For our second day at Vienna we were offered three choices: A visit to the Schoenbrunn palace A visit to the stables of the Spanish Riding School’s winter quarters A visit to Bratislava I was pretty much over extravagant palaces before we started this tour. All that glitter, all that money spent on trinkets, baubles…
MS Amavenita cruised up the Danube overnight and we woke to a cold, misty morning that nevertheless gave notice of another lovely day. After cruising through countryside for a few more hours we tied up at our next destination. Vienna. Capital of the Austro Hungarian Empire from 1806 until 1918. Born in war, and died…
The Amavenita is the latest of APT’s river ships. Our cabin turned out to be smaller than it looked in the brochures, but it was more than adequate, with glass doors out onto a tiny balcony where you can watch the river go by. We had a bed, side tables, a wardrobe and a large…
We woke up to a frosty Helsinki morning* and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Hilton before venturing out to the airport for the flight to Budapest. The moon, just past the full, was setting in the western sky and a few planes were being de-iced on the tarmac. It wasn’t even November yet. What…
I’ve been on a river cruise. Up the Danube from Budapest, then via the Danube-Main canal into the Main, which flows into the Rhine, which empties into the North Sea, but has a canal to Amsterdam. It was fun and I took a lot of photos. But Budapest is not where the journey started. That…
Moving on down from Broome. It’s about 620km down to Port Hedland – a pretty comfortable drive. Just as well, because there’s not much to see. We’re back to flat scrub as far as the eye can see. Round about the half way mark, we reach Sandfire Flats roadhouse. Gee, that brought back memories. I…
A horizontal waterfall. The very concept is strange. How can water fall horizontally? It can and it does, provided you have the intersection of a number of factors. That combination occurs in the Kimberley in remote north west Australia. It’s rugged country, characterised by eroded, ancient mountains and thousands of tiny islands where those same…
Salt water crocodiles. Australia’s greatest predator. Ancient, wily, aggressive and absolutely deadly. I didn’t get a chance to see one in the wild. Here’s a bit more technical info about the crocs. Mind you, there are tours that can guarantee a sighting because they feed the giant reptiles, but that wasn’t anywhere we were going….
Next stop on the Big Trip was Fitzroy Crossing, a comfortable 650km or so down the road – including a side trip to the old port of Wyndham which used to service the cattle trade and has now expanded into other areas. I was hoping to see a salty (salt water croc) but I was…
The highlight of our visit to Kununurra was a trip on the Ord River. After all, without the Ord River, Kununurra wouldn’t exist. The town was created in the sixties, when one of the visionary Duracks, who originally opened up the area, persuaded the Government to dam the river. If you’ve been following my journey,…