Barely have internet so just a tiny update to confirm I’m still alive despite being shipwrecked this morning. I swam to shore, camera survived, have lots of other news but it’ll all have to wait until the 22nd Dec when I’m back in Australia.

Another day, another island in the Pacific. Or maybe the Coral Sea. I need an atlas. This one had a hill, which isn’t very big. By 9am I’d been over the top of it, photographed a man with a pig lying asleep on him and see the world’s biggest spider web. Fortunately it didn’t contain […]

A change in pace today, as I ditched my camera bag, put my camera in my dance bag, added a towel and the tube of sunblock, and got into a small boat to a small island. It’s a good sized small island, a couple of miles across, 14000 inhabitants. They were all heading to the […]

Today I fell into a river. Tricky thing to do when you’re on a cruise ship, but I managed it. Moments later, sat on a pink rock in the middle of the river I took off my shoes and watched a zombie stumble and also fall in the river. All of this is true. I’d […]

For the first time all trip, two consecutive days at sea. Yesterday there were occasional islands but sat in the sunshine for my morning coffee as we cross the sea between Australia and Papua New Guinea the only thing breaking the monotony of the waves are seabirds, skimming the surface as they follow the swell […]

It rained this morning. Sat on the after deck, coffee in one hand, printed news sheet in the other, I got wet. Ten minutes later I was dry again. I went back inside, didn’t want sunburn. That was the highlight of the day. I’d attended a talk on the Battle of the Coral Sea, a […]

Back at the ship they had a choice of pineapple or strawyberry ice cream. I went for the blend of the two, walked past the pool and caused a stampede into the Lido of people now wanting ice cream. Hopefully they avoided my classic mistake. Ice cream plus sunshine plus strong wind on a tenth […]

It was late before I slept, early when I awoke. I went hunting coffee at 8am, sat on the aft deck, feet on the railings, watching the wake of the ship. It was heavily overcast, thick dark clouds blocking the sun, the wind strong in my face even though we were sailing away from it. […]

Sweet blissful sleep. Only four hours on Thursday night so it wasn’t a surprise when I felt tired after dinner last night. It was a surprise to wake up after midnight, well over four hours of sleep later. More strange noises, another wardrobe with hangers in it, so I put them on the floor too. […]

Tick that one off the bucket list. Passing just 20 feet below Sydney Harbour Bridge, the aerials on the ship getting rather closer than that. I has photographs. I mean, I don’t have a bucket list, but if you do, add that one. That was the peak moment of the day. Maybe the only moment […]