ENGLAND EXPECTS

Now why would I use a quote from Lord Nelson as a title for this report? I'll explain in a minute.

Firstly let me say I'm getting over my jetlag, and Barbara is high in the Andes, in Machu Pichu. She says she'll email all about that when she gets back to civilisation. Still no altitude sickness at last report.

In the meantime I spent my first full free day visiting Portsmouth Harbour and the Royal Naval Historical Dockyards. Among other things, this is where they keep Nelson's flagship HMS Victory.

An hour and a half on the train and I stepped out a matter of a couple of hundred metres from the harbour, and a forest of masts, and grey painted superstructure of every kind of warship from Nelson's day to the present. For the Seniors discount price of 16 pounds 50p I bought an all inclusive ticket and started exploring. Firstly I took a one hour boat trip around the harbour passing destroyers and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, a visiting French missile ship, and many more. This place is the home port for all sorts of naval vessels, minesweepers, icebreakers, cruisers, and their support ships. There are dry docks and warehouses and cranes all over the place. On land again and the next exhibit is a superbly restored sailing warship HMS Warrior. This is what the guidebook told me.

Warrior was designed and built in response to an aggressive French shipbuilding programme which saw the introduction of the first iron-clad warship La Gloire designed by the brilliant naval architect Stanislas Charles Henri Dupuy de Lome.

Determined to see off this challenge to the supremacy of the Royal Navy the then First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir John Somerset Pakington, determined to build a ship so superior in terms of quality, speed, size, armament and armour that it would be inconceivable to France that she could take Britain on in a sea battle.
When commissioned by Captain the Hon. Arthur Auckland Leopold Pedro Cochrane, on August 1st 1861, Warrior was the largest warship in the world, at 9,210 tons displacement she was fully 60% larger than La Gloire.

She also had steam engines which they used for manouvering and the propellor could be lifted out of the water when under sail.

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But impressive though this ship was, it was nothing compared to the historical importance of HMS Victory. This is the ship from which Nelson defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. It's amazing how many French people were checking the ship out on the day I was there.You can just walk on board and as long as you keep your head down, follow along through the gun decks and the crews' quarters, the officers ward room and Nelson's cabin. That was one of the quite plush cabins in the aft section where all those windows look out to the sea. And of course there's the spot where Nelson died after being hit by French fire. Maybe that's what the French tourists come to see.

If you've ever seen the film Master and Commander, you can appreciate how cramped life at sea in these vessels must have been, and what a sea battle was like, with smoke and noise and blood everywhere, and all in the claustrophobic atmosphere down below decks.

There were many other things to see in the dockyards, a museum dedicated to the people who worked here over the centuries, the ship builders and the craftsmen and women who built hulls, made sails, flags, armour plate, propellors, brass plates, masts, anchors, and a million other things.

There were historical relics from great sea battles right up to the present day, and portraits of heroic admirals and sailors of the past.

I'd had enough by five and took the train back to London. One thing about rail travel which I really like is that you can look down into the backyards of ordinary folk, so I spent the next ninety minutes looking at tiny yards and big yards, some with neat lawns and garden beds, and some with gazebos and add on conservatories or hot houses, and some with overgrown jungles and piles of rubbish and car wrecks, and clothes hung from high wires and flapping in the wind as the train went by. This is suburban England! Ya gotta love it!

CONTACT IS RESTORED

I'm sitting again in Fritha's flat early on Friday morning and I'm pleased to report that I've just had an email from Barbara in Cuzco. She is well and enjoying everything. She says some of her fellow travellers have had problems with altitude sickness but she hasn't been affected at all so far. She is also keeping notes of everything so she can do her half of the blog when she has the chance. I have a feeling that won't be until she gets over here and I have to do it for her. She's off to Machu Pichu for the next few days and promised another email before she goes. Also her phone is now recharged and we can text if need be.

In the meantime back in London I'm heading out on a one day trip today, to Portsmouth Harbour and the Naval Museum. This is the location of Nelson's ship, HMS Victory. I've booked lots of rail tix online and if you do it in advance, even by one day, you can get amazing discounts. Last night we drank a few pints and watched. the last pre-election debate. I have to say I thought Brown outperformed the other two. The topic was the economy and he came acrossd as someone totally in control of that area.

You may have read of his blunder this week when he talked to an elderly lady about immigration and what she called "all these Eastern Europeans flooding in." He left an open lapel mike on and as he got in the car her was heard to refer to her as "some sort of bigot woman". Very very embarrassing for him, and a huge drawcard for the media. On the lighter side, a well known political satirist who models himself on Tony Blair's spin doctor,Alisdair Campbell, tweeted in character his advise to Gordon Brown e.g. "Raise the terror alert level, that might work again."

and "Send a junior minister down to Luton to call Esther Rantzen (a tv icon) a c**t, that should take the heat off Gord for a bit." They do great political satire here.

So that's it from me.

BETTER LATE.....

If anyone is thinking..well what's the point of a blog if you never update it, you have my sympathies. Barbara has been exploring South America for nearly a fortnight now and nary a word.I (Damien) have only had 2 emails in that time telling me that it is hot, except for a very cold day in Buenos Aires, and that she is having a fabulous time. She did mention that the Iguassu Falls are very very big, so big that you can't imagine how big, but beyond that very little. I gather it is difficult to get to a computer besides which she's got so many places to see and the pace is pretty full on. She should be in Machu Pichu by now.

I (Damien) on the other hand have just arrived in London for a joyous reunion with Fritha and Anthony. The flight over was exhausting and a bit cramped and I made the mistake of spending my first afternoon here in Fritha's local pub. Those pint pots catch up with you when jetlag sets in.

I'm now sitting alone in Fritha's flat overlooking the Thames. The weather is very springy if a little overcast and London is looking beautiful. There are flower beds bursting with daffodils and tulips everywhere, and the trees in the parks are fresh and green with lots of blossom. I think it's time to sign off and do a bit of exploring. More later!!!!

OK now I´ll start this again and point out that I am travelling for the first time by myself and so I have to do all the things like blogging and snapping that Damien usually does. I am neither a professional writer nor a professional photographer so please don´t expect too much.

At least this trip started gently with a short trip to |Auckland , only 3 and a but hours in the plane and into a country where they speak a language that is not too different from my native tongue.

There´s not much to say about Auckland. It´s a city but not really a "thriving metropolis". On Saturday 8 of us walked around for somewhere decent to have breakfast. It´s hard to imaging, coming from a city like Melbourne, having trouble finding a reasonable breakfast bar, but we walked the streets of Auckland , obviously in the wrong direction looking for food. Finally we found some eggs Benedict without lamb and some coffee that was not to die for!!

Then we split up and half went shopping through the few shops that were open while the rest of us hopped on a ferry to a p´lace called Devonport, no not Tasmania.

Why did~´t we go there to east? It´s a beautiful little township in a n obviously wealthy area - more BMWs per square foot than Toorak . The residences are either very cute weatherboard ones or stunning new apartments overlooking the bay. I think that they had escaped from Sydney Harbour.

Back to the airport on Saturday pm for a flight to Santiago. So we´d had breakfast in Auckland city, lunch at Auckland airport dinner on the plane when we crossed the intermational dateline and started Saturday again - breakfast on the plane, lunch at Santiago Airport and dinner later that day in Santiago city. I was slim and slythe like before that Saturday but NOW well!!!

Santiago: Paris of South America.

There are some really charming old colonial buildings, lots of tree lined avenues, and plenty of parks but a lot of boring new glass boxes.

Rio

Don;t hold your breath waiting for the professional blogging that Damien did. I haven/.t even had time to think about this let alone start it. It has been go go go since we left home. I´m
travelling with a great group of people but they are mostly teachers so there is a fair bit of the type of organisation that Katy would understand!! I´m also struggling with this keyboard.
We are in Rio at the moment staying across the road from Copacabana beach {is that how you spewll it?) This morning 8 of us walked to Ipenyma (?) beach but6 we didn´t quite make the ´talk, tan young, lovely description. Mind you the blokes were not that fantastic; we saw one, not so young, guy with the very heavy all over tan but you could see his pacemaker under the skin. We all felt he was not a good investment.
I know this is not chronologically correct but I´ll have to catch up at some stage and get things into order. We are off to see the city this afternoon and then to a Brazilian Dinner tonight. Tomorrow is the rain forest.

I´ve no idea what day it is so I can´t even use the cliche of it´s Monday it must be Rio but I think that it might be right!
Bye for the moment

The Adventure Starts Here

While I'm still sitting at home, having just washed the kitchen floor and hung out the washing, Barbara is somewhere between Auckland and Santiago. She got away on time from Tullamarine yesterday, just after we heard that all flights to the UK had been cancelled thanks to an Icelandic volcano.

It doesn't have any bearing on her travels. Hopefully it won't impinge on mine on the 27th.

I don't know how often Barbara will be able to update this blog, but she said she'll try to whenever she gets access to a PC.

Keep an eye out.

MORE TRAVELS WITH BARBARA AND DAMIEN

Hello readers;

This is just to let you know that Barb and I are off travelling again; this time on separate journeys.

Come this April Barbara is off on a six week trip to South America with a tour group including friends of ours. South America is not an area that especially interests me so it wasn't worth outlaying the cost for me.

Instead, I will be flying to London two weeks later to see our daughter Fritha and husband Anthony. The plan is for the three of us to fly to Madrid to meet Barbara on her way back.We'll have the weekend there and then spend the final two weeks in London and doing some exploring before heading back to Melbourne on June 4th.

This adventure starts on April 16th for Barbara and April 27th for me.

Don't know how regularly we'll blog but watch our for our dispatches from abroad.

Damien