Photo shows a green turtle resting along the Bunaken coral wall.

We are in a small guest house in the rather scruffy coastal village of Tangkoko at the very end of the weirdly shaped peninsula that makes up Northern Sulawesi. To the east across the ocean are the islands of Maluku / the Moluccas and past there Irian Jaya, the western half of New Guinea. To the west is Borneo and to the North is the Phillipines.



Map of Sulawesi, Borneo to the west and the Moluccas to the east! Manado and the places we are now visiting are in the top right corner while Makassar is on the far opposite corner of this weirdly shaped island.

We have spent the last week on the island of Bunaken, one of four islands in Northern Sulawesi's Bunaken Marine Park, just offshore from the large, hectic city of Manado. It has been a great week with 8 dives, and plenty of additional snorkelling, in one of the planet's still reasonably pristine coral ecosystems.

Bunaken is characterised by a surrounding fringing reef, mostly underwater even at low tide, with a steep drop off at the margins of the reef flat. The depths very quickly drop into several hundreds of metres of clear, blue ocean. This "wall" is the main target of the diving on Bunaken and this proved to be very fruitful with thousands of fish, dozens of green and hawksbill turtles and myriads of critters of all kinds living amongst the coral crevices. It was a surprise to find that the turtles in particular were so tame, barely moving as we often swept past in the sometimes strong currents.

The diving and snorkelling was capped off on the last day when a huge pod of dolphins swam around the dive boat, with excited youngsters leaping out of the water and playing with the bow wave.



The restaurant at the guest house we stayed at in Bunaken



Dive bottles ready for a dive at Bunaken



The dive boat with the volcanic island of Manadotua in the background



Alison doing a back flip into the water on our second day of diving



Critters along the wall at Bunaken



More critters on the wall at Bunaken



Tunicates (sea squirts) at Bunaken



Young red toothed trigger fish on the reef slope



Healthy staghorn coral



Moray eel pops its head out of a coral hole along the wall



Fan coral along the Bunaken wall



Clam and tunicate on the wall



Crinoid and tunicate along the wall



Anemone fish and host anemone



Common dolphins off the Bunaken coast

We will now spend the next couple of days exploring the Tangkoko Nature Reserve close to where we are staying, where we expect to see some unusual primates, cuscuses (typically New Guinean marsupials) and a lot of birds. Then we go up into the volcanic Minahassan highlands around Tomohon before flying to Makassar for a brief visit. Makassan sailors used to make regular visits down to the North Australian coast to trade with the Aboriginal people until the end of the nineteenth century when they were forbidden from arriving on Australian shores.



Friendly young Sulawesi lads on motorbikes with no helmets (!) along the road to Tangkoko posed for a photo while telling us about the monyet yaki (black macaque) and burung enggang (hornbills) in the jungle nearby.

We are anchored in a quiet reach of Sydney's Lane Cove River, one of three arms of Sydney Harbour, more correctly called Port Jackson. It's not the first time we have been in Sydney, of course, but as we are cityphobes, we have avoided this city of 5.5 million people as much as possible when passing through from one side of the New South Coast to the other.

The ocean outside Sydney Harbour pulls no punches. Ocean swells reverberate off the steep cliffs that line the coast north and south of Port Jackson's entrance and our 15 nm sail down from Broken Bay was one of the most uncomfortable coastal journeys we have made, despite the slight wind conditions. It was a relief to turn sharp right and drop anchor in Spring Cove, under the protection of North Head, surrounded by bush and lined with white sand beaches, even a small waterfall dropping right into the sea.



The cliffs south of the entrance to Sydney Harbour



Spring Cove, in the lee of North Head

Since we arrived in Sydney over a week ago, we have explored the three main arms of this drowned valley system. To the north is Middle Harbour, which points north westwards, surrounded on the tops by Sydney's congested suburbs, but mostly hidden from view down below, as much of the upper reaches of Middle Harbour is lined with parkland and native bush, as well as protection in the form of Garigal National Park. We checked out Cammeray marina while up here as we will be leaving Sundari on one of its moorings while we make our Sulawesi/ Borneo trip and then the longer cycle trip across part of Europe.



The entrance to Middle Harbour from North Head




The opening Spit Bridge allows yachts and larger boats access to the upper Middle Harbour.



Looking towards the lower reaches of Middle Harbour, Sundari anchored below.



Looking towards the upper reaches of Middle Harbour and Garigal National park.



Roseville Bridge in Middle Harbour. Sundari anchored below.



Kayak trip up Middle HarbourCreek.



We then rounded a corner and headed up the main harbour, under Sydney Harbour Bridge, past the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens on the seafront with the towering skyscrapers of the city's CBD rearing up behind. We anchored in the mouth of the Paramatta River to do some shopping, then moved into the Lane Cove River where we were when this blog was written. We will be kayaking up the river into the Lane Cove National park tomorrow, then retreating slowly back where we came from and leave Sundari on its mooring while we do something different!



The "Coat Hanger"!



Opera House and cruise ship at Circular Quay.



Kirribilli House - the PM's residence in Sydney.



Under the bridge - 50m clearance, so an easy sail!

Photo above shows Sundari all on its own on a free courtesy mooring in a small offshoot of commodious and relatively empty Cowan Creek.

We are hooked up to a mooring for the night in commodious Cowan Creek, deep inside Ku Ring Gai Chase national park. This is a beautiful area, just on the northern edge of Sydney, but a world away today, as boats of all kinds and sizes have had to return to their moorings and marinas after the summer holidays. We spent a little longer than we had planned in Port Stephens, but it was probably a good idea as the closer you get to NSW's and Australia's largest city, the busier it gets (except where we are now!).

We also got to catch up with ex yachties, Kerry and Bruce, from nearby Newcastle and their family and Patty and Dave, residents of Port Stephens. We met Kerry and Bruce first in Tonga on their way back to Oz on their circumnavigation, but have kept in touch as they love hiking, cycling and kayaking like us, although they have sold their yacht "Haven". Dave and Patty were companion yachties on the 2008 Sail Indonesia Rally. They never got past SE Asia, which they sailed to twice from Australia, but we met up with them again 2 years ago near Whangarei at the ex Sail Indo Rally get together.



Kerry and Bruce's family - 3 daughters and 3 grandchildren on Sundari in Port Stephens



Kerry and Alison and Kerry's daughter Phillipa's kids on Sundari.



Dave and Patty Bowden sailed their catamaran named "This Way Up" to South east Asia twice. They now live in Port Stephens.

Since the last blog post we have experienced some nasty weather and have had to move anchorages several times to get away from strong winds and waves. We had 3 gales and accompanying thunderstorms while in Port Stephens and one gale with thunderstorms here in Broken Bay - and we've only been here a couple of days! Fortunately, the 2 days we spent on passage from Port Stephens to Broken Bay via Newcastle were quite benign.



Keeping an eye on a severe thunderstorm in Careel Bay in the Pittwater near Sydney - the fourth summer gale we have experienced in the last few weeks.



The weather was gentle when we sailed down and into the busy industrial port city of Newcastle. This is Nobby's Head at the entrance to the Hunter River which runs through Newcastle.



Newcastle is one of the world's busiest and largest coal ports - something that makes it periodically a target for climate change activists trying to get the Australian Government to ditch its addiction to coal.

We'll probably be in this large cruising ground for the next couple of weeks before sailing the last 15 miles or so to Sydney Harbour where we will be mooring Sundari for a few months while we travel overseas, first to Indonesia and the island of Sulawesi, then to France to go cycling on one or more of Europe's long distance cycle trails.



The view from the lighthouse on Barranjoey Head, at the entrance to Broken Bay. The ocean looking south towards Sydney Harbour is on the left and busy but protected Pittwater is on the right.



One of several waterfalls trickling down off the sandstone cliffs in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase national park. This one is in Refuge Cove, where we endured the latest gale!



The lovely, upper reaches of Cowan Creek, which penetrates Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, only 20 km from the Sydney CBD!



Sundari on a national park mooring in better weather in Waratah Bay, off Cowan Creek.

Photo above shows the entrance to Port Stephens with the northern headland, Mt Yacaaba in the foreground, small offshore islands and the sweeping beach that lies close tothe Myall Lakes.

We are anchored in a stiff north easterly breeze in Salamander Bay, half way down the southern coastline of Port Stephens, a natural harbour larger than Sydney harbour, about 80 nm north east of that city along the NSW coastline.

We are now 300 miles from the Gold Coast and three long day sails away from our last, long stop in the Clarence River. As has been mentioned a few times before, sailing along the NSW coast isn't easy, partly because of the distances between potential anchorages, but also because of the many barred river entrances and the changeable nature of the weather patterns at this time of the year. Ho hum, we finally set sail from the Clarence a week ago, stopping at Coffs Harbour (65nm) for a couple of nights, then Port Macquarie (85nm), a barred river entrance, but flat calm when we arrived and left the next morning and finally Port Stephens (90nm), where we arrived just after dark.



Coffs Harbour at dusk seen from Muttonbird Island- it's a man made harbour with a fishing port and marina. Swell rolls in and at anchor monohulls like Sundari tend to roll horribly. We opted for the marina for a couple of nights!



Trawlers neatly lined up in the inner harbour at Coffs.



Coffs Harbour marina



Stern notice just inside the entrance to the Hastings River at Port Macquarie. Fortunately, this often unruly bar was in tranquil mode - otherwise we wouldn't have crossed it!



Puttering down from our calm anchorage in the Hastings River at Port Macquarie towards the entrance.

Port Stephens is not really a single defined town centre, more a gaggle of larger suburbs clustered around the perimeter of the indented harbour. The entrance is relatively narrow, between towering headlands, but is relatively deep and not barred in the same way as the rivers, making it far less stressful entering the harbour under most conditions.

The weather seems to follow an unpredictably predictable pattern down this way, veering from southerlies through to northerlies every couple of days, making it essential to keep an eye on the weather forecasts and move to wherever it is comfortable. The harbour is lined with beautiful white sand beaches between small headlands, wetlands, suburbia and parks. The water is a translucent green, changing to blue when seen from above. Ashore there are holiday crowds, but the water is quiet, nothing like the hectic turmoil experienced in the Gold Coast over the holiday.



Arrival at the hilly entrance to Port Stephens at dusk.



Shoal Bay, the first bay inside Port Stephens - Sundari was on a mooring down there while we hiked up Mount Tomaree at the southern entrance to the harbour.




Zenith Bay in the foreground, looking south towards Sydney from Mount Tomaree.



White bellied sea eagle soaring in the thermals at Tomaree.



Cheeky little corella decided to cause a bit of mischief amongst some bemused seagulls at Nelson Bay on the Port Stephens foreshore.

We will be here for at least another week before continuing on south. From Port Stephens it's only a short day hop to the mouth of the Hunter River and the busy industrial city of Newcastle, then another short distance to the barred entrance to Lake Macquarie, another short hop from there to Broken Bay with its expansive cruising ground amongst Ku-ringai Chase National Park. Sydney Harbour is 15 nm further on, with other potential anchorages further down the coast before the distances become annoying again. The last all weather anchorage before Bass Strait and Tasmania is Eden, nearly at the turning point where Victoria beckons sharply to the west.

Photo shows the Gold Coast's Broadwater and the nearby Pacific Ocean separated by South Stradbroke Island and the Southport Spit. Exit out from the Broadwater into the ocean is via the Seaway, a dredged channel that lies between island and Spit.

We are on a mooring in Iluka Harbour on the north side of the Clarence River in New South Wales, but leaving for the next safe anchorage south tomorrow.



Sundari in a very well protected spot in Iluka Bay near the rainforested coast within the Clarence River.



Sundari anchored near the barred entrance to the Clarence River - a lovely spot!

The New South Wales coast as we well know is beautiful, but in a different way to its northern neighbour. Gone are the myriads of islands and the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. In their place are great sweeps of beautiful beaches that lie between low headlands. This pattern is punctuated at regular intervals by rivers flowing into the Pacific from the Great Dividing Range that lies at some way inland.



Iluka Beach, typical of NSW's lovely surf beaches.

The NSW coast is readily accessed by car, although you can't see much of it by driving along the main north south highway, the Pacific Motorway. You have to keep deviating off the main drag to find the national parks, beaches and small coastal towns.

By boat, it's a different matter. There are few anchorages along the coast that can be accessed at any stage of the tide or wind direction. Most of the potential anchorages are in rivers that are entered over a bar. These bars are shallow and all potentially dangerous when the tide is ebbing against even a moderate wind or swell. Once you are in, you are never sure when you can get out again and, in summer, there is always the possibility that heavy rain in the headwaters sends a murky, swirling flood downstream.



Looking straight out through the river entrance. The "bar" is not even breaking. It's in temporary benign mode because of low swell and incoming tide, but it can swiftly become very nasty at other times!

Of course, every downside has an upside. Travelling by your own boat reduces the cost of visiting this part of Australia's east coast. Once anchored in a protected spot off a beach with few or no neighbours and only dolphins, ospreys and turtles for company, the pain of getting there melts away. Ashore, the busy summer crowds at the coastal seaside towns seem far away. The commercial campgrounds are heaving with summer holidaymakers, all cheek by jowl and paying through the nose for the privilege of renting a tiny piece of retail turf. Meanwhile, on the boat, there is nothing to pay and everything to enjoy.

We left the Gold Coast 10 days ago, without a grand plan of where we would end up. Maybe we won't get any further south than Sydney, or maybe we will make it all the way down to Tasmania. Hopefully, we will find a suitable mooring to rent while we make our planned overseas trips next year before sailing north again.

We had an easy overnight 90 nautical mile passage from the Gold Coast down to the Clarence River, the fourth in a series from the border (the Tweed, Brunswick and Richmond rivers were all passed). We have never been south of the Clarence by yacht - the last time we were here was not long after we bought Saraoni in 1998. We had sailed south after buying Saraoni in Airlie Beach and were ready to set off across the Tasman at the next port south of here (Coffs Harbour - a Customs port). Our plans turned 180o after being offered jobs in Darwin and we didn't actually make it over to New Zealand until a few years later.

The Clarence is a lovely area to explore and it would be easy to spend all summer here. The small towns of Iluka on the north shore and Yamba on the south shore have all the services you need and it's possible to sail 40 miles up the river to Maclean and Grafton, two towns we have passed through many times by car before. While here we have biked through the Iluka Rainforest Reserve, and up to Iluka Bluff and Woody Head on the Pacific coast north of the river, then from Yamba south to Angourie, where the Green and Blue Pools make nice natural swimming holes and where the 6 day Yuraygir Coastal walk starts. We have also been to and fro across the Clarence between Iluka and Yamba, bussed it up to Grafton and back and kayaked along the Esk River after dinghying it up through a labyrinth of mangrove channels from Iluka. The Esk is a narrow freshwater river that penetrates the wilderness of Bundjalung National Park that stretches north of Iluka.



Iluka is well known for its stretch of coastal rainforest, one of very few areas of this sort of habitat left on the lower east coast, We have been anchored or moored right next to it for the last 10 days!



Water lillies on the Esk River, a tannin stained waterway penetrating the wild heart of Bundjalung National park.



Yamba is a rapidly growing coastal town across the river from slumbering little Iluka, approached from the river through a narrow channel between sand banks and beach lined islands.



Selection of denizens encountered around the Clarence: from top left:
goanna at Woody Head, osprey with its prey
kookaburra with a snack, superb fairy wren
plover chick, water dragon.

Photo shows a drone view of our recent anchorage at Peel island, in South Moreton Bay. It's very popular as a safe anchorage in northerly winds, typical of summer. It's not so good when storms are around, as the heavy squalls normally come from the south west, making the anchorage a lee shore.

We are back on our mooring in the Karragarra Passage, just in time before the first real storms of the year rolled through from where they developed further out west, more or less where we spent a few days touring around last week car camping with Dennis the Diesel, who, as has already been reported, had an unexpected new lease on life.



Storm cells on the radar as they roll through over the Southern Moreton Bay islands.

Thunderstorms are a common phenomenon in early summer and sometimes later as summer advances into autumn, but it's not summer yet, at least from a pre climate change era timing!

Signs of an early summer were already around before our trip to Europe, but are in full swing now. Migrant waders have already been arriving from Alaska and Siberia and have occupied the mud and sand flats up and down the east coast. Koels and channel billed cuckoos are calling from nearby Karragarra, adding their calls to those of the resident kookaburras, cockatoos, bee-eaters and honeyeaters.

Ideas of sailing north to the southern islands of the Barrier Reef have been stymied after the string of northerly winds we have had ever since we arrived back from London - another early summer sign. We will be moving down to the Broadwater (Gold Coast) anchorage in a week's time and then waiting for the first weather window for the sail down towards Sydney and, perhaps,Tasmania. This time, unlike earlier this year, we have plenty of time to anchor hop down the coast, first across the Clarence bar into Yamba/Iluka, then Coffs Harbour, Port Stephens and into the Hawkesbury, just north of Sydney Harbour.



Sundari berthed in Newport marina north of Brisbane. It was the first marina we ever used back in 1987 with Corsair while we ventured south to Victoria to earn some cruising cash.



Dennis and the rooftop tent being erected at a campsite at Lake Broadwater near the outback town of Dalby.



Fisherman themed water tank mural in Theodore on the banks of the Dawson River.



Another sign of early summer...jacaranda tree in full bloom.



Grey kangaroo at Lake Murphy.



Emus seen along the Cracow Theodore Road.



Characteristic of the outback...apostle birds, so named because they roam around in family groups of between 10 and 15.



Overview of the North Burnett River, which eventually empties out into the sea at Bundaberg. The orchards are mostly citrus, mandarins and oranges, this shot taken near the small outback town of Gayndah.

Photo shows (most) of the family and friends we saw on our trip to Europe.
Top line: Mary and Susan in Presteigne, with Alison, Polly, John and Adam with the narrow boat, "Badger" in Leeds, John and Geoff at Brincliffe Edge Road in Sheffield.
Line 2: Izzy and Geoff in Sheffield, JP and Meggie in Manchester.
Line 3: Nicolette with Geoff in West Kirby, Belinda and Kit at Plymouth Hoe, Anne and Geoff in Swanage.
Line 4: Prue and Geoff in Bristol, Dave, Mary and the 2 of us in a Potton pub, Toby and two friends in the restaurant in St Jean de Fos.

We are back on the boat in Scarborough marina, just north of Brisbane, after an intense people oriented visit to England and France. It's been 11 to 13 years since we last saw most of the people we visited on this trip face to face. The internet of course means that it is a lot easier to keep in touch than it might have been in the past, but somehow it's not quite the same. Three weeks executing a figure of eight around England was followed by a flying visit to Southern France and bookended by two tiring thirty hour journeys between London and Brisbane via Shanghai. We managed to see four of Alison's sisters (Mary, Polly, Susan and Lucy), a brother (Toby), three nephews (JP, John and Hal), a niece (Izzzy), four brothers in law (Nick, Dave, Mark and John) , two cousins (Prue and Anne) and five friends from our circumnavigating days (Nicolette, Kit and Belinda, Vic and Marge). Phew! That's more socialising than we have done in years!

Apart from seeing friends and family, it was nice to drive around the English countryside, despite the grey, drizzly weather most of the time we were in England. Our rather convoluted route took us first to the Welsh borders, where the Presteigne festival and Knighton carnival were taking place, then to Bangor and Anglesey along the Welsh west coast, where Geoff did his teacher training course.



Wales: Presteigne Festival, Pellith Church, Harlech Castle, Llanfair PG

We picked up Polly at her home in Todmorden and joined her son John and his friend Adam on their newly acquired narrow boat on the canal near Leeds. Polly's other son, Hal, and his partner, Robin, and their two kids also live in Leeds and we dropped in on them for a cup of tea. Next stop was Sheffield to see Geoff's brother in law, John and niece, Isabelle, who is juggling her job and some serious leftwing politics. Geoff's sister, Sue, who came out to Oz last year, was in France when we dropped into Sheffield, but no doubt we will catch up with her again soon, either on bikes in France or on Sundari.



Yorkshire: John and Adam's barge on the canal near Leeds, Pennine landscapes

From Sheffield we tracked back across the Pennines, dropping into Manchester to see Mary's son, JP, and his wife, Meggie, before staying with Nicolette, an old circumnavigating sailing friend, in the Wirral,. Then, south to Bristol where we stayed with Alison's cousin, Prue, who told us that she has regular visits from a badger, a fox and hedgehogs in her Bristol city home. The next week or so was spent in southern England, passing through many quaint villages and towns along what seemed to be huge numbers of narrow country lanes. We spent time around Alison's old family haunts on Dartmoor before staying with more yachtie friends near Plymouth who we sailed with between Turkey and the Caribbean.



Somerset: Watchet marina, Porlock thatched cottage, Bodmin Moor, Wild ponies



Cornwall: Lynmouth harbour, Tintagel Castle, Old stone bridge, robin.



Dartmoor: tor on Dartmoor, Harewood (Alison's old home), Dartmoor Prison, Dartmoor ponies



Devon: tavistock, Francis Drake, Plymouth Harbour, Erme Estuary

More narrow lanes, thatched cottages and centuries old houses passed by before dropping in to see Geoff's cousin, Anne and her husband, John, in the Dorset coastal town of Swanage.



Dorset: Chesil Beach, Corfe Castle, Frome Bridge sign, Poole Harbour



Old houses: in the deep south

A couple of nights in the Bedfordshire village of Potton was next and was followed by the trip down to the south of France to catch up with Alison's youngest sibling, Toby, who is living in a village on the edge of the Massif Central, surrounded by vineyards, where he works. Last, but not least, we stayed with Vic and Marge, old sailing companions we sailed with between Malaysia and Spain. They are two of the very few we know who still have their yacht, Ice Maiden, moored in the Algarve.



Bedfordshire and Essex: Dave's pride and joy - the Morgan, Maldon barges, Rising Sun pub in Potton



Southern France: Herault River at Pont du Diable, St Guilhem alley, Gorge at Pont du Diable, St Jean de Fos alley,

Dennis the diesel (Merc no. 2) was found to be in reasonable shape when we recovered it, and seemingly behaving itself,so we are now getting ready to sail either north (if we get consistent southerlies) or south if the current northerlies persist. It's technically spring here in Queensland, and the days are now quite hot, although the clear skies at night mean that it cools down quite quickly after dark.



The mysterious recovery of Dennis the Diesel, here seen on our most recent 1,600km jaunt west of the Divide in Queensland.

Photo above shows the sunset looking west from Sundari towards the mainland. Clear winter skies mean it gets quite cold as soon as the sun sets!

With three weeks to go before we fly off to Britain on the relly trip we have resigned ourselves to sticking around Moreton Bay while we fix our two fridges and Dennis the Diesel. Dennis (the menace!) has developed an unexplained electronic blip that has limited it intermttently to second gear, something that drives the impatient rat race crowd mad on the busy roads around the Redlands. It's currently in hospital awaiting a transplant.

We've been hooked up to our Karragarra mooring for the last month since we returned from Africa, enduring cold nights and mostly sunny warm days. We have avoided winter chills for years, so it's been a bit of a shock. Meanwhile we have taken the opportunity to plant a variety of trees on our section and contemplated the possibility of erecting some sort of dwelling on it.

Building anything bigger than a shed in Australia means dealing with local council regulations. These seem to be designed to infuriate and obfuscate while delivering as much cash flow as possible to the building industry. While we are still healthy and reasonably fit we are quite happy living on the boat but are cognisant of the fact that this state of affairs may not continue. Meanwhile, what savings we have continue to be devalued by inflation, so we will soon have to take the plunge!



Looking along Lucas Drive on Lamb Island towards the western end of the Karragarra Passage. This drone photo was taken from directly above our section.



Looking east along the Karragarra Passage towards Minjerribah / North Stradbroke Island again from above our section.



Despite the cold winter weather, birds have been very active on the islands. Maybe they think it's Spring? Sulfur crested cockatoos and corellas have been busy searching out gum tree hollows for nests, while noisy miners and kookaburras already have young to feed and rainbow lorikeets squawk in large numbers on flowering blue gums. Also, we have noticed large numbers of pelicans in the surrounding waters which are much clearer (but colder) than normal. This photo shows a sulfur crested cockie having a munch on a Grevillea flower head.



Lamb Island, like the rest of SE Queensland, is looking lush and green after several years without drought.

Photo shows Mount Kilimanjaro, which was clearly visible as we flew into the international airport of the same name in Northern Tanzania.

Tanzania is the third East African country that Alison has now visited, after Uganda and Kenya (in 1980). Tanzania has remained relatively stable and peaceful over the period since Independence, although it remains statistically one of the world's poorest countries. It's another country that Geoff lived in when he was a teenager, when his family was stationed in Dar es Salaam, on the Tanzanian coast, nearly opposite the island of Zanzibar.

We had a fantastic Air Tanzania flight between Entebbe and Kilimanjaro International Airport, located half way between the northern cities of Arusha and Moshi. There was an unusually clear sky and we were treated to a good view of Lake Victoria and its islands as well as the volcanic landmarks of Oldonyo Lengai and Ngorongoro Crater as well as Lakes Natron , Manyara and Eyasi. As we neared the end of the flight, huge Mount Meru on the doorsteps of Arusha reared up and behind that, further in the distance, was Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest. Maybe because the recently ended wet season had been particularly wet, Kilimanjaro seemed to have more snow on top than was expected.

Like Kampala, Arusha, our base city in Tanzania, had grown enormously since Geoff was last here in early 1971. We had hired a Toyota Landcruiser, a tougher 4 x 4 to tackle the notoriously atrocious roads in Tanzania's northern parks. This area has a lot of wildlife reserves and attracts more overseas visitors than just about anywhere else in Africa, so our Landcruiser was just one of many trundling along the highway south west of Arusha and into the national parks not so far away.

Our target areas were Tarangire NP, the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, Serengeti NP and Lake Manyara NP. In the end, we substituted Arusha NP, only 25 km from Arusha instead of Lake Manyara. All the parks we visited were superb wildlife areas and we were lucky to be in the middle part of Serengeti close to the park's HQ of Seronera just as the main bulk of the wildebeest/ zebra migration was passing through. (Apparently, a previously underestimated migration of antelope in war torn South Sudan has now been recognised as even greater than that of the greater Serengeti ecosystem, with up to 6 million hoofed animals making a 2,000 km round journey in the region of the Upper White Nile - great news!)

Tarangire NP was only opened up after Geoff lived in Tanzania and is best known for its elephant herds which congregate near to the Tarangire River in the dry season, but the first animals we saw in the park were 4 lionesses, sleeping peacefully in a tree close to the entrance gate!

Ngorongoro has a descent road and a separate ascent road into the crater, 600 m below the crater rim. Thankfully, they have both been paved, as the roads leading to and from the crater rim, as well as the roads on the floor of the crater, are not in good condition. Just as Geoff remembered, Ngorongoro seemed to be like a Garden of Eden, with animals of all descriptions everywhere. One feels that the zebras and gnus that live on the crater floor as well as the many gazelles, buffalo, hippos and elephants are lucky compared to their relatives in the Serengeti who have to be constantly on the move looking for food. We were lucky to see a black rhino in Ngorongoro. Rhinos have been slaughtered mercilessly over the last two or three decades and nowhere in Africa has been spared. The fight against corrupt government officials, well organised wildlife smuggling syndicates, poachers and markets in Yemen, Vietnam and China seems to have paid off somewhat more recently as the numbers of black rhinos seem to be now increasing. White rhino populations, for decades much more numerous than their browsing black rhino cousins, have not done so well and South Africa, in particular, is having a hard time trying to staunch the loss, even though many of their rhinos have had their horns cut off to dissuade poaching.

Driving around the Serengeti was hard work, because of the bone numbing roads and dust, but we were rewarded by the numbers and diversity of wildlife we saw. We camped in unfenced public campgrounds in both the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater rim and were kept awake at night by a cacophony of sounds coming from hyenas, lions, baboons, frogs and the constant grunting of migrating wildebeest, who seemed to have picked our Seronera campsite as a through route!

Our last stop in our too brief trip in Tanzania was little Arusha National Park, wedged between Mount Meru and the banana and coffee plantations all around. This park was surprisingly good value with plenty of megafauna, including large number of giraffes, zebras, waterbucks and other antelopes, herds of elephants and three species of monkeys on the slopes of Ngurdoto Crater, a smaller version of Ngorongoro, accessed by a horrendously narrow and dangerously slippery road!

Thanks to all the friendly and interesting people we met in the three countries we visited. You tend to miss some of the potentially good contact with locals you can get when you go on an organised tour or with a driver/guide combination, but we still managed to talk to a lot of South Africans, Ugandans and Tanzanians on our self drives. Thanks go to our rafiki, John, for example, in Arusha, who took us on an impromptu tour of Arusha's sprawling and fascinating central market where we saw all sorts of vegetables and fruit we had never seen before and in such large anounts as well as a lot of colourful market characters. Geoff once was able to get along happily in Kiswahili, Tanzania's official language and a lingua franca across East Africa, but what little he could remember (Jambo, Mama!) endeared him, or at least caused amusement, to locals everywhere!

We now have a couple of months cruising in Sundari before we fly off again to Europe to catch up with family and friends we haven't seen for years. Flying has become a bore and a drag, but we haven't done much of it for years until this year, so endure it we must.



Predators in Serengeti and Ngorongoro.
Top row: lionesses of the Seronera pride
Middle row: Male lion of the Seronera pride, cheetah seen on the plains on the way to Ngorongoro
Bottom row: Serengeti spotted hyena, young croc in the Seronera River.



Other megafauna in Tanzania
Top row: Serengeti wildebeest migratiom, Ngorongoro zebra, Serengeti dik dik
Middle row: Ngorongoro plains wildlife, Ngorongoro elephant, Ngorongoro hippo
Bottom row: Grants gazelle on the Serengeti Plains, Ostrich, Crowned crane in Ngorongoro.



Snapshot of Northern Tanzania
Top row: Olduvai Gorge entrance, Maasai village on the way out of Ngorongoro
Middle row: Views into Ngorongoro Crater
Bottom row: Seronera campsite at dawn.

This chimp was spotted just off the main highway in the Kalinzu Forest. it was a young male, called "Son of Kahala" and part of a 52 strong habituated chimpanzee group in this forest.

Alison had never been to Uganda and for Geoff, it was 53 years since he and his family left Entebbe on a paddle steamer across Lake Victoria, heading for the Kenyan lakeside town of Kisumu and then to Mombasa on the coast.

What would it be like after all that time? Perhaps coincidentally we arrived at Entebbe from Johannesburg on a sunny morning, the international airport located right on the shore of the huge East Afican lake, Africa's largest. Entebbe and other Ugandan cities we were to discover had grown enormously since Geoff was living here. Uganda's population has grown at least 4 times over since the early 1970s and it shows in the crowded streets of Entebbe and Kampala through to the villages on the verdant, rolling hillsides as far as the eye can see.

We hired a tougher vehicle in Entebbe from a local dealer to deal with the rougher roads and it proved a good choice. We planned a circuitous trip first west from Kampala towards the Ruwenzori Mountains on the Congo border and the tea plantations of Fort Portal. We stopped off at a small crater reserve, Nkuruba, one of many explosion craters close to the Western Rift Valley volcanic zone before descending to Uganda's second largest national park, Queen Elizabeth, and one that Geoff knew well from spending 2 months here before he went to University in Britain.

Uganda has had a fairly tumultuous time politically since it became independent. Instability through the rules of Idi Amin and Milton Obote was later compounded by refugee chaos from across the border in Rwanda during the genocide period there and the even more politically unstable Congo. The last decade has been relatively peaceful and we felt genuinely safe everywhere we went in Uganda.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has done a lot of good work on primate conservation and a lot of the not very many tourists we saw in Uganda were focused on seeing chimpanzees, gorillas and other unique primates. We passed on the gorilla possibilities (too expensive for our stretched budget), but we did spend a memorable morning in Kalinzu Forest, a large primary rainforest reserve that is joined to the even larger Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth national park. Following protocols elsewhere in Africa where there are still great ape populations (Tanzania, Rwanda, the Congo and Gabon), small family groups of both gorillas and chimps have been carefully habituated and visitors under controlled conditions are now allowed to get a close up experience. The chimps and gorillas are often as curious as the humans in these encounters, although the possibility of an encounter is not guaranteed, as the families of apes wander around according to fruiting trees (chimps) or ground level vegetation (gorillas). The Kalinzu forest chimp population is estimated to be around 500, with 52 in one extended family group habituated. The Kibale Forest National park chimp population is a lot larger at around 3,000, while gorilla populations are at the moment holding on relatively healthily in the Impenetrable Forest and the three volcanos on or near the Rwandan and Congolese borders. In addition to chimps, we saw red and black and white colobus monkeys, L'Hoest's monkeys, red tailed monkeys, vervets and baboons.

Queen Elizabeth NP had suffered greatly in the past, especially when the attempt to kick Idi Amin out was in full force, with Tanzanian and rebel Ugandan troops using the park as a base for a while. The park seems to have recovered with good populations of all the usual megafauna. Elephant herds and lone males were seen everywhere, even holding up the traffic on the main highway that runs through the park. The Kazinga Channel that links Lakes George and Edward in Queen Elizabeth was brimming with birds, hippos and crocodiles as well as attendant antelopes and warthogs.

The last reserve we visited didn't exist when Geoff lived there - Lake Mburo National Park is a relatively small park in the savannah lands of the Ankole cattle herders. It's become a popular place for bikers and hikers as there are no really dangerous animals (lions have apparently recently wandered over from Rwanda, but are rare or non-existent most of the time). It must be quite a magical experience to walk or cycle (with an armed guard of course) close to the herds of zebras, waterbuck and giraffes.

Geoff tried to find the grave of his Mum who died in Kampala in 1970. The graveyard has narrowly escaped development and upheaval and is a rare green oasis in an ocean of rapidly expanding urban development. Sadly, the actual gravestone couldn't be found. Whether it had actually been put in place back in 1970 will never be discovered.



Sample of birds we encountered in Uganda.

Top row: African Fish Eagles, Bee eaters,
Middle row: Turaco in the Nkuruba rainforest, Little Kingfisher at QENP.
Bottom row: Pied kingfishers along the Kazinga Channel, Crowned crane.


Top row: Black and white colobus monkeys
Middle row: Red colobus monkeys,
Bottom row: Chimpanzees in Kalinzu Forest.

Some of the 7 species of primates we saw in Uganda.



There was a huge diversity of other megafauna in Uganda.
Top row: elephant herd along the Kazinga Channel, zebras at Lake Mburo NP
Middle row: banded mongooses at Nkuruba, elephants feeding on papyrus,
Bottom row: bushbuck, hippos and little egret along the Kazinga Channel.



A snapshot of human Uganda.
Top row: Kampala roundabout, Kalinzu Forest staff
Middle row: Pineapples on the way to market along the Mbarara Kampala highway, tea plantations near Fort Portal.
Bottom row: Warning sign in the Kibale National Park on the main highway, Ankole cattle near Lake Mburo NP.

Photo shows the iconic Table Mountain in sunny conditions from the city waterfront on Table Bay. It was the only time we saw the top of the mountain during our Cape Town visit.

We are back on Sundari in the Gold Coast's Broadwater after a too short trip to South and East Africa. The reason that the trip was so short was because we expected to be called up for a citizenship ceremony at some point. Our expectation was proven correct when we got an email in South Africa announcing the ceremony taking place in Cleveland, the Redland City Council's main administrative town. We are now Australian citizens and were given two small native trees at the ceremony to plant in our land on Lamb Island as a souvenir!

In the end we spent a very enjoyable 3 weeks in South Africa and 1 week each in Uganda and Tanzania.

Could we have spent longer? Of course, but the sort of trip we did in each country certainly wasn't cheap, especially as we opted to stay in guest houses and hotels where we could, rather than cheaper campsites as we have done so frequently in the past. East Africa is particularly expensive and we would have spent a lot more if we had been there any longer.

The main aim of our trip was of course to see as much of Africa's mega fauna as we could, while keeping an eye and mind open to what's happening more broadly, socially and politically, in the countries we visited.

We were able to shorten the time in the air on the way to Cape Town by spending two nights in Perth on the way from Brisbane, where we caught up with Alison's old school friend and fellow sailor, Clodagh, who met us half way between Albany and Perth in the little village of Williams (!) We still felt tired and jet lagged by the time we landed in Cape Town.

Cape Town was inspiringly beautiful with its grand mountainous backdrop and seascape. We weren't to see the full grandeur of Table Mountain until the second afternoon when we made the obligatory pilgrimage by ferry to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent his Apartheid era internment years. We enjoyed the road journey below the towering cliffs and the precipitous peaks of the Cape Range to the Cape of Good Hope, spotting eland, bontebok, zebra, ostrich and a lot of baboons along the way as well as dropping in on the sadly vanishing colonies of African penguins.

From Cape Town we stuck to the main coastal route, deviating from the well maintained N2 highway whenever we could. We drove through the Overberg, the little quaint Afrikaaner town of Swellendam, the Bontebok National park and onto the Garden Route. This is an impressively beautiful coast with some of South Africa's best hiking possibilities in the coastal mountains and forests close to the crashing southern ocean swells.

We had a 2 day stopover at Addo Elephant National park near Port Elizabeth which was our first real encounter with significant megafauna, especially large numbers of very friendly elephants (!) before continuing our coastal adventure through the Eastern Cape towards KwaZulu Natal and Durban.

Our last week and a half was divided up between the lovely St Lucia Estuary and iSimangaliso Reserve, Hluhluwe / iMfolozi Game Reserves and Kruger national park. It probably wasn't the ideal time of the year to visit these well known reserves as the wet season had not long finished and the grass was quite long, making it more difficult to spot animal life much beyond the fringes of the roads. We still saw heaps of megafauna, however, and it was difficult to say whether this was any less of a trip than the one we did in 2012, when we visited the same three places (plus a few more we didn't have time for this time).

As for South Africa and its inhabitants, at no time did we feel unsafe, although because the country has a reputation for petty and sometimes violent crime, we did take precautions. Everyone we met was friendly and pleasant, whatever their background. SA has huge socio-economic problems and the gap between rich and poor here is still staggering. The general election took place just after we left for Uganda and there was a lot of intense debate within SA on the TV and radio about which parties could be trusted to do something about the poverty in the country. The ANC in the end lost majority control after 30 years in power and has now decided to stay in government in coalition with 5 other smaller parties. We wish SA the very best in its endeavours to become a better place for all of its people to live in.



A snapshot of scenes across SA.
Top row: Mandela's Robben Island cell, Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope
Middle row: Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape, Cape Range, Fish River mouth
Bottom row: eastern cape Xhosa country, East London beach scene, Umthatha, main town in Eastern Cape and Mandela's birth place.



Just some of the many birds we saw in South Africa, some close relatives of birds in Australia.

Top row: African penguins, darter, Goliath Heron
Middle row: Giant ground hornbill, Giant kingfisher, bee eater
Bottom row: Helmeted guinea fowl, Mouse birds, Verreaux's eagle owl.



The so called Big 5 together with hippos - our Big 6!
Top row: Kruger lioness, Kruger leopard, Addo NP elephants
Middle row: iMfolozi rhino, St Lucia hippos, Kruger rhino
Bottom row: Sabie elephants, Kruger hippo, Kruger buffalo



The not so Big 6 animals encountered in SA.
Top row: Croc and heron, greater kudu and inyala, Kruger giraffe
Middle row: Baboons, Samango monkey, Giraffes and zebras, Addo.
Bottom row: Tree squirrel, meerkat, wildebeest/gnu.

Photo shows a lone male elephant on a road in Kruger National Park we encountered in October 2012. We weren't sure at the time what the intentions of the elephant were!


It seems hard to register that we have now been in Australia for nearly six whole years, with only 2 relatively short side trips to New Zealand, just across the turbulent ditch. This long period has of course been partly extended by Covid rules and maybe the very size of Australia has meant that we have been kept busy exploring new places whenever we could.

Now we are flying away, with Sundari safely tucked away in Hope Harbour, while we pass through Perth en route to Cape Town. We are hiring a car to drive east along the Garden Route and the Wild Coast as far as KwaZulu Natal, then north past Eswatini / Swaziland and into Kruger and then off to Johannesburg.



Anchored in the Broadwater for the next few days before flying off to Africa!

From there we will fly up to Entebbe in Uganda on the north coast of Lake Victoria, and visit the area south west of Uganda's capital, Kampala to look for chimps in their last remaining forest habitats amongst other Ugandan wildlife refuges. Finally, our African odyssey will take us to the city of Arusha near Mount Kilimanjaro and we will hire a 4 x 4 to take us to Tarangire national park, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. We should be back in Brisbane ready to sail north in mid June after a short stopover in Kuala Lumpur.

It's not the first time we have been in Africa, of course. We were last in South Africa in 2012 when we spent five weeks in the eastern half of Africa's most developed country. We sailed up through the Red Sea in 2010, visiting Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt, while in 2013, we spent time in Morocco and Cape Verde, off the West African coast. And on our long trip from New Zealand to Britain in 1979 we spent several weeks in Kenya, hitch hiking around the country and dropping into Mombasa on the coast where my (Geoff's) Dad was working.

Years before that, I lived in East Africa for five years with my family. My time there as a developing teenager, living in two equally developing young African nations, only just emerging from the shadow of colonial rule, was probably the most influential of my life.

It was where my life-long hatred of racism originated and an awareness of glaring socio-economic inequities. It was also where I discovered just how amazing the world of nature was, with the rich experiences of bountiful birdlife, amazing underwater coral ecosystems and mammalian megafauna.

It was where my mother died and was buried in a now overgrown cemetery on the outskirts of burgeoning and bustling Kampala. It was also where I learned to drive, and where I had my first taste of a job, albeit a volunteer one, on the border with the Congo in Queen Elizabeth National Park, working with and amongst that magic park's elephants, hippos, buffalo, lions and hyenas.

We don't expect to see an Africa unchanged. Nowhere else in the world has stayed the same. Africa generally remains near the bottom of the global statistical heap in terms of life expectancy, access to clean water, adequate housing and food supply. The continent is huge, of course, and diverse, and we will have too little time to make any meaningful analysis of what lies ahead for Africa's human population as well as what remains of African nature.

Climate change is just as important a challenge for Africa as it is here so far away in Australia. Only in the last few weeks, detailed aerial and underwater observations have revealed yet another depressing coral bleaching event, this time stretching well into the southern reefs. If wealthy Australia can't do enough to look after its natural marvels, and do its share in reducing emissions, who can blame poverty stricken African governments for not doing enough?



Route in South Africa from Cape Town to Johannesburg



Route in East Africa from Entebbe in Uganda to Arusha in Tanzania

* "Tunasafiri Kwa Africa" - Kiswahili for "We are off to Africa". Kiswahili is a lingua franca language across East Africa, especially Tanzania, where it is the national language, and Kenya. It is actually the native language of the Waswahili, the people of the east coast opposite Unguja / Zanzibar. Kiswahili is not so common in Uganda and not spoken in South Africa where Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, Zulu and other African languages are the official languages.

Photo shows the daily fish feeding frenzy outside a fish and chip restaurant on the Broadwater. Pelicans and silver gulls are there for easy pickings and tourists come to goggle at them.

We are back on the boat in Hope Harbour marina on the Gold Coast after a few weeks pottering around up and down the east coast of New South Wales and Queensland. Our trip south towards Sydney was cut short when it became obvious that we had lost a good weather window and would be locked into the barred Clarence River for rather too long if we had left the Gold Coast when we could.

Not shy of opting for Plan B, we tied Sundari up in Hope Harbour and set off in Matilda, loaded up with kayaks, bikes, camping and hiking gear.



The Merc. loaded up with kayaks, bikes and camping stuff

We have passed through New South Wales plenty of times, but hardly ever explored what it has to offer naturally.

The NSW coastline is beautiful, but an awkward place for cruising, mainly because potential anchorages are mostly on offer only after navigating a river bar. In summer, the often constant easterly ocean swell can make many of these river entrances treacherous. When the swell is down, a few rivers are navigable to a deep drafted yacht like Sundari, but the entrance has to be precisely timed for a safe entrance. Once in, the rivers provide good anchorage, but you are then locked in until the bar opens again!



A few of many beautiful beaches and coastal scenes on the NSW coast


We are not new to bar crossings. We have crossed the often dangerous Wide Bay bar at the southern end of K'Gari many times, and have crossed into the Richmond and Clarence rivers in Saraoni. The most dangerous bar we tried to cross was the Vailala on the Papuan coast. We attempted this bar in Corsair with no beacons or navigational guidance back in 1989 and nearly drowned. The unsuccessful attempt meant we had to beat back against the trade wind for 150 nm to Port Moresby where we left the boat on a mooring and flew to the little jungle school of Ihu. The headmaster had been led to believe that we had disappeared and our boat sunk after we had been sighted trying to cross the bar by local fishermen!

Our wanderings took us on to the New England tableland, past gorges and escarpments down to the coast near Sydney. From Lake Macquarie, we explored each inlet in turn, travelling northwards past the Hunter, Port Stephens and the Myall Lakes, Forster/Tuncurry, the Manning River, Camden Haven, Port Macquarie, the Macleay, Nambucca Heads, Coffs Harbour, Sandon, the Clarence and Richmond Rivers.

Lovely, long stretches of sandy beaches between bush covered headlands and calm inlets punctuate the coast north of Sydney, but civilization in the form of condos, beach mansions and associated urban development is taking over in many places where the river mouths meet the sea. Weekends and public or school holidays close to any large city are times to avoid!

The weather was really too hot to enjoy too much strenuous outdoor activity but we walked where we could and kayaked in some lovely inlets. To beat the heat, we have just spent time up in the Border Ranges on the Queensland side, the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the upper reaches of the Mary River.



The hinterland of both the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast still have pockets of sub tropical rainforest and quite a few reservoirs turned into recreation resources.



As usual, we are always on the lookout for amazing wildlife opportunities.

If it hadn't been for a lengthy wait for our Australian citizenship applications to be approved, we would have made plans to leave Sundari on the east coast and make a trip to Europe (last time we were there was 2013!) and Africa (not sure whether that was going to be Entebbe in Uganda or Cape Town). Plans are somewhat hazy as the applications have only just been approved, but we don't actually become citizens until we attend a citizenship ceremony, the date of which is unknown!

It is now the first days of Autumn here and we have to make a choice whether to stay put, sail south, or sail north and leave the boat in Bundaberg or Gladstone when we can fly off for the two months away from Australia.



Finding places to kayak while we limbo dance!

Photo shows Sundari on its mooring between Karragarra and Lamb islands in the Karragarra Channel. Karragarra Island is in the background. This is Quandamooka Country - the Aboriginal name for Moreton Bay.

We seem to have been having a longer than usual stopover in the Karragarra Channel. We should have been sailing south along the New South Wales coast right now with a possible deviation to Lord Howe Island, but horrendous weather in South East Queensland (and North eastern NSW) has postponed movement away from the security of our mooring!

We're not sure what has happened to El Nino. Very severe thunderstorms and heavy rain for days at a time, with days in between baking in the upper thirties, have not quite fitted the usual El Nino pattern - more like a repeat of the last three years of La Nina. Climate scientists seem to be as flummoxed as us and are blaming 'unusually' (!) warm ocean water surrounding Australia on the amount of moisture in the air descending upon us.

Around a dozen people have died in one weather related accident or another since just before Christmas, three who fell overboard off a launch in 70 knots of wind a few miles north of us in Moreton Bay.

Heigh Ho, we have been dealing with a few maintenance issues on the boat, done the usual shuffling of stuff to and from the 'Boat Shed', swam off the back of the boat, or the beach at Karragarra or Lamb when it's been too hot, watching the daily sparring match between the local sea eagles and their tiny avian tormentors and sorting out documentation now needed for our Oz citizenship applications.

We still haven't recovered Matilda, patiently hanging around back up in Bundaberg, but will be going up to collect it next week, depositing it by the Boat Shed and departing southwards to resume our southern quest via the Gold Coast.



We now have 8 bikes in the shed and 1 more in the car up in Bundy. We need a new shed or need to get rid of some of this junk or all of the above!



In between the wet and stormy weather, it's been baking, so we have been in the sea as much as we can. The little beaches scattered around these populated islands have BBQ facilities, public loos and freshwater showers, which are actually more refreshing than the sea. This pic shows Karragarra in the foreground and Lamb to the North, with North Stradbroke (Minjerribah) in the far distance.



The scattering of moored boats in the Karragarra Channel. Macleay Island is the nearest island seen at the back left. Lamb is further to the right, separated from Macleay by the Lucas Passage. In the hazier distance is the long hummocky island of North Stradbroke, most of which is Naree Budjong Djara National Park. Most of North Stradbroke and Moreton Islands have been handed back to the remaining Quandamooka people. The Karragarra Channel is a well trafficked marine thouroughfare that is used by boats transiting between Moreton Bay to the north and the Gold Coast's Broadwater 25 miles away to the South.



This drone photo shows Russell Island, the fourth of this tightly knit quartet of inhabited SMB islands, in the distance, with the Krummel Passage separating it from Karragarra in the foreground. While Karragarra is the smallest island in area and population, Russell is the largest of the four islands with the most residents and land area.



This photo shows the mainland in the far distance, with a number of low lying mangrove islands scattered between the Redland Bay coast and Karragarra in the foreground.

Note the rather ungainly structure in the photo on Karragarra. Each of the four South Moreton Bay islands now sports a new ferry terminal for the frequent fast ferries which skim across the water between Redland Bay and the islands. The council has also built new dinghy docks and pontoons for larger boats at each island,which has made it a lot easier to get ashore and safely leave your dinghy as well as take Sundari alongside and fill up with water!

Photo shows Sundari anchored off the River Heads boat ramp at the mouth of the Mary.

We are anchored at the mouth of the Mary River, half way down the Great Sandy Strait, after a long 60nm sail down from Bundaberg's Burnett River. It was probably the best sail we have had this year, with consistent 10 to 20 knot north easterlies.

We have been in the Burnett for most of the time since our arrival from Mackay at least a month ago. Time has drifted by in the Burnett, as we have been hoping for a side trip up to Lady Musgrave lagoon. Sadly, this wasn't to be and we had Sundari hauled out for a bottom antifoul instead while we made inland trips to the Bunya Mountains and the Cooloola Coast.



Sundari anchored in its favourite calm spot in the lower reaches of the Burnett River.



Sundari getting its hull scrubbed and painted with new antifouling paint.

While we were perched up on Bundy Port marina's hard stand, a low developed for the third time this year in the Solomons. Unlike Cyclones Lola and Mal, which both tracked south and then south east, the new system moved into the Coral Sea and long range forecasts predicted a possible path right across Bundaberg and K'Gari. The new cyclone, named Jasper, was the first December cyclone to develop in the Coral Sea in an El Nino year since records began - how often have we have been hearing these records being broken lately?

After a rather agonising long 10 day wait, especially for Far North Queensland boaties and land based residents, the cyclone eventually crossed the coast just north of Cape Tribulation nearly a week ago as a category 2 system. While the wind and wave damage wasn't too bad (apart from to coral reef and seagrass beds), torrential rain falling from the stalled system led to the worst flooding to hit the area since (guess what) records began. Jasper crossed the coast at the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal, all 300 inhabitants being eventually evacuated to Cooktown, mainly because of floods inundating their homes.



The tracking map published by the BOM showing Jasper's track across the Coral Sea.

At this time of the year, inland troughs tend to create northerlies ahead of them and late afternoon or evening thunderstorms on the coast. These can be very strong - a storm in the outskirts of Brisbane yesterday reached 80 knots! We are keeping a close eye on the radar when the northerlies are blowing as when the storm comes through it typically reverses the wind direction 180 degrees making sheltered anchorages a lee shore!



A line of thunderstorms shown on the BOM radar approaching the Sandy Strait and K'Gari this afternoon as this blog was written.

These same northerlies that brought us down to the Sandy Strait ease on Sunday, so we should be able to cross the shallows at Sheridan Flats and the Wide Bay Bar on Monday or Tuesday, in transit to Moreton Bay and our mooring off Lamb Island.

We still have to retrieve Matilda, left in Bundaberg, and help our Bundy friends with fitting a new anchor winch on their yacht "Kindred Spirit" but we are unlikely to stay in Moreton Bay for too long - it's just too hot here in summer! We will sail as far south as we can get to, weather permitting, while we are still waiting for our Oz citizenship applications to be completed. Hopefully, it won't be much longer, so we will be then planning on doing something more energetic and away from Australia next year.

It seems to have been a long year and probably, for many people in currently war torn parts of the planet, far too long. In many cases there seems to be no prospect of much improvement any time soon. Israel/Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and Ethiopia/Tigre are all sad places at the end of 2023. Simmering violence persists in Haiti, the Maghreb (West Africa), the drug wars of Mexico and too many other places to mention. Climate change is not yet being addressed sufficiently by the world's governments and the rise of the far right and right adjacent makes for a gloomy vision for 2024. This is possibly the first time for many years that wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year without any evidence that it will be so for many seems a trifle banal. Wishing family and friends both, of course, is another matter!

We have bought ourselves a joint Christmas present - a larger version of one of our 2 kayaks. The U.S. designed and manufactured Advanced Elements single kayak that we bought in 2019 with the French Itiwit is a bit rough around the edges but is still usable. The new kayak is the one up from the Advanced Elements kayak that we already have - it was sold second hand but in very good condition. It's capable of carrying more than the single kayak, so we will hopefully be using it for some multi day kayak adventures next year. We will also be planning at least one long hiking trip and one long bike trip - preferably not in Australia!



Geoff unpacks the new kayak and tries it out for size on the Burnett Heads foreshore.



Trial run in the new kayak up the Kolan River near the Bucca Crossing.



The 2 kayaks together on a sand bank in the Elliott River.

Update: We are now anchored off Tangalooma, Moreton Island, after another fantastic 90 nm sail down from the Wide Bay Bar. Very calm and sunny here with dolphins and turtles in attendance and a large number of 4WDs on the sandy beach.

Photo shows a drone view of Port Newry, near Mackay, just one of 15 lovely island anchorages we stopped at on the way from Cairns to Mackay. Sundari is in the near foreground.

We have arrived back on the shores of Great Keppel Island, 5 months and many hundreds of sea miles since we were here last on the trip north. A decision to sail overnight from Mackay, our last stopping off point, was soon curtailed after passing a southbound whale, one of the very last of this year's stragglers. We passed another two this morning, a mum and a calf, the latter probably a late birther. The wind has been from the north to north east, but the only decent sailing day was today, close to the coast south of Port Clinton.



Had a lovely sail today (for a change!) from Port Clinton into the Keppel Group, with its fantastic beaches and harsh, dry hills.

Geoff's sister, Sue, accompanied us for nearly two months, as we sailed south in three steps from Cairns through to Mackay, a total distance logged of around 550 nautical miles. Sue's now back in France, plotting her next adventures.



The three of us splashing around in a pool at the 'Rock Slides', in the Paluma Range, near Townsville.

We last met up with Sue in Panama when we crossed over from the Caribbean to the Pacific through the Panama Canal. Sue's work, Covid and distance have been a deterrent to meeting up in the last 8 years. Sue has recently retired from a busy life in charge of a Sheffield not for profit company, and is making the transition to life without having to worry about her job.

Having both Matilda, the Merc. to waltz around in and the boat available proved to be a good combination as it meant that Sue got to see quite a lot of Australia in the time she was here, especially as it was the first time she had been to the country before.

We stayed based in Cairns for the first three weeks, mainly because the trades were still strong and would have made south bound sailing too tough. We still got around the hinterland, revisiting the Daintree rainforest, Atherton Tableland, Cassowary Coast and inland on the Savannah Way as far as the Undara lava tubes and Georgetown, in addition to a four day sprint out to the outer barrier reef.



Sundari perched just off the reef at Sudbury Cay on the outer barrier.




Underwater/Overwater at Sudbury Cay



Campsite at Undara lava tubes. Sue slept in the car and we opted for the tent.

The trip south, once the wind eased, was first down to Townsville, stopping at Fitzroy Island, the Franklands, Mourilyan Harbour, Orpheus in the Palms and Magnetic Island. The second leg took us past Cape Bowling Green, Cape Upstart, Gloucester Island to the Whitsundays, while the last leg to Mackay took us to Shaw Island, Thomas, the Newrys and St Bees and Keswick Islands.



Sundari at Normanby Island in the Frankland Group.




Shoal of friendly trevally at Normanby island.



Sundari at Saddleback Island,with Gloucester Island in the background.



Bauer Bay at South Molle in the Whitsundays.

Sue was able to spot some of Oz's iconic wildlife, including wallabies (on the first day out!), kangaroos, koalas (on Magnetic Island), crocodiles, goannas, turtles and 2 rather distant humpback whales. She unexpectedly eyeballed a cassowary in the Daintree and an emu in the outback. She saw more species of birds and fish than she will ever remember, plenty of both botanical and geological interest, swam, kayaked, snorkelled, beachcombed, walked and climbed, hopefully a holiday to remember!



Sleepy koala in a pine tree near the Forts, Magnetic Island.



Sue enjoying her time in Oz

We haven't made plans for the next few months yet and will take each week as it comes. We still have the Bunker Group's cays and reefs at the southern end of the Barrier Reef to get to in what is now warmer weather than when we sailed north, so hopefully we can now do some diving!

The cyclone season seems to have started unusually early with the formation of Cyclone Lola in the southern Solomons a couple of days ago. Like all cyclones, it's hard to know where they will wander. Lola is now rated at category 5, the strongest level, and is expected to move across Vanuatu towards New Caledonia before fizzling out. It's not going to affect us in any way, except remind us that it's not the time of year to hang around for too long in the tropics!