Hi everybody, I thought I would set up the Off Exploring site just like my daughter Kristina has. We have really enjoyed sharing her experiences and seeing her photos as she has been away since Janury 31st on the African continent.

In less than two weeks time, we will be going on an adventure of our own. We will be flying out of Sydney and arriving in England to visit Ken's family in Huntingdon and Dorset for three weeks. We will then depart England for Venice Italy for a couple of days and we will then embark on a Costa cruise of the Mediterranean, visiting Olympia in Greece, the Greek Islands of Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes, also Dubrovnik, Croatia. On return to Venice, we are off to Rome for a couple of days.

From Rome we board our flight to Israel, staying in Jerusalem for 5 nights with 3 tours (Jerusalem, Massada and the Dead Sea and Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee).

We fly out of Israel to Cairo, Egypt and onto Sharm El Sheik on the Sinai Peninsula where we will be meeting up with our Kristina (we are so looking forward to this). We are there for about 4 days and then off to Luxor, Egypt for 3 days and then board our ship for a cruise up the Nile. Having previously enjoyed a Nile cruise, we decided to do it all over again - the historical sites along the way are amazing!

On arrival in Aswan we will transfer to our hotel for a night and then fly back to Cairo for 3 nights.

We depart Cairo for Abu Dhabi in the Arab Emirates and travel the coast road to Dubai. We have booked tours in advance which include a city tour, 4wd dune bashing, camel rides and an evening at a Bedoin camp for a barbeque and bellydancing entertainment (sounds like fun). Then back to Abu Dhabi for two nights before flying home again.

We are starting to get excited now, our only regret is that our son Peter won't be there with us - he is staying home to feed the pets and looking after things for us.

Well, for those who are interested, I will try to keep you updated on our travels and post blogs about the places we have visited and figure out how to upload my photos along the way.