Chris was at work today so Meera, Ian and I completed a 10k walk called the Manly Scenic Walk which takes in all of the gorgeous little beaches around this area. The whole place is really gorgeous. The walk takes you around loads of lovely small beaches so we walked for about 4 hours stopping for numerous breaks and lunches. The Australian magpies are kinda cheeky and this one tried to nick our sandwiches!
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
2/8 Claire – Whale watching
Chris and Meera took us whale watching this afternoon. I was expecting a sedate boat trip out of the harbour for a couple of kilometres and we were told that there is no guarantee of seeing whales when we were out. This boat wasn’t the sedate and gentle ride that I was expecting. There are three rows of seats that you have to straddle with bar handles in front of each person to hold on. Chris pointed out a sign in front of the wheel which stated a warning “caution, this vessel is frequently airborne” or words to that effect. The boat started, we were told to hold tight and he sped up… not once, or twice but three times until we must have been doing about 60miles an hour and as soon as you hit a wave or wake from another boat then this is when you leave the water. The boat is designed to do this and although it didn’t happen to us much it was brilliant. I think I enjoyed this nearly as much as watching the whales. So much so I am going to hunt down some extreme jet boats in NZ when we get there.
It didn’t take long to spot the whales about 5 mins and they take you towards them, turn off the engine and wait for them to pop back up again. The boat rocking and the whales coming up for just a few seconds means it’s quite hard to get a steady or decent shot so I was a bit gutted a didn’t get a better photo but I’m quite pleased with ones I did get. We probably saw eight whales at different points throughout the trip of about 45mins so we did well. It was a really brilliant experience and the boat literally leaves from about 100metres away from Chris and Meera’s front door.
It didn’t take long to spot the whales about 5 mins and they take you towards them, turn off the engine and wait for them to pop back up again. The boat rocking and the whales coming up for just a few seconds means it’s quite hard to get a steady or decent shot so I was a bit gutted a didn’t get a better photo but I’m quite pleased with ones I did get. We probably saw eight whales at different points throughout the trip of about 45mins so we did well. It was a really brilliant experience and the boat literally leaves from about 100metres away from Chris and Meera’s front door.
2/8 Claire – Arriving in Sydney
We arrived in Sydney Sunday morning at some ungodly hour so we are very greatful to Chris for getting up at 5.30 on a Sunday morning to pick us up.
Manly is an area of Sydney that Chris and Meera live, I can’t tell how beautiful a place this is. The picture attached is the view from the spare bedroom at sunset, you get a equally lovely view from the loo or in the shower. In fact there is a view of the harbour from every room in their lovely flat.
It’s fab weather here too. Warm but not too hot, or humid, as it has been for the last few weeks… I never thought I would ever say it’s nice to be out of the hot weather. To be fair though Sydney winter is not at all like winter at home, it’s more like our summer or at least it has been that last few days. In fact it’s been so nice here that it’s prob better than the weather forecast for home looks like at the moment (sorry about that, had to get it in)
Manly is an area of Sydney that Chris and Meera live, I can’t tell how beautiful a place this is. The picture attached is the view from the spare bedroom at sunset, you get a equally lovely view from the loo or in the shower. In fact there is a view of the harbour from every room in their lovely flat.
It’s fab weather here too. Warm but not too hot, or humid, as it has been for the last few weeks… I never thought I would ever say it’s nice to be out of the hot weather. To be fair though Sydney winter is not at all like winter at home, it’s more like our summer or at least it has been that last few days. In fact it’s been so nice here that it’s prob better than the weather forecast for home looks like at the moment (sorry about that, had to get it in)
31/8 Claire - Raffles
Ian is supposed to add something in here about Raffles but he’s been a bit tardy. We went for a curry in the Tiffin Room – have decided that Singapore Slings are a little too sweet for me so we had to order champagne to accompany our meal (I am on holiday). It was brilliant. Ian can fill in the details when he starts blogging again!
Sunday, 2 August 2009
30/8 Claire - Singapore
So we have just arrived in Singapore for a couple of days on route to Sydney. I have NEVER been on such as massive aeroplane. We were on the upper deck. I tell you… a double decker plane… on the upper deck!!
Straight out for tea in Little India… we seemed to wander through off the tourist track a little and ended up in a restaurant where the food was great and the beer was imported directly from India called Haywards 5000. The owner guy said that this was the best beer in India and although every gets excited about Cobra he thought Haywards was by far the best. After a very large bottle of 7% Haywards Ian thought so too.
Straight out for tea in Little India… we seemed to wander through off the tourist track a little and ended up in a restaurant where the food was great and the beer was imported directly from India called Haywards 5000. The owner guy said that this was the best beer in India and although every gets excited about Cobra he thought Haywards was by far the best. After a very large bottle of 7% Haywards Ian thought so too.
Saturday, 1 August 2009
29/7 Claire - Back in Tokyo
We got the train back to Tokyo later the same day as climbing Fuji. We stayed in Shinjuku which is a brilliant part of the City, the rough guide describes this as Tokyo on steroids. Tokyo is certainly one of my favourite places in Japan, and definitely the best city we have been in. Getting back there was very energising... or maybe it was just because it was warm ;o)
29/9 Claire – Mount Fuji
So… Mount Fuji… Let me tell you about Mount Fuji. Ian can give you his take on this later. I have yet to see the famous view of Fuji that you see in the pictures, it eluded us right up to the point of being stood on it due to fog and mist, and then of course being stood on it means you can’t actually see it.
We took a bus to the 5th Station which is 2400ft and then walked to the low 7th station at 2770ft. It was dry, warmish and had stopped raining. It didn’t take long (just over an hour) and the plan was to stay in a mountain hut that evening and set off for the summit at 1am so that we were there for the sunrise which is amazing colours of purples and reds, a great photo opportunity. Sunrise is just after 4.30 so the 3.5hr hike up would need to start in the middle of the night.
These mountain huts, as you walk up to them, are huge buildings. Not huts in my eyes, not until they take you to your bed anyhow. We paid 6000yen each for a bed and dinner that evening. As you can see from the picture the description “hut” starts to become apparent. This accommodation was like nothing I have EVER stayed in before (or likely to again). They were like boxes with no front to them, only curtains, all about 6ft x 6ft x 6ft… made of wood… and all next to each other, two floors of them. I felt like I was going to be pushed in, the box sealed up and shipped back to the UK.
So after dinner of rice and curry sauce (!) at 6pm there was nothing to do but climb into our box, into the slightly cold, slightly damp duvet and get some sleep. If you can imagine something like a garden fence between you and the next group you can now imagine how much sleep we got when some one in another box started snoring like a pneumatic drill.
1am arrived and all I could hear was torrential rain on the roof. Of course it always sounds worse than it is… no that’s an inaccuracy, the sound could not have prepared me for the amount of water that was falling from the sky. I have never been so covered head to toe in waterproof gore-tex yet never been so cold and wet. I had water squelching through my toes. My waterproof gloves were so wet they poured out water when I clenched my fists. And… it was pitch black.
Half way up we met a crazy Chinese guy called Mai, he was climbing in fashion trainers, his normal clothes and clear plastic waterproof jacket and trousers, the sort you might buy at a theme park before getting on a log flume, and no gloves. His mate had given up but he clearly had summit fever and joined us for the rest of the climb.
When you get to the crater, which is 3740ft, the actual summit or highest point is around the other side of the crater so you have to walk another 20mins around the bloody thing to say you’ve actually reached the top. When we got to the top station where the crater is we were so cold we were starting to shiver. It was clear that we had not climbed above the cloud and rain (the thought of which had kept me going for the last 3 hours) therefore there’d be no bloody sunrise for us to see. It was so wet that we couldn’t have got the camera out to take a shot to prove we’d got there. Sunrise wouldn’t have been for another 30mins as we’d made good time but we did the sensible thing and decided to get down.
So… Mount Fuji… I can say I have climbed Mount Fuji, but I haven’t seen it… I did reach the crater but I didn’t see that…. We got up there before sunrise but didn’t see that either. I did, however, sleep in a box and nearly got hypothermia…
We took a bus to the 5th Station which is 2400ft and then walked to the low 7th station at 2770ft. It was dry, warmish and had stopped raining. It didn’t take long (just over an hour) and the plan was to stay in a mountain hut that evening and set off for the summit at 1am so that we were there for the sunrise which is amazing colours of purples and reds, a great photo opportunity. Sunrise is just after 4.30 so the 3.5hr hike up would need to start in the middle of the night.
These mountain huts, as you walk up to them, are huge buildings. Not huts in my eyes, not until they take you to your bed anyhow. We paid 6000yen each for a bed and dinner that evening. As you can see from the picture the description “hut” starts to become apparent. This accommodation was like nothing I have EVER stayed in before (or likely to again). They were like boxes with no front to them, only curtains, all about 6ft x 6ft x 6ft… made of wood… and all next to each other, two floors of them. I felt like I was going to be pushed in, the box sealed up and shipped back to the UK.
So after dinner of rice and curry sauce (!) at 6pm there was nothing to do but climb into our box, into the slightly cold, slightly damp duvet and get some sleep. If you can imagine something like a garden fence between you and the next group you can now imagine how much sleep we got when some one in another box started snoring like a pneumatic drill.
1am arrived and all I could hear was torrential rain on the roof. Of course it always sounds worse than it is… no that’s an inaccuracy, the sound could not have prepared me for the amount of water that was falling from the sky. I have never been so covered head to toe in waterproof gore-tex yet never been so cold and wet. I had water squelching through my toes. My waterproof gloves were so wet they poured out water when I clenched my fists. And… it was pitch black.
Half way up we met a crazy Chinese guy called Mai, he was climbing in fashion trainers, his normal clothes and clear plastic waterproof jacket and trousers, the sort you might buy at a theme park before getting on a log flume, and no gloves. His mate had given up but he clearly had summit fever and joined us for the rest of the climb.
When you get to the crater, which is 3740ft, the actual summit or highest point is around the other side of the crater so you have to walk another 20mins around the bloody thing to say you’ve actually reached the top. When we got to the top station where the crater is we were so cold we were starting to shiver. It was clear that we had not climbed above the cloud and rain (the thought of which had kept me going for the last 3 hours) therefore there’d be no bloody sunrise for us to see. It was so wet that we couldn’t have got the camera out to take a shot to prove we’d got there. Sunrise wouldn’t have been for another 30mins as we’d made good time but we did the sensible thing and decided to get down.
So… Mount Fuji… I can say I have climbed Mount Fuji, but I haven’t seen it… I did reach the crater but I didn’t see that…. We got up there before sunrise but didn’t see that either. I did, however, sleep in a box and nearly got hypothermia…
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