It occurs to me that my last post was shockingly, for me, inadequate in length and detail. I am therefore going to attempt to put in a little bit more detail about the trip so far (still awesome!) and then when I get back there will be multitudes of photos to prove it all was true and amazing. So...looking back... *floaty music*
Wednesday 5th:
I arrived, after a looong time on aeroplanes. In fact after travelling on an Airbus A380, which was very shiny and new and monstrously enormous. My dear aunt came and picked me up from the airport with Cameron, my cousin's little daughter. Then we drove to her house where I stayed all day and slept lots, due to jet lag-ish tendencies. The evening brought take away and Cameron's Christmas carol concert in school, which was very cute. And then I came home and fell asleep. An unexciting day I feel.
Thursday 6th:
I got up nice and early and went into Sydney on the train. I went and gazed at the Opera House and the Bridge and said oooh and aaah in a loud voice because that is of course what you have to do. Then I went round the botanical gardens, which were very beautiful, and the grounds of Government House, where I met six very cute little ducklings and their very protective mother. Then off I went on a ferry across the harbour, when all of a sudden the sun started blazing. I arrived in Manly and wandered around the beach and ate copious quantities of ice cream and got quite impressively sunburnt. Stupid weather fooling me into thinking it was going to be cloudy and then burning me... Ah well, it has mostly gone brown now :). And then the ferry back again, and I wandered off into the Rocks, which are very attractive and right under the big bridge, and then into the city which is very much like a financial district, and then off home for a fantastic BBQ next to the pool. I love the hot winter weather...
Friday 7th:
My aunt and I drove for seven hours from Sydney to near Walgett, to my cousin Jonny's farm where, as I mentioned in the last post, it was 42 degrees. And Jonny was out in the sun fixing a bulldozer. Insane. We went and sat in the air conditioning until it cooled down a bit, whereupon we lit up the anti-mosquito flames, sprayed ourselves with anti-mosquito goop and went and sat in the BBQ pagoda thing for another cook out. Which was actually divine, Jonny had been soaking the steaks in red wine sauce for two days. Mmm... And we drank lots and lots of wine and ate lots of food and watched two incredible thunderstorms on either side of us, with lightning every five seconds. Just a shame none of the rain came and fell on Jonny's farm, since he hasn't seen much for the past five years. And then the stars came out and they were more indescribably beautiful than you could possibly imagine. Never before have I seen stars like that. It was amazing.
Saturday 8th:
Off to Lightning Ridge with us, to see the opal mining communities. They have completely destroyed the land around there, it is barren and full of white mounds of dirt where no one has returned the waste to the shafts. I contributed to the destruction by buying a couple of opal necklaces, and then we drove around the place looking at the tiny art galleries and strange houses (you'll see what I mean when the photos go up...I mean really strange...) which were around, before having lunch. Then back to Jonny's farm for a drive around in the landrover. The farm is absolutely huge, and completely amazing. If dry as a bone except where the special dams are. And there are 4000 sheep and 1000 lambs. Is amazing. Oh and some cows, and wild goats. In the evening we went out to a funny pub in the middle of nowhere and then a restaurant where various young men who clearly hadn't seen a woman in months came and tried to chat me up. It was fun. We saw multitudes of kangaroos.
Sunday 9th:
Out on another drive so that Jonny could fix something with his tractor, and then I drove the landrover home. It was very exciting. I nearly killed Jonny's friend James by driving on the wrong side of the track (I wasn't expecting another car to appear!) but apart from that I think I did pretty well. Particularly considering that the gear stick was so huge and so stiff I could barely move it. It was great fun barrelling along though. And then Jonny took me out on his quad bike (which he uses to round up sheep!) to show me the shearing shed and we chased some emus. Poor things, they are very silly. We followed them around and they ran all over the place and crashed into each other and generally looked a bit foolish. And then Auntie Marguerite and I drove the seven hours home.
Monday 10th:
Back into Sydney and to the zoo, which I said a bit about last time. It really is an amazing zoo, and you get to take a boat there and it is great. And not TOO expensive, considering how lovely it is. And I saw a free flight bird show, which was just amazing, they had eagles and condors and hawks and pink cockatoos and galahs and many a thing. And all the animals were divine, koalas are practically too cute to be real, and I saw a joey in its mother's pouch and oh it was all very wonderous. Photos there will of course be on facebook. In the evening we went to bed early for rising ridiculously early the next day.
Tuesday 11th:
Arose at 4:30am in order to catch a flight to Cairns. The flight takes about 3 hours. This country is too big for its own good. At Cairns airport I was met by my cousin's wife Sandy and their two children, Jessicka and Daniel. And yes, that is Jessicka with a k. I have no idea why. We went to the shops for a bit and then came back to see their very nice house. Everyone here has a pool! Is amazing! The afternoon was one of relaxing a bit, and then in the evening we went out to the Boat Club (like...yachts rather than rowing...) for dinner and I tasted kangaroo (basically the same as venison) and had divinely delicious king prawn linguine. Oh, and got bitten by lots of mosquitos. Horrible things that they are.
Wednesday 12th:
I went off to the jetty in Cairns and got on a big boat which took me out to Green Island, a tropical paradise on the Great Barrier Reef. It was utterly beautiful, and boiling hot. This time I was sensible enough to smother myself in sun cream. I had a bit of a wander around the island and then went to the beach. I walked into the sea, and it was warm. Properly warm. It was amazing. And so, so clear, and the beaches were white and it was basically completely idyllic. And not too busy, because it isn't really tourist season yet. And then we went out on a glass bottomed boat, which was absolutely amazing: we saw sharks and corals and turtles and giant clams and thousands and thousands of fish. And then I returned to the main island and walked through the rainforest for a bit. In fact, I walked around the entire island in about 40 minutes. And then back on the boat and heading for home, where we had a very nice Chinese meal from the shop at which Daniel works.
Thursday 13th:
Another day full of busy. I got on the Kuranda Scenic Railway with Daniel, and we wended our way up the mountains and through all the rainforests and across the Barron Gorge to the village of Kuranda right up at the top. The views were absolutely amazing. In Kuranda we looked at the many tourist shops and Aboriginal art galleries and beautiful clothes shops, and we went to a butterfly sanctuary. The butterflies were absolutely glorious: the Ulysses was enormous and bright, irridescent blue. *sigh* You don't get bugs like that in England. Oh and Daniel bought me a very pretty shell necklace. For a twelve year old he is remarkably unobnoxious. In fact, he is very sweet. Also, I can't believe it's only 9:40am, I've been up for ages... Anyway, then I went back down through the rainforests on the cable car, which was even better than the railway. I got off at a couple of stops to wander through the forests and read the information given. I went right from undergrowth to upper canopy. It was truly glorious. And in the evening we went off to the cafe where Jess works and had a very nice dinner, before returning home and watching Better Off Dead. Which was pretty funny, if a bit silly and very predictable.
Friday 14th:
Today. There hasn't been much of it yet. The general plan is some relaxation before getting the aeroplane back to Sydney this evening. And then tomorrow I am driving (well my aunt is driving) to Canberra, where I will stay put for a week and a half before returning home. My life will probably be less hectic and I might even get around to sending some Christmas cards. Anyway, it will be great. I shall attempt to write another post at some point, but my aunt doesn't actually have internet (Dark Ages!) so it might not happen. We shall see!
Much love xxx
