Michelle and I arrived in Cuba on the 16th February and were taken to our “Casa Particulares” or homestay in Old Havana. We passed Revolutionary square and were immediately captured by all the beautiful historic baroque, art deco and Spanish colonial architecture in the city. We had four nights on our own before we started our “Cuban Adventure” tour. After Santiago and Lima Havana was quite a shock with wrought iron bars on every door and window in the old section of town and many dilapidated buildings. Some of the hotels or museums or government offices have been totally restored but many others are in a decrepit state from neglect or lack of funds and many on the Malecon, the wide boulevard all along the coast in Old Havana are in a dangerous state of collapse with some just being shored up in some way. We made a wide berth around those. There appeared to be many squatters in the old buildings. Most doors and windows in Old Havana were covered by iron bars and many doors had several locks.
Electricity supply for all of Cuba is a big problem. In Havana they are mostly notified of when they will have it for the next day but in the country areas it is very hit and miss. We operated in darkness in our room and bathroom in Playa Larga, Venales and in Trinidad and must be so frustrating for the locals.
The internet is also not readily available. Our hosts had reasonable internet when it was activated.
Every day there were queues along streets where poor locals with ration cards lined up for bread, eggs and other scarce consumables. The one department store we entered had more empty spaces that goods.
Eight eight percent of the population live below the poverty line and many old people walking along the streets or through their barred windows asked us for any medicines we could give them. Several small shops sold a few items of clothing as well as a small variety of groceries. The few pharmacies that we saw had very little on their shelves and did not want me to take photos.
La Bodeguida and La Floridita are purported to be the bars where Ernest Hemingway drank although some locals dispute this. Most tourists flock to those bars, us included, to have the famous drinks. People were friendly but we could easily be spotted as tourists and many touts tried their luck with offering us tours especially those involving the many varied and bright coloured Classic Cars of the 50’s. We decided on a bright pink open topped 1950’s chevy for 30euros an hour for 2hours which was great fun touring with many stops first along the Malecon to Revolutionary square, the Havana Forest in the heart of the city with a river and lush vine covered trees, Miramar the affluent residential area of Havana where the wealthy families lived in lovely colonial homes before the revolution. Now they are mostly embassies from all over the world. We ended up at the Beautiful “Hotel Nacional” on the coast with a wonderful view across the water to the Malecon and the lighthouse. We had to have a Mojito there and bathed in the old glory of the hotel with its famous “Hall of Fame” bar littered with photos of world leaders and celebrities.
An attempt to do a tour of the Partagas Cigar factory didn’t eventuate the first day as the tickets could not be bought at the factory and when we got there it was to close soon as the electricity was to be cut off. We eventually found the office in a small mall, however in Cuba our Australian credit cards could not be used only US credit cards or a local top up credit card would be accepted so after some advice we went the next day to the very posh Manzana Kempinski hotel and saw a most obliging girl in their tours office who offered to go to the bank to top up her card. She knew how difficult it could be to obtain the tickets. We gave her the ten Euros each and off she went to convert the money. She returned and was able to issue tickets for us for that day for which we were very grateful. A very strange system indeed!
We didn’t have much time to get to the factory so opted for a “Coco Taxi” a quirky tricycle with a yellow spherical open hard plastic cover attached where we could sit behind the driver. It was only a five minutes away but the price was US15 or Euros15 to get there. They didn’t want the Cuban pesos. Normal taxi were USD20 or 20euros to go anywhere in Havana. Our hosts were able to change 200 Euros for 64,000 Cuban Pesos. We did manage to spend our pesos over the 10days as it was illegal to take them out of the country.
The tour of the premium cigar factory was very interesting with a girl that spoke good English and with only four of us we could ask many questions and with our guides permission we could even take a few photos surreptitiously, normally not allowed. Around 12000 cigars of various sizes and qualities are produced every day with over 200workers. Some cigars last half and hour and some for 2hours according to the smokers wants.
The workers are in a very large open room with a huge TV screen in the corner. They can choose when to start work but have a quota to fill every day. Every morning they are read the newspaper and a portion of a book in the afternoon. Their wages are according to their output. The most famous cigar smoked by Fidel Castro was the Cohiba cigar which was first produced in Seville, Spain. Che Guevara smoked the Montecristo No4. There are scores of different cigars with names such as Romeo y Julieta, Padron and La Gloria Cubana to name a few. It was fascinating to watch the process of wrapping the cigars with 5 different leaves from binders, fillers and wrapper leaves. They are then pressed to a certain thickness and in another room they are collated and put through a piece of wood with a hole where the cigar needs to be threaded through to see if the exact thickness and density is achieved. Any rejects are put aside and the workers can take 5cigars a day home to smoke or sell. We watched one
worker who had been there for 25years making cigars.
Our tour comprised only five of us. Cian from Ireland living in Spain, Bence from Hungary living in Brussels, Jayne from Pennsylvania, Michelle and me.
Yunet our wonderful guide arrived with the others on the 19th to brief us all on the tour and and we all went out to “Donde Lis” an restaurant with excellent food and great staff just around the corner from our “Casa”. A walking tour of the old town was first on the programme the following day. I had unfortunately drunk a mango juice from a local shop the previous day and was out of action for 24hours so missed the walking tour which most of which we had covered in the days beforehand. The following day we set off with our very competent driver Rayko and Yunet for the central north Pinar del Rio province of Cuba stopping first at “Fusterlandia” a suburb in Havana created by Jose Fuster An artist of naive works in mostly mosaics and murals in unusual forms and shapes. He is still working on art forms in the town. I hope the neighbours enjoy his work! We stopped in the countryside for lunch. I passed on that. We then entered the pretty countryside town of Vinales about four hours later to the west where some pretty mostly wooden most houses and some shacks had porches and two rocking chairs in front of the house. The town itself consists of housing and a main street with a supermarket and many restaurants and bars. A small market is set up every day in a side street selling souvenirs many made of wood.
The group was divided and Michelle and I stayed in one house with 2rooms with an ensuites for tourists and the others were in a larger house.
A local guide walked us into the rural area on one side of the town which was surrounded by a low mountain range with outcrops of lush green covered Karsts. We were shown to a small coffee plantation where we were shown the process of producing their coffee and could taste and/or buy the coffee produced. A cute fat tree rat only found in Cuba and neighbouring islands was in a cage outside and we were told that they were were also fattened and eaten. I couldn’t imagine eating the cute rodent. Our guide walked us through the fields to our next stop, a tobacco farm where we were shown the involved process of tobacco cultivation, fermentation where the leaves are sprayed with a mixture off lemon, honey, cinnamon and left to ferment for 8months then dried before the leaves are formed into cigars anything up to 18months later. We had to of course try smoking the cigars after they were dipped into a light honey which sweetens the taste of the tobacco and makes them easier to turn and smoke.
This honey comes from a special bee which have underground beehives.
We then had lunch in town and the food available was usually chicken or fish with black rice and beans with plantains or yams. The other most popular things on menus were croquettes which were not potato but made with flour, broth and bechamel and sometimes filled with meat and most things included cheese of some kind even sweets.
On our way out of Vinales 2days later we stopped at a beautiful viewpoint with lush agricultural lands below surrounded again by the karsts. From there we needed to head back to Havana for fuel. The fuel shortages in Cuba are dire. Tour buses take precedence but even so we were dropped at the Havana Golf Club for basis refreshments and food while Rayko the driver went to wait for fuel at a service station where he with another 15 other tour buses waited the 3 1/2hours for the tanker to arrive to fill the bowsers. We saw long line of locals waiting for fuel which can be also for many hours. Along the highways across the country which need repair the most common form of transport seem to be horses or horses and carts or old Lada cars with many people walking or trying to hitch rides. We saw some buses built on truck chassis.
Our trip from Vinales to Playa Larga via Havana took us most of the day with a stop at a private sanctuary for Bee hummingbirds native to Cuba. We stayed and watched the pretty green and delicate blue hummingbirds dive into their sugar water containers dotted around the back of the property. We drove through the National park of Cienaga de Zapata and then stopped for the night at Playa Larga where we had a top restaurant like 4course meal at our Casa Particulares after a short walk to the lovely beach complete with a beach bar. Playa Larga and Playa Giron are the sites of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1961 US backed failed attempt with counter revolutionaries to overthrow the Castro government. The only remaining evidence were many simple white stone monuments along the roads to the hundreds of Cuban revolutionalies killed.
We arrived the following day in Cienfuegos on the south coast of the Caribbean sea named after an Asturian born Captain general of Cuba and billed as a city known for it’s structured urban planning with a few working theatres,museums and art galleries. It was midday and there were very few people on the street or along the Pedestrian boulevard with many shops closed as there was no electricity. There was no espresso coffee to be had. We met up at the statue of Beny More a famous Cuban singer, bandleader and songwriter.
We had a good lunch at Villa Maria restaurant where the meals cost less than AUD10. We walked around the small harbour and stopped on our way out at the Palacio de Valle a Moorish inspired very ornate restaurant.
We continued on to Trinidad de Cuba my favourite old town with grand colonial buildings and colourful houses along mostly cobbled streets. It was a centre from the time of the main sugar industry in the 18th and 19th century. Yunet our outstanding guide showed us around the old town and gave us much information about the city and it’s history. We climbed the tower on the edge of the main square to have a good view of the whole town and to see the sunset.
We opted to go the next day to the beach at Trinidad with it’s couple of large hotel complexes. We spent half a day here enjoying wandering along the clear sand beach and some of us swimming in the clear turquoise water.
There were many houses offering massage so I availed myself of one recommended by Yunet and felt very relaxed after that.
Cian found a great bar/restaurant with excellent wifi “Giroud” where a couple provided lovely music with her singing and he on the saxaphone.
The main music venues didn’t start until 8pm or much later so Cian and I went to the “Casa de la Trova” where many mainly older Cuban musicians played great salsa music. We all went the following night however it rained heavily and the venue was not water tight but we enjoyed it just the same. It was a bit precarious walking back to our homestay with no streetlights.
After two days we drove back through lush countryside to one of the old sugar mill manager’s house and tall tower to observe the sugar can fields where local women were selling all forms of embroidered white linen and clothing.
Santa Clara was known chiefly for it’s revolutionary landmarks and we stopped at the site of the railway line where Che Guevara and his revolutionary forces captured an armoured train belonging to Batista which secured the control of the city in 1958. The train is now a national monument in a memorial park.
We arrived back in Havana on the 26th February and we with Yunet and Rayco for a farewell to them to the rooftop “Sibarita” bar.
We couldn’t have had a better team to give us an 8day tour of Cuba.
Michelle and I spent the last day walking around the old town again and down to the Malecon to an art gallery where we each bought an oil painting. At Havana airport we were stopped and our rolled up paintings examined in case there were drugs concealed and we had to pay 5euros and got an export certificate. A way to make money we supposed. The same happened when we left Lima but there was no fee payable. We just received the certificate.
We sauntered down to catch a small boat across the harbour to the other side but were told that it was broken so instead we visited the large souvenir “Mercado San Jose” where we bought a few souvenir items. We met the group for an excellent last meal at the rooftop Antojos restaurant. On the 27th February we started the long journey home to Lima firstly, then Santiago the Following day and then the last legs on the 1st March to Perth via Auckland and Sydney.
Cuba was very thought provoking with such multi faceted aspects of life and so very foreign to us living in a first world country where goods and services are plentiful and the cities on the whole are well kept and in good condition. The magnificent architecture was in various states from totally restored to crumbling which was very sad to see and the lives of most people are a continuous struggle with very small wages and pensions. shortages of electricity,food,medicine, fuel and more. Most Cubans who could afford it have left the country for a better life. Those going to the USA are covered by a law from 1966 – The Cuban adjustment act whereby they can apply for a green card after a year. Many ex pats also support family in Cuba.
It is sad to see a country with so much potential just existing.

CHILE
Michelle and I landed in Santiago on the 29th January 2025. A five hour flight took us from Perth to Sydney. An overnight at the Ibis near the airport and then a 13hour Qantas flight to Santiago where we were fed it seemed like every hour or so. We got to Santiago in the late morning and went to our hotel the “Novapark” situated in a convenient side of the old town close to the hill of Santa Lucia which when we climbed gave us a sweeping panorama of that part of the city and the coastal range. I had stayed there 5years before covid struck and I had to leave from Punta Arenas in the south of Chile very quickly to Santiago on the 21st March 2020 and then Gay and I took the last Qantas commercial flight out of the country the next morning.
There are supposedly 17 million inhabitants of Santiago but over the last few years it has swelled by 3 million with illegals from other parts of Latin America, Haiti and other south American countries. The result is that all the upmarket and fashion label shops looking for more security have moved to the east in the newer part of the city over the hill of San Cristobal. It has left the old part looking very sad indeed. So many illegals have to scratch a living by offering small trinkets and souvenirs all along the streets. One plus that after 5years most of the graffiti covering every wall in the old part of the city had been removed after the fiery demonstrations against the government and police in 2019/20.
A 3hour free walking tour took us to the expanse of the Plaza de Armas and the main points of interest of the old city surrounded by magnificent baroque buildings and their balconies or mashrabiyas of carved wood. Our guide gave us an objective view of the politics in the country at the time of Allende and Pinochet. There is a statue of Salvador Allende in the Plaza.
We unfortunately could not visit the central market which I had very much enjoyed 5years before as our guide told us that it was just too dangerous for any group or individual and that desperate people would tear the bag from your shoulder. That having said we didn’t feel threatened in any way even walking at night and we sampled a nice restaurants, Chipe Libre in the Lastarria district of Santiago.
We of course had to try the Chilean national drink of Pisco sour which is unlike any other spirit made from grapes but very enjoyable with Lemon juice, sugar syrup and beaten egg white on top.
We had two full days in Santiago so on the second day we ventured by funicular up to the Metropolitan park and hill of San Cristobal which features a large statue of the Virgin Mary and a Catholic church and where we could view the stunning Andes in the distance. Michelle took the cable car over the hill to the eastern part of the city and I walked the winding kilometres down the hill and met her there. I’m not a fan of cable cars. Beautiful and unusual sculptures in the park by the river greeted us. We were a bit tired by then so we ventured to a large mall where after a delicious meal in the foodhall we decamped to the top floor cinema to see a film in English. That what we asked for but got a French film with Spanish subtitles. It was a bit of a black comedy with a twist at the end and quite a simple film so we stayed for the duration.
I found the vegetarian restaurant “El Huerto” that Gay and I had found 5years previously and enjoyed immensely but unfortunately it turned out to be an underwhelming experience this time. We took an Uber back to our hotel and readied ourselves for our flight the next day.

PERU
The 1st of February saw us fly three and a half hours to the spectacular looking Pacific city of Lima, one of the driest capitals on earth which was just as well as it is perched on enormous cliffs of soil. Peru is the third largest country in South America and contains vast contrasts of topography from the south to the north and from the east to the west of the country. I had booked us to take the full “Peru Hop” bus route from Lima to follow a semi circular trip from there via Paracas, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa and Puno to the Cusco and the starting point for us to the Unesco site of Macchu Pichu. It would give us an insight into various cities and sites on the way to Cusco.
The Peru Hop service started by 2 Irishmen was an ideal way to see this part of the country and each bus has a guide who can book any tours along the way and who organises pick ups and drop off in each of their stops for each passenger. Some cities or towns cannot accommodate the large well appointed buses so we were transferred to smaller vehicles to take us to our accommodation. It was an excellent service all round.
I had decided on an old hotel “The Boulevard” in Lima where we could be collected by our Peru hop bus two days later.
The day after we arrived we joined a free walking tour, different from all other walking tours I had taken. We first met at a park which turned out to be a home exclusively for cats. Little houses for the cats and food bowls were dotted around the well kept park. Cats were lazing everywhere and were unconcerned with dogs on leashes.
Our group and guide then caught a bus to a plaza which had only been opened up recently for tourists. There was a squad of Police in the park ready for a planned demonstration.
We were shown points of interest around the city streets and came upon a very large parade of colourfully clad people in their costumes from all the provinces of Peru. The parade was to showcase the peoples of the various regions in a continuous procession with numerous bands very loudly showcasing their talents. The main Plaza da Armas (there’s one in every city) was bursting with spectators,a few groups from overseas and many South American tourists.
Our walking tour ended nearby a much poorer shanty looking village on a nearby hill. Our guide had recommended the “Contado” restaurant for lunch. We could not get there as the police had blocked off the entire square.
I asked a special forces policeman how to get there and he said “Follow me”. He tried to ask the various other police to open a barrier but to no avail. They were not going to open them for a minute.
This kindly policeman called Apolo led us all around the square and pushed himself and us through the parade some of which was not blocked by barriers. A very kind act.
We ate a “Causa Langostina” which is a round potato bun filled with lobster in a delicious sauce. This we paired with a Pisco Sour, the national drink also of Peru. By the time we finished,the continuing parade and a religious parade which was also taking place made us wind our way around the plaza and back to our hotel.
By the evening we were too tired to walk any great distance so chose a Japanese/Peruvian restaurant which was heaving with locals and apart from the Sushi which looked appealing the food was inedible so we left it and went back to our hotel.
We were picked up by our “Peru Hop” bus the following morning about 530am.

The highway between Lima and Paracas was in good repair but the landscape was quite fractured with dry hills and pockets of housing, a lot of which didn’t seem complete apart from a few good looking estates on hilltops. We stopped after three and a half hours
in Paracas before continuing our bus trip so we opted for an exhilarating trip by boat to the Ballestas islands covered in guano with colonies of sea lions, penguins and many pelicans,guanay and guanera birds. After the boat trip a sumptuous lunch with Peruvian specialities on a rooftop followed before we headed for our next stop for the night three hours away.

Huacachina is a tiny dessert oasis dwarfed by the largest sand dunes on one side of the city of Ica. Some tourists were scaling the high soft sand dunes but we opted for an extremely exhilarating dune buggy ride up and over the huge sand dunes which cover many kilometres. Michelle tried her hand at sandboarding and then we were taken a couple of kilometres further along the dunes to see the spectacular sunset. A Pisco wine tour the next day in Ica showed us the method they used to produce the spirit followed by a tasting of several piscos infused with different herbs or fruits. We had a delicious Ceviche meal there and departed that afternoon for Nazca.
We stopped at a point along the highway to scale a tower to view a couple of the Nazca lines. To view most of the lines involves a plane trip which we didn’t take.
There is much speculation about the origins and purpose of the unusual geoglyphs made in the soil in southern Peru. They ascribe from religious meanings to extra terrestrial ones.

Arequipa
We continued, spending the night on the bus and arriving in the lovely city of Arequipa at 530am the next morning with a view from the breakfast rooftop area of the Misti volcano in the distance. Arequipa is a charming city with beautiful baroque buildings made from the light volcanic stone and many with balconies.
After a short rest and walk around the Plaza de Armas and surrounds we visited the impressive and very large Santa Catalina cloistered convent, more like a town of 20,000sq metres which still housed about 15nuns and one novice.
In Spanish times it was used by some 200nuns and some rich widows who wanted to shut themselves away from the world with some of their possessions. The Spanish elite sent their daughters there for an education until they were approximately 14 and then returned to their families. The nuns still lead a cloistered life within the convent but baked bread in large pizza like ovens and it is sold in town to maintain life in the convent.
We visited the San Camilo market and sampled some fruit called Pacay that we had never seen before but which were delicious. We saw the most amazing array and quantities of potatoes. Peru is famous for its potatoes and its numerous varieties.
Our food tour to four restaurants with Viator was cancelled the previous day so we treated ourselves to a delicious meal at the “ZigZag” restaurant opposite the Plaza San Francisco in Arequipa’s historical centre. The iron staircase in the restaurant was designed by the French architect Gustave Eiffel.

From Arequipa to Puno we passed through a vast area of grasslands and national parks dotted with alpacas, guanacos and llamas. Stopping at a simple roadside cafe on Lake Saracocha we bought some “Coca” Tea which is apparently good to guard against altitude sickness. We were told that you need a minimum of 20leaves steeped in water to make a difference. The shop and roadside stalls were selling all items made from Alpaca wool. The hotels in Puno and then in Cusco had big baskets of Coca leaves on hand.

Puno and Lake Titicaca
Onward and upward the following morning at 6am for the seven hour bus ride on to the highest point on our trip – Puno,3827meters above sea level situated on the western side of Lake Titicaca.
We made a brief stop at a cafe on the way in Juliaca for some empanadas. A lot of Puno city is nestled against hills which makes the streets very narrow and somewhat claustrophobic. We luckily stayed in the “Hacienda Plaza de Armas” on the main square where we had a view across the plaza. Puno is a folkloric capital with many festivals, one of which took place while we were there but unfortunately the many performers and band members were wet through after torrential rain. Beautiful floral displays were also ruined but nothing seemed to dampen the performers spirits and they continued with the festivities.
The previous day we had booked a three hour tour of Lake Titicaca (the largest navigable lake in the world which is divided by Peru and Bolivia). We were collected from the hotel and taken to the small harbour where a ferry took us 5kms over some of the lake to the Uros floating islands made of water resistant Tortora roots and reeds.It was a somewhat strange sensation stepping onto a spongy platform of reeds which need to be replenished every fortnight.
A few families live on each island and there is even a restaurant and a very basic toilet facility on a separate island. We were taken over to this island by the very novel traditional boat also made from fine pieces of reed. The families live a very basic life and only go to the mainland for supplies. They make a living from transporting tourists from island to island and by selling a few small homemade souvenirs. Close by we found a very good Cevicheria restaurant “Mareas” and we were served up an enormous fried seafood dish which was delicious but as it was just too much food we took the rest and gave to someone on the street who appreciated it.
The altitude had affected a couple of people in our hotel and one lady was hooked up to oxygen in the foyer. I opted for Diamox anti altitude sickness tablets and had been taking the prescribed dosage for a couple of days. It meant no alcohol, coffee or spicy food which was a bit of a shame but I wanted to get to Machu Picchu without any problems. Michelle had heard that garlic also helped so that is what she ate and the Coca tea. I drank “Chicha Morada” a purple coloured bland drink made from the purple corn found in Peru.
Our last night in Peru we decided to try a “Chifa” restaurant which was a chain of Chinese/Peruvian restaurants started by the thousands of Chinese workers who were brought to Peru in the 1920’s. They are now all run by Peruvians now but are definitely Chinese in flavour.
Our last Peru Hop overnight bus trip departed about 2130 and we arrived in Cusco on the 8th February 2025 at 5am the next morning. The Peru Hop bus drivers were very skilled and the night drives were not always easy with rain on our last trip.

Cusco
Cusco in the Peruvian Andes was once the Inca capital until it was taken by the Spanish in the 16th Century. The Spanish colonial architecture dominated the city and the old part of town is beautiful and very easy to navigate. Nearly half of the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1950 but has been rebuilt and some of the Inca walls were not damaged.
I had been recommended the “Ninos hotel” in the old part of town which was very eclectic with numerous hand painted walls around the hotel and in the rooms. The staff were very friendly and helpful.
We made our way up the hill to the Peru Hop office where they gave us Hopster T-shirts and a discount card for the restaurants in town. We availed ourselves of that at the “Catedral” restaurant.
Our middle aged Peruvian guide had a wealth of information for us about the city and the history of the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors who either obliterated the Inca population who did not want to convert to Catholicism and encouraged the more prominent Incas to marry Spaniards.
A taxi took us up the steep hill to “Saqsaywaman” the old historical capital and the Inca citadel just on the northern outskirts of Cusco where we had a panoramic view of the city and could explore the old Inca ruins where a few Alpacas were grazing. We walked back down to the town where I went to see the Cusco cathedral an iconic monument made up of three interconnected churches.
Michelle and I were still coughing from our bouts of influenza so we met up at the Mercado Central de San Pedro where there were a myriad of juice stalls near the entrance and we picked two who served us up delicious juices with ginger and this we followed with a large chicken soup at the the Chicken Soup section of the market.

Machu Pichu
The following morning we made our way to the well organised office of the Inca Rail leaving our main luggage at the Ninos hotel. It is only allowed to take a maximum of 8kilos on the train. We had booked the inclusive trip to get us to Machu Picchu and have a guide there for 2pm, our starting time. I had booked the Machu Picchu tickets well in advance as the Peruvian government have reduced the numbers visiting the citadel. Our guide told us that Machu Picchu is sinking very slowly with all the traffic over its area. After checking our documentation we were taken by bus about an hour and a half away to Ollantaytambo station to continue on to Aqua Calientes, the starting point for Machu Picchu. It is known as the Bimodal system. During the rainy season the train does not go direct from Cusco. We stopped along the way to view the Sacred Valley from above.
There are a few shops and cafes at Ollantaytambo so we had a coffee before departing on the hour and a half train trip through the lush mountains to Aqua Calientes. On arrival we were met my hotel staff who took our bags up the hill to the Taypikala hotel where we were to stay the night.
We were collected and shown where the Consettur bus would depart to take us the 30minutes up the mountains to Machu Picchu. I was very excited to finally be going to to a site I had heard about in my teens and missed out seeing 5years before.
Our guide met us and we had tickets for Circuit 1 – Panoramic which allowed us to explore the first sector of Machu Picchu around it’s highest point where we could admire the entire site. Our young guide Alexandra was very friendly and very knowledgeable. She told us the history of the discovery of the site in the early 1900’s by Hiram Bingham with the guidance of local indigenous farmers. We were to go back the following morning and wondered if we needed a guide again to explain how the citadel worked. She said that there was no need and gave us a full run down of the structures that we could see from above.
The following morning we had a bit of rain while we waited for the bus with many others to the Citadel but by the time we arrived for 7am to take the Classic route-circuit 2, the rain had stopped and there were few clouds.
It was a surreal feeling entering through the Sun Gate to explore the
ancient Citadel and the various the buildings and architecture of the Inca site.
I had taken walking poles and we wore boots but it was not a difficult site to explore on foot. On ascent the first day of the site the we paused to breathe easier but the altitude was thank goodness not a problem. There is also a much larger Inca site called “Chocquequirao” but it is only accessible by a four day hike through the mountains.
We left Aqua Calientes the following morning for the 3hour trip back to Cusco to where we were returning. The next day, the 12th February we took a 10minute taxi to the airport in Cusco for our hour’s flight to Puerto Maldonado where we were to start our “Rainforest Expeditions” trip booked through “Peru North” to the Tambopata Research Centre or TRC on the Tambopata river,the start of the Amazon basin.
We stayed the night at a basic Eco-lodge with good food and friendly staff which was only 10mins from the town of Puerto Maldonado, the starting point for all the rainforest expeditions in that part of Peru. We even saw a group of Howzatin birds in the trees around their lake.
In the morning I took a taxi into town to have a look around and get a good coffee. I didn’t find one but found a cute T-shirt for Maurice and chatted to a few people. My Spanish had come on. My Italian and my Spanish Duolingo helped a lot. There are about 27companies in P.M all doing rainforest expeditions but we didn’t see many other groups.

The Rainforest
We arrived at the “Rainforest Expeditions” met our guide at noon and with six women from Lima with their guide we set off for our very bumpy bus ride of an hour and a half to the river departure point and then our two and a half hour boat ride into the National Park to the Centre with a stop at the Malinowski check point along the river where we were registered. The owner of the TRC Edoardo Nikander happened to be with us for the trip as he was going to spend a few months there.
He was a wildlife photographer who happened on the Macaw birds that amass most mornings to supplement their diet with the salty mineral licks along the steep river bank. He founded the Macaw project in 1989 and the Research Centre has expanded to further study and focus on conservation and breeding programs of the Macaws. Spider, Howler,Capuchin monkeys,moths and other species are studied as well. For three days we were immersed in the centre with interesting talks by the research groups, walks through the jungle with our guide while staying at the very opulent Eco lodge with excellent open air accommodation and delicious fresh food and novel cocktails. We were taken by boat at 430am to the “Macaw lick” to see the birds coming and going to lick the minerals. Dino managed to capture many birds with his powerful telescope and take pictures with our phone cameras through the telescope. Over the years they have also developed long man made nesting pods which protect the Macaws from their predators, the Olingos.
At the check point we happened on a group of Howler monkeys who were crawling into a large hole to eat the salty minerals found there which aid their health. They were playful and running up and down branches and hanging there with their prehensile tails.
The Tambopata National reserve covers 274,000 hectares. The river is very wide but the channels of water change constantly with other rivers flowing into it so the boatmen have to be very skilled to frequently change course to slightly higher water levels and avoid the flotsam mainly trees and fallen branches in the shallow river.
Our guide, the extremely knowledgeable and personable Dino was on the lookout constantly for wildlife. He spoke French, Spanish and English and his favourite pastime was walking through the jungle and sitting enjoying the solitude.
We spotted the cute looking Capybaras and Orinoco geese along the riverbank on our way. Illegal gold miners along the river are apparently ignored by the police who are very close by. Some of the small boats coming from the national park sometimes contain wild animals caught and sold elsewhere.
On one walk through the jungle we stopped to see the enormous fig trees and Sabre trees which spread over many meters and a Sabre tree which can grow up to 65metres high. We saw a group of spider monkeys on the way to the centres new 30metre high canopy tower where we could see various macaws and other birds coming and going to the tops of the trees. The macaws like to sit at the highest points of the trees. We heard the howler monkeys roaring kilometers away. They sounded like trains more than monkeys with their unique howls. We could see rain coming but could not get back fast enough so the torrential rain soaked Michelle who had not got her rain jacket and even four of us with rain ponchos got thoroughly wet. It rained all night which was lovely to listen to but it was gone by the morning.
The centre caters so well for its’tourists by supplying them with all sizes of gum boots which came very much in handy when we were traipsing through mud. We were only allowed to venture into the jungle with our guide who Michelle and I had to ourselves which was sensible.
One of the nights I joined a research scientist studying moths. A large white sheet was hung with a light to attract the moths. I didn’t realise that there were so many species of various size moths and I was invited to catch some of the moths in a jar which are later examined to see if any new species has been found. If one of the ones you have collected is a new species you get to name it. I was later sent a report of what we collected but no new species was collected by me. We saw more capybaras and caimans in and on the river.Michelle spotted a deer on the river bank and I spotted one outside our elevated room. There were no anacondas or Boa constrictors in the river as they prefer black and deeper water in lakes and no large fish again as the river is too shallow. The Tambopata river was constantly flowing. There are Jaguars, Tapirs and Armadillos and snakes to be found there in the jungle but they were not in evidence when we were there.
We also learnt of the difficult cultivation of Brazil nuts. The large and long lived trees take 12years to fruit and snakes inhabit the trees waiting for the pods to crack to eat the fruit. The pods are heavy, some weighing up to 2kgs with anything from 12-30 nuts.
Our 3day/2nt trip into the jungle seemed a lot longer with so many activities and so much knowledge gained from Dino.
Overall we were very lucky with the weather in Peru. It was pleasant weather in most places even though it was the rainy season and we only got drenched once in the rainforest which was of course more humid.
We thoroughly enjoyed our enormously diverse trip through Peru with its friendly people and amazing destinations in the one country.
Meals were plentiful and very reasonably priced and we could use our Australian credit cards in most restaurants and shops. I would recommend a similar trip to any intrepid travellers who have a sense of adventure and urge to see and experience such a wonderful country.
Photos to follow on a separate post.

We left Crete and spent 1night at Tina’s apartments only 15minutes from Athens airport. They have a very convenient free shuttle service from Athens Airport. We flew to Mumbai on Etihad via AbuDhabi. We stayed at the airport hotel in Mumbai also for 1night. It is very conveniently situated right next to the airport within easy walking distance. It was easy to get an Indian Sim card for 1month for Aud6 which we could then recharge for the same amount each month. Unfortunately there is no ATM inside the airport (only outside) so we make sure we keep some tip money with us till we arrive in India.
The 2hour something flight from Mumbai took us to Trivandrum airport in Kerala and it was then a 45 minute drive from there to the Advanced Healing Centre of Ayurmana Dharma where we stayed for 1month. Maurice is like a new person when he leaves as they know how to treat his Rheumatoid Arthritis after many years of attending the centre. He has the same therapists.
I had two lovely female therapists who came from Meghalaya in north eastern India.
With two treatments a day and the doctors checking blood pressure and blood sugars we felt very looked after. The senior doctor Maya came every second day to discuss treatments and progress. It was good to have three weeks treatment and then a week to recuperate.
I had another MRI there for my fractured vertebra which seems to be somewhat healed. The compressed herniated discs are more of a problem with sciatic pain which mostly only bothers me at night thank goodness. Patients are encouraged to stay within the centre and all our meals are served to our rooms as the doctors want patients to concentrate on their health and not social gatherings with other patients. You do meet people walking up and down the path
Within the centre and while waiting for treatments in the communal area which is fine. Yoga is at 630am every day and evening meditation is also available most days.
We did leave only once to Trivandrum on my birthday – one to have my suitcase fixed which had been damaged at the airport and two as it was my birthday we went with a driver to the Lulu Hypermarket – the
Largest mall in Southern India. It was like other malls around the world with even a little motorised train running around the mall for children. The food court was impressive with foods from all over India and we opted for a Masala Dosa (a large type of pancake with a spiced potato filling) We didn’t do much damage to our Ayurvedic diets with just that and each a juice.
We both left feeling much refreshed.
We arrived in chennai after a two hour flight and spent the night at the well appointed Raintree hotel on Mary Road and met up with our lovely friend Shoba, who was born in New Zealand of South Indian parents and who has lived in India for ten years. It was great to catch up and have a meal with her.
Our next stop was to Kariappa house in Tamil Nadu to look after the property for the owners.
Kakoli went to Delhi to look after her sick mother. The main job is to see what needs doing in and around the property and to keep the staff on their toes which is sometimes a job in itself.
I prepare the fruit for breakfast otherwise some guests are there at 830am which is the start of breakfast time and not everything is ready. I check the rooms and find walls that need repairing
And switches and mats that may not be clean and need changing. It is a constant reinforcing of normal household practices. Most staff are pleasant and do their jobs but some are not so willing to work. They have a lot of rest times when the guesthouse with it’s 15rooms isn’t busy.
Weekends and holidays have been very busy with sometimes 26people staying and who are able to also order meals in advance. Breakfast of fruit, toast, croissants, jam, peanut paste, eggs of every kind and an Indian dish is always served from 830-1000am.
I find the maintenance issues that need doing and implement them.
There have been several temple festivals, one temple being right next to the property and they are extremely loud affairs with severe drumming and Sarajevo type fireworks and crackers seemingly shaking some rooms. Large bamboo structures are erected with lights in various patterns and a large float heavily decorated with branches and flowers and priests on board and followers who parade it around the streets. Thank goodness the last one ended yesterday.
There have been several maintenance issues resolved but with any older style building or even newer there are always issues with paintwork, woodwork, plumbing and electrical to name a few.
We also look after the two lovely cats at Kariappa house while Kakoli is away and two dogs all of them rescue pets.
Rara has one eye. The other lost to infection before she was rescued. Didi is his sister but he tends to bully her. The dogs Jazzy the labrador and Cassie the very cute bitzer tend to chase the cats so there is a schedule for the cats being out and then the dogs and then the cats again.
I have been doing a lot of food preparation as one long term guest was writing his Phd and didn’t really want carbs for lunch and Vanaja the cook usually cooked something with rice. I made a lot of protein plant based food which he enjoyed. I wrote a lot of the recipes out so that Vanaja could replicate them for Kakoli when she came back.
We went out with our friends a couple of times and to the very good Coromandel restaurant and Cafe Veloute otherwise we ate healthily at the guesthouse. We did go to Kamatchi Veedu for my favourite Egg Biryani and then to the Kulfi shop for my favourite guava kulfi dusted with chilli powder.
Kariappa house have an electric bike here which Maurice made good use of going to Grindes a shop selling all sorts of European foods and to pick up or drop things off for me. My back didn’t allow me to ride a bike so I either walked a few kilometres or took an auto rickshaw to where I was going which was mainly into the so called “white town” to one of the several cafes there.
We have only had a couple of nights of heavy rain otherwise it has been very hot and humid.
Thank goodness for the 20mtr pool. I have been using it to walk back and forth for my back. It is thankfully a lap pool so the same depth about a metre and a half deep for the entire pool.
We caught up with all our Pondicherry friends on various days. Some we had seen last year and some not for the last five years. Iffat Nawas had published her first novel in 2022 and we were very happy to receive her first paperback edition when we saw her.
Viviya another friend had won a prestigious construction business award and an old guest had also published a book in French that she wants me to read.
After six weeks here we were ready for our stay to come to an end and move on to Chennai on the 30th August for the night before flying to Bali for a couple of months. One month in total in Penestanan and one month in Candi Dasa by the sea.

We spent four days in beautiful Ljubljana at the Airbnb “Barbo Palace apartments” which was an old palace with the only double staircase in Ljubljana and in a pedestrian street The manager was a very helpful and had to help us with our luggage as the “Kavalier” golf type vehicle stopped working at 8pm. Any further transfers cost 30euros but that was not possible the night we arrived. Ljubljana is a very easy small city to walk around apart from the cobblestones which gave Maurice grief. We had to look for streets without cobbles, not easy.
We met up on a couple of occasions with Maurice’s buddies from the Ayurvedic clinic Janja, Primoz, Ingrid and Sandra as well as the birthday girl Jenny for breakfast.
The markets there we remembered were some of the best we had seen anywhere in Europe and there was also a Friday food festival on the go too. We had two delicious meals at the Michelin starred ‘Altroke’ in the old town and another oldy worldy one ‘Ljulja’ also down the road from Altroke. Breakfast with Jenny at “Le Petit Cafe” and another good meal with Janja and Primoz there as well. The weather on the whole was kind to us with only a spattering of rain a couple of times for May.
We had booked a local bus from Ljubljana to Lake Bled for the princely sum of 2euros each. We just had to leave our hotel and walk the bags up a short way to where we got a taxi which took 10minutes to the bus station. It was worth checking at the ticket counter as our online tickets were not good enough so they issued us paper ones and gave us where to find the bus.
It only took 1hour from Ljubljana to Lake Bled and our Airbnb hostess met us at the nominated bus stop and helped us with our luggage again and up two flights of stairs to our lovely spacious apartment for 4days which overlooked the mountains on one side and the Castle of Lake Bled on the other side.
Jenny’s 60th birthday was a week’s long celebration starting in Ljubljana and ending in Lake Bled.. Firstly a get together in her share airbnb in Lake Bled with 25guests to get to know each other. The guests were from Australia, Italy, and Germany. A wonderful breakfast/brunch was supplied by a local company who left two large boxes with everything from cereal and yoghurt to a variety of drinks and breads and cheese, sausage and fruit. It was a feast. The following day we met to walk around the lake and in the evening we took over a great pizza restaurant. On Wednesday night Jenny most generously treated us to drinks overlooking the elake followed by a delicious dinner at the castle in Lake Bled which was wonderful and so well organized by Jenny. Jenny connected with a couple who had just
Eloped from the USA and were enjoying a quiet dinner near us in the restaurant.
Maurice and I left the next day by the GoOpti shuttle bus to Ljubljana airport where we were picked up by our host for a small fee to his airbnb only ten minutes from the airport.
Early the next morning we were delivered again to the airport for the Turkish airlines flight
To Athens.
We stayed close to the airport for the night at “Tina’s apartments” a very handy series of airbnbs also ten minutes from the airport. They have a free pick up and drop off service which is very handy. The next morning we flew with Aegean airlines on an A320 from Athens to Chania (pronounced Hania) on the west side of Crete. We picked up a hire car and drove the ½ hour
To our wonderful airbnb apartment The “Idene Penthouse” which was very close to the old
Town of Chania and its harbour. Chania is a charming city with excellent restaurants, cafes
And lots of interesting alleyways to explore in the old part of the city.
We met up with our friend Lumi and her husband Dimitris for a lovely seafood dinner by the
Fishing harbour. Everything was only 10-15minutes away from where we stayed. Lumi had recommended several restaurants and we tried out “Taman” in a narrow laneway and “The well of the Turk” both excellent restaurants and very reasonable compared to restaurant prices in Perth.
Our favourite place was having breakfast sitting at the Fishing Club restaurant overlooking the fishing harbour. It was so serene and relaxing early in the morning.
One day we drove along the coast to some of the best beaches of Balos Bay and Falasarna passing many resort complexes along the west coast. The bakeries along the way had the most delectable pastries and breads and we sampled some on the way.
On the way back we headed inland into the mountains to Topolia Gorge which was a popular tourist spot. We spied an interesting little restaurant on the way back to the highway overlooking the valley below. We ordered a Cretan salad which is similar to a Greek salad with with crumbled feta over crunchy bread pieces..
After four nights in Chania we took the road up into the mountains again and arrived at the Arcadi Monastery and for a few euros we saw the most beautifully kept monastery and gardens enclosed by high walls. There were arbors of grapevines and large amphoras filled with stunning roses and flowers. The ancient monks quarters consisted of two small rooms.
Part of the monastery was a museum of the old refectory, kitchen and a small shop to buy icons etc. There was also a cafe on the grounds. Our next stop was the archaeological site of Phiasto which was in a beautiful mountain top site. Of course all the ancient palaces and churches had
The best locations high above the land below.
Our next stop was Rethymno old town with a large Venetian fortress on the point leading into the town. It had a myriad of laneways with tourist shops but only one cafe that we could find in the main square. We stayed long enough to find the Venetian fountain and left soon after.
We decided on the longer route to Heraklion over the mountains for a few days staying at the “Athinaikon” which was only a 15minute walk to the old town with a multitude of cafes, bars and restaurants. It was a two star hotel but had everything we needed and they supplied a wonderful breakfast. The staff were excellent too and the building has a lift. Heraklion is the capital and is also on the water but it didn’t have the charm of Chania for us. We used some time there for the hairdressers and both had a pedicure which was double the price of one in Australian. The hair treatments were by contrast much cheaper.
A good coffee shop was also just down the road from the hotel.
One day we visited the archaeological site of Knossos. It is an enormous site and a lot
Has been reconstructed but some of it was done in concrete which is now slowly being replaced with the original mortar used. We made sure we were there when they opened at 8am and we were gone about 10am when the tour buses started to arrive. Our last lunch in Heraklion was at Herbs garden a rooftop restaurant above a hotel over looking the harbour and water.
Leaving Heraklion we took the coast road to Sitia another beautiful old town with a gorgeous harbour and beach. We stayed there one night leaving our large suitcases for our planned
Trip for a week to Kasos island which was very close (a 20minute flight away). It unfortunately went terribly wrong. Our hire car was dropped at Sitia airport and Maria our airbnb host picked
Us at the small airport. Most of the roads on the island were not in good shape which we saw as we made our way up from her parking area up to the large blue and white house. We were supposed to have a ground floor unit with a view and an enclosed garden but what we got was
A substandard apartment up a steep flight of stairs which was not good for either of us.
There was broken fly wire and many things broken and after we had gone for a walk to the
Unkempt beach area with broken lielows we decided this was not for us. The meal choices
Were also not great apart from our breakfast on the last day from a lovely well kept cafe, restaurant. We gave our airbnb host the bad news but she knew she was in the wrong but
Also said we had already paid a 50% deposit which was true. I wrote many emails and called
Booking.com but they said we had to deal with her even though what should have been our
Apartment was shown on the booking.com site. Anyway we cut our loses and were luckily able to change our flight to the next day and the Elysee hotel could give us a seaview room from
The next day as well. Not a good host at all but in the end we stayed in the best town of Sitia
For ten days.
The Elysee Hotel also offered a good breakfast which was included and the staff were brilliant. We had a balcony and a sea view of the harbour and waterfront. There was a myriad of cafes and restaurants along the seafront and we tried several of them. All the food was excellent but our favourite was Da Giorgio right in front of our hotel and which also offered us 10% as we stayed in the Elysee Hotel. We enjoyed the best traditional Greek desserts at Mitsikakis which had been going for 3generations as had many of the establishments.
I had an iced coffee every morning from our favourite bar and they gave me a complimentary 500ml water every time. In the evening I started with an Aperol Spritz and Maurice a virgin Mojito which were half the price of at home in Perth. We will go back to enchanting Crete. Next stop India.

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Next stop was Taiwan. We were surprised at the lush green trees covering the hills on the way into Taipei on the fast train from the airport. We stayed in an excellent airbnb in the popular Wanhua district which was very quiet by day but buzzing at night with tourists and locals alike. There seemed to be a lot of Chinese, whether from the mainland or locals enjoying the many street vendors in the area. We decided on the hop on hop off to get our bearings although the commentary was very hit and miss and did not pause at stops long enough but if you stayed on it was a good way of seeing the whole city and surrounds.
It departed from exit D outside the main station and just opposite the station in the other direction was the bus station with four floors underground and one enormous floor for food only. It was very clean and neat and the variety of food available was endless.
It was not far 20minutes walk to go to Chiang Kai Cheks memorial Hall where we just made the on the hour changing of the guard which was very impressive. Only when we had walked up the many steps with difficulty did we find out there was a lift so took that down to the ground floor where there was a beautiful display of art and orchids.
The series of Blue and white and traditional buildings were very impressive.
After going to the Haidilao 1000 seat restaurant in Beijing I decided we should try the one in Taipei which was also a short walk away. It was not as big a restaurant but the service,10min show by one man and the food was well worth the trip. The hotpot was mild on one side for Maurice and hot and spicy for me. The robots delivered some of the vegetables to go into the hotpot and the noodle thrower comes to the table and throws and throws the noodles until they are quite small to put into the hotpot. It is a fun experience. Free biscuits sand Haagen Das Ice cream completes the meal. We waddled out of there to waves by the staff. One early morning I got a bus (wonderful service with wifi and toilets an air conditioning) from Ximen station to go to the Jiufen Qingyun temple about 2hours from Taipei. a stunning work of art and I could even get a good coffee in a hotel up the road. It was a lovely trip up into the mountains and I could see the sea in the distance. From there I backtracked a bit by bus and train to the Houtong Cat Village which the locals have cleverly repurposed as a place to photograph and be photographed with cats and buy a myriad of cat designed products. The cats have all been neutered and are fed by the locals. It was an old coal town and they have a very good museum about the old coal production on the other side of the train tracks. It was hot in May but pleasant enough to walk around. Unlike what China used to be when alighting the bus or train everyone lined up and it was very orderly getting on and off transport and Maurice was offered a seat everywhere we went.One night we felt an earth tremor and were glad it didn’t result in anything worse.
It was a ten minute ride in a taxi back to the main station gate A to get the high speed train back to the airport a few days later to fly to Singapore for a few days.
Booking dot com mucked up our airport to city transfer. In future we would get Uber or normal taxi We stayed at the very convenient Quay hotel around the corner from Boat Quay. It also had a 711 store next door and a wonderful Michelin starred Thai restaurant on the other side. It was also only a ten minute walk to Chinatown Mrt station. We opted for a Michelin recommended Monster food tour which started outside the MRT station and Starbucks. We braved the rain and visited three hawker food complexes and sampled plenty of delicious tours. William our older guide was a fountain of information and did the tour with aplomb. In the few years that we have not been to Sinapore it has really been greened with lots of plants in and around the large hotels and government buildings. We caught an early morning taxi booked by the hotel for our next flight to Istanbul.
We got a taxi from the airport which proved a bit problematic as the road to our hotel was blocked off for good as a large stone wall was starting to lean. Luckily our lovely man from the Obahan hotel which we had used on a previous visit galloped down and Carried both suitcases into the hotel. This hotel offers the most comprehensive breakfast we have ever experienced and is in a quiet area below a mosque and a ten minute walk from the main square outside the Blue Mosque. We had done all the major tourist sites like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, the Topkapi Palace and the amazing Cistern. We instead took the tram to a wonderful viewpoint on a new tram line at Eminomou station right near the Galati Bridge. Unfortunately it was a Saturday so when we got to the cable car to take us up the the high point we were queued up for about an hour and a half but it was well worth the wait. It went up over and just above an old cemetery. There was a large cafe overlooking Istanbul and part of the harbour so we enjoyed some lunch and had a wander around the suburb at the back of the cafe.
Another day we took the tram from Eminonou over the bridge to the Galati Tower which was closed for renovation. We wandered around the area and ended near the port at a little hole in the wall selling the most delicious fish wraps. They had been recommended and didn’t disappoint. One evening we met Gavin who also happened to be in Istanbul at the same time and who was going to Jenny’s 60th bash in Slovenia at Lake Bled.
Another day and another tram took us over to Taksim square and up in the lift to the square. Here we caught the very old tram (soon to be replaced and put into a museum) to the end of the line and we caught another tram half way back and walked back to Taksim square and caught the tram back to. The weather in May was pleasantly warm with nights to sit outside comfortably.
Another interesting time in Istanbul and off to the airport for our Turkish airlines flight to Ljubljana.

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Malaysia and Japan
We have decided to not do long flights if at all possible so we decided on a few days in Kuala Lumpur,leaving Perth on the 28th April. The time zone is the same as Perth and then onto Japan where there are only an hour ahead of Perth so we arrived refreshed to stay with Maurice’s son, wife Yuko and her parents at their home in Yokohama about 1 1/2hours from Tokyo.
Yoko, Yukos mother treated us to delicious meals. The weather was cool and called for jackets and scarves. We visited Sankeien Garden which features many historic buildings that have been transported there as well as beautiful gardens. Craig and Yuko, Kazuo and Yoko and we departed to the western mountains via beautiful Mt Fuji and had a couple of days in old towns like Narai-juku and spent a couple of nights at Nezame and visited the lovely Akasawa recreational forest where we had a cute 15minute train ride before walking back through the cedar forest. This was during Golden week which occurs 29April-5th May and contains many public holidays so there were many local tourists especially at the enormous service centre off the highway at Suwa. We returned to Yokohama and had excursions to the Motomachi shopping area and the Yokohama Bay area where it cost me $12 for a flat white with 2shots. They charge the whole coffee double if you have another shot. Lesson learnt there. Yuko and I ventured to Planet Team lab an enormous interactive experience which involved wading through knee deep water as well. We later had a delicious Monja-yaki different from the also delicious Okonomiyaki which we had another night at the same hole in the wall we visited a few years ago in Yokohama. We also caught up with Yukos brother, wife and three children who were happy with the presents I had brought from Perth.
Japan is such a beautiful, orderly country with extremely polite locals and amazingly innovative and technically advanced products and methods and trains which run perfectly on time.
We found food to be quite reasonable and a 8course lunch in a private room with impeccable service and drinks came to $45 a head.
We also had a wonderful endless meal at Yukos cousin’s restaurant/bar in Tokyo where we had countless dishes turned out from a tiny kitchen.
We left Yokohama the next day via the train to Tokyo airport. It was lovely spending time with the family again. Craig and Yuko will come at Christmas again so that made us happy.

Two friends and myself set out for Tashkent on the 8th May2023. I have been very late in posting this as other travels got in the way. Tony had wanted to go to Uzbekistan for many years and Richard and I were happy to tag along and see a new country and it’s people. We could get a ucell sim card at the airport which was very handy.
We were assailed by drivers as we were leaving the airport as they do in many countries and ended up in an old taxi with the boot open and luggage tied down. We were amazed at the wide European like boulevards and cleanliness of the streets. The old car got us to the old soviet style Uzbekistan hotel where we were given suites looking over the city for about $65 a night. The staff spoke English and were very helpful. They asked us to keep our registration cards in case we needed to show them when we left the airport.
There were Banks and ATMs where we could get Uzbek Som. The exchange rate then was about 80,000 for $10.
I learnt a few basic Uzbek words but I made sure I asked first whether to say “Rahmat” in Uzbek or “Spasibo” in Russian as there were many locals who only spoke Russian even though they were born in Uzbekistan.
We had pleasant walks around the area and dined at a few nice restaurants.
The Russian run Ogni restaurant was very retro with excellent food.
The discovery of Breadly a beautifully decorated upmarket cafe was a great find as it served the best coffee and cakes that we had ever had.
All the locals that we met were dignified and very friendly wanting to know from where we came. Even the young boys put their hand on their heart and bowed when we met them. Such lovely people.
It was interesting to see most of the other guests at our large hotel as they were in Tashkent for the World Boxing Championships. We saw
Africans, Armenians, Jamaicans and men from Burundi with their trainers at breakfast which was a varied buffet style one. The Australians were apparently staying at another hotel.
Yandex which was their equivalent of Uber and very cheap. We ventured the next day to the huge market Chorsu Bazaar selling everything from homewares, plants, souvenirs and very fancy dresses for the locals. Food was found mainly in a huge domed building, mostly fresh produce and dried nuts and fruits of which they had plenty for sale. There were large carts of fresh strawberries and bread and banks of apricots and fresh vegetables outside as well.
The metro stations were similar to the Russian ones, very clean and beautiful artwork or ceramics decorating the underground. We did a trip stopping at a few of them to see the various beautiful decorations.
When we were wandering around the city or in a cafe we were stopped by university students who wanted to practise their English and ask us why we came to Uzbekistan and did we like it etc,etc. They were all very sweet.
The weather there was perfect. Warm to hot during the day and pleasant enough to sit outside at night. Cafe Forn Lebnen was well worth the visit with delicious food at very reasonable prices. In fact all the hotels where we stayed and restaurants where we ate were very reasonable.
The large madrassa complex we visited only had one foreign group and the rest were locals or school aged children. A lot of the complex was being renovated and we couldn’t enter it.
After a few days in Tashkent Tony had arranged the train tickets to our next stop Samarkand which was a couple of hours away. We were lucky that Tony wanted to get to the station in plenty of time because as soon as we arrived on the platform we were hurried onto the very modern, comfortable Afrosiyob Fast train even though we were very early. It was a good trip and for the princely sum of about $8 we were also given a paper bag with a croissant, a piece of cake and a muffin. Coffee and tea was also available from a trolley.
We had the usual tussle by locals trying to take our bags. We eventually picked someone who took us to the atmospheric Jahongir Guest house for four nights. We were given tea and the staple hard sweet yogurt balls.
Samarkand was located along the Silk Road between China, Persia and Europe and at times was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.
It was worthwhile staying in the old part of the city where we could see the locals going about their business, see the local bakery and Friday mosque visitors.
The main tourist attraction was “Registan Square” which was not far from where we stayed. It was a very large complex with many shops selling quality goods in the courtyards of the many buildings and beautiful madrassas. These complexes were the seat of learning where students studied for many years such subjects as medicine,astronomy, philosophy and many other subjects.
At night the Uzbeks have a spectacular light show where the Registan is lit in many different colours and the history of the buildings is given, unfortunately not in English.
We walked around the old Jewish areas of the city where most of the houses were hidden behind large walls.
The Shah-I-Zinda complex was also fascinating with mausoleums and other ritual buildings of the 11-15centuries and 19th century with an adjacent cemetery high on the hill. Many local tourists wanted pictures taken with us and Tony was the main pick.
We took a day trip to Shahrisabz to see the ruins of the winter palace of Emir Timur the Turco-Mongol conqueror of the 14th century.
Within the gardens there was the Kok Gumbaz Mosque. We struggled to find a restaurant for lunch and ended up in a fast food place and had a pizza. Apart from seeing the mountains and a like on the way there was not a lot else to see in Shahrisabz.Back in Samarkand in a lovely leafy part of town we found lovely cafes and restaurants, a large Catholic church and a protestant church as well as a beautiful building which had been a Russian bank and was now a museum showcasing interesting artwork and innovative sculptures and Japanese type costumes.
Our next stop was Bukhara a totally different old town with stunning mosques and madrassas, many shops and restaurants and an interesting covered market selling quality clothes,carpets, artwork, ceramics and souvenirs. The price of goods there was more expensive but the quality was excellent. We walked around the city walls to an old water tower which was remodelled into an observation tower with attached restaurant below. The only other tourists at the tower were locals and the same applied when we went into the Ark of Bukhara Fortress which gave us an insight into the Aral sea disaster. There were many school groups and locals visiting it as well.
In the evening we went to the very upmarket Ayvan restaurant in Lyabi house which had been an old Jewish house with beautifully adorned walls and a lovely outdoor terrace eating area.
We also caught a taxi one night to the Zaytoon restaurant where we could drink Aperol Spritz and have Lamb shanks.
The Doston house was the most intruiging because it was down an alleyway and there was a double door with just the number 5. It had also been a Jewish house and they made the traditional food called Plov which consisted of a large pan of rice which was steamed over a fire and then meat and carrots added when it was cooked.
After three nights at the Golden Minaret hotel overlooking the beautiful Minaret which was lit up at night and where we got a lovely view over the town we were picket up in a car to take us to our next stop of Khiva. It was a pretty rough ride on very rough roads and we were glad to get to our destination. We stayed for three nights at the Shaherezara hotel which was very beautiful. The rooms and breakfast there were excellent and we were treated by the Manager Ollashakur to a rooftop breakfast which was outstanding.
The town was very easy to walk around and we had a wonderful coffee and then excellent evening meal with a clarinetist at Terrassa a three story wooden building over looking the town. Outside the city walls was another local restaurant the Khiva moon where we sat cross legged on low table sat on a platform. They served very local dishes. Manti were small loose dumplings with cheese or egg fillings and a yoghurt sauce or bright green spaghetti called Shivit Oshi made from dough which is dyed with a dill infusion. It tasted vastly different from the usual spaghetti.
The goods in the shops and outside stalls for purchase there were very reasonable and there was an interesting array of carpets, artwork, ceramics and clothes for sale. The stall holders and shop keepers were all so polite and there was no pressure to buy anything.
Khiva is surrounded by wonderful rounded town walls and city gates. Ollashakur took us on a day tour to three ancient fortresses, Ayazkala, Toprakkala and Kizilkala. The landscape in places reminded us of Australia somewhat with vast open spaces. On our way back we stopped at a large bakery and indulged in delicious cakes.
I went the next day to the palace museum which consisted of many adjoining buildings with very opulent interiors. The shop at the front of the museum had some beautiful artwork by local painters.
The next day Tony and I left Khiva in a car to Nukus organised by Oasis International travel. Richard stayed in Khiva as he was not doing the Aral Sea tour. It was a very bumpy
trip of over 4hours. We were glad to get to the Tashkent hotel in Nukus. We only learnt when we were there that Nukus is the capital of Karakalpakstan which is an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan. The Karakalpak people are fiercely patriotic and are not keen on the Uzbek people. They have their own language and traditions.
We ventured out to get a meal at a place I had found online. We found it no longer existed and we ended up in a strange bar and the menu was very small but the owner could speak English so we had a nice conversation with him. Tony and I were booked on a 3day 2nt Aral Sea package. The next day we located our driver Shamrat and Guli our guide who was a mine of information but for a 28year old she acted more like a 16year old. At least she had a lot of knowledge of the Aral Sea and the surrounding areas.
We started out first to the large Mizdakhan Necropolis not far from Nukus. The remains of an old fort were nearby so we clambered over it and then set out to Muynak and the Ship Cemetery which was a very sad sight. In the early sixties the Soviet government decided that cotton would become a major export so they diverted the rivers for irrigation which had led into the Aral Sea. The sea water level evaporated to the extent that the profitable fishing industry was destroyed so all the fisherman and their families left and most of the boats were taken away but a small number of boats remain on the sand. It led to the disappearance of all the fish and the great increase in salinity which killed most of the remaining flora and fauna.
The absence of any roads made for a very rough ride up and over the 200sq kms Ustyurt plateau and clay desert where we could find sea shells from when the sea covered part of that area. The sea is reportedly shrinking 5metres every month and they expect it to disappear completely by 2030.
A steep path led to our small yurt camp fairly close to the sea. We had a communal eating area where we were served large portions of
vegetables,bread cheese and fruit mainly cherries which were delicious.
We had a fun time dancing to Karakalpak music and the cook joined in.
There was a handful of other tourists with their drivers.
The drivers all slept outside on low couches with heavy quilts with a couple of dogs. Three little kittens were also in the camp eating area and although very cute they jumped all over us and one landed in my empty plate.
The next day we drove for many hours to see amazing rock formations and went down to the sea for a swim. It was almost impossible to swim with the amount of salt in the water and the sea floor was
very thick mud. Not a great experience. We drove for miles along the now dried up sea and we walked again towards the sea where Guli wanted to get her feet wet. Well, I sank into mud up to my knees and it felt like quicksand. It took me an age to extract my legs and sandals. Shamrat very kindly washed the mud off my legs and feet and took my sandals back to wash at the camp. We had another nice evening and left the next morning for our very bumpy ride back to Nukus via
a small town which was a Russian enclave for gas fields. However the gas disappeared but some inhabitants stayed on and they have a small school and hospital. The old runway that was used was in evidence and the people survived by herding goats and camels. Our next stop was a
A large lake was our next stop and there were a few ruins of an old white Russian settlement but long abandoned.
We bumped along again back to Nukus and made it in time to go to the
Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art named after I.V Savitsky where we saw art which depicted the flourishing Aral sea prior to the sixties as well as many varied art forms.
The cafe across the road gave us a good coffee and cake which we deserved after the trip back.
We collected our large suitcases from the Tashkent hotel where they held them for us and left late that night on Uzbekistan airways back to Tashkent where we met up with Richard for our last nights in Uzbekistan. The next day we caught a yandex car to Breadly again where we spent a few hours enjoying the air conditioning and delicious cakes and coffee. We later went to our Russian Ogni restaurant for our last meal in Uzbekistan. The next morning we left for the airport. Tony and Richard returned to Perth via Dubai again
and I left to meet Maurice in Istanbul airport.
We all were most impressed with Uzbekistan and it’s people and were glad that we spent three weeks exploring the country in such a safe environment.

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We had a very pleasant arrival into Muscat by not having to pay $60 each for a visa on arrival because we had spent a week in Dubai. A tourist information counter right next to the baggage belts employed an older gentleman dressed in a typical Omani long tunic with snug fitting cap who couldn’t have been more helpful. We had been told that the Omanis were most welcoming and we experienced that on our first day there and indeed for the rest of our two weeks there. The man gave us an assortment of maps and took his time to advise us of the places we should visit in and around Oman. The car hire people at Europcar were also extremely efficient and friendly as well as the local “Omantel” company where we bought a sim card for internet and calls.
We hired a car for the two weeks as public transport was non existent and we wanted to drive over 1000 kilometres down
to Salalah which is not too far from Yemen.

Muscat was quite a contrast to Dubai and Oman in general is geographically vastly different from its UAE neighbour.
Dubai lies mostly on sand whereas Oman has a largely varied landscape with mountains of many shapes and colours to the north and west of Muscat and then another large mountain range in the south. The deserts of the interior vary in colour as well as
the sandunes to the south which ranged from white to almost orange. We covered a lot of the country and everywhere there were highways, roads, bridges and overpasses being built. There were also many newly finished offices and appartments throughout the country with some ornate two storey houses built in between older single storey houses. Some of the villages have remained as they were hundreds of years ago. There were very few high rise buildings and no skyscrapers to be seen and apparently Sultan Qaboos a revered ruler wanted to keep it that way.
There was much celebration for two nights with cars blowing their horns (not that they don’t normally) but this was excessive. The people were waving flags from their cars and sitting on their cars waving flags. We thought that Oman must have won a soccer match but it was in aid of their leader Sultan Qaboos Said al Said who had just addressed the nation from a hospital in Germany where he had undergone major surgery. Many Omanis are very patriotic with the country’s flag as well as the Sultan’s picture on cars,in shops and businesses as well as hanging from lamposts especially for the 14th November, Oman’s 44th National Day.

Our friends Marianne and Franz who worked in Muscat in the early seventies just after the city was opened to foreigners (previously ex pats lived in a compound and were not allowed into the city). They said that it was a fascinating place then. Every night the city gates were locked. They wouldn’t recognise the place now with all the construction that has gone on over the last 10-15years albeit low rise. They have spent an incredible amount on new
highways, overpasses and bridges and the work is still going on all over the country. The highways are superb and even the secondary roads are excellent. They have no tunnels and the highways have all been cut through the mountains.

In Oman the drivers don’t seem to speed quite as much as in Dubai where they only have one speed – flat out.
We were very pleased and greatly relieved when the brakes on our hire car worked very well so as to not slam into the car in front of us in peak hour traffic. There would only have been a couple of fingers between the cars.
We just happened to be in such traffic because we got lost and ended up in the mountains outside Muscat. We were trying to get back to our guesthouse in the suburbs but the internet stopped working and google maps therefore didn’t work. We were able to turn around after about 10 kilometes and made our way back in the dark to Al Seeb and the guesthouse where we stayed.
We had brought our Tom Tom to Dubai and wanted to download a map of Oman on our new device however Tom Tom advised us that it was only available on old Tom Toms which didn’t make sense to us.

“Behlys Guesthouse” which was more like a large suburban two storey brand new house with large rooms was conveniently located near the beach and opposite was a take away kebab shop, a “beuty saloon!” and a small supermarket. The landlord was a very pleasant Omani and it was run by a helpful German man, Oliver.
We found a quaint “coffee shop” which was really a small restaurant and not a coffee shop on the corniche along the seafront and which seemed to be popular after it had cooled down to about 26 degrees in the evening.
The shop had plastic tables and chairs outside facing the Sea of Oman and we enjoyed hoummos, arabic salad (so named),a plate of falafel and a vegetable korma with plenty of parathas and delicious large lemon and mint drinks for the princely sum of just under AUD9 or 2.8riyals.

Car hire and accommodation was quite expensive in some places especially the in the desert where some overnight stays were up to $600 a night and most comments were that one could pay a lot of money for accommodation and the standard not be what it should be. We were lucky in the places we chose which were midrange from $60 along the highway to $180 in the desert camp.
Our German landlord told us that it is only in the last 10 years that Oman has “taken off” as a tourist destination and is becoming ever more popular as one of the few Arab countries to still be peaceful and retain a lot of it’s culture and heritage. As there is no public transport most people either travel in a group or a few tourists hire a car as we did or a 4WD to be able to access some of the unsealed and steep mountain roads. He believed that it would never be an enormous tourist destination for backpackers due to the lack of public transport and the great distances.

It took a bit of getting used to converting the currency to our dollar. In the UAE 3 dirhams equals AUD1.00 however in Oman 1 riyal equals AUD3.00 so instead of dividing the currency we had to multiply it.

We decided on Oliver’s recommendation to head north to the town of Nakhal and we followed the coast road up to Barka. We headed into the local “Lulu Hypermarket” to buy a couple of beach towels for all of $4 each and then made our way inland through the impressive mountain range on the new highway to the Fort of Nakhal. We explored the fort which had wonderful views of the surrounding plain and the mountains. There wasn’t much to the town so we followed a winding road lined with date palms to “Ain Al Tharrawah” hot springs. The warm water gushed from the rocky side of a hill.
We lowered our feet into the water and small fish immediately started nibbling at them. I thought it a strange and tickly
sensation with some of the fish seemed vacuuming our feet.
I have seen this done in fish tanks in Bali but never felt keen on putting my feet into a tank where many other people had done the same but in this flowing water it seemed much more cleansing. As we were leaving a group of local women came down to do their laundry in the warm water.

The highways in the main were quite empty and the one to “Wadi Mistal” on the way to Nakhal had a sign which stated that the asphalt ran out after 300metres. We decided to give it a try and it must have been an old sign because it was a brand new highway through the mountains to the “Wadi”.

Every small town had mens and ladies tailoring shops, barbers and “coffee shops” and along the highway were many small contruction and engineering outifts and auto repair shops.
From Nakhal we took the inland road up to Rustaq Fort which had closed for the day so we made for the coast and back to the guesthouse. The “wadis” and groves of date palms were in such sharp contrast to the very stark surrounding mountainous areas as we drove to the north and west.

We started off on the 7th November at the very early hour of 6am so as to see the Friday livestock market at Nizwa,a two hour drive through the mountains to the west of Muscat. We were advised to leave early as the selling of the livestock finished before 11am. When we arrived at 8am the entire area around the market was already full of cars.

It was fascinating to see how the livestock market operated. Owners of goats, some calves and a few very strange looking sheep were paraded around in a circle with prospective buyers sitting on the inside of the circle and others standing on the outside. When someone wanted one of the animals, the customer stopped the owner and haggled with him until a price was settled upon and then the buyer took the rope and led the animal away. It wasn’t particularly noisy but there were many men watching the proceedings. Most women were the foreigners who had got up early as we had.
We moved along then to outside the neighbouring building where mostly boys were doing deals for pidgeons, chickens and birds.
At the back of the buildings a few men were selling vegetables and fruit and opposite in another building was the fruit and vegetable market which was very clean and tidy.
The “Souk” was in the same area, selling all sorts of daggers, silver, pottery and jewellery. We managed to find a western style “illy” coffee shop.
We saw an old man carrying a rifle and wondered where he was off to so we followed him to an outdoor area where rifles were being sold. Adjacent to this was the original “East Souk” where amongst other things special honey from wild bees was selling for about $180 for a litre.
We were going to come back to Nizwa the following day so we left for the two hour trip back to Muscat where we had our lunch
overlooking the sea of Oman and then went for a short walk along the beach which was clean and tidy but the sand was a grey colour and quite coarse. There were a lot of interesting coloured shells and stones near the water’s edge.
Wanting a non tourist place to eat that night we on a ecommendation went to the “Turkish Corner” restaurant where we
ate “Mutabel” a vegetable and cheese dip, tabbouleh, flat bread and a vegetarian pizza. The unsweetened lemon juice with mint was very tasty and it all came to a total of $12.

The Grand Mosque in Oman which is only open to the public until 11am and not on Fridays is a very impressive series of buildings with beautiful specially made carpets from Iran and exquisite chandeliers and carved sandstone. It is 20 years old and took 6 years to complete. Unlike the Catholic churches in Europe many of which charge an entrance fee, the mosques have free entry. On our way out we were invited to have a cup of tasty Omani coffee flavoured with cardamom and some dates. We were free to ask the attending well educated Omani women any questions about the mosque or islam and they had a large variety of free books on offer.

We were going to head into the “Muttrah Souk” to have a look around but a violent sand storm started and then torrential rain
as we were on our way so we changed our minds.
We instead headed west to Nizwa again. The highway had a lot of water lying about and some trees had been uprooted. We saw the result of two accidents along the way although people were driving at a lesser pace during the storm.
The “Al Karm hotel appartments” 15minutes from Nizwa town was a delightful find. It looked very stark fromt the outside but the appartment we had for about $100 a night had a sitting room, large bedroom, bathroom and kitchen with all the essentials. It was spotlessly clean and the staff were very friendly. There only appeared to be one other occupied room in the four storey building for the first couple of nights. There were not many restaurants in Nizwa so we opted for the “Lulu Hypermarket” which is part of a massive chain of enormous supermarkets found mainly in the middle east and in India. They have an extensive delicatessen section where we bought very good cooked Indian food and fresh salads to take back to the appartment.
The Nizwa mall had been open for four years however there were many shops still vacant. Maurice was in seventh heaven with all the watch shops, there were about six in a row. He ended up with a new Casio one which is linked to the atomic clock, accurate to one second in 100,000 years as well as phases of the moon, tides and much more.
About 200 metres away they were building a Grand Nizwa mall which was going to be even bigger and better. An enormous new mosque was also under construction as well as a large gateway building to Nizwa.

The Omanis on the whole are quite small in stature and the babies and toddlers are like dolls, they are so petite. The Omani women wear a variety of clothing from full niqabs to burqas and chadors and some wear western clothing and no headgear although this wasn’t a common sight.
They are polite and the atmosphere in the country is a friendly one. There are many Indians and Philippinos working in Oman. All need an Omani sponsor to work or run a business. All the taxis in Oman are owned and driven by Omanis unlike in Dubai where they are owned by Emiratis and driven mainly by Indians and pakistanis.

We made a leisurely start from Nizwa up to the town of Al Hamra and to Misfat A’Abeyeen a very old village which was like stepping back in time to see how the Omanis lived hundreds of years ago and continued to do so.
They had abundant water channelled down the hillside where banana, mango and other fruit trees were grew amongst the date palms. It was a very verdant oasis. A woman was washing the dishes in one of the channels and several branches of dates were drying in the sun on a rock in front of her house. We didn’t spend long there as it felt as though we were intruding on their village life and we only saw one old man on the street.

We left and drove to Bahla to see the fort which is shown as an historical destination. It was very large and most of it looked as though it had just been completed. It had been totally reconstructed but it had no placards or information in the many rooms apart from a sheet we were given on entry giving a brief history of the fort. There were no artifacts or any kind of furniture in the buildings which gave it a very sterile atmosphere.
The Nakhal, Nizwa forts and the Taqah castle in particular had a much more authentic flavour with artifacts, furniture and explanations of the ses of all the rooms.
We took a different route back in the late afternoon to Nizwa, had a much needed coffee and after a quick visit to the hypermarket for some salads,headed back to the hotel.

Some Omanis especially the young ones had some English but not many had a good enough command for a discussion.
We saw a few guides with tourists with some speaking French, German or Italian as well as English.

We left Nizwa at 7.30am and make our way to Sur on the northeast coast on the sea of Oman. We stopped at Ibra along the way for me to see the “ladies souk” (men not allowed) which had a gaudy array of long dresses and children’s clothing. I had to persuade an older Omani lady that I didn’t want to buy one of the dresses but was just looking at them.

Sur is a coastal port and we drove around the seafront which forms a circular route around the town. An old seafaring dhow had been restored and was on display as well as some seafaring ones in the harbour. There were some nice gazebos on the beach but we had our lunch in the car as there was no seating in any of them.

We drove nearly two hours doubling back to our meeting point at “Al Wasil” at the office of the “Desert Retreat Camp” where we were to spend the night. When I booked the one night they omitted to tell me that a 4WD was needed and that they would take us the 20 kms to the camp and back for 20riyals ($75) which we thought was very excessive given that a full tank of petrol only cost us 6.5riyals ($20). We had read previously that the desert stays were expensive. Ours was $180 and which was one of the more reasonably priced camps. As luck would have it we met an Australian young man and his Russian wife waiting for the office to open and they kindly offered to take us in their 4WD which we gratefully accepted. Our 2WD would have easily made the trip but they do not allow us to take it into the desert.

We left with several others in convoy and arrived at the camp. It was in a lovely setting in a valley with tall brown/orange sandunes on either side. We stayed in a very sturdy tent made from goat hair and the gaps were mostly covered by netting to keep out the mosquitos.Luckily there were none. There were about fifty tents in total.
We could have taken the option of a camel ride or dune bashing but having done the former we opted to just relax in the bedouin style tent and have coffee and dates.
I did venture almost to the top of a steep dune to take some pictures of the sunset and it was hard work as the sand was very soft and it was very easy to make no headway slipping back with each footstep.

The owner or manager was an Omani but the two workers were a Bangladeshi and an Indian from Delhi and they prepared a delicious meal of chicken curry, vegetables, rice, hoummos, crunchy salad and flat bread. The beds were good and we had a shared bathroom which was spotless. No hot water unfortunately and the drain in the floor tended to flood the place when you turned the tap on in the basin.
The generator was turned off at 9pm and it was lovely to just stare into the night sky and see so many stars (like in
the outback of Australia). I got up at 2.30am and the moonlight lit the whole campsite. In the morning following breakfast of Boiled eggs, “foul” beans and cucumber sandwiches (a strange combination) the young couple took us back to the office on the main road and we set off for the long drive down to Haima on the coast road (half way between Muscat and Salalah).

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I didn’t realise when I signed up with friends to do this 135km hike from
Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin that it would be such a challenge.
We first bought a book which divided the trek into about 7days with walks of
between 14-25kms.
There was really only a couple of notes about the difficulty of certain
sections, however together with the pelting rain and strong winds for a
few of the days made it tough going. It also was unseasonally cold. We were
in wet weather gear most of the time. I personally would have preferred to do the track later but the others said it would be too hot so I went with the flow.
Maurice the masseur did a good job of rubbing my calves and knees before
and after the walk which helped enormously resulting in no aching muscles.
I did manage to rub a big blister on my heel where I have no nerve or feeling however
with “fixomoll” hiker’s wool and blister bandaids I had no pain or further damage.
A lot of the track was very narrow or littered with rocks or quite a lot of
soft sand walking on the beach which when walking into a headwind was
very challenging.
We had to cross several creeks and the Margaret River so it was off with
socks and boots to traverse them.
The easiest day was the walk through the beautiful Boronup forest with it’s
majestic and tall karri and marri trees. Even then there were a couple of
steep hill climbs. MY lung capacity is not great so I usually had to pause
for a few seconds mid hill.
Maurice ferried the three of us between sections. We decided to stay 2days
at the Yallingup Caravan park, 6days at Margaret River and two days near Augusta.
The coastal views and the various rock formations were spectacular. Our two friends had to return a rented motorhome but they wanted to get to the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin so we three did the section m skippy rock to the Leeuwin lighthouse on their last day. They missed one section of track which was the hardest. Luckily Simon,a friend decided to come down from his holiday house in Yallingup and join me for the missed section. We managed 25kms that day with a 7km soft sand beach hike and we missed the turn off from the beach up to the high ground and I managed to get my boots and socks thoroughly drenched and we had to clamber up some steep rocks or rather Simon hauled me up them.
Dear Maurice had a gin and tonic for Simon and a prosecco waiting for me when we finally came through the bush to the parking area.
I only saw the back for a snake in the bushes further away from where I was and Simon and I saw a small snake cross ahead of us on a sandy wide path. The only other wildlife that we saw was as small bungara (lizard) who just stopped and stared at us and a large kangaroo at the side of the 4WD track. The many and varied wildflowers were out in bloom and the scenery was spectacular for much of the track near the coast and in the forest.
The whole Cape to Cape track has not been maintained too well with leaning steps and uprooted ones and missing signs in places to show the way to the track from the beach.
Next year a government body will take over the maintenance of the whole track with some shelters and toiles (we were told this by a ranger) so that it will be a lot better.
All in all it was a great experience but much tougher than I thought it would be especially with the inclement weather on many days.

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It was a novelty going on a flight overseas. We left Perth on the 10th September 2021 fora week’s more warmth on the Cocos islands which belong to Australia. We could buy duty
free as well which was a bonus.
The flight goes via Learmonth in the north west to refuel and then another three hours to the Cocos which are mid way between Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
The main island where tourists stay is West island which has approximately 170 inhabitants and not a lot of infrastructure. It is your tropical island paradise. You can get a good coffee on the Big Barge which was brought onshore and transformed into a small gift shop and
coffee shop.
The other island inhabited by Malays is Home island which houses about 600 inhabitants and was the base of the Clunies Ross family who ruled over the island for centuries.
Only one Clunies Ross now lives on west Island but has nothing to do with the running of the island. That is up to the Commonwealth government now.
West island is only 10degrees above sea level so I hope that it doesn’t disappear into the sea in the foreseeable future!
The other 25 odd islands are not inhabited but you can visit them on a large ferry or when doing the motorised canoe safari. The water is absolutely clear and a very pleasant temperature and the outiside temperature is a pleasant 30-32degress with a sometimes strong breeze which is very welcome.
The yatch club had no boats anchored at all and you can play golf across the runway and surrounds hen there are no flights. There are only two a week and you can hear them when they are landing.
It is a very relaxed place with a few possibilities for dining out and the Cocos club where they serve meals a few times a week as well as drinks.
We swam at various beaches and took the ferry over the Direction (uninhabited) island which just has hundreds of timy hermit crabs and palm trees and crystal clear water. We spent the day there.
The motorised canoe safari was a lot of fun. We landed at several different islands where we were served bubbly and snacks and Maurice won the crab race.
We were also given snorkels and masks and could float around a small island seeing turtles and a variety of beautifully coloured tropical fish.
We went with friends and we shared a lovely two bedroom house listening to the crashing waves every night. We could sit on our balcony and watch the ocean and we took our cocktails down and sat under a large tree every night to watch the waves and the turtles popping their heads up every so often.
We hired a car as it was a bit far to travel to the best beach on West Island.
One enterprising inhabitant produces all sorts of coconut products and he has the only outdoor restaurant and a small cafe right at the airport which was within spitting istance
of our accommodation.
On a Wedmesday night we could take the ferry for $5 return to Home island for a scrumptious Malay smorgasbord after another swim at a beautiful beach.
It is so laid back a place that on departure you can check baggage in at the little airport counter then you can go and enjoy yourself away from the airport. we could stay in our accommodation until we heard the plane land and then check out!
It was one of our most relaxing breaks and we would love to go back in a few years time.