UK and Europe 2023!

I’m off! Well, I’ve left Melbourne, and yesterday Luke and I drove to Albury for the first and tiny step on this trip.

Being less fit than last time, the packing has been much more minimal!

Here’s the brief itinerary for anyone interested, and if you have suggestions of things to do or places to go in these locations, speak now!

Flying out of Sydney April 10 with Asiana (a Korean airline) arriving in London April 11 via an overnight stopover in Seoul.

Three weeks solo in the Lake District, hopefully doing a bit of wild camping.

First two weeks of May with Daniel walking the Camino Ingles from Ferrol and seeing Santiago de Compostela.

Two weeks with Luke’s family in the Lake District.

A week in London with Luke’s parents.

Two weeks e-bike cycling in Switzerland and Austria between St Moritz and Innsbruck with time in Salzburg and a night in Hallstatt.

A couple of weeks back in the UK visiting Northern Ireland and travelling around.

In the morning Luke dropped Bonnie off at her version of Disneyland (long term in-home care with her favourite dogs and people) for the next 3 and a half months. While it would have been nice if she’d looked even a tiny bit sad, apparently there wasn’t even a backward glance as she raced into their backyard.

We drove up from Melbourne yesterday, leaving the rain behind and arriving to lovely sunshine in Albury. Luke’s mother, Lea, is away on a girls’ weekend with her four sisters so we are spending time with Luke’s dad. Pete.

After an afternoon visit with Kath, Luke’s nan, we settled on the couch with some wine, gourmet sausage rolls (blue cheese, walnuts and pork – delicious! Thanks Kath!) and watched a few episodes of Eugene Levy’s ‘Reluctant Traveller’.

Nothing better than relaxing with family!

Luke caught the train back to Melbourne today and I headed off to Orange for a week. I’ll then be flying to Sydney and catching my flight from there as Asiana doesn’t fly from Melbourne.

I had planned a solo mini adventure on the way to Orange via the Yarrangobilly thermal pool. I’d seen it online, and the appeal of a chlorine-free, 27 degree pool out in the middle of a National park was very strong. I left Albury at just past 11am, since the drive to the pool was supposed to take almost four hours.

Unfortunately, due to my slow driving and several stops, I didn’t get to the car park until 4:30. The ranger in the ticket office said the walk down was *steep*, which didn’t fill me with confidence. My walking buddy, Charmaine, had slipped on gravel a few months back and had to cancel her part of the trip due to a broken ankle.

When I got to the path it was extremely steep, covered in loose gravel and the light was fading, so I did what I always do and turned back. The trip wasn’t an entire loss though. I did see quite a lot of lovely views over Kosciusko National Park.

I also saw signs warning of brumbies (wild horses, sadly not sighted) and a wedge-tailed eagle ripping up road kill and dodging traffic.

Not my photo, I was driving! This is what they look like though, their wing span is 3 metres, making it the second largest eagle in the world.

I decided to stop for the night in Tumut, a small country town just off the Hume Highway. I stopped at the first pub I saw and booked a room. The Oriental Hotel is very like the pubs my family has owned. Wrap-around verandah, high ceilings, lots of old guys in plaid shirts propping up the bar.

Unlike my family’s pubs, they do a mean chicken karaage bao, it was delicious!

Now I’m in my room, which comes with free earplugs 😂 and it’s only 6:30pm. I might take a stroll down the Main Street and see what entertainment Tumut has to free on a Sunday night. I’m guessing not much!

22Jan2023

Cumberland River Camping 2023

by Miss Penny Black

Cumberland River sits in the Otway National Park, just west of the (somewhat exclusive) beach town of Lorne. It is situated on the Great Ocean Road, about three hours south west (or five hours if you’re going in Summer while every man and his dog is heading to their 3 million dollar beach house) of Melbourne.

Jess and Leah have been going there for years, but I took my first trip last Summer. The campsites have to be booked by the previous March as it’s a super popular campsite and it’s easy to see why.

Kids enjoying the deep spot in the river while the mum in the foreground told us about the tiger snake they saw there once, that swam down the length of the pool while everyone leapt out as fast as they could.

Jess takes her nephew, Jett, while Leah takes her son, Jiah. They are pretty close in age, so when they aren’t arguing they are having a ball.

We book the campsite for seven nights each year and last year I went for four nights, this time I only managed one. I’d come back from the cruise to find that our friend who had been minding the house was still recovering from Covid and somewhat worse for wear, then when I got to the campsite I got a request to return to help look after a friend who is in Melbourne but is suffering from long Covid.

Rather than set up a tent, I take Luke’s car, which has ample room for one person to sleep when I add in a couple of foam mattresses. Sleeping in the car is great as it is a nice flat surface and the car body cuts out some of the sounds of the campsite. this year we camped close to the river, which meant nice water sounds rather than people talking.

After I arrived I walked down to the deeper bit of the river with Leah to watch the boys mess around in their little blow-up boat. Unfortunately the water was quite cold or I would’ve waded in.

Our campsite. Since the boys are obsessed with fire (what child isn’t??) Jess bought them boxes of matches to experiment in the fire drum that the campsite provides. needless to say, they didn’t last long!

In the evening Leah made dinner with jackfruit (a meat substitute), which I’d never tried before, and then we walked to the beach, which is just across the road from the campsite.

*Kind of looks like tuna but the taste is a bit sweet. We had it in burritos with bbq sauce. Tasty!*

The waves at the beach are way too rough for swimming but it’s the only place where phones have reception so we walked down and the boys entertained themselves by doing what kids do: smashing things.

After a bit of texting with Luke I headed back and despite the early hour I ended up in bed by 9:30.

In the morning I woke up surprisingly late to find a small mob of kangaroos eating grass quite close to the car. Leah and I watched them for a bit and a huge male hopped over and then, rather annoyingly, decided to sit right next to my car door just as I decided to go to Lorne. I waited him out and eventually got away.

I had breakfast in a bakery in town and was joined by a very polite cockatoo, who sat very close to me but kept quiet while edging gently forward.

Then I took a walk along the much longer and safer Lorne beach. I took some photos of the rocks and seagulls.

Halfway down the beach I got the call to come back to Melbourne. I initially decided to wait until the following day, but by the time I got back to the campsite I’d changed my mind. It would be nice to have a full day at home before packing up once more, so I left. On the drive back I spotted an echidna crossing a fairly quiet country road. It’s little waddling run was super cute, but when I see something like this I spend the rest of the trip praying that the wee beast doesn’t get run over.

I did feel somewhat refreshed from the tree-bathing and beach-walking, however being at home was lovely too. All the moving around I’ve done lately makes me appreciate home anew every time I return, and that’s definitely one of the pleasures of travel!

18Jan2023

Majestic Princess Day 14, Sydney

by Miss Penny Black

We awoke at about 5am to the lights of Circular Quay sliding past our cabin door. The ship had arrived early and so, by the time everyone got out of bed, we were already docked and could look down at the rows of pallets of fruit and vegetables ready to be loaded aboard.

We had all picked the last disembarkation groups, being in no rush to get to the bus to Orange at 3pm, or the airport by 4pm, so Luke and I packed our bags and grabbed a snack while we waited in a lounge on the deck with the gangway.

Somehow Mum and Dad got hustled straight off the ship while the rest of us were waiting in the lounge area (you have to be out of your room by 8am so the cleaning crews can go through) so they caught a cab to Central Station while we went through customs. Getting off the ship was a lot quicker than getting on and we didn’t even have to show our passports, which seemed a bit weird.

When we left the port building there were people everywhere in groups with giant piles of luggage but no obvious line, so I went straight up to a minivan taxi that had just pulled up and asked if we could book it. Why is it that things always go so smoothly when you’re not in a rush but if we’d had to race to the airport we’d probably have had to wait for hours for a cab?

Apparently this is where country people often stay in the big smoke. It definitely had a country pub vibe.

We met up with Mum and Dad at the station and then got coffee before heading to their usual watering place, The Great Southern Hotel, which isn’t far from the station. We spent our last few hours together updating the blog, watching the tv in the bar and enjoying fast internet for the first time in two weeks.

Michael catches up on his fantasy football NFL business.

Eventually we said goodbye and Luke and I headed to the airport, where we discovered that if we’d headed straight there from the ship we’d probably have been bumped to an earlier flight. Lesson learned!

We got home a bit after 8 and caught up on the news from Sim, a friend who was between rentals and needed somewhere to stay. She brought her cat so getting her introduced to Bonnie will be the first challenge on returning home.

We fell into bed after beginning to unpack, very happy to be back in our own space!

16Jan2023

Majestic Princess Days 12 & 13, At Sea

by Miss Penny Black

We didn’t do a whole lot on the last two days of the cruise. We played cards each afternoon, which kind of took me back to our childhood, when card games were quite a common pastime. Izaac is old enough now (13) to have a really good grasp of all the rules and play as well as an adult.

On the last evening we (minus Izaac, who preferred to enjoy the solitude and convenience of his cabin and room service for one last time) had booked a table at the Crown Grill. Before we boarded I booked both Allegro and Crown, and in both we got the best tables we’d had all trip. I don’t know if prebookings get allocated first, but if I ever went again, I’d book a table in each of the bookable restaurants before boarding and just cancel if I didn’t feel like going on the day.

The Crown Grill was great, it’s one of the three restaurants on the ship that cost an extra $40 per person rather than being complimentary. We had a very chatty waiter, which is always nice but especially nice when you’ve had a lot of time talking to your beloved family ;-).

All the courses were excellent and we decided to lash out and order all of them, but made the critical error of eating all the delicious cheese bread that was put on the table first. I had a lobster fish cake to start, followed by a blue cheese-crusted onion soup and an enormous fillet Mignon with shared sides. I’m always superprised by what stands out in a meal and, aside from the steak, the creamed spinach side was delicious!

The waiter brought over three salted caramel brûlées for us to share at the end and we all staggered off feeling as though we were going to explode. A fitting end to our journey!

16Jan2023

Majestic Princess Day 11, Fiordlands National Park

by Miss Penny Black

I just found this post in my drafts, sorry for posting out of order and four months late😂

I took pity on a very dusty Luke, and brought back breakfast and water from the buffet as the ship turned into the first fiord of the day. Mum and I went to sit on the promenade deck (7) and found some comfy chairs with a great view. Dad and Luke joined us and we watched the steep cliffs slide by and enjoyed the best weather we’ve had all cruise, which is lucky as this was the part of NZ that gets the most rain. Dad and I walked to the other side of the ship in time to see a pod of dolphins leaping up in the wake of the ship. They weren’t close enough for a photo but we could see them quite clearly.

The sun was hot, so after we had stayed there for quite a while we headed back to our rooms to sit in the shade for a while. Luke went to listen to the information talk and afterwards I wished I’d gone as it sounded very interesting. While in the fiords a local expert does a shipwide broadcast on the flora, fauna and history of the area. I went for a walk around the ship and was surprised to see how many people weren’t looking at the amazing views, mostly kids. I recall being unimpressed by most views and natural things when I was a kid, even though we regularly holidayed in the Blue Mountains and frequently saw quite spectacular views. Why don’t kids care about this stuff?

Anyhoo, we spent most of the day looking at the views but in the afternoon, as the ship set out into the open ocean, we played several rounds of Five Crowns, a card game Michael and Izaac brought. It uses mechanics similar to Rummy so it was easy for everyone to pick up.