Tag: europe

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. 

Tuesday 6th May – Sunday 11th May 2025

After a little bit of a bumpy but not unpleasant journey, we arrived in Nafpaktos. The town looks amazing, a big castle up on a hill and a really great small walled harbour. We tried to go into the harbour but it was very small and was having work done, it was really only big enough for small boats and dinghy’s. We decided to anchor just outside the harbour walls. The wind had dropped considerably and we decided to go into town by dinghy to do some shopping and have a look around.

Once again I mastered the dinghy! 🥰 To be fair it was really calm and not very far!

We did the shopping and had a mooch about, it’s a very pretty place. Tracey & Jacques opted to take the shopping back to the boat while I waited in a little bar! Handy. This plan seemed great until the wind picked up a lot just as they set off and meant they couldn’t come back for 2 hours! 😂 I managed to pass the time sipping my Mastika and Wine and eating the nibbles, it was hard but I survived! 😂

It was getting on for 8.30pm by the time they got back and we were all hungry and made the great decision to visit the best local Gyros shop, I even tried a pork Gyros, very tasty. 

Unfortunately the money we saved on a cheap supper was soon spent in a very nice wine shop we passed on the way back to the boat! 

We set off on a bright sunny morning to make our way to Missolonghi. Lord Byron died and is buried on Missolonghi. 

In order to get there we had to pass under a huge suspension bridge, The Rio-Antirrio Bridge. This required us to radio the bridge with our mast height then wait to be told which section to pass under, initially he misheard the height, luckily Tracey double checked and we went under the tallest section. Even then it’s a little nerve wracking! 

The way into the quay at Missolonghi was strange, we followed a dredged channel past some flat marshlands which didn’t look very Greek, apparently there are a lot of salt flats here. 

We went alongside the quay which with no wind was relatively stress free! 

Tracey and I then went for an epic walk through the town, at the hottest part of the day, in search of Lidl! Honestly, we’ll do anything for a decent supermarket! 😂 

It was actually a rather pleasant walk through the town despite pulling an old lady shopping trolley with us! 

Lidl was fun, although we opted for a taxi back with our hoard. 

We were moored opposite a busy, buzzing restaurant where we had a very nice dinner and watched the sunset. 

Our next stop is the lovely island of Ithaka, which is just off the coast of Kefalonia. The architecture is lovely and relatively modern, after most properties were damaged during an earthquake in 1953. We moored along the town quay, which was great, I love a Town Quay! 

The little town looks so pretty and also looks a little bit Italian. 

We had a wander around the town and then had food onboard. Another epic Greek Salad 🥗😍

There is a beautiful poem called ‘Ithaka’ by the Greek poet P Cavafy. It is based on Odysseus journey home in Homer’s Odyssey. The poem conveys the meaning of life and to always remember that when attempting to achieve our goals we must never lose sight of the journey as it’s is this journey that provides us with wisdom, knowledge and experience. Thank you Grantley for telling me about the poem. 

We were hoping to make a stop on Kefalonia at a place called Fiskardo. 

Unfortunately the small quay was completely full, so instead we popped across to a place called Syvota on the island of Lefkas. 

There are lots of pontoons in Syvota each one owned by a restaurant. The idea is that you moor on their pontoon for free but then eat at their restaurant. 

We had been given a recommendation of a place called ‘Stavros’ Tracey called them as we arrived in the bay and they said they had a spot for us, he said he would come out and wave to us. 

We saw a guy waving, so duly moored alongside, chatted a bit he told us there was water and electricity. It was only after about 10 minutes we realised the place was not ‘Stavros’ at all but a completely different restaurant called ‘Vibes’ 😂 we had been poached! 

Our first job on arrival was to give the boat a really good clean. I bloody loved this! Mops, improvised brushes, hoses and lots of fun! We actually ended up doing some of the cleaning in the rain! 😂😂 It was such a hugely satisfying task, seeing the boat all shiny and clean. Bliss. 

Once we finished we had a celebratory shower and a drink and watched the beautiful huge dog, Gustav, on the boat next door trying to get to the cats on the quay! 

As expected we went to the restaurant for dinner. The food at the restaurant was delicious, a little bit more upscale than the usual Taverna but with Greek flavours. We also decided to get a little bit dressed up!
We had a really fabulous meal with lovely staff. Altogether a great day. 👌😍

I was woken in the morning to the sound of Jacques hoovering, which was odd as I’d hoovered the day before. It seems that some very cheeky cats had got on board during the night, jumped up on the side, dragged the remaining banana loaf down and had a good old munch! 😂😂

We stayed another night in Syvota, doing jobs, shopping and having a lovely lazy lunch. 

It really is a great little spot, very popular with charter boats. 

We left on Sunday morning to make our way to Lefkas town marina where we are picking up some new people! 

More on this next time. 

Have a great week lovely people.

🧡❤️💙🧡💜💚

Books read.

Private Monaco. James Patterson & Adam Hamdy. One in the series of Private books, very formulaic, predictable, easy reading and not very good! 

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. 

Sunday 20th April – Friday 25th April 2025

We all enjoyed our night in Patmos, watching the local children performing traditional dances and then stuffing our faces with yummy Greek food in a lovely Greek Taverna, served to us by a lovely Greek waiter with a strong Geordie accent! 😂 Turns out his Geordie mum married a handsome Greek guy! All very Shirley Valentine. ❤️

We set of from Patmos the next morning to make our way to Ikaria. Ikaria is one of the most northeastern of the Aegean Islands, it was created when Icarus on his escape from Minos Prison ignored his father’s advice and flew to close to the sun and crashed into the sea. 

It is also the birthplace of Dionysos, the god of wine! My kind of place. 🍷

We actually anchored in a stunning little bay with a tiny secluded beach. The surroundings were gorgeous. 

There were people on the beach, who had managed to clamber over some pretty big rocks and down a pretty steep shaley hillside! 😳

We enjoyed some downtime chilling on the boat. With one small drama when the anchor dragged and we re anchored but dragged again and almost hit some rocks! Jaques & Tracey were on hand to avert any disasters! 

The stars at night were unbelievable, so clear and so many to see! Jaques showed us an app on his phone called ‘Star Gazer’ which is fantastic, you point it at the sky and it tells you the constellations and stars. 🤩 Grantley & I spent quite a while up on deck just star gazing. 

The following morning we were off again. We are making our way to Mykonos. 

The ocean initially was eerily calm and misty and almost flat water. It looked very otherworldly, we thought we saw some dolphins, but they were just large fish jumping in the distance. The last part of the journey we were heading straight into the wind which makes it a little chilly. We were just arriving at the entrance to the Mykonos harbour when the wind really picked up, it turns out Mykonos isn’t great when the wind is in a northerly direction. Jaques decided the best bet was to avoid Mykonos and instead go across to Tinos, which has a much more sheltered harbour. 

This is what we did. We moored up at the Town Quay, in the main town, Hora, which was a perfect position to see the wonderful surroundings. 

Tinos is a busy little town, lots of ferry’s in and out. Tinos is also famous as a Greek Orthodox pilgrimage site. 

The large Church of Panagia Evangelistria at the top of the hill houses the Icon of the Holy Virgin Megalocharia. Pilgrims make their way from the port, up the steep road to the Church on their hands and knees. The town has very kindly provided them with a narrow carpeted area on the side of the road to make this journey a little easier! 

We arrived in the late afternoon and had a walk to the supermarket for essentials, butter and wafers! Then we went out again in the evening for dinner. 

The little windy lanes are fabulous and full of wonderful, shops, bars and restaurants. It was surprisingly busy and felt wonderfully vibrant. We opted to go to a Gyros restaurant, so Grantley & I could sample our first (but absolutely not our last!) Gyros Pitta! 😋 This is an essential Greek fast food, which comprises a soft pitta filled with seasoned meat, either chicken or pork, Tzatziki, tomatoes, olives and chips!! It was bloody delicious! So delicious in fact that Grantley had a second one! 😂

Grantley and I had a wander around the next morning, Grantley bought himself a string of worry beads. We have seen so many of the older Greek and also Turkish men holding and using them, the noise of the beads is quite soothing. The lovely lady that we bought them from gave us each a small safety pin with an evil eye 🧿 bead on. I tried to attach mine to my top, the bead fell off and went bouncing down the hill! Luckily it missed the drain and Grantley managed to rescue it! 

I have to admit that I am struggling to not buy more things here in Greece. Everything, clothes, bags, shoes, jewellery is in my favourite colours, blues, turquoise, greens it’s so hard to resist! 😬

Grantley and I found a fabulous Bookstore/Cafe! It was in one of the windy lanes. It was spread over 3 floors, with new and second hand books. They also had several books wrapped in brown paper, called Date Night. The idea being that you buy the package and then on your date discover what the book is! Such a good idea. I bought one for Tracey and Jaques. Which incredibly turned out to be a book about boats, called ‘Sealed Orders’ from The Fighting Sail Series!  ⛵️ 😍

We met up with Tracey and went to explore the church. We also spotted a couple of crawling pilgrims. 

Although I am an Agnostic I was raised as a catholic and I always light a candle when I go into a church. I find it very moving and comforting to take a few minutes to stop and remember all of the people I love who are sadly no longer with us. 

The church was beautiful, calm and very ornate, lots of silver and icons.

I loved the little streets of Tinos, another Island to add to your list if you’re exploring the Greek Islands! 

We decided to eat onboard on the last night, it was very windy and a little cold. Grantley & Jaques popped into town and grabbed us all some delicious Smashed Burgers! Very tasty. 😋 

We left Tinos to make our way to Kea, a longish trip of approximately 5 – 6 hours. Unfortunately after an hour or so as we were motoring along we had some smoke coming out of the engine. We had this just after we left Leros and Jaques thought there might be some residue that was burning off. However as we had a long trip, the decision was made to divert to Syros, a much closer island that had a marina and good Volvo mechanics. 

We moored up at the town quay, with the help of some old Greek guys who were sitting on a bench sharing a box of wine!! 😂

We moored up and set the passerelle (gangplank) twice due to having to manoeuvre about. This particular passerelle is large with a hinge in the middle it’s heavy and quite unwieldy, both Jaques and Tracey have sustained injuries from it the last few days! No sooner had we got sorted when the harbour master came and told us that the mechanic could look at the boat in the morning but we needed to move the boat from the quay across to the Marina! 

On a side note, the harbour master looked bloody fabulous! He was driving a trike thing, wearing red and white trainers, white shorts with a Hermes belt, a white T shirt under the most amazing shiny, red and white spotty shirt! Honestly he looked brilliant. Sadly I didn’t get a photo! 

We moved the boat across to the marina. Everything went very smoothly, no passerelle needed, thank god! We literally stepped off the boat onto the dock.

Tracey was very excited to learn that there was a Lidl in Syros, this meant good French Cheese! 🧀 

Tracey, Grantley & I walked into town, called into what we thought was the Lidl, it wasn’t 🤦‍♀️ eventually found the actual Lidl, bought French cheese, wafers and another essential item, Lidl fair trade Caramel & sea salt chocolate! Happy shoppers! 😂 

We had a delicious supper onboard comprising French cheese, nibbles and Jaques amazing Greek Salad! 🥗 

The next morning the mechanics arrived, Grandfather, Father, Son. All really lovely guys, they work on all the ferry’s and large passenger boats in the area and are very much in demand, so the fact that they fitted us in was amazing. They spent about 40 minutes on the boat, figured out the turbo was blocked, unblocked it and only charged €50! And as if that wasn’t fantastic enough they said to wait 5 minutes and someone would bring us some ‘Locum’ (local pastries, sweets) we waited for 15 minutes and then decided we really needed to leave, just as we moved away from the harbour we spotted a white car beeping and flashing their lights, it was the mechanics with our Locum! We about turned and headed back, as we certainly didn’t want to offend them. Jaques did a drive by on the dock and they expertly lobbed a carrier bag onto the trampolines at the front of the boat! 😂. The bag was filled with delicious local nougat and boxes of sugary pastries! What an awesome treat. I can’t believe that these lovely men came and fixed the turbo, charged a pittance and then gave us gifts! How cool. 

The rest of our journey to Kea was great, rainy and a little chilly but we made good time and Jaques & Grantley even made a yummy Banana Cake. We arrived at Kea around 4pm. 

We were welcomed to the island by a few beautiful dolphins leaping in front of us!🐬 💙

Once again we were helped by a local guy to moor up. Then we opened up the back of the boat and relaxed in the glorious sunshine with a cold glass of wine, people & cat watching. Heavenly. ❤️

We had dinner at a local taverna run by an old Greek couple, the food was great. A nice mixture of dishes, their Greek salad wasn’t quite as good as Jaques but everything else was lush. 

We ended the night back on the boat sipping Lemoncello and chatting shit! 😍🩵💚 A perfect end to a fantastic day. 

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

Books read.

Birds without Wings Louis de Bernières. 

This book has taken me a while to read, but wow was it worth it. It is a truly fantastic book, beautifully written, funny, informative and poignant. A new favourite. 

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!) 

Friday 11th April – Tuesday 15th April 2025.

After enjoying our last evening in Fethiye, when Grantley had a delicious meal of yummy stew. We had a reasonable nights sleep. Our hotel is in the Old Town and close to some bars and clubs which despite it being low season, are open till around 3am! 😬 

Our ferry to Rhodes was leaving at 8.30 and our tickets said to arrive 1 hour before, which I felt was a little excessive, but we did as requested, thank god! The check in was very long and convoluted and required us to pay 200 lira each in port fees. Grantley and I had very cleverly managed  to spend all of our lira bar maybe 20 lira! The fees had to be paid in cash, a little suspect in my opinion, so Grantley ran to the ATM, which luckily wasn’t far away. Fees paid it was time for security, we got stuck behind a couple of ladies who had with them, 7 big suitcases, some huge bags of random stuff, several bags of bread and a mattress! 😂 it took a while! 

Amazingly the ferry left more or less on time and the ride out of the bay in the early morning light was stunning. 

We arrived in Greece and Rhodes Port 2 hours later. 

The weather was beautiful and sunny but very windy, which made it feel a little chilly! 

Our hotel was a short 10 min walk from the port, just outside the Old Town Walls. 

We were early for check in, so we left our cases and went to explore. 

I have never been to Rhodes before and the Medieval Old Town is absolutely stunning. It’s is a UNESCO world Heritage Site. 

Rhodes is the fourth largest island in Greece and sits in a very strategic crossroads of the two sea routes of the Mediterranean, between the Aegean Sea and the coasts of the Middle East. 

It has a rich and diverse history. 

I adore old winding streets which take you on a journey through time. The Old Town is wonderful to walk around, taking different turnings and finding yourself somewhere off the main drag, with no people, just cobbled streets and cats! 

Our plan is to explore the Old Town over the next few days and visit the various key attractions. 

After wandering for a while we stopped for some much needed lunch, having missed breakfast! 

We found a wonderful little place in a lovely square and had a Meze (a mix of Greek dishes) it was sooo good! 😋 One of the items was my favourite, Large Beans, these are butter beans in a delicious tomato sauce. 

We have spent our days here wandering through the lanes of the old town. We visited the fabulous Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes. Which was amazing. This was the administrative centre for the Order of the Knights of Saint John. With a fantastic exhibition offering valuable insights into the history of the city of Rhodes from its founding in 408 BC until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1522. 

One of my favourite places was the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, which is housed in the building that served as a hospital for the medieval Knights of St John Hospitallers. It was a wonderful collection of rooms, galleries, gardens with a wealth of history and Cats! 

The Knights of St John still operate today under the guise of The St John’s Ambulance in the UK and the Commonwealth. The St John Eye Hospital Group in Jerusalem and the Order of Saint John in Malta. 

We are so lucky to be here in Rhodes at this time of year, it’s cooler, less busy and the beautiful spring growth makes everywhere so green and gorgeous. 

This was perfectly summed up on our walk to the Acropolis of Rhodes. Grantley found a route that took us through the residential areas then up through the fields and meadows, it was absolutely stunning. 💜💚🩵

The Acropolis was a fabulous place to explore, Grantley did his Cat Whispering act and got followed the whole time by a very gorgeous and friendly big black cat! 🐈‍⬛ Whilst doing the typical boy/man thing and carrying a large stick!! 😂

I have just loved walking around soaking up the history and the scenery. We have done a lot of walking again! Luckily my ribs and knee seem to be on the mend so I’ve had very little trouble. 

We had also booked a trip to Lindos. Lindos is a small, ancient Marine town renowned for its ancient Acropolis perched high on the cliff overlooking the town and the sea. 

Although the steps were steep and narrowish with no handrail! Not my favourite! I did climb all 300 of them to be able to explore the site and take in the exceptional views. It makes it easier having Grantley on hand. Bless him. 

Lindos was stunning, the beautiful white Cycladic architecture was gorgeous. We were also lucky enough to stumble on one of the great Captains Houses, this one now serving as a bar! 

A funny and unusual thing occurred at the end of the trip. We had been told that the coach was departing at 2.30pm. Our guide said that they would wait 5-7 mins then if you don’t appear they will assume you love Lindos so much you are going to stay! 😀 Now, I’ve been on lots of trips and find it incredibly irritating when people are late for pick up or on returning, and you have to sit and wait for ages. To be fair I dislike bad time keeping full stop. 

Grantley and I and the majority of the passengers all returned by 2.15, a few stragglers at 2.20. Then at 2.30 the guide apologised and checked if ‘Carol and her family’ were on the coach, they weren’t. Then at exactly 2.37 We left, minus Carol & her family! 😂 I’m sorry to say this made me unreasonably happy! I hope they all enjoy their new life in Lindos! 😂😂

Another fantastic day. 

Grantley has been amazing company, kind, funny, knowledgeable and helpful. I’m sure it’s not easy for him walking at my pace (his normal walking pace is almost a jog!) but he never complains. 

We have had the most amazing time here. 

We are both very excited to be making our way to Tracey, Jaques, Mossey Joe and Leros later today! 

We have a 5 hour ferry ride first, which should be fun. The sea looks quite calm. Although that’s in the safety of the Harbour 😬😀

Books Read.

None, again! Still reading Birds without Wings. 

Have a great week lovely people. 

🩵💚💙💜❤️🩷

Tuesday 1st April – Sunday 6th April.

I was a little,sad to be leaving Hun Hun and Thailand, as they had been a perfect respite after the chaos of India. But I’m heading somewhere new & exciting and seeing my Grantley! 😍

My bus to Bangkok was super easy, comfortable and I even managed to catch the earlier one, which was handy. The airport hotel was great, it had the biggest bed I’ve ever seen! Sooo comfy 😴😴

Nothing much to report on the flight, it left on time and I was looking forward to relaxing with a few films during the 7 hour flight to Doha. Well, that didn’t happen, there were 6 rows of seats whose screens didn’t work, and I was in one of them! 😩 TBH I ended dozing for a lot of the flight which is unlike me, then by the time they’ve fed you a couple of times, you e had a wee, a walk around and read your book we were there! 

Doha now has a very fancy transit lounge full of super expensive very high end shops. A little out of my budget, so I found a bench amongst the nice green foliage and drank my water and eat my packet of Lays!  😂

Second leg to Istanbul was great, landed on time, collected my case very promptly, then had a little bit of a faff trying to find the driver I’d booked, it was a rather convoluted process not helped by the fact the airport wifi wasn’t working. Anyway, I eventually met up,with him and he worked me through the night to my hotel in the centre of Istanbul. 

I arrived at around 9pm, after a 24hr journey, Grantley was arriving at approximately 2am, so I set my alarm and grabbed some sleep. 

Then around 2.15 there was a gentle knock at the door and there he was! My boy. It was amazing to see him after almost a year. 

We had a massive hug, a little catch up then got some sleep. 

We were up early the next morning, it was just fantastic to see him and catch up on everything.  We are both excited to explore Istanbul. 

The weather was a little cloudy and much chillier than I’ve been used to! Grantley thought it was great! 

Our hotel is in a really central spot for all the major sites, so we just headed out in the direction of The Hagia Sofia and hoped for the best. 

I knew that Istanbul was famous for its cats, but oh wow! They are literally everywhere, and they are well looked after and friendly! 😍 This is my dream scenario. 😂 They are so beautiful and so regal, they just sit where they like and wait for attention. 

There is a fabulous park just by our hotel, called Gülhane Park, and it was full of them. 😍 Kerry, you and Richard would absolutely love it! As would all my other cat loving friends. 

You end up being next to a beautiful, ancient, monument but being distracted by the cats who are siting all over it! 😂😂

Getting out earlyish was an excellent plan and we definitely missed the crowds and queues. 

The Hagia Sofia was magnificent, absolutely stunning. We visited the museum experience after (should have done it first 🤦‍♀️) which went through its full and varied history. Fascinating. 

After this we visited the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet Camii, again, absolutely gorgeous. This whole area is brilliant to walk around, so much to see and admire. We grabbed a beer on a fabulous roof terrace that had amazing views. 

Then we continued walking and visited the Grand Bazaar, which is huge! So many lanes going in all directions, so much stuff, so many people! It was amazing 🤩 

More walking and just discovering the area before another well deserved beer! Then the sun made an appearance. 💛

There was another Mosque we wanted to visit but when we got there it was closed for prayers. It’s close by so we’ll go back tomorrow. 

We had dinner across the road from the hotel, very tasty. 😋 

I will just say that the prices here are much higher than I’d anticipated. Obviously they can’t compare to prices in South East Asia, but even by European standards I feel they are high. Especially the costs of the entry tickets. But it is what it is, probably due to the instability of the Lira. 

It was a fabulous first day. The only slight issue was when I tripped up a kerb and really bashed my knee 🤦‍♀️😂 It hurt like hell, and got very swollen not to mention the embarrassment factor! Icing it helped! 

After an early night and a good rest we were up and at them again first thing. My knee was swollen and painful, but ok to walk on. 

Our first stop was the Basilica Cistern. An absolute marvel of Byzantine architecture and ingenuity. It holds over 80,000 cubic meters of water and covers over 10,000 square meters of space. It is the largest of the underground cisterns in Istanbul. I thought it was absolutely breathtaking. 

From here we walked up to the Topkapi Palace. Such a lovely walk past the Hagia Sofia and through lanes and past parks and lots of cats! 🐈 😻

The entry fee to the palace was very steep, we figured it would be worth it and it was. We spent a long time exploring the Palace, the grounds, the Harem. The views from here were also pretty awesome. 

I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken so long if I wasn’t hobbling a little! The swelling on my knee made steps a bit tricky, and obviously there were lots of uneven steps! 

From here we walked back down to the mosque we couldn’t visit yesterday, which again was closed for prays! We decided to wait and had a look round the Egyptian Spice Market….Bonkers Busy! 😱

The Mosque was beautiful, such gorgeous tiles, then right up on the ceiling of the largest dome was a little red, heart shaped ballon, that a child obviously let go! It was very cute. ❤️

I love the area around this Mosque and Square, it’s very busy with families, couples, cats and dogs just chilling! 

For dinner we popped back to a restaurant that had tried to lure us in earlier, with the offer of free baklava! We both opted for a kebab meal, I had chicken skewers and Grantley had Lamb. The food was good, and we did indeed have free Baklava! 😍

For our third day we had decided to cross over the Galatea Bridge and walk to Galatea Tower, then onto an area called Ortakoy. From here we were going to take a ferry to the Asian side of the Bosphorus. 

The weather wasn’t the best, cloudy and a bit damp and dull, but off we went. 

The walk across the Galata Bridge was interesting, it was Saturday and the bridge was full of guys fishing. 

We reached the Galata Tower and then continued our walk through the main shopping street, Ishtikal Caddesi, which was more European, but also interesting. We found an excellent exhibition about Palestine and its geo political history, fascinating and heartbreaking. 

Our plan to go to Ortakoy went slightly awry after we took a slight right instead of a slight left! However it was all good as we walked through an interesting, less touristy area. We ended up back down by Galata Bridge, where Grantley sampled a delicious, fresh Balik Ekmek, or Fish wrap, full of fish, salad, seasoning. It was really, really good! 

Then we jumped on the passenger ferry to the Asian side! This was so much fun. 

We grabbed a cheap posh chicken wrap for dinner. 

This might have been a mistake as I woke up in the night with the most horrendous indigestion, the worst I’ve ever had. I also just felt not great. 

I still didn’t feel ok in the morning. I’m also still getting pain from where I damaged my rib in Thailand!! 😩🤦‍♀️

Grantley took himself off for a walk and to visit the Archeological museum, while I rested in the room. 

When he got back we went out to visit another Mosque that we wanted to see, Süleymaniye Mosque. It was a bit of a trek up a big old hill, but we got there in the end. We then walked through the area around the university to have a look at an Aqueduct. Then strolled back down in to the old town. 

By the time we got back, I was feeling a bit rough, so took myself off to bed! 

To be honest, I think for me it’s been a big change in diet, from veggie rice and the odd Singa beer, to bread, cheese and meat! We’ve also been averaging around 23,000 steps a day! A few more than I was doing in Hun Hin! 

I’ve really enjoyed our time in Istanbul, I’ve loved the history, the vibe, the cats and I’ve especially loved sharing it all with Grantley. 

It’s been a blast. 

Tomorrow we are heading to Fethiye on the coast. 

Have a great week everyone.

I love & miss you. 

💛💜🩷❤️🩵💚

Books read.

Night Watching. Tracy Sierra. This is the book club book. It was better and different to what I’d originally expected. 

Tracey, you’ll be pleased to know I’ve started Birds without wings! 

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. 

Wednesday 23rd October  – Monday 11th November

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. ❤️❤️

❤️🩷💛💙💚🤎🧡

Thursday 1st August

Good morning lovely people.❤️

Firstly, apologies for the numerous spelling errors in my last post! 😳 I put this down to trying to type it on the train whilst keeping the blind open and admiring the view! 

I’ve been here in Penang and Georgetown for a couple of days and I love it. 

As I guessed it is much more pedestrian friendly and not as high rise.

It gives me Old Town Phuket vibes. I guess they have a similar colonial and migrant history. 

When I arrived at Butterworth train station my loose plan was to call a Grab as I thought the ferry terminal was further away (there is a road bridge across to the island) however the ferry terminal is linked to the train station, handy. 

So having battled with people to get on the lift (more on this sort of behaviour later 🤨) I followed the signs to the ferry, it was a pretty long walk and involved a fair amount of queuing, I also managed to drop my case on my foot, 🙁 but I made it to the the front of the ticket queue and had to pay for the ticket on a card. So I paid 32p on my credit card (the conversion fee is going to be way more than that!) and boarded the ferry, it didn’t take long. 

I got chatting to a family from Ontario, with 2 early teen children all of whom were travelling with just a very small backpack 🎒Impressive. I thought I was good keeping my case under 18kgs. 😂

My hotel here is lovely, in a beautiful old building and my room is still the original wood, and smells lush (no mouldering fruit smell!) 

The pool is tiny and approx 2inches deep…😂 but enough to submerge and cool off after a hot day. 

My first evening I wandered into the main part of town, about a 15 min walk. I found a bar and grabbed an ice cold beer! 🍺 

The area I’m in has lots of street food stalls, they are all really busy but I’m a bit of a coward and don’t particularly want to try anything. I opt instead for a nice little restaurant. I had a delicious Nasi lemak, rice, chicken satay & and fried egg Yum! 

Then I walked back to the hotel. It’s been a long day. 

My first full day in Georgetown was going to be spent exploring and enjoying the street art and architecture. 

After a tasty breakfast of omelette and Tea. I set off. As I left I could see the very dark clouds and hear some thunder. I walked for about 10 mins before it started to really rain. I had my fetching rain poncho in my bag, but it appears to have been made to fit a small child not an adult with a large bum! 

I ducked into a rather swanky hotel and had more tea whilst 

waiting for the storm to pass.  After about 40 mins it had slowed a little so I figured I’d chance it. I left and bought a small umbrella at a 7/11.

I was trying to orientate myself using a ridiculous map, but was really struggling. I’m normally pretty good at finding my way and directions. Eventually I was able to figure it out! 

I stopped to have a little tour of the Kapitan Keling Mosque, which was beautiful and interesting, by the time I came out it had stopped raining. 😃

I continued my walk and found the street art and the beautiful little streets I’d been searching for. So pretty and also reasonably quiet. I’m sure this area is very busy at night. I continued my walk and by the time I got back to the hotel I’d done around 15,000 steps, I also had a couple of blisters. 

I had a dunk in the pool to cool off and then remembered that the receptionist had mentioned a roof terrace. 

OMG! It’s so perfect. Lots of seating, lots of shade, a beautiful breeze and no people. I will definitely be making use of this in the future.

I thought I’d head back into town for dinner, there was a restaurant that had great reviews, Chinese influenced. The reviews clearly worked because it was rammed and there was also a massive queue. By now I was starving and my feet hurt so I didn’t fancy queuing. The restaurant I’d visited the night before was closed so I had a sit down in a bar with a beer to consider my options. 

Just as I took the first sip of my beer a huge Rat almost ran over my foot.. 😳 Jesus, it made me jump. 🐀😬

I’d passed a good looking place earlier, so I went back. It’s a middle eastern restaurant, it was very pretty inside. I ordered a Chicken Biriyani dish and a lemon iced tea. 

Oh wow! The food was awesome, possibly the best meal so far. The tenderest chicken and the rice and curry side were gorgeous. Not like an Indian Biriyani. 

The bill was less than £8 honestly, it was so good, I’m going back. ❤️

After my delicious dinner I walked back to the hotel on my aching feet. As soon as I got to my room an alert came up on my phone saying I’d used all my data, on my Malaysian Sim. I need the data for ordering Grabs, so asked at reception where the nearest place to top up was, she said literally round the corner. So I took my aching feet and off I went. 

Sadly the shops machine was broken (I’m not convinced seeing as the assistant stood chatting on her phone for 5mins, whilst ignoring, I just don’t think she could be bothered doing it) so I had to walk right back to where I’d had dinner to the 7/11! 😩 

A very helpful young fella did some stuff on my phone and announced that I had 7 days data left! And nothing to pay WTF! Result. 👍

By the time I got back I’d walked just under 21,000 steps my feet were not happy! 

On Thursday due to the blisters and a nice bruise on my foot, I figured I’d have a day with less walking. 

With this in mind I purchased a ticket for Penang Hill. The highest point in Penang with gorgeous views and funicular ride to the top. 

After another lush breakfast of poached eggs on toast and tea. I set off. It took around 20 mins in a taxi to get there. The driver told me the queues were taking around 2hrs…yikes! I did have a fast track ticket but still. Thankfully he was wrong and the queues were minimal.

I was at the front of the queue to board but was pushed aside by a couple from Germany or Switzerland, seriously WTF is wrong with people, you’re not going to get there any faster. Twats. 

The hill and the ride is very steep and I have to be honest I didn’t really like it 😳 Especially when it slowed right down to pull into the station at the top, I just kept imagining it falling backwards…! I swear my worry about heights is getting worse! 

Anyway, it was worth the worry and the shoving. The views were amazing, if a little hazy. It was also fresh and cool and smelt of flowers and trees. So fabulous. 

I saw some stunning and huge butterflies 🦋. I had a walk around and found myself at ‘Penang Habitat’ an attraction I thought was elsewhere on the hill, and had planned to visit tomorrow. 

It’s basically a beautiful rainforest experience. A walk through the forest and the canopy. This was a much more authentic and enjoyable experience than the Eco Park in Kuala Lumpur.

I figured as I was here I might as well do it. 

It was absolutely stunning. So incredibly beautiful and peaceful. I saw more butterflies, a few monkeys, and a rather confused bat. 🦇 

Once you Finish the walk you have the option of walking back to where you started approx 2k or there is a free buggy ride. I opted for the free ride. 😄 The not walking much plan seems to have gone slightly awry! 

The buggy is on a first come first served basis. I know this was going to be challenging from the get go. 

The first buggy arrived and it was a bit of a free for all, but a guide from ‘Habitat’ was there and organised people a little.  We waited for the next buggy to arrive, which it did after about 10 mins, which was fine, it was a lovely place to sit. There were at least 7 of us who had been waiting, but when the buggy arrived a new group of 5 just jumped on. Well, by now I’m hot, I need a cold drink and probably some sugar! So I was like, Hello! No! You have to get off there is a queue and you’re at the back of it! They stared at me, I explained again that they had to get off and wait their turn. Eventually they got off, one older man very reluctantly and giving me evils! But to be honest I’m a little fed up with it! I’ve spoken about this in previous blogs, I always try to be polite, move out of the way, allow people ahead of me etcetera, but I’m done. 

I’ve been pushed, shoved, elbowed and in KL a big guy walking down the street whacked me in the stomach and didn’t even apologise! So that’s it, no more Ms Nice Claire! 😡😂😂

I’m now back at the hotel, sitting writing this on the rooftop with a beer and some crisps! Happiness and order are restored. 😍❤️

No new books yet. 

Again, any recommendations on the book front are gratefully received. 

🩷💚🩵💙