adventure – Hereandthereclaire.com

Thursday 29th May – Tuesday 1st July 2025

First of all, apologies for my shameful lack of posts!

I had promised myself that I would continue to post when I returned home from my adventures. So far I have been very remiss!

I arrived back in the UK at the end of May. The first stop with Tracey was a visit to the amazing Tom Ashley to get my hair cut! Thank you Tom for fitting me in and making me feel fabulous, like you always do. 😘

I spent an amazing week up in Hertfordshire catching up with family and friends.

Thank you Marsha and all the fabulous bookies for throwing such a wonderful garden party! 🎉 it was wonderful to see everyone.

I also managed to catch up with both of my sisters and my nieces in the same place at the same time! This hasn’t happened for a very long time, so that’s was lovely. 😻

More parties, mini school reunions, some very late nights and lots of shenanigans resulted in me having a rather nasty cold/cough thing and almost losing my voice! 😳😂

Thank you to all the lovely people who let me stay with them and looked after me! Tish, Tracey, Diane and Anne. You’re the best.

It’s such a pleasure to see all my friends and to catch up on their news and share my stories.

After my week in Hertfordshire I flew back down to Newquay, courtesy of Ryan Air. The flight was cheap, thanks mainly to Nikki, who took lots of my luggage back down to Newquay in her car. ❤️😘

I spent the 1 hour flight listening to a group of very attractive ladies from Essex discussing the merits of various cosmetic procedures, and competing subtly on how many fancy holidays they’d all had or are going to have. 😂 It was very entertaining. I would have loved to enjoyed it whilst sipping a wine, but sadly no alcohol was allowed on this flight.

Arriving in Newquay was so exciting, as it meant I was going to see my beautiful baby girl, Georgia, for the first time in over a year! I have missed her so much and couldn’t wait to give her a massive squeeze.

They were waiting down on the road when I came out of the airport, but spotted me and drove in. It was so fantastic to see my beautiful Georgia and also to see my gorgeous boy, Grantley, and the lovely Jack. An emotional reunion.

We headed into Newquay to grab some dinner and drinks and to meet up with my friend, Stretch, thank you for my fantastic Keffiyeh. 🇸🇩🇸🇩

Unfortunately the weather was a bit pants, our chosen venue only had outside seating a available and the rain made that tricky and bloody cold, although we managed to endure it in order to have 1 cheeky Margarita! 😍

We ended up with a tasty burger at ‘Herd’, a burger joint that also sells a very pleasant Rosè! Yum.

I was a little knackered, so it wasn’t a late one. I headed back to where I am staying at the lovely Tish’s place.

After an early night I woke up, back home in Newquay and ready to tackle the next task, finding a home!

I have been looking at properties online while I’ve been away, which isn’t the best idea, because things I like the look of aren’t available now.

I contacted all the estate agents in town. Some are more responsive than others. The most responsive and efficient was Zoopla, who sent me notifications of new properties long before the Estate agents themselves, which rather begs the question, what are we paying a

Estate Agents to do??

It’s not the best time to be buying, just before the holiday season but it is what it’s is.

I have looked at a wide variety of properties, houses, new and old, flats, new and old, big and small, with views, without views, nice and not so nice. 😊 I felt it was Important to see a wide range of properties to really get an idea of what’s important to me.

It’s not the most relaxing activity, buying a home, viewings are the fun part.

I have seen a couple that I really liked, in fact the first place I viewed was a definite contender. A lovely large modern apartment, in town, with parking (parking is an absolute must in Newquay) it was great but very dark. I put in a cheeky offer, which was rejected, someone else offered much closer to the asking price, I debated whether to offer a higher amount, but on reflection I felt the property didn’t justify it. So the search continued.

I viewed approx 12 places and finally put in an offer on another flat that was accepted! Hooray. 🎉

There was apparently no chain on the vendors end, this has now changed a little, but hopefully shouldn’t hold anything up. It’s a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, with a balcony and stunning views across Newquay Bay, which will allow me to enjoy glorious sunset views!! 🌅🧡💛

In the meantime I have moved from staying at Tish’s place to staying at another friend’s house. I’m incredibly lucky to have such wonderful, helpful people around me.

I also now need to start thinking about jobs….😬

I spent a while updating my CV, which hadn’t been done since 2017! That took a while, I then had a CV that was 5 pages long! 🙄 With the help of Nikki and Nigel I’ve managed to get it down to 2.5 pages. It’s really hard being a grown up responsible person again! Having to think about buying houses, getting a job, paying bills, I’ve spent a few nights contemplating just sacking it all off and going back to Thailand for a few months, or years! 😂 However, I do want to stay here and settle for a little while. (I think! 🧐🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️😃)

I love being back in Newquay, catching up with everyone, but I also see how difficult and expensive everything here is, it’s ridiculously expensive in the UK, much more so than SE Asia or even Europe. I genuinely feel we are all being ripped off. I paid £9 for a JD & coke in a bar in town and it was shitty generic cola on tap! WTAF! 😳

Whilst the rest of the UK has been baking in a heatwave, the temperature here in Newquay hasn’t gone above 24 degrees!!

In fact right now, I’m sitting writing this with the doors open, thinking I need a bloody jumper on! 🩵💙😂 Hopefully it’ll warm up soon.

I think that’s all for now.

Enjoy your week. Take care.

Books read.

Pompeii. Robert Harris. A fabulous book, made even better having just visited Pompeii!

Cuckoo in the Nest. Fran Hill. A really enjoyable read. Would definitely recommend.

A Man With One of Those Faces. Caimh McDonnell. A recommendation from Tracey, thank you! I loved it. So glad it’s part of a Trilogy, so I can read some more.

Wednesday 21st May – Thursday 29th May 2025

We arrived in Cetraro, and we moored stern to, I did fenders and helped with ropes, it went OK, but I get so anxious it makes my legs shake! 🫨 I get so worried about messing up, then causing damage to the boat, also moving around the boat doing fenders when we are still moving makes me nervous 😬 sailing is definitely not my forte!

Having moored safely, we hosed down the boat, the front lines need a good hose as they are filthy and always leave a mess. Then we did a little recce of the area, finding bins, looking for supermarkets, bars, restaurants etc. Apparently there is a Lidl somewhere but it’s too far away. The marina was a little way out of the town, so we decided to eat at the Marina restaurant later, as we’d had a long sail.

The setting was lovely and we all opted for Pizzas. I ordered one with local sausage, which looked like pepperoni but wasn’t spicy, it was really good. 😊 To be fair we didn’t see much of Cetraro, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

Thursday morning we set off for Maratea. Maratea was a pretty short trip, which meant we arrived with plenty of time to explore. We moored alongside, with lots of help! 😊👍

The marina is in a great spot, with plenty of houses, shops, restaurants and bars nearby. It also had a huge Christ statue up on the hill looking down on the harbour.

We decided to go and have a walk, possibly to the old town, which was supposed to be very quaint and not that far away.

We set off climbing some steps up from the harbour, through the houses. The steps just kept going, up & up, then up some more. Signs saying the town was 300 meters, after 300, then 600 meters it was still saying the same! It was a steep but very pretty walk, with great views. We decided to take a left turn and found ourselves on a main road, which we didn’t want to walk along, luckily we found some lovely steps down through the houses! We kept trying to find the “old town” with no luck! After an hour or so we came back to the harbour! 😃 We didn’t find the old town, but it was a great walk, albeit very steep, which my knees didn’t love. We stopped at a cute bar by the harbour for a well deserved aperitif, Aperol Spritz for Tracey and I and a local beer for Jacques. I love the Italian custom of bringing you nibbles with your drinks, in this case, pizza slices, crisps and nuts!

On the Friday we decided to order a cab to take us up to the ‘Old Town’ I’m so glad we did because it was bloody miles up the hill! Certainly a lot further than 300 meters!😂

The town was fabulous, lots of windy little streets, gorgeous old buildings, fantastic views and just a lovely place to explore. The only down side was that it was very quiet, with very few shops or cafès open.

We explored then stopped in the main square at one of the few places open and had some lunch and some yummy Gelato!

Sitting waiting for our taxi back, we were joined by a guy on a bicycle, he was either, drunk, stoned or both. He stopped in front of me, held up his phone and played me some music, I was trying my best not to engage so he moved across to where Jacques was sitting and started talking 19 to the dozen in heavily accented Italian! Poor Jacques was trying to explain he wasn’t Italian, without much success, he was saved when the guy got distracted by a stray cat 🐈‍⬛😂 Then luckily our Taxi appeared!

Jacques was tired, so Tracey and I went out for dinner on our own to one of the restaurants on the harbour. It was a beautiful place, great views, great staff, wonderful service but I was a little disappointed with the food. I think part of the problem is the majority of the menu is fish or seafood. The waiter explained that they could do some dishes without. I had the risotto, which was nice, but very salty. Our vegetable starters, one with turnip tops, one with white beans were tasty but a little mushy. They did make up brownie points with the wine and having Fever Tree Tonic water! 😍

Saturday & Sunday we spent in another lovely place called, Camerota. Our never ending quest for decent supermarkets finally hit pay dirt and we found a largeish one not far from the marina. The Italian couple on the boat next to us saw us leaving with the very fancy old lady shopping trolley 😃 and informed us that the shop was shut till 4.30, it was approximately 3pm. I had googled it and it said it was open so we risked it and hey voila! It was open! Happy Days. We stocked up on essentials, wine, fonzies, etc! 😂 we also bought some fresh polpette (meat balls)

After our little excusrsion we were all a bit tired, another longish day, so we eat on the boat.

We walked back into town on Sunday for some lunch, thinking that everywhere would be open, it wasn’t! We luckily found a cute restaurant in the Piazza. The restaurant was great, but again the men was very fish oriented, and the vegetable options were not the best, ok, just not anything special. Jacques had a a prawn pasta dish which he said was fabulous and the wine was delicious so not all bad. The setting was gorgeous.

That evening I began to think about packing!! 😬 I have been out of the UK for just over a year, it feels weird, exciting and a little scary going back. I have been organising things with regard to buying a place and have a few viewings lined up. I still need to decide what I’m doing work wise!

After spending time thinking about all this and getting a bit anxious I decided to watch something on my iPad and got into the BBCs Series, Mr Loverman. The very first few seconds in the first episode features Susan Cardigan singing ‘Hurt so Good’ which was mine & Clint’s wedding song!! It was a fabulous series and Lenny James & Ariyon Bakare fully deserved their BAFTAs for best actor & best supporting actor.

The journey to our next stop, Agripoli was quite bumpy and Jacques was doing things with the sails, which I always find scary. 😦

We moored stern to, which was stressful, especially as we literally ran out of fuel as we were backing in. The spare fuel was deployed and we were able to moor successfully. It was definitely one of the more tricky moorings I’ve had.

Everyone was a bit knackered so we grabbed a pizza and an early night!

Our next stop, Torre Annunziata, is a 6 hour trip, but we are going to add an hour or so to allow us to go along the coast of Positano & Amalfi!

This was lots of fun, we had good weather and seeing these stunning places was amazing. There were so many small boats whipping past us ferrying people between the two places, not to mention the huge big super yacht’s anchored in the bays, with all the fancy toys out! We googled a couple of them and you can rent them for around 350,000 – 450,000 a week!!!! 😳😳 Madness.

Torre Annunziata is not a fancy marina, more working harbour. Mooring Stern to, was OK, especially as a couple of young guys jumped on and did most of it for us! Thank God! 😂

The harbour is directly below Mount Vesuvius, amazing! and only a 6 minute train ride from Pompeii!! This is the reason for being here from Tuesday so that Tracey, Jacques and I get to visit Pompeii before we leave on Thursday. Jacques will then stay in this marina until Tracey gets back in a week.

Our first night I made us some delicious Meatball pasta! 🍝 We were then up earlyish to head to Pompeii.

Pompeii was absolutely incredible! It’s huge! In my head I thought it was a small place, but it’s not. To see so much detail, down to the ruts in the stone roads, caused by the wheels of carts, the frescos in some of the villas, all the amazing buildings, the forum, temples, theatres, even the brothel! Was fantastic.

We were lucky with the weather, sunny, warm but not roasting. It was busy but not manic. I am so thrilled to have been able to visit this incredible place, the first proper tourist thing I’ve done in Italy!

I’d mentioned to my friend Jenna that I was here, she loves volcanos and she told me about Pliny the Youngers letters, which offer a good account of the eruption 🌋. Thanks Jenna.

The trains here are brilliant! Modern, clean, on time and cheap. In fact our trip was better than cheap, as we couldn’t find a ticket kiosk on the way there, or a guard on the train, so it was free! On the way back we were just buying a ticket as the train pulled in and the seller told us to run and buy them in the train, again we couldn’t find anyone. So both ways were free! TBF, this amounts to approx €6 for all 3 of us.😂

We did lots of steps around Pompeii and our feet are aching but we decided head out again, for a last meal in Italy, well for me at least.

We found a lovely restaurant nearby, so not far to walk, thank god!

Had a delicious Pizza a nice glass of wine then back to the boat for an early night.

The chap from the Marina that organised the taxi for us had said the journey to the airport would take approximately 90 mins, so we needed to leave at 6.50am. It’s fair to say that Tracey is not a morning person, so this was not ideal 😂 The frustration came when we arrived at the Naples airport, in busy traffic precisely 30 mins later, at a ridiculous cost of €100! Crazy.

It feels very strange to be boarding a flight back to the UK and finishing my fantastic year of adventures.

I’m excited to be going home to see all my family and friends, desperate to give my beautiful baby girl, Georgia, a massive hug and squeeze her gorgeous face.

It’s been an amazing, wonderful eye opening year, but I feel there are more adventures ahead!

I am very late posting this blog, so I’m now back in the UK! 😍❤️🩵💙💚🩷

Books read.

Demon Copperhead. Barbara Kingsolver. Recommended by Natalie.

Fabulous book.

Saturday 17th May – Wednesday 21st May 2025

Martyn & Natalie left us on Saturday morning, to get a taxi to the Airport, it was sad to see them go, but not much time for long goodbyes as we were also leaving early in an attempt to stay in front of the weather.

We are on our way to Porto Bolaro, an 8 hour trip, which is approximately 55 nautical miles.

The weather was actually fine and we had a good journey getting our first glimpse of Sicily and Mount Etna! Unfortunately on this trip we won’t have time to stop in Sicily, but it was wonderful to see it in the distance.

As we came closer to our marina there were loads of windsurfers. It’s obviously a great little spot and these guys were flying across the water. A few of them came pretty close to the boat, waving and showing off their skills! Impressive.

The marina we are staying in is tiny, room for no more than 5 boats and less if the boats are big, like Mossy Joe.

We moored alongside, which is often easier, if there is no wind and people to help, which there was. However, the jetty’s look a little cobbled together and it took some time to secure the boat, using what appeared to be 500 ropes! The distance between the boat and the jetty, was large and involved clambering over said ropes, stepping on bits of barrels and generally looked like a bloody nightmare! 😬 Luckily for me Tracey is a mad football fan and the FA Cup Final was on so no urgency to go out to eat (Hallelujah!) 😂⚽️🏆 Well done to Crystal Palace.

We were told that another boat in the Marina wanted to leave at 8am, so this meant we would also need to be up and off early.

We eat on board after Tracey & Jacques braved the obstacle course to get off, TBF, they are experienced sailors, with no fear of falling and drowning! They returned from their excursion very happy to have found a major supermarket, with lots of wonderful things, including Sicilian red wine, mozzarella and a new favourite of Jacques and now mine ‘Fonzies’ they are like Italian cheesy Nik Naks! Yum.

Tracey put together a lovely platter of Italian yumminess, tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and pancetta! A perfect supper, after eating our own body weight in Fonzies! 😂😂

The sky at sunset in Porto Bolero was beyond incredible, great billowing clouds lit by the setting sun, absolutely glorious.

We could also see Mount Etna in the distance, with her plume of smoke.

We were all up and raring to go by 8am. And after releasing all the ropes, which took a while! We were off.

Fabulous views of Etna in the morning light.

Today we are traveling through the Messina Straights. It’s a very busy bit of sea, with lots of ferries, cargo ships and other boats. It has designated lanes and even a designated roundabout (marked on your electronic charts)

We really were having to dodge the various ferries going between the mainland and Sicily. We also spotted these weird boats, with tall masts, that had men sat in crows nests at the top! They also had a huge passerelle protruding from the bow! Jacques, Tracey or I had never seen boats like this. It seems that they are unique to this area and are for catching Swordfish. The guys in the crows nest are spotters, when they spot a Swordfish, someone runs out along the passerelle and spears the fish. It was incredible to see these boats, I only hope the guys up the mast get paid appropriately for the risks they take. 😳

As we came out of the Messina Straights you start to be able to see the Aeolian Islands, which includes Stromboli, an active volcano, these are in the Tyrrhenian Sea. We could see Stromboli smoking!

Tracey and I thought we spotted a small island ahead of us, turns out it was a Cargo Ship. This cargo ship, the MscSimona, is so huge that we could see it from 12 miles away! 😳 It is 360 meters long, only 30 meters short of the largest one in the world. It was astounding to see something this big. By far the largest vessel I’ve ever seen. Mind boggling. I took pictures, but not sure the scale will translate.

Today’s route has been fascinating, so much to see and absorb.

We arrived at our next stop pretty early, it was a short 3 hour trip. We are in an other small marina in a place called Palmi. It’s small but not tiny. After mooring up, Stern too, unfortunately I messed up a bit on the lines again, not taking it under the stern rail, 😕 But I did manage to do fenders well, it’s all a learning curve.

I went off for a little wander, it’s not a big place, or a very pretty one but it’s interesting nonetheless. I was looking for an ATM and also a supermarket to try and get some more Rosè, somehow we have run out! 😩

I did find a small little shop, no rosè and no ATM! But I had a good stroll. The few restaurants that I passed all seemed to be very busy, it’s Sunday, so I guess that’s not surprising.

We went out to eat a little earlier than usual as we were all hungry, everyone fancied some pasta. 🍝

We tried several places, the first, Sunset Beach Club, looked fabulous, trendy and upscale, but sadly they had no tables outside, they also weren’t serving food, other than nibbles and snacks. We stayed for an aperitif, Aperol Spritz, yum. Then had a walk in the opposite direction, looking for another restaurant, most of them were not opening until 8. This meant we got to sit by the beach and watch a glorious sunset. 🌅

We then walked back to a place we’d seen near the marina, it was lovely but only served seafood, which Tracey & I are not huge fans of.

We then walked back where we’d just been and eventually found a place that was open, but it only did Pizza by now I was starving and could have eaten anything, so we stayed. The place itself looked like a 1980s wedding venue, odd, but their pizzas were flipping amazing! I had a margarita with extra basil on the side and it was so, so good! It also only cost €5.50, crazy. You can’t be an authentic Italian Pizza. 🍕

Our next stop is Vibo. This particular coast doesn’t seem to have a lot of marinas, or anchorage’s so sometimes the distance between each is longer, there is also not much choice. Luckily it’s still out of season so marinas are not too busy.

The journey along the coast was great, not much wind, so no sails, but pleasant.

The marina at Vibo was brilliant, large and well equipped. 3 guys helped us to moor up alongside, I got my rope throwing and securing on point. (Huge relief!) the sun was shining and then shortly after arriving the marina guys bought us all a little chocolate ice cream treat! Cute.

There are quite a few big fancy motor boats in this marina. Very ‘Below Deck’! 😳

Tracey and I went on our usual reconnaissance mission, scoping out restaurants and as always, finding a supermarket.

The town is nice, quiet but lovely.We found a Coop supermarket, which unfortunately didn’t have any Lemoncello! 😩 But did have most of the other things we wanted. We stopped for a water and I had my first Italian Gelato, Amarena Cherry! 🍒 😋

The Marina had a lovely little houseboat looking bar, with a rooftop terrace. So we thought we’d go there for an aperitif. Sadly they weren’t serving, but said we were welcome to use it and bring our own stuff! This was music to Jacques ears as it meant he could bring his Ricard (a French aniseed aperitif, which is Jacques absolute favourite) we could also bring our own nibbles, a large bag of Fonzies! 😂

The sunset was beautiful and cast a gorgeous golden glow over everything. We enjoyed our drinks and then eat back on the boat, our usual delicious Greek Salad.

Tracey had to work the next day, so I went for a wander into town. I needed to find an ATM. In Greece they were everywhere, here in Italy not so much! I found the bank behind a lovely little church and got some cash. Then had a look around. Before enjoying a Coffee Crème, this is a fabulous Italian thing of churned, soft serve, coffee ice cream. It’s bloody lovely! I sat and enjoyed it watching and listening to all the comings and going’s!

In the afternoon I did a video viewing of a potential property purchase in Newquay, thanks to my friend Stretch for organising! It was a great little house, but possibly not quite right for me. It did mean I also got to see Grantley briefly. 😍

We had thought about going into town for dinner, but Jacques offered to cook, he’s a fabulous cook, so this was a no brainier! He made the most delicious pasta carbonara and a gorgeous salad, it was fabulous. 😋The weather had been pretty nice most of the day. However just as we were finishing dinner the wind suddenly picked up, going from 4 knots right up to 30 it also bought heavy rain. We ran around lowering the rain tent at the stern, checking and securing the lines, tying up a random little boat that suddenly appeared next to us, by the time we had done this the wind dropped off again, but not for long, we had a night of sudden high winds, which meant everyone had a disturbed night, especially Jacques.

We left Vibo the next morning slightly later than planned as Jacques needed to catch up on a little bit of sleep.

It was another long trip to the next place, Cetraro. 8 hours. Not a bad run, a little bouncy, but no problems. It’s surprising how quickly the time goes.

I have just over a week before I am coming home, which is very exciting. I’ve been busy trying to organise seeing everyone, this is more tricky than it sounds!

I will be in Hertfordshire from 29th May until 6th June, then heading down to Newquay. Where I have to try and sort my life out, find somewhere to stay, buy a house, get a job, get a car, figure out what I want to do for the next few years. I was supposed to have got this last bit decided over the last year, I’ve thought about it a great deal, I just haven’t come to any conclusions. 😳😬Ideas on a postcard please! 😂

That’s it’s for now lovely people.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your bank holiday shenanigans. 🎉🍾☀️🧡❤️💙🩵💚

Books read.

None! I’ve started a new one. More on that next time.

Sunday 11th May – Saturday 17th May 2025.

Amendment:

In my last blog I said that Lord Byron died and was buried on Missolonghi, he died there but his body was returned home to the UK and is in the family vault in Nottingham. Thank you Bob for the correction. 😘❤️

We arrived into Lefkas town marina around 3pm. We moored stern to, which means from the back of the boat. I was tasked with throwing the stern line and then grabbing the ‘lazy line’ which secures the bow of the boat instead of an anchor. Unfortunately I didn’t perform at my best and then I misheard an instruction from Jacques, nothing untoward happened I just felt very frustrated and annoyed with myself, then I got a bit upset. The mooring is always a bit tense and stressful, especially if there is wind and if some of the crew are a bit pants! 😬 However the drama is soon forgotten. We did a bit of boat cleaning then it was time to meet our new guests, Martin & Natalie. Martin is going to be one of the crew on Mossy Joe for the Atlantic crossing, Natalie is his partner, she has sailed but at this point isn’t t going to be doing the crossing. (This may change! )

It was so lovely to meet them, they seem lovely.

We had a wonderful evening on board eating an eclectic mix of food and drinking copious amounts of Rosè!! 🎉😍🩷

We did all get a relatively early night as we have a big crossing to do on Monday.

We are sailing across from Lefkas in Greece to Crotona in Italy! A journey that will take approximately 24 – 28hrs. 😬😳

To be honest I was a little apprehensive, just because we will be in the middle of the ocean. I have every faith in Jacques, Tracey and the boat, I also trust Martin, who is an experienced sailor. But I’m not an experienced sailor so it’s a big deal.

We left Lefkas on schedule and the start of the journey was OK. We were sailing against the wind which meant it was very choppy and bouncy. Moving around the boat was a challenge. I had initially said that I would cook dinner, meatballs and rice. This plan was abandoned due to the conditions and also because some people felt a little sick. Luckily Jacques & Tracey had called into a bakery in the morning and we had lots of great savoury pastry’s and fresh bread to snack on, as well as 2 cupboards full of snacks!

For the crossing we set 4 hour watches. 2 – 6, 6 – 10, 10 – 2 then repeat. As there were 5 of us and I have the least (read zero) experience, I also have no wet weather gear, I opted to be the Galley Bitch and keep everyone supplied with hot drinks, food and snacks. Luckily for me I didn’t have any sickness.

We spotted a couple of little birds behind the boat at one point, which is unusual this far out at sea, then a little later one of them flew onto the boat and sat behind a cupboard at the bow. After a little while it flew off again, but then came back and sat in the same spot, we decided to leave it to rest. Sadly by the morning it was dead, possibly just too exhausted. 😥 We were all a little sad that It didn’t make it.

The conditions were less than ideal, but not really terrible. But once the sun sets and it gets dark, it all seems a bit more ominous. The noise of the waves hitting the hulls seems louder, the bouncing seems worse, especially if you’re down in the cabins. I went to bed around 1am. But wasn’t able to sleep, I had to work really hard not to become panicked by thinking about ‘what ifs!’ Or trying not to think about how thin the hull that’s protecting me from the vast, cold ocean is! 😨 You become tuned into every little sound or change in sound. Sleep eluded me, so I popped back up to see if Tracey & Jacques needed anything, this was around 3.30am They were fine. I went back to bed and finally dozed off around 4.30 then was awake again at 6.30. I got up and made Martin & Natalie some tea & toast, the sun was up and everything seemed much less scary. We were now only 6 hours away from Italy! Yippee. 🥳

We spotted land with a few hours to go.

We were about 2 miles from Crotone and the Italian Coast, I was sitting up at the helm with Jacques and I spotted a large boat behind us, going a some speed. It seemed to be coming straight for us.

This in fact was exactly what it was doing.

It was a large Vessel belonging to the Guardia Di Finanza. They are Italian military law enforcement agency tasked with patrolling and searching vessels to prevent smuggling, financial violations and any other illegal activity.

Their big boat came very close to us and used a megaphone to tell us to stop, they then came alongside, quite quickly tbh. At one point it looked and sounded like they had bashed into Mossy Joe on the port bow, because they hadn’t fendered it properly, Jacques was not happy!

They tied alongside and informed us that they would be coming on board. I expected all of them to get on but it was only 2 people. They needed to examine all the boat papers, the crew list and all our passports. They then filled out some paperwork. They made a cursory search of the cabins, didn’t bother to check the engine room or any of the large lockers, storage areas, so I guess we must all have innocent faces!

While this was going on the other guys on the boat we’re examining the area that had been damaged, luckily for us it was their boat that had sustained a dink, not Mossy Joe! 😀👌

The whole process took around an hour and was an exciting welcome to Italy!! 🇮🇹

We moored in the marina, which had some good, hot, powerful showers which we all used! Just to save the water & power onboard. We all then had a well deserved drink, delicious Negronis.

Later we wandered into the town, I expected to feel a lot more wobbly than I actually did!

The town was pretty nice and we found a great place serving yummy traditional Italian Pizzas! Perfect. 😍

The coast that we are on doesn’t have lots of marinas or anchorages, there was some bad weather coming in so we left early the next day for an 8hr sail to the next stop, Roccella Ionica, to try and be in the marina before the weather hit.

It was another very pleasant journey and topped off by a welcome committee of dolphins just before the harbour! 😍🩵🐬 Fabulous.

We were due to stay in the marina for 1 night, then move to our next stop Reggio Calabria, where Martin & Natalie were flying home from. Unfortunately the weather turned and we ended up staying for 3 nights.

The weather was very wet, not cold but damp and miserable. The first night we were all knackered so I made dinner onboard, yummy meatballs and pasta.

Then the next two nights we went into town to a lovely, small family run restaurant.

Martin & Natalie were great company, easy going and very funny! So spending downtime with them onboard was a pleasure, quizzes, reading, chatting, laughing and making a significant dent in the booze supplies 😂🍾

So far we haven’t seen as much of Italy and it’s sunshine as we’d like, but it’s been an adventure!!

I’m looking forward to more fun times in Italy 🇮🇹

Books read.

The Daughters of Madurai. By Rajasree Variyar. An excellent book, her debut novel. Highly recommend.

Friday 2nd May -Monday 5th May 2025

Having said our goodbyes to Grantley and shed a few to tears. It was time for us to leave Athens and move towards the Ionian Islands.

We left Alimos Marina and our first task was to navigate our way through lots of tankers and cargo vessels. There were lots of these huge ships waiting to go into Piraeus Port. Some were anchored and some were moving. They are bloody huge!

Having got through them safely we were free to motor onwards.

Our next big challenge is the Corinth Canal, which we are booked to go through on Saturday morning.

With this in mind Jacques took us to a lovely little sheltered bay where we could anchor for the night and be close enough for our time slot in the canal the following day.

The bay was lovely, empty, quiet and very peaceful. We were joined later in the late afternoon by a fishing boat laying some nets, they said Hi, and let us know where their nets were.

The sunset in this bay was gorgeous and to make it even more fabulous a couple of dolphins appeared. 🧡😍

I was woken in the morning by the gentle sound of the fishing boat returning to collect its catch. Beautiful.

We left the bay and headed towards the Corinth Canal.

The first attempt to build a canal here was in 67 AD, the final attempt was in 1881 and it opened on 25th July 1893. The canal is 3.94 miles long and 24.6 meters wide with very steep sides.

Its construction is the reason for the Port of Piraeus in Athens becoming the most important trading post in the Mediterranean.

We had been given a time slot of 12pm and Tracey radioed in when we were 4 miles out, they then give you instructions and you make your way towards the entrance and wait until the traffic coming the other way has exited then you can go. We waited around 20 minutes. Then it was a Go!

It was an amazing experience to sail through such a narrow, steep canal. There are bridges across it and one of them is used as a bungee jumping site, someone jumped just after we passed!

I thought the whole experience was fantastic. What I hadn’t really considered was how difficult it is to steer Mossy Joe through the canal, there is wind and currents not to mention the potential damage if you hit the sides! Although it only took approx 30 minutes it was a stressful and hard 30 minutes for Jacques. He did an awesome job. 💙

You exit the canal into the Gulf of Patras. The wind died down and we traveled on exceptionally calm water.

With the calm sea, the haze, the snow capped mountains and the blue sky it was otherworldly and completely magical.

We all sat up on deck and Tracey opened a delicious bottle of Whispering Angel 😍🩷

We had just taken a sip when we spotted something shimmering in water a little way ahead, we couldn’t quite make out what it was, possibly fish? 🐟 but as we got closer we realised that it was a pod of around 20 dolphins!! 🐬🐬 OMG! They all began to play in our bow wave! It was so fantastic to watch them and because the sea was calm you could see them really clearly. They played around the boat for 10 minutes then suddenly they were gone. It was a truly wonderful.

As if that wasn’t enough we then spotted a large turtle in the water 😍again the calm sea offered great visibility. We also saw a couple more dolphins as we neared our next stop, Galaxidi.

We anchored out in the bay, as the town quay was full. The town looks beautiful.

We opted to go into town for a look around and some dinner which is great but this meant going in the dinghy!! This will be my first dinghy ride on this trip. I don’t have the best track record of getting in and out of small boats! Just to add some extra anxiety, last year when Hayley and I visited Tracey & Jacques our only dinghy trip ended with Hayley & Jacques in the water! 😬

I got in OK, good start, I also got out in town OK without embarrassing myself in front of the people watching! 👌

We enjoyed a delicious meal in a cute little Taverna by the quay. I finally managed to have some Pastitsio, a yummy Greek baked pasta dish. It was fab.

Then it was back in the dinghy, in the dark! I’m pleased to say I got in and out without incident! Happy Days. 😀

I have got to be honest and say that this day has been one of the highlights of my entire trip. Magical and exciting, everything just came together perfectly. A complete Joy. 💙

We were due to leave Galaxidi on Sunday and we did in fact try to leave.

Jacques said it was going to be windy but might be OK. So we left, but as soon as you come around the headland and were going up wind, it was bonkers! Blowing around 20 knots but with big bouncy waves 🌊!

This would have meant a 5 hour motor in unpleasant and unpredictable conditions, so the decision was made to go back to the safety of the bay. We are not in a hurry, so it made perfect sense to wait out the weather.

We stayed in Galaxidi for the next 2 nights due to the wind conditions. The choppy nature of the sea meant no more dinghy rides (shame 😉)

We left on Tuesday morning, the forecast said light winds. This was the case initially, but then the wind picked up and at some points it was up to 27 knots, windy but not too bouncy so a lot more comfortable. I sat up at the helm with Jacques, learning lots about wind, weather and sailing which is brilliant. 🤩

It’s been a fantastic few days, new experiences, new places and magical landscapes.

That’s all for now.

Have a great week.

Books Read.

Deceived by the Light. Damien Boyd. A crime novel. Good fun.

I also managed to watch the end of lasts years race across the world. It was so funny seeing them visit the places that I’ve visited, walking along the same streets! I’m also very happy that Alfie & Owen won. 🥇

Friday 25th April – Friday 2nd May 2025

I’m going to start this blog with an apology. It appears that for the last 20 odd years I have consistently spelt Jacques name incorrectly, missing out the c, I’ve done this on all my messages, birthday cards, Christmas cards, everything! 🤦‍♀️😂 Jacques, I apologise. 😘

We left lovely Kea in the morning and continued towards Athens.

The exciting news is that we are going to be meeting up with my wonderful friends Sandra & Chris in Athens! 😍❤️ They booked a last minute flight so that we could have a reunion in Athens!

Sandra and I grew up together in Leslie Close and Tracey, Sandra & I all went to the same Secondary school, which means we’ve been friends for longer than I care to mention! I haven’t seen Sandra for over a year! So it’s going to be emotional. 🥰

Unfortunately we were unable to secure a marina spot in Athens until Sunday so we are going to Anchor in a fabulous place called Sounion, which is home to the Temple of Poseidon!

The bay is lush, with a few other boats including a very fancy looking Grey Catamaran, worth around 8 million! 😳

Jacques and Grantley spent a while sorting out, cleaning and messing about in the dinghy. Then Jacques dropped Grantley off at the beach and he went to explore the Temple. I stayed on board, watching Grantley through the binoculars! 😂 He had a fabulous time.

After a very peaceful nights sleep we set off for Athens. We left in quite pleasant weather, a little, cloudy but nice. This changed as we arrived at Athens, a massive thunder storm hit, with hail stones, rain, wind, thunder and lightning! I loved it, but poor Grantley was sat at the helm and got pummelled! We made it into Alimos Marina and found our berth amongst the 1000s of yachts, some very, very fancy ones as well!

The marina staff came and set our morning lines at the front and we were secure. The storm looked like it had passed, so Tracey and I set out to find the supermarket to stock up and get something for dinner on board with Sandra & Chris.

We hadn’t gone very far when another storm hit. Luckily we were right next to a bar! So we took shelter. We sat amongst all the glamorous sailing people looking like a couple of homeless bag ladies! Honestly, I had a dirty stained T-shirt, Jacques old fleece, my hair was sticking out in all directions, TBF, Tracey looked pretty reasonable apart from the dirt all over her white jacket! We were holding manky old reusable bags!

I was also wearing my trusty heavenly feet shoes that have served me so well over the last year, unfortunately the grip has worn down, so I was now like Bambi on the wet, slippery pavement’s! To add to our woes, it was Sunday, so all the supermarkets were closed, except a little convenience store about 5 miles down the road! It had no fresh produce, so we stocked up on Crisps, nuts, biscuits!

We eventually made our way back to the boat, with about 30 mins before Sandra & Chris arrived, just enough time to shower and make ourselves look reasonably presentable!

It was so, so lovely to see Sandra & Chris and so fabulous that it was here in Greece on Mossy Joe! The sun even made an appearance!🧡

Despite a lack of shopping Jacques and I managed to cobble together a meal of pasta and other lovely things! We also managed to demolish a large quantity of delicious Rosé wine! It was a really wonderful evening.

Unfortunately my head was banging the next day. I’ve got used to not really drinking on my travels. So a wine hangover is brutal. 😩

Tracey & Jacques old friend George came to visit in the morning, he lives on a fabulous farm near Athens. It was lovely to meet him.

We then all got an Uber into Athens.

The last time I was in Athens was approximately 40 years ago. 😬

It is a beautiful city.

After a much needed Gyros Pitta we walked from Monastiraki Square up to the Acropolis. It was a beautiful walk, past fabulous ruins with glorious views.

We opted to not go into the Acropolis, as Tracey & Jacques have been before, and my hangover wasn’t really feeling it!

We walked some more, stopped for an iced tea while Grantley & Jacques clambered over some rocks 😀

Then more exploring around the Plaka area, windy streets, shops, views, ruins. Absolutely gorgeous.

We were meeting up with Sandra & Chris in a great rooftop cocktail bar, with fantastic views.

Having managed to find the hidden entrance, we got a perfect table with awesome views. The cocktails were also delicious. Having sworn off ever drinking again, I somehow managed to drink 2 cocktails 😂

It was incredible sharing cocktails and the stunning views with everyone.

We walked from there to a restaurant that George had recommended, Seychelle. Unfortunately when we arrived they said they were full. There were however some empty tables outside, so Sandra asked if we could sit there, they were a little surprised, as by now it was quite windy and pretty chilly! However they were so accommodating, the lovely waitress risked life and limb climbing up to light the heater, then went and fetched another heater from storage for us. I’m so glad we stayed as the food was amazing. We shared lots of amazing home cooked traditional Greek dishes, which included Oz tounge, meatballs, mutton patties, hotipitta, tzatziki, the most delicious gnocchi, Mussels, fries, fennel sausage with fava beans, a veritable feast.

It was one of the best meals I’ve had in Greece.

After dinner, we all grabbed Ubers and headed home.

We arrived back at the boat, cold, tired but relaxed and happy after a fantastic day.

We all went straight to bed and I could not have been happier to be lying snuggled in my bed!

This happiness was short lived. After about 10 – 15 mins I could hear noises that were not normal, the wind by this point was pretty fierce.

I then heard movement and voices up on deck, I got up to see what was happening.

The 2 front mooring lines that secured the boat had snapped and the boat was not secure. The wind was high and we were in danger of damaging Mossy Joe and also the other boats surrounding us!

This was a serious situation. Jacques and Grantley were busy trying to sort out something to secure the boat but the mooring line we had rescued was to short to tie off, we needed more hands, strong hands. Tracey was on the VHF radio asking if there was anyone in the marina who could help, no reply. The agent who booked the mooring said she would send someone to help but it would be over an hour! The marina staff were also less than helpful. Meanwhile Jacques and Grantley are running around desperately trying to keep the boat safe and Jerry rig some secure lines. Eventually thanks to Jacques ingenuity and knowledge and Grantleys brute strength they managed to get the boat stable and safe. But if the wind kept up, this solution might not hold.

At this point some guys from the marina appeared, they explained that they were security staff and knew nothing about boats! Helpful, not! Then the guy sent by the agent turned up, also not very helpful just said someone would come by at 8.30 in the morning. It was now around 1.30!

I was not the most helpful member of the crew although I did make great tea and stayed calm and positive. 🥰

Eventually it was decided that Grantley & Tracey would go to bed, as some of us should get some sleep. Jacques and I stayed up until 3 – 3.30 am when the wind dropped and stabilised and Jacques felt it was safe for us to go to bed as well. Needless to say none of us actually slept.

By the morning the wind was calmer and the lines had held. Quite the drama. 😬😳

I was so impressed with how calm everyone was and how

Jacques managed to avert a disaster, life on a boat is never dull. 😍

Grantley and I decided to head back into Athens and see the Acropolis.

Initially I was sooo tired, but being back in Athens amongst all the history soon perks you up. First we visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was interesting, a little annoying that we paid €20 to see what we could have seen from outside, but hey Ho. Then we walked back towards the Plaka and up to the Acropolis.

The Acropolis and Parthenon were utterly amazing, it’s so much bigger when you’re close up! What a fabulous feat of civil engineering to build these magnificent structures atop a huge hill, over 2500 years ago. It was remarkable.

Unfortunately our visit took longer than I’d anticipated so we were unable to meet up with Sandra and Chris again before they left Athens. But good to know I’ll be seeing them again very soon.

We had a dinner of nibbles and bits & bobs on board as everyone was exhausted from the previous nights drama, then it was time for sleep! 💤😴🥰

Grantley went back into Athens on Wednesday for more exploring, I stayed on the boat to catch up on writing this blog and emails etc. I’m sure Grantley was pleased to be on his own as he can get around to see more when he’s not having to cart me with him.

I had a fabulous lazy day mooching around the marina, drinking hot chocolate and having a nice lunch with Tracey. Grantley enjoyed doing his 30,000 steps around Athens, Win, Win! 😂

Grantley and I had planned to go into Athens again on Thursday to visit some more sites and some museums, however we forgot it was Labour Day so everything was closed! 🤦‍♀️ We went in anyway and mingled with all the Labour Day celebrations/marchers which was fun. Then I had a walk around soaking up the sites and sounds and Grantley climbed a big hill! 😂😂 Weirdly we had arranged to meet up at 2pm in Monastiraki Square but I was sitting in a little Cafe in the Plaka writing my blog (it takes a while!) when I just glanced up and spotted Grantley. He’d finished hiking up the hill early and come to find me. I’m amazed I spotted him. 😀

We stayed in the cafe and enjoyed some baked feta and then we left in a hurry having stolen the Ouzo glass! 😬😂 (we left a big tip!) it was for Grantley. TBF, the glass was branded and probably given to the cafe by the ouzo company.

We spent Grantley’s last evening on the boat enjoying some meatballs and a little drink!

Grantley left for home this morning (Friday) I have absolutely loved spending this time with him, he is a wonderful travel companion, knowledgeable, helpful, considerate and great company.

He has also loved being on Mossy Joe and has proved himself to be a good choice for crew on the Ark Atlantic crossing that Mossy Joe is taking part in later this year!

Thank you to Tracey & Jacques for giving him this fabulous opportunity.

I was sad to see him go, but I will be seeing him again very soon.

Tracey, Jacques and I are now on our way to the pass through the Corinth Canal and the next stage of the trip!

That’s it for now.

Have a fabulous Bank Holiday weekend everyone, I hope the sun shines for you.🧡❤️🧡❤️

Books read.

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris. Evie Woods. A charming little story, the perfect read after the my last epic book.

Tuesday 15th April – Sunday 20th April 2025

Our ferry journey from Rhodes to Leros was a dream! Calm seas, lovely views and a little onboard picnic. 😍

Before we knew it we were arriving in Leros to be greeted by the fabulous Tracey & Jaques. ❤️

It is so lovely to see Tracey again and to see Jaques after almost a year!

We drove across to the next bay where our hotel was and enjoyed a late but fun drink and catch up.

The fabulous Mossy Joe, Tracey & Jaques Trimaran, is currently out of the water having essential maintenance work done. So Grantley & I are staying in a cute little place nearby. This is mainly because there is no water onboard and getting on and off involves climbing up and down a small steep, ladder! Not much fun in the middle of the night when you need a wee! 😳

We spent the next few days exploring the beautiful island of Leros.

It appears that Grantley & I bought the weather with us, as it’s been glorious sunshine, unlike last week which was apparently cold and wet!

Panteli Beach where we are staying is stunning, a small bay with a lovely old fishing harbour.

It’s still pre season so it’s quiet and there are very few tourists about, but lots of locals out enjoying the weather and the Easter break.

We found a fabulous little cafe down in the beach, which we have visited many times.

The first time we went a fabulous older lady appeared, walking with her little sausage dog.

When she arrived at the Cafe the waiter immediately started moving chairs for her, so she had the comfiest seat with the best view, she was wearing a black dress, leopard print trainers, with a red highlight, a fabulous Leopard print bomber jacket with ‘Chaos’ printed in red on the back, she sat, she lit a cigarette, the waiter bought her an Ouzo and she sat there looking as cool as fuck!! What an absolute legend! I want to be like her when I grow up! 😍

We visited Tracey and Jaques at the Marina, it’s so weird seeing the boat out of the water. It is getting sanded and new anti foul paint put on.

We left Jaques working and wandered into town, Lakki, we had a mooch then some delicious lunch at a really great place, they had a very small menu and once something is gone it’s gone! It was full of locals and the food was amazing.

Easter is a big thing here in Greece. So on Good Friday, when Jaques and Tracey weren’t working we had a tour around the island. Tracey & Jaques wanted to visit the castle, which is high up on a strategic cliff on the island. They have tried to visit 3 times already and it’s never open. Well, today it was open and very busy. There is a stunning little Greek Orthodox Church within the grounds was obviously going to be a mass, as lots of the local people had made their way up the hill and were gathered by the church.

We looked around and admired the glorious views then left before the service and popped to Agia Marina, another fabulous little place for some lunch and a look around.

Everywhere is so photogenic! The colours of the Mediterranean, the boats, the White Houses and the flowers!

Again we are benefiting from being here in Spring so we can enjoy all the gorgeous flowers and fresh growth.

Part of the Easter celebrations appear to be letting off millions of fire crackers, and other louder more scary sounding exploding things! 💥💥

This happens all day and most of the night!

We went out for a fabulous meal on Good Friday night, to a place in Lakki, a little Italian that Tracey & Jaques love, they have got to know the owner over the last 2 years, Gabriella. The restaurant is in a perfect spot to watch the Easter Parade go past, which was wonderful and extremely loud! 💥❤️

We were joined by another couple of guys, Dan, who has a boat here, but lives in England and runs a Gin Distillery called Cotswolds Distillery. Then another guy called Ray, who has lived here for many years, he was funny and a great character. We all had a fabulous time, Gabriella’s food was delicious, all made to order, we had fun, food, wine and firecrackers! A brilliant night. ❤️💚

I had a slight headache the next day! 😜

I have also discovered a new favourite drink. It’s called Masika. It’s a Greek aperitif, not quite as popular as Ouzo, but I love it. It is made and seasoned with a resin from the Mastic tree, grown on the island of Chios, it has a distinctive piney, herby taste. It’s delicious.

The boat was due back in the water on Saturday, which went ahead but after a bit of phaffing and the usual issues that come up once the boat is in the water, we won’t be leaving Leros until Sunday.

On Saturday Grantley and I had a chilled day hanging out in Panteli Beach, wandering about, having great food and enjoying watching the world go by. The colours at sunset were unbelievably gorgeous.

I have loved spending time here in Leros, it’s a fabulous island, if you’re thinking of Island hopping in the Dodecanese add it to your list.

It’s also been wonderful being with Tracey & Jaques again.

Grantley is going to learn so much about sailing and Mossy Joe while he is here, which will stand him in good stead for when he is part of the Mossy Joe crew for the Atlantic Crossing later in the year!

Our crossing from Leros to Patmos was beautiful, calm seas, sunshine and the wind in our hair! 🩵

Patmos looks fabulous and we arrived in time to enjoy the local Easter Celebrations in the town square.

A wonderful start to our island hopping adventure.

Have a great Bank holiday everyone.

🐣💚🩵💙💜❤️🧡🩷🐣

Books read.

I’ve nearly finished Birds without wings! (It’s a big book!)

Thursday 12th to Friday 27th December 2024.

As I said in my last blog post we were heading to Esperance for a weeks holiday.

Esperence is nearly 700 kilometres away from Bunbury so we prepared for a long 8 hour drive.

So on Friday 13th, we got up early, loaded up the Ute, packed an Eski full of rolls and snacks and we were on the road by 6.15! Excellent.

The route to Esperence goes through the grain producing area known as the Wheatbelt or Goldbelt, its approx fifteen million hectares of arable land!

There is one road, which is used by everyone, including the huge lorries transporting the grain, these can be up to 60 meters in length and for that reason they are called ‘Road Trains’

We were quite lucky that the grain harvest had already been completed so there weren’t many ‘Road Trains’ to try and overtake! 😳 I did some of the driving and had to negotiate overtaking 2 together, I opted to do them 1 at a time, it’s a a little scary! 😧

There are a few large lakes on route but pretty much all of them were completely dry.

The road trip there was actually really good, we stopped a few times in little towns and arrived in Esperence earlier than we thought, around 1.30pm.

The town itself is quite small but very lovely. We were staying in town in a house, which was large and comfy and a short walk to the foreshore.

We were a little early to check in so we had lunch at a lovely restaurant, The Quarters, down by the beach. Had a little mooch about, grabbed some essentials from the supermarket then chilled back at the house.

Saturday morning our plan was to do a nice nature walk around one of the lakes nearby in a place called Monjingup. The weather was not ideal, a little grey and some drizzle. Unfortunately when we arrived at the lake it was closed for an event, some sort of light show.

We decided to drive and check out the Pink Lake, sadly it wasn’t pink or anything at all as it was dried up! Apparently the lake has been dry for over 11 years. It’s still very pretty as the lake bed is completely white.

We then decided to do the Ocean Drive, which I have to say was nothing short of spectacular!

Esperence is on the Southern Ocean.

Our first stop was 11 mile Beach, wild and gorgeous, it was quite windy and still cloudy but this didn’t detract from how stunning it was.

There are lots of beaches, 10 mile, 9 mile, (I wanted a pic of me at 8 mile, sadly it was called something else! )

Most of the beaches are accessible, with boardwalks and some of them have toilets which are clean and well maintained! 😍

At Observatory Point (or 8 mile!) there was a lookout and a rocky outcrop, Rebecca & Chris climbed up to the lookout and Anita and I stayed down watching the view. The water was a beautiful turquoise colour and then I spotted something in the water, I wasn’t sure at first what I was seeing but then realised it was dolphins!! It ended being a pod of around 15 Dolphins in the shallows! It was so fabulous, I was very excited. I think that the most I’ve seen together. 🐬🐬💙🐬

From here we drove to Twilight Beach, very accessible, a large sandy beach and amazing rocks in the bay. We went down onto the beach and had a paddle, Chris braved it and went in for a swim!

Again, the colour of the ocean is beautiful.

From here we headed back into town, the weather brightened up so we had some time on the beach.

The beach area in town is fantastic, it has Shark netting, always good to see. It had jetty’s for jumping from, swimming lanes and also a shady area on the foreshore with toilets and showers, pretty impressive!

After our beach time we went to visit the local Gin Distillery, did a very pleasant tasting for $5

From there we headed to the pub for some much needed Holiday Cocktails!! The pub was great, nice views, great drinks, fab staff. It’s called 33 degrees, if you’re ever in Esperence and fancy a drink!

We had a really lovely first full day.

Sunday saw us going to visit the local market. We had decided to go there earlyish and grab breakfast from some of the food stalls.

The market was lovely, smallish but lots of locals selling their wares.

It was held down amongst some little old buildings that had craft shops and galleries in.

It was fairly busy, but I do need to clarify at this point, what I mean by Busy, I mean Busy by Western Australian standards, this bears no resemblance to Busy by UK standards! There were a few people around, and you may have to queue behind one other person to get a coffee! 😂

I opted for some Sri Lankan veggie roties! Yummy 😋 Rebecca, Chris & Anita got full breakfast wraps. We then found a little stall selling freshly made doughnuts in cinnamon sugar. I don’t really like doughnuts, but these were delicious.

Interestingly, a lady at the stall next door, who was from Devon heard me talking and said she recognised my accent as being either Devon or Cornwall! I didn’t think I had an accent at all! 😂

We had a lovely walk along the foreshore up to the Jetty, grabbed a coffee from a really cute little Coffee Caravan. Then Rebecca had a brilliant idea for us to drive out to a place called Wharton Beach, located in the Duke of Orleans Bay, around a 40 minute drive out of town.

Well, I don’t know what to say, if I thought the beaches we had seen yesterday were beautiful, this was on another level.

Absolutely stunning. It’s a beach that you can drive on, so lots of Australians take their 4 x 4 vehicles down onto the sand and set up camp. We opted to walk down.

I’m wasn’t far from the car to the beach with our stuff, chairs, awning, Eski.

We were tucked away towards the end of the beach and it was simply glorious.

White sandy beach, turquoise crystal clear water, sunshine and a breeze! 🏖️🤍🩵💙 although there were people on the beach it wasn’t crowded or noisy, not a scrap of littler in site.

We all went into the Ocean, it was cold but gorgeous.

We spent all afternoon chilling on the beach watching the dogs and kids playing in the water, reading and relaxing.

We had decided to stop in the nearby pub on the way home, called Condingup Tavern, Mmm, well we stopped, walked in, got weird vibes, a little bit odd, not many people, apart from a wall of locals propping up the bar, no one spoke to us, there was no staff around. We opted to find another pub!!

We drove back to Esperence and went to the local Brewery, Lucky Bay Brewery, who just happened to be celebrating their 9th anniversary! So it was a big old party going on, Live Music, dancing, water slide, pizzas! It was a perfect way to end a beautiful day. 🎉❤️

On Monday, Rebecca & Chris went to do a coastal hike. Anita I I stayed in Esperence and went on a walk to find a cafe with WiFi.

The reason we needed to do this is because WiFi is a little tricky to get in Australia. The house we were renting didn’t have internet, very strange. 😳 Very few cafes, restaurants or bars have WiFi and with Rebecca and Chris off on their walk we couldn’t Hot Spot, which isn’t always possible anyway.

So with this in mind we went into town, had a little look around then drove to The Quarters for a coffee, it was closed.

We walked to the pub, 33 degrees, they had WiFi but no coffee.

We went back into town, to a little Cafe near where the Market had been, that was closed.

We asked someone, they said that a place called Cloud 11 was good. That was also closed. 🥺

We eventually found somewhere with coffee & WiFi on our 4th attempt!! 😂

The positive outcome of this was we stumbled on a fantastic Deli, called Deli King, that does the most amazing sandwiches and coffee!

Rebecca and Chris got back from their walk and we all chilled out for the day. 😎

On Tuesday morning Rebecca and Chris went back to Monjingup Lake for a walk, Anita and I walked into town to get some bits and bobs, books, gifts etc. we managed to get a coffee in Cloud 11, and admire their wonderful Christening tree made of succulents! 💚🎄

We grabbed delicious lunch sandwiches from Deli King and all of us spent the afternoon at Twighlight beach. It was beautiful but very windy, so we ended up doing that very British thing of sitting on the beach wrapped up in jumpers!! 😂

Despite the cold we still had an ice cream in the way home.

We saw a very pretty sunset at West Beach.

Due to the number of photos I want to post, I’m going to split this blog into 2!

This is part 1.

Monday 14th – Wednesday 23rd October.

Leaving Hanoi and Vietnam was a little sad, it also ended up being a little hair raising as I appear to have had Lewis Hamilton driving my taxi!!

Lewis Hamilton mixed with a bit of Del Boy, as he was also trying to get me to buy his dodgy looking US dollars from him, I politely declined.

The road to the airport is a 4 lane highway and my driver was driving pretty fast whilst looking at both a music video on the dashboard, what looked and sounded like a Vietnamese soap opera on one phone and then chatting on another phone! There are people crossing the highway, cows grazing on the central reservation, trucks, cars, mopeds, buses, not really the time to be catching up on the latest episode of Corrie! 😱

Luckily I arrived in one piece at the airport and opted not to give the driver a tip!!

I’m so glad I arrived just over 2hrs early for my flight as the queues were mad, I finally got checked in, my fault for forgetting to check in on line, the ‘bag drop’ queue was tiny!

Once checked in and after a a bit of a discussion with the Vietnam Airways personnel re my seat allocation, which did not match what I’d been told when I booked the seats at Da Nang, I decided I would sort it out during my wait at Ho Chi MinhCity, I barely had time to have a wee before we boarded.

The flight from Hanoi to HCMC takes approximately 90mins and during that time we were given a bottle of water and a meal of chicken noodles, which were very tasty, I was impressed. 👍

We were delayed on landing due to a huge storm over the airport which was still going when we landed after circling for 15mins.

Upon landing I had to go from the domestic to the International Terminal, luckily they are close enough and there was a covered walkway as it was chucking it down!

I was looking forward to a little break before the next flight as I wanted to video call the lovely Jenna for her Birthday 🎈and possibly have a drink and a chill before the next flight.

This was not to be the case. The various delays had eaten into the stopover time and even though I was just transiting through HCMC myself and a few others needed to go through passport control and security again. This would have been ok, except the queues were horrendous! Even our attractive ‘Transit’ sticky badges didn’t seem to grant us any sort of fast track. Eventually we got through with again just enough time for a wee, no time to call Jenna and no time to sort out my seating issues, but Hey Ho, I’d just have to suck it up in a window seat (😩) it was only a 6 hour flight! 🤦‍♀️

I boarded last and found my seat, then a fabulous thing happened, the captain did his ‘crew close doors for takeoff’ speech and I had 2 empty seats next to me….😀😀 Bloody marvellous.

The flight was fine, I was able to lie down a bit, unfortunately all three of the screens didn’t work, so no movies, the food was a bit pants but all in all not a terrible flight.

I arrived back in Perth at 11.40pm passport control was a breeze.

I then made the mistake of declaring some goods on my immigration card. I had bought some lovely peppercorns in Kampot, Cambodia, as well as some pickled peppercorns. I had put these on my declaration, I think because I have watched to many episodes of ‘Border Force’! 😂

Stupidly I hadn’t put them in my backpack. The immigration staff in the main, were friendly and pleasant except the sour faced, miserable, rude old bag that I got! She was seriously unimpressed by my futile attempts to locate the small package of peppercorns in my case. After rummaging for what felt like hours I finally found them, hoicked them out triumphantly, presented them to her, she looked, pulled a face, waved dismissively and stomped off!

Welcome to Australia! 😂

I managed to contact my hotel and arrange for the shuttle to collect me. (This was more complicated than one would think!)

I arrived at the hotel just before 1am, I was a little tired and hungry. The hotel was clean, functional and pretty basic but it did have a welcome pack which consisted of a 1/2 bottle of good Red Wine, crisps, water and 2 Kit Kats!! How bloody marvellous 🤩 A much nicer Welcome!

After a small glass of wine, a packet of crisps and a shower I was ready for my bed!

My lovely Rebecca came and collected me the next morning, after a few detours due to dodgy phone charging and no internet, she was eventually shown where the hotel was by an old Italian Gentleman who got in the truck and directed her then said he’d walk back. How sweet.

It was fabulous to see my girl again. 😍❤️

We headed into Perth for some Brunch and to collect my watch which I had left behind to have a new battery fitted.

My watch is from Tiffany and I’ve had it for just over 20 years. When I’ve had the battery changed before or had anything done to it, it always gets cleaned and comes back looking like new.

When we went to the store to collect it, the young girl retrieved it from the safe, it was in a little plastic bag, not in a beautiful blue box as it should have been! It also looked very dull, not shiny & new at all.

I was a little disappointed but wasn’t sure if I should say anything for fear of seeming like a Karen (sorry Karen Clynes!) but in the end I did point out that this was well below their usual standard, she said that on the note it states that they couldn’t polish it due to the sort of watch it was. I explained that this was not correct. She was very sweet and then she called her manager, Russell, who I had dealt with before. He was very put out that the watch hadn’t been cleaned and polished so he said he would send it back and wouldn’t charge me for the cleaning or the battery! 😂😍 Happy Days.

I have spent the last week or so just resting my legs, glutes, whatever it was that was hurting! And spending time with Rebecca, Chris & Curly the Cat, who did remember me! 😍

I have rejoined the Sports Centre and started swimming again. I didn’t really get as much swimming in on this trip, due in most part to the weather or not having access to a pool. I also get to use the spa which I’m hoping will help with my aches!

I need to start thinking about and planning my next trip.

I have said before that the plan had been to go to Japan & South Korea after Vietnam. I have looked into this in more detail while I’ve been here and I spoke to a lovely guy at the travel agents. It is looking likely that this trip will not happen at the moment. The costs are prohibitive, getting there isn’t too bad but the costs while there are very high. It would end up costing me for 3 weeks almost 1/2 of what I’ve just spent for 3 months! 😳 At this stage of my travels I can’t justify that expense. I’m a little disappointed, but also trying to be pragmatic.

So I’m now looking at what and where to go next.

I’m also looking forward to spending time here in Australia and our little trip away to Esperence in December with the fabulous Anita!! Then Christmas 🎄 Which will be weird to be in the heat and on the beach on Christmas Day and not in a Kitchin drinking champagne whilst cooking a roast!

Rebecca and I are also heading down to Margaret River next week for a a night and a winery trip! 🍷🥰❤️😍

The weather here in Bunbury is really lovely, it’s Spring, so it’s getting warmer, but still not boiling. All the flowers and trees are blooming and it smells lush!

I had a bit of a wobble at the end of last week, on Friday 18th when the Beautiful Laura married her fabulous Mark. 🎊❤️

Laura had sent a link for me to watch but unfortunately it stopped working just as they started to say their vows!

I was absolutely gutted to have not been home for this wonderful wedding and to share in the love & excitement. I’ve seen lots of the photos and it looked like it was, as I knew it would be, a fantastic and amazing day. Everyone looked Gorgeous, especially Laura! Dress of Dreams! 🩷🎊🍾🩷🎊🍾

It made me feel very homesick and I realised how much I miss everyone.

I’ve been away from home for 5 months and haven’t seen my Grantley for 6 months. I’m not expecting any sympathy, it’s my choice, but it can be difficult at times.

That’s it for now people.

Any suggestions for places to visit or books to read let me know!

Have a great week, enjoy Half Term.

Love and hugs.

🩷🩵💚❤️🤎🧡🤍❤️

Books Read.

The Book of Beginnings. Sally Page. Really good, I love this author. I feel like theses are proper ‘Stories’ (not sure if I’ve already put this one)

Not a Happy Family. Shari Lapena. OK. Did its job. Not great, not bad.

Never Lie. Frieda McFadden. OK, a little convoluted and improbable.

The Dream Home. T.M Logan. Quite Good.

Day One. Abigail Dean. Good.