Archive for March, 2013
Our round the world trip (16): Sydney from above
March 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 17 (Thursday) was our second day in Sydney and “a day at leisure” in the official programme, so all members of the group did different things with Roger & Vee ascending two of the city’s iconic locations. The main event of the day was climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This construction was completed in […]
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Our round the world trip (15): Sydney
March 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 16 (Wednesday) was the first of two in Sydney and it was another early start. We were up at 6 am and had a tour of the city from 7.30 am – 3 pm. At first, the sky was overcast and the temperature much lower and then we had a quick shower, but soon […]
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Our round the world trip (14): from Cairns to Sydney
March 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Today was not just Day 15 (Tuesday) but Roger and Vee’s 31st wedding anniversary. Roger gave Vee a card with a list inside headed “31 Reasons Why I Love You” – but Vee had not managed to organise anything. We were leaving Cairns after three nights to fly down to Sydney – our third and […]
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Our round the world trip (13): the Daintree
March 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
It was a free day on our tour of Australia – Day 14 (Monday) for Roger & Vee – but, on this type of holiday, there are no truly free days, only days with no group activities but all sorts of optional activities for individuals. Today some of our group took an excursion to Kuranda, […]
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Our round the world trip (12): the Great Barrier Reef
March 17th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 13 (Sunday) was very, very lucky. It was our visit to the Great Barrier Reef. This extends for 2,300 kms along the north-eastern coast of Australia and is not one large reef but a network of about 2,900 individual coral reefs. Corals are animals in the same family as jellyfish and there are around […]
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Our round the world trip (11): two very different flights
March 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 12 (Saturday) was a tale of two contrasting flights from the same airport, the first for Roger & Vee and the second for us all. The first one was a helicopter trip to Uluru and the Olgas departing from a corner of the local airport. It only lasted 30 minutes and cost a stiff […]
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Our round the world trip (10): Ayers Rock
March 15th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Having seen Uluru by sunset, naturally we had to observe it by sunrise too, so Day 11 (Friday) was our earliest start so far with an alarm call at 5 am. Three quarters of an hour later, we were off – to the music of Dido – to the observation area for the sunrise and […]
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Our round be world trip (9): Alice to Ayers
March 14th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Day 10 (Thursday) was essentially a travelling day as we went overland from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock. At first the weather was cloudy with a moderate temperature, but soon we had totally cloudless skies again and the heat rose to 34C/93F. The journey by coach took seven and a half hours, but we stopped […]
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Our round the world trip (8): Alice Springs
March 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
We left Melbourne on Wednesday (Day 9 of our holiday) as the heat wave started to break and preparations built up for Sunday’s Formula One race. We took a Qantas flight north-west 1,858 kms (1,162 miles) to Alice Springs in “the red centre” of the country. It was a flight of about two and a […]
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Our round the world trip (7): sightseeing & friends in Melbourne
March 12th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The group’s second full day in Melbourne – Day 8 (Tuesday) for Roger & Vee – was a free day in the schedule and most of the group left the hotel by 7 am to go on an all-day optional tour of the Great Ocean Road. We two remained in the city where it was […]
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