Early morning winter SUP at Shoreham was good.  The waves were small the Pines but there was a nice swell at Zappas with some good waves rolling in. Egg and bacon sandwich and coffee at the Merricks Store on the way home was really good ..read more

Session 585. Strong winds forecast for Port Phillip Bay arrived mid-afternoon. On the water at 3:30 pm and shared the session with three other kiters. Northerlies at Brighton can be dicey if you have equipment failure or get your kite tangled - its a long hard swim back to shore against cross-offshore wind. I kite conservatively in offshore winds. The wind was good further out but not as strong as the 30 knot forecast. The Union 9m kite was nicely powered. I tacked up to near the Brighton Marina breakwater then surfed the back on the bay swell.  The wind was gusty closer to shore. A ki ..read more

Session 584. Kitesurfing again at last! There has been a remarkable lack of wind this year. The Westerlies and North Westerlies we usually get during Winter have been largely absent.  There was a good Northerly forecast today so Rosebud was on. On the water and 09:10 with 15-20 knots wind from the North, not as strong as forecast. I used my Union 9 kite in case it came in stronger. One other kiter was out in the distance and two others launched just before me.  I got going a bit underpowered so I kept going out hoping to pick up more wind. Returning in the wind got stronger close to ..read more

We embarked on a snowmobile trip to the East coast of Spitzbergen on a Better Moments tour to visit remote parts of the main island of Svalbard and hopefully see a Polar Bear on the sea ice where they hunt. It was still a very cold -25C so we wore an extra padded layer under our polar suits and balaclava and facemask with the supplied helmets. Our Australian drivers licences were valid up until the end of March after which they will no longer be accepted on Svalbard because apparently Australia has not yet signed the Vienna convention on motoring document. After a briefing from our guide abou ..read more

Matheo picked us up in the morning for a 4 hour dog sledding tour with Green Dog Svalbard. He drove us to their base about 10km from Longyearbyen. On arrival I said a gentle hello to Power, a lovely old dog nestling on a jacket on a verandah.  We then were kitted out with polar suits, boots, mittens and safety gear.  The suits went on top of our normal ski clothing. Matheo came to us for a briefing on how to control the dogs and the sled. He sadly informed us that Power, a retired Husky that was his pet for a couple of years had just died. This was very sad. Matheo helped us h ..read more

Motorcycle tour through North East Victoria and South Gippsland with great roads, lots of twisties and not much traffic.  Day 1.  Broadford to Myrtleford - 305 km, 4 hr [GPX file] Mostly on quiet roads. Coffee and pitstop in Mansfield. Day 2. Myrtleford to Bairnsdale - 342 km 5hr 24 min [GPX file] Endless curves, watch out for bark on road and damp corners in forest areas. Mitta Mitta for coffee and Omeo for lunch. Day 3. Bairnsdale to Walkerville - 4 hr 26 min [GPX file] Back roads in rural areas and forests of Strezlecki.  10km of dirt road (good condition) from Carrajung to ..read more

The flight from Oslo to Tromso had some good views down to snow covered peaks and the fjords near Tromso.  We landed in Tromso and exited the plane then went through immigration (as Svalbard is an external territory of Norway) then re boarded the plane. Landing at Svalbard it was -25C, a lot colder than the mainland. We collected our gear and boarded the bus that took us very close to our accommodation at Haugen Pensjonat which has good rooms and kitchen facilities and was not crowded. Coming into Tromso We flew over sea ice then Spitzbergen, Svalbard in bluebird skies ..read more

We had a day in Oslo and set out to see some new sights on the trams and trains with a day ticket. Public transport is fast and efficient. I have wondered where the ferries from Aker brygge go so we boarded one to cross Oslo Fjord to Nesodden. There were good views across the fjord on the trip and nice warm cafe in the ferry terminal at Nesodden. We walked around Nesodden checking out picturesque houses with good views. Some had sod roofs.  We visited the Norrona and Helly Hansen stores to check out their high quality outdoor gear (but it is expensive).  ..read more

Some light snow overnight covered the streets as we left the hotel and caught the metro and train to the airport. We had a good break in the SAS lounge looking out over the snow covered runways. Our SAS plane stopped for de-icing on the runway prior to take-off. The flight across the Baltic sea in clear skies and sunshine provided some great views to small islands in the Baltic Sea and the Swedish coast north of Stockholm. This was a flight to remember. We caught the airport rail to Oslo, got settled in our hotel then walked around the city to the ferry terminal in the harbour. It was cold but ..read more

First stop of our 2024 Norway ski trip was Helsinki to have a look around. The flight from Doha to Helsinki with Finnair was excellent with great food and service. I watched two Finnish movies - the gory but entertaining Sisu set in WWII and Lapua 1976 (2023) about a tragic explosion that decimated a town. I also watched a documentary about Finland and why is rated the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row.   "According to Frank Martela, a Finnish philosopher and psychology researcher, Finnish people are happy because they have a strong sense of c ..read more