Australia – a huge country of many contrasts, with tropical cyclones in the North and drought in the south, crazy high temperatures in the summer, stunning white sandy beaches and clear blue seas (often colder than you expect), beautiful sunsets,
open wheatlands and red earthed deserts, huge trees, some with amazing annual bark shedding abilities, some quirky animals that have adapted to the contrasts of the continent,
very pretty birds from the tiny blue wrens to the colourful parakeets, gulahs, cockatoos and noisy crows. It’s a land of down to earth people, who tell you how it is – very refreshing! They love their coffee, although often way too tepid for my taste, sandwiches and chicken schnitzels. Oh, and let’s not forget it has more deadly creatures than you would really wish to meet, both on land and in the waters!!
It’s many towns and cities were often built from convict trade in harsh conditions – some of this history remains in the ruins of old prisons and convict depots. They have also managed to hang on to some of the historic hotels complete with intricate ironwork verandahs – built on street corners because they had to have 2 entrances – 1 for the bar and 1 for accommodation!
We’ve enjoyed visiting Australia again and having the opportunity to catch up with friends we haven’t seen in many years and to visit different parts of this vast country (we were lucky enough to have visited twice before and to see Tasmania, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Adelaide, Uluru, Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef). Now it’s time to move on again (well, an email from Border Control has kindly reminded us that our visas are due to expire next week!). Now we’re off to Kuala Lumpur to see how much it has changed in the 10 years that we visited last.