Travel Blog

The low expectations theory certainly worked yesterday in Exmouth as we resumed the Australia circumnavigation. With only 2,500 residents Exmouth is very small and I was reliably informed that the nearest McDonald's restaurant was a mere 800km away in Geraldton. In many ways it was the real Australia or what…

We arrived at 10am on the island of Bali which is a huge tourist destination for Australians. Again located in the Lesser Sunda island chain Bali has a population approaching 4.5m and the island is ten times the size of Ibiza. Although Indonesia is a Muslim country (87%) Bali is…

Komodo Island lies just 8 degrees below the equator and is famous for its large lizards but it could be equally famous as the sweatiest place on earth. It is one of the 17,508 islands that make up Indonesia which in days gone by was the Dutch East Indies. Komodo…

We had three days sailing after leaving Cairns, first through the Barrier Reef before rounding Cape York at the top of Australia, through the Torres Strait which separates Australia and New Guinea, over the top of the Gulf of Carpentaria, through the Arafura Sea and finally arriving in Darwin. I…

The night before we arrived in Cairns, Ben and I found ourselves in the piano bar with the pianist Barry from Boston. Ben volunteered to sing the male part of a song from Phantom of the Opera and Jules (middle aged woman from the UK) volunteered to do the female…

October 25th marked the midpoint of this trip and also the 2nd anniversary of my travels and the very first blog in Hong Kong. We sailed into the Whitsunday Islands early and anchored near to Hamilton Island. The Whitsundays are made up of 74 islands and lie in the heart…

Brisbane is the capital of Queensland and the third largest city in Australia with 2.4m people. Named after the river on which it stands on which in turn was named after a Scotsman called Sir Thomas Brisbane who was the governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825.  The…

Sailing towards Sydney during our last night of the first segment of this cruise, the seas became quite rough and as a consequence I awoke at 1am and couldn't get back to sleep. This was the roughest night we'd had and being at the very back of the ship made…

The first of two stops in New Caledonia was on the island of Mare pronounced mar-ray which is the second largest of the four Loyalty Islands. It is also one of the least visited islands in the Pacific. James Cook was the first European to discover the islands in 1774…

Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands in the South Pacific with a total population of 281,000. We stopped at the capital, Port Vila on the island of Efate. In 2007 Vanuatu was voted as the happiest place to live. Local status is decided by number of pigs you have…

Lying just 71km south of Suva was one of the smaller inhabited Fijian islands called Dravuni Island with a population of just 125 and an area of 0.8 square km. Tiny. No roads, no cars, no multiplex cinemas.  We were tendered ashore which normally involves getting a tender ticket for…

Our first Fijian stop was the capital, Suva, which was reminiscent of the Caribbean capitals - Castries, St Johns and Bridgetown. Lots of hustle and bustle, masses of people selling curiously shaped vegetables and a general scruffiness.  Suva us the largest city in the South Pacific with around 300,000 people.…

Pago Pago pronounced Pango Pango on the island of Tutuila is the capital of American Samoa which as the name suggests in an American territory and one of only two below the equator. The island group is roughly the size of Washington DC with a population of 55,000 people. American…

This was my second visit to the Hawaiian Islands and I have a feeling I will come back again to do Big Island and Maui. Also a longer stay in Waikiki would be rather jolly good.  Susan and Brenda thought it would be a good idea to hire a car…

I joined the Maasdam as a 4 Star Mariner which entitles me to half-price wine packages, tender priority and of course the biggest boon of all, free laundry. They'd taken my Swiss Army knife away at security. Apparently they'd changed the rules from allowing a four inch blade to 2…

We left early as we had a 1pm lunch reservation with Brian at a golf club in Palm Springs and he thought we wouldn't make it. Dora expressed an interest in seeing Joshua Tree National Park which was on the way so we did a quick tour of that and…

Arriving in Vegas on a Saturday night is not the most fiscally prudent move one can make but it is the most happening night of the week (and we all know how much I enjoy happening). Dora's flight arrived at 1pm and I was there to greet her (first time…

Lake Powell straddles southern Utah and northern Arizona and I do like a straddling lake. The Powell is a curious lake not only because of its straddling qualities but also its shape. Like tentacles spreading in all directions rather than one big solid body of water. This cephalopod shape combined…

I awoke early at my 2 star hotel and was on the road by 6:30. I drove back through Monument Valley as the sun was rising and it was a splendid experience. I arrived at Lake Powell at what I thought was 10am but was really 9am as Arizona. I'm…

So after a night on an Indian reservation albeit in a plush hotel (not a wigwam) I'm heading to Bluff, Utah which promises to be one horse short of a one-horse town. I was looking forward to the nightlife. Perhaps a game of Parcheesi.  I realise that Ignacio to Bluff…