Australia – Parts Two And Three

If Eldest Daughter hadn’t decided Australia was the place she wanted to call home, I’m not sure I’d have ever made the decision to go there on holiday, mainly because of the time it takes to get there. It would have been one of those places I’d have consigned to the ‘maybe one day…’ pile.

However she did and, as I wrote previously, I went. And I’m glad I did. It also gave me the opportunity to see the lifestyle that Eldest Daughter has, so now when I talk to her on the phone, I can visualise some of the places she talks about.

As it was my first visit, I mainly stayed in the Sydney area and did the tourist things. I don’t know about you, but after seeing places on the television or in book, to actually see them always amazes me. They really do exist!

Not only did I see Sydney Harbour Bridge, Eldest Daughter and I did the Bridge Climb, however we chose to do it at night. The views were spec-tac-u-lar.

I’d like to point out Eldest Daughter and I do actually have faces, and not blurry blob features in real life.

Just sayin’.

I also discovered what kangaroos and peacocks have in common.

 

They both eat Cheerios. Seriously. Who knew?

However, this guinea fowl decided Cheerios weren’t flavour of the month.

Nope, Cheerios held no attraction whatsoever for this little bugger. It wanted toes. Toes that were exposed. My toes to be precise. It bloody hurt. Bastard.

One of the highlights of my stay, apart from spending time with Eldest Daughter, Captain Oz and his parents (who were wonderful and very welcoming), was the tandem skydive.

Captain Oz was the one who suggested the three of us do it, half joking and never thinking I’d accept the challenge. He’s got a lot to learn about me. Heh.

After some pre-flight instructions, we got into this aircraft:

The plane took off, climbed to 14,000 feet, then basically, with each of us strapped to an instructor, we fell out of it:

We had a freefall (in other words we plummeted like a stone towards the earth) lasting about sixty seconds before the parachute was deployed.

Was I scared?

No! I absolutely loved it. Was Eldest Daughter scared? A little apprehensive I think when she saw me fall out of the aircraft, but she loved it too. Was Captain Oz scared? Hell yes! Although when he actually did it, he really enjoyed it. Afterwards we all agreed we’d do it again, given half a chance.

Apart from spending time on various beaches, and yes Bondi Beach was one of them, I did other touristy things while I was in Australia, spending a fair amount of the time in the city.

I have to say generally speaking, I’m definitely not a city person, I much prefer the countryside and smaller towns and villages. For me, cities are just too busy and too crowded, although I’m glad I’ve seen Sydney.

I told Eldest Daughter on my next visit I’d like to explore some of the more out of the way places and experience the more laid-back Aussie attitude to life.

I could write at length about my two weeks over there; I really did have a jam-packed time (some of them being: talking to a tour guide who, during the course of our conversation, I discovered originally comes from a town about twenty miles from where I live; running through the bush in a national park to avoid snakes in my quest to get to the amazing beach pictured in my blog header; getting slightly worse for wear one evening, having a kebab then sending a drunken email to a friend back here in the UK singing the praises of Oz kebabs over UK kebabs… Uncultured? Moi? ) but this post would probably end up half a mile long and even I’d get bored reading it!

Besides, I've got a little something else to add.

Which leads me on to…

Part Three

A few weeks ago, it was decided I’d travel to Australia again to spend some more time out there. So next May, I’ll be making that epic journey once again, although I’ll definitely choose a different airline to try and even out the time in the air.

I’ll be spending at least a month, if not longer out there, but it’s unlikely I’ll be visiting much of the countryside or anywhere else for that matter.

Instead, hopefully I’ll get there in time to welcome my first grandchild into the world.

Yay!

But, me… a grandmother.

Bahahaha!