Viking River Cruise: Amsterdam to Bucharest – Aug/Sept 2025 – Part III

Wednesday 3 September 2005: Nuremberg – Roger

After a light breakfast, it was just after 8am when we jumped into a taxi to take us to the Nuremberg Castle. Arriving there before it opened at 9am, there were few people around and we spent the time looking around the outside of the buildings and the castle gardens, admiring the massive amount of work that must have gone into building the castle alone.

Nuremberg was a walled city and the 4 km long walls still stand today. Construction of these walls started in the 10th century and finished in the 15th century, some 500-years later. More alterations were done as time went on and different designers had different ideas on how to defend the city.  It is hard to understand how many man-hours and wheelbarrows of soil would have gone into building up these walls, digging out the moat and putting it all together. It makes you wonder how did they pay for it all and was slave labour used, or was the economy that good at the time that they could just afford to build these things? I’ve never quite worked that out after all the places I’ve looked at over the years.

After a look around the castle area we wandered down to the town square where a gold statue stands in the middle of several churches or cathedrals and other nice buildings. About nineteen percent of the buildings here were destroyed during the war but there’s still restoration work going on in some buildings as there has been in every town we’ve been to so far. Tourism certainly plays a large part in the restoration of many of these old buildings and sights.

Sylvia had marked out a route on her phone map last night so we knew where we were going and how fast we had to go, which was quite fast as we only had four hours here, including getting to and from where the boat was moored, about a 20-minute drive from the city. I thought it was a bit poor on the part of Viking because I could’ve easily spent the whole day here.

Next we boarded the local metro, which took us out to the Palace of Justice, which is where the Nuremberg trials were held in Courtroom 600. The top floor of the building is now a museum where it takes you through a timeline of what took place at that time, including the trials that happened after the main Nuremberg trials that went on for many years.

Over many years we have both seen many documentaries on the second world war and in particular the Nuremberg trials but it was really good to actually come to the building and get a feel for where it really took place. Although courtroom 600 now has chandeliers instead of downlights and part of it is taken up with the seating area for tourists like us, the rest of it is pretty much original so we got a good sense of what the place was like at the time. They still have viewing windows up on the second floor where a press gallery sat throughout the trial. During the trial the external windows were blacked out, hence the downlights, which have now been replaced by the chandeliers that were up prior to the trials.

Too soon, time was up and we were on another train and then a bus across to the Nazi Documentation centre. The Germans were very good at keeping records and this huge building is where they were stored.  A lot of it is under renovation at the moment. There was a well-laid out timeline, taking us through the rise of the Nazi party, their philosophy and principles. It also indicated how they went about the propaganda to convince the people that this was the right way to do it.

We had to race through this area as time was running short. Across the other side of a lake from this building is the Zeppelin Centre, where Hitler held huge parades that we have all seen in movies and on TV in the past. This was a bit of a must see, given I really wanted to get a feel for how big it was. A quick stroll around the lake got us there with only a few minutes to spare. At 312×285 meters and with seating for 200,000 it is one of the world’s largest stadiums. Most of it is overgrown now, but the main stadium, where Hitler and his mad men would have stood, is pretty much still intact. Unfortunately we had only time for a quick look before we had to catch an Uber and get back to the boat, arriving just in time as they were about to pull up the gangway.

Very soon we were chugging back along the canal. We were in the dining room enjoying lunch when we came to the first lock. At over 300m long, with massive gates in each end, it went quite dark in the dining room as we pulled in, before being elevated over 24m to the level of the next part of the canal and sailing on.

It was the year 700 AD when some bright spark came up with the idea to build the canal but it only got started. Rain put it on hold. In the 1800s a canal was built for King Ludwick I between Bamberg and Kelheim. In 1921 a company was formed by the German government and the state of Bavaria to build the larger Main-Danube Canal that we are sailing on today. Construction started in 1960 and was completed in 1992, creating the 3,500-km (2,200-mile) waterway from the North Sea to the Black Sea. It is simply a massive piece of engineering with roads going underneath it and power generated on it. This all contributes in a big way to Bavaria being the richest state in Germany and possibly Europe.

Later on we passed through the deepest lock we will come to – at 27m. When we sail into these locks, the sight of just how high the lock is, is quite overwhelming. The gate opens, we sail through into the lock, which is just big enough for the boat to fit through, the gate closes and the water is gravity fed in through a series of reservoirs situated beside the lock, which raise the boat up to the height of the next canal. Then the gate in the front drops down and you sail off as if nothing has ever happened. It is a piece of brilliant engineering.

We also passed by a monument to the Great Divide. At 406m above sea level, this will be the highest point we reach on the journey. From here we will start dropping down towards Austria.

 

Thursday 4 September 2025: Regensburg – Sylvia

We arrived in Regensburg early and were parked up by the dock well-before our scheduled disembarkation time. We are now on the Danube river and sailing downstream, having passed the highest point in our journey yesterday evening. It was lovely to have a slightly more leisurely start to the day. We wandered off the boat just before 9am and strolled smugly past all the passengers huddling in their groups, lollipop wielding guides at the ready. Regensburg is a lovely, but small town and easily walkable. We walked along the banks of the river admiring the views into town. An old steamship of sorts was moored along the way.

We meandered through the lovely narrow streets, passing the Porta Praetoria, the only partially preserved Roman gate north of the Alps. It dates back to 179AD, when it was the gate to the Castra Regina Legionary camp. It was exposed again in 1885.

We made our way to the old town hall, which was busy today. Every time we passed there was a wedding underway. It sits on a very picturesque square.

We wandered along Goliathstrasse to the impressive fresco of David and Goliath, which takes up most of the face of one of the buildings on the street.

As we were making our way through the narrow city streets to find somewhere for Roger to have a coffee, we got a message from Greg and Susie, who were bugging out of their walking tour and were keen to catch up. We met at a lovely coffee house and all indulged in some rather delicious cake.

We entered the main cathedral, another gothic edifice, this one covered with sculpted gargoyles and other creatures. Originally built in about 700 AD it has suffered several devastating fires. The current Gothic-style building was completed in 1320  and contains numerous spectacular stained glass windows.

We kept exploring the pretty small streets, before heading to the river and crossing over the old stone bridge, which dates from the 12th century. Statdamhof is the town on the other side of the bridge (still part of Regensburg). It boasts numerous pastel coloured buildings with lots of cafes etc. We were about to turn around and head back when Roger and Greg spotted a damsel in distress – a young woman with a flat tire. They leapt into action – perhaps the happiest I’ve seen them the whole trip, and soon the spare was on the car and she was off again,

We wandered back across the bridge to the Wurstkuchl (Sausage kitchen), which has stood on this site next to the Old Stone Bridge for over 500 years. We shared a plate of 10 sausages and 4 pretzels, along with some sauerkraut. Delicious!

I had read about a huge palace in Regensburg and we decided to visit. St Emmeram’s palace is the stately home of the Thurn und Taxis family. The building was once a monastery but became the family residence in 1812. The family developed the postal service in Europe in 1490. They were awarded noble status in 1608 and became imperial princes in 1695. The family still use this immense palace as their residence today. We could only visit the palace as part of a guided tour, departing at 2:30pm.

In 1993 the Bavarian government purchased more than 2,200 works of art from the holdings of Thurn und Taxis and these are now displayed in the former stables of St Emmerman’s Palace. We visited this museum in the interim. It houses an impressive array of treasures, including a diamond studded men’s coat, some impressive porcelain and a fantastic array of carriages.

At 2:30pm we joined several others and set off on the 90-minute guided tour. The tour was conducted in German and we were provided with audio guides. The audio guide was interesting and informative but it was really frustrating to have to wait around and listen to the guide going on in German, clearly giving a lot more information than what we were receiving. Still it was worth it to visit the place. Words can’t adequately describe it and we were not allowed to take photos. This is a shame as the rooms were truly magnificent. I was struck in particular by the stunning bed, with swan sculptures in one of the rooms. The tour finished in the beautiful chapel, where members of the family are buried.

By this time we were all pretty tired, having been on our feet most of the day. We stopped at a lovely strudel shop for more cake! And then wandered back through town and along the river to where the Lif was docked. Apparently the water levels in the river between here and Passau have been dropping and we may have some slow patches overnight.

We had a lovely day in Regensburg and it is a beautiful town. It is a shame though that we only had 4 hours in Nuremberg and a whole day here. In an ideal world I would have reversed that and had a whole day yesterday in Nuremberg.

 

Friday 5 September 2025: Passau – Roger

It was around 5am when I was woken by a loud thud as the boat bumped into the lock, or into the other boat that was in the lock. I got up to have a look out the back to find out we were in a large lock, big enough to take two boats side-by-side. That was the end of sleep for me.

A couple of hours later we tied up next to the town of Passau. From here various groups went off on their excursions, including one to Salzburg and another to a nice looking castle in the hill somewhere that they had to fly to. We had opted to hang around town and also planned to go for a bike ride, as one side of the river is in Germany and the other side in Austria.

Leaving the boat we strolled into town to find another historic city with the normal old quaint and solid buildings. We came across the town hall just back from the Danube River, with flood markings on it going back to the 1500s. It appears that they’re pretty used to flooding here and obviously just pack everything up, move upstairs, then move back down when the flood is over and clean up and carry on.

We wandered past the art street and into the catholic cathedral, done quite differently than most of the churches we’ve seen along the way. It was white and bright with lots of frescos on the ceiling and walls and hundreds of cherubims crawling all over the walls. Above the altar were a number of statues illustrating a number of thugs beating up Saint Stephen back in the day. Not quite sure why they needed to display that up there, but I suppose they have their reasons.

Behind the church is a large building, which was the residence for the bishop. Once again religion seemed to rule this town, just like others around Europe in the day. There is a lot of restoration going on on the church as there is on a number of buildings.

We visited the local glass museum. Boy did it have glass – five floors of it. Every vase, dish, pot, statue and anything else you could make of glass was on display. It was actually quite overwhelming. I understand my sister came here a few years ago. She is really into antiques and such things and spent nearly the whole day here. I didn’t realise how many different shapes could be made out of glass until visiting this place.

Just before 12 we met up with Greg and Susie, going back to the cathedral to sit and listen to the pipe organ play.  I’ve heard this a few times before in my life and realise I’m never really going to get into it but Susie quite enjoyed it.

Just down the road we found a nice restaurant called Anton’s, where we dined on a very nice weiner schnitzel (Sylvia and I), a healthy-looking chicken salad (Susie), and  sausages along with some rather tasty horseradish (Greg).

It had rained on and off most of the morning so Sylvia and I binned the bike ride idea (we had planned to go on our own) while Greg and Susie headed back to the boat to meet up with a group to go on a pre-arranged bike excursion. Sylvia and I headed across the river and up to the old fort on the hill. This dates back several hundred years and had quite an interesting museum with lots of old weapons, tools and various other things on display, including instruments of torture, armour, canons, clothing, pottery and more.

From one of the walls in the fort we could see all three rivers converging, as this town is where the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers meet. The Inn is glacier-fed and a greenish-grey colour while the Danube is fed from the Bavarian forests and is much more blue-green so one can see the different colours meet.

After the fort I headed back to the boat and Sylvia went off to look at another church with a long covered stairway, where apparently you’re supposed to stop and pray on every step. I’m not sure that she actually did that but the church is called the Pilgrimage Church Mariahilf. It is across the Inn river in Austria. We were told to take our passports just in case we got stopped but she decided that wasn’t necessary.

It was later than I got a call from her as she had gone for a tea and cake at a cafe back in Passau. Unfortunately when she went to pay, they only took cash, and of course she didn’t have any on her. So off I went to the rescue.

Back on board I joined Greg and Susie for the German specialty dinner on board. Because of the dinner the staff were dressed in German garb and Dessy, our lovely cabin steward even turned up to clean our room in her dirndl.

 

Saturday 6 September 2025: Melk and Krems – Sylvia

We woke this morning well and truly in Austria. I had gotten quite used to the juddering of the boat going through the locks but this morning we had more of a sideways rolling motion – I still haven’t figured out what it was. The Danube river is much wider than The Rhine or the canals we have been on. The lock structures are very impressive.

Just after 8am, we docked at Melk, and at 8:30 wandered the 400m or so to where the buses were waiting to take us to the Melk Abbey. Benedictine monks have been living and working in the abbey since 1089. It is certainly an impressive piece of architecture at about 400m long. It was originally the residence of the Austrian royals and was later gifted to the monks. The gate towers date back over 1000 years with the rest having been rebuilt. There are still 22 monks working and living on the premises, which also houses an administrative building and a school. There are about 5000 people here each day including 900 students, some employees, and of course, tourists.

We met our tour guide inside the main courtyard. She led us into the building and shared some of the history. No photography was allowed inside the building but that didn’t stop Roger, or to be fair, several others. We wandered through the guest rooms which didn’t have any furniture. Apparently the noble visitors preferred to bring their own furniture when they came. The parquet floors were particularly stunning.

There were numerous relics and works of arts in the rooms, which serve as a type of museum. I was particularly taken with a tiny prayer book. The monks have to pray 7 times per day and before the days of iPhones and Google, would have carried a little book like this when they were away from the abbey.

The grand dining room was particularly impressive with its gilded statues and faux marble walls. The baroque period is well known for the illusions it creates. The statues are covered with gold leaf to look like gold, the marble is in fact painted stucco. Most impressive of all were the ceilings, which were skilfully painted to look like they were domed, even though they were in fact flat.

We visited the library, which houses over 130,000 books, many dating back to the 16th century. It is incredibly ornate, with little doors built into the bookshelves so the monks could read by the windows – no candles allowed in the library.

Tour over, we had time to visit inside the abbey church. This ornate building is absolutely covered in frescos, statues and gold. It really is quite overwhelming. Apparently there are 789 angels represented inside the church – I didn’t count them all.

We then wandered up to the observation deck with fantastic views over the grounds and the small town of Melk, out to the Danube river.

The gardens were also lovely although not the most impressive gardens I have ever visited. On our way back to the bus we stopped for coffee or tea and delicious fresh apricot dumplings (sorry – forgot to take a photo).

Back on the Lif, we continued our journey downstream through the picturesque Wachau valley, passing many small towns and villages, all with interesting histories. These hills, like those along the Rhine are covered in grape vines. At one point we passed under a low bridge and the shades over the chairs and the bridge house were all lowered.

Schonbuhel Castle

Gottweig Abbey

Loiben

Durnstein

Giant Nose Statue at the St Lorenz Ferry station.

Weissenkirchen

St Michael’s Church – There is a legend about seven hares that turned to stone on the roof during a stormy winter,

St Michael’s Church

Willendorf – Note the replica of the Venus of Willendorf. This small female figure stands just under 11cm high and dates back to the Paleolithic period. At the time she was the oldest statue of a human ever found and now stands in the Natural History museum in Vienna.

Later in the afternoon we docked at the small town of Krems. Roger elected to stay on board and I went for a bit of a wander through the pretty little town. It was pretty sleepy on this Saturday afternoon so I stretched my legs a bit and climbed up the hill behind the town for some lovely views back over the river. The whole area is covered in vineyards. Another lovely day!

Viking River Cruise: Amsterdam to Bucharest – Aug/Sept 2025 – Part II

Saturday 30 August 2025: Koblenz and Rhine River – Roger

It was around 8am when we docked alongside another Viking boat in Koblenz, after once again enjoying breakfast in our room. My sister Rachael arranged to meet us there; she is currently living in Frankfurt. We found her waiting for us not long after leaving the boat, having crossed through the other boat to leave of course.

We wandered through the streets of this pretty little town, with lots of statues and well displayed shop windows, catching up with the family etc. After a while we came across a clock that pokes its tongue out every 15-minutes, and rolls its eyes every second. We thought the tongue poking was on the half-hour so just as we walked away the tongue came out. A little more wandering and we eventually found the fountain with the little boy that spits. I think today he got tired of splitting as nothing seemed to be happening while we had a short stop there.

After a coffee, we wandered to the gondola which was close to where the boat was moored. An announcement last night had told us under no circumstances to take the gondola across the river as we wouldn’t have time. We bought a ticket anyway, jumped on the gondola and did the return trip across the river in about 20-minutes, which gave us great views of not only of the fort on the other side of the river, but also back across the city and to the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. A large statue of Kaiser Wilhelm stands guard over this point. We were back in plenty of time to say goodbye to Rachael and catch the boat as it carried on upriver.

Not long after leaving Koblenz we entered the valley of castles. Apparently Germany has around 25-30,000 castles which is about twice as many as the USA has McDonald’s. Over the next 70km we saw some 21 castles, along with a number of toll or tax collecting buildings that were built back in the day for the local governor to collect taxes or tolls from passing boats.  It’s not surprising that nothing has changed over the last few thousand years. Somebody always needs to collect tax to pay for something.  Getting along at about 14 km/h into the current, the sun was setting behind the hills as we left the valley of the castles. The land flattened out with trees on each side of the river.

Most of the journey can only really be described by photos, but there is one place that deserves a specific mention and it’s called Klaub. This is where the famous German general. Gebhard Leberecht von , built a pontoon and took his army across the Rhine and gave Napoleon a hiding. He later joined the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo to finish the job. There is a good museum there about him I visited some years ago. We also of couse passed by the famous Lorelei rocks and the Lorelei statue.

Some of the castles along the way had walls with towers along them that were defences for the local villages back in the day. At some stage they were all overrun and in a lot of cases destroyed. Most have been rebuilt at some stage.

We had spent most of the afternoon sitting on the top deck but now at 18:50 hrs we have had to head downstairs so the crew can lower everything up top so we can fit under some low bridges before we reach the locks that will take us to the Main River. The bridge will be lowered hydraulically.

It was about 9pm when we hit the first of the many locks we will pass through, taking us from the Rhine into the Main river.

 

Sunday 31 August 2025: Main River and Miltenberg – Sylvia

We were woken several times during the night as the ship banged against the side of a lock. There are 35 locks on this section of the Main River through to Bamberg, where we will join the Main-Danube canal. We will pass through several of these today on the way to Miltenberg. Each can fit two boats length-wise and is not much wider than the ships so there is often a wee nudge as we go through.

No matter how many times I do this, I still appreciate the engineering and enjoy watching the gates open and close and the water rise or lower (in our case rise) to enable smooth passage. These locks are all required due to the hydro stations along the river that have changed the natural course of the flow.

It was nice to have a leisurely morning on board today. The Main River is significantly narrower than the Rhine and meanders its way through the German countryside. In many places there are just trees along the banks, with small riverside homes, some with beautiful gardens, dotted about. Every now and then we passed someone fishing. And of course I enjoyed the diversity of the bird-life.

Later in the morning we sailed past several small towns, all with huge areas of caravan parks. Many people seem to have set up almost permanent looking caravan areas, some even with fences around their spot. Around lunchtime we sailed through Miltenberg and eventually docked at about 2:30pm at the small town of Freudenberg. We were to be bussed back to Miltenberg, ostensibly something to do with wanting to be closer to Wurzburg so we can arrive on time tomorrow. Cynically I think it may have something to do with docking fees in Miltenberg.

Still, we had about 45 minutes to wander around Freudenberg before the buses departed. It is a pretty town but nothing special. It was good to get off the ship and stretch our legs, especially with the top deck now being closed. There was an interesting monument depicting the heights of various floods through the centuries

Eventually we boarded the bus for the ~15-minute drive to Miltenberg. It was an easy drive through lush, green farmland. Nearly every farm seems to have a hunting stand of some sort on it.

It was very busy in town with an Oktoberfest event on. We had decided not to join the ship walking tour but explore on our own. First stop was the Staffelbrunserbrunnen, a delightfully whimsical fountain. It owes its name to the town’s water-fetching practices of old. Water carriers would collect water from the Staffelbrunnen, a well accessed by a series of steps (staffel). Over time the word morphed somewhat playfully into Staffelbrunsen, with brunsen meaning to urinate. The town embraced this with humour and commissioned the fountain accordingly…

We then headed down Haupstrasse but found the going particularly slow as there was a peace protest underway. Apparently Germany has recently announced a decision to increase their armed forces and the protest seemed to be against that. Nonetheless we made our way down the road admiring the many beautifully restored and maintained half-timbered buildings. The town dates back to the 12th century and has a somewhat chequered history. It was partially destroyed by fire in the 1500’s, and was impacted by the 30-year war in the 1600’s. It largely escaped damage during WWII helping to maintain its medieval character.

We admired the Rathaus (town hall) with its fountain area outside, and continued down the road to the Wurzburger Tor, one of several towers in the city that formed part of the old town walls. We then turned and headed back the way we had come.

Our next stop with the Hotel Zum Reisen. This magnificently restored building is one of the oldest, continuously operating hotels in the world, dating back to at least 1411. It was bought in 2001 by the local brewing company Faust Brauhaus. Over the years it has hosted many famous guests, including Elvis Presley. We had to stop in so Roger could try one of the famous Faust ales.

We then continued up the street to Schnatterloch, the old market place square. I think this is one of the most picturesque spots in the town. From there we headed up the hill to the Miltenberg Castle. We were unfortunately too late to go inside but it afforded fantastic views over the town. On the way down the steps we came across a very attractive ‘painted snail’.

Heading further along the road, we passed the Faust brauhaus and many other lovely buildings before coming to the remains of the Schwerzfegertor, ruins from the original town walls. By this stage it was time to head back to our starting point, with just time to stop for an ice-cream before catching the bus back to the boat for another quiet evening on board.

 

Monday 1 September: Wurzburg – Roger

We were woken to the boat bumping its way through another lock and this time stayed awake. There had been many bumps in the night and I’m sure many more that we didn’t notice. Breakfast was again delivered to the room and after breakfast the boat stopped for a while so people going on a bus excursion could depart. They hopped on the buses and went on their way; they will join us again later in the day.

Because this river is almost a series of lakes, it’s very smooth and calm and the drop at a lock where there is a power station is usually between three and four metres, which means the locks are relatively close together.

As we headed up the river we passed many towns and villages. The interesting thing here is that every village and town has one or more manufacturing plants, which seem to support the local community, and vice versa I’m sure, with labour etc. I have noticed this quite a lot when driving around southern Europe in the past.

We joined Greg and Susie for lunch during which the boat went through yet another lock. There are only inches to spare on each side of the boat –  nowadays we would say millimetres.

It was around 1 o’clock when we got to Wurzberg, About 45 minutes later we were picked up by bus and driven about 7-minutes to what was once the Prince Bishop’s palace. Wurzburg has ~130,000 residents of which ~30,000 are students. The area is well known for its vineyards and the making of white wine.

It’s a bit of a long story and goes back several centuries, starting in 1186 when the church ruled a lot of this part of the world. Bishops, to give themselves more power, became a Prince Bishop so they were not only in charge of the church but were also in charge of the people from a political perspective. In Wurzburg, the Prince Bishop built a  palace (Residenz) up on the hill. Over the years he pissed the locals off in one way or another, one of which being killing people for being witches. The peasants rose up in mutiny several times so the palace was converted into a fort. In those days in these towns, as I mentioned earlier, the church basically controlled everything.

At some point one of the Prince Bishops must have got tired of the fort on the hill and around about 1400 built a new Residenz in the town. It was here that the bus dropped us off and the guide, who was full of knowledge led us inside. This place stayed the Residenz until  the early 1800s, when along time Napoleon, who took the place over and kicked the Prince Bishop out.

The guide led us up the stairs and explained the impressive fresco on the dome above the stairs, which apparently is one of the largest in the world. There was a model at the bottom of the stairs explaining how it was constructed – basically the ceiling is held up with a timber structure, which even survived the bombing in World War II, but has since been replaced with steel. 90% of the city was wiped out during the fire bombing in 1945, including both wings of this building. The guide explained the fresco in detail, but basically there’s a bit of a story about the four continents (The Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe).

From there we were lead to another large room, which was a ballroom and a guard room area with beautiful chandeliers imported from Venice,  along with impressive stucco works around the walls and ceiling.

We then moved into the Bishop’s reception room with its pink coloured marble pillars, which were actually made of stucco because it was more expensive than marble at the time. This room also had big frescos on the ceiling and all sorts of ornaments covered in gold. When I visit these places I always think of how the peasants must have suffered to pay for this while the priests lived in absolute luxury.

We were then let loose, so to speak, and wandered through the rest of the building, which, to put it mildly, is completely over the top, with the amount of gold glitter and silver glitter and other expensive items around the place. The interesting thing about this place is that during World War II in 1945, allied bombs destroyed most of the city and both wings of this building. Only the central building with the main stairway and the grand dome survived. At the end of the war it was rebuilt by the Americans and there was even a little display giving the details of the American officer who took part in this reconstruction. There are many rooms lined with gold and others with silver. Most rooms have a large round stove in them for heating. All the art and chandeliers from the building had been stored in the wine cellar, which is under the car park, prior to the bombing and was protected. These days the cellars apparently hold something like 600,000 litres of wine. We didn’t get to go down and try any out.

We headed out the back to the gardens, which were absolutely outstanding. It is a credit to this town that they can afford to maintain these gardens at such high standard, but I’m sure the revenue from tourists contributes largely to this.

Here we teamed up with Greg and Susie again, wandering into the town and checking out the cathedral, which was of a different style to the ones we had seen so far on this trip. (Romanesque rather than Baroque)

We wandered through the town, across the old bridge and up the hill to the Marienburg Fort, the original Residenz. The intention was to check out the museum here and have a look around the building but being Monday, as is often the case in Europe, the museum was closed, so we took a walk around the outside of this large fort, much of which is under restoration. According to the security guard there is about 10 more years of work to go before it will be completely finished. There is the odd slate roof that has been completed and looks really good with the new slate on it. We wandered pretty much right round the outside of the fort and found a path down through the vineyards that led us into the back of an old church we had seen from the top of the hill.

We strolled back into town, then back to the boat, having had an interesting afternoon. It was just after 1800 when the boat pulled away from the wall and continued our up river journey.

 

 

Tuesday 2 September: Bamburg – Sylvia

We had another leisurely morning on board. There are no gym facilities but my lovely trainer, Shannon, sent me a body weight/bands workout and I have been doing this in the room most days. Roger patiently supports by acting as an anchor for the bands at various times. Afterwards we joined Susie and Greg for lunch. The boat had parked up at Zein am Main at about 11:30am. Just after 1pm we disembarked and boarded buses for the ~30 minute drive to Bamberg. The Lif meandered her way there to meet us while we were out sightseeing. Being on these buses reminds me how much I dislike group tours and I am very glad that we had organised our own activities in most ports.

Once we arrived in Bamberg we headed off on our own. (Susie and Greg had booked one of the optional tours to visit the Margravial Opera House.) Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was first founded in the 9th century and has an interesting and varied history. While it was bombed during WWII it was much less severely damaged than some other cities so retains a huge amount of its medieval charm. With a current population of ~70,000, the city hosts numerous tourists. It was built on seven hills, each crowned with a church.

After stopping briefly to buy a light backpack, where Roger was given a bottle of beer with a suspicious label – although he was assured it didn’t contain anything illicit – we wandered along the cobblestoned streets, admiring the lovely architecture, up to our first stop at the Bamberg Cathedral. This was first finished in 1012 but destroyed by fire in 1081. It was rebuilt by 1111 and has been in its current form since the 13th century. There were some interesting recycled glass statues outside the church.

Right opposite the cathedral is the New Residenz, similar to the one we visited in Wurzburg yesterday. We did not go inside this one but did take a stroll through the lovely rose gardens. I had remembered these from my previous visit here some years ago but it must have been earlier in the season as, while the flowers were pretty today, they were certainly not as spectacular as I remember.

Next to the cathedral was the old courthouse, set in a remarkable medieval courtyard. Roger had remembered that Bamberg used to be considered the centre of the earth back when the world was still believed to be flat. He was determined to find the plaque commemorating this, even though it seemed to be in the middle of a construction site. This didn’t stop him trying to wander through the barrier 🤦‍♀️. The construction workers soon put him right and he was only able to take a photograph of where the plaque is, although we couldn’t access it.

We headed up another hill to the Michaelsberg monastery. This impressive building is currently under restoration but we wandered around the grounds and admired the views back over the city.

Continuing further uphill we headed for Altenburg, a small castle that overlooks Bamberg. Earliest records of the castle date back to 1109, but it was only used for defence until it was acquired by the Prince Bishop of Bamburg and became the bishop’s residence from 1305 to 1553. It is one of the smaller castles we have visited but is well-maintained. We climbed the tower for incredible views over Bamberg and the surrounding countryside.

We then headed back down towards the centre of town, stopping at Our Lady’s Parish Church, which has a very ornate interior with frescoed ceiling and gilded altar area.

Our next stop was the Alte Rathaus, or old town hall, which was built on a bridge in the middle of the Regnitz River to join two sides of the city together. It is a magnificent building with a half-timbered front and beautifully frescoed sides. It is situated in a very picturesque part of the city.

We stopped at a nearby cafe so Roger could sample the famous local rauchsbier, or smoked beer. He wasn’t a huge fan. It was good to take a more leisurely pace to explore the old town area after having walked a good distance up and down hills all afternoon. There are many interesting sites along the river with some beautiful half-timbered houses, the old slaughterhouse, and an interesting half face sculpture among the highlights.

Having been told during the briefing last night that the bus pick up, to take us to where the Lif was now moored at Bamberg Port, would be by the half face sculpture at 6pm, we started to get a bit concerned that we weren’t seeing any of the other passengers around. A quick call to the boat advised that in fact the pick up point had been changed to outside the Concert Hall, one km away. We had about 14 minutes to get there so picked up our pace and made it with 2 minutes to spare.

Back on board we sailed from the Main River into the Main-Danube canal. At 171 km in length and completed in 1992, this canal links the Main and Danube rivers and runs between Bamberg and Kilheim, via Nuremberg. We noticed an immediate change with the locks being much deeper. There are 16 locks in total on this canal, to manage the 406m elevation change that enables continuous navigation.

 

 

 

 

Viking River Cruise: Amsterdam to Bucharest – Aug/Sept 2025 – Part I

Tuesday 26 August 2025: Amsterdam – Roger

It was 4.30 am when we piled out of bed to shower, dress and be downstairs – well down the lift really – to check out of the Mondrian Hotel. It was 5.15am when the driver of the black  Audi A6 drove us to the airport. We headed in through the platinum boarding area. No queue, no fuss. Within 10 minutes we were seated in the dining room in the First Class lounge and ordering breakfast, surrounded by SAMs and SAWs (stand around men/women), There were nearly more of them than there were customers.

Breakfast over, we caught the remote train to the D and C gate area and still had a few hundred meters to walk as the airport is huge. We were quickly seated on the plane, in the same seats as we had on the way to Qatar. I thought I would try a John Wick movie having met Keanu Reeves at an airport in the 90s – he seemed like a nice bloke. Unless you’re into crash, bash and bad guys can’t shoot, I don’t recommend it.

Landing in Amsterdam 6 hours 40 minutes later we queued up at immigration just like everyone else. The officer gave Sylvia a polite telling off for not having enough spare pages in her passport, despite the fact she had three double pages free.

A Mercedes from the Waldorf Hotel picked us up for the 20-minute drive to the hotel, the driver complaining about traffic planners and greenies, who want everyone but them to ride a bicycle. The check in process at the hotel was very personable. We were seated in front of the desk and offered refreshments while passports were checked and paperwork completed.

After we were checked in and escorted to our room we took a leg-stretching stroll around some local streets, or should I say canals. At 5pm we headed to the aptly named Vault Bar on the lower level of the hotel. The building used to be a bank and the bar is in the old vault area, complete with original safe-deposit boxes. There we met Anne, who I had originally met with her friend Mila in 2016. Mila, was on holiday just now with her husband and 12 month-old baby. Long-time friends Greg and Susie, who we are joining us on the river boat, also joined us for a drink. They had done a self-guided bike tour of the city today.

Arriving back at our room there were some rather tasty yellow clogs on a tray in front of some flowers, which I didn’t taste.

 

Wednesday 27 August: Amsterdam, Boarding the Viking Lif – Sylvia

We had a lovely, leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The Waldorf Astoria in Amsterdam is one of my favourite hotels. The service is impeccable and it makes for a very peaceful retreat in the busy city.

After breakfast we headed off to do a little shopping. Those of you who read last year’s blogs on our Mediterranean cruise may remember that Roger quite likes Decathlon here in Europe. We jumped on the metro for an easy trip out to the Northern part of Amsterdam, arriving just before the store opened at 10am. 30 minutes or so later, we headed back to the hotel laden down with purchases. The metro is clean, efficient and easy to use.

We checked out of the hotel at midday and caught an Uber to the Amsterdam Passenger Terminal. We couldn’t find the entry to the port anywhere. The automatic sliding doors just wouldn’t open. Roger tried opening them manually and was met with a rather grumpy man who had absolutely no interest in helping us find our way. Eventually a nice man sitting at a cafe a bit down the road pointed us in the right direction and we boarded the Viking Lif. As is often the case, she was moored alongside her sister ship the Viking Einar.

The Viking Lif is one of many long boats in the Viking fleet. With a maximum passenger load of about 200 she is pretty compact but seems to work. The check in was quick and easy and we were shown to our suite at the aft of the boat. There are two of these suites on each of the long boats and for our trip Greg and Suzy have one, and we have the other. The suite is beautifully appointed and comfortable with a small balcony on two sides and plenty of storage space. We headed to the dining room, where we joined Greg and Susie for a simple buffet lunch.

As the boat didn’t depart Amsterdam until 11:45pm, Roger and I decided to do something completely different and embrace our inner children by visiting the Upside Down Amsterdam museum. This is an interactive place that encourages a bit of crazy silliness as you explore a number of different rooms. I think it is really designed for instagram users. We had a few giggles as we tried out some of the different exhibits. You will see from the photos below that I may have embraced my inner child a little more than Roger. (The ball pit was particularly fun, although I was a bit concerned about whether I’d be able to get out or not…)

We headed back to the boat passing again through Amsterdam Central, a bustling metro, train and bus station with numerous shops and an intriguing mirrored ceiling.

Back on board we joined Greg and Susie in their cabin for a drink while we watched the safety video before retiring for the evening.

This ship will be our home for the next 21 days as we make our way via the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers through to Bucharest.

 

Thursday 28 August: Kinderdjik – Roger

It was still dark when the boat pulled into the Kinderdjik jetty, where today we would explore the windmills. We headed down for breakfast with Greg and Susie, after which we tagged off the boat and headed down a small walkway to the area of the windmills, first looking across at the old pumping station, which was reflecting almost perfectly in the still water. We crossed a bridge, passing a brass monument to a baby and a cat that had floated away in a large storm that resulted in the creation of the windmills in this area. Both the child and the cat were recovered and survived, or so the story goes.

We wandered down a sealed path, stopping first at the windmill museum, which at this time of the day was closed. We crossed back over the bridge and watched as a boat came up the canal. The bridge lifted up in the middle, the boat went through and the bridge came back down again.

Wandering further up the sealed path we came across a different shaped windmill with a square box on top instead of the normal round dome. This is the second of the two museums among the nineteen windmills in this area. The rest are lived in as private homes. As we approached, some diggers came along but instead of having buckets on them they had baskets with clippers on them. They were used to clear the weed from the canals with the weeds then trucked away. Maintenance is something that’s taken very seriously around here; the lesson being learned from the 1400s when the dikes and sea walls were not well maintained and thousands of people and animals lost their lives in a major storm, which is where the story about the baby and the cat in the bassinet came from.

As we arrived at the windmill there was a lady fitting the last sail, which is basically a canvas cloth that runs down the length of the lattice-type woodwork. She carefully hooked the sail rope around the hooks with a flick but had to climb up to do the last few, saying that nowadays this was a bit against health and safety. Looks like health and safety have gotten hold of us all over the world. Having fixed the last sail she went round and let the brake off and the windmill started windmilling, the end of the large blades going round at quite considerable speed even though there was very little wind. This particular mill had had the blades modified with some stainless steel ends on them to pick up the wind a little more effectively.

Adjacent to the windmill was a little cook shop as one was not allowed to cook inside the windmill. Another building has now been turned into a shop. Moored alongside on the river were a couple of barge boats, which apparently families of six or seven people used to live on back on the day. There is very little room inside and an incredibly low ceiling.

The 19 windmills here were constructed around 1740 and designed to lift the water out of this area which is ~2m below sea level. Each windmill acts as a pump. A group of windmills, pumped the water up about a meter, then the next group another meter until it reached about 30cm above sea level when it reached the dike or seawall and was able to flow out sea. Engineering and ingenuity in constructing these things is quite incredible. Basically there is a shaft that comes off the windmill through to a wooden gear, which then turns a vertical shaft, at the bottom of which is another wooden gear, which then turns a turbine, which lifts the water and pumps it up. The top part of all these windmills rotates and there are concrete posts into the ground with chains on them where the person can wind the windmill round to the best direction to pick up the most wind. When the wind is too severe the sails were taken down and the mill shut down to prevent damage.

Further down the road, back towards where we started, the other windmill museum was open and we headed in, along with about 100 other people, most of them wearing earphones  and being led by a person with a lollipop and a microphone. Here we were able to climb right up into the windmill and have a really good look at how it all worked. This one was a more traditional shape, made of bricks and looking a bit like a giant vase sloping in as it went up with the windmill bit stuck on top. Inside there were numerous small rooms which, housed the family back in the day.

Leaving there, we headed to the pump house, which we had passed on the way in. This, when originally built in 1868, had steam-powered pumps with a large furnace to heat the steam and a lot of men with wheelbarrows and shovels keeping the temperature up. When the water level was very high the steam engine could not power the pump wheels on both sides so one side was shut down until the water was lower. In 1924 this was replaced by electric pumps. The building is now a museum with lots of interesting artefacts relating to the windmills, including a blacksmith shop with all the original tools. The pump house was decommissioned in 1996 and there is now a very large pumping station nearby that does well in one building what all these windmills used to do.

Back on board we headed to the lounge. As we sat drinking a coffee this 135m boat with about 190 passengers  pushed off sideways parallel to the jetty, which means it must have a very efficient propulsion system including bow thrusters and propellers on pods at the back.

We continued up river passing lots of industrial areas. One building had a super yacht parked outside. At 90m long she is apparently for sale for 130 million euros if anybody wants a new boat. We had a leisurely afternoon watching the scenery pass by. It was quite a contrast as along the riverbanks cows and other stock often hung out on the beach and then you would be moving through another large industrial area and there were often some nice houses or estates at the riverbank.

There has been a constant stream of barges and boats going both ways on the river. The cost of freighting goods this way is about 16% of what it costs by road. About 200 million tonnes of freight crosses the Dutch/German border this way annually.

It’s just after 9 pm as I write this and we are now on the Rhine river having crossed into Germany about two hours ago. We should be arriving in Cologne early morning.

 

Friday 29 August: Cologne – Sylvia

One of the perks of being in a suite is the option of having breakfast in our room. We decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised when our order arrived piping hot and right on time. I can see this may become our go-to option. Much more relaxing than standing in line waiting for an omelette order.

At about 8am we docked briefly at Monheim. As we are travelling up river and therefore a bit slower, Viking arranged to drop us off at Monheim, where we caught a coach for the 40-minute drive to the centre of Cologne. This gives us much more time to explore. The Viking Lif eventually arrived in Cologne shortly after midday.  Once we arrived in Cologne we avoided all the other passengers, who were joining their organised tours and headed off on our own to explore the city.

First stop was the Cologne cathedral. This impressive building is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and the third tallest church of any kind, Construction began in 1248 but was stopped in 1580, unfinished. Construction began again around 1814 but was not properly funded until the 1840’s. The building was not fully complete until 1880. Although hit by 14 bombs during WWII it remained standing, in a city that was almost completely flattened. It was later repaired and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996.

Even though a mass was underway when we arrived we were allowed to enter the building to see the impressive architecture and stunning stained glass windows.

We then decided to climb the ~553 steps to the top of one of the towers, stopping at one point to admire the huge bells. The views from the top were pretty spectacular, albeit through wire netting. As we descended we were very happy to have arrived early as there were many more people starting to make the ascent.

We wandered through the old town, admiring the impressive city hall building, which is 61 meters tall and covered with 124 sculptures. It is Germany’s oldest city hall with construction starting sometime in the mid 1100’s.

Next stop was the Great Saint Martin Church, an impressive Romanesque Catholic Church that was erected between 1150 and 1250. We opted not to go inside. Nearby is an area of the old city known as the Fisherman’s Market. It no longer operates as a fish market but the colourful houses are recognisable as one of Cologne’s landmarks.  It makes for some pretty good photographs.

We headed to the Schokoladen (Chocolate) Museum, which stands in the old Customs office right on the river. This museum, which was opened at the end of October 1993, was the dream of Hans Imhoff and showcases the diversity of the 5000-year cultural history of chocolate and includes a working chocolate factory. We spent a good hour exploring the exhibits and sampling some chocolate. Having worked in the industry I was impressed by how comprehensive the exhibits were. There was a huge variety of both static and interactive displays that were very informative. At the end of the factory is a large chocolate fountain and a woman there was dipping wafers in the chocolate for us to enjoy.

After finishing our explorations of the museum we stopped in the cafe for lunch. The display of cakes and confections was pretty enticing but we opted first for a healthier, and very delicious salad. Afterwards Roger enjoyed a trio of chocolate ice-creams (milk, white and dark), while I indulged in a pretty spectacular brownie. Greg had the chocolate-coated strawberries.

After lunch Greg and Susie headed back to the boat to join their pre-arranged afternoon cycling tour of the city. Roger and I wandered back towards the cathedral and strolled across the Hohenzollern bridge to the other side of the river.  At over 400m long this bridge was built between 1907 and 1911. The only bridge not destroyed by allied bombing, it was blown up by the Germans at the end of WWII to make it difficult for the Allies to cross the Rhine. It was rebuilt for rail traffic in 1948. Today it is a six-track railway bridge with a path for pedestrians and cyclists, experiencing 1,500 train crossings per day. Since 2008 thousands of love locks have been added to the bridge. There are estimated to be between 50,000 and 200,000 locks added to the bridge with a combined weight of ~45 tonnes, but this is not deemed as a risk for the bridge so it is one of the few bridges in Europe where it is still legal for locks to be added.

On the other side of the river we took a lift up the Cologne Triangle building to the viewing platform at the top, which offers great views over the city.

We then wandered back across the bridge and along the riverside to where the Viking Lif was moored, enjoying a bit of quiet R&R for the rest of the afternoon. Tonight we will sail to Koblenz.

 

A Qatar Stopover – August 2025

Saturday 23 August 2025 – Roger

We boarded the Qatar Boeing 777 around 1pm for the 17 hour flight to Doha. We have passed through Qatar many times over the past few years, since Emirates fully pissed Sylvia off through really bad customer service and we switched to Qatar. The airline has some backward-facing centre aisle seats that fold down into a double bed, with which we normally book. Trying to stay awake for the whole flight to fit in with local time on arrival was a bit of an effort. A few movies (Inheritance and Drop were quite good) and a few walks around the plane, including a chat with the captain, a nice Indian bloke who had been flying for only 10-years, 5 on 777s, helped to pass the time.

We landed in Doha at around 21.30 local time processing really quickly through the Al Maha lounge that platinum members get to use. A Philippino driver picked us up in the hotel’s Audi A8 for the ~forty-five minute drive to the Mondrian hotel in the western district of Doha.

Everything is big here, with several lanes on the motorways lit up by lamps on poles resembling palm fronds. Many buildings are also well lit up in various colours like in Hong Kong, Vegas and Ashgabat. The hotel is quite opulent with large shapes including lamp shades in the foyer and restaurant.

 

Sunday 24 August 2025 – Roger

After a reasonable nights sleep, we headed down for breakfast just before 0800 and were the first to arrive. Lots of different staff took turns to cross to our table to see if there was anything else we needed.

We took an Uber over to the Souk Waqif markets on the east side of town, passing a large group of camel-mounted police along the way. Wearing long pants, as is the custom here, my phone must have slipped from my pocket in the Uber. The Pakistani driver saw this as a good opportunity to make an extra buck and charged 150 locals (~50USD) to bring it back.

The markets are huge, really clean, well laid out and somehow remarkably cool in spite of the open passageways. The people are nice to as they don’t hustle and try to get us to buy stuff. We wandered around and eventually found the falcon area where we looked at a few falcon shops. They are obviously a pretty big deal here as they even have a falcon hospital.

After checking out the camel yard we headed over to the National History museum. This is in a rather well crafted building made up of what look like a series of discs. Before heading into the museum and, after recovering my phone, we went to the museum cafe where a robotic trolly delivered our coffee, politely thanking us as it wheeled itself away.

There are around 800,000 people living in this small 11,500 sq kilometre country, of which about 330,000 are locals and the rest imports doing a lot of the work. With an interesting history of wars etc. over the last few hundred years, and owned at different stages by both the Ottoman and British empires, it  became a British protectorate in 1917 and eventually gained independence in 1971.  The country was mainly sustained by the pearl trade until 1949 when the first oil shipments started heading to Britain and Europe. It first started desalinating water in the early 50’s, transporting it to houses to supply the locals as well water became hard to find.

The museum is well worth a visit with a really well presented history of Qatar interspaced with lots of movies of different events projected onto the high walls. There is a rug on display with over 1 million pearls sewn into it. Well that’s what the text said I can’t say I stopped to count them. Little dishes that were used to grade pearls, and pearls of various sizes were on display ans well as some rather large pearl earrings that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor. There are also diamond and pearl tiaras and other jewellery worn by royalty.

There is a big section on oil, the black gold that helps put 16% of all households in the millionaire category.

From 2017 to 2021 the country was blockaded by the Arab League countries, ostensibly for its support of terrorism, but it survived and came out the other end stronger.

There is a model of the city that lights up year by year showing how small Doha was in 1949 to the size it is now at ~187 Sq kilometres.

Next stop was the  Katara cultural centre with a mosque, theatres, art centres, a large amphitheatre, street art, pigeon towers and lots of other impressive buildings, all built near the beach. With all the modern buildings it’s quite strange to see traditional boats (dhows) floating in the bay nearby.

After a stroll through the local, very upmarket, mall, and with the temperature now at 43 degrees C, we headed back to the hotel to wait out the hottest time of the day. It topped out at 44 degrees not long after we got back from a walk in the mall behind the hotel. Arriving back at the hotel we found the room made up and the bed strewn with rose petals… Someone must think we are on our honeymoon…

Late afternoon we were picked up by the guide for our Dhow trip.  After picking up a few others we arrived at the eastern side of the bay where a number of dhows were moored. Mounting this craft, which was well past being old, we pushed back and chugged across the port to the Westside, watching the sun go down and the skyscrapers begin to light up. We moved to the top deck, which had a knee-high ‘do not lean on me’ fence around it. Three young woman were also up there from Saudi Arabia, enjoying a holiday at the local water park. After a slow tour of the harbour, Sylvia and I wandered down to the large pearl sitting in its plastic shell to celebrate the earlier pearl industry before heading back to the hotel for dinner and an early night.

 

 

Monday 25 August – Sylvia

We were up bright and early again, not yet fully adjusted to the time zone. After another delicious breakfast, we met our driver for the day, Nasi. Having pretty much explored the city of Doha yesterday, we had arranged a full day tour of the North and West of Qatar.  We headed north out of Doha past Lusail, a modern city that was developed as part of the preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. As with the rest of Doha the skyline is impressive with very few traditional rectangular buildings – most take on different and interesting shapes.

As we drove north on the impressive 5-lanes each way highway, we passed massive homes sitting out in the desert, surrounded by high fences. There was lots of street art, even on motorway overpasses. We passed several large stadia, all with different architecture.  One looked like a giant tent, another, a lotus and another like an oyster shell. The country side is incredibly flat – just dry sandy desert as far as the eye can see.

We stoped briefly at Al Khor, the second largest city in Qatar, where 1432 sailors work at the port. The harbour was crowded with dhows and large pots for catching crabs etc. were scattered around. I was struck by the pedestrian road signs showing pictures of people wearing traditional robes. Unfortunately it was quite difficult to get good photographs from the car.

Everything is very clean and tidy. Every guide has spoken proudly of the fact that Qatar has zero crime and zero tax, with excellent free health care and education. I guess this is one of the benefits of wealth.

Our next stop was Purple Island, a large area of mangroves. We wandered along the wide boardwalk. By this time (about 10am) it was already 42 degrees and we were grateful for the small shade shelters scattered along the way. I was quite surprised by the amount of wildlife thriving even in the crazy conditions here. Lots of small fish, crabs and birds.

As we continued north we could see lots of large fenced farm areas and huge animal sheds. I cannot imagine what it must be like farming in these conditions. We also continued to see large walled enclaves, owned by varias Qatari royalty.

Our next stop was Jumail, the ruins of the first village in Qatar. It was originally home to pearl divers but has been abandoned since the 1970s and is now in ruins. At 45 degrees the heat permeated through the soles of our shoes.

A little further on we came to Al Zubarah Fort. This was built in 1938 on the hill above the Al Zubarah UNESCO site. Around 200 years ago this was a bustling trading and pearl-fishing village with a population of about 6000, but is now in ruins. It is now an active archaeological site. The town experienced periods of boom and destruction with invasions from various parties over the years, interspersed with periods of prosperity. It was finally deserted in about 1895.

The fort is now a very interesting museum with displays in the various rooms depicting the history of the site and information about the pearl diving industry. Pearl diving was quite a dangerous affair with many perils awaiting the brave divers (Ghais). Each diver would make 50-60 dives in a day yielding up to 20 oysters each dive. They could reach depths of 15-20 metres with the descent taking 90 seconds. They then stayed down another minute or so to harvest oysters before being pulled to the surface by a rope. Each diver provided their own rope as it was their life on the line. They must have had incredible breath-holding capability. There are stories of divers being stung by rays or other creatures and returning to deck hallucinating.

Once on shore the oysters would be left in the sun to rot so they would be easier to open.  The crew would open the shells with a curved knife and would find one pearl for about every 5000 oysters opened. It is no surprise to me that the cultured pearl industry has replaced this practice.

As we climbed the towers to look at the view I was impressed by how effective the traditional cooling methods were. Despite the intense heat outside, small holes in the walls channel the breeze in, lowering the inside temperature significantly. It never quite reached a comfortable level for me but was definitely considerably more bearable.

A now-dry well in the corner of the courtyard was originally dug by hand. This was another challenging feat with only a thin layer of fresh water available… too shallow, no water; too deep and the water was salty. None of the wells in the area now have potable water.

After visiting the fort, we headed south and then west, passing a large camel racing area. This area contains numerous race tracks for the camels, which race over distances of 4-10 kms at an average speed of 30kph, reaching sprinting speeds of 40kph. Since 2005, for safety, they are raced riderless and controlled remotely. There is a large area across the road from the track containing houses and camel farms and the area is surrounded by businesses that support the industry, veterinarians and agri-feed etc. Camel racing only happens in the winter, given the excessive summer temperatures. It must be incredible to watch.

Nasi stopped at a petrol station and bought us each a can of strawberry Fanta. I must have been very thirsty, even though he had been regularly giving us bottles of water, because I actually drank the foul, incredibly sweet stuff. Not something I am in any hurry to ever repeat. It was a nice thought I guess.

Our next stop was Zakreet, an area of wooded rock formations looming out of the desert. These limestone shapes were formed as the wind and water eroded the surrounding areas. A little further on is the east-west monument, an art installation by Richard Serra, erected in 2014. Apparently they show the height of the land in the area before erosion. I am sure there are other more esoteric meanings to this and other art installations in the country but as my art teacher remarked in my fourth form school report “Sylvia is a little out of sympathy with this subject”.

Nasi then drove us to Zakreet beach, currently empty but apparently in winter, full of people swimming and kayaking. It seems very strange to think that people go to the beach and play outdoors in the winter and stay inside in the summer! Here he stopped under a shade umbrella and asked me to write a review for the trip on Trip Advisor. I complied but it did feel a little strange.

While on the tour we had arranged to also visit the desert area in the south of the country. After stopping for a quick lunch in a local restaurant (delicious kofta in pita bread), we headed south, skirting the city of Doha. We passed large areas of irrigated fields, looking strangely green in the otherwise arid landscape. Large settlements of sometimes brightly-coloured apartments are dotted about. We also drove past the Turkish Air Force base. We could just make out the tails of their jets in the hangars in the distance. A couple (Roger thinks they are Russian made) even flew overhead was we drove past.

I was amazed by the electricity infrastructure right through the country. The power is apparently diesel generated and there are huge pylons running the length of the country, making quite a statement in their red and white colouring. It wasn’t long before we came across a vast area of oil refineries with their huge flame-topped chimneys and gnarled building forms looking like something out of a science fiction movie.

We eventually arrived at the desert with its huge rows of 4×4’s and dune buggies for hire and large areas of cabin-style accommodation. Apparently in the winter people flock here and stay in cabins or tents. Our tour apparently included a camel ride but we have both done those before and were in no hurry to do it again, especially in the heat here. So after reducing the tyre pressure to 15, we headed off into the dunes. There are obviously many of these trips made every day with plenty of tire tracks marring the environment. We kept heading south up and down dunes. A few other vehicles were racing up and down the dunes as well, making quite a spectacle.

We eventually arrived at the ‘Inland Sea’ an area in the gulf, surrounded by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran. After a quick photo stop, we turned and headed back to the hotel, stopping briefly at the end of the dunes to reinflate the tyres. It had been a very interesting day and we learned a huge amount about the country and its history. We were both pretty tired, even though we had sat for most of the day. I was impressed with Nasi’s energy even after driving.

Back at the hotel we headed to the ornately decorated and aptly named “Smoke and Mirrors’ where Roger enjoyed a cigar and a couple of wines before we headed back to our room for an early night.

We leave for Amsterdam early tomorrow morning. I am very glad we visited Qatar but feel no need to visit again. If I ever did, I would definitely choose to come in their winter.

 

 

Roger and Steve on tour in the South Island, New Zealand, August 2025

Saturday 2 August 2025

Steve and his wife, Karen, picked me up at 0515 and drove us to the Auckland Airport. Steve and I caught the 0640 flight to Queenstown. Arriving just after 0830 we walked to the nearby car park and picked up my truck, then headed south down the east side of Lake Wakatipu to the sleepy town of Kingston.

This is home to the Kingston Flyer, which originally started as a freight and passenger line in 1878 to bring supplies for the gold fields 140klm from Invercargill to Kingston. From Kingston, they were shipped by steam boat to Queenstown. Now a tourist train, it only runs in the summer between here and Fairlight, a 1.5 hour return journey, in 1920 carriages.

The Earnslaw ferry (a steam boat) was made in Dunedin, disassembled, then brought to Kingston by rail, reassembled, and then it puffed its way to Queenstown in 1910. It still puffs its way around the lake today, in spite of the moaning few complaining about its carbon footprint.

After a cup of tea and a muffin at the local store-come-cafe, we headed south passing through Garston, Athol, Lowther and Mossburn before turning north and heading up alongside the Ōreti River to Walter’s Peak station. This is another piece of New Zealand’s pristine landscape with sheep and cattle roaming this vast plain between two mountain ridges, which were probably carved out by a glacier millions of years ago. There are huts along the way and an unusual number of DOC (Department of Conservation) dunnies, as it is part of the Cape Reinga to Bluff biking journey, which Steve did 3 years ago. Arriving at Queenstown, they caught the Earnslaw to Walter Peak station, then biked from there to Bluff.

There is a stone house along the way, which was built in the 1800’s. A few river fords brought us to Lake Wakatipu, and after a short drive along the lake edge we arrived at the station, which has now become a tourist resort. We headed to the restaurant for some lunch to be told that lunch is only served when the ferry comes in and is part of the package. We could wait until 14:30, pay $99.00 each and have lunch with them. We declined that and the nice Chilean waitress made us a coffee, which we enjoyed on the deck overlooking the lake.

On the return journey we detoured up a side road to the Mavora Lakes. These are 3 lakes that are almost joined together, surrounded on 3 sided by native bush. On the east side there are large open areas with lots more DOC dunnies.

We pushed on up the road through a lockable barrier that was open onto a track with some rather large potholes. We turned back after a few hundred meters as we didn’t want to be trapped in there for the night.

We headed back down the valley, through Mossburn, on to Lumsden, then down through Balfour to Riversdale, where we visited the local and only pub. There, the very friendly lady behind the bar (originally from Belgium) organised us a room for the night. There wasn’t much happening at the pub tonight with the odd local coming in for a drink and some for a meal as Steve and watched on while enjoying our own drink and a meal.

Sunday 3 August 2025

Breakfast was a help yourself to the kitchen supplies of bread and cereal. Eventually finding our way out of the hotel through a door that wasn’t padlocked, we started the truck. While the windows defrosted in the -2 degree temperature we went for a wander down the Main Street to the war memorial, which displayed the names of over 20 people from this area killed during WWI. It is not until one stops and reads the names on the memorials in small towns around NZ that one realises the impact the two world wars have had on our communities. Lest we Forget.

Windows defrosted, we headed northeast to Waikaka. The farmland is pristine, probably some of the tidiest and best kept of the low country farms of NZ. Parts of the road had tall flax growing along the berms. There has been a big change since we lived here in the early 1960s, with many, originally sheep, farms being converted to dairy.  Huge sheds now house the cows in the winter, whereas back then the woolly Romney sheep were out in the open.

We headed through Waikaka into the Wendon Valley, where we had lived on a 3000 acre farm called Ribbonwood in 1960 while my father was the manager. The owner, a roading contractor who had put the road through from Queenstown to Glenorchy had some of his machines parked there. These included a large grader and a couple of TD 25 bulldozers. After being there just over a year the contractor went broke, the farm was sold and we had to move on.

Next we drove east over the rolling hills to Kelso in West Otago. Here we had lived on a farm our father managed for over five years a couple of miles up the road from the town of Kelso. Once again a lot of the farms have gone from sheep to dairy. The town of Kelso back then had a number of shops, a stock agent, scout hall, garage, community hall, and school. In 1978 and 80 there were 2 huge floods, all inundating the town and now the area has reverted to farmland. The remains of the school pool, a war memorial and a flood monument are all that remains. The rail line also ran through here up to Heriot, originally put in in 1884 to service the farms in the area. This was also closed after the floods.

We headed up the wooded hills behind Kelso, where a lookout tower still stands unused. These were built around NZ from the 1920s onwards. They were manned with a person who spent the day looking for fires in the nearby dusky forest and blue mountains. This one was still manned in the 1960s when we lived nearby. We popped into the nearby town of Tapanui, which evolved from the Conical Hills Sawmill in the 1860s.

We headed east again through Heriot to Raes Junction, once famous for its pub, which is now a private residence. Arriving at Lawrence we headed up to Gabriel’s gully where gold was discovered in May 1860 by Gabriel Reid. In the hills at the top of the gully 872 kilometres of water races were dug by hand to channel water for the sluicing of gold. We walked the track up the hill, which revealed dams and holes in the rock for storing gunpowder and the odd shack people lived in. A huge long-gone structure was built in the gully to channel water to the sluicing nozzle.

We headed part way through Lawrence, turning off and heading northeast over the hills to Lake Mahinerangi. In the mid 70s I had lead a group of soldiers around this in a 24-hour race. On the Waipori River, this was also a gold-mining area in the 1800s. In 1907 a dam was completed here to provide power to Dunedin. Later, in 1931, a second dam was built further downstream.

After crossing the causeway we headed east to a place called Hindon, where an old railway/road bridge crosses the Taieri River on the road to Lamb Hill and Silver Peaks Station.

In around 1956 we lived at Mt John station, over the hill from Silver Peaks station. Mt John had no road access or electricity when we first lived there. We used to get off the steam train that ran from Dunedin to Cromwell back then and walk or ride a horse up a cutting in the hillside. Only once while we lived there did a vehicle make it to the house. A fencer called Graham brought his Land Rover down the railway line from Hindon, and, quite a few sticks of gelignite later, they blasted out parts of the track to get the vehicle up to the house. I hadn’t been back here since we left and moved to Kurehaka Station near Maheno where I started school.

Arriving at Silver Peaks station we were met by the manager Hayden and his wife Sam. After explaining what we wanted to do they said when you come back tomorrow park in the paddock behind the house and follow the track down to the gully and up over the ridge. That done we headed into Mosgiel and had a great meal at The Black Sheep restaurant before checking into a local motel.

Monday 4 August 2025

After a good breakfast at a Mosgiel cafe we headed back to Silver Peaks being a bit careful as it was minus a few degrees, meaning a bit of black ice on the winding roads. Parking the truck off the track in the paddock behind the house we headed off along the track, which headed down into the gully. The track is in good order. We could have driven it; walking is good.

As we headed down the track the sun began to brighten up the hill on the other side. Reaching the fast flowing creek at the bottom we removed our shoes before crossing. Shoes back on we headed up the track on the other side. This gully is called Christmas creek, which I often head my mother talk about.

Reaching the saddle, we saw Hayden pushing a mob of sheep towards the open gates we had just passed through. We headed down the track 100-meters or so and ran into Elly and dogs from Lamb Hill, where she and her husband manage the station. We watched as the sheep were skilfully driven through the gates before setting off down the hill to find the old house.

Approaching some rather old and ugly pine trees we spotted the roof of the house. Following the track it led around to the southwest side of the house and eventually we entered what was once the yard behind a couple of out-buildings. One I think was shearer’s quarters, another maybe a workshop.  Both buildings now had walls missing, the nearby hen house was also worse for wear.

The house too, had walls and parts of the floor missing. It had certainly deteriorated since we left there nearly 70 years ago. I am not sure when it was last lived in. Electricity was installed not long before we left. A single line brought the current up the valley. I remember my mother saying that at 5pm the fan heater would slow to an almost stop when everyone on the line was cooking.

We slowly made our way up the track to the top of the hill, where we found a comfortable spot in the sun to sit and eat our lunch. As we were setting off again Hayden came down the hill on the side-by-side, mopping up a few sheep that had gotten separated from the main mob, which had crossed Christmas Creek and were heading up the other side on the track towards the house. Arriving at the creek we ran into Elly and another chap called Hayden who does casual mustering in the area.

Hayden turned up with the side-by-side and gave us a lift access the creek and part way up the hill. We dismounted and carried on up the track as the musterers pushed the sheep along behind and in front of us. There were about 1500 ewes in the mob being taken for scanning so the ones not in lamb could be removed from the mob.

Hayden was saying they used to run about 3000 sheep here but now the scrub growing back as the system won’t allow it to be burned off any more. This has made it a prime habitat for pigs, which kill and eat the lambs. In spite of shooting over 400 pigs this year it is becoming uneconomic to run sheep so cattle are being brought in to replace them.

Back at the truck after our 12km up and down stroll, we crossed back over the Hindon bridge and called into the old Hindon Railway Station, where some of the old buildings have been restored. Back in the day when the train stopped there, the cups of tea were poured ready to drink as the train whistled up the tea from down the line.

We headed to Middlemarch, where we checked into the local hotel. We were enjoying a few drinks and a meal when we were joined by a guy called Beak, who asked “where are you guys from?” “Auckland” replied Steve. “ “I wouldn’t say that too loudly around here” Beak quipped, then “ I’ll just grab my drink and join you guys.” Beak knew everyone and everything in the area. Consuming several jugs of beer, he kept us well entertained late into the evening.

Tuesday 5 August 2025

It was -8 degrees when I went out to start the truck and leave it running to de-ice the windows. After a coffee we headed off to check out the McCraes flat gold mine. There is a viewing area overlooking the mine site where one can watch the large trucks coming and going. In the hut there is also a TV with videos showing and explaining all aspects of the mine working. Employing 600 people and having produced 5 million ounces of gold over the last 34 years it’s a great asset to New Zealand.

Next we headed to Oamaru, stopping at Palmerston for a late breakfast. In Oamaru we stopped to visit Steve’s friends Michael and Leanne, who apart from brewing beer are into war games, having a large gaming table suspended on pulleys from the roof in their lounge. Michael spends hours painting all the model soldiers they use for the battle.

Heading out the southwest side of Oamaru we passed through Five Forks and through to the picturesque and somewhat rugged Dansey’s pass. The road is often one lane with very tight corners. Reaching the top one has a great view out over the Maniototo.

We had hoped to stay at the Dansey’s Pass Hotel but the lights were out and it was closed. I had stayed there a few times before. It’s very nice with an open fire in the lounge and old mining relics nearby. Both previous times I had stayed there it was for sale. Just now it only opens Wednesday to Sunday.

We headed to Nasbey but there too the hotels were closed. Eventually we found a bed at the Ranfurly Hotel. Here the owners, a retired farming couple, were good hosts and I enjoyed a good homemade meatloaf dinner in the bar. Steve ordered the schnitzel but reckoned the meatloaf looked better.

Wednesday 6 August 2025

We had intended to go and visit the Hayes Engineering Museum but it was closed for the winter. Instead we headed for the Thompson Gorge track, which Sylvia and I had driven over from the other side a few months ago. There is a new gold mining site being developed there. Arriving at the beginning of the track there was a big road closed for repairs sign.

Not far down the road we found a sign to the Cambrian Historic gold mining town. We headed there finding a unique little settlement with old cart implements and other historic stuff around the place, including the original school building, well restored with photos of the school’s early days in 1885. It closed in 1954.

Hugging the back roads we drove southwest until we hit the main road to Alexandra. Turning off to Clyde before Alexandra we headed up the side of Lake Dunston, crossing over at Cromwell and driving through the Kawarau Gorge to Arrowtown, where I dropped Steve off before heading home. This is the third or fourth road trip we have done together in New Zealand. There are still so many places and sights to see around this amazing country of ours.

The Giant’s House

We spent last weekend in Christchurch and I took the opportunity to visit The Giant’s House in Akaroa. This incredible place is the work of artist Josie, who fell in love with the site many years ago and has since restored the house and gardens and made hundreds of whimsical mosaic sculptures in the garden. I (Sylvia) visited with my son, his friend, my nephew his son and daughter. You could spend hours wandering around the sculptures and still not see all the detail and whimsy. It is easy to see why this place has been recognised as a Garden of International Significance since 2018.

 

An Island in a Lake, on an Island in a Lake, on an Island in the Ocean…

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to take a day trip to Mou Waho, a small island at the northern end of Lake Wanaka. It was a cold and foggy morning when we met at the pier in Wanaka. All the documentation stressed we be there 15 minutes before boarding at 9am to ensure we did not miss the trip. At 9am the boat was still moored some distance away and a small group of tourists shivered in the cold. A few minutes later a guy arrived, wandered down another jetty and we saw him take a tender out and start the boat. I was not overly impressed!

From there the trip improved. We headed out along the lake, about a 30 minute boat ride. The cloud started to part and we could see the odd patch of sun shining through. By the time we arrived at the island we could see most of the mountains around the lake.

Mou Waho is about 120 hectares and has a long history of Māori and European presence. While it was once heavily forested but several fires over the years destroyed most of the native flora. It has been farmed, and even had a small boat-building operation at one stage. Today it is uninhabited and has been replanted with native plants and has been pest free since the 1990’s. It is now home to the buff weka and other endangered species.

Although there was a small jetty our boat pushed right up onto the beach. We disembarked and wandered up the trail to the lookout at the top of the island. It was lovely and peaceful with stunning views over Lake Wanaka to the surrounding mountains.

Near the top of the island is another small lake. In this lake are two small islands (hence the title of this blog). It really is very picturesque.

After taking in the sights and exploring a few side tracks, we headed back to the beach. It was remarkably warm sitting in the sun waiting for the other visitors to return for the short trip back to Wanaka.

 

Exploring the Northern Territory – Australia: June/July 2025: Part II

Sunday 29 June 2025

After breakfast we headed out to find a banteng bull for me. At the wetlands we headed west again, further than we had been before. Leaving the truck we headed northeast on the high ground. We had only gone 500m when we encountered a mob of 4 bulls. After sneaking in for a look at each one, Steve decided they were not shooters so we backed out and headed east. About 0900 we came across another bull. We were a bit caught in the open so had to stand very still for sometime until the bull moved and we could edge forward to a tree while Ross waited on the ground behind us. After about 30-minutes Steve finally got a look at the horns deciding it was worth shooting.

I could see his shoulder through some scrub and carefully placed a shot into the shoulder. The bull stumbled then took off out to out right behind some scrub, then turned and charged straight at us. A carefully placed shot in his chest just before he went into some dead ground about 30m from us finished him off. I think bigger guns such as a 470 or 500 caliber would be better on these tough animals, particularly the buffalo which is a very large animal up to 1400 kg. Head off and we strolled the 1km back to the truck.

As we drove out there were still fires burning from fire bombs dropped from a helicopter a couple of days ago. At this time of year they burn off as much undergrowth as they can before the bush gets really dry. This prevents bushfires and is done by both helicopters and people on foot chucking matches into the grass. This takes place right across the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Arriving back at camp we said goodbye to Ron and Aaron who were heading back to Melbourne. Stephen loaded some fishing gear into the side-by-side and we headed east along the beach. Stopping by some rocks, Stephen got a long spear and dug a large mud crab out from under a rock.  We stopped again by some mangroves where he dug out another one.

We continued on a track along the top of some coastal cliffs before descending to the mouth of the Leaders Creek, some 10kms east of the camp. Stephen got out a throw net and soon had some small mullet for bait. Fishing rods were baited, chairs set up and, with a beer in hand, we fished away for a couple of hours. The only rule was “don’t turn your back on the water”. They had recently killed a couple of 4-plus meter crocs here. The results of our fishing were not great as the reef shark, eatery cod and catfish we caught were all put back.

Back at camp the crabs were boiled up and broken open – a bit rich for me but Ross and Stephen enjoyed them.

Monday 30 June 2025

We had a relaxing start to the day and after breakfast we hit the road just after 10am for the 200-plus kilometres of dusty, often corrugated road to Cahills Crossing. We had to be at this crossing as close to low tide as possible as the water is very salty and not good for the vehicle. Also if the high tide is going out it will wash the car down into the river. It is known as the most dangerous river crossing in Australia. Stephen saw a man taken by a croc while waiting to cross one day. Luckily people nearby managed to save him.

We crossed after Stephen, who had stopped just down the road and had a compressor in the back of his Toyota land cruiser to reinflate his tyres, which he had let down a bit on the way in to improve the ride on the corrugated roads. We carried on back to Darwin, stopping at Palmerston to refuel and clean the truck Sab had lent us before dropping it off and ubering to the hotel.

In reception we ran into the nice bunch of people we had met with Sab after visiting the rock drawings.

In the evening Stephen came in and had a beer with us and dropped off a couple of Walkabout Safari T shirts.

Tuesday 1 July 2025

We caught up with Sab’s group again at breakfast. They filled us in on the rest of their trip with Sab, which included a trip to a cattle farm a hundred kms west of where we were.

I headed off to pick up our rental car in town to find they didn’t have a vehicle ready yet. They also said we had to pay for kilometres over 500 inspite of the ad on Expedia saying kilometres unlimited when I booked it.

It was after ten when we were finally on the road south. The scenery was much the same as Arnhem land with scrubby bush on each side of the road. We stopped at Adelaide river where the general store was a bit of everything including a post office and cafe. We sat at the ‘grumpy old bastard’s table’ outside with a grumpy old bloke and drank our coffee. As the odd airforce person wandered in the old bloke told us that at Tindall airforce base south of here, the US has some B52 bombers based.

This town, during the war, had a large hospital to cater for soldiers wounded in the Pacific. They turned cattle rail cars into hospitals to cart the wounded from Darwin. Over 11,000 wounded were carted that way.

Next we stopped at Pine Creek, where a park had a good display of old mining equipment, including a stamping battery and a steam driven cage for lowering men into a mine and bringing ore out.

We arrived at Larrimah at about 5pm. It was only after I booked the accommodation here that I remembered that I had seen a documentary about one of the thirteen eccentric residents disappearing here. A real who done it arose; the crime is still unsolved.

 

Steve, the owner of the pub for the past seven years, was an interesting and likeable bloke. He started life up in Arnhem land, shooting buffalo and crocs for a living. He gave us a rundown on the surrounding area including a recent gas find that will keep Australia in natural gas for the next 200 years. A guy played the guitar in the courtyard for a couple of hours in the evening with a captive audience, many of whom were a veteran’s motorcycle club from Queensland on their way to Darwin.

A look at the museum indicated that during WWII about 6500 troops were based here as it became the rail head for supplies heading to Darwin. There is a photo of the first road train with 3 trailers arriving here in the 1930’s from England and going on to do some 1.2 million miles. Back then it spent a lot of time stuck in the mud on the dirt roads.

The speed limit is now 130kph on most of the open road. There was a time when the NT had no speed limits on the open road; that would have been fun.

We had seen many road trains on the road today. They are up to 53 meters long. There is one parked up near the pub, carting shingle for some road works nearby. We had a yarn to the owner, who said when he got the 1995 Kenworth tractor unit it had done over 3 million kilometres. He has lost track since then.

After a a few drinks and dinner we headed to bed. The accommodation was quite basic but comfortable.

Ross had got up during the night to relieve himself,  the toilet being some distance from the room.  I woke to him banging on the door of the room next door saying “Roger are you in there?” Lucky the room was empty and not occupied by one of the veteran bikers.

Wednesday 2 July 2025

We were invited by Steve, along with some others, to the weekly feeding of the pet croc. At 3-plus meters, this beast had been purchased from a pet shop by the then pub owner as a baby 25 years ago. It now goes with the business which is for sale.

Back on the road we stopped at Daly Waters, which was once an international airport with flights leaving Australia for Singapore from there back in the 1930s. The town is a hoot with all sorts of odd things displayed around the streets. The pub is full of memorabilia including many bras hanging from the ceiling.

Continuing south we came across the monument to the joining of the telegraph line, which was started in both Adelaide and Darwin and met here. With the poles coming from England, twenty were placed per mile. With incredible accuracy they met here in 1872, enabling a message to be sent from Adelaide to London within 7 days as lines were already in place up through Asia.

About 300kms south of Larrimah, the bush subsided, allowing us to see across large expanses of country, which continues way past where the eye can see.

We stopped for a brew at Elliot, a dusty red dirt town.

Then came the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station. This place not only wrote down each telegram then retransmitted it north or south. They also serviced the lines north and south of here, grew vegetables, kept beef cows, and had accommodation for travelers, as the line had started to become a track between Adelaide and Darwin.

As we were leaving we ran into Bruce and Estelle. We had seen their car several times today – a yellow Toyota branded with “A crazy chick and her rooster”. They had been on a cancer fund raising rally from Perth to Darwin along with 200 other cars. All had to be valued at less than $1500. 200 odd cars set out on the rally raising over $200,000 for cancer research.

We arrived in Tennant Creek around 1530hrs, checked into our hotel, then visited the gold mining museum. This place had been one of the highest gold production places in the world in the mid 1900s.

A drink and a nice meal at the local RSL finished the day off nicely. An old guy at the RSL told us how he had been robbed several times in the past few years by youths; he said crime is out of control here.

Thursday 3 July 2025

We left the securely gated motel at 0730, heading south again on the Stuart highway. The surrounding area was a little more open, which is good because for the first 700kms of the journey we had been driving between trees and scrub. There are even some hills to be seen in the distance.

About 350kms into the journey we stopped at Ti Tree for a coffee and burger. This was the first place that we had found open. A convoy of military vehicles was also stopped on their drive from Adelaide to Darwin.

At just over 500kms we passed Alice Springs. Some time later we saw Mt Conner, which can be mistaken for Ayres Rock. Turning off the highway at Gaun, we drove the last 70 kilometres to Yulara, and checked into the Outback Hotel. After checking in we headed to the information centre in town where Ross booked a sunrise helo ride for the morning. The hotel-come-lodge has a large bar area where a guy on a guitar was so bad we moved to the far end to get away from the noise.

Friday 4 July 2025

At 0650 a van driven by the helo pilot picked us up along with another couple and we headed for the airport where we boarded an old, but in good nick, bell jet ranger. I was in a crash in one of these over thirty years ago.

We took off just as the sun came over the horizon. To the east we could see Mt Conner and to the west the Olga, which looks like a pile of large stones. With Ayres rock in the middle it made for spectacular scenery. We flew around the rock then over to Olga before landing back at the airport. The pilot dropped us back at the Outback hotel where we had breakfast.

After a coffee on the town square we drove out to Olga. Parking the car we took a stroll up between the stones through quite a pretty valley. There were lots of people taking the same walk. It was easy going with foot bridges over any obstacles and a viewing platform at the top end. These features are made up of millions of stones ‘grouted’ together with what must be a rather strong grout as I am sure it has outlasted any locally grouted tiled bathrooms.

On the way back we drove towards Ayres rock and took some pictures before heading back to the hotel. In the evening we headed back to the large bar and had a long wait to get both a drink and a meal. It’s the beginning of school holidays today and a public holiday. Rooms don’t get serviced because of the holiday, something I have never struck before. This place seems to be staffed by mainly people from overseas with some 160 in the village from Fiji on a government scheme.

Saturday 5 July 2025

After a later start we headed out to Ayres rock. Parking in the last car park we headed off on the track around the rock.  There were quite a few people on the track, some on bikes, others on segways, others walking, and some running. After visiting some caves and a water hole by the rock, the track headed out well away from the rock giving us a good view of the high up caves and scars on the rock. This is not like Olga, it is one solid rock, not a pile of stones. There are lots of signs along the way about sacred places where one is not supposed to take pictures for some reason. There was a time when one could climb up on the rock but that activity has now been stopped.

Two and a quarter hours later we were back at the car. We headed back into town for a brew at the town centre cafe, where there is always a long queue to get coffee. We then headed for the airport and dropped off the Prado rental car and waited for the check-in to open. Apart from a night in Melbourne the trip is now over as we leave these clear blue sky’s behind and head home.

Exploring the Northern Territory – Australia: June/July 2025: Part I

Sunday 22 June 2025

Sylvia dropped Ross and I off at the Queenstown Airport, where, after the normal kerfuffle with security, we passed the time in the lounge before boarding our flight to Brisbane. It was a pretty comfortable flight in Row 8 on the 737-800. Yep, economy class for this 3.50 hour trip. The transfer at Brisbane was pretty easy with a long bus ride from international to the Qantas domestic terminal. The flight was a little late out getting us four and a quarter hours later into Darwin around 0100.

Checking into the Vibe hotel by the waterfront we found there was only a king sized bed in the room we were sharing. Definitely not what I had booked. The bloke that checked us in came up with an extra bed on wheels and we were sorted.

Monday 23 June 2025

About 0800 we headed down to the restaurant for what turned out to be a good breakfast. After a coffee or two, we wandered around the corner and took a lift up to a walkway that took us across to downtown Darwin. Ross headed off for a hair cut. The Greek barber, whose grandfather had fought the Germans in Crete, had some great stories to tell. After another coffee, we took a stroll out to the coast, where a park is set up as a memorial to the February 1942 raid on Darwin by the Japanese. They dropped more bombs, although smaller ones and no torpedos, than were dropped on Pearl harbour in December 1941. Apparently it was the same lead pilot for both raids.

From there we wanted back around the streets to the information centre, where we chatted with a German girl, who was selling World War II tours of the city including a visit to the museum. We boarded a 1940’s Studebaker truck with nice seats and USB charging stations and headed off on the tour. The driver, I think owner, of the tour talked unscripted all the way to the Darwin war museum some 10km away. On arrival he said we would be picked up in 90 min.

After visiting the internal part of the museum and watching a video about the first raid by the ~180 Japanese planes on Darwin, we headed outside. We were both astonished by the number of sheds and buildings, all containing really good displays of relevant history. There are a huge number of old, well-restored relics, including a Centurion tank, and many guns, ranging from 40mm Bofas up to 6-inch naval guns. One display was of floats which were used to drape chains from to prevent submarines entering the harbour. One such sub, with 80 crew, was sunk in the harbour before the first bombing. That year some 70-plus bombing raids were conducted on Darwin by the Japs.

There were two 9inch guns stationed here with a range of 26kms. The large range finders and the plotting charts were on display but the guns were sold off for scrap. The time had passed so quickly that I only just had time to race down the road to get a distant look at the 9” gun emplacement.

As we headed back to town the commentary went on in great detail, including something about some old Jap bombs that were dug up in the recent past.

Back at the hotel we got a new room sorted before wandering to a nearby restaurant, of which there are many, for a great meal of barramundi.

Tuesday 24 June 2025

Mike, from Off Road Dreaming, picked us up at 8.30.  We headed southeast through Palmerston on to the Stuart highway. Then we turned onto the Arnham Highway. It’s very big, flat country here with lots of mango trees all squared off and in neat rows. They are quite smart with fire management around here burning off the undergrowth beneath the eucalyptus trees.

First stop after passing a large naval radio transmitter was Fog Dam, which was built in the 1950s to grow rice. Unfortunately the birds came in and ate all the plants. It’s now a nature reserve. We took a stroll along a boardwalk running into the odd large yellow orb spider. A drive over the dam revealed more bird life, including magpie geese.

Back on the highway we stopped at Corroboree Park tavern for a coffee. This combination pub-grocery store had lots of buffalo skulls and horns on the walls. Next we pulled into a place on the Adelaide river with a large croc sculpture outside, where the jumping croc tours leave from. Apparently boats head up river from here well away from the jetty, chickens are held out on sticks and the crocs leap out of the water to grab them.

Next stop was the Wetland Cruise jetty, where we boarded a flat-bottomed boat for a lunch cruise. We pulled out with strict instructions to keep arms in the boat as a jumping croc lurked nearby. We headed up the billabong a few hundred meters,  passing several large salties ( saltwater crocodiles) along the way. We pulled into the edge of the waterway where a 5m saltie didn’t want to share the space with us, instead slipping into the water and disappearing.

Lunch was handed out and as we ate it Stuart, the boat driver-guide, gave us a speech on how a few months weeks ago this waterway had been 30kms wide after the spring rains. The water is now only 100m wide allowing all the plants and grasses to grow rapidly.

We then cruised further up the billabong spotting more birds, including some sea eagles perched in a tree above their huge nest, which they apparently hand on to their next generation. We watched a cormorant trying to swallow an eel it had caught.

We then parked up again and Stuart showed us how to peel and eat the seeds from the water lilies, which have red, white and blue flowers. They don’t drop their seeds until after the water has receded. A small bird walked across the lily leaves feeding as it went. Known as the Jesus bird, it has big feet for this purpose.

As we cruised back to the jetty there were a few large crocs along the river edge, warming themselves before the night hunt. A large buffalo grazed not far from the waters edge.

Mike, who had waited onshore, then drove us back to Darwin. We observed a few wallabies along the way and briefly stopped at Leaning Tree lagoon along the way. A beer at a local bar and another meal of barramundi at an Irish bar made for a relaxing evening.

Wednesday 25 June 2025

At 0730 Sab, a friend of Ross, met us at the hotel and drove us out to his house nearby. There he picked up another Land Cruiser and left us with the one he had picked us up in. We headed southeast again to Corroboree, where we visited a rather interesting museum run by an eccentric bloke who had been stabbed, shot, and had a large gash in his leg where a crocodile had bitten him.

Here there was a great collection of various military uniforms and other stuff. including one of the canoes used by Z Special Unit during the second world war. There were also the uniforms of doctors and prisoners held here. Dalac, the owner, was very enthusiastic and gave us a great tour explaining everything to us. He has obviously spent his life putting together this rather amazing collection.

Next stop was the air boat park, not far from where we went on the boat ride yesterday. It was just the two of us, and we jumped on board and the guy took us up the billabong a bit and then out across the wet paddocks. This thing can cruise across basically wet grass, reaching speeds up to about 35 miles an hour. The animals are becoming habituated to it so we were able to get close to crocodiles and a few other things were swimming around in the shallow water. The crocodiles eat fish and  also pigs that come down the water for a drink. The salt crocs also eat the odd freshwater crocodile that wanders into the place. A Jabiru stood not far from a salty, not in the least worried. These tall birds can easily kill a croc by driving their beak through the skull into the brain of the croc.

We then headed west, the road running through a military training area that runs right up to the coast, and the scenery stayed pretty much the same with gum trees and grass and few other other species of foliage. We popped into the Mamukala wetlands, which would have been quite spectacular a few weeks ago when all the lotus plants were flowering. Now the flowers have gone and the leaves are drying off, waiting for when the lagoon empties and the seeds can fall onto the ground and germinate for next year.

Next stop was Jabiru, which is an old mining town. There is not much there but we did visit the supermarket and get some bananas and oranges to chew on. Heading south towards Pine Creek, we stopped at Burrungakay rocks, where we witnessed some rock drawings. There are quite outstanding rock features with trees seeming to send the root system right down the side of the rocks into the ground to get whatever moisture is available.

We arrived at Mardukal camp 2, just before 5pm. Sab has a nice camp set up there. We were met by Sab and a great bunch of Aussies. One group of 7, 5 of whom had gone to school with Sab, and a family of 4 from Sydney.  A few drinks around the fire got some good conversation and banter going. Soon we were ushered into the dining room for a great steak meal, more good conversation and an apple pie and ice cream desert. We retired to our cabins about 2200 for a good night’s sleep.

Thursday 26 June 2025

After a good breakfast we headed north as a group with Doug and Doug joining us in our vehicle. We toured around Jabiru, once a bustling mining town with a few thousand people. The last shipment of ore from the Ranger Mine was in 2021; the mine is now being decommissioned. Hence Jabiru is now fast becoming a ghost town.

Heading north up to Arnhem land we were soon on wide shingle roads. All the gravel around here seems to have a reddish tinge to it. We crossed the ford at Cahills Crossing, which is only ideal to cross as the tide is going out, as at high tide it is salt water and hard on the vehicles.

We arrived at Gunbalanya where we picked up an Aboriginal guide, who by the smell of him hadn’t been near a shower for a while. We headed down the road to Oenpelli Hill, which had been an Aboriginal gathering place and burial site. Drawings were on lots of the overhanging rock faces. We wandered through small canyons between the rocks, arriving at a the burial site, where caves had once held skeletons. These apparently were removed and taken to the USA to a museum, but have now been brought back and buried locally. There was still the odd scull and  bones lying in little crevices.

Just around the corner from there a nice lunch had been laid out for us on the ledge overlooking the countryside, which made for a nice lunch site with views over the surrounding land. After lunch our guide took us through more canyons to another view point with more drawings then back through the Beria cave down to the vehicles. We went back to the town and art shop where the assistant was too busy on the phone to sell to the few that wanted to buy these  “seemingly expensive for what they were” art and associated items.

Seb and his team then headed off while Ross and I waited for Sean to turn up and guide us into the ‘just up the road’ hunting lodge. Sean arrived and we followed him thirty odd kms to the turn off, where he stopped and said “it’s just up the road from here, a 100kms to the airstrip then only another 80kms. He jumped in his Toyota and took off while we trailed behind his dust cloud at about 80kph, having to slow to a crawl in some parts of the road. Sean would often stop and wait for us.

The air strip used to be a town of 2000 people before a rule change and people moved on. Apparently the houses were demolished, mostly by termites.

Another 80kms on, some  good and some ‘slow down there is a rather large rut to negotiate’ road, we arrived at Walkabout safaris.

We enjoyed a beer and dinner, then headed for out tent, which was set up on a wooden deck with comfortable beds and zip up fly screens to keep the many night time bugs out. Sleep came quickly with the soothing sound of the waves breaking on the nearby beach.

Friday 27 June 2025

We were up at six for a good breakfast before we got on the road to the hunting block.  We stopped along the way to check the zero on the Blaser R8 375 H&H magnum rifle we would be using for the hunting. That done, we continued on along roads and tracks, eventually coming out at the wetlands area. This is an area running east-west about 10k and north-south some 2 to 3 kms. It is full of bird life, fish and of course crocodiles. We watched buffalo graze in here also at some distance. A few weeks ago at the end of the wet season this was a lake. By the end of the dry season all the green will have browned off and dried out to the point that one can walk through it. There will still be channels of water for the crocodiles live in.

We headed west along the edge of the wet area a couple of kms, then parked up, loaded rifle magazines, and headed north, up onto what’s called the high ground, only 8-10 meters above the wetland. We walked along with Steve in front, Ross  next (he is shooting on this run), followed by me and then Sean (Steve’s brother), who had come for a stroll with us.

Every now and then Steve would stop and scan around with his binoculars as he spotted something through the trees. About 1.5kms into the hike a Banteng is spotted in the scrub about 100m away. Sean and I stay back while Steve, with Ross on his heels, slowly creeps towards the beast. They stop for Ross to take a shot but there is a tree in the way and the beast moves off.

We wait for some time as Steve and Ross follow stealthily. About an hour later we see movement behind us. It’s Steve and Ross having followed the beast in a big circle. We move to within about 30 meters from them. By now they are watching the beast from behind a tree; it is bedded down about 70m from them.

They watch and we wait. Another hour or so passed before a shot rang out. They had to wait for the bull to stand before they could get a clear shot. There is a second shot as the bull ran away. This one knocked it over and a shot between the shoulders from close range with the 416 Rigby made sure it was dead. Steve got stuck in with his knife, removing the head with surgical skill. The head was then skinned and the jaw removed. Then it was on Ross’s shoulders for the 1.5km walk back to the truck.

We drove back to the bay where we had lunch before heading west through the trees for another hunt. Sean drove the truck around and met us on the track an hour or two later. We had walked over 12kms in our hunts for the day.

By then it was late afternoon so we headed back to camp where we showered and enjoyed a nice meal.

Aaron and his father, Ron, were visiting from Melbourne. Friends of Steve’s, they had come up to lay the sewerage lines and septic tank for the showers and toilets being installed behind each guest tent. They are both keen hunters and have become good friends of Steve’s in the nine years they have been coming here.

 

Saturday 28 June 2025

After breakfast at 0700, we headed off on the long drive to the hunting area. The roads and tracks are tough in places where the rains have washed areas out, leaving holes that buffaloes have turned into a wallow. Trees are across the track which one has to drive around. We stopped on the track before the wetlands, heading into the scrub and trees. We were again up on the high ground and had only been walking for an hour when we spotted a banteng bull. We watched it for some time before Steve got a good look at its horns and decided it was not big enough to shoot. We moved on, the bull facing us, snorting, then running off.

Not long after this Steve spotted a heard of buffalo. We watched and waited as there was no wind. Steve said the wind usually comes up at 0930. At 0928 up came the wind fortunately blowing towards us. There is a lot of luck in hunting as if the wind had come from behind us the mob at a slight whiff of our scent would have been gone. The noise of the wind was enough to cover the crunching of gravel and leaves under our feet. We edged slowly forward. There was a small bull out to our left, likely to scent us, so we froze for a while until he moved on. Eventually, deep in the scrub amongst the herd, we spotted a large old bull with a good head. After watching for a while he lay down. We slowly edged forward to get in a good shooting position. Steve had made the point that the shot had to be placed in a specific point on the shoulder and followed up quickly with a 2nd, third and more as “you can’t kill these large beasts with one shot”.

Finally in position, I placed the first shot in the shoulder and the bugger stood up. Two more quick shots in the shoulder then he ran off. A shot in the back end dropped him but he got up again. Two more shots in his other shoulder put him down. A safety shot between the shoulders ensured he was finished.

Another surgery from Steve removed the large head. It was then skinned. the jaw bone removed and onto my shoulders for the carry out. Soon we stopped for a rest and Steve feeling sorry for the old bloke carried it the rest of the way to the truck. It was now around noon so we headed to the wetlands where we ate lunch in the shade of a tree.

After lunch we drove west through the trees by the wetlands. We came out onto a large open area and Steve spotted a large bull through some trees in the wetlands. We turned back and parked in the shade of some trees about 400m from the buffalo. With a large tree between us and the buffalo we moved in, me at the rear. As we got a couple of hundred metres away I stopped and observed through the binoculars. Soon Steve and Ross were in the wetlands. Steve had told us that as long as the water is less than waist deep only small 1-2 metre crocs will be about and you can normally see them coming through the grass. I watched as the boys sunk deeper into the swamp to mid thigh depth, thinking Ross, who is more than a little nervous about crocs, must be a bit worried. I was a bit concerned he was going to alert the buffalo as he kept extending his right hand out to keep his balance while pulling his booted feet out of the mud. Steve had taken his boots off.

They made it to the tree and onto firm ground. It had a fork in it which made a good shooting rest. Then the waiting started as the beast was lying at such an angle a good shot could not be placed. After about 20 min the large beast got to its feet and the first of 8 shots rang out. I went back and got the truck and drove it around to the closest point on the dry land that I could. Soon the head was on the back of the truck and we headed back to camp.The crocs will devour the carcass within a couple of days. The ones on dry land are eaten by dingos and birds.

Ross was very pleased as we if he hadn’t got a buffalo today we were going to take the Argo (an eight wheeler amphibia buggy) two kilometres across the wetlands to an island, crossing crocodile infested channels along the way.

We enjoyed another evening of good stories, and buffalo back steak sliced very thin – quite tough but very tasty.

The Goldfields of Bendigo, North Otago

Friday 21 March 2025

We were on the plane, about to fly to Auckland for the weekend when the captain came on the PA system stating there had been a bit of an incident and they were checking with Auckland to see if the plane was safe to fly. It turned out some clown had driven the baggage cart somewhat too eagerly towards the aircraft and put a ding in the plane and a dent in our plans. The captain came back on the PA announcing that we weren’t going anywhere, the flight was cancelled. As there were no other flights available to Auckland that day we headed home towards Queensberry, stopping at the Goldfields Mining Centre by the Kawarau River, for lunch and a look around the old gold fields tourist attraction.

After walking around the track and looking at some reconstructed huts showing how the predominantly Chinese miners had lived, several sealed off tunnels, odd bits of sluicing equipment and a restored stamping battery we headed home.

 

Saturday 22 March 2025

In the late 1990’s I had visited a place called Welshtown, up on the hill behind Bendigo station, with the family. Given that we had an unexpected day at home, Sylvia and I decided to go back and check it out. The lower parts of Bendigo Station are now lush vineyards, with many of the flat areas around the district now irrigated. Things have changed considerably from the last visit. What was just a rough track running up the hillside has become a well-utilised and maintained gravel road. The hills back then were almost completely barren, to the point I am sure the sheep used to eat rocks. Over the last 30-years a considerable amount of Manuka has grown around the mine sites.

Back in the 1860’s-80’s it must have been quite a populated area. Most of the miners built their houses out of irrigated iron so they could dismantle them easily when they moved on but there are still the remains of many stone buildings along with the chimney from what was the local school a bit further down the hillside. While the earliest miners focused on alluvial gold, panning the rivers and creeks, later miners focused on deep mining the quartz reefs, a much more labour intensive process involving blasting deep pits in the schist rock,

We strolled along the track, through the kanuka, passing the odd deep mine shaft. In other places the miners had just blasted into the solid rock. These were often identifiable by a mound of shingle, a bit like the tailings from a rather large rabbit hole. Eventually we came to what had been the Matilda battery, a large device with piston like mechanisms used for crushing the rock to release the gold. Alongside the battery site was the main mine shaft, which went down several hundred feet into the hillside, with tunnels running off it at various depths chasing gold seams.

From there we strolled around the bottom of the hill to the number 2 shaft, which was  dug over 7 years in the 1870’s, going down over 200 metres, again with tunnels running off it, many unsuccessfully chasing gold. Despite many efforts, it appears only one company made a good return from their labour. All mining in the area ceased in 1902. Nowadays most of the shafts are covered with wire mesh, which bought back memories of my mother standing looking into one of the uncovered pits when we were here in the 90’s. When someone said ‘be careful Dylis, you might fall in’ her response was ‘I’ve had my three score years and ten; if I fall in just chuck some dirt over me’.

We drove back down the hill and stopped at the site of the Bendigo Gold Light Dredge. This was another somewhat unsuccessful attempt to mine gold in the area. The dredge was put in a pond, the theory being to dig up the ground under the water, sluice it and take out the gold. This was done during the depression in the 1930’s, with subsidies from the government. The only people that made any money from this were Mr Fulton and Mr Hogan, who lived in a nearby hut and dug out the pond to put the dredge in. This was the first project of what has become a major trans-Tasman enterprise.

We headed east up Matilda Road and onto Thompson’s Gorge Road to another gold mining site. In 1908 The Come in Time mining company was formed and moved half of the 20-stamp Matilda battery from the Welshtown site to this new location. It has recently been completely restored. Just below the road is a tunnel going into the hillside, which was open and accessible, so with Sylvia waiting outside, I headed about 30 metres inside until the light from my cellphone was not strong enough for me to proceed safely any further.

Getting back in the car, we decided we should follow Thompson’s Gorge Road through the hillside to Omakau. As we headed up the hill we noticed roading and flat areas, almost like building platforms, in various places with lots of ‘hazardous – do not enter’ signs. No it’s not a new subdivision, the gold rush is on again. As we headed further up the hill we could see drilling rigs in operation.The Santana mining company has been doing a lot of exploration in the area and is looking for consent to build a large open-cast mine.

As we continued, we had some spectacular views up various valleys and down into gulleys. It was interesting to see the number of tracks that have been pushed into this country over the years. There is even a buried telephone cable that runs through this gorge, which must have been a huge effort to dig with the amount of rock in the ground. In places the road was a little interesting, at one stage a creek ran along the road, or the road ran along the creek – we’re not quite sure but we made it through, popping out an hour and a half later in Omakau.

From there we headed back through Clyde and along Lake Dunstan home.