Travelling to York Shire!!

We decided that we needed to see more of West Australia so we went inland, on Thursday, to the Shire of York. The first town we visited was Beverley which has changed very little over the years so is still quite small and generally unspoilt - which is nice. We visited its, miniscule, aero museum which gave quite a bit of information but the exhibits needed some TLC - will say no more.

We moved on from there to the town of York, which had also not been spoilt over the years. Much bigger than Beverley, and included an interesting motor museum, which Suzanne and Roger really enjoyed. It's not until you travel inland that you begin to realise what the early pioneers went through. We returned via a town called Northam and IKEA (well you do - don't you?).
On Friday we went to visit friends Mike and Mary which was nice - Mike and Roger were discussing issues with their caravan, so no change there then. In the evening we went to Carols in the Park at a place called Gosnells. Singing carols by candle light sitting outside with a picnic is a very nice way to start celebrating Christmas!

Continuing the festivities, we went to our friends Lynne and Aldo's church for a pantomime on Saturday. Both Alicia and Daria were taking part which was exciting. The show was very well done and very funny including all the normal panto responses.

Barossa Valley

After Adelaide we spent three days with our friends Gavin and Liz up in this wine making area of South Australia. It is very attractive countyside with some very pretty villages and towns. There is a very strong German influence which has its own charm. There are a lot of wineries here so we did take the opportunity to sample some of the wine and cheeses made locally. Temperatures have been up in the mid 30s which made sleeping rather difficult. We stayed in a chalet on a caravan site while Gavin and Liz used their own caravan.

We returned to Perth on Saturday and are now trying to get ourselves geared up for Christmas which is interesting wearing summer clothes, suffering the temperatures and no real sense of urgency we experience in the UK.  We are off this Friday to a carol concert in the park with a picnic so that should be nice (and different), then on Saturday we are going to a pantomime (whoopee) at Lynne and Aldo's church where their girls are taking part.

Wow - what a train ride!

This is the train that we have just spent 2 days in travelling across the Nullarbor Plain from Perth to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific - part of the longest rail journey in the southern hemisphere and includes the longest straight section of track in the world - nearly 300 miles with no curves!.  We first stopped at Kalgoorlie to see the deepest opencast gold mine in the world.  We passed wheatfields, trees, bush, dessert, freight trains, very small communities where only a handful of people live,  kangaroos and cattle.  However we only had reclining day-nighter seats so lacked a bit of sleep, but re were able to move about to the cafe car and a lounge car.  Overall it was an amazing experience and we are glad we did it!

We are now in Adelaide with our friends Gavin & Liz from Melbourne.  Today we went to the Fleurie Peninsular - great beaches and scenery - and tomorrow to go up to the Barossa Valley - wine tasting - can't be bad!  We return to Perth on Saturday.





We are back!!

It has taken ages for us to get connected to Broadband - but now we are!!
It is great to be back and be with Suzanne.
So what have we been up to?
- getting used to the temperature 25 to 30C (but it is raining today)
- seeing friends - visiting Fremantle - been shopping - visited Suzanne's new new church - been to Kings Park - had a BBQ and met up with Geoff, Jean and family in Mandurah.
We are off to see our friend Mike in hospital today. He has just had a serious operation so it will be good to see him again. 
We are going on the Indian Pacific railway to Adelaide on Sunday so will tell you more in the next post.
Roger and Jean

Wrapping it all up

Here we arriving back at Heathrow - our friends Geoff and Jean came to meet us. We have now been home for 2 weeks and have unpacked the house, finished Roger's work accounts, done some gardening, met up with some friends and are desperately trying to sort out the 6,000 plus photos! People keep asking us the one highlight of the holiday - but there isn't one specific! Each section has got its own highlights. In US it was Ground Zero and Jean's aunt Connie, in Peru it was the people and Machu Picchu, New Zealand was the fantastic scenery, Australia seeing Jean's other aunt (Pat), of course our wonderful family and the fantastic beaches and diverse scenery, South Africa was the animals.
We are now starting to settle back into normal life again - but only for a short while. Since we came back we have heard that, for various reasons, Pete and Nicky and family are returning to the UK and we will be meeting them at Heathrow early am on Wed 1 June. Suzanne will stay on to finish her course at the end of the year, and then re-assess her situation and decide what she wants to do. One of her friends is going out to visit her in October which will give her something to look forward to.
Roger has come back to potentially quite a lot of work which he hopes to do on a part-time basis. Jean has retired but who knows what the future holds!
This will be the end of our blog - thank you for following our fantastic adventure!

Well it's all come to an end - at last!

That's it then - it's all over. Our last two days were spent on a game reserve just north of Port Elizabeth on the east coast of the Cape. Although the weather was rubbish we had a really good time and saw a lot of animals - too many to list here. We stayed in a Safari Lodge on the reserve where we were fed and watered very well - three courses for breakfast, lunch and dinner, high tea and refreshments on the afternoon game drive, how I have managed not to increse my weight I don't know. The scenery in South Africa was far more mountainous than we were expecting and very pretty.

We had a good flight home and were met by Geoff and Jean at Heathrow early Monday morning. We then went home, had a shower and went to the Inspire (over 60's) lunch at Kings Church. They didn't know we were going so we had an amazing greeting from our friends - it was a wonderful experience. Monica looked after our house beautifully and we are now busy unpacking everything we put up in the loft - including ironing all our clothes before putting them away (they were all packed in cases!) and sorting out the post. We were also pleased that the car started first time round so we have now been able to go shopping and stock up with food etc!

Thankyou to all of you who have been following our trip and also thanks too for all the emails we have received from you.

There will probably be one more posting on this blog when we have settled down, sorted ourselves out, got back into normal routines - whatever that means now we are both retired (although Roger still has some work coming in) - got the garden straight etc etc.

... and where did you watch the wedding?

Well as you can see we have been able to get free internet access in our hotel - so here is the next instalment.

We found ourselves on the V & A Waterfront on Friday - after a sightseeing tour around Cape Town - in front of a very large screen together with a small croud of other interested people. We arrived just in time to see Kate enter the Abbey - so we did not miss too much - and we sat and watched it for the next 2 hours. The following day we went on a tour down to the Cape of Good Hope where we saw baboons, osteriches, eland and penguins. On Sunday we picked up our hire car and went to Jubilee Church - unfortunately Steve V R and Lex weren't there but we met another English couple and someone who knew Pete - well who doesn't! We then spent the next 2 days driving through a beautiful mountaineous area on Route 62 and are now in Knysna, where it is cold and wet and we have had the heating on in our bedroom! Only thing is, like Perth, they haven't had rain for months, so the people here are more than happy. Perhaps it is just preparing us for the English weather again!