Morocco and Portugal 2023

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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 50
Selasa, 11 April 2023
☀️ 21 °C
Altitud: 549 m
Portugal Monte Palace 32.674884, -16.9028432°40’30” N 16°54’10” W
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Teleferico up, Carreiros down
11 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
We made an early start today to ride the cable car (Teleferico) up the mountain behind Funchal. The cruise ship passengers usually do it in the morning, so we avoided the last 2 days when there were 2 ships in, with a total of 7,500 passengers. Today there is only 1 ship of less than 200.

The journey up the mountain is 3km, and there there are a number of gardens, churches and a palace that can be viewed at the top.

The fun way to come down is by wicker basket sled (Carreiros do Monte). The small village of Monte, perched in the hills overlooking Funchal, was formerly a health resort for Europe's high society, so what began as a method of transport in the late 1800's for the elite, is now purely for tourism.
Standing on the back of the sled, 2 white-uniformed drivers (Carreiros), wearing straw boaters and rubber soled shoes, steer the baskets along the narrow winding streets 2km downhill, at up to 40kmh.

After our slide down the hill we caught the local bus back to the city centre, walked along the promenade, and visited the supermarket to buy supplies for dinner.Baca lagi
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John KalaitzisWhat a fab day!
11/04/23BalasTerjemah
sam and bruce very cool!
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sam and bruce Janet looks calmer than when she has to ride her bike downhill on a rocky track! The fellows look fabulous, love the uniforms
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Darren and JanetYes, she's a picture of calm! They were very snappily dressed and good fun, chatting on the way down
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sam and bruce fantastic, thanks Bek. essential footage for the blog!
13/04/23BalasTerjemah
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 51
Rabu, 12 April 2023
☀️ 19 °C
Altitud: 286 m
Portugal Cabo Girão 32.655214, -17.00238332°39’19” N 17°0’9” W
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Cliffs and Clouds
12 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
We're leaving Funchal today and heading to the north west corner of the island to Porto Moniz.

We contacted a taxi driver a few days ago who specialises in transfers for tourists and agreed a price for the journey, including stops on the way. To drive direct takes one hour, so we hired him for 4 hours with 3 stops.

First stop was the Cabo Girão Viewpoint, famous for its suspended glass platform. At 589m it's claimed as the highest sea cliff in Europe and the 2nd highest in the world (but both claims are in dispute!)

We then ascended the central mountain range close to the highest point of the island, where we were above the clouds for much of the journey.

On the northern side of the island we stopped at the Fanal Forest, an old growth laurel forest - it's at 1500m altitude and often shrouded in cloud, giving it a mystical appearance... but the cloud blows in quickly and disappears just as fast. Laurel forests were once spread throughout Europe, but today are practically extinct, so the Madeira Islands laurel forest was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, covering an area of 150 square kilometres.

We arrived at Porto Moniz at 2pm, had some lunch on the foreshore and a trip to the supermarket. Oliver and I then went for a caching walk, and had an impromptu Levada walk.

A levada is an irrigation channel or aqueduct specific to Madeira. They were originally constructed of stone and later concrete to irrigate the sugarcane fields, and usually have a walking path next to it. There are more than 2,170 kilometres of levadas - not bad for an island 57km long and 22km wide.Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Excellent photo
12/04/23BalasTerjemah
John Kalaitzis Wow! I'd want to do it.........but?
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John Kalaitzis If this is the second highest, would the Grand Canyon be the highest per chance?
12/04/23BalasTerjemah
Darren and JanetWhat a rabbit hole that question leads down 😂 The definition of a sea cliff seems to be disputed, one article says "Cabo Girão is often referred to as the highest sea cliff in Europe but at least three European cliffs are higher"! Perhaps that's why the sign in the car park says "one of the highest cliffs in the world"
13/04/23BalasTerjemah
Darren and JanetNot sure why they haven't claimed the highest glass-floor observation deck - Guinness currently gives that to the Sky Deck in the Lotte World Tower, Seoul (478m)
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John KalaitzisAlways like to send you down a rabbit hole :)
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 52
Khamis, 13 April 2023 7:31 PTG
☀️ 18 °C
Altitud: 424 m
Portugal Santa Maria Madalena 32.852766, -17.21092532°51’10” N 17°12’39” W
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The teleferico that wasn't
13 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Our plan today was to catch the cablecar from nearby Achadas da Cruz, down the cliff to sea level to a village that has no inhabitants, but the farmers still visit regularly to tend their crops. ,

The cable car has a length of 600 meters and a slope of 98%, starting at 451 meters and ending by the sea... one of the steepest around and a must see for us.... except that when we arrived it was closed for maintenance 😞

Our taxi driver claimed he didn't know it was closed, despite it being closed all week and him specialising in tourist transfers in the area (as well us asking at the start of the trip if it was open)... so that was 50 euro not well spent!

He gave us the option of walking down and up instead, a path about five kilometers long, which was once used by local farmers to transport their crops. We declined.

The afternoon was raining off and on, so in between showers we grabbed a few caches and made another visit to the supermarket, before cooking dinner in.Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Wow! Spectacular.
13/04/23BalasTerjemah
PengembaraThat was disappointing 😔
13/04/23BalasTerjemah
sam and bruce didnt that happen to us in NZ - arrived to find cable car or gondola closed for maintenance?
19/04/23BalasTerjemah
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 53
Jumaat, 14 April 2023
☀️ 18 °C
Altitud: 3 m
Portugal Piscinas Naturais de Porto Moniz 32.868595, -17.16934232°52’7” N 17°10’10” W
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Caching up and down the mountain
14 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
The weather is cool and overcast again today, so our plan to swim in the natural sea baths was put on hold.

We solved a puzzle cache this morning so we set out on a mission! It was located beyond the end of a walking path, about 700m from our apartment. After some searching we found that one and was walking back to town past the school got chatting to the caretaker (it's currently school holidays), so we had a look around their indoor football stadium and 6 lane swimming pool... and he motioned that there is a walking path up the mountain (his English was as good as our Portuguese 😁).

We set off up the path (toward a cache that we aborted the search for 2 nights ago when we ran out of footpath), and kept going up until we reached our destination. And, as luck would have it, a local cafe was just up the road. After a steak sandwich, coffee and Portuguese tart, we headed back down the walking path toward the coast.

Still too cold for a swim, we walked around the town for a while, and had dinner in.Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Great view
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John Kalaitzis They do look inviting
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John Kalaitzis A bit bracing for someone?
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 54
Sabtu, 15 April 2023 1:10 PTG
⛅ 19 °C
Altitud: 128 m
Portugal Ponta do Castelo 32.749146, -16.70814432°44’57” N 16°42’29” W
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North Coast
15 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
Time to leave Porto Moniz and travel across the north coast from west to east.

We engaged the same taxi driver to pick us up and give us a tour of the north coast, narrowly avoiding a road block as the São Vicente Car Rally was starting on the public roads this morning.

We stopped at the black sand beach of Sexial, voted in the top 3 beaches in Europe in 2022 - not for the quality the beach (because the blank sand turns to black mud after going in the water), but because of the setting.

We stopped briefly to see some traditional Madeiran triangle houses in Santana. They are made of straw and wood because they were both abundant materials in the early days, and the high pitched roof assisted to keep the rainwater running off.

Another glass viewpoint visited at Guindaste, this one vying for the world's shortest? 😂

Porto Da Cruz is home to a rum distillery, so while Bek and Jake sampled their wares, Oliver and I climbed the nearby viewpoint for a cache and watched the many surfers in the bay.

Two more viewing areas were visited before arriving in Machico, both with views of the airport. We stayed a while and watched a number of planes take off and land - the airport is certainly busier that we thought it would be!

After settling into our accommodation, we headed to the city centre for a late lunch and a walk around the beach front, which is split into two by a breakwater. One end is a pebble covered surf beach, the other a sandy swimming beach in a protected end of the bay. It is one of the few sandy beaches of Madeira, with sand imported from North Africa. The sand imports were quite controversial, as the sand was taken from Western Sahara, a Non-Self Governing Territory which has been largely occupied by Morocco since 1975.Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Spectacular
17/04/23BalasTerjemah
John Kalaitzis A plane spotters dream
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Darren and JanetCertainly is!
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 55
Ahad, 16 April 2023
☀️ 22 °C
Altitud: Paras Laut
Portugal Praia Machico 32.717664, -16.76325232°43’4” N 16°45’48” W
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Meandering in Machico
16 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Free day in Machico today, and the weather is warm and clear, so we thought we do some of the walking tracks around town.

As we discovered in Porto Moniz, there are walking tracks throughout each town, but they don't appear on any maps, so it's a bit of trial and error to get the right one.

We began near our apartment on the western side of town, with a track that crosses the main highway and heads toward the airport. It got very steep, very quickly, so we found another path down, back towards to centre of town.

After some meandering we realised we were only a few hundred metres from one last cache (there's always just one more 🤣), so we trekked up the hill to the east to claim it.

We found a series of levadas and roads down to the beach to join Bek and Jake for alfresco lunch near the fort, then headed back uphill to our accommodation for a quiet afternoon.Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Crikey, what happened?
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Darren and JanetNot sure... if only the walks could speak...
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John KalaitzisWeird that it was just abandoned?
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 56
Isnin, 17 April 2023
☁️ 21 °C
Altitud: 54 m
Portugal Madeira Airport 32.697204, -16.77361132°41’50” N 16°46’25” W
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Aeroporto da Madeira
17 April 2023, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
We have an afternoon flight to Zurich, and only 6km to travel to the airport, so we had breakfast on the terrace before making our way to the airport late morning.

The road from Machico to the airport travels under the runway, between the supporting pylons - the runway extension completed in 2000 was built on a platform, partly over the ocean, supported by 180 columns, each about 70 m tall. The terminal itself is mostly underground.

We already had plenty of time to kill, but that was made worse by our plane from Zurich being an hour late leaving, so we were then scheduled to depart Funchal at 5.50pm.

The airport is constantly busy, averaging 84 aircraft movements a day, and handling over 4 million passengers a year. Fortunately the departure lounge is on the top level and has an outdoor viewing area which overlooks the runway!

By the time our departure time came around the original flight plan had expired, so we had another delay on the tarmac, finally taking off at 6.15pm.

We arrived Zurich at 10.50pm and were thankful that we booked an airport hotel, so we were in the room by 11.45pm (the bloke in front of us at reception didn't have a booking... and both hotels in this area are fully booked with a conference this week, so he may have been in for a long night!)Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Was the name change to include their famous footballing son?
17/04/23BalasTerjemah
Darren and JanetYes, formerly Santa Catarina Airport and now officially Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport - during its renaming ceremony in 2017, the airport drew media notoriety for an infamous bust of Ronaldo unveiled at the ceremony, since replaced. Neither the bust nor the name change were unanimous, actually far from a consensus - the name change was subject to much debate and controversy locally by politicians and citizens, who even started a petition against the move.
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John KalaitzisOh crikey. Why did the bust cause such controversy?
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Darren and JanetIt was mocked mercilessly because it was such a poor representation of him. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44518595
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John KalaitzisWell I think the critics have a point. That's a shocker!
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Darren and Janet🤣
19/04/23Balas
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 57
Selasa, 18 April 2023
⛅ 15 °C
Altitud: 412 m
Switzerland Zurich Main Station 47.376045, 8.54321647°22’34” N 8°32’36” E
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No time to zzz in Zurich
18 April 2023, Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
We only have one day in Zurich, so caught the train to the city this morning. This was our first lesson in what an expensive city this is - return train tickets were $22 each (for a 24 hour pass anywhere around the city).

We walked across the many bridges in the city, up and down the funicular to the university, and around the old town streets, stopping for lunch and a few caches on the way. (Lunch from a street caravan was a burger, pesto pasta and 2 cappuccinos... $57. Ouch!)

We noticed plenty of Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Maserati's in the streets, and had a quick look in the Tesla dealership in the heart of the city.

We caught the train back to our airport hotel late afternoon and went for a walk around the park behind the airport, home to the shortest funicular in Switzerland with a length of 78.5 metres and a rise of just 23 metres!Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Loving it already
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John Kalaitzis That's a good quiz question
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John Kalaitzis That is pretty special
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 58
Rabu, 19 April 2023
☁️ 12 °C
Altitud: 425 m
Switzerland Zurich airport 47.459301, 8.55947247°27’33” N 8°33’34” E
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Zurich Flughafen
19 April 2023, Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Only one activity today, a flight to Singapore.

The nice thing about an airport hotel, it's just a walk to the terminal.

We departed a few minutes late at 11.55am, but arrived Singapore on time at 5.50 am... to 30 degrees and humid!

Changi Airport is as quiet as a mouse, we were off the plane and had our bags in hand by 6.15 am, ready to catch the train to the city...Baca lagi
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John Kalaitzis Great viewing
20/04/23BalasTerjemah
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 59
Khamis, 20 April 2023
☁️ 29 °C
Altitud: 25 m
Singapura Read Bridge 1.289779, 103.84451°17’23” N 103°50’40” E
Steamy Singapore
20 April 2023, Singapura ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
We caught the train from the airport to the city, arriving at our hotel at 8am... a little too early to check in, so we dropped our bags and went for a walk in the local area.

We found the nearest supermarket, had some morning tea, and found a few caches before heading back to check-in at 11.30am.

Neither of us slept much on the flight, so we had an afternoon nap before going for another walk along the river late afternoon.

It was very hot walking around, 32 degrees and super humid, so we had a bite of tea and went back to the hotel for a swim before bedtime.Baca lagi
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 60
Jumaat, 21 April 2023
⛅ 31 °C
Altitud: 19 m
Singapura Chinatown 1.284099, 103.8434461°17’3” N 103°50’36” E
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Chinatown by night
21 April 2023, Singapura ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We woke up to a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain, so had a bit of a late morning... so late it became afternoon until we left the hotel.

We went in search of a cache on the rooftop around one of the landmark Chinatown skyline buildings, we also visited when last in Singapore (February 2020, just as Covid broke out).

The building is known as the People's Park Complex, a 31-storey mostly residential development straight out of the 1970's. Happily we found the convoluted route to the rooftop and the cache considerably quicker than last time!

Dinner was also a flashback, treating Oliver to dinner at a Michelin star restaurant again... admittedly the Cheapest Michelin-starred meal in the world, Hawker Chan - famous for his Soya Sauce Chicken Rice. His hawker stall had closed for the day, so we went around the corner to his shopfront, where 75% of the menu was sold out, but the signature dish still available. Sadly the serve was no where near the size of last time 😕 (here's the flashback - https://findpenguins.com/4ar8jyvngbq0y/footprin… )

Another visit to the supermarket and another night swim rounded the day out nicely.Baca lagi
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sam and bruce beaut - I hope you said the usual "thanks for bringing us here"!
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Darren and Janet🤣🤣 grimey location, but great view most people don't see!
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sam and bruce yes its a bit smaller but still looks tasty!
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 61
Sabtu, 22 April 2023
⛅ 31 °C
Altitud: 42 m
Singapura Singapore Botanic Gardens 1.311332, 103.8140681°18’41” N 103°48’51” E
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Botanic Gardens and the Bay
22 April 2023, Singapura ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We took the other method to avoid the heat today and was on the train to the Botanic Gardens just after 8am.

Singapore Botanic Gardens is the only tropical garden to be recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's immaculately maintained and in addition to the 10,000 plant species, is also home to otters, monitor lizards, squirrels, monkeys and numerous bird species (we saw the last 4, but no sign of the otters today).

We walked the length of the park from south to north, and caught the underground back to the bay area.

After lunch in a cafe in the Esplanade complex with views of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, we walked back to our hotel via the Merlion, Fullerton Hotel and stumbled across Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker outside the Fullerton Bay Hotel. Turns out Rodin encouraged wide distribution of his art, authorising 23 copies of his work in marble and in bronze during his life and sanctioning the Rodin Museum to create posthumous editions (55 have so far been created). So there are many versions of The Thinker exhibited throughout the world!

Afternoon swim and dinner at Chinatown again, once the sun had gone down.Baca lagi
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sam and bruce same thing happened to us at the Diana Memorial Playground - Kensington Gardens. I was not very happy about that!
26/04/23BalasTerjemah
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Morocco and Portugal 2023 Darren and Janet
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Hari 62
Ahad, 23 April 2023
🌧 31 °C
Altitud: 24 m
Singapura Kampong Kapor 1.307582, 103.8550481°18’27” N 103°51’18” E
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Little India, and away
23 April 2023, Singapura ⋅ 🌧 31 °C
Another early morning, this time for a quick visit to Little India before we check out and fly home.

Little India is the meeting point of the local Indian community. It is a snapshot of the sights, sounds and smells of the culture, and was particularly busy around the shrine this morning. Of course our main activity was caching, so we visited the popular (and some less popular) areas of the city within a city.

We caught the train to the airport early afternoon in readiness for our overnight flight home.

Cache count for the trip: 627Baca lagi
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PengembaraThat's about 10 caches a day! You've had an amazing holiday, look forward to pics of your next adventures 😀
23/04/23BalasTerjemah
Darren and JanetYes, we had some lean days in Morocco with only 1, but had some 20+ days in Portugal and Germany to make up for it. Thanks - and yours of Japan first!
23/04/23BalasTerjemah
sam and brucethanks for sharing so many amazing pics! welcome home to the beautiful blue skies of Australia
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Darren and Janet😘
26/04/23Balas
Pengembara I have seen this many years ago and it still stays with me for some reason :) Did you like it?
3/05/23BalasTerjemah
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Tamat perjalanan
24 April 2023