Stay in touch as we take in more of Australia hwheat2024.blogspot.com
Heather's travel tales 2023
Sunday, 31 December 2023
Saturday, 30 December 2023
December 31 what happened next?
What's been happening in the three month between arriving home and the end of this travel-packed year? We haven't been idle - surprise surprise! Here are a few images.
Taking great pleasure in our green space |
A bunch of parsley flowers |
We pulled back on our volunteering work to spend time getting ourselves well and back in tip-top condition - still working on that! And instead have taken on a less physically demanding job of coordinating seminars for the Graduate Union of University of Melbourne. Next year will be a mixture of travel adventures - Feb-March caravanning to explore more of our home State, taking a couple of weeks in April to drive north to Northern NSW and Qld to visit friends we haven't seen for years and then 3 weeks in June visiting family and friends in WA. The 'biggie' will be 2 months travelling firstly across the very top of the world to reach the two North Poles, then a 10 day self-drive trip around the Faroes Islands (yes they have bridges and ferries!) and we will finish off with 3 weeks in a campervan driving from Scotland through Wales and into Cornwall and before flying home we will catch up with people we've met on a couple of expeditions over the last few years. Really looking fwd to it.
Fascinating visit a property being rehabilitated by Angair - Society for the Protection of Flora and Fauna |
A special visit to our youngest family members Juno and Oris - born 6 months ago |
A blank canvas - with a delicious gin cocktail to get the juices flowing |
Seafood paella |
Quiet dining at University House after a lecture |
Thursday, 28 September 2023
September 29 home again
We’re home physically but my thoughts still drift rather like ocean weeds awash among the imagines particularly of our journey through the Northwest Passage. I am loath to let them vanish.
Snapped as the wheels hit the tarmac |
Love these beauties. Not bad not having had any attention for 4 months |
Our wee lemon tree |
Sweet and juicy |
Bee heaven |
Tucked under the ferns and Chinese jasmine are these pretty little beauties- our hellebores |
We've eaten well but homemade is sooo good. |
Friday, 22 September 2023
September 21-22 Anchorage to Seattle to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne
As I sit in the Seattle airport waiting to board a plane for Vancouver and the long trip home, I realise that it was only yesterday that we were in the sleepy village of Nome - it seems a lifetime, a world ago. The Northwest Passage is more remote than you could imagine. The hardships that the Inuit people experience living in the Canadian High Arctic is hard to imagine yet they are beautiful happy generous people. I will never forget them.
Last night was one of those interminable in-transit stops, something you have to bear for the pleasure of visiting magical places.
A boxed reminder of a wilderness of which we have only had the slightest whiff |
Thursday, 21 September 2023
September 21 tiny, remote, delightful Nome
Fresh off the boat this morning, we were driven around Nome in a couple of those gorgeous yellow US school buses - a pretty bumpy ride but a bit of fun. Somebody had spotted musk ox so off we set - unsuccessfully.
And the wheels of the bus go ...... man it was a bumpy ride |
The Carrie M McLain Memorial Museum |
A necklace of crab jawbone |
Gold mining stuff |
The King Islanders installation - seal skin foreground, Umiaq background. |
A huge variety of housing styles |
Dogs that participate in the Iditarod race. |
Nome and the gold rush |
This guy gave us a go at panning for gold - great tourist 'thing' |
Lindsay having a go. |
I didn’t come up with gold but beautiful garnet ‘sand’ which glowed in the sun (the red stuff!) |
Gold 'flour' |
Great repurposing - the Community Centre |
Interesting checking out what's on offer (and remember these are US$ and lbs not kg |
Tuesday, 19 September 2023
September 20 coming into land in Alaska
Our ships route around the Little Diomedes yesterday |
Days are shortening so we arrived in an orange glow |
The Complete Northwest Passage - our voyage map |
September 19 The Diomedes and navigating through the Bering Strait
The voyage map is tracing our journey to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait - the whole purpose of the Northwest Passage explorations. |
What an amazing day! Before dawn Captain Artem set a course south out of the Chukchi Sea (Arctic Ocean) through the Bering Strait into the Bering Sea (Pacific Ocean). We had completed the Northwest Passage hooray! but we’re still on board with a day to go. I'd like to restart the whole voyage again ….. Sunrise was at 8:45 so over breakfast we watched a chilly blue dawn struggle to claw its way over the horizon. And then we turned our heads and looming up on the other side was Little Diomede island.
The cormorants came swooping around the ship peering down at us |
Lindsay stretching into tomorrow! |
Little Diomedes Island, US territory |
The forecast was for 7C so after 3 weeks of 'layering' I didn’t put thermals on. Big mistake because we spent a good part of the day out on deck. The chilling I got and the slightly scratchy throat the next morning was worth it however as the Strait’s islands we sailed to and around were breathtakingly beautiful - great granite monoliths thrusting up out of the sea. The bird life was wonderful all around us. Particularly cute were Tufted puffins and the Horned puffin. They fluttered above and passed us and formed flotillas on the sea close to the islands.
We sailed right around beautiful Little Diomedes which was sometimes shrouded in mist |
Our Expedition Leader (L) and ship’s Captain (R). A powerful team who stretched boundaries to give us the best experiences possible. Thank you !! |
A haul-out of a couple of dozen lazy Stella sea lions. |
The colours were unbelievable. Like an abstract painting. |
Fairway Rock - a glorious island |
King Island |
The remains of the settlement |
Stunningly beautiful- how many time can I say that?! |
Zoom in for the village |
Lindsay gazing north and south - no he's not Janus! |
Sailing between many things and along the ‘Ice Curtain’ |
Top: due north. Nothing between us and the North Pole. Bottom: due south. Nothing between here and the South Pole |
Our Citizen Science projects |
2024 looms!
Stay in touch as we take in more of Australia hwheat2024.blogspot.com
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