Down Under Overall

     Let me apologize right up front. I'm obviously way behind on my promised blogging. Australia had a surprising lack of easy access to internet once we got out of Sydney. So, this is going to be more like a rant rather than a well thought out and edited blog. And, obviously, I'm starting a month after the events which I will describe in these first few posts. Right now we're actually in Singapore and I hope to catch the blog up with us by the time we leave...but there's a lot of eating to be done here, and not much time. So, we'll just see how it goes :-) I'll start with an overview of our impressions, then work my way through our travels of the last month.

     Australia has been great, but...well, not that unusual. I think when Charles and I travel internationally, we are looking to see and experience things that are somehow unusual or different than our experiences at home - things that take us out of our comfort zones. Oz, however, seems much like home - the East Coast is much like parts of California and the middle much like Texas. We feel more as though we have been on a road trip back home.

     This is not to say we haven't enjoyed ourselves because we have actually had a great time. highlights include the wildlife, meat pies and sleeping in an underground dugout in the outback. My personal highlights - spending time with Joe, Zoe and Daisy in Sydney, swimming with a Green Sea Turtle on the Great Barrier Reef, and listening to the disturbing nighttime calls of the feral camels in the outback. We also got quite a kick out of some of the slang words and phrases, like "How ya' goin?," "Footie" for football, "Chippies" for chips (french fries), and "That really yanks my g-string!"

     My overall impression is one of adorable animals, strange-sounding birds, amazing landscapes and friendly people with quirky humor and charasmatic accents.