August

Swiss National day and Duncan spent the day still working trying to restore all our digital Photos, he did a fantastic job, but it took him well over a week to do it.  Michelle flew out to Australia on the 6th, unfortunately Duncan had to stay home in Switzerland working.  She was able to stay at Jenny's place, she really enjoyed having cats to spoil. The next day Michelle went to Fremantle to meet Dan after his morning classes. They had fish and chips at Ciserellos just for old time sake. It was nice to see where Dan studies at the Notre Dame University we used their computers  to plan their 4 day trip round the southwest.  The drive down to Pemberton on the Friday was very wet, but every time we go out of the car to see or do something it stopped raining.  It was cold at night about 1C but the day time temperatures ok.  The trees down this way are huge, we were going to climb Diamond tree, but the ladder up to the top of the look out was very slippery. Saturday we did the Valley of the Giants and the Treetop walk at Walpole, a suspended walkway through the forest about 40m up in the air. The scenery was fantastic once Michelle stopped looking down. We Continued on to Augusta, but not the shortest route as a wrong turn involved a 60km detour. We arrived at dusk so settled into a pub next to the fireplace for a pleasant evening.  Sunday was exercise day, we started the morning with a tour of the Cape Leewin lighthouse (all 11 stories) the Lighthouse keeper who did the tour was a really interesting and told story after story, we could have listened for hours. Next stop was the Lake cave with 14 flights of stairs, again an amazing tour guide and fantastic things to see. The continued our way up to Busselton stopping at lots of places on route, including Canal Rocks Dunsborough, Hamelton Bay and Cape Naturaliste lighthouse . We watched and amazing sunset at the lighthouse, because we were there so late, we even saw a Kangaroo in the wild. Monday morning  was the 140-year-old Busselton Jetty, measured at 1841 metres, and is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the southern hemisphere. We hopped our way up the coast and back to Perth, Dan had classes the following day so couldn't be too late getting back. Michelle cat and House Sat for Jenny whilst she was in Melbourne visiting her Mum. Michelle took the opportunity to catch up with some old friends, She surprised Kylie by just turning up on the doorstep unannounced, then got lucky with the Phone book and found Amanda on her first try. She had lunch and a pleasant afternoon in South Perth with Jacqui and Tess, and a lovely day with Gisella and Peter.  Then she visited her Auntys and Uncles living in Perth. Duncan was up to something really interesting back home. He walked up to a glacier in Valais to be a part of the Spencer Tunick and Greenpeace event. He was one of over 600 people who posed naked on the glacier to raise awareness about global warming. The Photos are really amazing, he said the atmosphere amongst the people taking part was really special. It was a very long day, as he left home before 6am and didn't get home again till later at night, but from what he has told well worth the effort. Dan and Michelle did a great tasting day through the swan valley including tastings at 3 wineries, 2 breweries, a chocolate and a cheese tasting, the day should have also included ice cream and nougat but they were closed. Michelle went up to visit Aunty Glen and Uncle Ray, plus the kids and grandkids. Its amazing to meet a whole new generation. The last weekend in Australia was really busy, with Michelle joining Jenny for a cycle ride then followed by an amazing vegetarian cooking class, followed by a big family get together. Sunday was spent in luxury up at the Revolving restaurant for lunch followed by a fantastic Circus evening. Monday was spent packing and a leisurely day at various beaches before a nice last evening meal of Thai Takeaway with Jenny and Dan. The flight home was uneventful. Duncan surprised Michelle by meeting her at the airport.

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July

This month has been rather busy again. We finally dusted off the motorbikes for our first tour of the season. We did a fantastic day trip going over the Schallenberg (a small pass that is a favourite amongst those on motorbikes and crazy cyclists) Then along the north side of Lake Thun. It was unusual to be riding to up on Duncan's motorbike but we wanted to see how Michelle's knee would hold up.  The weather has been very mixed so we took the opportunity on the 15th to go up the Rothorn Mountain. The views from up there were fantastic you could see from the Emmental to the mountains , looking down on lake Brienz and Interlaken.  There was a sky show on in Interlaken so we where able to look down on the plane acrobatics. On the Sunday we did another short tour over the Moosegg on two bikes. The middle of July is Duncan's Birthday, we celebrated with a nice dinner. Michelle managed to surprise him with a voucher to hire a Goldwing for a weekend. It is the Motorbike Duncan has always dreamed of.  The last weekend saw us off on a 2 day Motorbike tour. On the Saturday we did from Thun along the North side of the lake, up through the Justiztal down to Interlaken over the Brunig pass, the Panoramastrasse with lots of hair pin turns then through the Emmental for a late but well earned lunch. Poor Duncan had to work quite hard on the hairpins whilst Michelle enjoyed the very comfortable armchair they call the passenger seat.  It is certainly a different sort of Motor biking. It is a sofa on wheels with a great sound system The evening Duncan studied the Manual that came with the bike, or should we say encyclopaedia. Sunday morning saw him installing the MP3 player. Then we headed of in a different direction, towards the Jura this time on two bikes. There are some great tours in this region, but we don't go there much we're not really sure why maybe because it is French speaking. We headed off with cloudy skies, but it never actually rained, it just threatened to. We started the tour near Solothurn going over the Weissstein, this is a lovely curvy mountain. The road keeps on crossing under the chair lift that goes to the top. Then we headed of to Moutier then down to lake Biel, because the weather further west looked dodgy. The we cut cross country through the Seeland area, a surprisingly flat part of Switzerland. We went over the Leug in the Emmental before returning the bike to Thun. It was sad that the weekend was over but it was a fun 482 kms. If you add the trip to and from Thun on our own bikes then we did over 550km in two days. Duncan said the seat on the Gold wing is much more comfortable than on his bike, and that it didn't really feel like we had travelled this far.  Disaster stuck at the end of the month, we wanted to update the webpage and discovered the hard disk with all our digital photos had broken. It took Duncan several days of hard work to restore all the data. Thank goodness he knows about such things. Michelle was back at the Orthopaedic surgeon for the next check up, he is very pleased with her progress with her knee. She is now cycling for 1 hour at a time and is in the weight room twice a week, she also has to do lots of balance exercises, all good practice for skiing. There was bad news on the hip pain though, she has torn the edge of the hip socket, so will need surgery to fix it. She is now waiting for an appointment with a specialist. Looks like with the time scales here that it probably wont happen until after the ski season.

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June

We had been really looking forward to Petra's visit. Although it was cut bit short we had a great evening.  We are hoping next time that she can stay a bit longer, but she was on her way to a course in Italy.  Olav came as well so we had an evening of making Crepes on the table after a short walk through Lützelflüh.  The middle of June saw us buying some touring skis, second hand but with all the accessories and in good condition, we have already discussed with Alexandra possible early tours for October or November.  We have seen quite a lot of Alexandra lately, she is keeping Michelle supplied with books. We spent the weekend  after that following Le Mans 24 Hour endurance car race on the radio, it was disappointing that no one had in televised. The Radio is good but it is not the same, an definitely not as good as being there, as in 2005. Midsummer day has come and gone so winter is on its way again.

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