Easter Holidays Australia

 

Beaches, beaches and more beaches.

We arrived here just before the Easter weekend and school holidays, so a busy time for Australian families.... poor planning on our part. Everybody is heading out to the beach for the holiday quite understandable when surrounded by so many white sand beaches. Whether swimming, surfing, fishing or the hundred other things you can do at the beach....beach culture is eveywhere on the east coast which we've been traveling north along since we arrived.

We arrived in Sydney and thought it might take us up to week to get organized but we managed to do it in a couple of days. So we had a few days to explore Sydney and the surrounding area. Sydney is a sophisticated city with beautifully developed urban spaces downtown.....which of course includes the Sydney opera house. Hoopla Festival (aerial acrobatics, like Cirque duSoliel) was going on and there were venues all over the downtown core and in the parks. The city felt vibrant and happening. Our only complaint would be that it is an expensive city for accomodation and food. We toured the Sydney Wildlife park, thought we'd take the opportunity to familarize ourselves with the creatures we might come across in the outback. By Firday we'd had enough of the city and took the train to Brisbane where we picked up our camper van and we've been heading up the coast ever since. We've seen the evidence of the recent flooding at some of the camp grounds we've stayed at and along the roads where they have markers for the vehicles to make them aware of the water level before they decide to attempt it with their vehicles.....marked up to 2m in some spots......hard to believe. We've also seen the evidence of wildfires having driven through grove after grove of charred gum trees. The grasslands are beautiful and the sea of sugar cane fields endless.

On my birthday we were in Agnes Water and 1770 where Captain Cook landed in 1770.....thought this was a strange name for a place but nonetheless very beautiful. From here we had hoped to do a Barrier Reef tour but due to a windwarning (south easterlies blowing up 90k) they had canceled all tours until Friday so we decided to carry on up the coast and see what other options there are to get out to the reef.

Internet access has become a little more difficult. For one because we're camping and campsites rarely have free wi-fi and the other is they just don't have the internet cafes that offer free wi-fi. So I'm not able to use our computer as often and am checking e-mail in the mall or shops where you can pay to use their computers.

Dave became a grandpa this week, Aiden was born April 25^th at 9:00 am of course it was the 26^th here. I can one day tell him about the year we celebrated our birthday on the same day.

Arrived in Carins, in the tropics yesterday, very humid. Love the sweaty happy wanderers