My final afternoon and evening in Sydney were mellow. I walked around some of the places I hadn't had a chance to see yet. Meandered through Paddington, known for its upscale shops and its correspondingly high percentage of gay couples. Got a wonderful outdoor head and neck massage at the Paddington market. Sat on the wall at Bondi beach and watched the surfers fight the rather impressive waves for a while. Strolled down Darlinghurst Road in King's Cross, th...

Thursday, still in Tasmania, I drove up the east coast towards Freycinet National Park (pronounced fray-se-nay), with a 2 night stay booked in Swansea, a small town on Great Oyster Bay, just an hour from the park. Unfortunatey, it was cloudy and rainy all day, and Tasmania is not as warm as Sydney (only ~60F with the clouds). So my sightseeing hopes for the first day were somewhat dampened. Even more unfortunate, I have learned too late that Australians ar...

Yesterday I rented a car and drove from Sydney down the eastern coast with Chloe and Chantelle. We stayed overnight at Bateman's Bay after sunning at Surf Beach, and explored Jervis Bay today (or, rather, they sunned while *I* explored some great hiking trails). Then we hit a quaint winery on the drive back. The beaches were really spectacular, and we (yet again) lucked out with beautiful weather. On the drive home it rained just a bit, but at that point ...

Spent 7 hours at the Taronga Zoo today. It was tough work, but by the end I think Chloe and I saw every square inch. ;-) It was awesome! Again, we lucked out with gorgeous weather. We got to take a ferry across the harbour again, over to the zoo and back. Jason -- thanks so much for the recommendation to see the bird show. The show was impressive enough, but being set against the backdrop of a full panorama of the Sydney harbour was just breath-takin...

Today our luck continued with another beautiful, clear, sunny day -- perfect for hiking around in the Blue Mountains! I'll let my photos do most of the talking for this day. With a night of rest, a compression bandage, and much advil, my right knee was still loudly complaining, but not enough to keep me out of this beautiful rainforest. I found that as long as I went down steps or inclines kinda sideways, my knee was fine. So I was a funny-looking hiker...