All 469 seats on the British Airways Airbus A380 were occupied on the flight from Singapore to Heathrow. Despite the full house, the service on this flight, even in cattle class, was excellent. The unflappable crew were friendly and retained their sense of humour.
We landed at Heathrow at 5:30 am on Friday the 9th September and caught the train into London, changing lines twice to arrive at Hackney central where Michelle our daughter welcomed us at around 7:30. A short walk to the terrace house she shares with three young friends, a quick shower, breakfast and then the sight-seeing started – she had an orientation itinerary lined up for us.
First, a walk through the local Victoria Park where she frequently jogs or cycles along the Regent’s canal, before taking the underground to St Paul’s. From here her tour involved a walk across the Millennium bridge to the South Bank, the Tate Gallery, the National theatre, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament, before getting on the underground at Westminster back to Hackney.
St Paul’s cathedral
Dirk, Michelle and the “Shard”
Buskers along the Thames.
No rest though, for the evening meant going to the Dalston Jazz Bar to listen to a jazz trio. This venue is a social enterprise venue for training people in hospitality and after a five course meal, you pay what you think the meal and the service was worth!
A swinging Jazz trio.
Kitchen with aspiring chefs in training.
Saturday morning, a brisk walk to the Broadway markets for coffees and a look around. Then it started raining.
Truth in advertising at the Broadway markets!
Plan B kicked in: let’s visit the British Museum. I was relishing this opportunity, as I always wanted to see the Elgin marbles and the Rosetta stone. I must admit that I thought the marbles were just that, maybe a bit bigger than what we played with at school. In my first year of architecture, I learned in architectural history that these were the marble friezes from the Parthenon in Athens “rescued” by Lord Elgin.
The British museum courtyard.
The Parthenon marble friezes.
Frieze detail.
The story behind the friezes/marbles.
The Rosetta stone, which enabled Young and Champollion to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
We attended the Hackney Empire theatre in the evening for the final night of Macbeth, funded by the Hackney council and the Andrew Lloyd Webber trust.
Ceiling detail in the beautiful Hackney Empire theatre.
On Sunday morning we took the underground to Vauxhall, to have breakfast with Michelle’s cousins, Paulo and Julia.
Paolo, Michelle & Julia.
This was followed by a bus ride to Buckingham Palace, from where we walked through Green park to Hyde Park and Speaker’s corner, to listen to some nut case oratory. We then caught the tube at Marble Arch, back to Hackney for a drink at Michelle’s local, the Pub in the Park. We had dinner prepared by Michelle for us and her housemates, Andrew, Tim and Naomi.
Speaker’s corner: Repent or perish!
Housemates.
Michelle arranged the hire of a compact Vauxhall Corsa and on Monday we set off on a 10 day road trip, starting with Oxford and the Cotswolds. This is a really beautiful part of England.
Oxford: Balliol and Trinity colleges
The Radcliffe camera and All Souls college.
Punts on the Cherwell river at Magdalen bridge.
We were bowled over by Cotswold towns like Bourton-on-the-water and Stow-on-the-Wold, where we stayed over at Jim and Carol, our first Airbnb hosts. This couple, our ages, are motoring enthusiasts and competed at Nurburgring just last month in their Mazda MX5. Different strokes for different folks!
Lunch at the Duke of Wellington: Bourton-on-the-water.
Jim and Carol’s house at Stow-on-the-Wold.
Jim and Carol racing at Nurburgring.
Continuing through the Cotswolds, we visited Bibury, Painswick and Castle Combe, before staying over in Bath at Nick and Madeleine, in their beautiful 200-hundred-year old sandstone terrace house, overlooking Bath.
Annie at Castle Combe.
View of Bath from our room at Nick and Madeleine’s airbnb.
The following day we visited the Roman baths, the pump house and the Royal Crescent terraces, before driving on to Stonehenge where the management of the hordes of tourists has been improved substantially since my last visit. We stopped off for tea and scones in Salisbury, before visiting the cathedral, still one of my favourite cathedrals.
The Roman baths.
Bath: The Royal crescent.
Annie at Stonehenge.
Salisbury cathedral.
We stayed over in Brighton, the seaside resort on the South coast where the burnt out pier has been replaced by the controversial British Airways i360 vertical pier.
The British Airways i360 doughnut.
Our travels then took us into Kent “the garden of England” and towns like Royal Tunbridge Wells from where we headed North on a very busy freeway to Cambridge. More will follow in our next post.
This blog is called the Schady-Muller sailing and travel blog. So, after three and a half months of sailing on Esprit, it was time to take a break and travel on land.
Esprit on pole moorings next to Ultimate Warrior.
We left Esprit tied on fore and aft pole moorings at Bowen marina in tropical north Queensland and took a shuttle bus to Proserpine airport for the flight to Brisbane. A quick transfer from domestic to international got us on a flight to Singapore, where we arrived late afternoon for a three-day stay in the city.
In pirate party spirit, the happy Annie wanted to fly to Singapore on this bird
I bought us economy class plane tickets instead, as my princess deserves only the best.
Annie found us a small boutique hotel situated conveniently in the heart of the panel beating, sheet metal fabrication and industrial area of Singapore, within a brisk 10-minute walk from the MRT station. No swimming pool, wet bar or sauna to while away the three days, so we reacquainted ourselves with this wonderful city using an unlimited MRT and bus pass and walking a lot. This was a good way to regain our land legs.
Office block forecourt.
Supertree grove walkway.
On the walkway.
Singapore was a frequent stopover in the first five years of visiting rellies in SA, when the kids were small and doing long-haul flights with them was difficult. In the subsequent fifteen years, the population in Singapore has grown exponentially and consequently the number of new apartment buildings grew apace. There have also been numerous new developments in the city, catering for every architectural taste.
Cloud forest dome
Seven story waterfall inside the cloud forest dome.
At the very top of the dome.
On the walkway inside the dome.
Inside the flower dome.
Little India, Chinatown and the Malay quarter still have all their charm and one would hope they don’t fall prey to redevelopment of more modern tower blocks.
Malay area with the Sultan mosque in the background.
Chinatown.
Hindu temple.
Indian gardens.
Two new structures that were quite amazing, were the Marina Bay development next to the white ArtScience museum and the Helix stainless steel bridge next to it.
Amazing stainless steel detailing, welding and polishing.
Helix bridge and the Marina Bay Sands behind.
Hotel foyer – not ours!
White ArtScience museum on the right.
Spelling mistake?
After four nights, we boarded the British Airways flight from Changi airport to London. Our next post will report on the UK leg of this trip.
The 7th Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club Rendezvous took place at Montes Reef resort and Cape Gloucester Resort from the 24th to the 28th August. “Four days and three nights of riotous fun and frivolity in aid of prostate cancer awareness and research”
View from Esprit
Esprit anchored amongst about 150 yachts in the Gloucester passage for this event, which is an endurance event for livers. Day 1 was the meet and greet event at Montes reef resort with music by “Rocket Source 3”. Dancing barefoot on a makeshift dance floor and the beach was a good workout for the baby boomers. We were able to catch up with old sailing friends and meet new ones, exchanging ideas about the best weather to sail into the Pacific.
Rocket Source 3
Sunset at the meet and greet.
Day 2 started with Tai Chi on the beach, which we missed because of hangovers. Morning tea at 10am on one of the neighbouring yachts allowed us sufficient recovery to attend the iconic Shag Islet Party at 12 pm. After meeting more new sailing friends, we retired for a Nanna nap from 3 to 4pm to be fresh for the entertainment at Montes from 4:30pm by “Rhino and the rock wallabies”. We threw caution to the wind and had an early night!
Shaggers
Kite flyers
View from the hill
The DJ’s of Radio Coconut
Day 3 and we made it to the Tai Chi. This was followed by the “Hands across the Blue” raft up in the shape of the prostate cancer foundation of Australia logo. At 5pm we all assembled for the aerial rendezvous group photo on the beach, before the “Parrot Head” party with music by the “Barbary Coasters”. Dinner was a seafood basket of fish, calamari, prawns, scallops and chips, followed by the Quantum sails fireworks display.
Day 4 and we dressed up for the “Pirates parley” and farewell at the Cape Gloucester resort. A traditional roast lunch was served as we eased into a relaxed Sunday afternoon. It was hard to say goodbye to new friends made at this event, but we were already planning to meet up soon in different locations. We reluctantly packed up and on Monday headed off to Bowen marina about a two-hour sail to the North. This is where Esprit will stay for the next two months, while we travel to the UK, Europe and Cambodia, before continuing on with the next leg of our sailing. Stay tuned!
Karen arrived at Hamilton island airport on Monday the 15th August, after running the City to Surf on Sunday. She spent 5 days with us for R&R before her upcoming interviews for orthopaedic placement and her surgical primary exams.
Is this child getting taller, or am I getting shorter?
The weather didn’t fully co-operate and we had 4 days of strong winds and heavy rain. The breaks in between allowed us to explore Hamilton island, Airlie Beach, Stonehaven and Whitehaven beach.
Inside the All Saints church on Hammo.
Renewing our wows. (Is this woman getting taller, or am I getting shorter?)
Cheeky bird trying to grab my vanilla slice.
Bugger off magpie, this is my customer!
She flew back to Sydney on Friday to prepare for interviews in Hornsby and Lismore the following week. The wind then suddenly dropped and the sun came out! She didn’t complain and said that being able to relax was the big prize.
Ja well, no fine! The water temperature in the Whitsundays is between 24 – 25 deg C at this time of the year. Ideal for snorkeling, with a rashie to keep warm. We have had Frank, Penny, Gale and Vic with us for 12 days, to explore as much as we could.
We started off with a visit to Nara inlet, followed by South Molle island. We climbed Spionkop hill which afforded good views across the Whitsunday passage to Hooke, Whitsunday and Hamilton islands.
Walking up Spionkop.
Lots of grass trees on the way up.
Looking down to Esprit at anchor in the bay.
Happy hikers at the lookout.
The wind has been variable, with strong S-E winds forcing us to stay put in Sawmill Bay for 3 days. We then worked against the wind to Hamilton island to fill up with diesel and water. Our Kiwi visitors zoomed around the island on a golf buggy, before we had a wet sail to Whitehaven beach. The weather then improved for the remainder of our time together.
Waiting for the wind to settle.
Hill inlet at Whitehaven beach.
On the way to our private beach.
Anyone for a swim?
Senior surfers.
After a night at Tongue Bay, snorkeling at Manta Ray bay and a beach soiree at Luncheon Bay, we headed off to Bait reef, about 18 nm out to sea. The conditions were perfect to overnight in the middle of the ocean, after enjoying spectacular snorkeling on these unspoilt reefs with an amazing variety of fish.
Vic with our resident Maori Wrasse.
Vic with a friendly black Trevally.
An inquisitive turtle.
The retirees on the way back.
Cosmo pin-ups.
Back in Airlie Beach, our guests kindly helped clean the boat, do the laundry and lavished more booze on us. Much appreciated!
After 3 months of using our water filters for re-filling in various marinas, it was necessary to replace the sediment and carbon filters which proved that mains water is not always clean.
Our water filters.
Three month old filters in the middle, new filters on the outside.
Joe Schady and Mary Griffiths visited us at the end of July. We managed to show them some of the islands in the Whitsunday group during the five days they were onboard.
