the bikes on the Underground in London which would have been a nightmare. That night we boarded a flight to Bangkok.
As you know Thailand is now under martial law after a military coupe. We had rung Qantas and looked at the Foreign Affairs website before deciding to follow our original plans - seemed the risk was low. And this is how it turned out - if you didn't know you would never guess that the country was being run by the military. In fact I felt more threatened when we stopped for refuelling in Bangkok on a previous trip when there were soldiers brandishing sub machine guns at the airport. We did decide however not to leave Bangkok and to stay in the Shangri La hotel (Kate has very fond memories of staying in the Shangri La in Borneo a few years ago so didn't take much persuading!).
So we had a lovely four days based in a room on the sixth floor overlooking the river. We guessed the military coupe had affected tourism as the hotel was not exactly overcrowded but noone was talking about it. We had great service and the breakfasts are to die for!!
The city is very large and spread out with high rises as far as the eye can see. It still has that Asian city feel about it with the very modern next to the crowded old sections, the street vendors and the motorbikes. By contrast to Hanoi it is very clean, despite the number of people, and cars outnumber the motorbikes. The locals are very helpful and English seems to be widely understood and spoken. It was the monsoon season so there was some torrential rain at times, fortunately not stopping us doing what we planned.
So we did a few tours, a bit of shopping, watched the river traffic and generally took it easy. It was a very pleasant way to end our trip. We arrived home on Thursday and are settling back into Eagle Circuit which is very pleasant after so long away. You can't beat being at home in your own bed!!
And the answer to the Falkirk Lock question is that the system will be perfectly balanced. The reason is that the boats displace their own weight of water (Archimedes Principle) so provided the levels of water in the locks is always the same (as it is) the lock full of boats will weigh the same as the one with no boats. Cunning eh???
As of Saturday 29 July we are on our trip around the world sponsored by Qantas Frequent Flyer program (that is we managed to save enough points to purchase around the world tickets and planned far enough ahead to book the flights 11 months ago).
We are allowed five stops - Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, London and Bangkok - and will be away for 76 days or 11 weeks. So we will be sending the odd email to let you know of our travels and would love to hear how things are going at your end.
Our first stop was Maui in Hawaii. Kate had organized a condo on the north west side of the island. This meant a Dash 8 flight from Honolulu to a small airstrip nearby. This flight was delayed at Honolulu because we were the only English speaking passengers. The Americans require English speaking - 35 pound lifting persons to sit adjacent to the wing exits. Should there be an emergency such passengers are required to lift the exit doors inwards and obey instructions from the flight steward. All the other passengers were Japanese! Eventually a lovely Japanese - speaking Hawaiian native was found to give a safety briefing.
As we descended after an uneventful flight it started to get bumpy and it was obvious we were going to land in high winds. We skimmed in over pineapple fields and had the roughest landing on the tiny strip - the steward informed us it was one of the better ones and that normally it was a lot rougher. It made me wonder how long the plane was going to last!
Our condo was just down the hill from the airport so we toddled down towing our bags on one of the few footpaths available on the island, or so it seemed to us. We had to find a shop fairly quickly as we were getting rather hungry so we walked off down what seemed like the only other footpath on the island to the supermarket which was supposed to be only "three minutes away" - in a car we found out after a half hour walk!
Our intention was to walk, use public transport or hire bicycles. After two days we gave up and hired a car. The place is set up for cars only and despite the complaints of the locals fuel is cheap by our standards - less than $1 per litre.
Our condo opened onto the shoreline so we had lovely views towards the nearby island of Moloki and all the passing boats. We swam and snorkeled off the rocky shore and, on one occasion saw turtles. The turtles were plentiful (at least from the shoreline) but the water just off our condo was rather murky because of the persistent trade winds which came up on most days. So although they were there we couldn't see them.
Needless to say the water temperature was delightful and "no pain".
The weather on most days was in the high twenties and the humidity not too uncomfortable so it was a very pleasant change from the negative temperatures of a Canberra morning! The people are very relaxed and quite laid back - with a bit of an effort they were even able to understand our accents!
After five days we headed back to Honolulu and a connecting flight to San Francisco. This was a domestic flight with American Airlines and whilst it left at 1 pm and arrived at 8.30 pm turned out to be only a 4.5 hour flight because of the 3 hour time difference. We expected a meal on a flight of this length and were caught out badly. We purchased a sandwich to tide us over but we will know in future to find out - food is very important to us!!!
We are now at Sea Ranch which is about a three hour drive north of San Francisco on the coast. We are staying with Lisa, Jim, Ethen and Miranda in their delightful holiday house. The setting is an old ranch which was subdivided about thirty years ago with strict covenants on the siting of the houses, house cladding and garden layouts. The result is a very pleasant setting of widely spaced wooden houses which are a weathered grey colour, low shrubbery and beautiful views over the nearby cliffs to the water below from all the houses. Although their house is over thirty years old you would never know it as the design seems timeless with high cathedral ceilings with full length windows. Internal walls are of Western red cedar and roof lining is rough sawn pine. The cost of such timber use in Australia would be prohibitive but obviously they are local species here.
We have walked along the cliffs and watched the plentiful seals resting and fishing in the nearby kelp forests. Deer are also plentiful and we have seen the odd jack rabbit which I would swear were hares. So far we haven't seen any raccoons yet but Ethen promises to show us some before we leave.
Although the kids have been riding the waves and paddling the water is far too cold for us. We have paddled but my feet ache the water is so cold. It is a shame because it would be fun to swim with the seals and we understand that abalone are relatively plentiful. The water is very clear and there is obviously plentiful fish if the diving pelicans are any indication.
So it off northwards tomorrow. We plan to travel through Oregon and Washington and may even get to Canada. We have about two weeks here before meeting up with Julia in New York.
2.
After a wonderful few days with our very hospital American friends we headed north up the Pacific coast. The roads are tortuously slow with 15 mph corners and very few straights. The surface however is brilliant with beautiful hotmix surfaces the norm - fantastic bike and motor bike riding. We saw quite a number of touring cyclists but it is very challenging territory with steep hills and fairly narrow roads with little shoulders. Cars travel fairly fast so I think we would think carefully before attempting such a trip.
The weather is frequently overcast and the sea fog seems to hang out to sea (at least whilst we have been here). The result is a grey landscape into the weathered wooden houses blend beautifully.
We stopped at a couple of small towns on the coast some of which are now largely catering to tourism but others were working towns with healthy fishing and forestry industries. Not far further we came into the redwood forests - which are stunning! Stayed at Eureka overnight at a very ordinary Motel - good to start low and work up!
Next day we diverted to a forest reserve named after Lady Bird Johnston who was the incunbant in the White House when the reserve was declared. We climbed up a steep bitumen road for probably about 8 km coming into cloud. Just as we parked a large log truck passed us going down which astounded me. It was a very narrow and windy steep downhill run to the coast but they obviously take it in their stride. For those interested they use timber jinkers but unlike Australian ones they need a crane at either end to load them onto the back of the truck - a disadvantage in Australia. They do however track perfectly because of the extended hitching point - hence they can negotiate very tight corners without going all over the road.
The rest of the day was spent driving through amazing forests heading inland to join up with Interstate 5. A straight run up along this highway covered most of Oregon in one day and we arrived in Portland which is at the northern end of Oregon. We had intended to drive to Canada on this road but decided that it was just too much driving and not enough sightseeing so have changed to a more leisurely route.
Driving on the wrong side of the road is a bit nerve racking at first but we are slowly getting used to it. I did have the idea that we would get away from traffic once we got away from San Francisco but this has proved to be wrong. It might be the time of year (summer) but all the main roads are full of cars, 4WDs, log trucks and any number of RVs (motorhomes and caravans).
As most who drive here soon observe the RVs are amazing. Full bus sized, specially made they cruise along at 100 km towing a large 4WD or the equivalent, and not just on the flat. We passed one going up a fairly steep hill which was still doing about 90 kph with a large 4WD on the back. It had a small sign saying 300 brake horsepower! Most of the caravans are like semi trailers i.e. they are hitched into the back of a ute. There are more of them in Australia now but here they are the norm. Rolo will be glad to hear we have seen two Avans!
We stayed two nights in Portland and spent the day looking over the "World Forestry Centre" which I had had some dealings with in my job. Although "World" mostly means USA there was some space devoted to world forestry. It was a most interesting display - even had a simulation machine of a mechanised tree feller. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Portland, a most interesting city. Kate managed to find the Columbia store and purchase some shorts which she is most pleased with.
After leaving Portland we diverted east for a visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. Without going into a boring background of how it was set up by the Evergreen Corporation it is sufficient to say that it is in the middle of nowhere and is a most amazing museum. Its greatest claim to fame is that it houses the Spruce Goose. Howard Hughes built this flying boat towards the end of the war mostly from wood and it is still the largest aircraft to fly. It has eight engines and is truly massive - even a jumbo jet is smaller. It only flew once and now has been lovingly restored and is the centre piece of the museum. Actually it dominates!! Lots of other planes are parked under it including the fastest ever built - the black bird stealth plane. I think Kate was a reluctant visitor but quickly became fascinated as it was so well done.
My favourite was a Mustang which was built towards the end of WW11. I grew up near Moorabinn Airport in Melbourne and there were a couple of these planes hangered there in the 1950s. They have a very distinctive sound from their massive single engine - quite unmistakeable. They could fly at over 40000 ft and for long distances - to accompany the long distance bombers flying from England to the continent during WW11.
We travelled west after this heading towards the inland north south route on the other side of the Cascades. We stopped overnight at Detroit Lake which is a picture postcard location on a lake which was in fact a dammed river used for hydro electricity. The place was crowded with campers and boaters. It didn't take long to walk over the town and the highlight was walking past the sheriff's office to see a sign saying that a cougar had been sighted in the town a few days before! I think it is the nearest we will get to one but we would have liked to have seen one (from the safety of our car of course!!).
Next day we stopped at Three Sisters and did a looped tour of the sights nearby. The town is named after the nearby three snow capped mountains (extinct volcanoes) nearby. The highlight was viewing a nearby forest fire which was burning about 6-8 km away. From our vantage point at about 5500 ft we were able to observe aerial water bombing with large tanker aircraft. I had read about it but obviously never seen it as we generally only use helicopters in Australia. It was hard to tell if they were doing any good and we didn't have the time to wait around.
In the afternoon we arrived at Bend and decided to stay for two nights. Spent a lazy day looking over the High Desert Museum - once again a very well done Museum. It was interesting to see this after visiting a similar display at Alice Springs last year. Although birds featured in a raptor display they don't seem to be so important as in Australia. Perhaps it is because of the high density of people and mammals. The emphasis in this museum was on the native indians and early explorers.
We are off south today to visit Crater Lake.
3.
We are now in Scunthorpe in North Linconshire, England staying with Jenny's parents, Dave and Jill. We flew from New York on Saturday night and spent most of Sunday waiting on platforms for connecting trains to here. Unfortunately for us, track works, a long weekend and a cancelled train due to a suicide up the line from us meant we had a long day waiting for four trains. The trans Atlantic trip has taken some adjustment too as it only takes about six hours but our watches needed to go back five hours. Consequently we were very grateful for the very warm reception and comfortable bed. It was also very pleasant to see Ben again - the whole point for the trip!!
But back a bit - I think we were in California with Lisa, Jim, Ethan and Miranda when last we wrote. We spent two nights there enjoying the Californian late summer on their beautiful property. They kindly took us to the Napa Valley where we visited two wineries. I found the vineyards fascinating. There was no evidence of mechanisation in harvesting - according to one guide the grapes were too valuable and would be damaged in the harvesting operation. Cynical me thought that they have a ready supply of cheap labour from south of the border and can do it cheaper manually! We did an interesting winery tour and tasted some foul wines (not just the ignorant writer's opinion either - noone liked them). We also tasted some fine wines at Jim and Lisa's favourite winery and now we know why. A great day, thank you Lisa and Jim.
There is a saying among caravanners and campers that Milton (my brother in law) and I have used for years - "He who has the most toys wins" - as a way of describing the best setups. Well as far as I am concerned Jim has topped us all. I just happened to notice on our second day at Citrus Heights a red convertible sports car in a side garage. On closer examination of the badgework I realised it was a Porshe Boxter! Even better Jim very generously gave me a ride in it on the next night. There is nothing quite like the sound of that flat six cylinder motor when it is given a bit of freedom to get going. Even more generously Jim gave me a drive and then both he and Lisa insisted that I take Kate for a spin - fantastic!! What a magnificent car!
Our flight to New York was uneventful if a bit long as we had to stop at Dallas Fort Wirth on the way. This is a huge airport and whilst we had 1.5 hours between flights we couldn't have walked to our terminal in adequate time it is that large and spread out. Fortunately driverless trains are used in airports now to ferry passengers between terminals, carparks, hotels and car rental sites which at first is a bit disconcerting!
At Newark airport in New Jersey we managed to find the train station and bought tickets to Penn Station on Manhatten. Unfortunately we got on the wrong train - not used to privatised train companies competing for the same destination on the same track. Fortunately the conductor took pity on us and let us stay on the train to our destination.
Whilst waiting for the train by ourselves in the waiting room we overheard a sob story from a young man who had lost his wallet at the airport. He had just come into the waiting room and was not in our view but we could hear him quite clearly. We heard him telling hospital staff other doctors would have to cover for him as he had no money to travel into the hospital. He said that he had been to the police and that his credit cards had been safely stopped. His story was so good that we were both going to go over to him and offer him some money when our train arrived and we couldn't offer. A little later it occurred to us that it was probably an elaborate hoax and that we had only been saved by the train - just a little too perfect tale or are we just getting too cynical?
Anyway we managed to find our way to the large youth hostel which Kate had booked and met up with Julia who had flown in the night before. Unfortunately they had stuffed up our booking and we were in a six-bedder with other people instead of a three bedder by ourselves. Negotiations for correction of the situation failed and after a protracted session on the internet and phone calls we took a cab to the Holiday Inn in Soho near the Chinese area in Lafayette Street.
The taxi trip was an experience in itself - essentially it is a drag race from one set of lights to the next red light intersperced with horn blowing to warn pedestrians crossing against the lights. The philosophy seems to be that the faster you go the more lights you will get through. Although the speed limit is 40kph it is not uncommon to be flying along at 80kph. Fortunately we escaped without incident and, to me, at a relatively inexpensive cost.
As an aside, noone seems to be worried about speeding in the USA. Although there are warning signs of "radar control" everyone seems to be doing at least 20 kph over the limit. Whilst driving in Oregon I was constantly being overtaken and the heavier the traffic the worse it seemed. It takes a bit of getting used to after the constant harrassment in Australia for being just a bit over the limit!!
Although the accommodation was a bit substandard after the other Holiday Inns we had been used to, we decided to stay here for our seven days despite the cost. I will remember it for a long time as the internet charges were horrendous. We had got used to free internet in other Holiday Inns but this one charged $1 for four minutes - $US15 per hour!! So that is my excuse for not writing sooner!!
New York is huge and a bit hard to come to terms with at first. Apart from my usual problem in the northern hemisphere of lacking any sense of direction - the direction of the sun is all wrong - it is very flat and distinguishing landmarks are hard to see. We lined up for the double decker bus tour which took three days to complete - a downtown tour, an uptown tour and a Brooklyn tour across the river. These tours took us to most of the main tourist attractions but there was so much detail imparted by the tour guides that it all became a bit much after a while and merged into a blur.
We managed to get tickets to a matinee performance of Mamma Mia which Kate enjoyed enormously "best live show she had ever seen", walked in Central Park, celebrated Kate's birthday with a night out at Enricos on Blekker Street, ran along the footpaths adjoining the Hudson River and walked and subwayed through most districts in the city.
After Julia left for Canada we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was mind boggling. I think you would need days to do it justice. It has an amazing collection of Egyptian art and artifacts which we were told was the second or third best in the world. The modern art section was stunning with lots of famous artists - the highlight was a wall full of Picasos. Some of the exhibits were amazing in their scale - there was a cricket oval sized gallery with an Egyptian temple and entrance way; a re-creation of a room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright which was stunning - all round windows and beautiful timber; and a two story facade of a former bank form the 1800s. We both wished we had greater stamina but our legs gave out after about five hours.
Finally we did a ferry tour of New York Harbour getting close up to the Statue of Liberty and seeing the tall buildings from a different perspective.
4.
A bit slow in getting started on this one as the French keyboards have a few letters in the wrong places. The a q w m z and full stop are all situated differently so touch typing is very difficult for this decrepit individual. Dont know how you managed to write your emails, Heather.
When I last wrote I think we were in Scunthorpe with Ben and Jennys parents, Jill and Dave. We took a trip up to Stirling in Scotland to see Jenny and to drop off some of their possesions. Although it was about six hours of motorway driving it was hard work as the roads are very busy with three lanes of constantly changing trucks, cars, motorhomes, caravans etc.
Their new flat is in a wonderful position right in the middle of town below the fort and Jenny was very well although finding the new full time teaching job challenging.
Back in Scunthorpe on the following Saturday we mounted our new touring bicycles at the crack of dawn with panniers loaded with clothes and rode them to the station to catch the train to Plymouth, about six hours trip. Travelling with bicycles on trains in the UK is challenging as Rob Caune our friend in London warned us. We had booked this trip over the internet prior to leaving Australia but were unable to book the bikes. When we got to the UK we tried to book the bicycles but found the four places available on the train were already booked. So custmer relations on Virgin Trains managed to book the bikes on an earlier train but couldnt change our tickets - another phone call! Yes we could change our tickets but instead of the advance purchase price of 44 pounds it would cost 189 pounds. No way were we going to pay that!!
So off we went on the earlier train with Kate wondering and worrying qll the way whether we were going to be thrown off the train by the conductor because our tickets were for the next train (our bikes were fine). Which is what happened to one cyclist who got on without booking when the baggage area became too crowded. Fortunately our trip was uneventful.
(Wow, I have managed to hit a combination of keys which have converted this keyboard to Querty do I can touch type again!)
Safely in Plymouth we rode to the ferry terminal to book our bikes for the trip to Roscoff in Brittany, once again we couldn't do this on the internet. Fortunately no problem, so after a pleasant night in Plymouth we caught the ferry to Roscoff next morning in the misty rain. We had hoped to enjoy the voyage across the channel but for most of the way we couldn't see more than a couple of hundred metres which wasn't much fun! Still we had a pleasant introduction to the French way of life or rather food when lunch time came around. We didn't wish to spend a lot of money so while Kate was sleeping off the travel sickness Quell she had taken when the boat got a bit of a rock up, I purchased some chips and a hot dog. Wow what the French can do to a hot dog! Apart from the nice sausage the roll was a bagette ..... amazing taste!
After arriving at Roscoff at 3 pm we planned to ride to Treflez to Jenny's Uncle and Aunty's house and spend the next two weeks using it as a base for a holiday with Ben and Jenny and Julia. We had to ride about 30 kilometres with loaded bikes which should have been no problem. Alas our intermittent running had not retained the level of fitness we had hoped for so it was a bit of a struggle! To add to our woes we had some difficulty finding the place. Without going into a long explanation we eventually found the place with the help of an old woman and some broken French. Boy were we grateful to arrive. The saga hadn't finished there however.
Next morning we had to ride to Brest airport (about 35 km unloaded this time) to pick up our leased car and meet Ben. We set off in plenty of time and even stopped for a coffee. Although the traffic was fairly heavy we were treated with great respect and thought we had arrived in cycling paradise!! Unfortunately we arrived unexpectedly at a motorway. We had been following the signs to Brest and had not been taking too much notice of the route numbers. After scratching our heads we asked a young man where we were and fortunately he had some English. We discovered we were about 15 kilometres out of our way and we only had about 45 minutes to be at our prearranged meeting for picking up the car!! We headed down onto the freeway but were waved back by a passing motorist who left us in no doubt that we were not to go down there! Cyclists are banned!
So it was a mad panic along rural lanes paralleling the freeway to reach the airport for these tired little hungry rabbits - not much open on Sunday nights for purchasing ingredients for breakfast and the bar we got coffee in had no food! Funnily enough our car man wasn't there (Ben was) so after enquiries at the car hire place he was summonsed. A bit later he arrived - he had expected us on the previous day!! Fortunately he wasn't upset and we rapidly got acquainted with our new car. I won't say which of us made the mistake of putting in the wrong date and therefore costing us a day extra charges but it wasn't the Frenchman and it wasn't the person who gets me to type these emails!
Our new Citroen C4 is a delight! It has a 1.6 litre turbo charged intercooled diesel which is amazingly powerful - feels like a V8 with the low down pull. And the economy is fantastic, with a range of over 1000 km I think we are getting close to 5 litres per 100 km travelling at freemay speed.
Julia arrived safely on the following Thursday after the airlines loosing her bag on the trip to Toronto. At last report they had located it but because her ticket was with an airline which is about to fold, and she was flying with another airline, and she had moved from Canada to the UK, and because she had flown to Brittany, and because she was returning to New York etc etc etc they have been unable to reunite Julia and her bag. She has been given some money to get by but hopes they can reunite her with her belongings.
Brittany has been very kind to us with beautiful weather, about 20-23 degrees every day with little rain. It is supposed to be cool and wet. The countryside is a patchwork of cultivated fields which go right to the roadside - fences where they exist are overgrown stone ones and any dairy cattle are contained with electric fences. The herds are quite small by Australian standards - about 40 cows at most, probably limited by the need to house them during winter. The crops are mostly vegetables - cauliflowers, cabbages, zucchinis, carrots, the famous Brittany onions and lettuces. Corn or maize is also grown extensively and harvested by a mulching machine at ground level for fodder (we think). Seems they store it as silage above ground covered by plastic and earth.
The highlight has been the food. We have been living on bagettes and frequenting the local restaurants for the farmers lunches (multiple courses and a bottle of water and light red wine) and at other times for the evening meal. We are yet to be disappointed with the food here!! In order to justify all this eating we have been running together on the nearby beaches and riding bikes to local attractions. It has been great fun having the family together on the other side of the world - just a shame Jenny couldnt make it.
Kate has been improving her French and Ben has shown a talent. Kinda been forced on him for survival as he flew to Brest on a cheap flight two days before we arrived. He was going to depend on Jenny (who is fluent) but unfortunately with her new job she was unable to join us. So he is rolling his Rs with the best of them. Julia and I have not had the opportunity for much interaction with the locals, living with those two extroverts (at least that is the excuse we are currently using!!).
Last Saturday we finished our Brittany holiday, dropped Ben and Julia at the airport and drove to Thomas home in Roen. Thomas visited Australia twice as a French exchange student staying with Julie at Warragul in Victoria. We got to know him when he visited Canberra - we took him to visit Sydney. Patrick and Cathy, Thomas parents, treated us to a six course home cooked dinner party French style - fantastic!! We have been getting on famously with our broken French and their much better English. They are great hosts!
Roen is a wonderful city and with locals telling us where to go we have been having a great time. But more next time! We have a few more days in France then back to the UK and London to visit Rob and Christy.
5.
Back in England with a proper keyboard!! I did manage to convert the French keyboard to the standard querty one but after I logged out of Hotmail it reverted to the French layout again. I tried but could never find out how I managed to convert it in the first place - one of the mysteries of life!
We stayed in Roen for three nights with Thomas parents, Patrick and Cathy, enjoying their wonderful hospitality and the sights and sounds of the city. Although heavily bombed in WW2 much of the old town survived and it was wonderful to wander through the tiny streets with wonky buildings at all angles showing the great antiquity of the place. They live about 2 km high above the city and we walked down on our first day (Sunday) when we were lucky to see many of the major buildings open to the public. There seems to be a massive church at every corner all of which are Catholic. Seems the royalty built one to balance the indiscretions of their relationships - buying their way into heaven, or so the locals tell us! We struggled back up the hill after 4 hours of wandering.
The next day we finished the walking tour we had started on our bikes and rode up and down the river pathway. On both occasions we saw luxury barges tied up at the wharf. These apparently journey up and down the 200 km of river to Paris treating guests to magnificent views of the French countryside in 5 star luxury, or so it seemed to these envious observers. We found out how useful our very low ranged gears were on the way back as we ascended the hill home. Kate thought it was easier than walking but perhaps that was because we hadn't been on our feet for four hours!
We headed for the Normandy coast at Fecamp which looks much like the coast at Dover. Probably logical as the white rock makng up the cliffs looks identical! We wandered the town and came upon the Benedictine distillery. The building is magnificent housing a collection of ancient art work which can be viewed as part of the self guided tour of the distillery. We even sampled a Benedictine cocktail which was delightful - even got the recipe! The straight stuff is too powerful for me!
From there we wandered northwards along the coastal backroads barely making 40 kph because of their narrow, winding nature. Apparently it is a favoured haunt of cyclists if the signing is any indication. There were signs everywhere warning of cyclists' presence. Although we didn't see many we thought it would be a fantastic area to tour in. We stayed in the lovely coastal town of Dieppe that night wandering the old streets in the evening.
Just outside the town is the Green highway. This is a 40 km rail trail French style. In contrast to the efforts in Australia the old line has been converted into a cycling highway of high quality hotmix bitumen which is 3-4 metres wide - fantastic for recreational cycling. It was being used by locals as well as tourists and considering it was outside the holiday period it was surprising how many bikes we passed. We rode for 20 km inland before returning to our start point. We had hoped to have lunch at one of the villages along the way but unfortunately they were too small to support a restaurant.
We did have one problem with the bike on this trip - my chain broke or came apart. I guess it hadn't been joined properly as the rivet had worked its way out. Fortunately I had my compact tool kit (a present from friends on my 50th - very grateful to have it on this occasion - thanks guys!) which had a chain breaker so was able to fix the break rapidly.
Onwards to Calais for the night up one of the magnificent freeways at 130 kph. We found a hotel in the heart of the city and thought we would do a quick recce for the morning to make sure we had time to drop off the car and get on the ferry. About an hour later we returned to the hotel defeated. It seems a ferry went beserk some time ago and drove through the end of a wharf. This necessitated a diversion for people coming from Calais as the repair work has been held up for some time due to a difference of opinion between the insurance company and the authorities. Things are so different sometimes but so similar on others!! Turned out we had only missed one turn and had become confused because we had returned to the motorway - this was the way in!!
The ferry crossing to Dover next morning was uneventful on a lovely clear day. We could see the UK before we started and we didn't even have to pay for our bikes! The fun started when we reached London after the rail triip from Dover. We arrived at Victoria Station and had to navigate our way by bicycle to Rotherhithe where Rob and Christie live. On our previous trips here we had done our movements around the city using the "mole technique". You navigate the Underground to where you want to go, pop up, look around, pop down into the Underground again go to the next destination, pop up, look around, pop down etc. It does nothing for getting a general picture of the city and with my usual problems of being disoriented as to where north is in the northern hemisphere it took a £5 A-Z directory and 45 minutes to decide which direction to go. Kate was very patient!
Needless to say London traffic is fairly horrendous and all the more so when you don't know where you are going. The street names change frequently even on the same route so there were many stops and walks before we reached our destination. Things have improved with the traffic as there are now some bike lanes and you can use the dedicated bus lanes. Also the drivers are more tolerant of cyclists and they don't travel very fast in inner London. It was a warm afternoon and evening and we had a very refreshing ale (Kate) and cider (me) while we waited for Rob to get home.
We had a few more drinks over tea whilst catching up with Rob and Christie - very pleasant. Their apartment occupies the 5th and top floors of a tower block facing south so it gets lovely sunshine and has views of Tower Bridge, the London Eye and lots of other buildings. It is also next to one of the old wharf areas so there is a lake area separated from the Thames by a lock which is about 500 m long - used for sail boat training. Fantastic spot.
Next day we went to the Tate Gallery and looked at two floors of amazing artwork before our legs gave out. Apart from the art the visitors made an interesting spectacle - lots of school children studying and drawing the art work, presumeably as part of their art studies. On one occasion I was taken aback by five gorgeous black schoolgirls sprawling on chairs with somewhat bored looks on their faces - I wasn't sure it wasn't a work of art!! I would have loved to take a photo but wasn't game! After crossing the Millenium Bridge we had lunch and wandered the city till our legs gave out again. Back into the Underground and back to our temporary refuge.
On the weekend Rob and Christie took us down to the New Forest area where Rob was competing in a half ironman triathlon. Christie took us on a loop ride on our bikes along narrow country lanes through many small villages - it took most of the day so we didn't get to see Rob competing. Rob came 18th overall in a field of 300 and won his age group - a great effort! We really enjoyed our weekend with Rob and Christie and wished we could have stayed to sample the delights of London longer - thanks guys!
Next day we had another ride through London to Kings Cross Station fully loaded for our trip to Stirling. It was bucketting down when we left so we got fairly wet despite raincoats and mudguards. Fortunately it wasn't very cold so we suffered no ill effects. This time the traffic was lighter and because we knew where we were going and what to expect it didn't seem so bad. Almost a pleasant way of getting around! Not sure Kate would agree!
Much of these travelogues concerns the journey and not so much the destination - seems to be the theme of this holiday. The train trip to Stirling was no exception. At Edinburgh we found out that there were engineering works at Stirling so the train wasn't running. After a few anxious moments we discovered that we need to travel to a station on a nearby line and connect by bus. When we got to that station we had to get our bikes onto a double decker bus for the final leg. This proved interesting but we finally got panniers and bikes loaded. There followed the ride from hell!! I didn't appreciate how fast double decker buses could corner! Fortunately we were on the botom floor as we would have been terrified on the upper level. I had to get Kate to look across the bus as her eyes were coming out on stalks as we negotiated roundabouts. Fortunately top speed of double deckers is limited so he couldn't go too fast on the straight stretches. The funny thing was that the locals didn't bat an eye!
So we are based in Stirling for the next week or so and hopefully will do some trips away. Ben and Jenny have settled into their jobs and Ben has even managed to get some days off. Hopefully we can do some trips.
6.
I think we had just arrived in Stirling, Scotland when last I wrote. Scotland was very kind to us with the weather - although it rained regularly it didn't stop us doing anything and the temperatures were very mild.
Ben and Jenny's flat was located on the old town right in the centre of things. Unfortunately at night time on certain days of the week this made things fairly noisy. We were woken on a couple of nights by revellers making their way home from the nightspots. I think the old town provided good echos for these happy people as they kept singing and shouting - a bit like singing or whistling in the shower, or so it seemed to me. The flat faces south and has those lovely double glazed English windows which can be opened inwards at the top about 6 inches or pivotted at either side to open fully inwards. When closed they are also very soundproof. Wish I could afford to install similar window at home!
We spend the four remaining weekdays exploring the town and local countryside. We did a few runs, one in the misty morning rain which was not unpleasant although we arrived home soaked. Ben managed to get three days off so took us in his little Vauxhall diesel car (given to him by a friend on her departure from the UK) around the local area.
One of the highlights for me was a visit to the Falkirk Wheel. What is the Falkirk Wheel I hear you ask? It is a marvelous piece of engineering which has replace more than six locks on the canal which joins Edinburgh and Glasgow. The waterways department is restoring the canals in the UK faster than they were originally built due, I suppose, to demand from the public for recreational facilities. So they have been restoring this canal and replaced the multiple locks needed to get over the nearby hill with the Falkirk Wheel. This has now become a major tourist attraction.
If you can envisage sitting in a boat in the Falkirk Wheel lock you would see two giant arms attached to the lock at either end. Directly above you you would see another bit of lock attached to the other ends of the arms (effectively the arms are wheels). As the arms turn (they are pivotted in the middle) your bit of lock would gradually move sideways and upwards and the bit of lock above you would also move sideways and downwards, both bits of the lock are full of water (effectively like a big barrell turning). Cunningly the bits of lock stay horizontal - all the water remains in the lock. After the arms have rotated 180 degrees your bit of lock would be on the top and the other bit would be on the bottom. (The whole process takes a couple of minutes and once the rotation is complete the respective lock doors can be opened to the adjoining canals and the boats can continue on their way either about 50 ft higher or lower than when they arrived at the lock. One of the beauties of this system is that it takes no water to operate as the bits of lock are always filled to lock level. (With conventional locks you always loose a lock full of water downwards with each complete cycle).
Now the question which springs to mind is what happens if one lock is full of boats and the other section is empty of boats will the system become unbalanced? We were told that each part of the lock could hold about 8 narrow boats. Have a think about it! A fella called Archimedes might be able to help you. Answer at end!
Travelling by train we also spent a day in Dublin. Ben and Jenny had spent most of 2005 living there so Ben was able to escort us around the highlights and we also did the red bus tour. There are some amazing old buildings which were built when the Glasgow was the centre of tobacco trade. Once again the weather held so we could sit on the top deck of the open double decker - this time at a much more sedate pace!
On the weekend we travelled with Jenny, who had been working hard at the local high school, to the Island of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. We had a lovely time touring the island on the narrow roads (you had to back up to a passing spot if someone came the other way!) and stayed in the lovely harbour village overnight. We did some walks and even travelled on a narrow gauge railway to a nearby castle - it was supposed to be a steam train (we had seen it from the ferry on the previous day) but they had a sick staff member so they had to bring out the diesel which was not nearly so romantic! There seem to be castles and forts all over this part of Scotland which perhaps reflects that turbulent and violent history! Travelling home through the highlands on Sunday afternoon was beautiful with abundant rains overnight making the local rivers run bankers.
During the following week we travelled to Dundee where Ben works and met him for lunch. He travels by train for an hour each way and is now an expert on world affairs as he reads the excellent UK newspapers from cover to cover on the train. Being on the east coast Dundee is in a rain shadow so gets slightly less cloud and slightly more sun than other parts of Scotland. It is a delightful town on the Firth of Tay and we spent a pleasant afternoon wandering along the Firth in Ben's car before picking him up from work and joining the evening rush along the motorway back to Stirling. Some people here seem to commute long distances to work if the crowded motorways are anything to judge by.
We also put our bikes to good use wandering through the local villages and staying off the main roads. During one of our rides we picked up a National Bike Route out of Stirling. Being curious and not knowing where it went we dutifully followed the signs along a back road, a busy minor road then onto a bypassed road alongside another busy road. There was even a recently-restored ancient stone bridge which had been a key route centuries ago - all very pleasant.
We then saw a sign which we thought might bring us back to Stirling by a different route (turns out it was just the angle it was positioned at and we should have retraced our route to get back to Striling). There followed a couple of hours trying to find our way around some minor road works, following a lane to a dead end, wandering through a deserted chock farm, retracing our steps to find the missed sign, following a footpath alongside the Forth River, being caught in a thunderstorm and finally emerging into a village which originally serviced the huge storage sheds we had been passing. Turns out the sheds were bond storage facilities for oak barrels full of whisky. There were acres of them and we had no idea that there were so many oak barrels in the world let alone this small area of Scotland!! At this stage we realised the route continued on to places further along the Forth rather than Stirling so we decided to abandon the cycle route and seek another way back to Stirling. Turned out we were only a kilometre from where we had made our wrong turn so it wasn't far back - we had done a large loop!
At the end of the week we packed up our bikes into cardboard boxes obtained from the local bike shop loaded them onto Ben's car in the pouring rain (fortunately I had bought a tarpaulin for the job) and drove to Edinburgh airport and a boarded a flight to Heathrow. This got around the problem of travelling with the bikes on the Underground in London which would have been a nightmare. That night we boarded a flight to Bangkok.
As you know Thailand is now under martial law after a military coupe. We had rung Qantas and looked at the Foreign Affairs website before deciding to follow our original plans - seemed the risk was low. And this is how it turned out - if you didn't know you would never guess that the country was being run by the military. In fact I felt more threatened when we stopped for refuelling in Bangkok on a previous trip when there were soldiers brandishing sub machine guns at the airport. We did decide however not to leave Bangkok and to stay in the Shangri La hotel (Kate has very fond memories of staying in the Shangri La in Borneo a few years ago so didn't take much persuading!).
So we had a lovely four days based in a room on the sixth floor overlooking the river. We guessed the military coupe had affected tourism as the hotel was not exactly overcrowded but noone was talking about it. We had great service and the breakfasts are to die for!!
The city is very large and spread out with high rises as far as the eye can see. It still has that Asian city feel about it with the very modern next to the crowded old sections, the street vendors and the motorbikes. By contrast to Hanoi it is very clean, despite the number of people, and cars outnumber the motorbikes. The locals are very helpful and English seems to be widely understood and spoken. It was the monsoon season so there was some torrential rain at times, fortunately not stopping us doing what we planned.
So we did a few tours, a bit of shopping, watched the river traffic and generally took it easy. It was a very pleasant way to end our trip. We arrived home on Thursday and are settling back into Eagle Circuit which is very pleasant after so long away. You can't beat being at home in your own bed!!
And the answer to the Falkirk Lock question is that the system will be perfectly balanced. The reason is that the boats displace their own weight of water (Archimedes Principle) so provided the levels of water in the locks is always the same (as it is) the lock full of boats will weigh the same as the one with no boats. Cunning eh???
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