Heading north up the coast

Wednesday, May 17

Farewell to Sydney.  A great city to visit.  Drove out of Sydney and headed 150 km down the road to Newcastle.  Booked a place for two nights, and first impressions of the city are not great.  Visitor information was partially closed for a function, and the guy there told us lots, but could not get us a map.  Parking was non existant, and then when we got to our apartment, it was far from what was advertised, including no internet.  Oh well, part of the experience of travelling, not holidaying, is that some days are not great.  Tomorrow we will check out the sites and then continue North.

Thursday, May 18

Walked over to McDonalds for free wifi so that we could call Georgina at her surprise 60^th birthday / retirement dinner.  The boys were happy for the Facetime with family, and probably more happy for some Egg and Sausage McMuffins.  We then headed off to the beach.  Newcastle has a great ANZAC walk in memory of the Gallipoli battle in 1915.  The Australians do a truly wonderful job of recognizing the sacrifices of their veterans.

Bondi Rescue

Our view from the bridge

Tuesday, May 16

Headed into Sydney for another view of the Opera House.  We walked half way over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and back, then got close up with the Opera House.  The whole thing is covered in tiles, no wonder it took them so long to build the place.  As usual, a good game of tag broke out on the opera house stairs.  For the afternoon we headed for Bondi Beach.  Got a picture of Nate with a lifeguard.  When asked if he was on the Bondi Rescue show, he stated no, they liked the better looking and more emotional guards.  Not real busy today, but in the summer Bondi can have 40 000 people.  Although it was only 20 and windy, the South Pacific waters are warm.  Our return to Sydney central had the boys watching a homeless man spend about 20 minutes trying to coax money out of an ATM by pushing the buttons continuously.

Cindy arranging her rescue

Downtown Sidney

After moving over from our first Sydney apartment to our second, we head in on the train.  The Sydney Tower, then the Harbour Bridge, and then the Opera House become real for the boys.  As an award, we hit McDonalds for lunch for the first time on our trip.  We are so aweful to our boys, but this seems to make up for it.  At 2:30 pm we join a walking tour and get to hear about the history of Sydney.  Our guide explains that the Opera House went 14 x over budget, and their cost reductions to complete it compromised the sound quality.  She then asked if there were any audio engineers in the crowd, to which one guy did put up his hand - she told him not to go.  Speaking to the guy later, he said that he had been told that the audio quality in the building was very poor. 

Sydney at last.

Sunday, May 14
Happy mother's day, now lets drive!  This should be our last big day of driving for this trip.  We have found a place to stay in a suburb of Sydney after deciding to just get there already.  The scenery becomes for hilly as we skirt along the Blue Mountains. 

Lets stay here because the name is cool to say

Saturday, May 13
Another long day of driving... this is a recording.  Long straight tracks of road as we head across for Sydney.  However, we do get to see fields and field of cotton in full bloom.  Stop and pick some up off the side of the road.  Just like the stuff you buy in a store, who knew!
We end up in Wagga Wagga.  Wagga means crow, and in the Aboriginal language, when you repeat the word, in means many of.  Therefore Wagga Wagga is the land of many crows.  It is a large city with a beautiful botanical garden that we spend the late afternoon at kicking the footy ball around.  Cindy finds us a nice hotel to stay in, and we spend the evening watching the Voice, that is until a fight breaks out and we turn the TV off.  It is an emotional show.

We have to be in the Polar Bear club now

Friday, May 12, 2017

Go for a walk in town and visit with some of the locals along the river.  We then head out and have another rather uneventful drive to Mildura.  Although our seasons are opposite, our farming time matches up as the Aussi’s seed in their fall (April / May).  Too hot to grow crop in the summer.  For the third time on our trip, we end up in an outdoor pool in winter.  Our caravan park that we are staying in has a pool and Nate convinced Luke and I to join him for a dip.  A cool night for a swim, but warmer temperature than Iceland, but not water temperature.

Disclaimer, two mice were killed in the making of this blog

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Cindy loves the old buildings, this one a school house outside of Hawker

Another mouse meets his doom on the pad of stickiness.  Poor little guy is confused and reminds me of Scat off of Ice Age.  Freedom is right there... but is that peanut butter. 

We head out early and make our way to Renmark which is on the River Murray.  This is miles of straight road and not much of anything but flatness.  We see gates that head into nothingness.  I am guessing that the youth must get bored out here, but the testicles painted onto the kangaroo sign are good for keeping the driver more alert.  On the road are many old stone structures.  We wonder if they are victims of fire or just time. 

Houseboats along the Murray in Renmark