Car free - Cheung Chau...

This is a small island thirty minutes by ferry from Hong Kong. Because it is so small there is little room for cars - bicycles being the main mode of transport. The bikes made walking through the narrow alley ways very tricky. It was interesting watching cargo being unloaded at the docks!

Climbing the Wall...

A must do but also quite strenuous..

We climbed a steep section and it was hard going. Some women, on the steps in bottom left hand corner of the photo, were on all fours going up and were in the same position coming down again! We were intrigued by the graffiti.

We are now Flickr groupies too

Secret places, originally uploaded by mum49.

Click on the Flickr link to the right to check out some of our photos. The link will change as we add more photos... (Ellen hopes)

Graham's Herd

This is the start of big things, maybe. My first cow, thanks to David. It is almost pure Simmental and her first calf will be recognised as full Simmental as I understand things. She should be "in calf" thanks to the AI program. Isn't she a little beauty. She is only known, at this stage, as A12

Graham (The Cattle Baron)

Give me the bush...

I love being away - but isn't it good to be home!

Meeting the locals...

What a great experience - meeting the locals whilst at the Ger Camp in Mongolia. We were able to sample products made from cow, sheep and horse milk. Some had unusual flavours but others were quite yummy.

Game of cricket any one?

Graham never misses an opportunity to play with kids, especially a game of cricket or football.

Someone gave this 4 year old a tennis ball, Graham found a flattish piece of wood and the game was on... Of course the game could not be complete without a crowd!

Gers in Mongolia

Probably our favourite stopover! The 'Guru Ger Camp' about an hours bumpy bus ride from Ulaanbataar in the Terelj National Park. The small pot-bellied stove was lit late in the evening and then at about 2.00 am there was a knock at the door with the offer to restoke the fire.

Oh so relaxing... and the gers were surrounded by a carpet of native flowers as well!

Russian churches are beautiful

This is a sample of the beautiful churches we saw in Russia. Many were destroyed in Communist times or turned into museums. A lot of those that were destroyed are being rebuilt to the original designs. Amazing and very COSTLY. Those that are museums often have a small area that has now been set aside for prayer.

Mongolian and Russian Weddings

Weddings were happening everywhere in Russia and Mongolia - we guess because it was summer.

In Russia the ceremony takes place in the morning and then the bridal party spends the rest of the day having photos taken at tourist spots across the city and at the same time drinking lots of champagne!

Like the bride, the groom in Mongolia carries a huge bouquet...

When will these ideas take off in Australia?

Stretched limousines are used in Russia ... some are very interesting!

OOPS and I forgot the most bizarre...

Scorpions anyone? At least if you felt like these you could use chop sticks to select the fattest and juiciest.

Food For Thought

As already mentioned the train trip made us inventive as to what we ate. We vow and declare that we will never eat two minute noodles again. That said there were other delicacies that we did not venture to taste...

Dried snake and mushrooms
Dried lizard