Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 4010

I flew from Cairns down to Adelaide to visit my friend Phil Deacon. I hadnt seen him in almost a year as he is studying med school down in Oz at Flinders Uni. It was during my week stay with him that it hit me, that most people actually have daily lives with lots of responsibility. Deacon is definetly no exception. This man accomplishes more by 10am than most do in a full day. He was voted president of his med school program by his peers last year, which is a huge responsibility and also finds time to socialize more than most and maintains grades that are at the top of his class. Most of my evenings in Adelaide, we would stay up late watching TV and talking out on his back porch until about 1 ... read more

I hear a noise..... I check on my daughter..... Nothing......Back to bed..... I nod off to sleep.... suddenly my husband jumps out of bed..... He heard a noise and goes out to investigate...... What could it be? A robber?? Ken gets ready to confront the invader (without his glasses on!! not a good idea:)...... Crash Bang..... "come quick" he says.... "A possum" "A possum"..... A possum running around our house in the middle of the night.... Ken grabs the camera... He uses the flash so he can see.....The possum runs into the girls room, jumps on the bed... lucky our 3 year old is in our bed and not in hers..... Ken grabs the possum, but it out manoevers him in a quick flip and all he is left with is a handful of fur...... Those ... read more

Our last stop on out Greyhound west coast trip was in the very windy Cervantes! The main attraction here is the spectacular sight of the Pinnacles - hundreds of limestone formations, which cover an enormous area (can't remember exactly how big and I won't guess because I tend to exaggerate when I guess numbers!). The first Europeans to sight them thought they must be the remains of an ancient, Atlantis-type city and the local Aborignal people believe that they were formed after a huge war between tribes where all the dead bodies were turned to stone afterwards. Science (always keen to spoil everyones fun) tells us they're formed by a cycle of wind, sand, rain and vegetation over thousands of years, which isn't nearly as interesting! Nevertheless, Dianne our tour guide, took us and four other ... read more

I only had a week back down in Sydney because of time off from work etc which wasn't a problem to begin with but towards the end of the week definately became something i wish i could have changed. Our flight touched down to clouds and the prospect of rain according to the flight attendant however when we arrived it was blue skies and warm (but bearable) sunshine. We were picked up by my friend Jess who's house we were staying at in Newport in the Northern Beaches. We went for fish & chips, dumped our stuff and went to the RSL for dinner and somecheap drinks. $2 Pilsners definately did the trick and after meeting up with a few more of my friends who i introduced George to we were well on our way to ... read more

First a postscript to our Great Ocean Road Odyssey - on our last day in Lorne we drove some 25k back along the GOR to a small township Kennet River which claimed to have a koala walk and as neither Wendy nor I had seen koalas in the wild it seemed a good idea, especially as the weather still refused to be beach type (windy and low 20s with lots of clouds and intermittent sunshine, in fact pretty much what it has been all week). I didn't have particularly high hopes as koalas tend to hang around in the trees sleeping and as such aren't particularly easy to spot. However before we even got out the car Cara spotted a koala, fast asleep in a gum tree on the edge of the village, then another in ... read more