Hong Kong Outbound

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Arrived in Hong Kong after a smooth trip out from the UK. Very impressed by the Airport Express, thought they could do with more ticket agents at the airport, before being decanted into the chaos of Hong Kong traffic. It seems that nothing changes there anyway.

Once at the hotel contacted friends and arranged to meet the following day.

After meeting outside the Peninsular Hotel, a walk along the waterfront to the Star Ferry terminal and across to Hong Kong Island on a lovely day to take the tram up to the Peak, with splendid views across the harbour.

Hong Kong looking down from The Peak trail

Hong Kong looking down from The Peak trail

From there the MTR  and bus out to Shek O on the south-west of the island before returning to Kowloon as the sun was setting. A very pleasant day.

Next stop Perth!

The Journey (almost) Begins

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So, let the journey begin, almost anyway.

Some 25 years ago I decided that when I retired I would like to go to watch an Ashes Test in Australia so took out an investment policy to pay for the trip on which I am now about to leave at the end of November.

Hopefully, there will be a record of the trip in this blog over the next few weeks, though it will of course depend on access to WiFi for the iPad to enable me to write.

So bags are packed, weighed and ready, cameras tested and documents checked. It now remains to wait for departure at the end of next week with Hong Kong as a stop to break the journey to Perth and visit friends.

This concludes this brief test message and the main blog should begin shortly.

A little bit of background

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In order to develop the material and to provide background to what is, hopefully, to come, a series of posts containing images from 2007 to 2012.

So, to begin with 2007.

The first set of images are from a trip to Alaska and the Inside Passage and on to other parts of Canada and including the train from Toronto to Vancouver, repeating a journey made in 1972!

Eldred Island – Inside Passage Alaska
The Spirit of 98
Brown bear
Brown bear
Brown bear
A humpback whale in Frederick Sound in the Inside Passage
A humpback whale in Frederick Sound in the Inside Passage
Orca
Orca
A local
Sailing the Lynn Canal
Near Skagway, early morning
Near Skagway
Johns Hopkins Inlet in Glacier Bay
Margarite Glacier
Margarite Glacier calving
South Sawyer Glacier
Going fishing – Frederick Sound
Inbound in Misty Fjords
Approaching the head of Misty Fjords
Ketchikan – Creek Street
Ketchikan in bloom

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Next, some images from the Canadian Rockies.

Lake Louise
Lake Louise
Lake Louise
Moraine Lake
Moraine Lake
Morain Lake
Along the Icefields Parkway

More from Canada.

And the UK gets in there too!

Derwent Water
Derwent Water
Butterfly

A Starting Point

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This is the first post by the writer in what is likely to be a somewhat irregular commentary on travels at home and abroad.

As such, it not intended as a guide to travel, but rather a collection of notes on and images of encounters, scenes, sites and more. Indeed, anything of interest to the writer, or provokes their interest and curiosity.

So, to begin.

While spending a weekend near Lancaster in the north-west of England I was heading for Arnside at the head of Morecambe Bay and chanced upon the rescue of a couple who had ventured onto the sands to walk their dog and become trapped by the quicksands.

Fortunately for them, the coastguard is well versed in extracting people from the sands, so they were eventually hauled, rather ignominiously, much no doubt to their relief, and that of the watchers!

16 June 2103 – Sandside Rescue
16 June 2013 – Sandside Rescue
16 June 2013 – Sandside Rescue
16 June 2013 – Sandside Rescue

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