Red Dog



Violet, Karen and Gordon

Saturday 19th August. Violet has packed up and gone to stay with her brother Gordon and his partner Karen. She was so pleased to have the chance to go and stay with them for the last 10 days of her trip to Australia. Gordon is not in good health so it was thought best if Violet didn't stay at their house but they decided to ask her to stay as it would possibly the last time they would see each other face to face. We will meet again at the airport on Monday 29th

Monday 22nd august. Today I am to be immersed into more Australian culture. Kevin, Linda and I are going to the movies. We are going to see a film called 'Red Dog' all about a dog that wanders round Western Australia finding different masters. A bit like 'The Littlest Hobo'. Then he ends up being faithful to one particular master.

We went at 6.30 pm to a little privately run cinema in a place near here called Glenbrook. I couldn't imagine that there would be many people there at 6.30 on a Monday evening but I got a surprise-the place was full.

Monday night was free tea and coffee night and so nearly everybody wandered to their seats carrying cups and saucers! How provincial can you get?

Kevin went to get me a 'Choc-Top'. That seemed the favourite ice-cream snack. It was a cone full of ice cream covered with a solid layer of chocolate. I had a mint choc chip one and it was delish!

The film was really good and also a weepy. It isn't hard for me to get weepy; my men-folk will vouch for that!



Glenbrook Community Theatre



Kiama

Woollongong Lighthouse

                                                                  Wollongong Surfer

Wollongong Beach

On Thursday the 18th August we drove down the coast to the small town of Kiama. We stopped off in Wollongong (just love these Aboriginal names) for a picnic by the sea. The surf was up and there were lots of surfers. Surfing is such a serious business in Australia. People go for a surf in their lunch hour.

We saw a man changing from his wet suit to his business suit ready to go back to work.

It was rather windy there but not too cold. We then carried on to Kiama and went to see the Blowhole. It is a volcanic rock formation where the sea had worn a hole through the rock and when the waves come in the water shoots up through the hole.

The Blowhole, Kiama

Wendy, Linda and Violet

We had booked bed and breakfast for the night at the Green Cottage, Manning Street, Kiama. Linda and Kevin had a room in the main house but Violet and I had the studio flat to ourselves with lounge, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms! The owners were very welcoming and looked after us very well. They are called Roy and Jeanette. It turned out that Roy came from Leamington Spa! I would definitely recommend
That evening we drove down the coast to a Fisherman's Club House for an evening meal. The floor to ceiling windows looked out over Seven Mile Bay (yes it's seven miles long).

Seven Mile Beach

We watched the sun go down but it was rather cloudy so the sunset wasn't as spectacular as it could have been but it was still lovely to watch. The meals were huge. Poor Violet could only manage half of hers.We were full-to-busting after so we didn't have a pud and went back to the B&B for coffee in our little lounge. We slept well until the bin lorries clattered past at 6am! That was the second time this week as it was bin day back at Linda's a couple of days before!
We had a lovely breakfast upstairs of cereal then eggs mushroom and tomatoes with herbs and lashings of hot toast. Jeanette's expression not mine. (Sounds like Enid Blyton)
The weather had been dry the day before but we woke up to lots rain. We drove to a town called Berry for Violet because her name is Berry.

She's not really!

We looked round the shops and bought some souvenirs. Had coffee and cakes in an old fashioned coffee shop and then set off to drive through Kangaroo Valley but we didn't see any kangaroos. The country-side looked very much like Wales so maybe that's why this state was named New South Wales. On the way we stopped off to see the spectacular Fitzroy Falls.

Fitzroy Falls

I managed to catch a rainbow!

We walked through the trees and came to a platform that looked over the falls. I was filming with my video camera and you can hear me gasp as the falls come into view.
We walked back to the Information Centre and read some of the history of the place and then had our lunch. I had the most enormous home-made sausage roll made of chopped savoury meat and veg which was very tasty.
We then went on our way back to the Blue Mountains. We just stopped briefly in Bowral which for all you cricket fans out there is where Don Bradman played cricket.
So that was an enjoyable couple of days seeing the Pacific Coast and the NSW countryside.
As I write this I am sitting in the garden and the sun is so hot, at last. I've finally got the chance to wear my sun hat. Pity it's turned warmer only a few days before I go home! Aye, but I'm making the most of it!

Bowral Cricket Ground called the Bradman Oval

Statue of Don Bradman

Pictures taken in Linda and Kevin's garden while I was writing my blog.

A sulphur-crested cockatoo watching me from a tree

                   One of the many types of Rosella eating bird seed

 Willow, one of Linda's cats. He runs away when he sees me.          He's a bit shy!

Day out to Sydney and Manly Beach

It's now Sunday the 21st August and I've finally found time to update my blog.
Last week Kevin took Violet and me to Sydney (Linda was at work).
We parked near Sydney Harbour Bridge and my first experience of seeing the bridge was as we walked under it!
It's so incredibly big. You cannot get a feeling of the size from pictures in books or television.
As I was taking pictures of the bridge I spotted parties of people walking up over the top of it! They were harnessed to the rail and slowly walked in single file right over to the other side! I was not in a hurry to join them on this venture! 

Sydney Harbour Bridge

 Brave souls walking over
the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

                                                      Stopping off for a coffee

Poster at the cafe congratulating CADEL EVANS for winning the tour de France. He was welcomed home at Melbourne Airport  a few days earlier. 

Next we drove on to Manly Beach renowned for it's surfing and holding of World Surfing championships. It so reminded me of Newquay. I just stood and gazed out to sea for ages and then had the crazy idea to take my shoes and socks off and paddle in the PACIFIC! Kevin took a few shots of me to prove how daft I am. It was quite a warm and sunny day at Manly but it's still winter here and is cold out of the sun. I went to the local souvenir shop and bought a 'Sloppy Joe' as they call them here. It's lovely warm tracky top with Manly across the front. Then we drove back to the Blue Mountains. We are going to visit Sydney again this week and stay over night so we can see and visit more sights. Linda is making up an itinary as I write this.There are so many things to see!

We drove home over the A.N.Z.A.C. (Australian and New Zealend Army Corps) Bridge. In memory of the soldiers that fell in the First World War.

Norman Lyndsay Gallery

Norman Lyndsay (1879-1969) was a famous Australian artist, sculptor, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler and boxer. He lived in Faulconbridge, a suburb of Sydney. The house has a large garden full of sculptures that he made out of concrete, his preferred medium. These are all of nude women and so were his paintings. This caused a stir in the 1940s and pictures and statues were burned. (See His story on Wikipedia)
He had a cottage for doing his engravings and another for his painting. He even had a bed in there for when he couldn't be bothered to go across to the house.

We paid a visit to the gallery and had tea and scones sitting in the sun! Yes we've had some sun.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Thursday 11th August. 

After a couple of days of chilling and visiting we went off to spend the day at the Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney. I wanted to see lots of Australian animals and looked forward to photographing them.

                                                                      G'day possums!
    Actually I got this wrong. These are wombats. Saw a possum back at L & K's climbing on their verandah!

'Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. These are the noisy birds that wake us up in the mornings!

The weather was good and so all the animals and birds were out and about 'posing' for photographs. I'm sure they were posing as they sat still when people were clicking away!

Galah

 Alf Stuart off 'Home and Away' likes to call people a galah and that's what one looks like!

Two things I'd promised myself I would do while in Australia was to stroke a kangaroo and cuddle a koala.



Wallabies



Well I got to feed and stroke kangaroos and wallabies but I only got to stroke a koala. Aaah! We queued up to stroke this sleepy koala and have piccies taken. The keeper was on hand to keep an eye on things.

Linda and Kevin had packed up a picnic and so we sat at the picnic table (all posh with table cloth) and enjoyed our lunch surrounded by animals and birds.



 

Picnic time! Violet,Linda and Kevin

Picnic time! Kevin, Violet and me.



Lazing on a sunny afternoon.