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Starboard is better off

Queen Elisabeth II in Sydney. During summertime huge cruise ships meander through Polynesia or make even trips throughout Asia Pacific, and Sydney is on their itinerary. Opera House and Harbour Bridge are must see-items on the schedule for the shore leave that you will desperately be longing for after many days on sea. Besides the passenger terminals at King Street Wharf — most of the time occupied by the Tasmania Ferry — there is another boarding facility at Circular Quay right opposite the Opera House. At this illustrious spot for instance the cruise ship 'Deutschland' used to be anchored during the 2002 Olympics. And from here the German television broadcasted a summary of the Games. In February 2005 the Queen Elisabeth II, the grand old "mother of all cruise liners", is made fast here. All of her guests who pay a lot of money may enjoy the Opera House view: At halftime of her stay the ship gets reversed.

Kookaburras roaring with laughter - how can you get lost in the middle of the city?!

Lost in North Epping. Claudia and Susan share offices at work. In their lunch break on 14. February they go running. It's over 30 degrees hot. They run along Vimiera Road and enter the Lane Cove National Park, run to Browns Waterhole and finally follow the Great North Walk towards Epping. They both have looked up the way on the city maps, but have never been here before. They come along a rock dubbed "Whale Rock" which actually looks like a huge whale's eye. Directly behind the track goes steep uphill until they return to the first houses. The heat is taking its toll. They follow an eastbound street ("correct" direction) which suddenly turns westbound into the wrong direction. They both know that they have to cross the M2 motorway, however all streets seem to lead into dead ends. Claudia and Susan are already running for 50 minutes, and their heartbeat indicates that it is way too hot and they urgently need to drink. Suddenly, a bus is approaching through the residential area. They stop it and convince the driver that they have gone lost and don't carry any money for the tickets with them. With a sigh of relief they plump onto the climatised seats. The bus brings them straight back to their workplace. They had lost the way in a residential area 4km besides their office ;)

You can get any colour you want, so long as it's black

New car. We go paddling so often and got to lift our kayaks onto ojr 2.20 metres high roofracks that we decide to buy a new car. Some discussions and a bit of window shopping for second hand vehicles later the decision is made: We want to have a Subaru Outback. On 13. February Claudia rings up all the dealers, and in the afternoon a contract is signed. The new car is black. It drives so silently that pedestrians hardly can hear us. It is 40 centimetres lower than the Land Rover, thus we don't need a ladder any more when we pack the kayaks on the roof. It only needs half the fuel, climbs up the hills easier. New cars are fun!

This time there is more colour in the picture

Chinese New Year. On 13. Feburary (and hence in the middle of our negotiations with the car dealers...) the Chinese New Year parade from Town Hall to Darling Harbour takes place. We are now in the Year of the Rooster. Due to all the above mentioned phone calls we miss out on the parade, but still find enough crowds of people to get lost in — and dislike it. Nevertheless, we admire the beauty and colour of the traditional clothes, the dragons, the drums, the silk fabrics and make the resolution to be in time for the parade next year.

Dripping Claudia

Sea Skills award and Sea Leader training. Claudia has all the skills and technique, however so far her shoulder injuries prevented her from making her Sea Skills II assessment. This certificate is useful for instance if you want to go on a more challenging trip and the trip leader needs some proof of your abilities. Since most of the time we go paddling with Kevin and Sue who know us well enough this actually never played a role. Nonetheless, for the "sake of completeness" on 5. February Claudia undergoes her assessment in form of a trip with the assessors Rob and Andrew, that's enriched with exercises. She passes and immediately registers for a Sea Leader course on one of the following weekends, so that she can plan and guide future trips on her own. Of course we will keep you posted about the success of this course.