Australian rest and recreation.

 

20 September 2016
We are having a great rejuvenation period in Australia. We actually live in Brisbane but we have a property in Eungella, in north Queensland, 12 hour's drive from Brisbane. Our son lives in the Brisbane house, and our daughter lives in Mackay and goes to our Eungella property on the weekends. So we are torn between the two places!

Right now we are in Brisbane. Here we live in the rural outskirts of the city, on acreage. We always notice when we come back to Australia that there are SO many birds and animals here. Europe is a desert in comparison.

 

 

 

Our Eungella property has even more wildlife. It is in rainforest and is surrounded on three sides by national park. I really enjoy birdwatching here. 


     

 

 

30 September 2016

We have a visitor from Europe! Joe’s young cousin “Mira" is from Czech Republic anmd has come here to study and work. His arrival was very timely as we were about to leave for a boat trip with my brother and his family. 

We are near Gladstone at a place called yellow patch, because of the colour of the sand. 

 

 

We have been steadily completing all of our list of things to be done before we go back to Europe. And we have been catching up with our family. That is most important!

 

Don’t forget to check the facebook page. I will try to put a video up there showing the boat and aerial views of our anchorage. Waltzing Matilda - our Earthcruiser Journey around the world

Northwards to Milan, including San Marino

After leaving the Amalfie we needed to move quite quickly to Milan, so we used highways (which is not usual for us, we prefer the byways and minor roads). But we couldn't resist going off the highways from time to time....

This is the area known as "Italy's little Tibet" and us an unexpectedly flat area in the mountains in central Italy. 

These white sheep dogs (possibly Marimos?) which roam with flocks of sheep, and are very common on the roads, often chasing cars. It was unusual to see so many together, obviously neglecting their sheep to chase cars. This area has wolves so the dogs have a very important role. 

3June 2016

And then there is San Marino. This is an independent country completely surrounded by Italy. It is perched on the top of a mountain with great views and is quite a tourist attraction. We camped in San Mrino's only camp ground and took a bus up to the top of the mountain to the old city. This the castle right at the top. 

Archery is a traditional sport here -for protection from invading Italians in the past?

The campground is only 2km from the top of San Marino. A taxi flag fall is €15, and the fare to the campground is €25! We felt that was a tourist rip-off and got out of taxi! The instructions for getting the bus back to the campground, given by the campground were most inadequate resulting in missed busses. We know one couple who walked back rather than take the rip-off taxi. We managed to find the correct bus at the last minute and got back OK. So make sure you gave good instructions about the return bus before you leave the campground! 

Nevertheless we did enjoy this quaint little country. 

12June 2016

We managed to have our vehicle safety checked in Milan. We have left Matilda with our friends at Axel Camper in Milano. Manuel us going to fix a list of little things which go wrong with any camper -like leaking taps.... We are confident she will be well cared for until we return early next year. 

So that is the last blog for now.

 Subscribe to the blog and like the Facebook page (Waltzing Matilda -our Earthcruiser Journey around the World) to be notified when we start up again in the new year. The current plan is to visit Spain, Portugal, Morrocco and the UK next year, and to move Matilde to the U.S. at the end of that time. But that is only a plan..... And you know what happens to those! 😅

Amalfi Coast!

30 May 2016

We are now on the last section of our Italy trip. We are returning to Milano where we will leave Matilda while we return home. We are moving fairly quickly now, but we cannot miss the renowned Amalfi Coast. 

However Joe has been spooked a little by his reading of other travellers to this Coast. He wants to travel northwards because he is concerned about how steep and narrow these roads are! He wants to be on the inland side of the drop-off! This may have been a mistake, for, as you will see from the videos on the Facebook page, most of the traffic (busses) goes from north to South so has to be met (passed) if we are going northwards. In addition the views are best seen from close to the sea - and the stopping places are designed for vehicles travelling southwards. So our recommendation is to do the Coast from North to South (west to east). 

This Coast however is quite spectacular and quite do-able even for a vehicle like ours. 

I'll let the pictures talk -but I have so many beautiful photos I don't know how to choose....

There are ceramic art places all along this Coast. This table-top is glazed onto granite! It is quite beautiful and indestructible. I'd love to have one at home. 

Many of the cliff side hotels have small entrances like this on street level, with a lift down to the hotel itself. 

And check out the bloke in the back -giving us the thumbs-up! We get a lot of this as we go along -people like Matilda! 

More of Northern Sicily

25 May 2016

Palermo has a striking backdrop.

This is bulk olive oil. These are 200L drums, and the picture shows only a small part of the drums stored. This is big, big business here. 

Another huge industry is farming prickly pear! Yes prickly pear! Now my Italian friends may not think much of this but the Australians  (particularly the Queenslanders) will be horrified. 

These are prickly pear farms, seen over a wide area of Sicily, and also elsewhere in Italy. What do they market them for? I don't know! The fruit? For jam? The whole plant is actually edible. You can fry the "leaves" if you shave off the prickles. and slice them. We didn't see them in shops. and I haven't tried the leaves. The jam is good though! 

26 May 2016

We drove today towards Messina where we will cross by ferry to Calabria, on the Italian mainland. 

During the journey we saw Mt Etna once again, this time sitting quietly. She seems like an old friend now, seen through the haze which plagues Italy, and much of Europe. 

We can also see the Aeolian Islands of the North Coast, also through the haze, but rather pretty. 

Stromboli, one of the Aeolian Islands is also an active volcano. Between this and Etna there is often a smoke haze over northern Sicily. Some say it is the volcanos, some say Saharan dust. Others say it is simple pollution, aggravated by the volcanoes. Since it is all over Europe I think the latter explanation might be close to the truth. 

We stopped for a lunch break. This was our view! Notice the sailing boat. Cafe Matilda popped up again and we had bruschetta for lunch.

We reached Missina and caught the ferry at about 4pm. We arrived in Calabria at about 4.20 pm, after a very efficient and smooth passage. 

This is our track in Sicily,1331.4 km. and we enjoyed it all!