And so our next adventure begins ..... !

It is the eve of our departure on our Grand Asian Caravan and I again I am scrabbling to get my Blog travel-ready. I’m not sure how it happens every trip, but there’s a good reason: all our travel/packing preparartions get priority and I leave until last my most favourite thing – talking to you. At least all the permits and travel applications are done and all the perishables are consumed or tossed and any non-cooked meats gone (eaten or cooked) from the freezer.  So it is just me and you for the next 10 weeks!  It is going to be an awesome adventure.

The Grand Asian Caravan 61 day route (the arrow points to just one of many exciting destinations)

After a long and unplanned/unwanted hiatus, we are about to depart on this wonderful odyssey with Sundowners Overland - this will be our third overland journey with this terrific travel company which first took us to Siberian Russia 9 years ago. This time we will travel from Singapore to London - traversing nearly half of the globe from Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula to central London - almost the entire way traveling by train. It will be an exciting and unique journey through 16 countries (including Tibet a 60-year-old bucket list place for me), a journey of over 22,000 km.

This year, 2025, will be a memorable year! Starting with a rather spectacular fall (after the fashion of a double swan dive! and 5 plus months recovery) we have picked ourselves up to tackle this epic Eurasian odyssey. We will wrap up the year by spending Christmas and New Year in one of our favourite places, Antarctica, following in the footsteps of Sir Douglas Mawson - at least some of his footsteps, as well as sailing to the Magnetic South Pole the discovery of which was one of his amazing achievements.

As someone wise (anon I think) said … “Sometimes the extent of a journey isn’t measured by distance, but by the new thoughts and feelings it generates. “  Come with me to explore exotic, ancient places and cultures.  I will post on this blog when we return because I am not travelling my laptop but you can follow our journey on Facebook if you are so inclined. Check in here: http://facebook.com/heather.wheat.925

Bon voyage and a bientot! 

Sydney condensed

After 6 months with little or no exercise, we made up for it here - and felt it! We rode the buses trains and light rail and ferries named for famous Australian authors such as Ruth Parks and Ethel Turner. Of course we had the mandatory fish and chips at Doyle’s on the Wharf, visited the beautiful Chinese Friendship Gardens as well as Chinatown and Paddy’s market. Looked for old specimens at the Australian Museum (and decided Melbourne’s Museum is better shhh). Fought through torrential rain to eat a celebratory dinner at an old favourite - Malabar where they gave us a card and a special traditional dessert to guarantee a prosperous year ahead. Lovely people.

The gorgeous Alamein Fountain at the top of The Cross 

Eating in wee hope-in-the-wall cafes in the back streets

The tranquil Chinese Friendship Gardens at Darling Harbour

McElone Park - one of our favourite parks just down the rock wall from our place.

The Piccolo Bar - a favourite for us over the last 20 years

Vittorio Bianchi ran the Piccolo Bar - “to live in the Cross meant that you knew Vito..." 

Sad farewells on our last morning before heading for the train.

I have many stories and pix from this trip which I hope to share with you one day but right now another train awaits. More anon ....

A trip back in time ....

The train trip had a little unexpected drama halfway when high winds brought down a huge tree over the lines and we were held up for about an hour while the poor train staff had to saw and carry branches off the lines but fortunately, we managed to get going again.

It was a big tree and the train rolled over a fair bit of the tree before it could stop 

The guys worked hard to free the train

.... with inadequate tools, poor things

Unfortunately we arrived very late but not too late to crack a bottle of bubble and gav=ze out at the spectacular view of lights spilling over water.  Happily, this visit, we were able to book our same old shoebox in Potts Point overlooking the magnificent middle and outer Sydney Harbour. It’s a magic view (even with the crane nearby!) 

Magnificent view!

We woke to the most glorious sunrise and the same $million views that we fell in love with 20 years ago when we bought this little gem. We’re here only for a short visit to celebrate 40 years together and to revisit places tinged with romance and not a little nostalgia: memories of stolen weekends in Sydney half a lifetime ago. I reckoned back then that I could live here even it had to be in a shoebox. Twenty years later we fell in love with Sydney all over again when I spent a sabbatical up here and we decided we just had to buy a ‘shoebox’ (and travel up from Melbourne as often as we could!). We reluctantly sold this wee place 8-9 years ago so we could go travelling more widely - and didn’t we just do that with great gusto!

The advertising for our place in Potts Point when it went on the market in 2016

Back in the saddle and on the road

Over the first 4-5 months of this year, I discovered that movement is a gift not to be taken for granted. Simply going for a walk was a bit of a luxury as I got back on my feet and tackled the slow process of regaining strength. Both of us faced this as Lindsay had been diagnosed with arthritis in both hips and we were feeling a little nervous about our 61-day train trip coming up in mid-August.  But our doctor assured us we’d be fine (providing we packed lots of pain killers!) and resassured me that my pelvic fractures would be strong enough to tackle bumpy train rides. We took a few long drives in the country to test out our injured parts and slowly slowly we managed to  handle more. And as I was reminded by an inspirational person, I did look back and smile at how far I had come!

With our 40th anniversary approaching mid-year we decided to take a train trip to Sydney and back – a dress rehearsal for our ‘Grand Asian Caravan’ odyssey (by train not camel!) a little later in the year. It would help us get our ‘train legs’ and balance back in action - not to mention that we like seeing the land pass beside us and enjoy experiencing the sense of distance that land travel affords. And we were practicing travelling light!  It was to be a bit of a dry run. 

Still restricted but not idle

Four weeks into my enforced ‘immobility’ and you’ll be pleased to know that I’m still here - like where am I going to go?! I’m doing OK. Not allowed to go dancing yet but my head is OK (when the drugs don’t spin me out, man oh man there are some nasty ones!). I have not been idle in spite of the dam restrictions.  I’m managing to take the edge of my impatience as between us, Lindsay - my partner in ALL things including falling! - and I are slowly editing travel blogs from the last 9 years adventures so we can have them printed for posterity. I think my foreword might be “keep travelling it’s too dangerous being at home”.  I’m just doing South America  2023. We’ve finished Chile and Bolivia and they are at the printers and are just staruing to tackle Peru and the Amazon. 

Pushing through reeds on the Amazon's back waters - from the comfort of my bed! 

It has been wonderful wandering down memory lane as we’ve edited my travel blogs together. Lindsay is now buried in an amazing 6 week caravan trip which took us from the very northwestern corner of NSW to the most southeastern point in Victoria back in the summer of 2019. While he was doing that, I revisited our travels to some of the Mediterranean islands in 2023. It a lot of fun reliving those adventures. 

Our 2023 travels produced 5 volumes - from the Antarctic to the Arctic via other exotic places

 

Getting there slowly slowly ....

After 2 weeks, much of which was a bit blurry thanks to heavy duty pain meds, I made it outside for a breath of fresh air. It was absolutely wonderful after being confined indoors.  I paid for my ‘jaunt’ a little later but it was worth it. Our Lemon Myrtle and Lemon Verbena are flowering - so pretty. And there are loads of flowers so the bees were everywhere as busy as … as the proverbial! I found one poor thing ‘swimming’ in the bird bath. I put my finger under him and he clung to me. I put him gently in the garden where he dried off with much fluttering of wings and flew away. We also visited the naughty corner where Lindsay failed Douglas Adams Flying 101. To quote the man himself: “There is an art, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss … “ Clearly, it is this second part, the missing the ground, which presents the difficulties. This we discovered as we crashed landed over 2 weeks ago. Needless to say I’m not encouraging either of us to practice the knack of flying again!

The naughty corner which was our undoing on 4th January

Glorious Lemon Myrtle

Our passionfruit vine has been making up for its role in our downfall!

The figs although not prolific are luscious

Lindsay is being a  very attentive nurse. I spend the mornings in bed – with breakfast! And get up and sit in my recliner as much as I can manage in the afternoon.

A glass of milk and home-grown passion fruit - a delicious breakfast entree

Welcome to 2025!

Welcome to 2025!  And where are we?  At home. This time last year we were in Antarctica and we were booked to go to India in February but there will be no travel for was us for a while. Why? In our usual one-in all-in style we took a nasty tumble together on the front terrace and are hurting fairly badly - my pelvis was fractured in a couple of places and both had lots of bad bruising and body trauma.  We ended up in adjoining cubicles in the trauma unit. As I said we do things together but injury and hospital together is going a bit too far. Ssacre blue!!! Blame it on the Christmas lights and the passionfruit vine which was reluctant to relinquish its bright festive baubles. Sadly India will just have to wait for a while.

This contraption will be my body extension for the next 4-6 weeks