Pete Johns - Blog entries of the highest uptodateness

From the television coverage, this afternoon, it looks like a beautiful day in the Loire Valley. Just under an hour ago, now, a large number of particularly fast four-wheeled machines started speeding their way around one of the greatest and most celebrated circuits in the world: Le Mans.

According to the clock on the laptop, it’s nearly four o’clock in the morning. Oddly enough, it was at half-past four when the alarm went off this morning. Now we have to start convincing our bodies that the clock on the laptop is correct, despite the fact that the sun is shining through the aeroplane window. This afternoon we shall be landing in London, marking the end of our holidays. If the first three quarters of an hour of this flight are anything to go by, I shall have bruises all over my coccyx, as the diminutive lady behind me seems to have very hard and very active knees.

It’s so good to be back in Tokyo. I’m sitting in friend TK’s living room. He and his Dad have kindly put us up for our stay here. S met us at the airport yesterday morning and, after a brief stop-off at his flat, where we met his wife and seven-month-old son, provided us with a tour of the shopping suburbs of Japan’s capital city.

Time really does fly when you’re having fun. This is our last morning in Australia and I’m sat, once more, at the patio table at B and M’s house. B is barbecuing breakfast for the six of us and it smells delicious. K is stowing the wine for our passage back to the Northern Hemisphere. A good opportunity for me to write about the past few days. I have been very slack both with the laptop and the camera over the past few days, which is a shame.

The ferry journey from nearby Parramatta to Cirular Quay, at the heart of New South Wales was wonderful. It doesn’t matter how many different angles I see the Sydney, the Opera House or Harbour Bridge from, I still look on it and think, "wow!"

I think it’s high-time I filed an update. I haven’t touched the laptop for a couple of days, now.

A brief pause in the day in between visiting the breathtakingly magnificent Blue Mountains and heading into Sydney for an evening meal provides me with the opportunity to record a word or two!

In the skies again! Days seem to be passing at more than the recommended 60 mph (minutes per hour) rate, I tell you!

Rottnest Island or Rotto, as it’s known locally by the folks who like to abbreviate as much as possible, is a small Island to the West of Perth. Mrs Johns and I thought that this place would provide a nice setting for our first Friday in the Antipodes. This decided, we caught a train into the City, followed by a bus to Hillarys Marina where in turn we boarded the fast ferry to the Island.

Yesterday was an excellent day. As previously mentioned, we had an early start to drive into the City. In the City, we boarded our 27-seater 4×4 bus; a weird and wonderful vehicle and very, very comfortable, it has to be said. The bus drove us North of Perth, to the Pinnacles Desert, making a couple of stops along the way. These stops were largely to give us a break on the long journey, but were also there to give us a glimpse of Australian life outside the city. We saw a solitary koala, munching on some eucalyptus leaves, but nothing of real excitement…. until we reached some rather large sand dunes. This is where the 27-seater 4×4 came into its own. It mounted the sand dunes without too much effort and hurtled down the other side. Being in a bus going over the edge like that was pretty exciting and made me think of the Italian Job! Some of us took the opportunity to witness the bus going over the dunes from the outside, affording us the opportunity to record the occasion for our own posterity.