Early seasons
greetings to you… we hope your year has been one of happiness and prosperity.
From our end, we
have been somewhat remiss in our correspondence over the last year (if not 2!),
however, we can reassure you we are alive and well and continue to live life to
the max!
Our travels over
2017 and 2018 saw us continue our sailing journey aboard “Our Rose” from the
East Coast of Australia, up to Thursday Island, across Indonesia Archipelagos,
and up the west coast of Malaysia and Thailand.
Highlights of
these areas were:
*New Years and Australia Day on Sydney Harbor
*5 week land
trip to New Zealand (1st time in 5 years)
*Helping with
stricken monohull s/v Balikcil across the Indonesia Islands, involving 7 boats
(amazing comradeship!)
*A month’s scuba
diving in the amazing Komodo Marine Park (world class)
*Exploring the
Hongs in Thailand (huge natural Island Caves)
*Enjoying the
Islands of Koh Phayam (Hippyville) and the Similan & Surin Islands for more
diving
*Having Julie
& Martin, then Anne and Neil join us on Our Rose, and meeting up with Hils
and Doug in Malaysia and meeting up with Matt and Jono in KL.
We also enjoying
quite a bit of land travel during the Monsoon season (March – November), Hanoi,
Siem Reap, Cameron Highlands, Penang, KL and Jen did a trip to Port Douglas to
spend some time with our dear friends Julie and Martin.
The
Future??? well, we have been
invited to help with a Boutique Ski Lodge in Madarao Japan over the coming
winter season. As we have not seen
a winter for 6 years and love skiing, we decided to say Yes! So we will be in the best snow area of
Japan (10 – 13 meters average snow fall) from December to March. Look up http://firsttracksmadarao.lodgify.com
As for “Our
Rose”, she is in the capable hands of a broker and yacht care company in Rebak
Marina during this time. As much
as we love and will miss her, we hope she sells so we can continue our land
travel journey in 2019.
The Boys… as
mentioned, we met Matt and Jono in KL during the year. Matt was on his way from New Zealand to
Scotland, utilizing the opportunity to work in the UK for Kiwis under age of 31. He is now working at a science museum in Glasgow and also
continues to enjoy his passion of swing and blues dancing. Jono has been travelling and working in
Vietnam since early 2017 and has qualified with TEFL as a foreign language (English)
teacher and is now based in Bangkok.
We are very proud of them both.
So,
that’s it from us. We hope you
have an amazing Christmas and New Year.
Maybe see you in Japan!
Keep in touch; love to hear all your news
A
few pics of Our Journey in 2017/2018 (in no particular order)…
A
Very Merry Christmas from us to you…
