Bergman Travel Diary

With the crazy busy schedule of term time almost done for the year we decided to head out for some adventuring today. The sun was shining, despite the forecast of rain, and our schedule cleared for the day so we headed off to Manly. Our aim was to meander around the Manly crafters market. We love a good market but were a tad bit disappointed on that account. Despite all the advertising on TV these markets were rather scant of interesting (and affordable) crafty items. Bit of a fizzed for our style. Manly itself though was quite lovely. Quiet and peaceful with a sea breeze... and lots of lovely boats out on the water. Very picturesque indeed. The boys found some washed up jelly fish too...cheeky Zane decided to throw one on Grandmas lap (she joined us for the morning) but that did not go down too well...lol. Funny boy! It seems that the crabs were enjoying the fine weather too. They sunned themselves on the rocks bordering the waters edge. A fine way to spend a Sunday morning...

What a wonderful day for a picnic!  The sun was shining so brightly it felt like a summer's day as a big group of us from St James' ascended on Robelle Domain Park in Springfield for our Church picnic! It sure is funny how things work out.  Our picnic was originally scheduled for last weekend but rain decided that this was not to be… so it was rescheduled.  As it turns out, not only was the sun in it's full glory, there was some kind of major celebration going on at the park for the community.  The kids (big kids too) enjoyed a zip wire, live entertainment from local talents, face painting, skirmish games, a jumping castle and oh so much more… for FREE!!!  Wow.  What timing!  Of course, the parks' lovely water play area got some serious use as well.  Autumn really should have been too cold for fun in the water… but not today!  Are we sure it wasn't summer today?  We sure are blessed. We will have to do this again later this ...

In much need of some leg stretching and majestic scenery we packed a picnic lunch this morning and headed to lovely Mt Tamborine! The sun was shining like a summer's day... much different to the cold gloomy weather of earlier this week. Having not been to the "Sandy Creek Falls" circuit since 2008 we decided that North Tamborine was our starting point for today's much needed outing. I forgot our how truly stunning this section of Tamborine is. The 2.5km circuit took us around 3 hours... not because of how easily one might trip if not careful, but because all four of us were in the mood of some serious photography therapy. We played with scenery shots and serious macro (glad I packed the macro gear) as we wandered through the dapple lighting of the beautiful Tamborine rainforest. Ahhh... so very lovely. The Sandy Creek Circuit includes a lookout with a beautiful view of "Cameron Falls". The sky was so blue today that even the mountains around...

Has it really been two years already since we first visited this amazing wildlife park?  How the time does fly. For those who have followed our blog while we were away in the UK we thank you and apologise for no blogging since we left…. I promise to catch up on our crazy travels around America/Canada before we finally made it back home, where we have already caught up with many of you.  Luckily, I have kept a full account of the USA tour so I will slowly backdate all those entries. I decided it might be nice to occasionally have a look at the archives from our travel photos…. there are sooooo many.  This will give me a chance to process them while I delve back into what we were doing on particular days 1, 2 and 3 years ago… whew! This will be mostly a photo blog… with a touch of reminiscing, I'm sure. I look forward to adding more travel entries about Australia as well, as our feet are continually on the move…. and our eyes on the lookout for beautiful sites to ...

It turns out that setting the alarm last night for this morning was definitely not necessary!  Sleeping, on the other hand, was an entirely different scenario.  Planes roared overhead until around midnight, waking us just as we drifted off into sleep until they finally stopped and we could get some much needed rest.  Ahh, pillow! Adrenaline must be running high because even I was wide awake at 5am - madness! The skies were clear as we woke to our last morning in the UK.  We headed out on the free shuttle bus to Terminal 5 just after 7am to wait for our 10am flight to NYC.  Boarding was completely hassle free but the communication towers were having issues so we sat on the plane for almost 1.5 hours before we finally got the signal to take off.  Heathrow International airport is truly amazing.  Plane after plane takes off.  Our flight was actually in a queue - unreal! The flight out was so very st...

With today being the last part of our UK stay we decided to go for a wander around the amazingly historic area we are staying in.  Thought the motel/lodge we are staying in (Heathrow Lodge) is very standard the buildings around are nothing short of amazing.  Well worth the very reasonable lodge rates to be so close to the airport and such amazing history! We decided to venture out to the local pub for a traditional 'English' pub meal... only to find that the pub, and most of the older buildings around here, are all from Tudor times. 'The White Horse' in Longford Village is said to have been built in 1534, originally as a smoke house.  In 1601 it became an Inn... somewhere for travellers on the Bath Road (much like ourselves) could stop for a meal.  We ate in the bar part of the Inn (as the main restaurant doesn't open until later than we were eating).  It was so charming!  The food was definitely something worth stopping for. After our scrumptious me...

This John Denver song has been playing in my head over and over this week.  Our belongings left with the household movers on Thursday to head home to Australia ahead of us and the house is almost completely packed up. Once again we have seriously culled our belongings as we prepare for the homeward journey...just one more night in the house before we head into London to await our flight in 2 days time.  Where has the time gone? We have said sad farewells to so many new friends who will always remain in our hearts once we leave the UK. Our church family even sang 'Waltzing Matilda' for us on Sunday morning after presenting us with a beautiful framed image of our beloved St George's Waterlooville.  Zane is currently enjoying a movie at the cinemas with his best friend Tom (after he enjoyed a huge week at Scout camp) as Darian, Matt and I chill out watching 'Canon ball run' on TV. We are very excited about our trip home via America... just 2 days and we will be e...