So we come to our final posting and as you can see we are still smiling and still together after 36 weeks and 4 days on the road! We have not stopped talking about our journey since we returned although we try to tone it down when other people are around. Comments like 'do you remember...', 'where were we when...', 'what was the name of....'? Memories return at unexpected moments, a taste, smell or noise can trigger off a thought and take us back months to a small town in the outback or a journey that we took. As we sort through paperwork, documents, souvenirs and photos we are constantly reminded of places and people. We are catching up with friends and family and we are asked similar questions in a variety of formats - 'what was our favourite place, which place/country would we want to return to, what did we miss the most, what have we learnt, how have we changed, what did we enjoy the most, what are our most vivid memories, what will we do next?' It is, of course, almost impossible to answer these questions with a single answer but we thought on this final post we would try.

The best thing in many ways about our journey were the people that we met. Everywhere we went people were interested to talk about what we were doing. Our accents often attracted attention, many not recognising that we were from the UK but assuming Australia/New Zealand as our country of origin! Some thought that we were ex-pats living abroad as we were in places where tourists from the UK were not often met. After journeys by coach, ferry, train and plane we have exchanged e mail addresses and passed on our blog address to fellow travellers. We have heard from a number of these people already and through meeting them we have learnt a little about their countries and lives. We have been reminded of the kindness and generosity of strangers; help when we arrived late at our first RV park and a warm welcome from fellow campers, hospitality from people we had only ever spoken to over the phone but who had received a recommendation from family and friends about these two English travellers who would certainly make good house guests!

As for the places, how can you distinguish between Canada and Vietnam, forests of Douglas Fir or Tingle trees, Sydney and New York? If Phileas had to chose a place it would be New Zealand, but then we did spend the longest time there; for Fogg it would be a small village on the banks of the Mekong River in Laos or the town of Riverton in South Island, New Zealand. But there again what about Halong Bay, the farm, Devonport, Western Australia, The Flinders, Tasmania, Vancouver Island, Kangaroo Island, Yosemite.............? The list is endless or we can look at it a different way. How about the beaches, the trees, the wildlife, the food, coffee and wine, the softness of the water!! Or the things we did; train journeys, Fogg's wonderful sail on NZ 41 an America's Cup yacht, the helicopter ride over the NZ glaciers, the seaplane flight in BC, the overnight trip on Doubtful Sound, albatrosses on the Otago Penninsula or the close encounters with these amazing birds off Kaikoura; don't forget the whales and the dolphins oh! and of course the sea otters! Shall I go on?

What did we miss? Family and friends at home, decent TV (thank goodness for the BBC!!), the English countryside. Of course we didn't realise how much they were missed until we returned! Food is universal, Vegemite is a great substitute for Marmite but hey, we wanted to try local food as much as possible although we both drew the line at barbequed rats in Laos!!

So what did we learn? Well, a cliche we know, but people are basically the same the whole world over. It doesn't matter what colour their skin is, what God they worship, how much money they have. People are good and kind and the one's that aren't are in the minority. This is a very small and fragile planet and the concerns of one country (environment, cost of housing, education, human rights, politicians etc) are universal. We now know that our knowledge of world history is very poor as is our understanding of key issues in post colonial New Zealand, Australia and Canada. This gap in our knowledge can be rectified and it will be all the more interesting to learn about the history of places now that we have visited them. We have also been reminded of how lucky we are.

The future? In the short term Phileas is back in the classroom and Fogg is a full time painter/printmaker with some teaching too. We have friends and family to catch up with, letters to write, a home and garden to look after, 'stuff' to deal with. Longer term, who knows. Fogg already has itchy feet and we are both remembering fondly the simplicity of life on the road. Another long journey? We think not but we are both keen to continue travelling, we only touched a very small part of the world.

How have we changed? Again hard to say but I think that we will look at life in a more relaxed way, realising now that what is important for us is people and that if something is urgent it will get done and if it doesn't, well the world won't come to an end. It is difficult though not to fall into old habits of worrying about a bit of paper or a dusty corner!

Would we recommend what we have done? Yes, unreservedly. This journey has been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives and we have memories to last a lifetime.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading our blog, thank you to all of you who have commented on it. We leave you with our best wishes.

Phileas and Fogg

The Big Apple part 2

Here she is posing with her Tiffany purchases, what a happy bunny!!!
We leave you with some images and we feel that they speak for themselves. The Chrysler Building (Phileas' favourite).

The United Nations General Assembly, despite its critics a wonderful organisation.

Times Square where we went to see the Broadway production of 'Legally Blonde - the musical'!!

Fogg particularly likes this final image. There are some wonderful Victorian buildings with ornate decoration and fascinating fire escapes. This in Little Italy our favourite place for dinner.

We fly home today and will post a final 'thoughts' blog on our return.

Thank you for reading and your comments, we are glad you have enjoyed our postings.

Best wishes from Phileas and Fogg.

Farewell Canada, hi to The Big Apple (part 1)

Well, we are now in New York on the final day of our journey and so we are posting our final two blogs. We loved Canada, a beautiful country and wonderful people not least Fogg's cousin John and his wife Faith and my mum's cousin Sally and her husband Russell. We have been reminded on our travels of the importance of family and it has been brilliant to explore New York with our youngest daughter Hannah.
Anyway back to Canada and Ottawa a delightful capital city with the UNESCO World Heritage Rideau Canal and locks. We had a gentle trip on the canal learning a little of the history of this part of Canada. It made us realise how little we know of North American history, must rectify that on our return.
Fogg here. It is worthy of note that the Rideau Canal is frozen solid for about two months in the winter and is used for recreational skating on a regular basis. It was originally built to move armaments during the war with the Americans in 1812 but it was never used for that purpose. The locks pictured here (seven in total) convey pleasure boats at about six at a time up the steep rise from the Ottawa river. My cousin John and his wife Faith were brilliant tour guides and amongst other things introduced us to the delights of Timmy Hortons, a wonderful chain of coffee shops that sold awesome doughnuts! So our time in Canada came to a close all too soon and we flew to the 'Big Apple' to meet Hannah!
We found a diner and planned our visit. There are so many icons in New York and so little time we have merely scratched the surface and visited a 'few' shops! Central Park is wonderful and it was great to walk there in the shade in the very hot and humid city. Walking past the Dakota building we joined many others at the plaque to John Lennon and also watched turtles in a lake which Phileas, particularly, found exciting. Fogg thought he had escaped more wildlife watching!
Grand Central station is a wonderful building . Phileas commented she thought it was like a Cathedral. So over to her for more commentary.
The Guggenheim was one of the most exciting buildings that we have seen, some great Kandinsky's but Hannah was not too keen on the Louise Bourgeois (some debate here on the spelling!!) and I did find them quite uncomfortable.
We have seen and done so much here that we will post a second New York blog. Suffice to say that this is a crazy, exciting city and we love it!!
Best wishes
Phileas and Fogg

Across Canada, which holds 50% of the world's freshwater!!

Having travelled for 3 nights across Australia by train we had assumed that the Canadian journey would take less time. How wrong we were, we had not taken into account mountain ranges and lakes that had to be circumnavigated as well as the massive distance across the second largest country in the world, after Russia. This was an awesome journey through high mountain ranges and across water logged plains. Our travelling companions came from many countries and we spent some time talking about politics, art, teaching and shared experiences. The train has dome cars with seats set high under glass roofs which allow wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. The photo shows how long the train was and also that it needed three engines to pull it. The Rockies were absolutely stunning, many still carrying much of their winter snows, their peaks sharp and jagged.
They gave way to the Prairies, not as large and broad as I had imagined but covered with yellow and blue fields of oil seed rape (canola, as it is known here) and flax. These gave way to water, lakes and ponds, rivers and streams all surrounded by miles of forest, silver birch, aspen and of course fir. I was reminded of the Girl Guide song 'Land of the Silver Birch, Home of the Beaver', but Fogg would not let me sing it!! I was delighted to see Beaver lodges but unfortunately no sight of their elusive builders. Fogg is champing at the bit so I will just briefly mention Toronto and Niagara. The former is a great city, full of charm where modern glass edifices jostle with great Victorian architecture. As you can see Fogg has enjoyed himself here. We both had a
wonderful day at Niagara Falls and got wonderfully soaked on the 'Maid of the Mist'. But oh dear what a tacky place!
OK Fogg here you are, best wishes from me, Phileas.
Hi Fogg here at last! Note the 'ear' in the bottom right hand corner of the 'Rockies' photo, probably belonging to Phileas as she was trying to sing Land of the Silver Birch etc.... down mine! Toronto was hosting a Caribbean festival and we came upon a square full of beautiful people celebrating in wondeful costumes. In another square people were beginning to take their places for a free showing of the film Romeo and Juliet and all around there were street entertainers and artists plying their wares.
An exciting, vibrant and proud city which we will continue to explore today. Niagra Falls was crazy. We all got incredibly wet as the photo shows exactly where we were. All aboard were given waterproofs which merely enhanced the humidity already at about 60%!. We all looked very glamourous in our blue plastic bags. On our return to Toronto we stopped to taste some local wine at a winery that specialises in 'Ice wine'. Over to Phileas to explain and to sign off. So goodbye from Fogg for now.
Canada produces about 80% of the world's ice wine and this winery produces 20% of that. The grapes are picked at 2am in January and of course are totally frozen. Crushed immediately the only liquid from each grape is a drop of very sweet nectar. This wine, a dessert wine is fabulous and also very expensive.


So Canada is proving to be a pretty special place as some of our friends at home already know. We havn't finished here yet but must close now. Best wishes from us both, Phileas.

Vancouver Island part 2

We are ready for our trip from Vancouver to Toronto on the train and so we have time to tell you more about our memories of Vancouver Island. I think that the first thing I want to say is that our previous blog did not do justice to this beautiful island. So two more photographs showing firstly the extraordinary but very common sight of logs on the beaches and secondly a typical view this time taken on the ferry as we returned to the mainland. The logs are either escapees from the massive log barges that float from the forests to the sawmills or they are mature trees that have fallen and been carried down rivers to the sea. Both have been washed or
in some cases thrown onto the beach and the rocks by the winter storms. The wood is weathered and apparently tumbled like pebbles on the beach. It seems mostly just to be left, the sea water making the timber unusable. Some is used by the locals to create dramatic sculptures at the entrance to homes or in gardens. Unfortunately it is too heavy for these travellers!!! I will hand over to Fogg now but I will return later to talk about the Orcas.
Hi. The flying Fogg here!! In Victoria I fullfilled a boyhood dream and we flew in a six seater sea plane. A wonderful experience taking off from the water and cruising over beautiful beaches and
islands whilst looking at the snow capped Olympic mountains in the distance. We wobbled and dipped our way around the tree covered hills north of the city before landing smoothly back in the harbour. This photo shows Phileas alighting daintily from the craft wiping the palms of her hands!!!!!!!!!!! We had amazing views as we were both right by the window and Fogg was sitting right behind the pilot. It was a beautiful day and as ever Phileas was up for more adventures on the water not being content with a relaxing afternoon we were soon back on a boat run by the 'Prince of Whales' company looking for Killer Whales. Phileas has told me to say how much I loved the trip. Actually she does not need to tell me. It was Awesome. We came across a 'super pod' seen only about two or three times a year and we spotted at least twenty. Some in small pods as this photo shows and some 'breaching' but too far away for photos. On a completely different subject I would also like to mention how interesting it has been to learn a little about the North American First Nations peoples and the parallels that can be drawn between them and the Aborigines of Australia a subject I will be following up on our return to England. A brief comment about Victoria. Named after our illustrious Queen it is the capital of British Columbia and in some ways tries to be more British than Britain. It was quite bizarre to see Route Master buses and English pubs lining the streets but it is a wonderful place alive with street performers and 'artists' and a super harbour which was somewhere between Padstow/Hornfleur and Sydney in character. We found an excellent restaurant with harbourside seats from which we could see the parliament building lit up with fairy lights!. (Why don't we do that in London!) I know that Phileas is now champing at the bit to have her say so I wish you all well, Fogg.
Victoria was lovely and I think that as it only had the legislature and not all the commercial buildings it was able to keep a small town feel.
I was a bit nervous about the flight but in fact it was absolutely no problem despite Fogg's comment. The take off and landing were so smooth (it was a very calm day) and we were able to get wonderful views down onto the water and over to the islands and mountains. As for the whales, well that was very special and for me a real privilege. These animals are enormous, the dorsal fin of a fully grown male reaching up to two metres in length. They also swim very fast which made filming difficult and I have a lot of footage of water! At one point a large male came right towards the boat but submerged just as I got him in the view finder. He was identified by his large floppy fin which gave him the name 'Ruffles'! He is a film star having been used as a 'wild extra' in Free Willy!! The small pods were made up of either a male with a couple of 'ladies' or two or three generations of females; all were following the salmon.
We leave Vancouver having only had a short time to explore. This is a very exciting city which needs a revisit, sometime. Until then more adventures to come with a three day train ride across the Rockies and the Prairies to Toronto.

With best wishes, Phileas.

Vancouver Island part 1, in which our intrepid travellers meet a bear!

We are back after a short intermission, but fear not we have been busy and would like to share with you some of our experiences on Vancouver Island. One key memory for me of this place will be trees, big fir trees like the Douglas Fir but also the Arbutus and the Maple. The logging industry is going through difficult times here but we were still able to see great rafts of logs being floated down the rivers and in the sea to the sawmills. Another abiding memory will be the mountains and the wood clad islands. Even in the middle of summer snow clings to the higher slopes, the image made stronger by the blue sea and sky.
We have also experienced rain especially on the
west coast; we stayed for a few days in Tofino where the rain forest grows down to the sea. Rain forests are best explored in the rain and we were not disappointed. Nor were we disappointed by the wildlife and poor old Fogg was once again dragged off to see the local fauna. We took a wonderful trip to watch black bears, in the wild, feeding at low tide on crabs which they revealed by rolling over the rocks on the beach. We also saw grey whales, Stellar Sealions and much to my delight and suprise sea otters and humming birds (obviously not at the same time nor in the same place!!!). The Bald Eagle, symbol of the USA, lives and thrives around the waters
of the Island. We were very privileged to see a young eagle in the nest stretching its wings whilst being watched by a proud parent. These birds were flying around us and taking off from low branches as the mist was covering the tops of the trees. We have again met some wonderful people here including a number of Fogg's relatives who have been so kind to us and have looked after us when we were feeling very tired. Also Mindy, a lively Schnauzer, who finally decided that we were ok and even allowed herself to sit on our laps for a short while! So all from me now; Fogg will relate the story of the bear although it was me who saw it first! I will never poopoo warning
leaflets about wildlife again, you never know what you might meet round the corner.
Fogg here. I would like to amplify what Phileas has said. My cousin Joan and her partner Keith have been wonderful. They have enhanced our trip here through their generosity and time. Phileas has forgotten to mention the wonderful beaches and the trees and driftwood on the sand. Also the shells and sand dollars exposed by the low tide.
Now, the bear. Whilst having a snooze in a remote and empty car park on the road from Tofino to Nanaimo I was woken sharply by Phileas claiming there was a bear in the car park. Without a thought for his personal safety Phileas forced Fogg to retrieve the cameras from the back of the car whilst the bear sauntered past at some distance (yeah right!!) . Hurrying back to
the driver's seat ( the bear having decided to change direction) Phileas and Fogg both armed with only a camera hid and cunningly snapped and filmed whilst the bear, now called Albear, who thankfully totally ignored us. A wonderful moment. So this is a lucky Fogg who escaped by a gnat's whisker from the jaws of a black bear. As my cousin Joan remarked this morning I always seem to have one foot on the stage. Although I may have embellished this slightly this in fact is a true story! This is Fogg wishing you all well.

California part 2, in which Fogg has some scarey driving moments!

Well folks we are safely back in LA after 10 days , well 7, in a small van that took us over 1400 miles along some of the most scarey roads either of us have ever driven on. They were also some of the most beautiful and they took us into two of America's most iconic National Parks, Yosemite and Kings Canyon/Sequoia. Photo one shows El Capitan an enormous hunk of granite that rises several thousand feet above the valley. Yosemite was in the true sense of the word, awesome. Despite the crowds and the traffic and the soaring temperatures (100F) we explored shady meadows, the 5th highest waterfall in the world and deep valleys towered over by huge granite cliffs.
The remaining photos are taken in Sequioa/ Kings Canyon where we marvelled at the giant trees, some of the largest living things on earth. This is the base of the General Grant, the Sherman tree was too big to get in a picture. The GG is also known as the American Christmas tree and is the 3rd largest tree in the world, allegedly!!

Kings Canyon was approached as the afternoon wore on, should we go as it was getting late and we had a long drive back to the campsite? We are so glad that we did as this place was like no other we had seen before. We entered at 7000 feet and the road fell to 4000 feet on some of the steepest
and narrowest inclines that himself has driven on. But it was all worth it and I am sure that the pictures give an indication of the beauty and majesty of this place.
Best wishes from Phileas

Hi from Fogg . I have little to add to this. Phileas' powers of persuasion are formidable as are her map reading skills. The journey we took was fantastic despite the fact we drove through a fire fighting exercise in the middle of Kings Canyon and for a short while visibility was down to a short distance. In this photo the smoke can be seen rising into the mountains.
On our return journey the setting sun was in our eyes and Phileas was on the drop side of the mountain!!!!!!!!!! At one moment Fogg lost all sense of where he was and had to rely on Phileas' screams to help with the navigation! We made it though and it was worth every sweat, scream and gasp. So we are now back in LA having spent the last night of our adventure in the RV camp at Pomona. Here we met some more kind, generous Americans, Dick and Cay. They were both very interesting people with a great love of English literature and travel amongst other things. As the water system on our RV broke down it was comforting to have camp neighbours who offered
help and advice.

This last photgraph was high up in Kings Canyon and shows the kind of road we travelled on but in this case the road had a small stone barrier to avoid the drop, which was the exception rather than the rule.

So, this is Fogg, tired but happy having conquered not only this road but the Los Angeles six lane freeways!!!, wishing you well.

Hi Folks
Phileas and Fogg outside their R.V having driven from Los Angeles to Santa Margarita Lake . The R.V ( camper Van ) is 25 foot long, 10 feet wide and 12.5 feet high and it took 3 .5 hours to get out of L.A and another 3 to get to S.M.L. But we made it and at this camp site met the most wonderful and generous and kind people. Americans Brad and Suzanne and German Michael and his Finnish wife Linnear. It was just such a pleasure to be in the company of these folks after what had been quite a stressful day. Shortly after our arrival the wine flowed and we talked well into the hours of the early morning. The next day Brad lent us his Ute to go to the local town thereby preventing the need of us unplugging our RV. A beautiful camp site for a day and we were sad to leave these folks but time pressed and we set off on the ocean road to Santa Cruz travelling to the Big Sur. Over to Phileas. I might be back!!

This is cosy travelling and we have to be very organised as we have limited space for storage. But it is fun and it is so good to be able to talk to other travellers to find out how to do the technical stuff like 'dumping'. No more on that!! We were so pleased to meet up with wonderful people at our first campsite as we were both very tired and it was very late and dark. So thank you all, you know who you are! Again I must pay tribute to my fellow traveller and in this case driver, Fogg is the man. This is not easy driving and he has been awesome. So the ocean road, what a beautiful drive along a windy, narrow road that was carved out of the cliffs above the ocean. These guys are elephant seal adolescents practising for being grown ups! They were so huge that they could hardly haul themselves up the beach and after a few minutes of posturing and growling at each other had to lie down for a rest!!!
This is a good view of the road taken from one of the many view points along the way. Again it was a long drive to the campsite but we arrived in daylight and by now we were experts!! I was particularly taken by the wild flowers growing along the side of the raod and of course the wonderful natural scenery of cliffs and mountains. Now as you can see we are in San Francisco and what an amazing city it is, I love it. We are doing all the tourist things, a coach tour of the sights, a boat trip round the bay and a cable car ride. Such fun and in glorious weather too. Over to Fogg now to round this off. Best wishes from Phileas (who unfortunately has no flowers in her hair!!!!!!!!!!!!)
We had booked a hotel in S.F. thinking we could bring our RV into the city. How foolish this idea was so we have left it at an out of town RV park and we are very happily exploring this wonderful city. We are staying in Fisherman's Wharf, an exciting and vibrant area with cafes and shops to explore and enjoy. The Golden Gate Bridge is awesome. We have driven over it and been on a boat under it. Having 'done' one of the many icons of S.F. we went on another in the form of a cable car when Fogg travelled standing up on the running board. Of course Phileas was there as ever to look after me and I take this opportunity to pay tribute to her map reading skills which are as equally awesome if not more than my driving!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We loved the cable car and as I write this we are at the top of Powell- Mason Line. Looking forward to going down the hill which is past the 'Crookedest' Street in the world, allegedly. We are about half way through our Californian adventure so we will be sending another blog when we have visited Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, where we will be back in our RV and enjoying the open road again.
So this is Fogg wishing you all well.

Ia ora na, nana

The title of this blog is hello, good morning in in Tahitian! I could say bonjour as we are also practising our French here in French Polynesia. Phileas here and a very hot person she is, this place is very warm even at night and she is finding it quite hard. However, air conditioning and a breeze has helped. Different layout today, hope it all makes sense. First photo is the village opposite our hotel on Bora Bora. Classic south Pacific island, white sand, palm fringed beaches and beautiful islanders who really do wear flowers in their hair and have the most wonderful smiles.
We were able to snorkel over the local coral reef where we spotted a range of tropical fish. Fogg much better than me at this. I was delighted to spot Frigate birds and a range of terns as well as the local dove that wandered around the dining room clearing up the crumbs. Bora Bora was a real treat; I won't go into too much detail about how special it was just to say it was very special. We had three nights there and we are now back in Tahiti staying just outside the capital Papeete. Here the sand is volcanic black and we are facing out into the Pacific not onto a reef fringed lagoon. The weather is less breezy and so far no repeat of the torrential downpours experienced on Bora Bora. People are just as wonderful and I am enjoying the pool and the latest Alexander McCall Smith. Over to Fogg now for his take. From me Phileas Parahi, nana
The people here are beautiful. They radiate calm and tranquility. No wonder Gaugin came here to paint. I have been reminded of a novel about Gaugin and his life here called 'The Gold of their bodies' which I read years ago. I am not going to fall into the trap of trying to paint Gaugin lookalikes! The photo above is of our twin engined propellor plane and the man in front is our pilot casually walking towards it minutes before take off! A small 30 seater which bumped and wobbled its way to and from Bora Bora. A wonderful 45 minutes trip. I loved the fact that we walked through a garden to reach the plane.
On our back to Tahiti we flew over some more islands. This is Huahine. All of them had similar shapes and the lagoon edging them with the most stunning blues and the waves breaking on the coral reef. As you can see we were only a couple of thousand feet above sea level so the view was awesome. We are now back in Tahiti for a couple of days before heading off to Los Angeles when we are back on the road again. This is when we pick up the camper van and more challenges await us. I used to ridicule Phileas when she said we would need a break between Oz and North America but she was right!! We are having a wonderful rest and the image below reflects that.This is Fogg wishing you all well.

Farewell from Australia

Hi folks. We are currently in Sydney sorting ourselves out for our flight to Tahiti. So this our farewell blog from Australia. We have had the most wondeful time here. Different to New Zealand but no less exciting and interesting.We have seen so much. The diversity of the landscape is amazing. We have driven in the very remote and hot outback where we did feel seriously challenged and have nearly been blown off mountains when it was extremely cold. A country of extremes and yet nearly all the people we have met have always greeted us with 'Hello and how are you today' and we really do believe that they mean it. We have learnt alot about the European Settlers and have tried to understand a little about the Aboriginal peoples.
A truly fascinating country, very young and yet so very old.

So our next blog will be from the Northern Hemisphere. Best wishes to you all

Fogg and Phileas

Cradle Mountain, a real wilderness

BeforeI start telling you about our visit to Cradle Mountain I must take this opportunity to acknowledge Fogg's wonderful photographs. I have not taken many preferring to use my camcorder, but he has always snapped at anything that took my eye and the results I think you will agree are brilliant.

Cradle Mountain is in a large National Park that extends through the middle of Tasmania. It is a World Heritage site because it is so pristine and special. It really is a true wilderness and has many plants and animals not found elsewhere. I will describe the area as Alpine. When we were
there it was very cold but sunny and the air was so clean it was almost intoxicating. On the morning that we left there was a hard frost.
We stayed in a wonderful resort called Cradle Mountain Lodge which has won many awards for tourism. We had a cabin set up high in the hills and with a wood burning stove we were snug and cosy. It felt a little bit like Christmas as we sat in front of a roaring fire with a glass of port!
Cradle Mountain is very distinctive and can be seen for miles around. In front of it in the photo lies Dove Lake a beautiful place for walking. We know that living in the lake are duck-billed platypus but unfortunately we did not see any on
our visit. We did however see some other wonderful animals who were completely unphased by our presence and just carried on doing their thing. On our balcony sat a Bennett's wallaby. Up above him on the hill were pademelons (an Aboriginal name, they are tiny wallabies) and a wombat wandered across my path as I walked to the Lodge for a bit of pampering! We went on a night spotlight tour and saw two pairs of brushtail possums, mums with their babies.
As always it was the trees and plants that took my breath away. Because the air is so clean and there is plenty of water the trees are covered with mosses, ferns and lichens. There is a primeval feel as if we had stepped back several million years in time. The air was cold and clear and it was absolutely silent. It was a very special place and we are very privileged to have seen it.

With best wishes
Phileas

Fogg's take on Tasmania

Hi Folks

Fogg here. I hope you enjoy Phileas' Blog. I have a slightly diiferent take on Tasmania although I have to say I agree with all of Phileas' comments. We have had a wonderful time here. It is a well kept secret of the Aussies. Very beautiful and some stunningly majestic scenery. It also has a very significant history surrounding the European settlers and Aboriginee peoples.
We landed in Hobart and were very taken with this town. On the left is a building that took my eye. It is converted grain store in to residential flats. A wonderful 1930s use of old buildings.
We were also very surprised and delighted to see how wonderfully clear the water in the

harbour was. In fact we saw many starfishes in the harbour which itself was surrounded by old warehouses . This area is named Salamanca Place. This is as you may know is also a large University town in the middle of Spain and we were intrigued to know why it is named that.
Surrounding Hobart are two towering mountains. Mount Nelson and Mount Wellington. We drove to the top of Mount Wellington, 4000 feet. It was very windy indeed and cold. About 5 degrees although with the wind chill factor it felt like minus 10. This photo was taken from the top but it was difficult to do due to the very high winds and cold. Phileas stayed in an enclosed lookout point and filmed Fogg battling with the elements.


After a couple of days in Hobart we drove to Freycinet. A wonderful lodge resort where we explored some more. The photo left is of Wine Glass bay. A beautiful spot and it seems to be self evident why it is called that due to its shape. However it gets darker when one realises the wine was red . The red was from the blood of the dead whales that used to be hauled in here to be butchered on the beach. Happily now this industry no longer takes place in Australia.

We are now in Launceston in the north of Tasmania. A delightfull place with some wonderful Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco buildings and the last photo is of one of the latter.

As you may have detected , this Blog and the arrangement of the photographs is all over the shop but I am sure you will be able to sort them out. Phileas has just reminded me that I have not mentioned Cradle Mountain. A great place and Phileas will be doing a blog on it soon.

So, this is Fogg wishing you all well. We will be sending a farewell Australia blog soon too.

Fogg