Brett and Karen Annual Letter for 2024

Hi All,

Welcome to our annual letter for 2024!

As usual, if you want to find out what we are doing more than once a year, you can visit our Facebook pages by clicking Karen's Facebook page and Brett's Facebook page. You can also see a whole lot more of our photos of bushwalks and trips on my Flickr page - which now has over 84,000 images on display.

At the end of last year's letter, we wrote that our planned activities for 2024 included six days of bike riding in March around Orange in NSW, and a ten week trip to Scotland and Iceland, with extended stopovers in Singapore and Dubai. All these things went ahead - plus lots more - see the details below!

Click / touch the thumbnails below for larger images then click / touch them again to make them small again.


Orange 360

In late March we joined a group of friends for a week of cycling and walking around Orange. The scenery wasn't as spectacular as that of Scotland and Iceland later in the year, but the exercise (about 60 kilometres per day), weather and company was excellent!

See 60 more photos and two videos in Brett's Orange 360 Flickr album.


Ettrema Tops Firetrail ride and the death of Brett's mountain bike

On the last day of March we joined friends Joe and Steve for a hard day of mountain-biking in the western Shoalhaven. The track varied from rough firetrail to almost no track at all and included rock platforms and bogs - great fun. After a couple of previous mishaps with sticks and Brett's derailleur - which had been bent back into place both times and had amazingly still worked - the derailleur finally gave up the ghost two kilometres from the end of the ride when yet another stick forced it into the spokes.

After putting the bike in for repair, it was noticed that the frame was cracked as well - but luckily this was still under warranty after almost 5 years and was replaced by bikesonline.com.au - the best after-sale service Brett has ever received from any company ever!

See 11 more photos and six videos in Brett's Ettrema Tops Bike Ride Flickr album.


Singapore, Dubai, Scotland, Iceland, and the Lakes District in England

In late May we left Australia for ten weeks of overseas travel, mainly in Scotland and Iceland but with a couple of days in Singapore and Dubai on the way over, a week in the Lakes District after Scotland and Iceland, and another couple of days in Dubai on the way back. We were on our own for most of it, but joined friends John and Gill for the month in Iceland. The entire trip was amazing! We got back to Australia in early August.


Singapore
Great city / country! We did the usual tourist things, and got around easily by walking or using the excellent public transport system. We also climbed the highest mountain in the country - Bukit Timah - all 164 metres of it! We also went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands building (it looks like a boat) which is almost 30 metres higher than the highest mountain!

See 134 more photos in Brett's Singapore Flickr album.

Dubai
Dubai is excessive! It shows what can be done with an unlimited supply of money and very little taste. An indoor ski-park with man-made snow and outside temperatures above 40 degrees - really!?

See 57 more photos and 12 videos in Brett's Dubai Flickr album.

Scotland
We flew into Glasgow, picked up a hire car, and headed for the highlands and a loop around the country the next morning. Amazing scenery and walking, horrible roads, incredible history, a family connection for Karen (Stewart), and a climb of the highest mountain in Great Britain - Ben Nevis (1345 metres)!

Other highlights included the Glenfinnan Viaduct and train made famous by the Harry Potter films, Eilean Donan Castle, walking on the Isle of Skye, climbing Lochnagar and Schiehallion (mountains), the battlefield at Culloden, St Andrews golf course, the Falkirk Wheel, the city of Edinburgh and the Scottish Owl Centre!

See 1231 more photos and 99 videos in Brett's Scotland Flickr album.

Iceland
After meeting up with friends John and Gill at the Keflavik Airport, we bussed into the capital of Reykjavik and spent a day looking around the town. We then did the famous 6 day Laugevegur trek - which was superb - and hired a car for a four week lap of sightseeing and walking around the entire country. We added another multi-day hike in Iceland's north (Hornstrandir) near the end of the month.

Too many highlights to mention individually, but the waterfalls, glaciers and thermal activity were stand-outs!

Thanks to Gill for researching and organising everything to do with Iceland - accommodation, tours, car hire, the works! It all worked out perfectly!

The Laugevegur Trek

See 526 more photos and 30 videos in Brett's Laugevegur Trek Flickr album.

The lap around Iceland

See 1290 more photos and 180 videos in Brett's Iceland Flickr album.

Hornstrandir
After a potentially fatal boat trip in a very rough Arctic Ocean we were rubber-duckied to the northern shore of Iceland to walk in rain and mist along the coast to a wet camping site. Next day was a walk over an icy pass in a white-out followed by a scenic descent into sunlight and a short boat trip to an isolated farmhouse for another couple of short day walks. Arctic Foxes were a highlight!

See 164 more photos and 13 videos in Brett's Hornstrandir Flickr album.

The Lakes District in England
We hired a car in Glasgow and drove down to stay at the Elterwater Hostel. Although it's called the Lakes District, it still has more than its share of hills. Dry stone walls were everywhere, often limiting the width of the horrifically narrow roads. Highlights included Grasmere (lake), the Langdale Pikes and Stickle Tarn, and Cathedral Cave - an abandoned slate mine.

See 96 more photos and 6 videos in Brett's Lakes District Flickr album.


Uepi
Four weeks after getting back from Scotland and Iceland, Karen headed overseas again, this time with a group of friends for a snorkelling trip to Uepi Island - one of the Solomon Islands. Brett stayed home because he is not a great fan of snorkelling - and he did not want to miss the first week of the AFL finals!


Northern NSW Birding
For a couple of months after coming back from overseas Brett didn't do a lot except for processing all the photos and videos from the trip, but in mid October we drove to northern NSW to do some birding with friends. We birded around the Warrumbungles, the Pillaga, Bingara, Narrabri and Mt Kaputar.

See about 100 more photos and 3 videos in Brett's Bird Trip Flickr album,
and about 125 more photos in Brett's Bird Trip Bird Photos Flickr album.


Tenterfield Cycling and Walking
Immediately after the birding trip we travelled to Tenterfield to meet up with another group of friends for a couple of weeks of cycling, and walking in the Girraween and Bald Rock National Parks. Our accommodation was a lovely rural property just outside the town. We finished the trip off with 4 nights at the relatively unknown Kwiambal NP.

See 265 more photos and 17 videos in Brett's Tenterfield Cycling Flickr album.


Shoalhaven Bushwalkers (SBW)

The SBW committee continued to ignore the club's constitution in 2024, and made even poorer decisions than in the previous year - a bit hard to believe after their previously lousy track record! Brett remains in the club only for Karen's sake, and would have resigned this year despite being a Life Member who doesn't have to pay for membership!

Brett now only walks with the club as a support when Karen leads walks, though Karen still attends other walks in addition to those she leads. She participated in a multi-day track maintenance exercise in the Budawangs in May that included helicopter rides in and out (see photo below).



Other Stuff

Karen still swims three or four times a week, and during Winter she still competes in Sunday races with the Wobbegongs Winter Swimming Club at Huskisson. Karen is still riding her mountain bike with the Shoalhaven Bicycle Users Group (BUG) on Thursday mornings, but is increasingly contemplating moving to an electric bike soon as she is often the slowest rider. Karen is still on the BLS committee as Treasurer as well. Brett is still the BLS e-magazine editor, and he is still on the committee of the BBCC, managing their website and Facebook page. He is also still golfing once a week, with his handicap hovering around 9 or 10.

We still feed our resident Magpie pair - Ricky and Lucy - who have been with us for over ten years now! After a number of unsuccessful years breeding-wise, they finally had a baby this year! We named her "Knock-knees".


Health

Apart from lots of extra beats, Brett's heart doesn't cause him any real problems. He might have an operation on it in the next year or two as it is potentially affecting his circulation and he is already on blood thinners. He visited an eye specialist this year due to increased ocular pressure in the right eye, but laser surgery (on the spot) has apparently fixed this problem (supposedly for a few years). He had a few skin cancer excisions on his right leg in November which kept him off his feet for a few weeks, but was soon back to his normal walking, bike riding and golf.

Karen remains reasonably fit and well.


Plans for 2024

Assuming Brett and Karen both remain above ground, we don't have a lot planned for 2025, apart from a trip to the Victorian High Country. The year is young of course, so Karen has plenty of time left to fill our calendar!

As always, Karen and I hope you had a great 2024, and we hope you will have an even better 2025!

Cheers,

Brett and Karen

P.S. Our revious annual letters can be viewed by clicking the following links - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.