Have fallen a bit behind in updating things here, so here’s a quick round-up.

 We travelled to Australia in October, starting our journey in Darwin. Dear old Darwin… still has a place in my heart, having lived there for almost 7 years. As usual, it didn’t disappoint, in the sense that we got drenched when the heavens opened whilst we were walking to feed the fish at Doctors Gully one afternoon. You can’t beat  Darwin thunderstorms!

We did a jumping croc cruise and the family enjoyed it, especially as the infamous beast Brutus put on a bit of a show for us after not having been seen for a few days so we were told. And he is a brute. I wouldn’t like to have a swim with him.

We had some good Aussie tucker at the Humpty Doo pub the same day and headed to Berry Springs for a swim later in the afternoon. Unfortunately the water was off limits and all roped off due to “seasonal conditions”. Translation? Salt water crocs had been spotted in the swimming hole. Bugger! So back to the hotel pool for a cool off instead.

 My birthday treat for 2011 was an overnight trip on The Ghan from Darwin to Alice Springs. The family and I enjoyed it immensely and I’d be only too happy to do it again sometime.

We only had time to stay one night in Alice, visiting a new reptile park (disappointing) then Simpson’s Gap (beautiful especially since for a while we were the only ones there). Fed the wallabies at our motel at Heavitree Gap and then rode camels into the sunset. All in all great fun.

The next day flew down to Adelaide to spend a few days visiting the family before heading on to Hobart for Jenny & David’s lovely wedding.

On the way home to Muscat we stopped over in Chiang Mai Thailand for a few days since it was the Thai New Year and the Loy Krathong Festival. It was quite spectacular and I will write more about that part of the trip soon.

Trip photos can be seen on my Picasa albums.