Tasotter and H are on their way to the UK again for the annual narrowboat cruise and more. We had a slightly delayed flight and overnight in Melbourne yesterday, and are shortly about to board QF9 to London, with a quick refuelling pit stop in Perth.

Our house sitters from Dunedin quickly settled in, and are being re trained by Cooper and Rosie into a Butler and Maid service, good luck guys ! Flying up the valley gave us a Birds Eye view of new housing developments around us, I’ll be glad when the earthworks finish. As ever the Valley looked beautiful in the afternoon sunlight, we are lucky to live in such a stable and picturesque part of the world….but there’s always room for canals and rivers to explore by a Sea Otter.

Our boat trip plans have changed a number of times, here’s Plan C……there is no plan apart from going from the River Wey onto the Thames and hopefully up the Oxford Canal in a 5 week period. It’s all about SLOW BOATING this year. Let’s relax and explore some of the towns along the waterside. We do have a rental car back in the Marina should the desire to play in the traffic prove too strong. However roundabouts like this quickly put me off.

The last 2 weeks of our trip will be a big boat cruise around Ireland in Oceania’s Nautica. She’s a sister ship to Regatta who we cruised to Alaska last year, and with just 600 passengers is very comfortable. I’ve cut down on the camera gear this year, with just 2 (so far 🤫) suitable for the expected landscape needs. A Fuji XH2 with 18-300mm lens will cover the wide angle to telephoto requirements, with a stabilised body and lens to cope with rolling boaty movements ! For the evening strolls and macro requirements a Leica Q2 will be more than sufficient.

The trip has not started off brilliantly, I lost my razor on the way to the airport, and have come down with a cold…..sounds just like last year doesn’t it….if that’s all that goes wrong I’ll not complain.

See you in England !