Author: travellingkathy

We had an ‘official’ town tour this morning. Lazy start (9am) but all the people at breakfast at 7:15 we’re wearing Outback Spirit badges (more than one group here). We’re getting well trained. 5:20am start tomorrow – before breakfast. But I digress …

So there was an osprey and nest on the ‘lighthouse’ tower at Ganthaume Point at the southern end of the peninsula;

sample dinosaur prints in the concrete nearby – the real ones are only visible at very low tides.

Then the Japanese cemetery – mainly pearl shell divers – did you know that they were mainly diving for pearl shell for buttons? Real pearls were just a bonus.

Then I left them to check out the town which I did yesterday and I headed to the museum. More on the Japanese air raid that sank 15 Catalinas in March 1942 – mostly filled with Dutch women and children fleeing from the East Indies. And some interesting stuff about the WA Shipping Line that serviced the coastal communities from around 1889 to 1957. Passengers and freight. Somewhere in there there was a service from Liverpool to Australia via Singapore and Broome.

And I promised a photo of a modern steel house. Ran out of time to get what I wanted but here is an example of a unit at the Cable Beach Club Resort.

Didn’t get to my hotel until 7:30 last night so a long day of travel from Melbourne. But my hotel was central and I had a bit of a wander this morning before my tour group pick-up. A bit of history, hopefully more tomorrow.

The 1913 cinema is still going strong.

I havent been to Broome before. Wide streets. Interesting architecture. A few remnants of the olden days; modern ‘could be anywhere’ except there are no roof gutters and the iron roofs are well nailed down; and modern galvanised iron  I’ll try to get a representative photo of that tomorrow.

Were at the Cable Beach Club Resort for 2 nights. I could rough it here,

We have 19 on the tour and one driver/staff. Apparently 1 staff has maximum 20 clients. 2 staff – 26 clients. Group dinner tonight. We don’t get properly underway until Sunday. More Broome tomorrow.

As usual I’m logging in a bit ahead of time to check that I remember how this blog thing works. Heading off again on 7 June, but this time without bicycle or passport!

The only immediate complication is fairly strict luggage weight requirements.

First up a Kimberley tour, then a week in the Top End including another tour group to Kakadu.

I’ve never been a fan of organised trips. Reckon this one might just about ‘do me in’. But after looking at all the options, this seemed like the only way I was going to get to see that country.

The Kimberley people sent me some goodies. Nice day pack, fancy water bottle, microfibre towel, map and book with  detailed itinerary. Only trouble is, that lot pretty much exhausts the in-cabin weight allowance. Too bad if I want to take a book or diary or iPad or other personal Items!

Ok so now I’ve also remembered how to retrieve drafts and add a photo.

Now just got to get though the next weekend of MTBO organising and I’ll nearly be there.

Dont know how much wifi coverage I’ll have. Will see how it goes.

Well that’s all for this trip, folks.  Thanks for reading and for your comments.

We had several hours to get the nominal 2 hours to Charles de Gaulle airport and when all was going well we stopped off at a couple of interesting looking places just off the freeway for a bit of a look around. But my camera was out of battery so no photos of more old buildings (including the remains of a small chateau) today.

And of course once back on the route, there were the road closures and deviations, but got there in time to drop Kay and the car off at Terminal 2D, and I made my way to Terminal 1 and a bit of a wait for my 8:45 pm flight.

Uneventful flights and in time to attend the funeral of an orienteering colleague who had been ill for some time. His coffin was papered with old orienteering maps.

now to catch up with all the stuff that has been on hold for over 5 weeks, and hope that spring and longer day-lit evenings are on the way. I think the dark early evenings will be the hardest adjustment.

In my ‘few words’ description, I’d say Orleans is a bit drab, functional.

Only one serious city park that I found, though the river quay is quite nice. And the tramlines have grass between the tracks away from the very inner city. But it doesn’t have the vibrant colours or geranium boxes of the houses in countries further east.

Jeanne d’Arc is a feature. From north of here, she apparently had a vision that she was to help Charles VII liberate France from the English towards the end of the 100 years war. He sent her to help relieve the siege of Orleans, which then ended 9 days later and Joan got the credit. Not long after she was captured and tried by a bishop for some misdemeanours and at 19 was burnt at the stake in 1431.  Subsequently a papal court exonerated her and declared her to be a martyr. She was later canonised.

Orleans has taken her to heart.

Statues abound. And she is the main feature of the spectacular sound and light show at the cathedral (where she attended mass).

The old town has some interesting half-timber houses. And those of you who have stuck with this blog over the weeks will,remember the photo of different construction processes for half-timber … (in Plasy, CZE).

And how many different types of Sardines are there?

Orleans is on the Loire River. It’s quite wide and appears to be fairly shallow. Many sandbanks and low alluvial-stony islands. But it must flood/get high water at times. Most of the nearby villages are on higher ground or have high levee banks or high stone protective walls along the river. (Apparently last year there was a big flood that flooded the nearby freeway and hundreds of cars with it.) But quite benign this week.

i did a short bike ride along the river path from Combleux, about 6km upstream from Orleans on Saturday. Down to Orleans and then back and a bit further. Combleux was where we went for dinner on Tuesday night so I got some photos then as well. And on Wednesday on the Villandry trip, I crossed the river a couple of times.

The Bridge at Beaugency.

One of the many canals – this one is actually at the side of the river as it comes into Orleans, and separated from the river by a high stone wall with a narrow path along the top.

The canals near Orleans mostly seem to be disused – at least the locks don’t seem to be functional. There are two that converge at Combleux.

Bridges and islands at Orleans.

And sandbanks.

So I’ve come away from the World Masters Orienteering Championships with a full set of medals. Gold (sprint), Silver (long) and Bronze (middle). Not a bad haul! I might send a report to my knee surgeon!

Also, 7 of the races over these weeks have been part of a 15-race World Masters Series which has been held over the last 10 months. (I was in two of those races in NZ last November, but in a different age class so those results didn’t count.) The scoring for overall placings is taken from your best 7 events. Going into this week, I was equal first with my Dane rival. This week she had 2 firsts and one second. So she narrowly beat me on points. But that’s another silver medal for me!

add to that haul the substantial glass stein I got for winning overall the Czech event, and the luggage will be rather heavier. Just as well I’ve finished the soap and toothpaste!

After the Sprint on Sunday – much nervous energy and 22 minutes of riding! – we then had a model/training event on Monday in preparation for the Middle and Long Distance events which are described as each having two very different forest areas: one frequented by the public, the other used for hunting. So we headed out on Monday to see what all that meant and found very rough and pitted tracks and rides (apparently deer-damaged). I found anything off ‘smooth’ major tracks to be almost unrideable and an hour of bouncing along and hanging on while trying to keep forward motion, very tiring.  Was not looking forward to Tuesdays Middle Distance event.

As it turned out, where they took us (at least the older classes) was much easier riding and we could concentrate more on the navigation. I made a couple of silly errors but was never going to be fast enough to get another win. Just beaten into third! (Now if I get a silver medal tomorrow, I’ll have the full set.) But it was  a long day – first starters and then an hour or so in quarantine after we finished (to prevent us giving advice to later starters). Then on Tuesday night a pleasant dinner at a riverside restaurant in Combeaux with most of the Australian contingent.  So I needed a day off!

id planned to visit the gardens at the Chateau Villandry (just south of Toirs) and after a bit of a hassle start to the day, that’s what I did.

Just a quickie … won the W70’sprint fairly convincingly today.  Got a bit confused as I arrived at #7 and the confusion continued to 8 and 9. But took it slowly and didn’t lose too much time.

The other classes had longer and much more complex courses than us oldies.

Probably. Just to let you know that I’ve arrived safely in Orleans after a longer than planned drive. A6 closed so at least an extra 100km detour. I thought Mrs SatNav was taking me to Belgium! After an hour of driving at 120-130kph I was no closer to Orleans!

interesting accommodation. I suspect it might be a bit like what my great-grandmother’s boarding house might have been like … family and boarders all mixed up in a rambling suburban house with thin walls.  At least I’ve got my own bathroom, but no opening window, just a door that opens onto the front garden and street. The bed is more comfy than it looked when she was still making up the room late afternoon. It’s all very friendly but with our limited French we’re a bit uncertain just what’s happening. Kay is here too.

Event Centre is not as close as I thought it was when I booked the accommodation. That’s a bit of a bugger – car parking in the town is difficult, but the narrow roads and traffic also make it not so friendly for bikes. Will have to see how we go when we venture forth in the morning.

Anyway, not sure how much time I’ll get for blogging in the next few days.