Too little time, too much to do!!

We haven't had time to update our blog - and the hand-written journal has ground to a halt, too!

So here's a brief update & one of these days, we might get around to filling out all the details - in Scotland, in March 2008?


After Borneo:
We then headed on to Singapore where we had a very enjoyable 3 days, before catching a flight to Sydney for our 6 week tour of Australia. After 6 days in Sydney, (which we loved - highlights : a performance of Rachmaninov in the Opera House conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazi; a walk across the Harbour Bridge; a trip to Manley on one of the many ferries; a train journey up to the Blue Mountains where we trekked along a cliff path to see the famed & spectacular "Three Sisters"; visits to 2 synagogues) we then picked up our "Wicked" camper van & have been relentlessly touring ever since, with hardly time to breathe, never mind update the blog! It's a hell of a big country.

We drove to Melbourne where we spent a few days (loved it too!), then took a ferry to Tasmania where we spent a week (really, really loved Tassie! - highlights : Wineglass Bay & the Fresinet National Park; Cradle Mountain; the Henty Dunes; Hobart). Then we drove along the Great Ocean Road, along the southern coast of Victoria, before travelling north again via Canberra & Nelson's Bay to meet up with Laura (Howard's daughter, who is currently weeding lettuces in a place called Stanthorpe in the Great Dividing Range in Queensland.)

We spent a lovely weekend with her in the idyllic Byron Bay on the eastern coast of New South Wales before saying our farewells in Brisbane leaving Laura to continue with her agricultural labours while we slogged up through Queensland to Hervey Bay where we took off to the world's largest sand island (127 km long) - Fraser Island. There are no roads - only beaches & sand tracks through the interior - so only 4 wheel drives can travel there. We had to leave our camper van behind to enjoy the delights of bumping about the island for 3 days chauffeured by a more experienced sand driver. It was wonderful - lots of swimming, not in the sea, where sharks, jelly fish & strong rip tides all abound, but in beautiful lakes - & enjoying the delights of the 6 different ecological systems - swamp, rain forest, dunes & another 3 which we can't remember at this precise moment!

Now we're in Airlie Beach, further north still, about to embark on 3 days sailing on a tall ship round the Whitsunday Islands & the Great Barrier Reef. Then we'll press on to Cairns, Port Douglas & Cape Tribulation where the fun will have to stop - well in Australia anyway! We have been surpisingly cold at times (particularly in Victoria & Tasmania, having to wear most of our clothes to keep anywhere near warm at night) & now we are baking as the temperatures rise steadily the further north we go. The weather has generally been fabulously sunny & cold, dark Scotland seems a world away - oh, it is!! We've driven 8000 kms so far in 4 weeks - you must be oozing sympathy, we know, at how arduous things are for us.

Next stop New Zealand, which is shaping up to be another whistle stop tour with little time to pause. Only 4 weeks & so much that we want to see.

We have been taking 1000s of photos, of course, & we hope you'll get to see a selection at some time soon.

PS Happy Channukah & other suitable seasonal greetings!!