This is just to let everyone know that - yes, we are still alive. We are still in Oz. Sydney this am having driven in from Katoomba in the Blue Mountains this morning. Wierd and wonderful place katoomba - a bit like Hastings - tatty, obviously seen better days but now full of arty types, bohemians and such - so great cafes, sumptuous desserts, live music on the streets and in the pubs, an assortment of odd shops such as the Flying Frocks and Sanctus, the Catholic bookshop that displays organic holy water in its window, and not a chain store to be seen. There the similarity ends. Katoomba's three sisters - huge sandstone karsts - and rain forest filled Jamison valley.
Internet surprisingly hard to access and very expensive in Oz - that's my plea anyway for failure to keep the blog up. And just to tide things along here some pix and stats:
4000 km - the distance we've driven from up far north in Queensland (cape Tribulation) to Sydney.
11 - the number of locations we've stayed at least one night. We spent two days in Cape Trib on God's own beach, rain forest tumbling down onto gleaming white sand and sparkling turquoise sea. We were about to plunge in when we discovered that sharks were swimming about, and crocs regularly come up the salt creeks into the sea.Not to mention the python spotted in the bay. then Atherton tablelands and nature spotting in a night canoe ride. Down back along the coast Hervey and Byron Bay - and a sort of Australian Butlins we found in a place called Yeppoon. Hunter Valley and then the Blue Mountains.
2 - the number of crocs we've seen in the wild (Daintree river).
I ate my first croc, by the way yesterday in katoomba. jenks ate her first kangaroo. it doesn't seem right does it - especially as she was just feeding some in a roo/koala santuary a couple of days before.
Countless - the number of dead roos we've seen by the roadside.
Strange fact: Jenks can yodel. discovered this while driving through the mountains. It used to be a childhood party piece apparently - yodelling along to Frank Ifield She Taught me How to Yodel.
Random thought: what is happening to the world?
Corn plaster report: J's knees playing up walking in the mountains; the cool Blue mountain air finally clearing my skin rashes. Strange bruise on my foot is getting better - think it happened diving the barrier reef. Prickly heat - that's a slow bastard. Corn plasters - still haven't used them.
