Welcome from David and Lyn.

The format of our site is in three parts:

1. Blog server - our day-to-day travel blogs (this website)
2. Photo server - some of our key photos
3. YouTube channel - our videos (many linked directly from our blogs)

The site includes hundreds of searchable travel blogs. Some of our longer trips are listed below. 

General travel

• Bridge cams - Princess
• Unofficial Travel Awards
• Equator Crossings
• International Date Line

About

• David
• The Thalassophile (lover of the sea)
• The Musician - Uke resources
• The Presenter
• The Photographer
• The Ham (VK4DCP) - Ham resources
• The Vexillophile (flags)
• Lyn
• Countries visited: #1 to #25 | #26 to #50 | #51 to #75 | #76 to #100 | #101+
• Summary of cruises - Pre COVID-19 / Post COVID-19 

Thank you for visiting our website.

Best regards

David and Lyn
e-mail: brizzy@outlook.com.au

Cruise countdown

2026 New Zealand Cruise - Blog Starting Page

2026 European Odyssey River Cruising - Blog Starting Page

2027 Fiji Cruise - Blog Starting Page

2027 Circle Pacific Cruise - Blog Starting Page

Links to major adventures
2025 Pacific North America Cruise Blog - Apr 2025 to June 2025 Cruise #1 - Sydney to LA Repositioning Cruise #2 - Pacific Wine Country Rocky Mountaineer - Discovery Circle Cruise #3 - Voyage of Glaciers (Northbound) Cruise #4 - Voyage of Glaciers (Southbound)
2024 - World Cruise on the Coral Princess Blog - Apr 2024 to Aug 2024 Photos Segment #1: Sydney to Tangier - 35 Days Segment #2: Tangier to Dover (via Baltic) - 21 Days Segment #3: Dover to New York - 18 Days Segment #4: New York to Brisbane - 38 Days
2020 – Indian Ocean & South Africa Odyssey + Southern Australia Explorer Blog - Jan 2020 to Mar 2020 Photos
2019 - Hawaii, Tahiti and South Pacific cruise on the Sea Princess
Blog - Aug 2019 to Oct 2019 Photos
2018 - World Cruise on the Sea Princess
Blog - Jun 2018 to Sept 2018
Photos Segment #1: Brisbane to Dubai - 19 Days Segment #2: Dubai to London - 30 Days Segment #3: London to New York - 20 Days Segment #4: New York to Brisbane - 37 Days
2017 - Cherry Blossom cruise (a.k.a. China - Japan cruise)
Blog - March 2017 to April 2017 Photos
2016 - World Cruise on the Sea Princess
Blog - May 2016 to Aug 2016
Photos Segment #1: Sydney to Dubai – 20 Days Segment #2: Dubai to London – 35 Days Segment #3: London to New York – 11 Days Segment #4: New York to Sydney – 38 Days Home Leg: Sydney to Brisbane – 2 Days
2015 - Hawaii, Tahiti and South Pacific cruise on the Sun Princess
Blog - Jul. 2015 to Aug. 2015 Photos
2014 - South East Asia on the MV Voyager
Blog - Feb. 2014 to Mar. 2014
Photos Leg #1 Treasures of Asia Leg #2 Colours of the Indian Ocean
2012 - Caribbean cruise on the MV Voyager
Blog (by Lyn) - Nov 2012 to Jan 2013
Photos (by David and Lyn) Leg #1 Voyage to the Caribbean Leg #2 Caribbean Gems Leg #3 A Tapestry of Central America
2011 – Far East cruise on the MV Discovery
Blog (by David) - Dec 2011 to Feb 2012
Photos (by David) Leg #1 Treasures of the Orient and Vietnam Leg #2 Empires of the Sun Leg #3 South East Asia and Australia
2010 - Caribbean cruise on the MV Discovery
Blog (by David) - Nov 2010 to Jan 2011
Photos (by David)  Leg #1 Discovery of the New World Leg #2 Colonial Trails of the Caribbean Leg #3 Tales of the Old Spanish Main
2009 - Grand Voyage of Discovery from Mumbai (India) to London on the MV Discovery
Blog (by David) - Mar 2009 to May 2009
Photos (by David) Leg #1 India and The Persian Gulf Leg #2 Red Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Leg #3 Black Sea, Turkey and Greek Isles Leg #4 European - mainly the Mediterranean

Geelong (moved from Altona) to Altona (Melbourne)
16 November 2025 - 29 November 2025
Scootaville Victoria 2025 offers an opportunity for ex-service personnel to come together, reconnect with the community, to discuss any problems with their peers and to explore and bring attention to regional Victoria. Scootaville will celebrate what it means to be Australian and raise awareness of the hardships that service and ex-service personal face. With the help and generousity of the community and sponsors, Scootaville seeks to raise vital funds for Legacy and the Air Force Association (clink here for donation link) to assist families of lost or injured service members and homeless veterans.

David is joining some fellow ex-ADF men and women who will ride 110cc motor scooters on the round trip from Altona Geelong. Riding almost 1,700 km will take us 14 days and will be a fundraiser for Legacy and the Air Force Association (clink here for donation link). This is a rare opportunity to explore our beautiful country with our peers, overnighting in Benalla, Beechworth, Omeo, Sale, Tootgarook, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, before returning to Altona Geelong on the 29th November.

The ride is presented by the Radschool Association Inc., which is a registered charity formed in 1999 to represent the men and women who were trained by the Air Force to either maintain or operate its electronic equipment. It encourages connection and mateship among its 1,400 plus members through its magazine, website, social media, reunions and special events like Scootaville.

Update:

11 Nov 2025 - Our start and finsist location has been moved from Altona to Geelong due to an unexpected double booking of the Altona Scout Camp. The above map is still the orginal route and is not expected to be updated.

24 Nov 2025 - Another scout hall has been found in Altona for the finish of our trip. We will now be travelling Bendigo to Altona, and Altona to North Melbourne to finish this adventure.

The final distance travelled on the scooter first ridden by David was 1,678km.

All Photos (credit to David, Trev, Mark, John .... and many more)

A promotional video (4:46 mins) was produced by Griffith University about this endeavor:

Reference:

• Past Scootaville blogs:
• Queensland: 02-20 September 2022
• Queensland: 22 August - 10 September 2023
• Queensland: 28 August - 15 September 2024
• NSW: 18 November - 04 December 2024
• Queensland: 22 August - 12 September 2025

How can you help?
We invite you to donate via the Scootaville page: https://radschool.org.au/donate/. Your donation is tax deductible. We greatly appreciate your generosity!

Raising much needed funds for:
  

A few of us went for a drive to drop Mike off at his home in Port Melbourne. We only have 8 people tonight for dinner, an easy choice as the Scout hall is next door to Club Altona.

Post - Altona
Sunday, 30 November 2025
A very quiet morning resting at the Scout hall. This afternoon we meet with Tim Lane, veteran Australian sports broadcaster and journalist, to discuss next year’s Scootaville in Victoria. Lunch and dinner at the Altona RSL.

Post - Altona to North Melbourne 
Monday, 01 December 2025
Returning the scooters into Melbourne, it’s the coldest summer opener in 29 years. Luckily we missed the occasional summer rain during our 16km ride. We arrived at 9am, an hour before opening, so off to have a coffee / hot chocolate and a bite. Kiwi is driving the truck back to Brisbane and was able to get away two hours earlier than planned … safe travels mate. Trev then dropped a few of us at the North Melbourne train station as we all went our separate ways.

The bike David started with has travelled 1,678km during this adventure. 

Photos from Geelong / Slideshow:

Synopsis of Scootaville Victoria 2025
Victoria - a great place to visit. Friendly people, lots to see and do, and great roads (really, compared to Queensland country roads). The weather for the two weeks has not been good and those who went shopping on our first day in Geelong for waterproof gear are very thankful. The saying “four season in a day” is very apt, although we all agree it should change from day to hour.

A very interesting array of old scooters. Of the three David rode during the trip, one had a very poor front brake and broken luggage box, another couldn’t go past 82 km/h (the slowest in the group so was used as the lead bike), and the third with a broken fuel gauge. Other issues on the other bikes included a broken oil drip stick, one faulty wheel security alarm, different braking capabilities across all bikes, and of course the one that stopped and had to be replaced on the first day. Also, all bikes had been dropped at some stage of their life. But we got all six home and all operational … job well done.  

So many people helped make the first Scootaville Victoria a success. First and foremost is Trev who did all the planning, execution and lead the show … it wouldn’t happen without you. Mike who lives in Melbourne also helped with planning and navigation. Trev (again) and Robo for driving the bus. Kiwi for driving and loading the truck, and helping to keep the riders safe on the road. Sue for her support at the venues, especially with food. Mark as chief money raiser with Helen as support. Sean as bike boss. Chuck for his many entertaining stories and jokes. And all the riders looking after each other. Thanks everyone.

Day 13 | 2025 Scootaville Vic | The End

This afternoon we had a tour of Thales manufacturing where the very successful Bushmaster and Hawkei vehicles are built. Very impressive design and engineering. 

It was dinner again at the Bendigo RSL and happy birthday to John … such a hungry man.

Photos from Bendigo / Slideshow:

Bendigo
An Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately 150km north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.

As of 2022, Bendigo has a population of 103,818 making it Australia's 19th-largest city by population. Bendigo is the fourth-largest inland city in Australia and the fourth-most populous city in Victoria.

Bendigo is administered by the City of Greater Bendigo, an area encompasses roughly 3,000km².
Source: Wikipedia

Day 11 | 2025 Scootaville Vic | Day 14

Dinner at the North Ballarat Sports Club.

Day 11 - Ballarat
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
A very cold, windy and wet morning in Mount Rowan. At 9am it was only 9.8^oC and felt like 1.4^oC. We’ll hold off any trips until the weather improves.

A drive this afternoon included stops at The Australian Ex-prisoner Of War Memorial and the Arch of Victory. The Arch of Victory Ballarat is a large commemorative arch built to honor the service of the local community in World War I. It stands at the entrance to the Avenge of Honour, Australia's longest commemorative avenue (22km in length). Officially opened by Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, on June 2, 1920, the arch is a significant landmark and a memorial to the soldiers and nurses from Ballarat who served in the Great War.

David's Great Grandfather was surprisingly not on the rememberence wall having joined 8th Battalion in Ballarat and died after his return due to the effects of mustard gas. His Great Grandmother receiver the Memerial Plaque (aka Dead Man's Penny), all documented in military files available from the Australian War Memorial (he's not on the AWM wall either as he died more than 6 months after returning). So much for service!

Dinner again at the North Ballarat Sports Club.

Photos from Ballarat / Slideshow:

Ballarat
A city in the Central Highlands of Victoria. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria.

Within months of Victoria separating from the colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold was discovered near Ballarat, sparking the Victorian gold rush. Ballarat subsequently became a thriving boomtown that for a time rivalled Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, in terms of wealth and cultural influence. In 1854, following a period of civil disobedience in Ballarat over gold licenses, local miners launched an armed uprising against government forces. Known as the Eureka Rebellion, it led to the introduction of white male suffrage in Australia, and as such is interpreted as the origin of Australian democracy. The rebellion's symbol, the Eureka Flag, has become a national symbol.
Source: Wikipedia

Day 9 | 2025 Scootaville Vic | Day 12