Category: Travel

  • Awesome African Adventure. Day 5-April 13, 2025

    Dubai to Entebbe We leave today for Entebbe. Breaky at 6:30 and cab to Dubai airport at 7:00. Mary and Phil got rejected at Smart Gate and redirected to Immigration control and then passport control. I sailed through Smart Gate and through security to wait on the other side. A tad disconcerting when I lost…

  • Awesome African Adventure. Day 4-April 12, 2025

    Dubai Today’s activity is an Old City Walking tour with ‘Walks of Dubai.’ On the way we passed the Dubai Frame again. Been hard to get a decent shot. Our guide Hamza met the group (of 16) at The Heritage hotel in the old city at 9:30. We arrived early and had a bit of…

  • Awesome African Adventure. Day 3-April 11, 2025

    Dubai Awoke to some sun rays over neighbouring construction site. Today is my actual 60th birthday and we headed out for our Desert Conservation tour, with a 7am pick up, after a quick pre road trip breakfast in the hotel. This tour was gifted to me by ‘The camping crew’ so huge thanks to them…

  • Awesome African Adventure. Day 2-April 10, 2025

    Dubai. Showered and settled into rooms at Radisson Blu. our room looks like exploding bumblebees. Our keys didn’t work so down to breaky we went and got our cards sorted. Then we headed out into the warmth of Dubai to walk the almost 5km to The Green Planet – an indoor rainforest. We walked and…

  • Awesome African Adventure. Day 1-April 9 & 10 2025.

    Moe to Dubai. And just like that, it’s DDay. Ready for departure. Awoke to a Vline SMS saying no trains, buses to Pakenham East, due to an emergency at Traralgon. Luckily, later trains were running from Morwell. So Mary and Phil had to bus it to Morwell. Pete B kindly picked me up and delivered…

  • Awesome African Adventure 2025

    Prologue: The seeds for this awesome African Adventure were sewn during our 2023 Antarctica and South America trip. Further discussions took place in 2024 and Suzie (yep, that’s Aunty Sue. Easier to use Suzie when travelling) had asked me if my friends would mind if she tagged along? I was pretty sure that would be…

  • Whirlwind 75th birthday Tour. Day six. 9 January 2025. Auckland to Melbourne.

    Up and at em early, considering I didn’t shut down till almost 2am after a marvellously magnificent last supper at Ahi.We met for breaky at 8 next door to hotel. The Federal was an American Diner style cafe. Suzie and I are using the morning to complete the Hop on Hop off bus – blue…

  • Suzie’s Whirlwind 75th birthday Tour. Day five. 8 January 2025

    Auckland.  No need for an early start. Met in foyer around 8:30. Then a walk out to Ponsonby for the Blue Bean Cafe which had been recommended by one of the runners at Soul last night. A non-de script looking cafe with a lot of restaurant out the back. A gelato/ice creamery and cafe at…

  • Suzie’s Whirlwind 75th birthday Tour. Day four. 7 January 2025.

    Christchurch to Auckland. Beat the alarm just this am and did some life admin, then for a walk to find a building with two copper domes we could see from room 406 yesterday. It was 7 degrees when we woke but 11degrees when I walked and the sun soon warmed it up.Found my building (what…

  • Suzie’s Whirlwind 75th birthday Tour. Day three. 6 January 2025.

    Today this sh!t gets serious. Today we go international!!! Emirates EK412 BUSINESS CLASS to Christchurch. Almost asleep last night when something told me I’d set the alarm for 6:40 NOT 5:40 – I was right, and quickly corrected that. Bronwyn had hers set for 6:30 and of course it didn’t go off.Anyway we hit the…