Perth

Not doing very well at keeping this up to date, are we? This is partly because of shaky Internet connections, and partly remembering to do it.

Think we left you, gentle reader, in Sydney - here's a quick summary of the week or so since then.

We flew to Perth - 34 degrees, most of the time - which by my calculations is about 40 degrees hotter than the UK at the same time. This seemed unpleasant, although it's nothing compared to the current 85 degrees in Borneo, because here the humidity is so much worse.

We stayed 5 nights with Sally and Mark - if you're reading this, you two, many thanks once again for your hospitality, and I hope you don't mind this photo being posted on the private blog site, Sally. Never mind "Glossop by Night" - what about Atwell? We were treated to a barbecue, went to the beach, snorkelled on Rottnest Island, caught little crayfish in the lake, and generally relaxed and had a good time. The girls have been allowed to skim over these 5 days in their diaries, so I think we should too.

Then flew to Borneo, via a few hours in Singapore (where Jenny had the natural colour restored to her hair in the airport hairdressers). Got to Borneo where we were the last people leaving the airport - a surreal experience. Someone from the hotel had been waiting 4 hours to meet us, which we weren't expecting (and was a very pleasant surprise).

Have stayed 3 nights so far in the Lembah Impian Country Resort: nice hotel with swimming pool. On the first night there were intermittent power cuts throughout the night, which meant no fan and no air-conditioning ==> unbearable. When this started happening on the second night, we complained and were moved to the main building where there was full power. This happened when Jenny and the girls were fast asleep, so we had to move all our stuff and 3 sleeping girls by the light of this laptop's screen, which was fun!

Borneo is hot and humid, and halfway between the first and third world. We went on a boat trip to a tiny island nature reserve today, and Joanna and I went snorkelling and saw beautiful fish. If this is how Borneans treat their nature reserves, I wouldn't like to see the normal places: litter everywhere.

Jenny had her birthday meal here in the hotel, and the management gave her a cake on the house. Otherwise it's been a quiet birthday, but at least it's a change from Glossop!

Not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but on Monday we get up early to fly to Sepilok to see the orang-utans - expect lots of photos on Tue/Wed!