Caught train back to Katoomba and had a lazy day reading. We can both recommend Robin Hobb as an author. I've now read 9 of her books this trip and Willy's just started his sixth. She writes novels set in a fantasy world, but as well as good adventure stories with the eternal battle between good and evil, she gets in other themes such as slavery, feminism, society's attitude to the mentally handicapped etc. We set off early towards Canberra next morning - it was a long, tedious drive. Once we left the eastern seaboared we were struck by the seriousness of the drought. Everywhere was absolutely parched, with sheep, horses and catttle looking in poor condition and scrabbling among parched soil for the odd blade of brown grass. Lake George was very striking. The Lake ... read more

First of all apologies to Coonabarabran for saying nothing happens there - apparently the day before we arrived, a gunman took over a house in the street next to the hotel, the police were called and the seige didn't end until Saturday afternoon, by which time we were ensconced in the hotel. From Coonabarabran we headed South west towards Dubbo. We were now on the fringes of the great plains to the west of the Great Dividing Range and everywhere you looked the land cried out for water, mile after mile of parched grassland and drooping gum trees. Many of the eucalyptus (gum) trees have a strange way of dealing with drought they loose their bark rather than their leaves and if it gets rally bad they drop branches before eventually succumbing to the drought. The ... read more

We left Rainbow Beach and headed back towards Brisbane - the drive was exceptionally tedious and really the less said about it, the better. Eventually reached Koala sanctuary (promise made to Cara) thanks to some skillfull navigation by Wendy. Lots of koalas and other exotic fauna, including a very large spider which was crawling all over the car. Still very warm (hot even). maybe that's the reason even the kangaroos appeared sleepy, stayed overnight in a nearby motel . In the morning we returned some camping gear we had borrowed from John and Noelene (thanks again guys for all your help and hospitaity) and said goodbye to Gavin & Niome who return to sun-soaked Edinburgh via Singapore on Saturday. "Gidday guys" Then set course for the cool of the Great Dividing Range - Farewell Queensland and ... read more

Spent the morning trying to stay cool - temperature already in high 20s by 8am and rising we were all up early - too hot to sleep. Wendy was off surfing at 11 while Cara and I had opted for more relaxing walk along beach. Got to surfing beach in time for Cara to catch Wendy riding a wave (admittedly not a big barrelling roller) but pretty cool dude nevertheless. By the time she had finished it was 1.30 and hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement. Back to hostel to hide from sun for a couple of hours. Couple of kangaroos turned up and hung about grazing some 50 yds from our porch but were eventually scared off by the local horse. I checked out and eventually booked tour of Fraser Island, the ... read more

Chrtistine had left us keys to her house so our last night in NZ was spent in relative luxury. Following morning made our way to airport without mishap and so off to OZ. Arrived in Brisbane and caught shuttle into town to meet up with my favourite daughter. Had a really nice evening, Cara was still a bit jet lagged (recovering from her 30 hour epic flight the previous day) so early to bed then up early to meet up with Gavin (my favourite son) and Niome at Niome's parents for a day out on the beach. Taxi dropped us off about 8.00 at Niome's parents house just outside Brisbane then off to the Gold Coast for a morning on the beach. Unfortunately our weather (heavy rain) caught up with us so we made a brief ... read more