I have gone walkabout

Hærvejen, Denmark’s Camino

Posted on June 29, 2024 by U.

Well, took 5 trains from Kiel in Viborg, central Denmark, to commence Denmark’s 121 km long Camino stretch, the Hærvejen. Weather predictions were shocking.

Day 1, Saturday 15th June, Viborg to Dollerup, 19 kms. Weather held up til 11.30, then absolutely torrential rain. Bummer, couldn’t see much and the path turned into a mud fest and running creeks, which forced me to walk along a country road. Wifi didn’t work, maps were soaked as was I. Rain jacket crap, goretex boots crap, rain pants repaired way too many times with insulation tape!

After the 1st night’s accommodation was well, could have done with a good clean shall I say, 2nd night is divine. Hanne spoilt me rotten despite me looking like a drowned filthy rat. She had upgraded me to an amazing apartment with floor heating, provided bathrobe, thick socks, Thai curry for dinner and strawberries and cream for desert. Suggested the old hairdryer trick for me boots 🤣 ….Places I’m staying seem to be in very small villages with no restaurants etc.

Day 2, Sunday 16th, Dollerup to Thorning. 19.5km again with the last 5 being along a bitumen road, which is hell for my body. 😬😭. Bettina had suggested to get one of those cheap ponchos, but where? I always have those, but well, didn’t think of it. I knew I would pass a little shop, but being Sunday, in the country and then them having ponchos! Fat chance. But guess what, shop was open, shop had poncho and shop was interesting. Got talking to sales man (attractive too), ‘we’re a bit special’ he said. You are indeed, being open on Sunday 8am! He explained they’re open 365 days, locals pay for their groceries in advance by putting money in and when their credit is spent they top up again. That way the shop has capital to work with, has no debts, everything in here is paid for he proudly said. They have some volunteers and some people with disabilities helping. Not a Co-op as such but it’s an attempt to keep shops in little towns alive. And if they have a profit at the end of the year it goes back into the community for some needed project. Love it.

Day 3, 17th June, Thorning to Kragelund, 20kms. Beautiful walk today, the birds were as excited as I seeing the sun filtering through the trees. Just long enough til I arrived at my next B&B! Walking through a variety of heath and forests, yes, a lot of forest bathing today. Heaps of history here from the last Ice Age 15,000 years ago and burial mounds from the Bronze Age (1700-500BC).

I wish I could look back in time sometimes, I have no imagination of what battles must have been like in this now serene and peaceful landscape.

The big highlight was a little stall along the path for drinks and an ice cream, run by private families in this area. The only hooman I saw.

And well, although it was sunny for most of the day, the path is still soaked of course with all this rain. Just to demonstrate some challenges 😅

Walking on soft forest ground is easy, what kills me and my hip is the end to get to my accommodation, 5km bitumen road yesterday and 3 today. This morning I was offered a lift back to start of trail, tomorrow, I think I will hitchhike. Hip very sore! 😭

Day 4, 18th June, Kragelund to Sepstrup, 20km. Goodness me, I cannot remember these names for 1 second! Beautiful walking day today, undulating, small soft forest paths, no bitumen, no hip pain! 😊. Could be the drugs of course! Or Bettina’s magic potion. I’m very grateful. An aquaintance is nursing a knee injury, possibly needing surgery. She said the other day ‘I’d give anything to be able to walk even in the rain’, after my first day of torrential rain lament. That certainly put me in touch with my gratefullness quick smart. I’m grateful anyway, but after 2 years of hip pain and thinking that’s it with my walking multidays, here I am! How fortunate! How very fortunate! ❤

Today promised sunshine the whole day, well…

It dosen’t really get dark at night, very strange. And no place so far had blinds or shutters to make the room dark. The Danes can obviously sleep in the light. Hard for me, but so far I seem to get away with very little sleep, all them endorphins zapping around! Lake Bølling Sø, another left over from the last ice age ~10,000 years ago. They found lots of stone age tools and the incredibly well preserved mummified corpse of the Tollund Man, who lived at 4th century BC. Wow eh?

So colour coordinated! First time they added the goold old shell! Heya St James!

Day 5, 19th June, Sepstrup to Nørre Snede 18kms. Monotonous day walking mostly through plantation pine forest.

Huge ants nest, pine needles are excellent building material

Then some more challenging bog!

Day 6, 20th June, Nørre Snede to Kollemorten, 20km

The morning was nice through fields of long wet grass, then more heath, passing more burial mounds, that just look like grassy hills to me. I’m very disrespectful to ancient history I know.

And then another 10ks long gravel and bitumen road. My body is screaming and I’m done! Decided to give tomorrow’s walk to Jelling a miss. It’s the last day and described as the least eventfull. And Jelling is a bigger town and lots to see PLUS some Cafés. ☕️🍰

Haiku to my rainpants:

You have to go now, Your autumn is long overdue, Separation hurts. We also have a German version: Du musst jetzt gehen, Dein Herbst ist längst zerflossen, Trennung kann schmerzen.

Day 7, 21st June Jelling

Got a lift to Jelling with Hans who transports my luggage. So lucky, it gives me time to explore historic Jelling, where Denmark is mentioned the first time, founded so to speak. And just now, as I turn my Bluetooth on to start writing, it has a whole different meaning for me! And I tell you why my friends. Read those two letters:

I had no idea about the origin of the name for the computer sign Bluetooth, good old Harald Bluetooth, son of King Gorm the Old! And the Danes so gracefully accepted the apology.

The Bluetooth sign will never be the same for me. I never realised and I do have runes at home.

Gorm and his wife Thyra, Bluetooth’s parents.

Otherwise the town is full of Viking history, tough and violent guys they were it seems. 2 large burial mounds

And this is the largest rune in the world from about 965 and in case you can’t read it it says: Harald king ordered the making of these memories of Gorm, his father and Thyra, his mother, the Harald who won all of Denmark and Norway and christianised the Danes!

And a little still life, ice cream in front of burial mound.

Leaving Jelling in pouring rain and 13 degrees to meet my niece Tina and husband Boris in Flensburg, right at the Danish border. What a nice city, and just 86kms away from where I come from and I have never been here. Unbelievable for Australian standards.

Ice cream with nuts, 1 minute before my tooth broke off 😭

That’s it for now. One more Blog maybe of the Mont Blanc Tour, 7 day UTrack MB Ramblers. I’m terrified as my body was quite unhappy on my Denmark walk and by the time that starts I’ll be out of training for about 3 weeks. 😳. Plus the weather has been SO unpredictable as we all know. Not sure if you heard, but Zermatt for instance where I was not long ago had a big landslide and was cut off for a few days. 3 people died. Well, I guess this is the world we have created. Bye for now.

Schweiz 24 – mal wieder

Posted on June 6, 2024 by U.

Well, how lucky was I to meet a Swiss crew at the airport. Jolanda, Heinz and Erica. Jolanda and Heinz even drove me to my first airbnb after arrival! Wow, thank you, what luxury.

It is amazing how one always seem to survive that dreadful flight! And kind as I am I took the rain with me. But nothing stops this old trouper and I dared the elements with raingear and umbrella.

The Katzensee, home to my friend Heinz. Beautiful spring flowers everywhere.

My airbnb was lovely, Birgit also works in mental health, disability etc and we had lots to chat about. And her new challenge is to work with hoarders! Wow! Then, first task: get that Fondue craving thing out of the way! Oh I love it, I can feast on the smell alone. CHF 40 for fondue and a beer, $80. Holy macaroni, don’t tell anyone. The exchange rate is shocking.

Don’t ask what it costs, I’ve never eaten that expensive ever, but…a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

Off to Stoos for 3 nights Wellness Hotel. To get there you go by the steepest funicular in the world. I realised that once I figure out the public transport system in a country I feel a lot more confident.

I so love the mountains, not sure what it is. The air is so fresh, the forever changing landscape, the stillness, it opens my heart and tears well up from gratitude. And then the clouds suddenly give way to the snow covered mountains and wow!

I actually came to Stoos because I saw a photo of the Ridgewalk on Facebook or somewhere and that got me hooked. That particular walk is still closed, too much snow still. But who cares, everything else was just as beautiful and the weather turned on its finest.

Funny pretend door in the middle of the paddock

Well, that was 3 days of: little walk before breakfast, little bit of gym, little bit of swimming, BIG breakfast with everything one could possibly want, little rest, BIG afternoon walk, little bit of food, lots of sauna, lots of rest and reading. My type of paradise!

Then Solothurn. And what a stunning place is that! Went to the Verena (the holy one, not my girlfriend) Gorge twice, SO impressive.

The devil wasn’t happy with Verena. Because of her healing ability she attracted many people to Christianity. So he tried to kill her by throwing a rock at her, which fell on his foot instead. And now you know why he’s limping still to this day 😅🤣😂. Did a fabulous guided city tour and then went to check out a different side of Switzerland, the art/graffiti place the Attisholz-Areal.

And I loved her work, a Ukrainian artist by the name of Olga Sabadin.

And then my 1st multi-day hike in about 2 years, 5 days of the Jura Höhenweg (Crest) started. I was really nervous and apprehensive, since my hip gave me grief with bursitis and couple of tears here and there. Anyway if worse comes to worse stop hike or take good drugs (with which I’m loaded 😆). Off I go, up by cable car to Weissenstein. Walking from here to Frivillier.

It’s starts along yet another planet walk. Hm, they must like this concept them Swiss.

Started at the sun again, left my poles at Saturn for some hikes in future lives and then warmed up at your anus 🥵

Beautiful day, looong beautiful day!

Yes, high five to myself. Unbelievable if I may say so. 🥰

Met Monika, which was kind of reassuring. She works in Aged Care, so we had some good chats and ended up having dinner together in Biel.

This is a border stone between German Swiss and French Swiss. From now on finish with Gruerzi and start “Bonjour Madame”

Day 2 from Frivillier to Chasseral. Gorgeous spring day. Wildflowers everywhere. Observed this enchanting little mouse eating a flower I’d like to think, but I’m afraid it’s a butterfly 🦋.

And by the afternoon the weather started to change. 😮‍💨. This is on top of Chasseral, 1602mts, it was freezing and windy.

Day 3, Le Pâquier to La Vue des Alpes. Well, no vue I’m afraid. Good to find markers, always reassuring. Luckily an easy 14km through lots of muddy meadows with yummy sloshy cow shit. A taxi pick up was organised for a night in La-Chaux-de-Fonds and to drive me back up the mountains in the morning.

Day 4, La Vue des Alpes to Noiraigue, 22km. Big day with steep descent.

Weather was fine for the morning but by lunch time it was bucketing down. Luckily I crossed a bitumen road and saw a bus stop, so after 14kms dry and another 3 hours to go in the rain, guess what I chose? Yes, I’m made of sugar and would have melted! While I was drying my boots in the BnB with a hairdryer (gore tex, schmore tex) a memory came to me. On some other hike somewhere, I put the nozzle of the hairdryer into the shoe and left it for a while, until an awful smell alerted me! Say no more, burnt my boots, blew the hairdryer. Oops 🤣

There he goes, out of sight in a minute with his long legs.

Look how quickly the weather changes. Fascinating.

Day 5, the famous Creux-du-Van, 12km from Noiraigue (meaning black waters due to asphalt mine). Stunning walk, 2 hours relentlessly up and up. Body going well, hip ok. And then, bang, at the top something plopped in my back between the shoulder blades and I could barely breath. Took some panadol and meloxicam, rested, but the pain wouldn’t subside.

There was a restaurant near because sensible people can also drive to this spot and I asked them to please call me a taxi to take me to a doctor. But because the pain was around the heart chest area they insisted on calling an ambulance, which means helicopter in the mountains. Super embarressing, but I also understand, heart, duty of care etc etc. So here we go, Neuchâtel hospital!

Christophe was so sweet, he kept holding my hand.

I’m learning to accept help, not easy for a Social Worker 😅🤣. I’m even graceously accepting my dear friends Sygun and Peter to pick me up from Travers instead of meeting in Villeneuve as originally planned. My back is much better but we thought better to give it a rest for another day, might have trouble carrying my pack.

One gorgeous week with Sygun and Peter in Ovronnaz Wellness Hotel, another fabulous deal through a friend of a friend, Martina. Altitude of Ovronnaz about 1300mts.

We spent one day in Sion and Andrea, a friend from Australia popped over from somewhere near Thun to meet us.

And of course sauna and hot thermal baths in the afternoons. We must be so cleansed and healed from all malaise.🤕🤒🤧

The Loutse track promised magnificent panoramic views. All lies!

Our lovely week came to an end 😢😥 and I found a great airbnb in the old part of Sion for 3 nights. Sion is such a central place from where to explore many things, like: woohoo, Zermatt, Gornergrat and the Matterhorn.

The cogwheel train trip to Gornergrat is pretty specky in itself.

Another eventfull day following recommendations from my friends Vanessa and Martina. Lac de Souterrain St-Lèonard and Evolène, both near Sion.

Who would believe there’s the longest underground lake in Europe underneath this vineyard !

Another 45 min bus ride to Evolène, a very old Swiss village. Unfortunately it was Monday and everything was closed and between 12 and 2 things are even more closed!

Off to Villars-sur-Olon where I was able to use my niece’s and nephew’s apartment for a week with my buddy Bettina from Hamburg. Bettina and I have hiked many kms together over the years. Weather was, well lala for most of the week, but usually nothing stops us.

Started with an easy walk, the Footbridge path, here: waiting for the season to start! 🤣

Day 3, still raining, Villeneuve, Resèrve de Grangettes, very pretty, but well, a tad wet.

Chateau Chillon, didn’t go in, crowds of Asian tourists who take endless selfies. Plus I’ve been in before.

Yeah yeah, Fondue AGAIN! At home this time for CHF 14 for 2 people instead of CHF 33 just for me.

I must stop for now. If a Blog gets too long, it won’t load properly and is a pain to write, gets stuck every second word etc. I think because I’m not a paying WordPress customer. I could ramble on and post a dozen more photos as you can imagine. Switzerland is like that, stunning at every corner. Thanks Bettina for a great week, didn’t expect anything less. Glad we meet again in Hamburg. Next Blog is Camino Denmark. Hope you’re all well. Ursula

Tassie 24

Posted on March 1, 2024March 1, 2024 by U.

After an eventfull and emotionally draining month of December with cyclone Jasper, subsequent floods, the passing of my beloved aunty Marie-Louise on our combined birthday (70 and 95), car breakdowns, constant need to adjust, cancel and change plans, I’m finally back in lovely Tasmania. I was to start this trip with a house sit in the Tamar valley north of Launceston, but due to Van Go deciding to be a Van No Go, I had to cancel. Very much dislike letting people down. But Colette and Alex were very forgiving and flexible in changing their travel plan. We met after my 4 day late arrival and arranged for me to “sit” a bit later in the month. A few nights at Greens Beach to settle back into van life had me calm down a bit.

I then went south, said hello to my friend Jan with the obligatory lunch and photo at Signal Station. Beautiful as always.

Then off to Huon Valley (=cherries galore, glad I’m in the van by myself 🥴🤭) and Cygnet Folk Festival. Such a devine little festival, especially nice having some Cairns friends parking next to me, Phil, Genevieve and Julie.

Left well early back up North for the house sit, being rather anxious that Van Go would let me down again!!! Camped the night before only 7km away from Colette and Alex’s place, so if worse comes to worse I could walk there! Do I need to see a psychologist to address my anxiety? Probably. 😅 And what a beautiful beach “shack” they own, with an amazing veggie garden, Asta the dog, Lola the cat and 3 chicken.

Asta recently had her schnauzer cut off on instructions from Alex to the groomer, which almost created a divorce 😉. After all it’s the schnauzer that makes a Schnauzer a Schnauzer isn’t it?

But then I found out, she’s not a Schnauzer at all, b ut a Wire Fox Terrier! With attitude! But as you can see (left) they still should have schnauzers.

Asta is an enigma as Colette calls her, hard to figure out. She hates chicken, cats and other dogs and is off like a flash if not constantly on a lead. And walking? You won’t get far, too much good sniffing to do. But we had a good time and even did yoga downward dog together.

Due to the house sit, I’m hanging around this area a lot longer than I usually would have. And there’s always more than meets the eyes I find. As a tourist you drive through these little towns and may think, oh yes, not much here. Like Greens Beach has 1 shop. But because of Colette, I learnt that there is so much community stuff going on, book club, cold water swimming group, “greens” political lobby groups etc. And Beaconsfield looks rather hohum, a cafe, IGA, a pub, a Post Office and a little gallery. And the museum of course. But then, because I’m camping a night at the showgrounds (Alex, a professor in mathematics is giving a house talk tonight on nuclear energy, and I’m invited to go), I went to a side street and found this incredible community garden, a hive of activity. And the adjacent community hub, where they also sell excess garden produce for VERY cheap, had a spinning group, a mosaic group and pilates happening. You would never know as a tourist driving through.

Killer tomatoes! WTF are they feeding them?

And now is the 24th of February all of a sudden. I’d lost the mojo for Blog writing, always excuses, no reception, no table, too cold. But mainly because I feel more like living here than travelling, meaning life is less ‘exciting’ than in previous years. But never the less I’m having a great time. As a 70th birthday present Jan had shouted me 2 nights at Sassafrass Spring, a gorgeous bush retreat pretty much next to her property near Ellendale.

View from our cottage, very quirky place

View from that yoga platform, amazing for my morning meditation, with sunrise all!

Jan wanted to explore a bushwalk along an old logging road from there to her place along borders of Mt Field National Park. We needed a local guide, John, a lovely guy who knows the country like the back of his hand (? is that the saying?). Interesting man, an old bushy, gardener for everyone, conservationist, builder and a vet by trade onvce upon a timew. And boy! Was it overgrown. We climbed up and clambered over, crawled under, John often running ahead trying to find the old path and searching for faded pink ribbons. 1 km an hour might give you an idea of the roughness of the terrain. Logging finished 60 years ago and amazing how things regenerate if we would just leave it alone. But we eventually made it to Jan’s property and back via paddocks. It was a super exciting 5 hour walk (7.5kms) and we received sincere praise from John on how well we did. He took others in the past who gave up, got injured etc. High five Jan Tilden!

A few days later I did the Tarn Shelf walk in Mt Field National Park, one of my favourites! A 16km challenging walk, rocky and rooty like the sound of a Folk Festival 🤣. I wanted to do it one more time, but since my hip issues (and age increase!) I have built up quite a bit of fear doing these things on my own. But feel the fear and do it anyway and this old body served me well! Thank you thank you.

Also walked the 3 Falls walk again at Mt Field.

LOVE that National Park and camping at “Left of Field” campground is amazing. Such a nice couple run it with many great ideas in the planning. They are currently building a couple of little stages and are planning theatre and music events in the bush on a small scale.

And while in Mt Field area we had a little gathering for Jan’s tiny house roof wetting (Richtfest), with Richtbaum and all 😅🤣. Fun afternoon.

The meetings of the hats Richard calls this photo.

Somewhere in between I spent a few days with Phil and Genevieve in Penguin (and there are NO penguins in Penguin – really?) before their return back to Cairns to face moving and the ripping apart of their walls to repair flood damage.

One of my great joys is a cuppa tea in bed in the morning, contemplating life and in the shorter term, the upcoming day. In the van at sometimes below 10 degrees that can be a bit of a chore. Because I’m such an early riser, I don’t want to make noises in the campground with slamming van doors, rattling gas cookers. So I really appreciate the existance of camp kitchens. If you care to check security cameras and see this creature in total darkness wandering around scaring the heebie jeebies out of wallabies (thump thump thump), rugged up with hoody, beanie and head torch, tea flask in hand, well, that’s me! Just off to get hot water. How we take hot water for granted! I happened to read a chapter this morning (with cup of tea in hand) in this fabulous book (L’élégance du hérisson – The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery), so fitting

Oh, all so philosophical! I’m trying to be as philosophical (with slightly less success) about Van Go, who has been in car hospital care for about 5 or 6 times on this trip! Attention seeking bastard. 😡. I don’t want to bore you with details but currently he’s getting a new cylinder head and wheel bearings, a mere $3800. He had a total of $12K in repairs in 1.5 years! That’s hideous. I’m afraid you have to go next month kiddo! My Cairns mechanic suggested to set fire to him or push him over a cliff and claim insurance. 🤔 . MY mechanic is otherwise a nice guy, really.

I’m currently house sitting again near Hobart for Heidi and Sam and their rabbit Charlie. Bit easier to manage than naughty Asta.

Having a good time doing a lot of nothing, reading, gym and exploring local bushwalks with my new 810 gram backpack.

In anticipation of the Camino Denmark in June

Friday, 1st of March today. Heading north today to catch the ferry back to the mainland, Geelong tomorrow and drive to Melbourne. Where did the 2 months go? 😳 🤔

Heard a great quote on TV:

Loneliness is the pain of being alone,

Solitude is the joy of being alone.

Tassie 23

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by U.

Baby’s got a name : Van Go! Van Blogh didn’t seem to resonate 🤔, and Van Gogh, well, copy right was outrageous. What do you think? And after checking every shop possible for stick on sunflowers, found an old calender that we converted with adhesive schoolbooks wrapper, voilá! 🌼🌻🌼

And someone sent me this, cracked me up!

Arriving in Tassie almost feels like homecoming having done this the third year in a row now. Deloraine top Café is a regular haunt for its delicious baguettes and great coffee on my way to Hobart to invade my friend Jan’s house again. Jan has recently retired aswell and keeps herself busy building another cabin on her block of land in Ellendale.

But when together we’re enjoying the new game of Azul. Thanks Ali. That present was a success!

Here with Jan’s friends Richard and Marilyn

Off to Cygnet Folk Festival. I had booked this last year but as we know many things were cancelled due to C.

Quick coffee with my friends Michael and David as their cruise ship passes through Hobart.

My Cygnet airbnb is beautiful and provides time out from festival vibes. The only thing is those bloody Induction stoves that are all the rage now. We had one in the American River airbnb. But luckily Kay and Kerry studied the 10 centimeter thick manual, completed the TAFE course “Induction 101” via Zoom and were then able to boil us some eggs. Phew!

My festival dose of Tenzin Choegal was in this lovely little church with phenomenal acoustic ❤️ ♥️

What a nice festival it was. The musicians were so happy to be back after 2 years of cancellations. Bob Brown MC’ed a session called Earth Celebration which was so moving. He is one of my highly admired people.

Beautiful Kasey from old Stringmansassy Duo is back on the circuit (this time with Andrew Viewers), which was fabulous to see. LOVE her voice.

Now I haven’t written for a few weeks as I have settled into Jan’s place in Mt Nelson, doing “normal” things. Regular visits to Signal Station, just up from Jan’s place, for coffee/food and walks.

Playing lots of Bridge at the Hobart Club. Continuing some Bowen therapy sessions to try and improve my hip. David Lawler in Cairns had helped so much. But it seems to have reached some chronic stage. Ho-hum.👎

Then a few days of car dramas. Parking ticket, despite trying with all my brain power (which is obviously shrinking) to work out the Hobart parking meters. Another TAFE course required, “Hobart parking meters 101”. Then broke down on the highway on my way to playing bridge.🥵. The traffic in Hobart is already CRAZY, so, no ! you don’t want to break down on the highway and add to the chaos. But I DID, however was just able to hobble on 3 cylinders to where I could stop off the road. Sweat!🥵 Lovely RACT (ADAC/RACQ in other countries 😊) man Tim was right behind me as soon as I hung up from calling them!!!! Trail angel. He found the issue, got the part (broken cylinder coil) from town and fixed it all in under an hour. AMAZING. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️service. But wait, there’s more. The following day I backed into the neighbour Gabi’s car, in the car park and damaged her two left doors! I can rack my brain for excuses, but there ain’t none. I simply didn’t look! Gabi, a palliative care nurse and super nice, kept hugging me, saying it’s ok, it’s ok. My insurance (CIL) was fabulous, however, she can’t get a repairer til April. No panelbeater staff, no parts, I don’t know what’s going on in the world. And then, can you believe it? Someone else backed into her in the carpark at work and damanged the tail light on that side. She thinks her car must be invisible. Enough of bad car stuff. Good car stuff is, Van Go didn’t have much damage, tail light cover only and has had her bed raised with left over timber from Jan’s land and a pull out draw put in. Thanks Richard and Marilyn.

This reminded me of Santa stuck in the chimney somehow 🤭

This weekend is the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, biggest one in the Southern Hemisphere. It was absolutely beautiful seeing the tall ships sail into the harbour. Weather was a bit crappy unfortunately. I found it very emotional, no idea why.

Check out the people sitting high up on tne mast.

Maybe I was a slave once upon a time on one of them, or simply because all the lost craftsmanship, the skill, nostalgia, who knows.

And this is how people travel today. Eeek, I don’t think I’d ever find my room again.

And now for a treat! I went with Par Avion into the South West Wilderness for 3 days, 2 nights glamping. You can only get in there by boat, plane or on foot (6 days!) along the Southcoast Track.

It was FABULOUS! Too many photos, here are just a few.

Terrible photo, but the Orange Bellied Parrots are almost extinct, ~60 left

The flight home was SO scary and bumpy. I swear our pilot was barely out of highschool! But she got us back to Hobart safely 🤩

Upwards and onwards Van Go went to Fortesque Bay, a bit of sitting to digest that incredible experience. I’m a very fortunate person indeed. Walked to Cape Hauy Sunday morning, 4th and last time in my life. 4282 steps, 2x Voltaren and 2x Osteopanadol kind of walk these days.

I walked with the awareness that this would be my last time. I remembered when my dear friend Christa, who died of cancer at the tender age of 42 once said “this is my last Red Arrow walk”. She was always so very fit and used to run it. I had no idea how she knew because to me she still seemed fit, although her breathing was much more labourious. I didn’t want to believe it then, but she was right. I understand it better now.

Little futher on to Lime Bay and what a cute quiet spot that is!

I can feel totally content, sitting in a quiet spot, no reception (yoohoo!), reading or just looking, or observing little Blue Wrens hopping about, busily feeding. On other days I have moments of TV withdrawals, haven’t watched it for months. Thinking I should know more details about the horrors in this world, NZ weather catastrophies, earthquakes in Turkey, wars in other places. But what are the benefits of knowing I wonder? To generate compassion and donate more money maybe?

24/2 Today I left Jan. 😥 Thank you for accommodating me again for so long. I always feel so inspired spending time with Jan. We discuss and contemplate and stretch the corners of our brains, well mine anyway. 😅. And we also enjoy playing games, “Azul” and “Splendor” were the flavour of this year.

Heading north to explore north west coast. Love Stanley, windy, cold, rugged.

This hill is The Nut, a vulcanic left over.

I asked my campground neighbour if she had been up The Knob. (For my non Cairns friends, Yorkeys Knob is a hill in Cairns. Listed as the rudest place name in Australia). Anyway, this woman cracked up laughing, no, she said, not the Knob, but I conquered The Nuts. 😆😅🤣😂

Did a Tarkine drive today after I’ve visited a robotic dairy. Wow, interesting, 1 person can manage a whole farm. As you can see in the videos, tiets gets washed like in a car wash with little circular brushes and then the milk machine clips on. The cows can wonder in 24/7, whenever they want to. It just has to be more than 6 hours since the last milking. They have a necklace that tells the computer when they’ve last been through. So if one suffers from insomnia it could get a milk and a feed at 2am for instance.

And then they have this rather larger shit vacuum cleaner upper which goes around every 3 hours and brings the cow poo outside to a container from where it then spread as fertiliser onto the field, like in the old days. Fascinating. I don’t think this robot takes work away from people because there aren’t any people who want to do this work.

And here you can see how much milk every tiet gives and that 🐄 in total per milking.

Trowutta Arch and another fossilised dinosaur

I better publish today. WordPress moving to another app and asks me to go there or else I lose stuff. All too much for a little luddite like me!

This is not a hiking Blog – It’s a Van Blogh. 😆

Posted on January 10, 2023 by U.

Oh dear, I’m so witty.

19/12/2022 Well after 4 months of 3x soft tissue hip injuries and exorbitant prices of hire campervans (between $11,000 and 15,000 for 3 months), I decided to buy one. I thought my hiking career might be over, but that that shouldn’t be a reason to stop travel and adventure. And as for the 3rd year in a row I am escaping the ever increasing tropical heat for the cool of Tasmania.

And here is my new baby, Toyota Hiace 2005.

After my usual hiking packing of 8-10kg, I can now take everything but my washing machine! 😅🤣. I am highly challenged with the 12V systems of battery, fridge, solar set up, and uncountable amount of charger cables. I currently have Kabelsalat everywhere, as we would say in German. Cabel salad doesn’t translate well, more like cabel spagetti.

First stop Townsville. Lovely morning Lagoon walk at Pallarenda National Park, met no one.

Onwards to Charters Towers, not far. Dead quiet on the roads.

Pretty much everything is closed in Charters Towers due to xmas and well, it not being tourists season (May to Oct). I wanted to do various things, like see the longhorn cattle station,

go to Wednesday’s cattle sale and find myself a cowboy, you know cowboy seeks wife scenario, museum etc etc, but no cigar. So, I didn’t stay the 2x night as I had planned. Still, nice old buildings to look at from the richess of the gold mining days when CT had 30,000 people and 76 Pubs! Crikey. Sounds like the Publicans were the real gold diggers!

And on she goes to Clermont, hundreds of kms this:

Chippies with majo at Belyando Roadhouse. There was a stranded Traffic Controller who’s truck had broken down. They clear $2500 a week apparently, but, boy, what a job, sitting by yourself at an outback road hours on end, switching a button from red to green for about 2 cars every half an hour!

Via Emerald to Injune. I keep calling this place Injinoo, like the one near home. Found a brain link, it’s Injune NOT Injuly. Good eh? It’s so empty everywhere, you could virtually stop in the middle of the road, go bush for a pee, come back and no one saw anything 🤭.

Santa completely worn out going to all those huge outback Stations

Couldn’t sleep last night, so up 4.30ish, watching a glorious sunrise with cuppa tea in hands. Ah, the serenity! Pack up, little walk around some lagoon and inspect a couple of metres of the 5000kms + dog proof fence that is supposed to protect lifestock from dingos. Supposedly Aborigines introduced dingos between 4,600 and 18,300. So, they are an introduced species?What about sheep? From how many years back of introduction is something an “introduced species”? Obviously a very controversial topic. How it suits and where the money lies if you ask me. But I know you didn’t ask me!

Look at the length of this fence, apparently 2,500 kms are being maintained. Google if interested, I find it very interesting.

Off to Dalby via Roma and Miles. My car had quite a loud rattle in the front this morning, only when starting and very intermittend. 😬😳. Ursula in slight panic station, she’s so good at catastrophising. No point in trying to find a mechanic the day before Xmas (!) and it only rattled occasionally. My Cairns mechanic Hans (the best and kindest in the world by the way!) came to the rescue by phone and talked me through various possibilites. In the end, when everything seemed perfectly safe he suggested could be the aircon. And lo and behold, something wrong there, turn it off rattle gone, and when turning it on again when driving, all good. So happy the wheels weren’t about to fall off!

From Dalby it’s only 200km to Brisbane, so lucky🤔 Lillian will have me for all of Christmas. A lovely week with friends and a day in Woodford.

2/1/2023 and onwards she goes southbound, the New England Highway til Tamworth. Good choice, very quiet. And then to Dunedoo on country roads, left right, left right. OMG, how many times did I check GPS and maps, thinking this can’t be it! But I’m here, writing in the pub in Dunedoo. No WiFi anywhere else! Last night I was in a free campground north of Glen Innes, no showers etc. Glen Innes, where our friend Lori will move to, is a lovely town. Celtic inspired.

From Dunedoo going south to Wellington was a bit of a problem. Road closure due to flood damage. So via Dubbo after all, probably 100km + extra. 😏.

Community project sculpture in Wellington. Pieces used from a bridge that collapsed in 89.

A night in Young, 🍒 (and other stone fruit) capital of Australia. YUM 😋, ate a kilo. Lucky I’m on my own in the van. 🤭. Jindalee National Park for an 8km walk today. 🚶‍♀️ Again, no one around. It’s basically a mountain bike forest and without Alltrails App I would have never found my way out again. Paths going in every direction.

I got onto the Hume Hwy in Gundagai. Great 4 lane autobahn, but oh so monotenous driving. So happy to have taken back roads up until now and stop at many little towns. Tonight in Albury. It’s so bloody windy that I wondered around everywhere with my little Bunnings cooker to find a spot out of the wind to cook dinner. No such luck, fruit day it is and in bed by 7.

Binoculars would have been fab. Twitcher’s heaven.

My enema T-shirt is a conversation starter.

Twice I’ve been ask if they can take a photo. One woman mentioned a funny one. She’d texted someone: “I need to inspect your premisses” and autocorrect changed it to ” I need to inspect your penises”. 😅🤣😂. Great for a business conversation! After Albury a few nights at Anne-Marie and James’s house in Melbourne. Geelong and Bellarine peninsular were COMPLETELY booked out and I could only get ‘a piece of dirt’ for $100 on Sunday night. Ridiculous, I paid nothing more than $30 on my whole trip down.

Fabulous The Lume exhibition “Monet and Friends” with Federico and Anne-Marie.

Geelong is quite nice and I did a bit of the bollard walk. Artist Jan Mitchell was commissioned in 95 to depict the history of Geelong in 103 reclaimed timber pylons.

And now to the Spirit of Tasmania ferry for my overnight trip to Tasmania. I’m parking in the dungeon underneath the engine, all a bit anxiety provoking!

But survived it all and even got some sleep. Tassie here I am!

Queen Charlotte Track (72km) NZ

Posted on February 11, 2020February 11, 2020 by U.

“Whaaaaat? No more hiking Blogs?” my two greatest fans shouted. Ok then, due to popular demand, I’ll do something else, I’ll go tramping as they call hiking in NZ. 😉🕺🚶‍♀️🏃‍♀️. A bit closer to home: south island of NZ. Fly to Wellington via Brisbane, a mini overnight and a skip jump flight of 30 minutes to Picton. Or so I thought. For some unclear reason the flight was changed to Blenheim and then a shuttle bus offered to Picton. Lack of wind (?), luggage and people were mentioned. No idea, didn’t get the reason. Must be the accent! 😂 All this for $65 verses $79 on the 3.5 hours ferry. How can they stay afloat? And then I heard that the ferry I would have taken had engine trouble and went for 2 hours in a circle before it could be fixed. Imagine that happening with the plane. I would still be in the air! 🛩

OMG, 8 of us in this tiny 12 seater! Well, let the holiday adventures begin.

Survived and had a gorgeous day in Picton. Did some warm up walks, to Snout Lookout and the Tirohanga Track, kind of the Yellow/Red Arrow of Picton. It is SO picturesque and the weather treats me to a perfect 23 degrees.

This is The Villa Backpackers. They organised the accommodation and transfers for the Queen Charlotte Track for me.

Day 1 – Anakiwa to Te Mahia Resort ~14 easy kms. Was taken to the start by the LinkBus and here we go, the obligatory “before” shot:

I thought I put the ‘after’ shot right after the ‘before’ shot, if you know what I mean. So you can tell that I look as fresh as a daisy after as I did before. I’m so glad we don’t have smell technology yet for photos. hahahaha

Every corner you turn has stunning views

And after only 4.5 hours walking I arrived at my 1st night’s accommodation, Te Mahia Resort, lovely family run business. Glad that it was a shortish day. Have to get used to carrying a full pack again. Plus I had a fall on the red arrow last week, it was so slippery and I hurt my bumb/coxic, which is still sore. Nothing broken – Hallelujah!

I spoilt myself (on top of staying in a resort) to an excellent massage. Deb did all sorts of things to my bumb area and I hope it helps.

Day 2 – Te Mahia Resort to The Portage Resort 13 km

Today’s stretch was only 8.5 km, hence I dillidallied around and explored Mistletoe Bay in the morning. The 8km had an estimate of 4 hours, which usually means steep. And it was! Back felt great though, thank you Deb!

Down there is The Portage Resort, tonight’s stay.

Met a gorgeous French guy today who said he was camping. I struck a pose, you know that back of wrist to forhead one and said ‘Well, I’m a resort type of girl’. His response was ‘Oh Chérie, I TOTALLY understand!’ accompanied by a camp sort of handmovement. Shame he was walking the other way, since single rooms cost the same as doubles. Only kidding! Nothing else eventful to report, except I’m so happy!

Tomorrow’s hike is Loooong. 25 km. I managed to get luggage transfer organised for just $10. Worth lightening my load a bit for that long etappe.

Day 3 – Portage to Punga Bay, 25 km

Manuka Lane lookout. Are we sick of beautiful views yet?

Long day, took me 8 hours, with lots of little stops. Body held up well. Thank you dear old body! I’m so surprise how few people are on this amazing track. I met maybe 12 people all day and I’m walking against the stream (yeah yeah what else is new?). Passed the highest point of 417 mts. Today a middle age couple came racing from behind, I thought they were mountain bikers. I stopped to let them go past, saying in my friendly way ‘wow, you are fast. I thought you were bikers’. ‘No English – désolé’ (which I had to google 😆😂). Heads down and zoom, they were gone. Well, bonjour to you too! My different French experiences. Nothing much else to report I’m afraid, just me, the views and my thoughts of how lucky I am to be able to do this.

Staying at Punga Bay Resort is quite lovely, not as posh as Portage. More my style. These remote accommodations are so hard to maintain I hear. 2+ hours drive from Picton and otherwise boat access. No wonder their restaurants are expensive.

This is Punga Bay Resort jetty and bar. The resort is all cabins and rooms nesteled into the hill.

Day 4 – Punga Bay to Furneaux Lodge past Endeavour Inlet, 13 km

Taking it easy this morning, since only 4 hours walking ahead. Met a lot more daywalkers today. You can do anything on this track, get dropped off by boat at any bay, do a walk and get picked up at the next bay. You can camp, use DOC (Department of Conservation) huts or stay in Lodges, all with luggage transfers or not. It’s superbly organised. And such a well maintained track. I love it.

These are Wekas and steel anything you leave lying around. It says everywhere to not feed the wildlife, but seems humans can’t help themselves.

Day 5 – Furneaux to Ship Cove 17 km, 5 hours

Made it to Ship Cove with time to spare to explore a little waterfall. The gardener at Punga had told me I MUST go. He said he’s not very spiritual but there, he heard the ancestors talk. Well, klutz me heard nothin’ but the sound of gushing water.

And this is the end. Waiting for the boat to pick me up. 😪

Here it is, the mail boat, which now takes tourists along. Not much mail anymore these days I assume.

Costs:

1. Te Mahia Resort – me, myself and I in a 2 bedroom, sleep 6 self contained unit = $170, same price for 2 people 😏

2. The Portage Resort Hotel – $180, ensuite

3. Punga Cove Resort – $75, shared bathroom

4. Furneaux Lodge – $65, shared bathroom

Link Bus to start of walk $20, Beachcomber water taxi pick up from finish $71

Plus food of course.

Blog 32 – Crete and final Blog

Posted on November 19, 2016 by U.

Well if I thought everybody still smokes in Austria, including inside cafes and restaurants, everybody REALLY still smokes in Greece. Well, not REALLY really, but you know what I mean, it feels like it. Australia seems so clean by comparison. I only noticed it on this trip, how lovely it is to be able to sit in non smoking environments everywhere.

1.11.16 Arrived in Chania, Crete. And what a good decision it was to come here. Thank you to everybody who encouraged me and particularly to Annette who found this writing workshop for me. My teacher Dr Hanne Landbeck is fantastic and keeps me busy, oh yeah! Hanne is German and as you know, we don’t mess around. I sure get my monies worth and there’s no time for dilly dallying. She also does online courses and gives you tons of material, just to give a little plug if anyone is interested. To keep my Blog going at the same time is a challenge. We are working together 2 hours in the morning and 2 at night and then in between there is homework! Head is SMOKING!

My airbnb is also fantastic, a brand new self contained apartment, with everything I need for only, yes, only 16 Euros a night. I paid 108 Euros for 7 nights. Can’t believe my luck. And it is luck, because this price will go up. Often people who are new to airbnb start cheap to get some reviews and their ratings up. Chania feels like one of those towns where I feel instantly at home and will have no trouble to hang around for a while. I also went to see the EOS, the local bushwalking club last night, here called Mountaineering Club. They produced a guide book for the E4. They are open every night between 21.00 – 23.00 o’clock. Didn’t think I read their website correctly. Had to set my alarm to get there! Mediterranean timing sure is different. I’m considering to hike the E4 after my course, mainly because I don’t have enough material for my book yet…..hahaha joke! Super nice guy there and I will join them for a walk this Sunday (classified “easy”). I hope they don’t work like our Cairns bushwalking club, where you never quite know if “easy” will really stay easy once they get going. One of the most famous hikes in Crete, the Samaria Gorge, closed on 1 Nov for the season. Pity. There are downsides to off season visits. This powering vegie garden right by the beach on pebbles was inspiring I thought. Wonder how they built up the soil. Shows you we could grow stuff everywhere.

Blue sky and beautiful in the day time but already nippy and dark as soon as the sun is gone at about 5.30pm.

5.11.16 Yesterday was day 3 of my writing course and I’m absolutely spent! Thank god it’s weekend. My little brain is so challenged. If I like something I can get absolutely absorbed and can forget the world around me. I have to consciously remember to get up from my desk and stretch, walk, eat. Not good for my back all that sitting. After my morning class with Hanne yesterday I went for lunch and filled up the whole tablecloth with writing, graffiti Ursula is on the loose. Before you panic, the tablecloths here are paper and then you can take it with you, if you don’t make such mess of it like my friend Bettina in the Azores!

But of course I’m also distressed again by the amount of rubbish everywhere so near the water particularly. One regret in my life is that I wish I had the ability to initiate large group activities. Like some cyclists ride around the world to raise money for something, some good cause. So many times while hiking I fantasised about how could I organise rubbish cleaning up days, raise awareness about this HUGE amount of plastic everywhere. All the knowledge about the polluted oceans is out there, yet we don’t seem to care, not in a urgently needed way anyway. What does it take?

This is Hanne, my teacher. oh…..time’s gone by and because of so much other writings: practising dialogues, landscape/people/places descriptions, mindmapping, cluster mapping, structuring and so on, I neglected my Blog. And guess what: it’s already the 12th Nov and I’ve already done 3 days of walking on the E4. All on road and arthritis in my right toe is screaming plus some surface blisters between my toes. Haven’t peed on anything for a while! At the same time it felt safe (no traffic to speak of) and no way to get lost.

The goats are gorgeous with their long hair and bells on. At times the only sound in the stillness of the mountains.

Small villages spread through the countryside. How will it be to stop walking/traveling, and god forbid!!! working again? Yes, I bought my return ticket to Brisvegas. Anyway, for now I’m still hiking a bit longer. Can’t believe my luck with the weather. As unusually cold it was in Portugal in March, as unusual warm it is now in November. It rains at night to freshen everything up and then around 20 degrees in the day. While friends tell me of snow in Switzerland and Germany and 38 degrees in Maleny I’m enjoying the perfect climate for walking.

The house in the middle was last night’s accommodation in a village called Kefali. Beautiful. Watched the workings of an olive processing plant.

Olive harvest everywhere. They use some rotating device with 4 plastic cords, like on a brush cutter, swinging around to strip the olives off the trees. Strips lots of leaves as well, but obviously doesn’t do the trees any harm.

Then bagged and off to processing plant a few kms away. Tiny olives to be turned into cold pressed oil. Black olives lying on the road look the same as goats’ droppings, size and all. Nothing but a bit of poop to spice up your extra virgin!

Stayed 2 nights in Chrissokalitissa, near Elafonissi. Elafonissi beach is pink in places. Can you see that on the photos? Can’t find out why, but have never seen anything like this before. Maybe from corals? Such a pretty place and I’m the only tourist (and it’s Sunday) apart from a French group of women who seemed to be there for a Yoga workshop. All struggling with the Bridge Pose on the beach. Something about a bridge in bikinis. I wouldn’t want to be here in the season, place is chock o block full of tourists locals tell me. Eeeeek…

Markers, a hiker’s best friend! Do you see a path along this coast? I don’t, but there is and I walked it! Up and down rocks and hills and beaches and up again. The trail was actually very well marked with black and yellow painting on the rocks. Without them, no chance! And not a soul all day. I could move in here, like in the old hippie days.

15th Nov. Staying 2 nights in Paleochora as well, mainly due to the stage after next is labeled as maximum hard, so no go for me. Meaning I have to take a ferry, which now in the winter only go once a week. If at all, I have to find that out today from the water police they tell me. If no ferry I’m not sure what to do. One option is a bus all the way to Chania and then a bus back down to where I can continue hiking, Hora Stakion. No buses go across due to high rocky mountain ranges. It will all be revealed.

Well, I took that option. Bus to Chania (70kms) a writing lecture and lunch with Hanne and another bus back down to Hora Sfakion, another 70kms. But it was fine, being driven around gives me a different perspective to hiking. This is Sfakion, where I stayed 3 nights and did day walks from there:

It’s so dry here, such barren mountains. Not even sure what the goats find to eat. I’m pretty much the only tourist here, but a supermarket, 2 tavernas and a bakery are open.

Little shrines like this all over the place. And today I had a walking companion, which was really nice. This little, strong as an ox doggy walked all the way to Loutro and back with, about 5 hours, along rocky cliffs. One of those better not look down walks. Doggy was shy at the beginning, didn’t let me touch him, didn’t want any water, kept his distance, but always looked around to see that I was coming. I told him off a few times for racing up the hills chasing goats, naughty boy. But you see here, on the way back we bonded and he took over 3/4 of my blanket, drank my water, wanted my omelette and then slept soundly. I told him, I’m a Social Worker and understand the process that first we needed to build rapport before we could bond and now we have to establish boundaries. “Oh, boloney” he said between snores. When we came back to Sfakion he just disappreared, no ‘good bye, nice meeting you’, no ‘see you tomorrow, what time?’

MONGREL!

This is Loutro, totally deserted outside of tourist season. You can only reach it by boat or walking 2.5 hours.

And today 18.11.16 I walked up Imbros gorge, stunning. I was quite overwhelmed by nature, the high mountain walls in the gorge, the sunshine, and the stillness. I did a meditation on a rock, listening to silence, having a bit of an emotional meltdown, thinking, here I am in this beautiful lonesome environment and in 6 days time I’m probably having Greek food with Lillian, Nadia, and Danni in bussling West End, Brisbane, where we had Greek dinner pretty much excatly 9 months ago! Interesting, what NEW will I give birth to? Wow, I’m having such mixed emotions and on that note I might post this, my last Blog.

Thanks to all my friends who followed me and sent me so much encouragement. I will see many of you real soon and leave many here behind in Europe. To those, thanks for putting me up and please come over to Oz. I will sure miss you.

Bye bye……………..

Blog 31 – Austria

Posted on October 31, 2016 by U.

Hmmmm Paracelsus, can you help me with decisions regarding what I should do in November? It’s getting too cold for my liking in these countries. Although the autumn colours are simply stunning.

“Naaaaa, passt scho”. I like this Austrian expression, something like “she be right” in Australia. Wandered the city of Salzburg today, rugged up to the Hilton! After it bucketed down all night it luckily cleared up today. I passed a local market with lots of Knoedel, REAL fresh Sauerkraut from a wooden barrel, pate in all sorts of flavours, and look how brussel sprouts grow:

How these people can do markets in this cold weather, selling fish and all is beyond me. My hands would drop off. I then went up Forte Hohensalzburg with a beautiful view from the top and took the funicular down.

On the Markart Steg are 1000s of locks from people promissing eternal love to each other. How romantic and great for the lock industry. Sculture near the Dome by Stefan Balkenhol.

21.10.16 Took a day trip to Hallstatt today, recommended by my Tyrol friend Evi. Very worthwhile and overrun by Asians, mainly Chinese it seems. I wouldn’t want to visit this little town in the summer! The Chinese love this place so much that some rich mining tycoon built a replica of it in 2012 for $940 million in China. Can you believe it? I met someone who’s husband went to see it. They just built the facades and inside is all different. Very weird indeed.

Some google images of the China place. Had to google it, couldn’t quite believe it.

The REAL Hallstatt is so postcard pretty, I mean it’s clear why people love it.

Houses built against and into mountains.

Also a “Gebeinenhaus”, similar to what I’ve seen in Evora Portugal. Remember? 100 Blogs ago…Hallstatt had no space to bury everybody and dug people out of the ground after 10 or so years, to make space for new bodies. And they painted the sculls and put the person’s name on them. Hmmmm, another reminder of impermanence.

22.10.16 And today I’m meeting my oldest friends (I mean in time, not in age) Sygun and Verena again for 5 days of spoiling ourselves in Biohotel Sommerau. Nothing but healthy food, saunas, hiking in beautiful surrounds, couple of massages, you get the idea! Before you get too jealous, the breakfast bread was a bit too healthy for my liking and I personally missed a few meringues with cream, but, well, it’s never perfect is it? I’m a bloody sugar addict, that’s what I am! Here we are having an apple juice, well deserved after a long hike: PROST!

The bottom right photo is when we visited a salt mine (called white gold in years gone by) in Hallein. We had to put some special outfits on because you go deep into the mine via some slides like this:

Great fun! We ran up the steps and did it again….

And because I took so many photos of border crossings on this trip, here is another one. Underground we passed from Austria to Germany. Funny….

It’s quite strange but I never related this area to salt, although many names clearly tell you, like Salzburg, Salzkammergut etc. I thought salt is only found at the sea. Ignorant little me. It made the area and some nobility very rich, while the workers suffered severe hardship underground and died young, the usual. Images of Saint Barbara (3rd century) are everywhere. She is the saint of miners and others who work with explosives.

Her dad locked her in a tower to “preserve” her from unsuitable riffraff. She converted to Christianity against his will and so he chopped her head off. Nice daddy! But he was struck by lightening or so the story goes. Bit of instant Karma.

The Biohotel had no Wifi, healthy, no radiation you know. And whilst I already know how addicted I am to my little machine and that it would do me good to be without it for a while, it was quite confronting. I had NOTHING further booked or planned after Friday the 28th. One idea was to meet Lillian in Paris for a few days before she flies home. Big cities are so much more fun to explore with someone else. I thought I had plenty of time to research and figure all this out in my quiet wellness week. But not so. So, the no Wifi cut Paris off the agenda, too hard or impossible rather to plan in time. Probably good as too expensive for such a short time anyway. Sorry Lil. Discussions with my friends helped with the decision that Crete (still warm with around 20 degrees) and the writing course at the Goethe Institut in Chania is probably a good plan, since I didn’t manage to catch up with Bill Bryson in a pub in England! The book idea is still in my head and even if the course clarifies that writing is not for me, it’ll be a good outcome. And then there is superb hiking on Crete I hear. A few more weeks of walking to finish off the year? Why not! The Biohotelfrau kindly let me use their wifi one evening for an hour, so I could book a hotel in Salzburg again and a flight to Crete. Very helpful. And after that I could really relax and it was easy to be without my machine for the 5 days.

Time went fast and the goodbyes came way too soon. Who knows when/if we’ll meet again. I’m rather sad this evening, 28th October. After travelling with friends now since mid September, and we all had a great time without the slightest bit of disagreement, I’m on my own again. It will be ok, but still, it takes some adjustment. I’m so very lucky to have such incredibly amazing friends. I thank you all for being in my life.

Back in Salzburg, check out this colour combo. Nature blows my mind again and again.

30.10.16 One night in Vienna staying at axe murderer Thomas. Here he looks like a handsome price on his horse, no? Very deceiving man! I picked Thomas up hitchhiking in Brisbane 1995 and he stayed at my place for a few days, where he suddenly asked “How do you know I’m not an axe murderer?” Well, good question of course, some strange people came out of Austria! But I took the risk and see, I’m still alive. We stayed in touch and I let friends know, that if they never hear from me again, start looking in Vienna! No, joke aside. We went for a lovely walk and I just HAD to take a photo of this gorgeous little girl playing in the autumn leaves. She looked like she was in a nest and had such a good time.

Ok, off to Athens and Crete today. Bit nervous about this writing course. I don’t think I’ve used my brain in any serious way for a while!

I’m starting to correspond with some of my ex work colleagues. Yes, the thought of a different reality is already starting to creep into my mind, the one called WORK! Iiieeek, shrieeeek…..lots has changed in my previous work environment it seems. Every backfill longer than 2 weeks one has to apply for, interview and blabla. Since I don’t have a CV or old sample applications on my Smart phone (shame it’s not THAT smart and write the applications for me!), I won’t be able to apply for anything untill I’m back. Good probably since that would already wreck my time away. ENOUGH OF THIS TOPIC!

Next Blog will be Greece.

Blog 30 – more of lovely Italy

Posted on October 19, 2016 by U.

10.10.16 We returned the car without any further scratches and I must say I’m quite proud of my driving around the mad Amalfi coast.

Off by train to Assisi and spreading the lunch out. Looks like we have a kilo of prociutto, but it’s not really. We will be meeting Vanessa tonight and hopefully have a great time as a threesome. Here we are having out first coffee at our airbnb’s host’s coffee shop, which we call “Angelo’s”.

For the next 4 days we explored the beautiful town and surrounds of Assisi. And what a place, just when I think I have seen all the beauty I can take, comes another highlight. The Basilika di San Francesco takes your breath away. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take photos inside. So, my friends, you just HAVE to come here yourself. Please put on bucket list! View of Assisi from Rocca Maggiore, the town’s Forte.

Sunrise behind the Cathedrale di San Rufino, view from our airbnb! We’re right in the middle of it all. And then the town and surrounds are full of amazing scultures. One day we walked up to Eremo delle Carceri (791 mts high, 4 kms), where St Francis spent a lot of time in prayer apparently. A beautiful place in the middle of the forest with lots of quiet spots with benches for prayer or meditation. Not the greatest weather otherwise we surely would have lingered longer.

Or daydreaming just looking at the sky maybe?

No, we’re not in Japan!And then we went to Bosco di San Francesco and Santa Croce.

A landscape sculture of 3 circles, called the Terzo Paradiso created by Michelangelo Pistoletto. The 2 small circles are the mathematical sign for infinity and the artist interprets one circle’s meaning as the heavenly world, the other one the world we humans have created with technology etc. And the big circle he placed between the two is for us to reflect on the responsibility we have to combine the two and create a better world for ourselves and future generations. Not sure if I wrote that clearly enough, but anyway. The olive trees were full in fruit and we love their silver shine. To walk the circles quietly was so lovely. Sam had suggested that to see the Basilika by night is a MUST, so after our good bye dinner Vanessa and I dashed down for some last photos.

It was misty and rainy, but as it happened there was a free gospel concert on in the Basilika. Wow, how lucky were we! Thanks Sam. It was incredible, The “Charlie’s Gospel Angels” from Rome. Tried to download a sample, but can’t seem to downoad videos.

But I could get a shot of the inside of the Basilika, as everybody else was filming etc.

Looking out onto the piazza on Friday, our last morning. We loved Assisi and a great time was had by all.

Oh, the serenity at crazily busy Bologna train station. Great to be young! (no, it’s not me!)

14.10.16 Vanessa went off earlier than us back to Switzerland and Lillian and I took the same trains til Florence where she headed off to Pisa and then France and I went on to see friends in Tyrol, Bressanone-Brixen. Evi and Matthias have also been airbnb guests of mine in Australia and meanwhile have a baby, little Nora.

Nora unfortunately doesn’t like driving and is also not keen on hiking, so daddy did babysitting and Evi and I took off (16/10/16) into the Dolomite mountains. OMG, the beauty of this and so lucky to have a glorious autumn day.

Sugarcoated mountains, the Geisler group. Yes, snow up there already. I’m back to my normal wear of 5 layers and long johns (makes the backpack light).

No no, this is NOT a Milka chocolate ad. This is for real, can you believe it? And please imagine the cow bells going. It is just so pretty. I often get asked which place in my travels was my favourite. It’s really impossible to say and I have been so fortunate to see so many amazing sites. Many places have their charme and specialty and actually I haven’t been to any place I didn’t like or where I didn’t feel safe. But these pristine mountain areas must be high on the top of the list.

And I hadn’t seen Zwiesels for so long! In fact a Zwiesel gathering, not sure what the discussion was??? I think it was about D Trump and how best to turn him into sawdust! Hopefully they get the Zwiesel Secret Service onto it.

This is a strange sort of photo. The sun was too bright for photos, but here it was behind a mini cloud for a second. Looks like some UFO coming to take us away (haha) I reckon.

And then from Basilika gospel music to accordeon in the mountains, at the Gschnagenhardalmrestaurant. (Love to hear you try and pronouce this). This guy was so good, I put a clip on Facebook. He entertained us while we ate “Spinat und Käseknödel”. Oh, I’m in my tribe again. Everybody looks like me, hiking boots, walking poles, same type of jackets, jumpers etc. See, the car park:

Ruth, if you read this, looks like our bushwalkers starting, doesn’t it?

The Brixen Dome.

(18/10/16) I did an 18kms hike by myself cause Evi and Matthias had to work, (yes some people still do). I had a great day, starting in drizzle but it cleared up to beautiful sunshine.

The Geisler group again from a different perspective. Something about walking in the mountains! There is such calmess in the air or quietness. I’m so happy trodding along by myself. And the smell of pine trees. They must trigger something from my past. When I die, should some of you be around, please burn pine incense, the smell makes me so happy. I did the Keschtnweg, the way of the chestnuts, the edible ones.

Every restaurant had dishes with chestnuts, from sweets to savory in all shapes and forms. Hey and all of a sudden I saw my beloved Camino sign pointing towards Rome. I could have just walked on, bummer didn’t have my backpack with me! On the bucket list!

Ok Italy, good bye for now. Loved it and there is so incredibly much more to see. Might have to come back. This was meant to be my last trip to Europe. Hmmmm.

I’m still not clear what to do in November at all. The weather is turning really too cold now. Already bought a doona jacket, feather light, obviously hahaha. My unit is not vacant til 8/12/16. Evi and Matthias hiked through Crete and really loved it. And then I’m still occasionally google trying to find a creative writing workshop. My now famous author friend Annette gave me a link for a course in Crete at the Goetheinstitute. Crete again as it happened. Maybe the signs pointing? Still supposedly 20 degrees in November. Greece wasn’t on my agenda, but then Ireland wasn’t either!

We’ll see, life will unfold.

Blog 28 – Italy

Posted on October 9, 2016 by U.

29th September 2016

Wow, 1st time ever to Italy! Arriving by airport bus in rush hour (if there is such a thing, it might be always rush hour). It was really hot, finding my way from the trainstation to my hotel, filthy with so much rubbish everywhere and I suffered from culture shock, after the quiet Azores. But after a good night’s sleep, and after sorting out some issues at the Hotel (like they gave me a double instead of a twin, then no blankets, just sheets, then lights didn’t work, no Wifi either), I felt better.

The rooms are awful for the price (ours is top floor with the open window), but we are living in this amazing Basilica, which makes up for the sparsity in the room. Maybe they want to provide a feeling of monastic life? Back to a different airport the next morning to pick up Lil. We had arranged to meet Dorian and partner Juliet for lunch, who flew home to Oz the same night. Lucky timing. We had all worked together at the Maleny Credit Union many many moons ago, in the 90ties. Our friend Vanessa was also to be there, but had to cancel, due to sad circumstances with friends and family. We missed you Vanessa, but gave out a million in loans, discussed the merger and completed the end of months reports anyway!

It was great catching up after so many years!Then Lil and I walked to the Colosseum, WOW. We knocked off 18kms today (30/9/16). Then Lil had a glass of wine and jetlag took care of the rest!However, nothing that a macchiato couldn’t fix the next morning.

1/10/16, pinch, punch October! Today was to be less walking and we took the Hop On-Hop Off bus around the city. Food, food, glorious food – Campo de Fiori.

Pasta in all colours and sizes.

And we thought selfies were a recent phenomenon!

Mexican artist Gustavo Aceves made this huge horse sculture, one of 40 horses displayed around Rome in September.

Trevi Fountain, nice 6 pack we thought. Floors and ceilings, could take endless photos of the beautiful mosaics everywhere.

Excavation sites near the Colosseum.Spanish steps, can you find Ursula in amongst the crowd?

St Fransis of Assisi.

Today we had an afternoon nap, to be able to see a bit of Rome by night. AMAZING!

3.10.16 My mother’s birthday, may she rest in peace. We took a train from Rome to Salerno and hired a car to drive to our airbnb near Amalfi. Driving in Italy and on these small mountanous roads! OMG! I don’t think you see a car without huge amount of scratches on the sides. At the hire place we pointed out (and took photos) of some scratches, just so we won’t get blamed since we had to pay 900 Euro bond. But the guy just laughed, indicating those were nothing. Car only has 8600kms on the speedo and already damages. Must be the German in me…

4.10.16 Crossed another walk of my bucket list today: The Segieri degli Dei – The Pathway of the Gods. The Gods came down this path to get to the sea. This is us at the start in Bomerano:

And wow, it was so beautiful.

The air was a bit hazy. Down to Positano were 1600(ish) steps. I thought I did a lot of steps in Glendalough, with 679. Our knees started to scream slightly. This is Positano, so pretty. We took a boat back from there to Amalfi and it was great to see where we walked from the sea. What a coast line!

How on earth did they build those places onto/into the cliffs?

The Basilika in Amalfi, moorish influence again.

Beautiful sunrises every morning. This one at our airbnb near Nerano.

6.10.16 We moved on to little beach near Nerano. So pretty and hardly any tourists at this time of year. But enough, so you don’t feel all alone in a restaurant, or all being closed. Today I hiked up to this little church, Santa Croce.

This is the view to Capri, where we are taking a boat trip tomorrow.

This is from Santa Croce down to our little beach, Marina del Cantone. Can you see Lil waving at the far end of the beach? She’s not feeling too well, so had to stay home and drink wine, no sorry cough mixture.

This is our airbnb. It doesn’t look much chop from the outside, but it’s the best airbnb EVER. It’s beautiful inside and has got everything you might ever need, including lots of food provided by our host Rafaele.

View at night from our window, and listening to the gentle waves is so much better than listening to snoring.

7.10.16 Storm/rain, boats cancelled and Lil sick anyway. So, rest day. 8.10.16 But all go today for our trip to Capri. And what a great day it was!

Leaving our little porto behind. Our airbnb is that pink place on the right. Arrival at the Marina on Capri Island. After wandering around, a bit of shopping at Prada for Lil: A limoncello shop and a little crocheted bird/cage. Capri feels a bit like a playground for the rich. The taxis are all coupe sort of limos, pink or purplish leather seats, brand name shops, a coffee is 5 Euros. Unfortunately the famous blue grotto was closed, not sure why, something to do with the storm yesterday. So we took a bus to Anacapri, wandered around there and the chairlift up to the Solaro, the highest spot on Capri at 586mts. Was great fun.

I do hate selfies, but…….. chairs were a bit far apart to get good shots of each other.

From the top of Solaro.Same rocks on the way back. We drove through this arch and you are supposed to kiss someone when the boat goes through, but I had noone to kiss, and didn’t want to pick a stranger, you know….

Day driving around a bit, Castellammere and Sorento. Beautiful mosaics again and I also like those little shop fronts.

And when you peek around corners you find stunning courtyards. Italy seems to be another country I’m falling in love with. Tomorrow we are returning our hire car and go by train to Assisi. We will meet our friend Vanessa there, who will be coming from Switzerland to join us for 4 days. This is great and I’m so happy she’s taking a few days out for herself.

More from Assisi and Brixen, in Tirol in my next Blog.