"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." RLS
When disaster strikes small communities like that on Maré, where everyone knows everyone, are particularly badly hit.
This memorial, by the harbour at the small port of Tadine, is to the 126 passengers and crew who lost their lives on the night of July 31st, 1953 when La Monique, a small passenger/cargo boat, disappeared on a routine 140 kms trip across the reef strewn seas between Tadine and Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia. Continue reading “La Monique Memorial – Tragedy In Paradise”
En route to Ydejele Beach (separate review) I noticed a rather colourful grave set amongst palms and pines, with the turquoise waters of the South Pacific providing a beautiful backdrop. On the return trip to our cruise ship the bus slowed down sufficiently to afford me a better look and the chance to take a photograph. Continue reading “Yeiwene Yeiwene’s Grave”
If the title of this review conjures up visions of hotels, restaurants, bars, boutiques and nightclubs along the beach-front – visions of Copacabana, Ipanema and Bondi – then you may be disappointed with Yedjélé Beach. One the other hand, if like me, these visions put you off and you are after something altogether more simple (indeed at the other end of the spectrum) then shopping at Yedjélé Beach may be for you. Continue reading “Shopping At Yedjele Beach”
Maré, one of the four Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia, is one of the least developed places in the country but what it lacks in facilities it more than makes up for in beauty. Also, most importantly perhaps, the beer here is half the price it was at our other cruise stops in New Caledonia! Continue reading “Yedjele Beach – Paradise Even On A Dull Day”
For me, Maré was a stop on a short South Pacific cruise. A number of operators, including Carnival (the one which I travelled on) and P&O, offer cruises stopping at Maré and this is the way the vast majority of visitors get to and from the island. Continue reading “Maré – Getting There And Getting Around”
Maré is a small raised coral atoll, one of the four Loyalty group islands and part of the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, in the South Pacific.
Until the mid 2000s very few people visited Maré. In the mid 2000s cruise ship companies came across the island and it is now a regular stop on South Pacific cruises, particularly those originating in Australia. Continue reading “Maré – New Caledonia’s Hidden Gem”
When most people think of ancient history they think in terms of thousands of years ago. Not so in China where the National Museum of China has decreed that Ancient China ended in 1840 with the onset of the First Opium War. Thankfully, otherwise I and, I suspect, many of my readers would be deemed products of the dark ages or, at best, the middle ages, China moves directly from Ancient China to the Modern Age. Continue reading “A New Dawn – China sees Red”
The Soviet style (and designed) Great Hall of the People lies to the west of Tiananmen Square. Given the sheer size the square the buildings in and around it look much smaller than they actually are. Make no mistake, this building is huge, covering an area of 150,000sqm. Believe it or not, the twelve light-gray marble colonnades on the front of the building are each two metres in diameter and twenty-five metres high. Continue reading “The Great Hall of the People”
The massive building flanking a major part of the eastern side of Tiananmen Square is the National Museum of China – the largest museum in the world, based on an area of around 200,000 square metres. Continue reading “National Museum of China”
This rather ornate brass marker – China’s Ground Zero – marks the beginning of China’s highways or the point in Beijing from which all distances by road in China are measured. One might imagine that such a marker might in itself have some age – no, not at all, it was set into the ground in 2006. Continue reading “China’s Zero Point”
The Rambling Wombat 