Spent last night in Cairns. Julie had a chance to catch up with Janet last night which was great - always good to catch up with her & Ketut. We are now sitting at Cairns airport ready for stage 2 - on to Singapore. We had a close look at the news this morning and it is still looking good for Paris. May have to check the Eurostar site later to make sure we can get into France. So, all things being equal, our next entry should be from Paris. Bye for now.

The day before we are due to leave. First stage of our journey is to drive to Cairns today, overnight, then fly out tomorrow. First stop Singapore with a 7 hour stopover, then London, early morning arrival, then the Eurostar to Paris. So, quite a long journey ahead of us. By now, you all would have heard the news from Paris. A bit of a worry. Both Julie and I have discussed it and we have decided to carry on with our trip. A bit more caution may be required, or ...

Up at 4.30am, a quick breakfast (coffee), last minute checks to make sure we had everything, then off to the airport to start our trip. The omens are present for a good trip - the flight from Townsville left 10 minutes early, arrived in Brisbane on time, departed Brisbane on time and landed in Sydney on time (must be a record for Australian airports). So, three airports and 6 hours traveling later, and we still haven't left Australia yet - we are truly the Land D...

So, off we go. 8:30 flight to Brisbane, 1/2 hour stop in Brizzie then on to Sydney. Scored a couple of Virgin Lounge tickets at the international check-in desk, so we can kill an hour or so in style. These International Lounges are the way to go - bar snacks, coffee, drinks, comfy lounge chairs to sit in. This is the way to travel. Not looking forward to the next leg - 14hrs to Abu Dhabi. Although we've forked out a bit extra to travel premium economy this ye...

Day one. Early start - 4am. Two flights later and still in Australia. Feels like we've been travelling forever. Still, every journey has to start somewhere. By the time we get to Geneva it will be 40 hours of travelling. Then another hour to our first port of call - Talloires, situated on the shores of Lake Annecy. Not looking forward to the 14 hour plane trip (nor the 9 hour layover in Abu Dhabi). Still, a small price to pay etc etc.