Category Archives: Uncategorized

The flights from Hong Kong to Dubai and from Dubai to Glasgow went as well as they could. On the first flight Patricia and I had a row of 4 seats to ourselves. This meant that we could take turns lying down to try to sleep. Almost as soon as we stepped into Dubai airportContinue reading “Home Sunday 23rd February”

Our last day in Hong Kong. We will leave the hotel at 2015 for our 0035 flight to Dubai where Patricia and I will part company. We had to pass through temporary hoardings to reach the escalators. The system is being refurbished. It was built in the 1990s, is 800m long and rises 135 m.

All 14 of us set off for a guided tour of HongKong Island During the day a young Hong Kong man beamed and called out “Welcome” to us. Later another beamed and gave us the thumbs up. I think they were delighted that some tourists have actually come to HongKong.

Breakfast at 6am then off to Sydney Airport for our 9 hour flight to Hong Kong. 8 of the 14 of us will go on a 4/5 h tour tomorrow. Thank heavens we don’t need to leave until 0930. It has been a long day, we were up at 0445 this morning and although itContinue reading “HongKong Thursday 20th February”

Our last day in Australia. We planned an easy day before our Sydney Opera House outing. The two combined shopping plazas were mixed indoor and outdoor areas all squashed in higgledy-piggledy between high rise office blocks. The area was thronged with young professionals on lunch breaks. These 3 photos are of the eating areas withinContinue reading “Sydney Wednesday 19th February”

A city coach tour of Sydney this morning followed by a harbour lunch cruise. Michelle and Ian were the last to climb. It is quite arduous; several sets of 40 or more steep steps as well as steady uphill walking. It was late evening and they were caught in a thunderstorm on the way backContinue reading “Sydney Tuesday 18th February”

Time to leave the Northern Territory today and travel to Sydney Until 2005 the education was delivered to children isolated in the outback using mail and radio. Next stop was Alice Springs Airport for our flight to Sydney. A number of flies seemed keen to travel with us! We ate at a nearby Italian restaurantContinue reading “Sydney Monday 17th February”

Amongst other things, we were on the hunt for swimsuits as we had belatedly remembered ours were still hanging on the balcony of our Cairns hotel. We had a successful morning buying swimsuits in an amazingly cheap shop for under £4 each. We went back in and bought shorts, T-shirts and I even bought shoes!Continue reading “Alice Springs Sunday 16th February”

We all enjoyed a fantastic BBQ evening in a quarry at a farm outside Alice Springs, all finished off with the best stargazing session I’ve ever experienced. We saw the Southern Cross and much much more; the final touch. The finale was a superb stargazing session in the evening warmth. Graham was knowledgable and aContinue reading “Alice Springs Saturday 15th February”

After our 0345 wake up calls we all dutifully appeared in the lobby of our Cairns hotel for the promised tea/coffee/juice/fruit and croissants. The hotel let us down. One poor man from the kitchens brought out the oddest things to eat; sushi, chicken wraps etc but no croissants! The coffee machine was eventually switched onContinue reading “Ayers Rock Friday 14th February”