Streets of Lisbon

The recent crash of a funicular tram in Lisbon made me look back on my holiday in Portugal earlier this year and wonder if I travelled on this very tram. 

Portugal is in mourning after 16 people were killed and 21 injured when a funicular railway car derailed and crashed on the streets of Lisbon. Witnesses told local media the car appeared out of control as it sped downhill shortly after 6pm during evening rush hour on Wednesday. (Guardian 4 Sept). 

 The Glória system is made up of two streetcars running in parallel and hauled by steel cables: so as one descends, its weight pulls the other uphill. Witnesses told local media that they saw one of the streetcars careening down the hill, before crashing into a building where the road bends. (Guardian 4 Sept). 

 NB There are many other tram lines, with their bright yellow cars, plying the streets of Lisbon, apart from the 3 funicular lines. One of the most popular is Tram 28, which I’ve definitely travelled on. These lines go along roads that are not so steep as the funicular trams. It’s possible to download an audio guide to this route, and keep it on your phone, which I didn’t realise at the time I was in Lisbon. As I watched the coverage of the accident on the TV news, I tried to recognise some of the places but the clips were too short. Nevertheless, I was transported back to my holiday and wondered if I'd had a lucky escape, although by 6.00 pm I would normally be back in my hostel, resting after a day's sightseeing. 

This is what I wrote on my blog at the time:

http://caminoconfidential.blogspot.com/2025/03/trams.html

                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

This prompted me to look for my DVD Night Train to Lisbon. I had watched it some years ago, before I went to Portugal, but seeing it again was a reminder of how little the narrow cobbled streets of Lisbon have changed over the years. It was worth seeing it again:

Dog Sitting

 I think I need a holiday! I've been looking after Rocky for a week while C and E are on a trip to Vanuatu. This is not an easy task, believe me! Rocky has his routine, about which I've been left detailed instructions. The worst thing is the early morning walk (and we've had some very cold temperatures). I set off, armed with a couple of poo bags, and carefully avoid any encounters with other dogs, especially little yappy ones. Back home for breakfast: 160 g of dried dogfood for Rocky and a Carmans porridge sachet for me. After that, I'm off the hook for a while and can go out shopping or go back to my own apartment. Big dogs are not allowed at Burswood.

If it's a nice day, we can sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, reading a book or snapping at flies. Rocky has another walk at 4.30 pm before insisting on his dinner at 5.00 pm. sharp. When I'm in the kitchen cooking my own dinner, Rocky follows me closely in case there are any tasty scraps coming his way. When I sit down to eat, his big eyes are on me as if to say: is there anything else for me? But he has to watch his weight, doesn't he? Greyhounds are slender creatures, built to run.

The best part is the evening spent sitting on the sofa, watching TV or the flickering flames on the gas fire. He dozes off whilst I do my crochet. Just before bedtime, Rocky goes into the garden for a quick pee. At night, we fight over space on the double bed. I think he knows there is an electric blanket on my side. Sometimes he is a bit restless, changing position or breathing heavily. Last night was very stormy and the gale blew the back door open, which alarmed us both.

Sunbathing in the garden

A walk in the park

Spring is here in the park

Trapped in the car by a sudden heavy downpour

Let's hope all this rain makes the politicians realise that the development of Burswood Park is a non-starter!

A Bit of the Bibbulmun

 It was a beautiful day: warm and sunny and a joy to be out bushwalking, after all the cold wet weather we've been having in Perth. I think it's been the coldest month on record. The plan for the bushwalking group was to meet at the Camel Farm, walk to Hewett's Hill Campsite on the Bibbulmun Track and back again. The walk was timed to make the most of the start of the prime wildflower season and it didn't disappoint. 

At the start, I was surprised and saddened to find that the Camel Farm no longer existed. I had been planning to buy some produce (i.e. some lovely face cream and body lotion made from camel's milk). There is now a tea shop there, the Trails Hub Cafe,  and the woman in charge told me that the owner of the Camel Farm had passed away after a heart attack, the camels are now living in Gidgeganup and the creams and lotions are available at various outlets in Perth and online under the name of DromeDairy.

The main activity seemed to be mountain bike riding. The carpark was full of cars with bike attachments on the rear or on the roof.

Lutz made friends with a tame parrot belonging to the tea room:

When everyone was gathered, we set off on our walk through the woods:

We had morning tea at Hewett's Hut, where the other Margaret pretended to be enjoying the facilities inside:

These Bibbulmun Huts are all built to the same design, with a few bunk beds, completely open at the front and with a separate toilet out the back and a BBQ area to one side.

My attempt at photographing the wildflowers was pretty abysmal, but here are a few examples:

It was hard to focus on the flower as opposed to the background. Must do better next time!

Carnarvon to Nanutarra Roadhouse

The days are getting hotter, though it was a cold start from Carnarvon as I enjoyed my complimentary continental breakfast at the Hospitality Inn. Lots of people had raided the buffet before me at 7.45 am.

On the road again, I drove through the banana growing fields on the way out of town. I didn’t need to buy any, as I’m still eating the ones I bought in Perth before I set off on my trip. (These small Carnarvon bananas are the best!)

I stopped for coffee at Minilya, where a woman was intrigued that I was travelling alone. She and her husband were from Wickham, near Point Samson, and they were on their way for a medical checkup and scans in Perth: the perils of living in the regions.

At Nanutarra, I was all prepared for a night sleeping in my car as I had no accommodation booked. But when I found there was a nice cabin available I couldn’t refuse it.

View from my cabin.

A beautiful tree just opposite. There was a bird singing, but he escaped.

Just before sunset, I walked across the old bridge over the Ashburton River:

There was still some water in it, unlike many of the rivers I had crossed today. I had a chat with a young indigenous couple, who were from Karratha and currently working on a restoration project of the Nanutarra Homestead.

At the roadhouse, all these road trains were queuing for fuel, or maybe for a hot meal service at 6.00 pm.

--------------- ???? -------------

No idea where this came from!  It's a post from my road trip to Broome, earlier this year, which seemed to have gone missing when I wrote it originally on my way up north.

Return to Kings Park

 It's that time of year again, when the Bushwalkers return to Kings Park for the start of the wildflower season. The weather opened a window of sunshine for us. Val was in charge and had planned a walk through lesser known tracks, impossible for me to follow later, even if I wanted to:

Val gave a little introduction near the Women's Memorial Carpark:

There were plenty of wildflowers out, with a promise to be more in the next few weeks:

We stopped for an early lunch near the Zamia Cafe. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jack appeared. He had got the dates wrong and gone to the Camel Farm, which is our next walk in two weeks. That's the kind of mistake I would make. It gave us all a good laugh. He had been chasing around Kings Park looking for us!

Gathering of Vietnam Veterans

Birdflowers near the cafe

Qualup Bells

The last two pics represent flowers from both the north and south of the state. I last saw the bird flowers up near Port Hedland and the Qualup Bells down near Albany. It's amazing that they both grow well here in Kings Park.

Birthday!

My friend Val and her daughter Rachel celebrated their joint birthday this week with a select gathering at Pinelli Wine Estate in the Swan Valley.

The meal was delicious.  Have a look at the menu:

I chose the beef fillet. It was extremely rare. I had to send it back to the kitchen to get it cooked a bit more.

This was the generous selection of starters to share:

Then it was time for blowing out the candles:

                                                                            Cheers!

Before driving home, I had a walk around the vineyard (primarily to allow the glasses of Prosecco to disperse):

Saving Burswood Park

Our community action group has been working hard.  Many residents have posted this placard on their balcony:

 I've been busy sending off a few emails to politicians, but who knows if they actually read them. This is my latest, sent to Daniel Pastorelli:

As a new Labour MP, you have to toe the party line. I understand that. However, I think you have been handed a poison chalice as the Project Steering Committee Chair.

The Cook Government has vastly underestimated the amount of opposition to the development of Burswood Park. There are so many of us who want to see the project scrapped.

Even if we can’t actually prevent it happening, we can delay and delay it, so that it will not be completed on time.

Nor will it be on budget - nowhere near!  My apartment overlooks the park. At present it is virtually underwater after all the recent rain. The water birds love it!  But money is literally going down the drain, as testing of the ground proceeds. I watch heavy machinery coming and going and wonder what all this will cost.

Please reconsider! If you would like to come and have a cup of tea in my apartment and look at the scheme from my point of view, I’d love to see you here.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of action on the site. Main Roads Dept have been sending down bores:

In our community newsletter, Sue Quinn summed up the situation:

Cold, Wet and Windy

I know it is winter, but to me it’s the worst one in living memory here in Perth. The early mornings have been incredibly cold and the days full of downpours of heavy rain. It’s been hard to find a space between the showers to take my usual walk down to the river. I can’t believe how much rain has fallen and the pools on the old golf course in front of me never seem to drain away:

I’ve been watching a series on TV entitled Families Like Ours. All this water reminds me of it. The story is based on the premise that rising sea levels have caused the evacuation of the entire country of Denmark. The Danes have become unwanted refugees as borders are closed against them. It’s really quite scary. I can’t watch it late at night. What if the Swan River were to rise, flood the area around here and leave our apartment blocks marooned? 

Back to reality, and the beautiful coral trees are all in flower:

These trees are environmental weeds in the Eastern States, but not here in W.A.

Never apologise, never explain

"Never apologize, never explain" is a motto associated with a communication style of not offering explanations or apologies for actions or statements.

• Assertion of Authority:

  The phrase suggests an unwillingness to be accountable or to justify one's actions, often implying a position of power. 
• Rejection of Public Scrutiny:

  It can be seen as a way to avoid public debate or criticism, potentially by those in positions where their actions are not subject to the same level of public scrutiny.

All I know is that I was sick as a dog after eating breakfast and drinking coffee last week at the Ocean Centre Hotel. The poached eggs were perfect. It could only have been the coffee. There are plenty of videos on the internet showing how to clean an espresso machine. It is quite a lengthy process and I suspect they were in the middle of it when I ordered a coffee. They should have said: “I’m sorry, the coffee machine is closed now. Would you like a cup of tea instead?”

I would have liked an apology, not just a flat denial of responsibility. I realise now that will never happen. It could result in someone losing their job, or a visit from the Public Health Authority or even the restaurant being closed down. It is a serious matter to poison someone (see the case of the Mushroom Murderer). I was lucky not to end up in hospital, but I still feel shaken by the whole episode.

Geraldton to Perth

The last leg of my journey involved a “bump in the road” which caused an unscheduled overnight stop at Western Flora Caravan Park. It was a pretty awful end to my holiday!

As usual, I spent the night at Ocean Centre Hotel in Geraldton. Next morning the drama began. This email to the Hotel Manager describes events:

I have stayed many times at the Ocean Centre Hotel when driving on a road trip up north.
I always enjoyed a very good experience until this week.

I stayed with on you 30th June, departing next day.

When I went down for breakfast at exactly 8.54 am., there was a notice “Breakfast Closed”. I was surprised and checked the time again. Breakfast was supposed to end at 9.am. Why so early?  Then I realised that the times 6.00 to 9.00 reflected the convenience of tradies, not leisure travellers like myself (and I had noticed a lot of tradies checking in).

With some reluctance, the woman agreed to serve me. I had two delicious poached eggs, with grilled tomatoes and a coffee which tasted a bit “off”, but I drank it.

Two hours later, on my way south, I started to vomit - followed by bouts of diarrhoea. My conclusion is that I had been drinking some cleansing material from the coffee machine.

Well, I had to find somewhere to stay. I was close to Western Flora Caravan Park and they let me have a donga. It was a little way from the toilet block, which I had to visit many times during the night, in the dark and in the rain. It was a terrible experience for the last night of my road trip to Broome and back.

I am writing this, to give you a chance to compensate me for the whole experience - and possibly for you to reconsider your alignment to tradies’ hours.

This is what I received in reply:

Thank you for the email and a chance to review some things,

Firstly our breakfast closure, at times depend on supply and demand, if the kitchen hasn’t served anyone for 15 minutes or more after 8.30 then the chef may decide ok well no one else is coming so we start to close up shop to move onto other jobs within the hotel, it’s a very rare occurrence that we have someone come in so close to the time of closure. I am please the staff were able to accommodate your request none the less. I was the one holding the baby and I remember the flat white that was made, I can assure you I was the one to clean the coffee machine down and use the chemical when the machine was closed after my arrival that day. Had your coffee not tasted right perhaps making the staff aware of it at the time would have been beneficial to you and us.

Yes we are a corporate hotel, so our opening times reflect this, 6.30 am-9weekdays and weekends 7.30-10 as this is the most times we have leisurely guests. Our opening ours haven’t changed so on your previous stays have you been in attendance at the restaurant for breakfast?

I cannot answer to what went wrong for you to feel the way you did none the less I will action a $50 refund to you to cover your breakfast charge 
Regards

Jodina Eliassen

When I finally got home, I went down to my local coffee shop and talked to the boss to find out how coffee machines are cleaned. This is what he told me:

1) Clean the machine by sending through the chemical.

2) Wash out the machine twice with water in order to get rid of any chemical residue.

3) Make a normal coffee and throw it away, before using the machine again.

This is the chemical cleanser used.

This warning appears on the Cafetto website:

Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal irritation, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Harmful if swallowed.

(Taken from:

Safety precaution instructions issued by Cafetto Espresso Clean).

I'm waiting for a response from the hotel......

Carnarvon to Geraldton

Slowly winding down on my trip. I’ve driven these roads many times before. After all those days of blue skies, Geraldton is very cloudy, so no more photos except for food! I enjoyed a delicious dinner at Skeetas:

On the menu: crab linguine followed by bread and butter pudding. Naughty but nice!

Onslow to Carnarvon

Delicious laksa last night in Onslow.

On the road again, Nanutarra was buzzing as usual:

At the Gateway Motel in Carnarvon, another buffet was on offer. Tonight it was Sunday Roast, with lashings of lamb, beef and pork including the crackling:

Impossible to resist, especially the crackling!

Point Samson to Onslow

It was another crisp, sunny morning as I left Port Samson:

This is the view across to my chalet, behind the white 4WD:


It was spacious and quiet, except for when the wind got up in the night and a tree branch scraped on the timtin roof.

It was a long straight road south, with yellow spinifex on both sides and the occasional row of hills;

After checking in at Onslow, I had a siesta before going out to explore along the waterfront.

Taking a photo of the Paparazzi Dogs:




Further along is the war memorial, with soldiers hats on a bench:

Onslow was the place where JL and his son developed a solar salt field. There are several others along this coast, but I believe this was the first one:

I could see the mountains of salt in the distance:


Salt is taken along a conveyor belt and a jetty, where it is loaded onto barges.

It was a lovely evening as I walked back, past the busy caravan site, where people were having little get togethers over drinks.

Looking out to sea: