Rockhampton to Hervey Bay

Tuesday 19th December

So Rocky was about as appealing as we had anticipated- but it served its purpose. We were advised that the Criterion Hotel was THE place to eat beef in town. Aside from the food and the brilliant Christmas ‘cassette’ (I suspect) that they were playing on a loop, it was a bit of a dive.

Onwards to Hervey Bay.

I drove the Big Beast for about 50 miles today, only 20% of our journey but at least I know I can do it, even though Big Gav prefers to be in the driving seat – nothing new there!!!!!

Not much to note about the first part of the journey, not as barren as WA highways but still huge swathes of JUST nothing

<
Stopping for fuel we saw a curious sight –

<these fellas watched us over Coffee.

An hour or so down the road, we passed through Gin Gin, what a spirited place that must be🍹😜.

A little further on we saw something we’ve so far been deprived on this continent – Rolling hills flanking the roadsides, with beautiful hills/mountains in the far distance – a little bit like the chilterns. So much more interesting than mile after mile of nothing or sugarcane or FLAT terrain.

Just under 6 hours after we started, we arrive at Big 4 Holiday Park, Point Vernon – Hervey Bay

Our home for the next 2 nights, very quiet and clean, loads of space around us

Until the Japs arrived behind us. 5 of them in 2 vehicles, but I guess they’ll need the extra space for the cameras, selfie sticks and shopping bags 😜

Had a V nice meal in Whale Bay Marina tonight, at Baleana they fed us really good food with a great vibe, overlooking the water.

Sadly for Gav, as he’d love to see them, we’re not here during whale watching. This year they had great sightings in July when the whales were heading South and again when they came back through with their young in October.

Not sure what happened to this one though, he must’ve got lost

Wednesday 20th Dec We were up bright and early to leave for our golf game at The Hervey Bay Golf & Country Club. T off 7.30, the place was buzzing already, a scorcher of a day lay head with temps of mid-high 30’s expected, we played in very pleasant high 20’s.

Quite a heavily wooded first 9 gave us lots of glimpses of Kangaroo families resting in the shade.

Also a flutter of large white birds making quite a fuss attracted our attention, when they landed we saw they were cockatoos, sadly by the time I was able to take the pic I couldn’t see his bright comb very well, but he’s in s curious pose up the tree

I found the back 9 much more scenic, still plenty of Wildlife

The afternoon delivered the promised temperatures – I even went for a swim in our poolThursday 21st Dec We spent sometime along the fantastic 15 km Esplanade that runs from Point Vernon to Whale Bay Marina, magnificent views out to see and Fraser Island beyond.

Unfortunately we didn’t get chance to get to the Islands but appreciated them from afar.

They say the population of Hervey Bay are Newly Weds or Nearly Deads, as we travelled along the esplanade you could see the demographics of each of the areas quite clearly. It’s so pretty though, I’m sure all ages enjoy their outlook.

Next stop was the Marina that we only saw in the dark on our first night.

Farewell Hervey Bay – we’re heading to Noosa

Airlie Beach & The Whitsundays

Sunday 16th Dec

After a fairly nondescript journey from Townsville, we arrived at Party Central – back packers paradise apparently. 🎉🙋🏼🤷🏼‍♂️💃🏼🕺🏽🍻🍹

Our site, Island gateway was on the other side of all the action, more suited to people of our age 😜

And only 800 mtrs from the Port of Airlie where we would pick up the Boat for our trip to Paradise – AKA The Whitsunday Islands, and specifically Whitehaven beach.

On board the Seahorse ahead lie a fabulous turquoise ocean with lots of Islands on the Horizon.

Just under an hour later Hamilton was our first stop, just to change boats. It looked very inhabited, apparently all kinds of accomodation from budget to World Class Luxury. Some People on our boat had suitcases – presumably checking into one of those options.

Superb building on the entrance to the harbour, houses Hamilton Yacht Club.

10 mins later off we went again, rounding the other side of Hamilton and our Captain took us out past Dent island which apparently is home to an 18 hole golf course- if only we’d known !! He then navigated us into open sea and more Islands

Talking of Navigators, Going right back to Captain James Cook who thought it was Whitsunday on June 3rd 1770 when he passed though so he called it Whit Sunday’s passage, though there’s a school of thought that because of the international dateline it was actually Whit Monday ?

See the story below – I didn’t know that?

sorry- upload probs again. If the story pic doesn’t upload when your reading the blog, let me know and I’ll ping it over by e mail if you’d like to read it. X

For about 15 mins of the journey between Hamilton and Whitehaven Beach the sea was choppy enough to throw me off a sunbed !!!!! luckily there weren’t any, but we did keep a very firm hold of the handrail in front of us.

Slightly unpleasant but absolutely worth it when we got our first glimpse of THE beach.

The crew detached a raft from the back of the boat and ferried us to the shore

We had 2 hours to spend on this Idyllic beach – Almost 100% pure silica. Softer and whiter than most beaches I’ve been to. So to pass the 2 hours there were beach games, swimming, walks, wildlife & people watching or sunbathing to occupy us. I mainly did the last 2. Gav really doesn’t like sand so wandered off to have a swim, watch the seaplane that landed soon after we got there, and generally find shade.

Just before we had to get back on the boat I noticed that Some very romantic/artistic people had left Christmas messages in the sand. You know when you think

‘Darn it, why didn’t I do that’

And if I’d have had time I would have written

Happy Christmas to you all from Sue and Gavin from Paradise

I didn’t, but that was my afterthought – and I’ve written it here, you know what they say, it’s the thought that counts

🎄🤶🏼🎅🏽🥂🇦🇺🇬🇧❤️❤️

The return journey was much smoother and in no time we were back at the Big Beast thanking our lucky stars for our good fortune.

Airlie Beach was in the eye of Cyclone Debbie only 9 months ago, but apart from quite a lot of bare trees, visitors like us were unaware of the devastation they suffered.

Hats off to everybody involved for your resilience and determination not to be beaten. What a fabulous place, we feel blessed to have experienced the Whitsundays.

Monday 18th Dec We’ve safely arrived in Rockhampton, 6 hours after leaving Airlie. We don’t have massive expectations of this place, however as our next 2 night stop -Hervey Bay is a further 4 hours away ‘Rocky’ is just a means to an end.

However, One the way in the town proclaimed to produce Australia’s best beef, so we’ll test that later.

We’ve racked up 1400 + kms in 10 days. Gavin’s doing a sterling job with the driving which he says is relatively easy but it takes concentration. Hopefully he’ll let me have a go before we get to Sydney and hand it back. 🙏🏼

We’ve soon slotted into a routine with the chores that need to be done on arrival and departure at our various overnight stays, which Bodes well for our future adventures 👍👍

Port Douglas to Townsville

Port Douglas to Townsville via Mission Beach

Really sorry but most of the pics I’ve tried to upload won’t stick??? I’ve spent 3 hrs trying so I’m giving up for now.

The story’s still here though with some pics, and there’ve been other pics on Facebook ❤️❤️

Weds 13th Dec Scoot through Cairns, not much to see, Sorry Cairns if we did you a disservice, only the marina area near Shangi La Hotel looked anything like nice 😒

Stopped for coffee in Babinda.

Whilst it was not to my taste, the town had gone Christmas decoration mad, first place that had really given a nod to the season since Singapore really

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n after leaving Babinda we saw signs to Mount Bartle Frere. QLds highest mountain

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n the heavens opened, but only for 10 mins

cassowary’s are the legendary local birds that are revered and respected in these parts, we didn’t see one but apparently they’re quite something.

3rd largest bird in the world-an endangered species, only approx 1500 still around.

Guinness World Record Book puts them at the top of the list of birds dangerous to man. 😳😳

Sugarcane and Banana farms dominate the landscape, we saw plenty of that, there’s even a museum of sugar cane!!!!

Bags on Bananas to protect from Birds we assume, different colour bags for quality?

Arriving in Mission Beach, we had a very nice lunch and catch up with Pam and Bill Keen, their lovely daughter Jessica rented our apartment in Merthyr Vale and we met them when they visited the UK in 2010.

15 mins later we arrived safely at our beach front site at South Mission Beach

Had a very lazy afternoon and ate supper at the camp cafe – all good.

Thursday 14th Dec Little trip out for milk etc. also Filled the Big Beast with fuel, £50, pretty good as we’ve already travelled 450 kms. It’s only about 65p a ltr which helps.

Remainder of the day we spent reading, relaxing and re-checking the view.

Oh and we called James to wish him a Happy 6th Birthday, he said

‘ I just don’t get that the sun’s shining there and not here’ 😂

Fri 15 Dec Bye Bye Beach and fellow young camp mates from Devon, doing the trip the opposite way to us – ie South to North

Couldn’t leave without taking a walk along Kennedy boardwalk, what a superb outlook.

Some v nice houses too.

3 hour drive to Townsville today was fairly uneventful, lots more sugar cane, we saw our first ‘cane train’ that we’d seen so many signs about over the last 600kms.

Stopped for ‘brunch’ at the Frosty Mango. A tropical fruit farm that also had a cafe/gelateria.

When I posted on FB guess which flavour, nobody replied. BUT guess what, it was pineapple. Very delicious it was too.

Some army troopers also called in for an ice cream, they of course removed very dapper hats whilst inside, but I was glad one of them realised I’d like a pic and put his on outside.

Knowing that our Townsville Campsite wasn’t on the coast we went in via The Strand – Beautiful Beach area whose approach road was flanked with glorious frangipani trees.

Our lakeside overnight stop was by a lake, but a bit underwhelming, nonetheless. I was so engrossed in my book

The Muse by Jessie Burton, I didn’t really mind.

Just next door was a Mercure hotel so we went off piste and ate there, our waitress was from NZ and had just graduated as a vet at James Cook University, and was looking forward to going home to Auckland to start her career.

Later, we had a face time call from Josh, who was relieved to have taken the last of his mock GCSEs the day before and like all the children is now on holiday until the new year. Carly was working away in the background in her Christmas jumper

🎄🎄🎄

We were sweltering in mid 30’s at almost midnight. 🏖 just sayin’ 🏖

Saturday 16th Dec We drove out to visit Jessica & Paul and their gorgeous family at Kelso.

They’ve built a beautiful home on a hectare of land – loads of room for the 4 boys to play and grow up in.

The 2 eldest boys Ben and Thomas have taken to Australian life very well – having spent their early years in the U.K. Thomas said he’d like to see some snow, so I showed him some pics from last week.

Matthew and Christopher the little ones are super cute, keeping their Mum and Dad busy, but ably and willingly assisted by Ben & Tom

What a lovely family they are 👨‍👦‍👦👩‍👦‍👦

Next stop Airlie Beach – about 3-4 hours down the coast

Cape Lodge Yallingup to Albany 5 Dec

As we know we’re going to be travelling through a forest we filled up with fuel ( for only $ 45/£27 ) in Nannup a pretty little town where it seems every front garden has a Jacaranda tree, it’s beautiful. Those were the last attractive trees we saw for over 100 mls though as we drove through WAs Southern Forest from Manjimup to Walpole.

The trees were eucalyptus, with peeling barks, lots of other unknown Strange looking trees, many with black trunks, odd bunches of smaller trees with multiple clumps of growth in seemingly dead branches. When there was a slight break in the forest, after over 3 hours in the car we’d reached Walpole. Very odd little place but we did find an inlet there that looked pretty.

Denmark was a much prettier stop off town, not surprisingly its built up around the timber trade but also has several rather random outcrops of massive granite rocks?

We took the scenic route into Albany via Torbay, Within the West Cape Howe national park, home of Shelley beach which is rumoured to be the most beautiful in Australia.

Torbay happens to be the

southernmost tip of WA.

A peculiar coincidence as I used to live in Nerja, where back in 1885 King Alfonso XII named a promontory – and now iconic landmark of the town – The Balcony of Europe. Allegedly due to it being the southernmost tip of Europe.

Back to Albany, The CITY is much larger than I expected towns here in Oz often tend to be only one or two streets deep.

We had to drive right across town to Middleton Bay to find our hotel just yards from both the beach and the golf club, double yippee !!!!

Middleton beach is a huge stretch of soft sand from Emu Point to Port Albany with fab views out to the Southern Ocean

I walked along the beach to Emu Point, no Emu’s – what’s the point? 😜

< strong>Day 2<<<<
rly round of golf was where we encountered our first rude Aussie, shame he works in the pro shop, must be quite a miserable club. Next thing I saw was a sign warning of snakes on the course didn’t make us feel all that welcome.

Anyway we played on as the inaugural Antipodean golf tour needed a deciding match, For the WA leg.

The course was interesting with a few tricky holes, not least the 1st, called Whaleback,

a nod to the local history of Albany.

Also the 18th ‘the gun barrel’ again having historical connotations I’m sure.

Anyway today ended in a draw so all square as we head over the the east coast.

Plenty of historical sights to be seen in Albany, We started at the Anzac memorial site in Mount Clarence and Mount Adelaide .

Late in 1914, 40,000 Aus and MZ troops left Albany to help the British at Gallipoli. 1/3 of them never returned.

The Princess Royal Barracks has been authentically refurbished to house a great depiction of the story of events – great Poppy arches are still in situ<<<<<<<<<<<
ds fab views of the bay and Michaelmas Island and Breaksea Islands in the distance.

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ouple of tips, we drove around to the whaling station, a bit odd you may say, but what an interesting 90 mins

Since the killing of whales ceased here in the late 70’s, the whaling station has been cleaned up but is now a museum showing how it all worked back in the day.

Some say it was Greenpeace but our guide assured it was just not financially viable to continue, hence the demise of the barbaric activity which endangered the species, but the colonies have enlarged by significant numbers in the past 40 years so it’s all good.

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see –

The Gap and Natural Bridge are nothing short of phenominal!!!!

Fab natural rock formations over the sea far below, you can see the crashing waters below through the grid beneath your feet.

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Walpole we saw a ‘Scooby Doo’ van with a Couple older than us in it, we thought they were a bit old to be into S Doo but whatever floats your boat 😳

So, at the Gap we saw the van again, only when a young couple got in we realised you can probably hire them. My original

Thought still remains .

Several people told us to visit Albany’s wind farm, we weren’t sure why? We thought maybe it’s all new to them and they’re very excited about it. We’re quite keen on the renewable energy thing so we thought why not.

All very interesting and to see 18 en masse and up close was quite awe inspiring, and never having been outside in the vicinity of one before I was quite surprised at the noise the spinning blades create.

THEN I saw this and realised why people were so keen for us to come

There are still more things to see in Albany, but the weather here isn’t forecast to be brilliant whereas it’s supposed to be a scorcher in Perth so we plan to head off there first thing tomorrow.

Flight to Cairns is 22.40

Margaret River Area

Away from it ALL is where we arrived yesterday. 11kms from Dunsborough down Cape Naturaliste road with only 5 buildings that we’re aware of

• A school
• Eagle Bay Brewing Company
• Wise Wines
• Bunker Bay Beach House
• Our Hotel Complex

DAY 2 

Not a great experience in the restaurant here last night, hey ho !                                  We have a studio here so it’s a relief not to have to eat 3 meals a day OUT.               Gavin went to the shops (11k away) for provisions. Whilst I caught up on 2 necessities

• Laundry
• Sunbathing 😀

We’d been recommended a Winery or 2 by our dear friend Al so on his advice we’d booked ahead to have lunch at Leeuwin

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eat place and v nice lunch too.

The in house art gallery wasn't to our taste but we are both a bit sad that we'll miss their live concert in March, one of my favourites. Looking at the hall of Fame most of the big names in music have performed here. Sting, Diana Ross, James Taylor to name but a few, oh and of course our mate Dame Shirley

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euwin we popped into

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a look……… ahh go on then I'll try some of your fizz🥂🍾

Before heading back to our place we walked on our glorious beach

Day 3 Started much the sameas Day 2, but the tranquility was spoiled for me

We had a couple of uninvited guests on our breakfast terrace, who of course also climbed onto the table 🤮

The baby was the most tenacious/fearless, the parent scuttled off at the least noise but not so the young un 😩

Worst thing about this is that it doubles as my sunbathing terrace and now I’m terrified of going out there, Woossy I know but it’s one of my failings.

Never to be outdone I’ve found a new position, inside with the mesh screen between me and the critters 👍👏👍

So if I have a slightly chequered tan when we come home you know why 😜 Our plan was to have lunch at the local brewery but we were only able to have s quick drink as they were closing for a wedding. Shame, but we were able to see the florists creating the wedding arch, so not all bad

Instead we headed to the beach house for lunch, FAB view but disappointing food.

Gavin had an important date with the TV to watch rugby, so I spent an hour or two on our beautiful beach, people watching and paddling in the crystal clear Indian Ocean. Day 4 A loooooong overdue catch up for Gavin

Maureen and he went to the same primary and senior schools, but they haven’t seen each other since she emigrated here over 40 years ago.

We spent a great couple of hours picking up tips and things we mustn’t miss on our travels.

We played golf at Dunsborough Lakes in the afternoon, hardly saw a soul. Except another Kangaroo family, I guess they’ve discovered golf courses are quite fertile as there’s always plenty of water?

One of Maureen’s recommendations was Wise winery, so we popped in on our way home. We had an impromptu tasting then sat outside to admire the view The joys of not having to eat out, we decided to try and stick to our daily budget (For the first time since we left home) and I have to say it beat many meals eaten locally.

Day 5
Rainy
ut having seen a few days of glorious sun I’m cool about the odd shower now.

Inspite of the rain our next hotel didn’t disappoint A beautiful lakeside setting with the pool to the left in the trees

Another winery recommendation Vasse Felix beckoned. It’s the regions founding wine estate, since 1967.

We very much liked what we tasted so picked up enough bottles to take us through to the plane trip on Thursday 🍷🛍.

Oh, and we also spotted ‘technically’ our 4th kangaroo sighting We’ve been amazed at the volume of wineries down here, even more concentrated than wine areas of France and South Africa that we’ve been to.

Apparently there are around 200 wine estates in the region, of various sizes and sophistications. Some with fine dining restaurants others just with Cellar Doors where you can buy direct.

Our hotel is actually a winery but only produces 3000 bottles a year of 2 varieties, A Shiraz and a Sauvignon Blanc and all is consumed by their guests.

After a walk around the 40 acre estate where we could have enjoyed complimentary afternoon tea, we decided to skip that in favour of the early dinner that we’d booked.

The food, the ambience and the staff here are all delightful. Definitely recommend it if you’re ever in the area.

Day 6

On our way to Albany later today, with the sun out to guide us on ourjourney

Kangaroo in flight

Sorry not sure why this pic didn’t upload before x

We have an Aussie Tel No.

Just to let you know we are connected. Anybody in Australia who’d like to call us our number is

0426236407

Anyone in the U.K/elsewhere if you call us you’ll be charged so don’t do that.

Also despite previous advice from Vodafone UK, any calls or texts we receive on our UK numbers ARE chargeable to us, so please don’t call.

By all means FaceTime or what’s app call on our UK numbers and if we’re on WIFI and awake, we’ll pick up.

Remember we are 8 hours ahead of you

Lots of Love ❤️❤️❤️

Perth WA

Perth Day 1

Spoiled by Emirates service, but personally I was underwhelmed with Qantas, Gavin told me to stop acting like a spoilt child 😳

Arrived in the City of Perth by 6.30 am so we went on a drive out to the coast at Rockingham, great beach area, saw a pelican and some very friendly people

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for business by the time we arrived, and whilst we visited the Little Creatures Brewery it was too early for a tour 😜

Kailis seafood place in the bay was superb.

The town is full of quaint old English styled buildings but the water dominates here.

Back in Perth later in the afternoon, the bus tour beckoned. Leaves a lot to be desired I’m afraid, it’s the only OTBT that’s taken us on a motorway, shows how little there is to be seen.

HOWEVER, we did spot our first kangaroos, on closer inspection they were actually bronze statues, but it was a start.

The rest of the tour mainly concentrated on traditional buildings, apparently mostly built by convicts.

Of course it also encompasses a trip through Kings Park which is the largest public park in the world apparently, has a great botanical garden and super views of the city.

We also learned on the bus tour that Western Australia is not only Australia’s largest state, it covers 1/3rd of the country and is larger than the UK and Europe combined!!!

We also witnessed the Fremantle Doctor, a wind that blows around the city everyday between Midday – Three.

Really chilly on the top of the bus

day 2

This morning, Feeling golf withdrawal symptoms we googled some golf courses, we happen to think that we won the lottery with the one we chose.

Joondalup was superb, 27 holes over 3 separate 9 hole courses we played The Dunes & The Creek, the 3rd is the Lakes.

The condition of both courses was better than we can ever remember playing anywhere in the world.

They were stunning, with the added bonus that a family of Kangaroos roamed freely alongside the fairways !!!!

So we got our first sight of REAL Kangaroos, the pic of the mother in full leap slightly obscured the fact that she had s little Joey in her pouch, even to a non animal lover like me, it was very special.

Another non golfing feature of the day we’re the amazing trees, beautiful lilac/blue jacarandas, yellow bottle brush as opposed to red and my absolute favourite were the ‘Black Boys’

In the pics below you’ll spot them with and without ‘spears’, sometimes the black trunks are visible but mostly covered in lots of ‘hair’ which are the softest fronds of green that float in the air. Some of them have been shaped into various ‘hairstyles’ and depending on your imagination all kinds of images come to mind.

u From the golf we drove the Sunset Coast Tourist Drive back towards Perth.

One of the first places we saw was Mullalo where Marc spent his honeymoon 7 years ago. It’s a Beautiful beach resort where the Kite surfers we’re having a ball.

From there we passed the very English sounding towns of Scarborough and Cambridge amongst others.

Day 3

It’s very sunny this morning so we’re cruising from the City to Fremantle for 75 mins

Passing by the most expensive house in Perth, with the orange roof tiles. In 2009 it sold for approx £30m

Lots of other beautiful houses and harbours enroute.

Approaching Fremantle, WAs largest cargo port we saw a typical vessel, with its 1300 containers aboard, I find it incredible how they float

The train ride home was brilliant at the princely sum of £1.08 each !!!

Perth to the Margaret River

Of the 160 mile journey there was 100 miles of JUST NOTHING !!!arrid scrubland and dead trees flanked both sides of the road. When we reached Bunbury there was a bit of civilisation around the road junctions for a few miles followed by a further 50 miles of not very much!!!!

We Turned towards the coast at Busselton, rewarded with occasionally glimpses of the see yipeee .

Then a row of religious campsites of every denomination, the mind boggles with all those bible bashers in such close proximity, I’ll bet there’s a few converts during their vacations .😜

We’ve Arrived at our home for the next 5 Days

Hoorah 👏👍👏

4 Days in Singapore

Wow !!!!!!

As soon as we left the airport I knew I was going to love it here, flowers and gorgeous trees everywhere you look

Day 1

When we arrived at our Hotel, OMG. Just beautiful, right in the heart of the city. Nestled between the water of Marina Bay and the Singapore River. Rubbing shoulders elegantly against the glass and chrome of the CBD ( central Business District)

Our room – fab u lous – dahling. Imagine my surprise when this happened …………..

Later that night they launched the Christmas decorations in the very grand foyer

Having ooohed and aaaahed at our surroundings, we decided to take a walk around the Bay.

Half a mile round we stopped for a drink.Just the one each, £40 lighter we said Sh*t this is gonna be a costly stop. later that night we’d already found out that 2 drinks don’t have to cost you that much, and good food can be really reasonable. We discovered Lau pa Sat, street food at its finest.

Day 2

Those who know us will appreciate that it’s never long before we take the open top bus tour. Half way round we’d already spotted 2/3 places of interest to come back to, but I couldn’t wait to see the legendary Botanical Gardens. Amongst fabulous flora and fauna the house the largest orchid collection in the world, over 60,000 species A MAZ ING

Singapore must also boast the largest number of shopping malls per sq kilometre, Orchard Rd was a classic example of this, every few yards the commentary noted another, mostly selling top end designer brands. Needless to say Gavin was keen to stay on the bus until we were safely past the end of that road !!!!!!

Lunch beckoned at a great location spotted from the bus, Clarke’s Quay. Back in the day this and other stretches of the river were where the vibrant trading took place. The boat houses and wharfs are now bars, restaurants or waterfront apartments but they still look brightly coloured. After lunch we took a riverboat trip back to our hotel

If you visit Singapore you’ll soon appreciate that Marina Bay Sands dominates the skyline from a long way into the city, the Iconic 3 towers with what looks like a boat sat across the top

The ‘boat’ houses several things including the worlds highest infinity pool. Also a very nice restaurant Ce La Vi where we were guests of Okkie and Sandy, who live here and who also happen to be the other grandparents of Theo and Noah, 2 of our grandsons. By the end of the evening, back in the rooftop bar we were treated to a magnificent light show in the bay. See how the buildings and the area come alive at night

From the top of MBS, looking out over towards the night golf course (no we didn’t play it) we were treated to a magnificent night view of the Gardens by the Bay, we had a daylight visit on our last day – see day 4

Day 3

Time to revisit sights spotted from the bus.

The parliament building, Cricket Club, Cathedral and the currently being refurbished but Iconic Raffles Hotel, though the Hotel is closed the bar is still open, luckily you can still order a Singapore Sling which I’ve discovered is really rather nice !!!

Sandy very kindly offered to collect us and show us the sights of Sentosa where they live.

We visited the beach for lunch and saw some of the fabulous activities on the Island that keep Theo and Noah busy there on their month king holidays each summer. After lunch we saw the golf club, the Marina with the super yachts as well as some of the homes belonging to the great and the good of the locality and very nearby Indonesia and Malaysia.

Okkie had mentioned the night before how he hardly watches TV , small wonder when you see the view from their place

2 islands in the foreground are Singaporean but the one between them and in the distance is Indonesia, so close.

The colourful scene of Clarke’s Quay beckoned us back for the evening to sample some recommended local fayre

The majestic Fullerton beckons beyond the Cavanagh suspension bridge

Day 4

Our hotel forms part of the Fullerton Heritage precinct.

With 5 historic buildings in the vicinity. All nestling nicely into the glass and chrome on the CBD – Central Business District.

http://www.thefullertonheritage.com/

We learned lots of interesting stuff on a guided tour.

Principally the current building replaced the old post office and a government building. To celebrate 100 years of rule the British commissioned the new building in 1919 but as the depression hit in the 20’s the start was delayed by 5 years until prosperity returned. However, the Architect being a Scotsman and mindful of the recent hard times, managed to bring the project in well under the £6m budget, spending only £4.75m which was still a huge amount in the late 20’s.

The Post Office and various Gov depts took up tenancies.

It was converted to a hotel in 2001.

Having seen the gardens by the bay from 56 floors up by night we wanted to see them at ground level in the daylight, they didn’t disappoint!!!

There was a bit of a wait for a taxi so the concierge asked the hotels chauffeur to drop us there, super ride as he regaled us with his European travels, not least Andalucian adventure 2 years ago, what a small world.

So the gardens are a magnificent area of indigenous and relatively local trees, shrubs etc. Water areas, children’s activities and loads more.

As well as all this 2 enormous domes, the Flower dome, the largest conservatory in the world!!! contains beautiful plants from around the world in temperatures suited to their natural climate. Woven through this is a seasonal display that changes throughout the year, of course right now it’s a Christmas theme.

The Cloud dome houses a tropical rain forest with rare plants, also a HUGE waterfall.

The domes resembled the Eden project.

Back outside their are several groups of super trees, electronic trees that created the earlier picture but by day they have living plants growing all the way up the 60ft trunks

Farewell Singapore

Hope to see you again someday

We’re now in the Quantas lounge soon to board the Perth flight, ready for our next adventure.

Australasia, a continent that neither of us has visited-we’re prepared to be impressed 😜

Prelude to 4 days in Singapore

A few people have been wondering why we’ve posted nothing from Singapore yet, reason being I don’t want you all to get fed up with updates from us pinging into your inbox, so our plan is to tell your the story of each area as we go.

We leave this gorgeous place tomorrow night so whilst waiting for our flights to Perth I’ll swamp you with Singaporean stories and pics.

Meanwhile here’s a couple of snippets.

The old architecture sits well with the new all across the city

The largest collection of Orchids in the World

Raffles is closed for a major refurb but the bar is open and you can still get a Singapore Sling, which I seemed to have developed quite a taste for 😜

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hristmas is Coming<<<<<