50 days of non-stop travel around the world,… and then some.
Whew, it’s good to be back home, after fifty consecutive days of travel spanning the globe. We departed our flat in London on 15 October and, other than a brief visit to the flat for two nights of laundry and repacking, we’ve been on the road ever since.
A three-day driving tour of Australia’s southwest corner.
After two days in Perth and Rottnest Island, we hired a car and headed south for a quick, three-day triangular route along the western coast, through the forests of the southern coast, and back across the inland plains and their vast pastures and fields of grain. In this blog post, I’ll write an even quicker summary of our tour of this beautiful corner of Australia. Read on!
A quick two-day visit to Perth, in Western Australia, including a day-long exploration of Rottnest Island offshore.
Pam and I had a chance to spend two days in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. I’d been meaning to visit here for more than 25 years, to visit one of my longtime collaborators at the university here. So, after a full day of travel from London, we set out to explore.
Almost a year away from home.
We’re home! After just 24 days less than a year away from home, we’re back. According to the airline, we flew 29,000 miles, from Boston to Paris to Bangalore to Sydney to Auckland to Fiji to Charleston to Boston, not to mention all the layovers in between.
It’s nice to be back, although a little strange. The house is pretty much the same, though I now see it through different eyes. It seems huge, and we seem to have so much stuff. The cat recognizes us, and seems to he happy that we’re back. We’re buried in boxes, having shipped home almost two dozen bags and boxes as well as the 10 checked and 6 carry-on bags we brought with us (and which, believe it or not, I managed to fit into my Prius along with all five of us, to get home from the bus stop.)
I’m not sure I’ll be adding much to this blog for a while. I think it will be nice to not be traveling. If I find some time, I might dig through some of the videotape I shot while in India; although I focused most on still photos, some of the videos might be fun.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2021, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
A dozen favorite photos from each place.
For those readers – if I have any – who may have been overwhelmed by all the albums I’ve been posting in recent weeks (I know I have!), this blog entry is for you.
I selected a dozen favorite photos each from Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, for your viewing pleasure. Well, actually, New Zealand’s “dozen” has 15 photos, because I could not bear to part with any of them.
The index page also provides links to the start of each country’s visit.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2021, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
The Great Ocean Road along the South Ocean coast west of Melbourne.
From Kangaroo Island and South Australia we headed east along the coast. After an overnight in Portland, we hugged the coastline along the Great Ocean Road [map location]. This 243km road hugs the rugged limestone coastline of South Australia and Victoria, connecting the seashore villages along the Southern Ocean coast west of Melbourne. Read on!
We drove through parts of South Australia from Adelaide down to Kangaroo Island, then eastward to Victoria and the Great Ocean Road.
We drove the Fleurileu Peninsula from Adelaide down to Cape Jarvis for the ferry to Kangaroo Island, and then after returning from the ferry back up the peninsula and around the jagged coastline toward the state of Victoria. The rolling hills of this part of South Australia are all farmland, mostly sheep and cattle but as you go east there is one vineyard after another. We stopped at the oldest vineyard, Bleasdale, for some samples and soon came away with several bottles of their excellent Malbec.
I could not begin to capture the grandeur of such a big landscape, but I put a few photos in an album.
This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2021, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.
We spent two days but should have spent a week!
Kangaroo Island is a large island off the coast of South Australia, roughly south of Adelaide [location]. It has small villages – perhaps 4,500 year-round residents farming, working in the national parks, or in the tourist industry – and a lot of wildlife. We saw kangaroos, fur seals, sea lions, koalas, birds, and a lot of beautiful bushland. Read on and check out the photos!
We spent a lot of time with the animals in Adelaide.
Qantas Airlines took us across the corner of the continent from Sydney to Adelaide, a pretty city in the center of the southern coast [location]. It is winter now, of course, and so the weather is cool and rainy. The upside is that everything is green and lovely; otherwise, they’ve had a drought for several years and everything was brown. For the most part, the rain hasn’t dampened our activities. Read on, and see the photos.
Arrival in Sydney.
Well, mate, welcome to Australia. I’m really loving this apartment we rented, with its great views of the harbor (below). Read on!
David Kotz 