Terrace houses at Ephesus

Pictures taken during a walk-through of the terrace houses at Ephesus in 2005.

General view:

RIP wristband

Sometimes when travelling I make friendship bands to pass the time.  When I've finished one I give it away.  In 2007 I made one for myself while sitting on the beach at Methoni in Greece.  I completed it on 16th June 2007.  After suffering all sorts of abuses and calamities it finally fell off my wrist on 3rd December 2009.

Will I make another one on this trip? I don't know.  I'll take the thread with me and maybe when I get to South East Asia I'll find a beach somewhere, and time to work on it.

View from a height

Parliament House, Melbourne, with the Windsor Hotel at bottom right.

2010 trip pre-departure update

Last day of daylight saving.  I have already turned my clock back, even though the official changeover is not till tonight.

[Edited to add: And yes, I was late to work on Monday because the powers that be decided to extend daylight saving for the millionaires car racing.  Bah!]

Time for an update on what's happening with the pre-trip preparations.

North of Capricorn

Here's another blast from the past, this time from 1989.  Note the exchange rate in the first paragraph, by the way.  The more things change ...

This is only the first part of the journey.

Patience.  We'll get to my 2010 trip in good time.

Introduction

I had been looking forward to my overseas trip for months. My savings plan was well in hand, brochures about Los Angeles, the Rockies, New York, and other places were bulging a large folder, and I had joined Noreasccon III, the upcoming world sf convention. But my plans depended from several crucial pins, one of which was the US/Australian exchange rate. This had been improving for months as the US dollar continued its gradual and (we were told) inexorable descent. By February the Australian dollar was touching on 90 US cents — the highest it had been since the early years of the decade. And then I made a mistake.

Donner und Blitzen

A blast from the past - 23 August 2003 ...

South Kaibab Trailhead.
"What goes down,
must come back up!"

Just after 9 am I was standing at South Kaibab Trailhead. It was a heady moment, culmination of three years of anticipation and planning.

In 2000 I stood here, looking down the first switchbacks and wishing I had time to explore the Grand Canyon's "alternative superhighway". That was when I knew I had to return to the Canyon.

Well, here I was. No point perching on the rim. I shouldered my pack and started down.

Road Music

I've bought myself a new MP3 player and have been busily compiling a music collection to take with me on the the road.

This is not as simple as just ripping my CD collection to MP3.  I have nearly 300 CDs, totalling something like 250 hours of music - I've never worked out an exact tally.  My new MP3 player has a capacity of 4 Gb, which at the compression I favour represents less than 50 hours of music.  Obviously 250 into 50 doesn't go.  I can only take about 20% of my music with me.

The Countdown

The first day of autumn marks the start of a countdown that ends on the day I board my plane.