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Days 107-113: 13-19 September (Australia) – One small cat arrived; one only slightly larger still away

Author: Mr A

Location: Mandurah, 70kms south of Perth

If you are not one for cute cat photos, then I suggest you move to the last paragraph of this post rather quickly.

Last week our beloved Burmese cat, Tassie (or Miss T to her friends) was packed off by her loving step-parents Rosemary and Richard, for her flight from Sydney to Perth, a not incesequential flight time of 5 hours. A number of other anxious fur parents were waiting for those crates containing our loved ones to be unloaded and distributed amongst us. It was the 13th – I am superstitious. 

After what seemed an age she was delivered in her little yellow crate (sorry no pictures was so stressed I forgot!) and had arrived safe, in need of a brush and a cuddle, but otherwise in good spirits. Once I had her installed in the Zone, her tail was up, water was drunk, food was consumed at a rate of knots, and the brand new litter tray christened. All the boxes ticked. 

She has been away in the caravan with us a few times before, so familiar smells put her at ease, and she was soon resting up. She does a lot of that, around 23 hrs a day by my estimate. Well she’s no kitten any more, ageing gracefully at 13. We left the Discovery Parks site by the airport, which was pretty good actually, and headed south to Mandurah, Perth’s second largest city and growing fast. We rocked up at Mandurah Caravan Tourist Park, and were guided into our tight spot (site 13….) where we stayed for 6 nights. 

The days have flown past, with plenty for me to do, mostly cleaning and maintenance on the car, caravan and bikes. Miss T has adjusted pretty well, enjoying the ever changing view from the Zone’s big windows.  Birds, dogs, ducks and a miniature horse (yes you read that right), all have occupied her from the viewing platform of the queen bed. Occasionally she even ventures to the door to keep an eye on things and make sure all is in order. 


We have discussed sharing the housekeeping load, but bed making was frankly dismissed with a haughty shrug.


To be honest, life with a cat in a caravan is pretty good. No heating up a hot water bottle, no need for comedy programmes as she attempts various improbable manoeuvres to find the sunniest spot in the Zone.  Mind you, I have been relegated to Chief Brusher,  Tempting Treats Chef, and the queen bed doesn’t seem quite as roomy now. Yes that’s me buried at the back, one hint of a photographic opportunity and I’m toast. 

Now you may think that’s a grumpy look…and well…it often is. For instance if the temperature falls below 28.5 degrees (yes centigrade)  in the Zone (thank goodness for the insulation), approporiately chilled freshwater has not been added to her bowl in the last 15 minutes, the Coles roast chicken isn’t basted quite to her liking, or heaven forbid the mayo forgotten. The latter requiring at least 7 minutes brushing to restore the honour of her deigning to sit on my lap. 

Just one more photo then I promise I will stop. I came home from shopping today and couldn’t find her. Searched everywhere and anxiously ran through my locking up process – did she escape somehow? All the windows have strong fly nets, no escaping there. Now in an 18 foot 6 caravan you’d think there was only so many places a cat can make you work to find them. But really, she had me going. Finally, I saw my thick goosedown, winter sleeping bag by my bed, having omitted to pack it away after sorting out yesterday. I went to lift it up, and it felt unusually heavy. She had climbed right inside. 


Now, I admit the sun isn’t shining today, but its 23 degrees for goodness sake. 

So now let’s turn to Mandurah, and some impressions of this place I’d frankly never heard of. Well its not a wine region. I’ve done some cycling around, and super impressed with the dedicated infrasctucture for riders. Paths are everywhere, along beautiful foreshore, canals and lakes, which Mandurah is graced with in abundance. 


The marina area is very swish, restaurants line the waters edge, boutique shops are open for business, it was really buzzing, even on a Monday. 


The canal side housing looks tempting, and a friend assured me that with the highest mortgage default rate in the country, bargains can be had! 


However, you move away from this area and it soon looks pretty shabby. I was warned to keep alert, I checked the crime stats,  Mandurah has the highest number of robbery reports recorded in the greater Perth area. I’ve certainly locked everything up tight at night. 

One of the great things about the caravan we like over our camper trailer is that security of being able to lock all the external hatches and the door. Mind you I do have that fearsome looking Burmese on guard. Imagine coming face to face with that look on a dark night. If they can wake her….

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Days 108-10: 14-16 September – Farewell Chicago, hello London

Thursday 14 September

From: Chicago, Illinois, USA

To: London, England, UK

Distance walked: 8 km

Distance flown: 6351 km 

It was time for me to say farewell to Chicago, but first get some final kilometres under my belt before heading to the airport. I headed out to find some Chicago wildlife with my telephoto lens, not knowing quite what I would find in the city parks. My first discovery was a complete surprise – an escaped Australian parrot – a little blue female budgerigar which wasn’t quite tame enough to fly to my arm, but wasn’t far off. I hope she finds her home soon, otherwise she will not survive the winter.

More birds revealed themselves as I strolled through the gardens, often munching on native seedheads:


As I turned to return to the hotel, I walked back past the Art Institute of Chicago, where the cutest little squirrel was dancing around on the steps looking for snacks to bury for the winter.


And so I showered, completed my packing and headed out for lunch at a recommended local diner. A delicious chicken and noodle salad and I was ready for the off.


The flight from Chicago left on time and I managed to sleep about 4 hours on the way across the Atlantic to London.

Friday 15 September

Location: London

Distance walked: 7.5 km

7.30am at Heathrow, I collected my luggage and made my way to the London Underground and across the city to Vauxhall to friend Owen’s apartment. Owen had extremely kindly offered the use of his home to Helen (my sister) and I for the weekend, while he travelled in France with friends. He was busy with calls when I got in, but seemed relieved I was there safely, advising me there had just been a potential terror attack on the London Underground in West London, very close to where I had been travelling. I had been blissfully unaware of this, having neither phone signal or data on my phone. Phew – if that device had gone off one station later…anyhow, it didn’t and I am all fine.

I showered, did some washing, and made arrangements to meet Helen off her train from Brighton later, before rushing out to Farringdon to meet two ladies from the support group I run. We had a delicious lunch and great catch up. My next stop was Paddington Station to meet a doctor friend, Reza. He is an airway specialist and has been in New Zealand the last few months, teaching doctors in Auckland how to conduct the surgery I had about three years ago. He offered to review some videos of my trachea and share some thoughts about my recent airway issues, and I in return offered to help him refine a patient questionnaire he is designing. A fair exchange of skills I think!

From that catch up I leaped back on the train across to Victoria Station to meet Helen, and from there back to the apartment. We decided to have a quiet night in with a bottle of wine and fine dining from Tesco supermarket! It was great. The view from Owen’s apartment is truly five star. We had our own music and no interruptions from anyone – the perfect night to just catch up on everything.



Saturday 16 September

Location: London

Distance walked: 17 km

After the best night’s sleep I have had in about two weeks, I was woken with a cup of herbal tea by Helen at around 8am. Lovely. We cooked breakfast and began the day slowly, drinking in the ever changing view out of the window.  The clear breaking dawn did not last last long, with London as always reminding us that as a small island, the UK’s weather changes swiftly, bringing grey skies and occasional showers.


Our next destination was 28 floors below us, the spa. We headed down for a swim, steam and sauna, spending a couple of hours enjoying the luxury with no other folks there. I think all long flights should have this at the end of them! The perfect way to spend a grey morning.


Following showers, we headed out for a stroll along the Thames Path, clocking up a 9 km circuit, before returning to the apartment to get ready for the evening.


Our evening commenced at L’Opera Tavern for delicious shared tapas plates – the likes of wood pigeon and king prawns tantalised our tastebuds, accompanied by an Italian Syrah. Onwards then to the Adelphi Theatre to see Kinky Boots. It’s the tale of a Northampton Boot and Shoe factory which is going out of business, and finds a niche market making boots for transvestites. Funny, clever, incredible singing and dancing on six inch heels by six foot blokes – definitely the best musical I have seen. If it’s playing near you, don’t hesitate – go!


After the show we went on the hunt for chocolate sorbet (for me), finding it in a popular little gelato shop near Covent Garden Market. Absolutely delicious and presented as a rose. Here’s Helen modelling her hazelnut chocolate ice cream and berry cheesecake ice cream combination:


A fantastic evening out, and home to sleep by midnight!

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Day 106 & 107: 12-13 September – Exciting times ahead

Author: Mrs A

12 September

Location: Chicago

Distance walked: 21 km!

Finally managed to get some sleep last night – a total of 8 hours, albeit with a couple of hours wide awake again in the small hours of the morning, just like humans used to do in the Middle Ages! Sunrise was fabulous as always, seen from my 10th floor lake view room. 


I left the hotel before 8am and walked to Dr Gelbard’s hotel in the city, joining him for a walking meeting to the conference centre. We had a good 45 minute walk and chatted about plans for the future, ideas for publicity and stories, and also some advice on my own health situation. He then went off to the conference, and I returned to my day, enthusiastic and optimistic about the direction ahead.

My first port of call was Chicago’s oldest residential house. Dating from 1836, this house was here before the civil war, and has seen a lot of changes. When it was built it would have been surrounded by prairies, whereas now it is dwarfed by tower blocks but still set in stunningly landscaped gardens. It’s a beautiful, peaceful retreat, and a good spot to sit and reflect on the whirlwind of the past few days.


I then wandered in to the city via some of the many sculptures around. Over 100 bronze giants without heads or arms in one part of Grant Park, and water toting video brick walls at the other end in Milennium Park.



After a bite to eat I continued my tour, making my way through more parks and along to the Riverside Walk. The giant silver coffee bean is something everybody mentioned to me, so I had to check it out. It made me laugh how everyone was taking photos of their reflection as though they had never seen it before…


More innovative sculptural art in the form of a picture frame, made from old tyres:


What amazes me is that there is absolutely no graffiti to be seen, despite the large availability of clean concrete walls and underpasses. It’s not like it has been painted over either, it just is absent. It makes for a very attractive and safe feeling city.

The Riverside Walk was all the more interesting having done the architecture tour on Saturday morning. My new perspective from the side of the water meant I could stop and appreciate the buildings. The white building with the clock tower was built by Wrigley – of the chewing gum fame. Did you know that they originally made soap as their primary product? One day they did a special offer with some chewing gum attached to the soap, and it was so popular they completely changed product focus and made a mint (pardon the pun)!


I returned to the hotel for a chilled out evening and another early night to try and catch up. The last thing I want now is to get run down and catch a virus!

13 September

Location: Chicago

Distance walked: 7km

A weather system has been pushed up the country by the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, and Chicago awoke to fog and light rain this morning. Again I had slept fitfully last night, this time worried about Miss Tassie making the five hour flight across a continent on the other side of the world. Once I heard she had landed in Perth safely and was being cuddled, I was able to catch an hour or two’s shut eye, but not much.

I decided to keep today fairly relaxed and headed to the Art Institute of Chicago. The building is surrounded by fabulous landscaped gardens which welcome you to the foreboding building.


The gallery was varied and interesting, and I ended up spending nearly 5 hours wandering around, with a break for lunch. Some of the most inspirational artwork was based on Chicago’s history, plus a wide range of European and Asian art and photography from across the ages.

Some of my favourites include the following:

Newly renovated and fashionable Paris in the 1800s:

Voted the USA’s favourite painting of the early 1900s – showing a farm labourer in a romantic light at a time when rural residents were flocking to cities for work, displaced by modern farming machinery:

Tackling the issue of slavery, painted to bring an intelligent and human light to a slave by an artist who was against the trade in humans:

A favourite I was surprised to see – Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks:

And a vibrant jazz club scene:
I finished off my afternoon at a Chicago fast food institution – right next door to McDonald’s – a small burger joint which probably hasn’t changed in 50 years. They make all their burgers fresh every day, and I must say the one I bought was delicious, and filled the hole my art gallery crab salad definitely failed to fill.


I returned to the hotel for the evening to hopefully have one final good night’s sleep before heading off to the UK tomorrow.

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Day 104 & 105: 10-11 September – Doctors in Chicago 

Author: Mrs A

Location: Chicago

Sunday 10 September

Distance walked: 7km

I managed a whole 6 hours sleep on Saturday night, waking around 4am on Sunday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Frustrating. Got to love jet lag eh? It was another stunning blue sky day here in Chicago and I decided to get out there. As I left the hotel I had no plans for my day, but spontaneously decided to join the crowds of Chicago Bears fans heading to Soldier Field to watch them play.

The atmosphere was great, with hundreds of people all in their football shirts walking through the parklands, with the occasional cycle rickshaw bombing past playing their varying theme music. I was tempted to go in and watch, but having absolutely no idea about what I was potentially going to, decided to give it a miss.


Instead I turned and took a look inside the Field Museum.


This is Chicago’s Natural History Museum, famous for Sue the largest and most complete (90%) Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton currently known. It has a large collection of taxidermied animals and birds from the early 1900s – I had a quick look around this but found it quite eerie and uncomfortable, somewhat like walking through a zoo where all the animals have died. It gave an interesting insight in the world of the 18 and 1900s where collectors would bring animals back from around the globe, many of these creatures are now extinct. One sad tale which had photographic evidence was that of the passenger pigeon. They used to flock in their billions. Yes, billions! One flock could take 17 hours to fly past. Now there is not one bird left alive.


An interesting exhibition was that following the continent of North and South America in terms of civilisation from the Ice Age onwards. A fascinating study in anthropology, looking at human life as it became more sophisticated, changing from hunter-gathering, to farming, and gradually building up a society with hierarchy and buildings (such as the Aztecs and Mayans). This was more my cup of tea.

My next visit within the museum was to collections usually not seen by visitors. By now I was concerned it was going to be more stuffed animals, but I was relieved to see that although dead, the animals were preserved for scientific purposes. The collections are constantly being revisited and often reveal surprises. One recent look at a collection of thousands of bugs collected on a night during the 1980s revealed a totally new species of centipede, and testing of seagulls collected at the turn of the 1900s and compared with seagulls of 2017, revealed that today’s ocean scavengers are 4,500% more polluted than their predecessors – predominantly with heavy metals such as mercury. It makes you wonder whether the world can ever recover from such damage.

I finished up with an exhibition which demonstrated how the museum’s scientists spend their days conducting research to help create a more sustainable world. Finishing on a note of hope before I strolled back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.

I caught a bus along into the city to meet some of my Vanderbilt University team colleagues for dinner. I had the fortune to have a lovely bus driver who allowed me to pay whatever coins I had (about 80 cents!) into the ticket machine as I had no change and the machine didn’t give any. Very kind.

It was fabulous to meet Cheryl Kinnard in the flesh – she and I have been emailing one another for about two years on an almost daily basis as I recruit members for the research study. There were also three patients there. Shaunda, Kesi and Robin were recruited as patient partners by their doctors. It’s not very often I get to meet another ISGS sufferer face to face – I had forgotten how good it is to be able to share experiences with people who truly understand. Dr Alex Gelbard also joined us for dinner – he’s the leader of the grant research program, and who recruited me back in 2014.

Monday 11 September (9/11)

Distance walked: 8km

After a fun evening out I had a terrible night’s sleep. I woke up after only two hours, and lay in bed for the next three with my mind whirring and unable to still. Eventually I got up around 4am and started refining my presentation to the North American Airway Collaborative.

As a recap for those who have forgotten and an update for those who don’t know, the North American Airway Collaborative is a group of medical institutions across the USA, UK and Australia who have joined together to conduct a shared research project into a rare disease, idiopathic subglottic stenosis. The disease affects predominantly women (around 98%) and involves scar tissue appearing in the trachea (airway) and gradually closing up the passage. Nobody knows why this happens, and there are a wide variety of treatments, all with varying success rates.

I was invited to join the team at Vanderbilt University back in 2014, and together we submitted an application for a rare disease grant, which we won. Since then we have been busy enrolling patients into the longitudinal study via their doctors, and via the Living With Idiopathic Subglottic Stenosis Facebook Group I manage.

The aim of today’s meeting was to offer some interim results to the participating doctors, some highlights of what is being found in the research. The presentation was being held in the basement of a gastropub called The Gage. I put some finishing touches to my presentation and chatted to the two key doctors involved in the research, Alex Gelbard and David Francis about how it should all proceed. Before long doctors began arriving and mingling over finger food and cold beverages. It was amazing how many I knew from over the years – I have emailed most of these people telling them about the support group I set up and sharing research I have conducted. Some even asked for photos with me, as if I was the celebrity, rather than them!

The event was professionally filmed and photographed, and all attendees interviewed to capture their thoughts about the importance of the research. A really well organised occasion.

I was really pleased Dave Veivers, my surgeon from Sydney, also made the event, as he got a mention in my presentation! A photo below with two of the USA doctors, Robert Lorenz and Paul Bryson who treat a large number of patients with this condition in Cleveland, Ohio and considered experts in the area.


I think all went well – I got some lovely emails and messages after the event:

“…Thank you so much for making the effort to come over. It was truly inspirational.” Dr Robert Lorenz, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio

“It was a pleasure to meet you, thank you very much for coming all the way from Australia to Chicago to present your work on iSGS with your social media group…” Dr Marshall Smith, University of Utah

My afternoon was spent with the Vanderbilt doctors, drinking rosé wine and eating delicious oysters in a nearby bar, talking about the opportunities ahead. The grant finishes at the end of next year, with final results to be presented next September 2018 in Atlanta. Everyone has urged me to attend that – so I guess that means I will be back! The challenge is to find funding to continue the research beyond 2018. Now we have this fabulous database of 1,000 patients participating in research, it would be terrible if all that learning stopped next year.

The evening concluded with a delicious Italian meal with Cheryl, Kesi and Shaunda, and in bed asleep by 8.30pm!

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Day 103 & 104: 9 & 10 September – Bikepacking on the Munda Biddi trail

Author: Mr A

9 and 10 September 

From: Dwellingup

To: Pinjarra Hut, Lane Poole Reserve

Distance: Ridden – 68km

I packed up a very soggy tent, the mist thick in the valley, and headed beck in the car to the little village of Dwellingup. I love this place, its a bustle of activity with an adventure race on, people in hiking boots stomping around, motorcyclists at the pub reliving the twists and turns of the roads around the area. 

It was my birthday, and the treat I’d planned was to do an overnight ride on a small section of the worlds longest off-road bike trail – the Munda Biddi. The trail stretches from the hills just east of Perth all the way down to Albany on Australia’s far south coast, a cool 1100km of marked trail.

Touring on the dirt, carrying all your camping gear, preferably avoiding bulky panniers to better enjoy the riding, that’s we call bikepacking. Backpacking with a bike. And I love it – especially solo – I can ride at my pace (not fast!), stop and make a brew when I fancy (which is quite a lot).  It’s certainly easier carrying gear on a bike than on your back, well until the trail gets steep….You can also cover more distance than on foot and explore further, without mixing it with cars that much. 

So the first task was to load the bike, no mean feat as you can see from this photo. Can you spot the item that didn’t make it in? 


The bottle of Jack? Well done…it was my birthday after all. No harm trying. 

So everything is finally loaded and its already early afternoon. The bike is looking her impressively, dark, looming self, and I’m ready for the off. 

Now my training preparation for these rides is called the “muscle memory method” Let me hereby declare at 61 years of age, that no longer works! On the first steep hill I find myself “hiking the bike”, pushing 35kg of dead weight up slippery pea gravel. 

The pain was soon forgotten though when I warmed up and hit some gentler track. The jarrah forest is really spectacular and after a long break from the woods through the arid north of WA, the scenery was touching something primeval in the lizard part of my brain. Which, as some of you know, mostly gets activated after a few too many. 

The trail took me back along the river that I had been paddling, and then further deep into the upper reaches of this reserve. Really wonderful trails that just wandered along through the magifncent strands of giant jarrah.


 I only saw one other group of riders on the track the whole afternoon. Alone with my thoughts I pondered why it is WA invests in a trail like this, and NSW with similar country down the Great Divide does not. Our state can barely get their act together to join up the few off road cycle paths we do have. 

It was late afternoon and it was already starting to get chilly when I arrived at the “hut” that was to be home for the night.


Now I had brought my tent as apparently it was a “busy weekend” and yet not a soul was there. No doors and ends to the building either. The temerpature was dropping to single figures at night so I shivered with anticipation, and not in a good way. I soon had a brew going and my “one pot dinner” bubbling. The latter was a disaster. If you ever see “Sharwood’s Indian Side Dishes”, put it down and move away from that aisle. Oh yuk…Having planned for my culinary poor judgement out came the wraps, Vegemite and cheese. Much better. Then it struck me, here I am on my birthday, choosing to be own my own in the cold, dark, damp woods with not even a tot of bourbon to keen me company? What was I thinking? Well, what I was thinking was “Carpus Diem” (seize the day). I had the privilege  to watch a great leader marshall a group of us sometimes riders around this philosophy and inspired us to do just that. Dave Curran, now CIO at Westpac, got us out there pushing ourselves, both on and off the bikes. I want to take advantage of every chance while I have my legs and lungs to get out there. Even if it happens to be my birthday and I “should” be “celebrating”. This was my celebration of being 61. 

The morning dawned not early enough for me, after my air bed decided to have an “unplanned flattening” in the early hours. That was a low point, literally!

I was packed and off into the mist at sparrow’s. 


Retracing my steps back to Dwellingup, I made it to the pub for a some much needed calorie replacement. A great couple of days. A micro adventure  – turning dreams into memories – I won’t forget my 61st birthday. 

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Day 101 & 102: 7-8 September – The solo micro adventures of Mr A – packrafting and bikepacking galore!

Author: Mr A

Sept 7th

From: Perth

To: Lane Poole Reserve

Distance: Driven – 120km  Riden 15km

When the cat’s away…Mr A gets to play with his toys…on this occasion his packraft and fat bike. Mrs A is in the US and Miss Tassie (our Burmese cat) doesn’t fly until next Wednesday. I had a few days to go off exploring. I had read about an area a 90 minute drive south-east of Perth that had some white water paddling and also great off road biking tracks.

I headed off in the car with camping gear as the Zone is getting some repairs done in Perth. The landscape changed dramatically, forested hills and lush valleys. I’d booked a camp site in the Lane Poole Reserve, 50,000 hectares of outdoor playground with a river winding through jarrah trees and miles of walking and biking trails.

Up went the “Norman No Mates” little hike tent. and I jumped on the bike to scope out what the paddling would be like. Wow…some stretches of flat water interspersed with rapids of varying sizes. This looked interesting! I’d not taken the packraft out on anything like this before.

Sept 8th

From: Charlie’s Flat, Lane Poole Reseve

To: Yarragil, Murray River

Distance: Driven 8km. Paddled 12km. Cycled 20km

It was time to test my metal in some white water. I drove upstream and parked the car, the plan being to paddle down to my camp, jump on the bike and ride back to collect it. I was soon in the water and heading downstream at a fair rate of knots in the strong current. My first little rapid and all was good. I had decided to leave the spray skirt off, trading ease of egress should I be tipped, with the downside of getting some water in the boat. Following the paddling map I soon heard the roar of the “only for the experienced white water canoeist” rapid, and decided as I was on my own, with no helmet, I better portage this one. With a 3.5 kg boat that’s easy. The next rapid was pretty bouncy, but the little boat just bounced over the white water like a wild thing…great fun…some adrenaline released!


I only saw a couple of other boats on the water, and watched a family coming down the rapid behind me…no one looked in control and sure enough dad and his son tipped in. I rushed over as I hadn’t seen the son come up, he was trapped under the boat briefly and then popped out not a happy little chappy. I helped get him out of the water and calmed him down. He probably won’t take a deep bath for a while. And so that’s how people drown, no skills, no risk assessment, just jumped in and went down with no clue how to keep the boat going the right direction.

I was at camp by lunch so drove down steam and left the bike and then paddled down, deflated the raft and strapped it on the rack and cycled back. These boats are so flexible, people just don’t know about them.

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Day 102 & 103: 8-9 September – Arriving in the Windy City (no wind!) 

Author: Mrs A

From: Sydney, Australia

To: Chicago, USA

Distance flown: 15,100km (8 Sept)

Time: 26 hours door to door

Distance walked: 15.2km (9 Sept – Mr A’s birthday)

The 8th September went on and on, as I left Forestville at 9am and arrived at my hotel at 7pm the same day. I took the longest non-stop flight in the world, the 13,800km QF7 to Dallas, then rushed through the airport to get to my connection to Chicago, catching it by the skin of my teeth. Unfortunately my luggage didn’t have the same luck, and arrived sometime during the night.

The USA is in a bit of a frenzy with Hurricane Irma about to hit the whole state of Florida and everyone ordered to evacuate. Chicago airport had multiple stressed looking families with piles of luggage who have escaped the danger zone, relieved to be safe while wondering what they will end up going home to after the storm has passed. There is little else on the news programmes.

Chicago meanwhile is calm and safe with no storms forecast here. Once I had checked in, had a long hot shower, and then put my travelling clothes back on (still no luggage at this point), I headed out to explore, despite it being dark out there! My hotel is very centrally located, opposite Grant Park and Lake Michigan. Crossing the road my first sight is an 8 piece Latino band playing salsa with around 100 people wriggling their hips on the temporary dance floor. A fabulous atmosphere, all free, with many local people sitting around with chairs and picnics enjoying the show. 



I continued my tour, heading over to the Buckingham Fountain – stunningly lit up agains the backdrop of the city. I was pleased I took my camera with me, and I joined many other photographers taking photos of the spectacle. Behind the fountain was the Windy City Wine Festival kicking off – I wasn’t game to go for a solo tasting after being awake for nearly 30 hours though!


Saturday morning began early, with jet lag ensuring sleep was totally absent. My luggage had arrived so I could finally change clothes and freshen up properly before heading out to explore in daylight. I headed across the park to the lake and took the lakeside walk along to the Navy Pier. Here I booked myself on an Archtecture Boat Tour of Chicago.

Chicago has a river running right through the centre of the city, in the past polluted and unpleasant, but in the past thirty years has been cleaned up, and more recently a riverside walk opened up and sustainable plantings to encourage the return of native fish. The boat travelled along the three arms of the river, with a self professed architecure geek giving an interesting and humourous commentary about the buildings around us. I learned so much, in particular how to see the buildings as sculptures with a historical context. The 75 minute tour went quickly and it was soon time for lunch.



After a bite to eat it was on with the exploring, walking through more parks on my way to the Museum of Contemporary Art. There are 570 parks in Chicago, meaning that you are never far away from a patch of green and trees. It makes for a very attractive city.


At the MCA I paid my entry and went to see the primary exhibition of paintings and prints by Japanese Takeshita Murakami. Some interesting artworks, many based on Anime and Japanese folk law – I think I might have found the next ‘impossible’ jigsaw for Donna and Andy!




By the time I left the gallery I really was feeling the effects of only 4 hours sleep since Thursday night, and began to head back to the hotel…diverting briefly to do a little shopping and get a local SIM card. As much as I hoped I could do without an active phone, I am finding there is very little working free wi-fi and it is challenging to look anything up offline.

Back at the hotel by 6pm I had a 40 minute nap, then went to a local cafe for some food.  I really like Chicago. It feels quite like Sydney – very international, welcoming, young, vibrant, clean and safe. I chatted to a lady at the cafe while I was waiting for my food. She had lived here for 8 years and gave me some good tips and ideas for tomorrow. So much to do! 

But first – sleep…

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Day 101: 7 September – From west to east

Author: Mrs A

From: Perth, Western Australia

To: Sydney, New South Wales

Distance flown: 2034 miles/3,274 km

Time: 4hrs 10 mins

Modes of transport travelled on: 5 (shuttle bus, plane, train, bus and car)


It was an early start to Thursday morning when I woke at 1.30am and checked my clock, before dozing until the alarm went off at 3am. I farewelled Mr A and caught the shuttle bus to the airport, and by 5.15am was cruising across the runway and up and away, heading east across the continent.

Arriving in sunny and sparkling Sydney I called into Vision Critical, my old work place, to leave my bags while I headed over to Paddington to have my hair cut. It was so good to see everyone and I was amazed at how many people are following our adventures.

At Lunio’, Toni worked wonders, tuning my hair from wild bush bumpkin into something slightly more civilised, and I returned to the city to pick up some US$ spending money and my luggage.

Onwards then to my next bus out to Foresville. Expertly coached by Eveliene I found my way to the right stop, and arrived at the assigned location to be escorted back to their house for the night. A delicious Thai meal and a couple of glasses of wine later and the day was complete. Of course I had lots of furry Burmese cuddles with Donut and Noodles too!


Noodles is doing well despite his extended vets visit after developing diabetes, though I’m not sure I will be putting them on my list of top spots for a hair cut! Hopefully fur will have returned by the time we see him next in December.

Mr A meanwhile has headed bush – he left Perth after a longer sleep, collected some bike-packing-friendly-food (light and instant!) and set off for Charlie’s Flats at Nanga Brook. He’s tackling some sections of the Munda Biddi Trail, the longest off-road cycling trail in the world. It runs for over 1,000km but I don’t think he’ll do it all! Am sure he will be along once he’s back online to explain more…

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Day 100!: 6 September – Preparing for the send off!

Author: Mr A

From: Karrinyup Waters

To: Country Comfort Hotel, Perth Airport

Distance driven: 23km

Well how timely, 100 days together marks the end of Phase 1 of this tour. Tomorrow Mrs A flies out in the morning for her round the world trip, and I “head for the hills”. After a 3 week interlude while she travels to the US and then the UK, Phase 2 will commence when she returns to join us. Yes…us…by then our fur child will have joined the adventure, the lovely Miss Tasmania, blue Burmese and a camping cat. So today we had to dash off to Pet Barn and buy all sorts of goodies to accomodate her every wish (eat, sleep, poo, purr, repeat). 


This afternoon we took the caravan in for a few bits and pieces to be fixed up at a repairer Zone RV are using for several other customers, thankfully giving us a much better reception than our last attempt in Exmouth. So we waved goodbye and headed off to our motel for the night near the airport (well…almost a night – Catherine has a 3am alarm call…shudder).


A send off dinner was had at a local Chinese. A veritable mountain of prawn crackers was delivered to the table followed by humungous dishes of great seafood. Feeling rather replete. Tomorrow we both go our seperate ways  – a little sad – but also both excited by our respective plans. Watch this space…

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Day 99: 5 September – Exploring Perth on two wheels

Author: Mrs A

Location: Perth

Distance cycled: 28km

Spring truly sprung in Perth this morning and we were back in the shorts and t-shirts again as we jumped on our bicycles to head into the city. Our first stop was to a chemist so I could pick up some drugs to try and keep me breathing over the next three weeks, and we had lunch in a lovely cafe next door.

Onwards then towards the city following 14km of off road cycleways and towards the botanical gardens. Perth is pretty hilly, something we particularly realised today with some steep climbs to reach the gardens.  But we made it up, me wheezing quite heavily with my compromised airway, but proud to have made it


The gardens are beautiful, native plantings representing different areas of Western Australia’s wild flora. Most of the pathways were not meant for bikes so we missed out on a wonderful looking treetop boardwalk winding through the gums, but sneaked through to some of the lookouts over the intersection of the Canning and Swan Rivers.


We finally got to see Western Australia’s famous everlasting flowers, stunning carpets of pink and yellow we had hoped to glimpse on our journey south. They are worth the hype!

We finished our ride back at the Toyota garage, where we handed over a swift $800 (gulp) for all the electrical repairs and parts we needed fitting, and loaded the bikes on the back of the Landcruiser. We returned to camp via the Perth Sailing Club for some sunset photos (sorry Eveliene, didn’t make it to the Blue Boat House – we drove past and it looked busy!).


A chilled out evening ahead, and hopefully an early night – I didn’t sleep well last night with all my medical relevations swimming through my head.

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