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!)
Friday December 27th – Sunday 12th January 2025!
Apologies for the lackof posts!
We’ve been out and about doing stuff, whilst Anita has been here.
After a lovely Christmas we had a few days just relaxing and enjoying the weather and the pool. 💙
Anita got to enjoy the fabulous Cinema in Busselton when her & Chris went to see the new Robbie Williams Film, good feedback.
Rebecca had organised a trip to a beautiful Winery, about an hours drive inland, near a place called Pemberton.
The drive there was lovely, we took the scenic route which was beautiful. We got to see Emu’s wandering about and even one casually crossing the road in front of us!
The Winery was called “Ampersands” and it was fantastic. We had booked a delicious picnic lunch which came with both sparkling wine and a yummy Chardonnay. The food and the winery, were gorgeous. It was such a lovely relaxing
Rebecca was only off work for the Christmas period, so,sadly went back on the Monday, Chris had a further week off and was busy trying to get jobs done.
Anita and I did lots of relaxing, reading, pool dipping and going out for coffee!
We even managed to get ourselves a Baileys Latte from a great little Café down by the beach 🏝️😍
Our New Year’s Eve was wonderful.
We all went down to the beach and watched the last sunset of 2024 with some Champagne.
As the sun was setting, exactly where the light was shining across the ocean a Dolphin jumped out of the water! Honestly, it was amazing! We were then joined by the cutest little dog, called Frank!
Back home and a great few games of dice (6 dice and first to 10,000) it’s a really good game, that Rebecca & Chris taught myself, Georgia & Grantley. As usual Chris won!! 😂 Then we watched the totally insanely impressive Sydney Fireworks (although we watched online as we missed them live! 🤦♀️)
2024 had been an interesting year and for me definitely a year of change. Selling the fabulous Coffee on the Corner, selling my home and going off on an adventure has been exciting and also a tad scary!
I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions, I’ll just try to live my best life and not be a dick! 😂
On New Years Day we went on a trip to visit a place called Penguin Island.
There are actual Penguins on the Island, sadly a lot fewer than there used to be. The population is fall is mainly down to the changes in Ocean temperature following an extreme marine heatwave in 2010. This forced the penguins food to migrate further east to cooler waters.
The Island is just off the coast an hour away from Perth in the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park.
When we arrived in Shoalwater we were told that due to the temperature being above 35 degrees the Island was closed to visitors. Apparently the Penguins are shedding their feathers and they need to be undisturbed so they can go in and out of the water to cool down.
We were disappointed until we were told that they had changed our booking to an hour long boat trip around the various islands and a free lunch! 😍👍 Result!
The boat trip was brilliant, we got to see lots of different sea birds, and a particular Tern that migrates from Borneo, it flies non stop! It also has the ability to convert sea water into drinking water! Impressive.
There were also 2 pairs of nesting Ospreys on a couple of the small islands, which was exciting to see.
On one of the larger islands there was a biggish colony of massive Sea Lions and the even bigger Pelicans, in fact the Pelicans were so big they looked prehistoric! 😳
All in all it was a fabulous day, which I really enjoyed.
The whole coastline along the WA coast is stunning and diverse.
This was re enforced when we had another visit down to Busselton and a walk out along the nearly 2k long jetty! We then had a viewing in the underwater aquarium, so stunning! The colourful coral and sea life that grows on the pylons was absolutely gorgeous.
The Busselton foreshore is so well maintained and offers so many family safe areas to swim and play, all free! It really is a beautiful spot.
I’m pleased to say that following on from the disastrous end to our Esperance trip and the vehicle breakdown. The Ute is fixed and up and running! Thankfully the Head Gasket didn’t blow it was just the alternator and fan belt. This is a huge relief for Rebecca & Chris as they don’t have to worry about the cost of replacing the truck. 👍
Anita has her birthday on 3rd of January, which means we get to celebrate and do more nice things!
In this case it was a lovely lunch down by the bay for Anita & I and then a few drinks and a meal out all together in the evening, which were lush.
The. On Saturday 4th we visited the most amazing pizza place, called Ferguson Falls, I’ve been there every time I visit Bunbury and it never fails to deliver! The pizzas are delicious. They make their own pork & fennel sausage and that’s what I have on my pizza, it’s the best! 😋
Anita and I also planned a little trip to Perth, as Anita has never visited the city. We planned it to coincide with Anita’s flight home.
We took the bus from Bunbury on Wednesday morning, arriving in Oerth at midday. Our hotel was a short walk from the bus station, handily through some indoor walkways.
We didn’t have much planned just a mooch about and for Anita to see and experience the city.
As Cities go, Perth CBD is quite small and it’s also beautifully calm. Very little traffic, not many people, nobody rushing around (possibly due to the heat) It is actually a very pleasant place to be.
We spent our time walking around, doing a little bit of shopping, admiring the beautiful views, eating nice things, the nicest of which was a wonderful, comforting Risotto at the hotel.
We visited the Art Gallery of WA and saw some fantastic exhibitions, a ceramics one by an artist called Sandra Black, which I loved.
There were also some very thought provoking indigenous art, which offers a powerful visual representation of their stories, history & subjugation.
It was a great trip and I feel that I get to experience and appreciate Perth more with each visit.
Anita and I went to the airport together, after some convoluted shenanigans trying to download a bloody Uber App! The difficulty was the result of the bloody ridiculous WiFi situation in the hotel (a Hilton, so very bad form) and Australian WiFi in general and us not being teenage technology experts! But, once downloaded (by a 18 year old member of staff! ) we saved ourselves $40 so worth it 😂😂
It has been so lovely spending time with Anita over the last month, we’ve had some laughs and really enjoyed our time together. So it was sad to see her leave. Thank you for your company darling. It was fabulous.😘❤️
I got my bus back to Bunbury to spend my last weekend in Australia and with Rebecca & Chris oh and Curly of course! 😻
My time here in Australia has been fantastic, we have seen and done so many amazing things. It’s also been amazing just spending time with Rebecca & Chris in their home, seeing how their lives are.
They have been wonderful but I’m sure after 3 months they will be pleased to get their home back and have some normality! 😍😘
Thank you my beautiful best big girl for looking after me. ❤️❤️
So my last day in Bunbury on Monday 13th Jan. the plan was to have a love,y chilled day with Rebecca, who,took the day off, get some lunch before driving to Perth.
Unfortunately that’s not the way the day has gone!
I really needed to get my Indian e Visa application in before I left and today was the first chance I’ve had. I have tried numerous times before but it was too early. I assume you can only apply 1 month before arrival.
So, having gathered all the relevant information, including my parents names and dates of birth, Thank you, Kathleen, Ruth & Paul! As well as all the addresses of hotels, all the countries I have visited in the last 10 years!! 😳 I settled down to get it done at 9am.
OMFG!! 🤬 It was an absolute nightmare. I had to upload a picture of myself against a white background, I’d done this a few weeks ago and saved them, but No! They were not the right size, or too big a file!! I tried everything I could think of and eventually Rebecca had to download an app to compress the picture!! So, that was 4 hours in! Then it needed my passport details, but they have to be in a pdf format, I have a pdf of my old passport (thank you Cory!) but unfortunately not my new one. Again Rebecca managed to download an app to convert and compress the picture to the right size and format. Then the session timed out and we had to go back in and try again. My first payment attempt failed! Then we had to wait 15 excruciating minutes to try again!
Finally after 5 horrible hours my application was submitted!! I was so stressed, and very agitated and there is absolutely no way I could have done this on my own!
Now I have to hope and pray that the visa is granted or I’m pretty F..ked! 🤞
I now feel very hot, bothered and anxious so lunch is a no go!
I will now be limiting my travel plans to countries that don’t require a sodding visa!! 🙄🥰
So, that’s it for now.
I will update you when I get to Sri Lanka (fingers crossed that visa is OK! )
Have a great week. Love & Miss you.
💙🩵❤️💚🧡
Books Read.
Twisted. Steve Cavanagh. My brain is fried, but I think it was OK!
From the Ashes. Damien Boyd. Did Nick Dixon series book 14. Good.
Firstly, I apologise for being so slack in my blog writing!
The last few weeks I have been resting, chilling and getting my head around my next journey/adventure.
It’s been great being here and watching the season change from spring towards summer. So many beautiful flowers everywhere and I have to say that Australia smells lush, I think it’s the eucalyptus trees and other fabulous herbal smelling plants and shrubs.
Rebecca and Chris have been busy getting the garden ready for the summer, when they spend most of their time outside. Rebecca has been planting and germinating seeds, all of the plants, shrubs are native to Australia which means they not only look fab they also smell great! Chris is building a large TV cabinet outside, which is looking fabulous, the pool looks fab but is still a little too chilly for me, Chris goes in after his workout, brave man! 💙
Last week it was very warm around 29 degrees then it’s dropped back down to around 22-24, and still cool at night, which is lovely! It will steadily climb back upwards over the next month😍
I’ve been back to the pool and that’s going well. The pool temperature has been lowered, which I’m sure will be fabulous in the full summer heat but is a little nippy at the moment 🥶 It’s OK once you get going just the initial shock when you get in! (Still not as cold as Rebecca & Chris’s pool!)
The pain I had in my glute, leg area seems to have gone away, although this might be due to less walking, however it’s nice to be free of it.
Rebecca and I had a short little trip down to Margaret River at the beginning of November. It was lush!
We left early on Sunday morning to drive down to a small place on the coast called Dunsborough. I have been past it before but never stopped. We had booked a table at a little Café by the beach for breakfast/Brunch. Sora Café was lovely, very trendy, Instagramable & popular!
The food was yummy, a slight Japanese vibe.
Dunsborough beach was fabulous, pretty busy, but it was a Sunday morning. The beach wasn’t huge but had lots of sandbanks and shallow water for paddling. I thought it was very pretty, definitely somewhere to come back to in the summer.
What’s really fabulous here is that the beach areas are so well maintained, and also very well protected. There are no beach bars or homes with direct beach access. The beaches are clean and looked after by everyone. There are clean, free toilets and showers just off the beach.
This is a theme throughout Australia on the coast and at all of their national parks and places of interest.
Rebecca and I had a walk along the beach then a drive through the town looking and admiring all the beautiful houses. I love that every house is different, old, new, big, small, modern, retro.
From here we drove towards Margaret River and stopped at a Winery we have visited before which is beautiful and makes great wine!
Vasse Felix was established in 1967 after studies revealed that the area around Margaret River had very similar climate to Bordeaux. Vasse Felix is the founding winery in the area.
We enjoyed a glass of wine, Rosé for me and a Chardonnay for Rebecca. We had a look around the beautiful grounds and also at the exhibition in the gallery.
The current exhibition was called IQTA24 Tjukurrpa on Fabrics. It showcases 12 artists from Ikuntji Artists.
The artists have reimagined Dreaming Stories into fabric designs, as the designs are repeated down the length of the fabric, so too are the stories being repeated, strengthened and continued into the future.
The designs and stories were amazing.
After our lovely stop in Vasse Felix and a purchase of 2 bottles of delicious Rosé we drove into Margaret River and to our accommodation for the night.
The accommodation was right in town and was a great little place on the ground floor with an outside seating area. Perfect for our 1 night. We dropped off our bags and then wandered into town. To be fair we only wandered about briefly before getting sidetracked by a sign offering free food with your drink purchase! An offer we simply couldn’t refuse.
The bar was a cute little Tapas place and you got a sample of Tapas with your drinks!
We opted for a delicious coconut margarita to start…OMG 😍😋 So good! The little tapas dishes were yummy as well. We sat on the terrace watching the world go by chatting and chilling, we ordered a second drink, a Lemoncello Spritz, nice but not as good as the Coconut Margaritas!
Opposite the bar was another bar, a more traditional pub, playing live music so we popped across to have a listen. Great music, covers of some classics, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, some other cool tunes, all great fun. We stayed for a while then realised we were hungry, the little tapas dishes weren’t quite enough! The pub wasn’t serving food for another couple of hours, so we opted for a table picnic back at the hotel with some rosé. This turned out to be a brilliant idea as we were joined by a couple of Kookaburras! They were so cute and came quite close. My first close up since I’ve been here. I love Kookaburras and get very excited when I see them. 🥰😀
We had a lovely afternoon and later that evening we wandered over the road and had a delicious Pizza! Altogether a fabulous day.
We were up earlyish again on Monday morning as we had to leave the hotel by 10am and we were booked for lunch at another gorgeous winery called, Leeuwin Estate.
We packed up and drove down to Prevelly and Surfers beach. I had visited this beach when I came down on my last trip to Margaret River.
It’s a stunning spot, the colours of the ocean are amazing. It’s in this area that they hold all the surfing competitions.
There were a few surfers out and we also spotted a lone black dog waiting patiently on the beach for his human to come back in. It was so cute to watch him get so excited when that happened! 😍❤️
We also got a flash of a surfers bum whilst he was getting changed! 👍
We arrived at the beautiful Leeuwin Estate and were greeted by another Kookaburra!
The Winery and its grounds are stunning. It’s one of the top wineries in the area and their set lunch was the reason Rebecca and I had come down.
I opted to do the wine pairing, which was $50/£25 which I thought was pretty good value. Rebecca wanted to try their signature, award winning Chardonnay, which was £22 a glass! The value of my wine pairing became apparent when the waitress explained that this Chardonnay was part of my wine pairing. 😍😀
The food was absolutely stunning, it looked and tasted amazing. The wines were delicious. The setting was beautiful, we even got a little bit of misty rain. The service was excellent.
A truly wonderful experience to share with Rebecca. It was fabulous.
I have been thinking about my next trip, having realised that Japan is not viable financially at the moment, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. I had a conversation with Tracey and she mentioned a couple of places that her and Jaques might be interested in visiting and that got me thinking. 🤔
The result of this thinking, and of looking through the brochure that had the Japan tour in, amongst others I have decided to go to India! 🇮🇳
I have always thought about India but I have been reluctant to go there as a solo female traveler, so the possibility of doing an organised tour solves that issue. I looked up lots of tours online and some of the tours in the brochure also looked great. I eventually found one online that was on offer and was 1/2 price! It looked fantastic. It was also through the travel agents here in Bunbury, Flight Centre. I made an appointment with the chap I’d spoken with before, Mathew and went over to book the tour. Mathew looked it up online and said, yes it was indeed 1/2 price but unfortunately I couldn’t go as the tour I’d found was for 18 – 35 year olds!! 😳 Bloody Gutted. How I missed that crucial piece of info (which was clearly stated on the details) I don’t know. Mathew then went through some other option’s and one of the tours in the brochure was on offer with 30% off. It covered pretty much the same itinerary so I went for it. It is a 15 day tour starting and finishing in Delhi. I also opted to pay the extra for my own room (it wasn’t too much) I have since spoken to a few people who have been to India and loved it, albeit with some horror stories (thanks Stretch! 😂) My current plan is to do the tour then stay in India for a few more weeks, possibly organise a Tiger Safari and then go down to Goa.
The tour is booked for February and before that I am going to go back to Sri Lanka. I was last there in 2018 and I loved it. This time I hope to visit some of the places I didn’t get to and do some things I didn’t do before. It will also be a different season, so I should be able to go into the ocean this time.
I’ve booked my flights, booked some accommodation, I have managed to book the same homestay that I had last time in Negombo, Sri Lanka with the wonderful Family who looked after me so well and Buddi who organised a fabulous tour for me. It will be so lovely to see them again. All I need to do now is organise visas for both countries, which is something I hate doing, Cory, you can confirm that! 😊 But I don’t have Cory on hand to help this time, so I’ll have to be a big girl and just get on with it.
So, that’s a plan in place, I feel a little better now I know what I’m doing.
The beginning of November is always a tricky time for me, and I was feeling a little low and very homesick, missing everyone. But I am feeling more positive and focused now.
If anyone has been to India before and has any tips or advice it would be gratefully received. The same for Sri Lanka.
A few little quirky things to note about Australia.
Rebecca & Chris’s home is just near a couple of schools, a Junior and a senior school. I drive past them every morning to take Rebecca to work. There is never a hold up due to large numbers of cars. Children are bused in or they walk, cycle. The other very striking thing to note is that the school fields, where the children do sports and play out, is not fenced. This is in stark contrast to British and American schools which are like secure compounds!
Twice a year the local council organise a rubbish collection. What happens is you are given a time 2-3rd week of November, this is when the council will come and collect anything that you don’t want or need. Like, beds, sofas, BBQs, doors, fridges, clothes, bits of wood literally anything! You simply place the items outside on the grass verge. People can come and peruse what you’ve put out and take it away if they want it, what’s left will be collected by the council! What a bloody great idea!!
To be fair it looks a little messy for a week or so, but so what.
Remember to let me know any ideas etc re India & Sri Lanka also any book recommendations.
Books read.
The Controller. Matt Brolly. OK.
The One Plus One. Jojo Moyes. I enjoyed it. I was funny and a good read.
Fear in the Fens. Joy Ellis. No 13 in the Detective Galena Series. An enjoyable series, and this one was a good read.
I’m getting a bit slack on my reading!
That’s it for now folks.
Have a great week.
Sending all my love to everyone especially Karen & Brenda. ❤️❤️
Hereandthereclaire.com 