Australia
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Apr 25 Sydney
Travelled in
ANZAC Day Parade Despite Cynthia’s cold — it’s a doozy and she IS a trooper — we get up early-ish and put on some nice-ish clothes because our host, David Williams, will march in the parade and has invited us… Continue reading
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Apr 21 Melbourne
Travelled in
After breakfast, Cynthia and I take the train into Melbourne to see Simon’s sculptures in 101 Collins Street. The office building is the “Fifth Avenue” of Melbourne, so the Bulgari jewelry store down the street has two guards dressed as… Continue reading
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Apr 20 Melbourne
Travelled in
During brekkie, Jim and Jenni show us photographs of the sheep farm they bought and renovated and lived in about a light year in the past: fifty-plus acres and more than 100 sheep and a variety of other animals. Then David… Continue reading
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Apr 19 Sandy Point to Williamstown
Travelled in
Sadly, the Big Chill must end and after brekkie we pack, load into Jim and Jenni’s car to return to Williamstown — leaving David Williams to burn trash and find the Tiger snake, and Helen to catch a bus to… Continue reading
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Apr 18 Sandy Point
Travelled in
David runs along a typical twisting-through-the-forest-along-the-edge-of-the-water path to an inlet, watching for koala and Tiger snakes. None. The tide is out so the inlet is a mud flat about the size of four baseball fields. Several pelicans, a dozen black… Continue reading
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Apr 17 Melbourne to Sandy Point
Travelled in
Tuesday morning continues our string of basically beautiful weather. After caffeinating we load David and Helen’s diesel Range Rover, get $225 of gas poured into its two tanks, and motor about three-plus hours to Sandy Point, a beautiful beach community… Continue reading
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Apr 15 Daintree
Travelled in
We come at 9:15 for the lodge’s continental brekkie so we completely fail to understand why no one seems concerned that tables are dirty and there’s no bread to be toasted and lukewarm coffee in the carafe. We later learn… Continue reading
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Apr 11 Hall’s Gap to Bendigo
Travelled in
Halls gap to Bendigo museums and parks. We say au revoir until Fiji to Wayne and Myra, load the car, clean the cabin and depart on almost totally empty roads for Bendigo, one of Victoria state’s major gold-mining towns of… Continue reading
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Apr 10 Hall’s Gap to Dreamtime
Travelled in
Visit with Hanson family, tour area with Aboriginal guide. What do 1,000 cockatoos sound like in the morning right outside your window? Answer: You don’t know because you can’t think. The sound is so loud that it numbs your senses.… Continue reading
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Apr 8 McLaren Vale, Glenelg, Adelaide
Travelled in
McLaren Vale wine, lunch and Glenelg beach walk with Doull’s, Adelaide evening. We caffeinate, throw laundry into the hotel’s machine, arrange for maids to dry it and put it in our room, and make tracks for vineyards in McLaren Vale,… Continue reading
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Apr 7 Hahndorf in Adelaide Hills
Travelled in
Wine tasting in Adelaide Hills. Life begins twice a day: when you get up and when you have your first cocktail. After a morning and early afternoon doing administrative chores related to “where are wee staying next, how will we… Continue reading
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Apr 6 Port Fairy to Hahndorf
Travelled in
Long drive from Port Fairy to the Adelaide Hills with Coonawarra wine tasting on the way. We get a very late start after administrative chores and shopping for sandwiches to take on the road, so we’re on the road to… Continue reading
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Apr 5 Port Campbell to Port Fairy
Travelled in
Early visit to 12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge for morning views, walk on beach where shipwreck survivors landed, sleep in charming Port Fairy. We wake early and bomb back east on B100 to see Loch Ard’s spectacular rocks in… Continue reading
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Apr 4 Otway Lightstation to Port Campbell
Travelled in
Walk around Cape Otway light station, hike Maits Rest park and Melba Gully park for old forests, see sunset at 12 Apostles. We wake and David walks into the bush and photographs his second wallaby (our iPad ewill not accept… Continue reading
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Apr 3 Lorne to Cape Otway Lightstation
Travelled in
Visit parks and sleep at a lightstation. The Great Ocean Road. Yes it is. Yes, it really is. We happily leave the Grand Pacific Hotel and drive on a road that winds gently toward Erskine Falls in the… Continue reading
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Apr 2 Launceston to Lorne
Travelled in
We wake earlier than we would like even though Daylight Savings has ended and we’ve had two days with an extra hour. (We are just tickled to realize all our friends in the States have LOST an hour of sleep.)… Continue reading
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Mar 30 Wynyard
Travelled in
After a late breakfast, we tool off to Stanley in the Volvo we certainly are getting to know well. Stanley is a beautiful, tiny port town about an hour from Wynyard. It’s the birthplace of Joseph Lyons, the only Tasmanian… Continue reading
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Mar 28 Hobart to Strahan
Travelled in
Drive Hobart to Strahan via Mt Fields National Park and ”the wall” We try to leave Michael and Ingrid’s immaculate and fascinatingly art-filled apartment as neat and tidy as it welcomed us, and we motor out of Hobart, over its… Continue reading
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Mar 22 Melbourne
Travelled in
Treasury and Parliament buildings and the Immigration Museum David runs down Bayview and turns left, toward the town beach where a dozen bathers of all ages, some in scuba gear, others in thongs, swim in the pre-dawn bay, and a… Continue reading
Two Tramps 