We arrived at an Airlie Beach hostel around sunset last night, and were greeted by what sounded like a butch of fighting cats. Found out they were Flying Foxes... bats, and big ones 24-30" wing spans. They were fighting over some of the fruit in the trees around the complex. We shared our breakast with a bunch of parrots, then took a wonderful hike to a remote coral beach. Couldn't help but talking a picture of the proper ladies participating in a bowling tournament. While drive we saw that Gladstone had a good botanical garden, so stopped..it was wonderful.. botanical gardens here seem to be a combination of botanical garden, public park and bird sancuary. We took a really nice hike through the rainforest portion. The tree picture shows one tree with aerial roots that ... read more

Boy there is a lot to cover here, so many KM to cover today. We all wanted to jump out and get a picture to show we have finally made it to the Northern Territory. Not enough people to handle this huge area of land so it's not a state. Then we saw the Rock!!!...nope it was "Fool-a-ru" or Mt. Conner. It is twice the size of Uluru, but because it is made of two kinds of sandstone it's not a monolith. But it's not long until the real Uluru (white man says Ayers Rock) is in site. We made it just right to see it at sunset and drink a glass of champaign. Upon arrival at the campground we see all the excitemenet...a big brush fire..we hope it's under control. Our tent accommodations are ... read more

We are on the otherside of the outback portion of our trip. I didn't expect to have WWW access for that week, but we still have not been able to find an internet cafe with a USB port or card reader for picture upload...unbelievable. We could find it in the most remote villages in Guatemala. Anyway we may be able to hook up at Hervey Bay tomorrow...we'll see. You will enjoy reading of our great adventures...Ruth has been a real trooper!! We were surprised to pick up the morning paper and see it dated July 4th...weird to have no evidence of it here...we have totally lost track of what day it is. Well, we need to go, Crocodile Dave is picking us up in a few minutes for a day's tour of the offerings of Rockhampton ... read more

The morning gave us the opportunity to grab the free bus and get the lay of the land. Adelaide is a perfect example of someone really doing a great job of laying out a straight forward grid system with prominent "squares," but....traffic engineers have managed to make a mess of it with one way streets and no turn designations. Anyway, we're really likeing the AUS cities. they have a lot of character and plenty to do. And they have an amzing amount of greenspace that really gets used. The free bus system lets us tourist get a handle on things. Off to the Botanical garden. I really enjoyed seeing all the classes of kids in the gardens and they were all wearing hats. This garden is only a couple of years newer than Melbourne..they are ... read more

The day started out looking pretty bad...cloud cover and raining. We are headed for the Great Ocean road and hope for some good weather. The first glimpses of the coast in the rain has it's own beauty and intrigue. There is a bush walk into the rainforest so we put on our rainjackets and head out. It was amazing to see the mosses and ferns growing on everything. The Twelve Apostle stone formations are as grand as everyone describes. You just want to sit and gaze. You may notice a pile of stones in one picture...one fell in July, 2005...there are eight left. Another picture shows an arch, in the 90's a stone arch collapsed leaving some startled tourists on the wrong side. Words cannot describe this section of the south seashore. It was intriguing ... read more