Australia!

We've had a great 2 weeks here, although the East coast in June certainly wasn't what we expected - as you see from the photos. With immaculate timing we arrived the day before the most serious storm to hit Sydney, IN 30 YEARS. There were land slides a little further up the coast, part of the Pacfic highway was washed away, and up in Newcastle a tanker was beached on the sand banks. But despite not been able to top up our tans and frolick in our swim wear, we were vary lucky! Instead of sheltering in our tent for days, we were living it up in Manly. Our  planned visit to T's for a couple of days soon extended to a week, as we decided to stay for a huge rugby match in the Sydney 2000 stadium. We saw NSW v Queensland with T, Rob, Jenny and friends- but the venue (at least for me) was more breath taking than the sport! - did you see the video?

There were many other highlights of Manly - we stayed their longer than anywhere since Quito when we learned our Spanish.  

An afternoon of surfing with T and Rob. Well, T and Rob were surfing, Jim was heading in on the waves in a crouching position, I was happily bobbing about in the water, using my board to help me jump the waves!  (do you recognise Rob in the photo?) People in Manly surf all the time. They are there before we get up in the morning, they bob in great numbers beyond the break all day. Everyone here surfs.

We enjoyed T's commuter route on a couple of occasions, from Manly, across the water on a ferry to the CBD - again, a few photos, including the opera house, show the views!  A couple of walks around the harbour, and to the headland to overlook the ocean. Just by chance we hit the whale migratory season. The humpbacks are currently moving from the feeding grounds of the Antarctic to their breeding grounds further up north. Even from the land we were able to see several whales spouting and swimming. We also enjoyed numerous nights out with T and co,  - it was just so good to relax among friends. It was clear the Sydney has a lot to offer people in terms of work and leisure opportunities...and we could understand the draw that the city has for many of our friends. Conversely, Rob and Jenny are currently heading home again ready for the summer in Guildford.

After a week of T's wonderful hospitality we forced ourselves to pack up and move on. Really not an easy task, but we had to travel to Brisbane for our next flight, and we were keen to see the Blue Mountains and the coast. However, the mountains will have to wait until another time. We did go there, and spent 2 cold  wet nights in the tent (the temperature dropped to around 5 degrees - which was unfortunate as we sent all our warm cothing back to the UK in Rob's removal crate!) The views were limited to a few metres in front of your face, so it was impossible to see down into the huge canyons below. We considered several walks, but with the volumes of rain the river crossings would have been more interesting than we would like. The irony of all of this, is the water was still hardly falling in the catchment areas for drinking water, and we hear that those reservoirs are still  less than 9 percent full. There are very strict water regulations in place, but its up to the people themselves to enforce them - for example to limit showers to 3 minutes. And when there's been so much rain, it gives the illusion that the water shortages should be over. The water problems, linked to agriculture, seemed to be one of the key areas for oz to address in the future.

After the Blue Mountains we headed back to the coast, after a short interlude at the Sydney 2000 White Water course. We found some beautiful spots north of Newcastle, complete with wild campsites, kangeroos and terrific birdsong. - Diamond Head and Crowdy Bay were great, and nearly deserted, but it was probabaly the variety of birds and wild life that impressed us the most about the tiny area of Australia that we saw.  

We had a guided tour around Yamba, and breakfast with one of T's friends who was also visiting the small resort that week. It still wasn't quite sunbathing weather, but it had certainly improved as we'd headed north.

We've been surfing here in Bryon - its almost compulsory! The surf here right now is very friendly for beginners, and a little progress has been made. What I can say, its a lot harder than it looks! One morning we walked up the the headland and light house just to the south - a whole pod of dolpins were surfing the waves at the base of the cliffs. They would surf for a little, and then dive OUT of the water at the back of the wave, into the green behind. We were mesmorised, glued to the spot in the pouring rain! The humpbacks were continuing their procession northwards, but apart from the occasional distant breech, the dolpins were far more exciting!

We have a couple more days in this fair land. Then we fly Brisbane, Darwin, Darwin Singapore. We then have 6 weeks before flying out of Bangkok. I'm sure by then we'll feel as if we are on our way home.