Month: April 2025

N: Nullarbor Plain

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The Nullarbor Plain connects Eastern and Western Australia. Starting at Ceduna, South Australia and finishes at Norseman, Western Australia it is an almost treeless straight drive. In fact, I believe Nullarbor means treeless plain.

It has many free camps spots and everyone is discouraged from driving at night. This is due to the danger of animals crossing the road. The road that crosses the Nullarbor Plain is called the Eyre Highway and is the longest straight stretch of road in the world. (146 kilometres.)

When I was a teenager I drove with my family on the old highway just after it was fully sealed. I remember being fascinated by the straight road. Back in the late 1970’s people didn’t travel like they do today, so we were often the only ones using the road. To entertain ourselves we drove on the wrong side of the road for as long as we could. These days it is so busy. If you are lucky, you can quickly run into the middle of the road to take a photo – that’s it. The photos below are of the original Nullabarbor Roadhouse’s buildings the ones I visited as a child. Of course on the same site are modernised buildings.

The Nullarbor Links Golf Course is the longest in the world. It is an 18 hole par 72 course that covers 1365 kilometres (850 miles) from South Australia to Western Australia. It is on my husband and my bucket when we drive the whole way across. Last time we stopped at the Nullarbor Roadhouse.

M: Miyagi Zao Fox Village

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Whilst in Japan recently we had the experience of a life time. We spent the morning in the world’s only fox village, according to the road signs. It can be found in the Zao mountains above the township of Shiroishi. It was winter in Japan at the time of our visit and the Zao mountains are over 1800 metres and are active volcanoes. The area also boast some of the highest annual snowfall in the world.

The fox village is over 30 years old and houses over 100 foxes. There are 6 types of foxes here – red foxes, silver foxes (the black ones), blue artic foxes, white artic foxes, platinum foxes as well as cross foxes. My favourite foxes are still the white artic foxes although the platinium and black foxes fascinated me as I had never seen them before.

They live in a fenced open area and have little fox house to sleep or rest in. Otherwise they move around freely doing what foxes do. They played. There were several fights. Some slept. Some appeared to hump each other. Others rolled around in the snow. They are very comfortable living this life while hundreds of visitors walk around with them taking many photos of them. We are warned on entry not to get too close or pat them as even though they are very cute they are still wild animals and will bite. If the foxes came up to us we were told to keeping moving.

You can only feed the foxes from one place. It is like a big hut that is off the ground with viewing platforms all around. The foxes know that this is where they can get food and many would get underneath to beg, jump and look cute to get some food. It was fun to pick your favourite fox then attempt to throw the pellets well enough that your fox could catch it in his/her mouth. You had to be strategic as there were definitely some pushy one who would try and steal the younger foxes food.

As you first enter the village there is a petting area where you can pay to cuddle a fox. Many people lined up for this experience, we just watched their enjoyment form the side.

If ever you have the time I would recommend visiting this special place. It was easy to get to via the bullet train and taxi and not speaking Japanese wasn’t a problem.

L: Lion 360 Degrees

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At Montaro Zoo we gave ourselves a special treat. We joined the Lion 360 degrees tour. This bus tour took us into the lioness enclosure to watch them being feed. We stood under a metal dome. We had 100% access to all the lioness who came up for a feed. Some of our fellow travellers were lucky enough to experience hand feeding them, although to be honest I still haven’t decided if I’m not sure what my answer would have been had I been asked.

Watching them play and eat was amazing. They seemed to enjoy our company and sometimes seemed to play up just for our cameras.

After the feeding we were taken on tour of the lioness and lion cub enclosure. It is a very large space. In the wild lions don’t eat everyday so not all of them come up for a feed daily. They were in various groups and I loved seeing the cubs playing like they didn’t have a care in the world.

K: Kelpie Centre

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Kelpies are amazing working class dogs that can muster sheep and other animals with little or no assistance. The Australian Kelpie is known to be highly intelligent, loyal and tenacious.

Casterton Australia is known as the birth place of the Australian Kelpie. I had wanted to visit since I read a novel based on the history of the breed and realised where they came from. To honour its roll in Australian history Casterton is home to the Kelpie Centre. It is full of all things Kelpie and educates those who visit on the history of the breed.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time in the area so I plan to one day to go back and explore it more thoroughly.

J: Japanese Gardens

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On a recent holiday to Cowra, Australia we visited the Japanese Gardens. They were spectacular and so serene even in Australia’s hot weather. The day we went it was 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit). So hot. Yet somehow because of the gardens design, we weren’t hot. There was plenty of wind and shade to keep us cool.

The Japanese Gardens cover five hectares and are on the site of the World War two prisoner of war camp. They were established to recognize and develop the historic and ongoing relationship between the people of Cowra and Japan.

These authentic Japanese Gardens are the largest in the Southern hemisphere and contain a traditional Edo cottage, an authentic open air tea house as well as a Bonsai house. I loved the Bonsai and was fascinated by how small these otherwise really big trees were. Kids could feed the Koi carp in one of the lakes and did because they were huge. I loved that they had left some of the original gum trees in the area to show the connection with Australia.

I: Ice Museum

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Fairbank’s Ice Museum is in an old theatre. From the front it didn’t look modern but as we had travelled from literally the other side of the world we decided to go in anyway. At first it didn’t look like much and then the owner came out and guided us through the exhibitions. The secret was to go through the door and ride the slide. It was great fun and I wanted to do it again, but he was excited to show us what was next. I’m pretty sure it was the first and only ice slide I had ridden.

The owner had been an ice carver for several decades, he had amazing skills and had won many competitions. After showing us all of his sculptures, he gave us an ice carving demonstration. WOW. We were in awe. We had never seen anything like it.

H: High Level Bridge Streetcars

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In Edmonton, Alberta they have made a tourist attraction from the former Canadian Pacific Railway tracks. (CPR). It is only a short ride, four stops in all and travels across the high level bridge and through the only tunnel built on the Canadian Pacific. We boarded at Whyte Avenue, Old Strathcona and took the return journey to Jasper Plaza.

The High Level Bridge Streetcars are all run by volunteers. During our ride the Driver and Conductor were full of information. They are part of a team that restores all of the historic Streetcars as well as run the attraction. On the day we were riding they were training a new driver so it was interesting to hear him talk about everything involved in his training to drive these historic Streetcars.

There are nine operational Streetcars in the fleet as well as 17 others in various stages of restoration. We were surprised to discover that one of the Streetcars came from Melbourne, Australia and another from Osaka, Japan. (Where our daughter-in-law is from). Unfortunately for us, we weren’t travelling on the day the museum opened as I’m sure it would have been fascinating.

G: Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

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One of my favourite days on our Alaskan cruise was the one we spent cruising around Glacier Bay. It was spectacular. It started with lectures from the National Parks rangers who had come on board to educate us on the history and all things relating to Glacier Bay. I was fascinated as we have nothing like this is Australia. Mother natures grandeur was amazing.

On the day we were visiting the rangers told us that two brown bears were walking along the shoreline. I didn’t see them but many others did. I did however see some otters floating on some ice as we cruised past.

We stopped at three glaciers throughout the day. Lamplugh Glacier and John Hopkins as well as Margerie Glacier. All were different and spectacular in their own way. We were able to hear calving but I personally didn’t see any of the ice come crashing off the glaciers.

The major disappointment we had was that the weather was turning bad so the Captain cancelled our trip to the Hubbard Glacier the next day, which I am told is the most spectacular. Oh well that just means that we have to go on another Alaskan cruise.

F: Flight From Fairbanks

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Prior to our flight to the Artic Circle I had never flown in a small bush plane. I was fortunate enough to sit in the front seat so I could see all the pilot’s dashboards. It was fascinating to see him be constantly adjusting the knobs. I also loved that the pilot has to jump into his seat through his window from on the wing.

During the flight we were required to wear ear phones that meant that we could hear all the conversations the pilot had with the control tower and the other pilots flying in our group. They also helped shut out some of the noise. It was a perfect Spring day and we could see for miles. It was amazing.

The ice-capped mountains, Yukon River, isolated communities, remote wilderness, Dalton Highway and the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline looked spectacular from the air.

E: (West) Edmonton Mall

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For more than the first two decades of my adult life Edmonton Mall (officially known as West Edmonton Mall) was the largest indoor mall in the world. And I always wanted to visit it. Last year was my time. I planned my trip to Edmonton staying close to WEM to maximise my visits. I was very glad I did. It was amazing. When we arrived we were mesmorised. It was unlike any shopping centre in Australia. Everywhere we went was something new and exciting.

Many of the stores were very unique. Or had some different in them we hadn’t seen before. Bubba Gump was our favourite. We spent time both in the gift shop and wandering around the restaurant. We were fascinated by all the movie takes and how cleverly they were put together. Our son loved the cheeky T-shirt we bought him. In the Lindt Chocolate store, more than half of the flavours, we had never tasted before.

On entry the first thing we saw was the Sea Life Experience. This included seals and a relica of the Santa Maria. We spent time investigating this area and watched the seals antics. Galaxyland powered by Hasbro was our next stop. It is the world’s largest indoor amusement park. I loved seeing the games I played as a child, came to life as amusement rides. Such creativity.

Next on our tour was the shooting gallery. This blew me away. It was filled with guns of all sorts. Many of which are banned in Australia. So I had never seen them before. In hindsight I wish I had taken my first shot here, but at the time I was so overwhelmed.

The Ice Palace-indoor ice skating even had a senior skate option. We did consider giving it a go however we ran out of time.

West Edmonton Mall is also the home of the worlds largest indoor wave pool. Again, sadly we had no time to enjoy it. We were fascinated by the number of activities in this one area.

We had a great time in the Dragon’s Tale. A Blacklight Mini Golf Experience. It was a first for us and totally took minigolf to a new level.

While we wandered around the shops, we heard of a young couple who went to West Edmonton Mall for their honeymoon. They stayed the week in the Fantasyland Hotel attached the mall. And everyday enjoyed one or more of the special activities found there. I thought this was a fantastic idea.

I would have loved to have ridden around the mall on these. I saw a group of 20-30 year olds doing so and it looked like so much fun. But I thought there may have been a weight limit.