17/10 Back to reality

Friday 19th Back to Normal Life I was up before 6, enjoyed a dawn stroll along the beachfront and kept an eye out for dolphins. None today but a squawk of pink galahs (parrots) were perched on the fence preening themselves. I started the first of many cycles of laundry. We need to wash everything just in case of hitchhikers. The garden and lawn looked good, most of the pot plants were in good nick and only one of the big palms had died. We seemed to have all the fridge magnets from our most recent trip and all the trinkets had travelled well. I haven’t given any time to draw any conclusions or reach philosophical resolution of our travels. I just know instinctively that it was the right thing for us to do at that time and I don’t imagine we will ever regret it. It was a wonderful experience and we were extremely fortunate to have had the time and the money to do it, and that it all went so well. We achieved everything we set out to do and a lot more besides. We decided at an early stage not to try for Tibet and Everest Base Camp. I feel totally content with that – it was going to be extremely expensive, uncomfortable, irritating to be stuffed around so much by Chinese authorities and the ticket scalpers, and there was a considerable risk that we would have major problems with the extreme altitude. At the end of all that, we could have got there only to find it clouded in and no view of Everest. Having subsequently seen a large group of much younger seasoned travellers have huge problems with 3600m in Bolivia, it is highly likely that 6 days at 3500-5500m in Tibet would have been miserable. No regrets. China, the Himalayas, The Great Wall, the Warriors, Yangtse Gorges, Overnight recliner bed to Paris, Paris!!! Alps, Venice!! Cunard round the Eastern Mediterranean (Athens, Istanbul, Alexandria, Croatia), Rome, Florence, transatlantic crossing, Rio!! Iguazu Falls, Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Chilean Andes, Bolivia, Machu Picchu!!! Miami, Caribbean, transatlantic on the Epic, Barcelona, fabulous Greek islands on Silhouette, Innsbruck in the snow!!, the Rhine with Elisabeth!!  Norwegian fjords, the Arctic Circle and beyond, 79 degrees N,  Paris again, EuroDisney, home for Hayley’s 21st, 3 weeks to plan and book the next leg, Milan, Israel, Jerusalem!  French Riviera, Monte Carlo!, Paris again, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Estonia, St Petersberg, the Hermitage! Helsinki, Stockholm, London!! London-NY on Queen Mary! cruising into the port of NY, Air Canada!  Vancouver, cruising the Inside Passage (twice) Alaskan fjords and Glaciers, winning ALL the quizzes, Hawaii, Waikiki beach, Pearl Harbour, Hong Kong, Penang, KL, Singapore. And so many wonderful new friends. There were some tight connections, some very tight connections, some potential documentation problems, some delays, some uncertainty . . . Some milestones where we said . . “it will be good when we get beyond that”.  We cruised, we did group overland and we carved our own trail. We did it hard and we took it easy. Some of those boats were fabulous - just plain fabulous. And the rest were very good. So much food! So many new tastes. So many extraordinary cities. You might say it was quite a commitment – to the experience and to each other. We have been together 6 years on a “while it suits us” basis and it was a poignant and beautiful moment on the Radiance to commit to love,  honour and be faithful to one another. We won’t be going anywhere for the next 12 months but after that . . who knows? And if we never do anything like it again . . . we had it already. Thank you for sharing the journey with us. Janine & Chris   In the window of the Inncrowd Backpackers in Singapore. Chris' travelling shoes.  Why so many?  Who knows.  2 pairs of crocs were bought along away - and the tiny pair for Alyssa.