It has been some time since we last wrote on our blog. That is primarily because not much of interest has happened over the past six months. Life has been fairly mundane in terms of having anything exciting to share. The whole premise of this blog and the name of it is to share our travels. Since returning from Alice Springs in June, we have been stationary in South Australia, mainly McLaren Vale on the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide city.

We are very hopeful that 2024 will be much more exciting with a great deal of travel involved. We have plans A to Z and it will be interesting to see which of those plans actually turn into a reality. One of the biggest lessons to come out of the Covid Pandemic, is never plan too far in advance and be willing to adapt and change at short notice.

Plan A, as of December 2023, is to head back to Alice Springs to the Women’s Musem of Australia for our 5th, and probably final time, in March 2024. We aim to stay three to four months and then head to Western Australia. We haven’t been back since May 2021, and we want to catch up with the family and sort out some loose ends. Not sure how long we will be there, but imagine it will be a couple of months at least. We have a number of ideas about where and what after that, but will keep that to ourselves for now, as it is too far ahead to make any firm decisions.

But back to 2023 and some of the things we have done.

The cinema was an almost weekly event, both in Alice Springs and here in South Australia. Some of the movies we saw, in no particular order, were;

1. Oppenheimer – Brilliant
2. Killer of the Flower Moon – Very moving
3. Napoleon – Thoroughly enjoyed
4. Leo – Funny
5. The Marvels – Entertaining
6. A Haunting in Venice – So so
7. Nyad – Incredible
8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – Entertaining
9. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Entertaining
10. Strays – Hysterically funny
11. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 – Funny
12. You Are So Not Invited to My Bat – Funny
13. Book Club: The Next Chapter – Very funny
14. The Miracle Club – Sad and funny
15. Mafia Mamma – Very funny
16. 80 for Brady – Funny

We have both spent time following our individual interests of fishing and photography. Ray has been to a few different places but mainly to two different reservoirs, Myponga and Happy Valley.

Jude has been focused on finding and photographing birds she has never seen before. Three of those are the Rainbow Bee-Eater, The Royal Spoonbill and the Great Crested Grebe.

But the biggest and most important event of 2023 was Ray turned 70! He didn’t want a fuss made, and therefore, we had a quiet weekend away in the Riverland town of Waikerie and were able to take Winston with us.

And to finish off, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas 2023 and every happiness for 2024. We leave you with some pics of Winston who turned one in September.

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