RTW3 – Flight to Townsville, Australia – Day 303 (113)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 303 (113)Flight to TownsvilleWednesday 5th January (2005) With nearly four weeks since I wrote my last line of this journal, I had to sit here for a moment trying to work out how to get back into the swing of things again. Perhaps I should first […]

RTW3 – Airlie Beach, Australia – Day 304 (114)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 304 (114)Airlie BeachThursday 6th January (2005) ). Even though we were very comfortable and we rested all through the night, sleeping over at Kim & Judy’s meant listening to a fantastic cacophony of wild animals sounds. Had I not known better, I would have thought us […]

RTW3 – Great Barrier Reef, Australia – Day 305 (115)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 305 (115)Great Barrier ReefFriday 7th January (2005) When we checked into our backpacker accommodation yesterday, we asked if we could first see the room but left a AU$50 (€30) deposit – coincidentally the cost of one night’s accommodation. Somewhat absentmindedly, we never went back to reception […]

RTW3 – Airlie Beach, Australia – Day 308 (118)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 308 (118)Airlie BeachMonday 10th January (2005) Precisely as predicted, I had no strength left in me to write up my daily journal entries whilst on board the Oceania. The intense diving schedule had so much taken its toll, in fact, that I didn’t even have any […]

RTW3 – Townsville, Australia – Day 309 (119)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 309 (119)TownsvilleTuesday 11th January (2005) Even though we were in bed and off to slumber-land quite early last night, I was still surprised to find us both up and active relatively early this morning. By all accounts, we should have slept in till well past noon […]

RTW3 – Townsville, Australia – Day 310 (120)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 310 (120)TownsvilleWednesday 12th January (2005) The rest of the household was already awake by the time I got up this morning – nothing new there. We had previously arranged to spend today at the Billabong Sanctuary just South of Townsville. As a nice surprise, Judy’s mother […]

RTW3 – Tully, Australia – Day 311 (121)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 311 (121)TullyThursday 13th January (2005) Another superb breakfast was laid on for us again this morning and we once again wanted for nothing. We already said goodbye to Kim last night, since it was a foregone conclusion that he would long be at work by the […]

RTW3 – Tully, Australia – Day 312 (122)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 312 (122)TullyFriday 14th January (2005) Somewhat of a milestone was reached this morning when we used our own supermarket purchases for breakfast. This is the first time on this trip that we’ve bought and cooked our own food as opposed to eating in restaurants or enjoying […]

RTW3 – Innisfail, Australia – Day 313 (123)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 313 (123)InnisfailSaturday 15th January (2005) After breakfast this morning, we toyed with the idea of hanging around in Tully for another day. We had a lot of fun with some of the other guests last night but, on reflection, there really wasn’t anything else left to […]

RTW3 – Innisfail, Australia – Day 314 (124)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 314 (124)InnisfailSunday 16th January (2005) The sky this morning was very overcast and grey. If it were not for the high humidity, I might have thought I was back in England. The weather pattern for the past couple of days has been cloudy in the morning […]

RTW3 – Atherton, Australia – Day 315 (125)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 315 (125)AthertonMonday 17th January (2005) With a full day of driving around the Atherton Tablelands ahead of us today, we bid farewell to another hostel after polishing off breakfast and clearing our things back into their respective backpacks. The Atherton Tablelands is the name given to […]

RTW3 – Atherton, Australia – Day 316 (126)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 316 (126)AthertonTuesday 18th January (2005) We’ve done a fair bit of travelling about over the past few days so we decided to step down a gear or two for today and restricted ourselves to sightseeing in the immediate vicinity only. We also afforded ourselves a long […]

RTW3 – Flight to Uluru, Australia – Day 322 (132)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 322 (132)Flight to UluruMonday 24th January (2005) Let’s see now, I’ve not written anything at all for the past five days. For someone who sits and writes this daily journal religiously for at least two hours every night, that’s quite an unusual and protracted length of […]

RTW3 – Curtain Springs, Australia – Day 323 (133)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 323 (133)Curtain SpringsTuesday 25th January (2005) I suppose I really ought to get back into the habit of writing my daily journal entries again. I was going to do so last night but we decided to watch a DVD on the laptop instead and I was […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 324 (134)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 324 (134)PerthWednesday 26th January (2005) We awoke this morning to the sound of hundreds of small Zebra Finches flying around the trees outside our cabin. Many of the birds we might typically see caged as pets back in Europe, such as finches, parrots, parakeets, cockatoos and […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 325 (135)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 325 (135)PerthThursday 27th January (2005) Sandy’s doctor’s appointment here in Perth, that we booked whilst in Queensland, was for this morning at ten forty-five. This allowed us the luxury of a bit of a lie in which, together with the change in the time zone, meant […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 326 (136)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 326 (136)PerthFriday 28th January (2005) The joys of travelling, with no job, no bills to pay or any other care in the world, afforded us yet another long lie in this morning. Isn’t life hard? With fresh food in the kitchen today, we managed to make […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 327 (137)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 327 (137)PerthSaturday 29th January (2005) We’ve not yet started to explore Perth or immediate surroundings at all so far. Perhaps this has also contributed to the lack of any need for us to get out of bed each morning since we’ve been here. Whatever it is, […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 328 (138)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 328 (138)PerthSunday 30th January (2005) Since we arrived here in Perth, we’ve strangely had a long lie in each day. This little luxury is becoming progressively better and better. I remained in bed until just about noon today and by the time we were both up […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 329 (139)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 329 (139)PerthMonday 31st January (2005) Enough of all these long lie-ins in the mornings already – we had to wrench ourselves out of bed by as early as ten-thirty this morning, so that we could eat breakfast before setting off for a day of sightseeing. Oh […]

RTW3 – Perth, Australia – Day 330 (140)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 330 (140)PerthTuesday 1st February (2005) We got a head start on the day by getting up earlier than usual this morning. I was eager to call the airlines to make the necessary routing changes to our flights so that we can arrive home by the end […]

RTW3 – Fremantle, Australia – Day 331 (141)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 331 (141)FremantleWednesday 2nd February (2005) Before dropping off last night, we walked outside and had a good look at the stars. The Milky Way was really bright with several star clouds easily visible to the naked eye. Having driven five hours into the middle of the […]

RTW3 – Adelaide, Australia – Day 332 (142)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 332 (142)AdelaideThursday 3rd February (2005) We liked Perth but the bad experience we had with that bitch that threw us out into the street has sort of taken the edge off of the overall experience for us. We liked Fremantle a lot more and I now […]

RTW3 – Adelaide, Australia – Day 333 (143)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 333 (143)AdelaideFriday 4th February (2005) We had decided yesterday evening to spend a couple of nights here in Willunga so that we wouldn’t have to spend another five hours in the car again on the heels of several days of intense travelling. Accordingly, we had no […]

RTW3 – Mt. Gambier, Australia – Day 334 (144)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 334 (144)Mt. GambierSaturday 5th February (2005) ). By the time we went to bed last night, we were both suffering from dozens of little bumps on our skin that were itching something terrible. They weren’t gnat bites or mosquito stings but probably more like sandfly bites. […]

RTW3 – Warrnambool, Australia – Day 335 (145)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 335 (145)WarrnamboolSunday 6th February (2005) We awoke this morning with a few new sandfly bites but much fewer than the past couple of days. The old bites were still itching a bit and the new ones were now driving us crazy so we decided to find […]

RTW3 – Lorne, Australia – Day 336 (146)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 336 (146)LorneMonday 7th February (2005) Just before leaving the hostel this morning, Sandy bought a couple of AU$10 (€6,10) calling cards. We are planning on revealing our little secret when we get back to Melbourne tomorrow and are expecting to spend a lot of time on […]

RTW3 – Sydney, Australia – Day 355 (165)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 355 (165)SydneySaturday 26th February (2005) Well, that very sad day, that I knew would come but was nevertheless dreading anyway, finally arrived this morning and we had to say a sad farewell to Ree-Ree and the rest of the family. Whatever feeble words I might muster […]

RTW3 – Sydney, Australia – Day 356 (166)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 356 (166)SydneySunday 27th February (2005) Almost without realising it, we’ve quietly reached another geographical milestone. On the grand scale of round-the-world travel, Sydney with its famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge is one of those must-see places that most Europeans would consider including on their travel […]

RTW3 – Sydney, Australia – Day 357 (167)

Australia – Round The World Tour 3 2004 Day 357 (167)SydneyMonday 28th February (2005) We crammed a lot in yesterday and that has left us with fewer things on the to-do list today, which was made evident by the relaxed start to the morning. At eleven-forty, I should probably be calling it afternoon, as that […]