Sg Maribyrnong, Melbourne

Sunday, 22nd October 2006

Finally, I had the kayak, the brackets, the roof rack, a river, a beautiful sunny day and a willing paddling partner, Michelle, my niece. So no more excuses for not launching the kayak.

But the kayak was heavier than I thought and the 4WD was a lot higher than I thought! Also found the bracket bolts were too short and had to be replaced. So it took us almost a hour to get the kayak strapped securely onto the roof rack!

It was a beautiful sunny day, mid 20 degrees C. The park where we launched was relatively quiet. There were families picnicking and fishing on the river bank. We were the only ones paddling.

My nephew, Edwin, and his wife, Thu, also joined us for a paddle.

We came across a boat taking some tourists on a cruise upstream.

Yes, it was a sunny day ...

The Great Wall at Badaling

19th September 2006

Badaling is about 1.5 hours' drive from Beijing city. The visit was defintely one of the highlights of our recent 7-day tour of Beijing, Tianjing and Chengde with my wife, daughter, mum and aunt.

This photo was taken at the base of the climb. The climb up this section of the Wall was a reasonable climb and most visitors that day managed to reach the 2nd Tower.

I struggled and managed to reach the 3rd Tower. My wife and daughter managed to reach the 5th Tower, the top of this section. But for some reason, they lost their way on the way down and came down on the "other" side of the mountain. They had to take a cab back to our tour bus. Cost them 10 yuan and a lot of embarrassment.