Esperance and Cap le Grand National Park

We have reached our most easterly point...and have been in Esperance for a few days now. It's a very popular seaside resort for western Australians.

We tried to get on the bush camping at lucky beach but it was packed out every night so we ended up in a campsite in town which is ok. The weather has taken a turn for the cooler now only in early 20s and sometimes it rains but the beaches are beautiful and the coastal views are amazing. We explored different rocks on various promontaries on the headland and went to look at the Pink Lake... which sadly is no longer pink due to pollution and suchlike...

Esperance was just another little seaside town, nothing exciting but pleasant enough... It is the gateway to the Cap Le Grand National Park (which is where we had hoped to camp but was full) so we packed the van up and headed to the Frenchmans Peak hoping that the cloudy weather was good for mountain climbing.

Dr Fred went straight up the sides - I took the tourist path and to be honest I found the later scrambling quite hard going in places and having got halfway and watched some rather inept younger males struggle at the next slope I decided that was my lot.

The views were stunning even from half way....the louds were slowly disappearing and it was very hot work on the side of this mountain without any shade. Dr Fred got right up to the top and was delighted with this big lump of granite, its boulders and caves to explore. All the pictures of the top are on the camera and we dont have way to add them to the phone until we hit some power at the weekend... I'll post lots of rocks and views from top then..

We carried on into the national park to the most beautiful beaches... white sand... seriously turquiose and every shade of blue sea and all surrounded by stunning red granite boulders. And... a KANGAROO.... at last.

The flies can be pesky and when the wind drops the clegs come out a try to feast upon my obviously scrumptious body.. it drives me bonkers but with paradise comes small annoying details so I'll grin and cover up!

We've been back to the headland and sat on the beach... the sea is a bit too wild for me Dr Fred had exhausted himself on the rocks and its time to move on.....

RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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