Sri Lanka January 2025Sri Lanka is an interesting place to visit. Our 2025 tour was group of 25 people ably led by our local tour guide Waruna and driver Roshan and assistant Sammy. We saw a mixture of cultures including the local and a colonial background which are reflected in much of modern life . This tour covered some beautiful scenic places, historical sites of significance, a very wet wildlife safari and viewing, some interesting gardens and landscapes, local cuisine and the range of natural landscapes that Sri Lanka is famous for.
The tour had a Geoffery Bawa flavour with many of the hotels that we are staying in designed by this world famous local architect and landscape designer. We also visited his estate that has been well preserved by a trust. The hotels really qre quite stunning. All in all a great tour and enough to provide inspiration for the next one in 2027! |
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Victoria - Melbourne to Mildura MarchOur Victoria Melbourne to Mildura tour was timed to coincide with the Melbourne Flower show. I was very impressed with the quality of the show gardens and of course the beautiful Exhibition Hall. We again used Ballarat Coachlines and Bernie Wilson as our host and driver. Bernie was well known to many on the tour from previous tours and for those new to him impressed as a top shelf operator and lovely person to travel with. Bernie was a great help in suggesting activities in the MIldura area (his home town). After the flower show in Melbourne we headed into the Victorian countryside firstly to Ballarat to see the botanical gardens and then a personal favourite, Lambley Nursery and Garden. 2 nights in Swan Hill followed with the main focus being the Pioneer settlement. We then had a heap of interesting local places to visit as we had 4 nights in Mildura. Australian inland Botanical garden, Lake Mungo, Murray River cruise, wineries and a few surprises. Our group of 25 got on well as always!
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New England - April
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Our short tour to the New England area of NSW was run over 3 days with 2 nights in Glen Innes. It perfectly timed to coincide with lovely autumn colour that the area is well known for. It was lovely! An inteprid group of 16 set out with my driving a Coaster type bus that soon became packed with plants and other goods....
We saw some lovely gardens and a very interesting view points. Tour highlights were of course the autumn colour, Rosecroft garden, Black Mountain Nursery, Saumarez House in Armidale, Glen Gowrie Gin distillary and Ron and Annelles garden in Stanthorpe. |
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Japan Spring Festivals tour April/MayThis tour was timed to coincide with some amazing spring festivals that Japan has become famous for. Our local Japanese guide, Mai did a wonderful job to make sure we got the most from what is a wonderful country to visit. We had plenty of tour highlights including some beautiful gardens with azaleas, wisteria, paeony, Nemophila and phlox all starring. We had a lovely group of 26 people who all seemed to get on really well. Included in the group were 3 sets of sisters, a mum and daughter duo and a few other assorted relatives! We did visit some world famous spots and also a few of my favourite secret locations....
Cities and locations visited included Nagasaki, Kokura, Hiroshima, Matsue, Kyoto, Nagoya, Mt Fuji and Tokyo |
Scandinavia and Iceland June / JulyOur tour to this most interesting part of Europe began with some middle East inspired disuption to plans for a Doha stopover. After some rearranging the tour started on time in Helsinki meeting our wonderful tour guide Tunde Nozlopy and driver Pawal. Loved Helsinki. We then visited Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Great gardens, World Heritage listed sites, famous landmarks, many cruises and of course the natural beauty of this part of the world. We used Globus tours for the land component who are super organised and have great local guides and Holland America Lines for the 7 night cruise to the Norwegian fjords and to Iceland. In Iceland we met a new guide, Agust who did a great job for the last 2 days. We have a lovely group of 25 travellers who made the trip special.
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Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar AprilOur first tour to Kenya and Tanzania was many years in the planning and well worth the wait. A chance introduction to a specialist tour operator, Adventure Out Loud provided the expertise and contacts to make the tour special. The tour saw may of the great herbivores in on the Serengeti and Masai Mara as well as a huge diversity of wildlife. The tour started in Nairobi with a 4 night stay with safaris, wildlife enounters, farms visits and a special cultural experience in an area sponsored and supported by Adventure out Loud. We then had more safari experiences staying quality accomodation in the Masai Mara, Seregeti and Amboseli national parks. We will visited the Mt Kilimanjaro area in Moshi area allthough she hid under cloud cover most of theim. All but one person took the the option of a balloon ride over the Serengeti. A great experience.
The next phase of our African journey was a flight to Zanazibar and some time to explore the culture and spice history of this interesting island. The last few days of our journey will in a lovely beachside resort. Around half of the group then ventured to the Lake Tanganika area to trek with the chimps in the footsteps of Jane Goodall at the Coombe Stream national park. A great experience! So many great guides and local people along the way. Africa has a magnetic appeal and I am sure many of us will return! |
Tasmania in Spring
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The Tasmania in Spring tour circumnavigated the Apple Isle and we saw heaps of Tasmania's iconic locations along the way. A lovely group of 22 met James our coach driver in Hobart starting with 4 nights in the beautiful Lenna in Hobart just up from Constitution Dock. We used this as a base to explore the local area, the Huon Valley and some lovely gardens. There was a free day included on market day (Salamanca markets) to explore and / or Mona or a river cruise or Mawsons Hut or the many attractions of Hobart. We then went to Strahan via the Wall at Derwent Bridge for 2 nigths to enjoy a Gordon River cruise. We then took the iconic Wilderness Railway Journey from Queenstown. We will stayed in the lovely Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge for 2 nights - we saw snow and pretty heavy rain for much of the time!. Next we headed north to Burnie for 2 nights. There are some exceptional gardens in North Tasmania and we will see the best of them as well as some of the natural beauty of the area including Stanley and the nut. Next was Launceston for 2 nights and then the Bay of Fires area in NE Tasmania to explore this rugged coastline for one night. A Wineglass Bay cruise day is included before arriving at Eagle Hawk Neck for 2 nights and a chance to see the Port Arthur Historical area and some of the other beautiful natural areas of the region
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