When it Rains it Pours....

It's a rainy day in Albany...but it's quite a relief to some degree.

Chance to catch up on chores and write some blog... We had looked around the town a couple of days ago and decided it was okay but just another seasidy place... so we moved on to find camping for the night. We spent the last few days on various stunning beaches (and rock) one night in a beautiful bay called Shelley Beach where we camped right on the beach for the night.. Just as the light was going, a school of dolphins just skimmed along the shoreline they must have been 20 or more just bouncing and bobbing in and out of the water. Apparently they were chasing all the fish into the corner of the bay where they then just swirl around and have what looked like a very choice feast. It was very special to see them ... taking photographs was quite difficult .... there is a dolphin in this picture!

We spent the night with waves crashing against the beach and in the morning after Dr Fred had explored the boulders we moved on to another campsite which was not dissimilar, except this time we were surrounded by beautiful shaped shady trees.

We could still hear the waves crashing just over the fence - the beach is once again stunning but the waves are very high and it makes me a bit scared to go out in the sea. ... Dr Fred excelled himself by going into the sea wearing his vest, his trousers rolled above his knees... socks and crocs! unfortunately I didn't get a photograph to immortalize this fashionista icon....We wandered up and down the beach in the afternoon sun but fully aware that too much sun burns... I just caught my ankles when I forgot to reapply sun cream after paddling.. diferent kind of itchy feet

This morning we found a stick insect on the van...

we put it in the undergrowth and set off to have a drive around the other side of the bay. From Shelleys beach the other day - across the Frenchmans Bay, we could see this enormous granite cliff on the other side that just plunged straight into the sea and, one of us... was desperate to go look closer...

We had a walk around Stoney Hill -

I even climbed a couple of boulders and we could see the rain coming in.

At the lookout we could see where we had come from over the last week - Bluff Knoll standing out in silouette..

we could see the path leading to Peak Head - the granite cliff - I left Dr Fred to it ... how granite cliffs does a girl need!!!

I had a long chat with a magpie who agreed to pose for me...

the explorer returned - a bit knackered but with another dozen or more crag photos

and the rain arrived.. so we went shopping for food - mundane but necessary....

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Almost last chapter... In which our Go Stargazing team watch Astonishing Aurora Borealis seen from the deck of the Astonishing Borealis!!!

The weather brightened considerably and the snowy peaks lining our sail down the fjiords looked glorious and sparkly in the sunshine against a (mainly) blue sky back drop. More awesome scenary.... the Go Stargazing team wrapt up their lectures ... only searching for the illusive Northern Lights remained. The tension from the night before dissolved in the sunshine the forecast for Aurora borealis was looking fairly positive - it was the captains farewell cocktsil party so everyone had their gladrags on.. We ate dinner and sky remained clear so we headed back to our room and donned as many layers as we could move in and proceeded to deck 10 in anticipation of stars and northern lights..... it did not dissappiont - just we got there as the bridge announced that the lights could be seen on the starboard side of the ship. It was stunning. Slowly the intensity built. The auroral green became brighter and bigger areas appe...

Istanbul

We had a really excellent day exploring Istanbul. It's over 25 years since I went to Istanbul on a long weekend trip with somebody that I thought was my friend at the time. But with with hindsight.... Well that's another unimportant story for another time... All that time ago I did have a brilliant time and loved the city. I loved the mix of east meets west - It left me intending to return sooner than later so I was really looking forward to revisiting. I was a bit unsure about how Dr Fred would take to the place because it is enormous, it's bustling, it's noisy, it's smelly. There are lots of exciting backstreets and of course there are a lot of tourists - And I was determined to visit the Grand Bazaar... Istanbul didn't disappoint - but I have to say it was a very different city to how it had been all those years ago. It seemed even bigger, and was definitely more full of visitors. I had started with a plan that packed the ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

Search This Blog