Our Baltic Cruise - 2017 - A trip down Memory Lane

Baltic Cruise 2017

It is now just over 12 months since we did our  "once in a lifetime" Baltic cruise and I thought some of my photos were worth another look to remind me of the wonderful holiday.  Although I often think about our cruise to the other side of the world, it is great to look back on  the photos.

We're on our way to Copenhagen from Adelaide

We arrived in Copenhagen and had one full day for sightseeing so we caught the Hop On Hop Off bus and spent most of the day enjoying the sights before embarking on the Regal Princess.

Just near our Hotel was this very colourful Theatre

We did a canal cruise in Copenhagen

Canal Cruise - Copenhagen

Copenhagen- blue sky and sunshine - perfect

Copenhagen

Royal Palace, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen

On board the Regal Princess

On board the Regal Princess

Our favourite entertainment while having a drink in the afternoon or evening

Time to unpack and get ready to sail away from Copenhagen

On the balcony

Sailing away

Ron checking out the Sea Walk

One of the Bars

The Sea Walk takes a bit of getting used to!

The swimming pool deck

The Regal Princess in Oslo, Norway - our first port

Oslo, Norway - Akershus Fortress

View from the Hop ON Hop Off Bus

Oslo

The famous Fram Museum,  Oslo

We had a long walk to the Fram Museum, should have stayed on the bus!

Inside the Museum, craftsmen were working on an exhibition

Outside the Fram

Our 2nd port - Warnemunde

Warnemunde

Warnemunde

Warnemunde

Warnemunde

Sunbathing in Warnemunde

Warnemunde

Lighthouse at Warnemunde

The tourist train in Warnemunde

We did some people watching

And some more - very cute little wagon

The Princess Regal was only a short walk from the town

Panoramic view

Warnemunde, Germany

Warnemunde, Germany at sunset as we sail away

Flinders Ranges 2018 - Winter Trip - Sunny days, cold nights

We headed to Marree from Farina, about 60 km most of it on dirt but about 10 km of bitumen, so we were happy not to be towing the van.  Marree is about 685 km north of Adelaide and has a population of approximately 150, so it is a small town even by Australian standards, and has very high temperatures between October and April, and even in June we had mid 20C temperatures during the day but 1C overnight..... brrr.

The Marree Hotel

We had a really good meal at the Marree pub and then looked around the Tom Kruse Museum which is in part of the hotel.  It was a good display in  a couple of rooms in the hotel and a video of the story of his life, and although we had read a great deal about this amazing man, there was more here to see and read and no entrance fee either, but a meal and a drink at the bar seemed a reasonable entrance fee.

The view from the railway station

The legendary truck of Tom Kruse

Ron getting water for our caravan

View from the middle of the railway platform

The Bar and one of the dining areas of the Marree Pub

The Marree Railway Station

The Lake Eyre Yacht Club

Lake Eyre is the lowest lake in Australia and is 15m below sea level and as it is in the desert it rarely fills, but as you can see there is a Yacht Club!!

Beautiful scenery on road to Hawker

We left Farina and headed south to Hawker

Southern Flinders Ranges

Willow Waters Gorge

Trying to keep warm by the camp fire

Frosty morning

The beautiful gorge and creek

After leaving Marree we drove back to Farina for another night and then headed off to Hawker where we had booked 3 nights on a Farmstay at Willlow Waters.  As both Farina and Willow Waters have no water we had to refill our tanks at Hawker and also fuelled the Toyota.

We had a great stay in both Farina and Willow Waters but the nights were very cold and we were ready to go home to a warm house and a few more home comforts.

We will plan another trip away in the warmer weather as I am not keen on the very cold weather and can't seem to get warm in the caravan even though we have an Eco Therm heater, it is still too chilly for me.

Flinders Ranges - 2018 Winter trip

1. We have been hibernating for a while now, but decided to head off to the Flinders Ranges for a short break.  We found some sunshine once we got to Farina and stayed there a couple of days to enjoy the warmth although the nights were very cold.  We discovered we had lost most of the water in our tank, while travelling on the dirt road to Farina, so made a day trip up to Marree to get some water.

One of the neighbours popped in for a drink

Our campsite and campfire

These galahs were finding some food

We were surprised to see a buzzard come down to drink from the leaking water pipe.  At first I thought it was an eagle but then checked my "bird book" and think it is a buzzard.  I have never seen a buzzard before so it was interesting to watch it, and it came in the next day with a mate but I didn't get a chance to photograph them together as they seemed very nervous.

Close up of the buzzard, looks a bit like a large chook!

Fly in....

Fly out

A great sunset

The Australian War Memorial at Farina

Ron standing by the old railway bridge

Some of the ruins at Farina

 The volunteers at Farina have done a great job of collecting artefacts and maintaining the old buildings, some are being restored and the underground bakery is now functioning for a few months during winter, and we enjoyed the goodies they produced.  Sitting by the campfire eating a freshly baked pie is the best way to eat a pie!

Another neighbour popped in, they do look a bit awkward sitting down to drink

Time for a drink

Tomorrow we will head off to Marree to have a look around this outback town.  See you there!

Winter 2016 .... not on the road - we're at home!

We have been home this winter trying to do some gardening and other jobs around the house, but the weather has been particularly wet and very cold so we haven't achieved as much as we hoped. 

We were planning on painting the main living rooms and kitchen, hallway and passage but realised after Ron spent a day doing the prep work that his back wasn't going to last the distance so after a lot of checking and quotes we have finally decided to get a painter in and he will start next week.  All we have to do is clear the cabinets of my bits and pieces (actually they are my mother's which I inherited, but I think it is time to do some culling!).  It's difficult to let go of things but it has to be done and I am ready to do it now.   I am giving a lot away to our local Op Shop, I have a few things that I might try and sell and a few things will go to the local Museum.

We had a storm here last week. Here are  few photos of  the damage in  our suburb when the storm hit.  A tree came down in our street and we had no power for about 14 hrs and if that wasn't bad enough it was reported that it was the coldest day for many years....luckily we had the generator so that did help but it was still a very long, cold day.  I know now that I could not live without heating.

The branch on the right came down and took the power lines out, it wasn't a huge branch but big enough to cause some trouble, luckily no damage done to the houses nearby.  The Emergency Services had already cut the biggest branches and move them off the road.  The locals all got some firewood for next winter.

There were a lot of branches fallen in our area

This one was a bit worse



I have been out in the garden on the days that were not pouring down with rain and decided to take some photos and found another Macro setting on my camera so had to take a few photos. I'm  pretty happy with them so will try and use the setting a bit more.

There's not much in flower but I did manage to find a little violet underneath foliage.

I love the close up of the fern fronds

We regularly drive to Mannum and have noticed this sign - Codger's Lane - so I decided to take a photo - don't know if its the name of a local or just an Old Codger!

I hope you enjoy my Winter in Adelaide, it's not too bad really, and we often get nice sunny days in between the wet and cold ones.