Author: Franco

Shopping met de Fietsen

We have augmented Frodo with a pair of e-bikes [shock, horror]. On Sunday we would meet Antonio again but today we were on our own. Just as well ‘cos we needed some more shopping. With Frodo comfortable pitched, out came

Posted in 2024 Summer

My Bête Noire

We were lucky enough to be one of the early ones to disembark in the Hook of Holland, so we got through immigration very swiftly and were on the road by about 08:30 heading for Havelte, where we were booked

Posted in 2024 Summer

A Vodka Cruise

We’re booked on a 23:00 Stena Line ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland to meet up with a Dutch dragonfly buddy; let’s call him Antonio. We made this trip two years ago in August to meet Antonio for

Posted in 2024 Summer

The Journey Home

Having spent most of the morning packing, lunched and bad fond farewells to our hosts in Stanley, we began heading for Melbourne airport a little before 15:00. Happily, Francine’s Telstra eSIM was still working, this being its last day, so

Posted in 2024-01 Australia

Garden Visitors

On our last full day of this trip in Australia, two weeks of which have been spent in Stanley with the in-laws, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate some of the visitors that have made an impression while

Posted in 2024-01 Australia

Bin Chickens

Africa has the Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). The “sacred”  bit comes from the good ol’ Egyptians who worshipped the sacred ibis as the god Thoth, animals being incaranations of deities on earth. Australia has the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca),

Posted in 2024-01 Australia

A Pilgrimage

Today we were back in the saddle on a trip in Michel’s car again but this time the roads and journey were less arduous. We were heading for Mount Buffalo which is a picturesque peak and national park topping out

Posted in 2024-01 Australia

Beechworth

Valentines Day in Australia – very appropriate since, as I’m fond of saying, I love Australia. After yesterday’s lengthy road trip, we fancied kicking back and doing not much at all, so we spent some time in downtown Beechworth. Beechworth

Posted in 2024-01 Australia

Mitta Mitta

Michel decided that it’d be a good idea to go to a pub in Mitta Mitta for lunch. IMHO, it was a bit too far for lunch since we bettered 300kms on the round trip. With the occasional pothole –

Posted in 2024-01 Australia

Myrtleford

About 25 minutes south of Michel’s pad lies Myrtleford. It has both a river and a creek so I searched sightings in that area for dragonflies. There were a few that looked potentially interesting and our hosts mentioned some lunch

Posted in 2024-01 Australia