DETOUR!

Australia has been on our LIST for some time, and our traveling companions The Runyans are ready to go! The Bighorn does not fly nor does it float; it will stay in southern California. After an unbelievable amount of planning, we are ready to leave on Thanksgiving Day. We'll be gone until Christmas. It is so exciting!!

First stop Sydney, Australia. After +/-18 hours in an airplane, one is fairly sure that home is VERY far away! We picked up our "drive on the wrong side car", and away we went 150 miles south to a small town on Bateman's Bay. Al drove; my job was to say "stay on the left"--repeatedly! The Jacaranda Trees were in full purple bloom! The Runyans arrived in Bateman's Bay the next day having safely navigated the left-hand drive.

Kangaroos were a highlight of our visit...both on the hoof and on the plate(for Al and Jim.) Koala Bears and exotic birds--Cockatoos, assorted parrots, parakeets and various others birds and little animals we struggled to identify were plentiful.

We drove (almost always remembering to stay on the left)a lot on some interesting narrow, winding roads but really saw only a small fraction of the country. It is a big place. A week doesn't even make a dent.

Jim and Al visited a local sawmill and found little of the wood they could identify, along with rather obsolete operations. Many varieties of Eucalyptus and Banksia are common. I bought a beautiful cutting board made from Camphor Laurel--smells wonderful!

Some trivia: Australia is home to many, many snakes--all venomous!
Delicious cappuccino is available everywhere...even at McDonalds.
Kangaroos are so cute, but a nuisance.
Crumpets take up an entire half aisle in the grocery store.
Driving on the left through a round-a-bout takes a lot of concentration.
Americans have no immunity to Koala bear germs...apparently.
We still don't know what a Wombat is...but, something climbed out of a tree by our patio early one morning and scared the daylights out of Bev.
The Metric System makes good sense, but not to us.
The Southern Hemisphere night sky...is not the same. Jim searched tirelessly for the Southern Cross and found it!

It's time to get back to Sydney to board a ship for New Zealand!