Saturday 3rd May - 4 weeks in and Rob's big day! Rob was up at the crack of dawn, not sure if it was due to excitement or fear!He was booked into a double dive session on Sydney's coast the first being where the shark's hide!The boat was almost full, the sea was choppy but he did it, check the pictures on the blog to see how close he got. He was a little disappointed to return without any teeth marks but more disappointed that the second dive was called 'wedding...

28th- 30th AprilIt was really chilly today, we were told that it had been snowing between the Blue Mountains and Orange.Sarah told us that 10cm of snow fell on Mount Canabolas!Now time to go back to Sydney for our extended stay, arriving in the late evening we didn't do anything other than unpack and crash.The next day we went out to get our bearings and purchase travel tickets for the next week.We took the train to Circular Quay and got on a ferry to Watson bay....

24th April - OrangeUp at 5.30am to catch the train to Orange to visit our cousin Sarah, (nee Douglas) and her family, husband Paul, and sons Patrick 10, and Jack 8.Orange is around 5 hours by train westwards from Sydney on the other side of the Blue Mountains.The changing scenery was lovely.First the western suburbs, then the mountains, and finally onto rolling hills which reminded us of Derbyshire.Orange is a town of 46,000 people and also a cool climate wine gr...

17th-22nd April - The Red CentreWe had an excellent flight from Perth to Alice Springs arriving late afternoon.We stayed the first night at The Alice Springs Resort.It was nearly dark by the time we got our bags repacked for travelling on the tour we had pre-booked. We went for a walk into Alice to find some food and get water etc for our trip. Alice comes to life after dark but not necessarily in a good way.The aborigines sit around in groups under trees and the...

22nd April - SydneyWe stayed at The Lord Nelson which is the oldest brewery in Sydney and still makes beer onsite.Arriving early evening we dropped our bags and headed off to the bar to sample a pint or two and have dinner.After dinner we went for a stroll and found ourselves under Sydney Harbour Bridge.The view to the north shore reminded me very much of Hong Kong with all the buildings lit up.Next morning we headed for Circular Quay (where the Opera House is), ...