travelling allrite

Cars. Boats. Trains. And a tram pulled by a horse. Our Murray River journey continues with a drive to Goolwa, a river port that once handled paddle steamers up the river system. Past the McLaren Vale vineyards and through bucolic hills and towns.  Confused by the GPs we drive over the steep Hindmarsh Island Bridge and back, before finding the Goolwa Wharf. We are here for the Cockle Train, a half hour heritage steam train ride from Goolwa to Victor Harbour. Whistles sound and handsome locomotive 621 arrives at the station towing wooden heritage cars. This line was once horsedrawn and runs along the beach for the second half of its journey. It was popular with the fisherman who dug up the cockles from the beach sands, hence the name.  The old seats are not always the most comfortable, dependant on the state of their springs. But the windows open, letting in the scent and the soot of the steam engine while hopefully diluting any covid air from the white Australian males who stru...

Last year we hosted a Japanese high school student , Miyu, for two weeks and one of her teachers, Machiko, for the second week. They were both the most delightful of guests and we really enjoyed both getting to know them and sharing a bit of Australia. A return visit provided the excuse for this trip to Japan. Today we had the opportunity to spend time with Machiko, the English School's principal Mayumi and Miyu and her family. Machiko met us at the hotel and we took the Hankai Tramway down to the Ayanocho stop in Sakai. That's another Japanese tramway for me and it's quite a long one, running down main streets and narrow roads, behind buildings and across a river. Fun, as always. Mayumi was waiting outside her new English school building, attached to her family's knife shop. The Jikko family has been making knives since 1901 (see this article in the Japan Times , photos of the shop ) and we watched her brother putting the handles on some of these fine blades...