Sydney

As beautiful as we remenbered it from previus trips in early 90s!
Sydney is a top 5 world city!
Australian beauty at its best and a lot of electrity.
We have all week to enjoy it!

Kissing good buy to Aussie pop and Lucals tooth

Tooth fairy will be busy again tonight
Front tooth. 2 decided to stay in Sydney

Byron bay, then down the coast to Sydney

What a great time we had in Byron, everything was perfect, great friend and great weather!

We got on the road for the short 2 days drive to Sydney.
The new south wales coast is stunning very much lke the California coast but driving on left side.
First night was in Woolgooga and tonight we are less than 2 hours from Sydney.(around newcastle)
Tomorrow early start to drop the family in Manly beach (north suburb of Sydney) then drive across town to drop"Aussie pop" after 32 days of good service...
.what a bonding experience it was...great warm up for next 10 month...
we did not see one...a koala
boys discussing with Phil after Python hunt.....they saw a big one and were pretty excited....

camping by the sea...our last stop

Luca had to jump in freezing pool while Phil was playing guitar

Luca playing with Phil's dog

Beautifull NSW scenery

Byron Bay and Staying with Phil

Fantastic time staying at our friend Phil around Byron Bay!
Phil is an old friend from the Jet Ski/motocross days who moved to Australia 12 years ago!
We chilled with him in his fantastic home and talked and talked about the good old time.
Did not see Phil for over 12 years and what I remembered of him was intact.....as nice and fun as ever!
Thanks for great time , hope to see you in Florida and.....We will be back, your area is as good as it gets!
7 miles beach

Byron bay

Byron bay light house

Phil and the boys

Wategos bay near BB

Phil and the family

Greeting from Mullunbimby NSW

Looking at ocean from our friend's hilltop home

New South Wales

Our fourth and last Australian state is greeting us with a fantastic coast line and plenty of surfing spots.....(Cold water right nowY

Gold coast and Surfers Paradise

Quite a difference of pace !
The last couple days we have experienced more people than the 4 weeks before.
With few millions people between Brisbane and Surfers PAradise area we are now in a different World.
The drive from Hervay Bay to Kirra beach (our base camp) was fine on 2 lanes and sometimes 4 and 6 lanes highway.
Luckily we have the warmest winter week on record and winter is just a word when you have 90 degrees (30).
Surfers Paradise is a combination of Miami Beach and California....definitely not a bad combo!
Real estate is spectacular and everything is available as any modern town.....
We really like it around here and so far it would be our favorite place if we had to move down under (BUt we keep a seet spot for Manly beach where Carol and I stayed 15 years ago...)
Today we will cross the border to New South Wales and stay at friends untill end of week, then we need to be in Sydney by Monday to let Aussie pop go.....
Carol and Luca at the beach

Surfers Paradise

Main drag in SP....the trees are beautifull

Australian biker in SP....different...Puma shoes , baggy pants .....helmets....go figure..

Public Bussing around the gold coast....our second favorite form of of transportation

Surfers paradise building.......very Miami Beach

Cool Fraser Island pictures

Fraser island was for sure the highlight of the week!
The biggest Sand Island in the world and a 4 wheels drive haven....actually if you do not have a 4x4 you are NOT allowed on the island! They should even specify " experience driver!"
Very challenging deep sand trail in rain forest , dunes ,nearby fresh water lake and unbelievable ride on the beach (kind of like home in Florida but with nobody and no speed limit.....It was fun to go 100k (60mph) on the sand.
It was very demanding (and expensive) to get there (wake up at 5am, rental 4x4, training, ferry)but worth the time and money...a must do if you are around the sunshine coast in Australia Luca in front of a ship wreck (boat has been there 70 years)

Parked on the beach with an airplane on right corner.... private planes are allowed to land as well

Boys looking at rusty holes

shipwreck and landcruiser

the boss!

A monkey in an exotic tree

US at Mc kenzie beach.....a nice french guy took the picture (a lot of french in Australia and like the Australians they think i am .....American..(funny)

this one was an easy trail

A Luca Moment...bouncing on daddy's leg

the ferry that took us to Frazer Island

Fraser island

FANTASTIC day four wheeling Fraser island
In a rented Toyota land cruiser
About 100k of challenging sand trails and fantastic scenery
More pictures to come

Katherine to Ocean Pacific

Good week for schooling!

the kids had to work hard every day since we drove and drove and drove!

It was like crossing the US and feeling like you were in Nevada or Texas all the way!

That said it was not that bad! the good ship "Aussie pop" worked good swallowing 15 liters per 100k (15mpg) at up to $ 7 a gallon.....make you appreciate home for sure!

We had about 1000k straight down south and 2000km  east and a lot of potholes (1 Australian told me weeks ago that our roads in the US were better than Australia....I now believe him..it was rock and rolls for hours some time.

We are starting to miss our "roadhouses" and the quietness that goes with it! It is always strange to come back to civilization...we quickly miss the emptiness and the lack of traffic.

We started to digest the distance we digested and all we seen and we are already feeling like the end of this chapter.

 

Now a little joke I created during my countless hours of driving....and boredom

Promise it will be the only one!

 

"Australia on the cheap"

(For our friends leaving in the Southwest of US only!)

Go one evening at Outback Steakhouse, drink a lot of beer (Foster) repeat, drink a lot of beer ,Get drunk!(bring a 6pack for road)

Then go to your local Zoo and steal a Kangaroo.....any size will work!

Drive carefully (you could still be drunk!) to most barren piece of desert nearby!

Wait for sunrise, open a can of Foster and let the kangaroo go,

Smile, in few hours you have seen as much as we have seen in couple weeks.....and saved a ton of money!

 

Ahahahahah!

 

 

 

 

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pix Katherine to Pacific ocean

Alec designing his next freestyle move!

Gin Gin on the east coast (unlike Gin Gin on the west coast)

little highlight on the road

our last roadhouse

the long straight line

more road train at 3 ways (the left turn at K 1000

Gladstone harbour Pacific Ocean

Saturday noon, we made it to the other australian ocean!
Glad to be here and feel the breeze
Now we have about 10 days down to Sydney
Easy going ...it will be

747

I wish we could have been trading for last 1000k leaving longreach.....

flashback to Tuesday

Tuesday before life became a long straight line we went canoeing in the Katherine George!
the water was so cool and green and even had an encounter with a local creature.
the kids were thrilled and I was impressed when they jumped in the water with me 2 minutes after meeting Mr Croc.... croc trap (up tp 15 feet long)

Enlarge but this one is 5/6 feet long

Luca trying to talk to a Croc

so beautifull, kind of like the Colorado River with Crocs and kangaroos

1717 kn to the beach

On the road again.......

My kingdom for a cruise control

Got up at 6 am this Wednesday morning and already 500 k
The roads are so straight and no cruise control

Darwin and going south

We got back our tropical life in Darwin and loved it!

Spent 3 nights there and enjoyed every minutes of it!.First went to downtown and visited the main active street (Mitchell street) then went to the open house of the governor's mansion and finish the day at the harbor ( another great Australian urbanism success!

And as a promise we took the kids to a local  steak house.The boys did not have much meat in their system for couple weeks and watching them eat meat reminded us that we were not vegetarian!

Next day we went for the botanical garden to smell roses and to check local vegetation. It was very interesting even though we had trouble keeping the kids attention!

Then final evening was at Mindyil Beach ,home of the famous local sunset market... 

We had Japanese food, crepes and Banana splits.....all good combos!

First stop today was at the biggest motorcycle shop in Darwin, the boys were drooling and Carol was enjoying herself.....I was the one that had to extract everybody..........go figure!

Quick lunch stop at Adelaide river and we got early to destination Edith Falls!

What a paradise it is, directly out of "crocodile Dundee !

Different than Florence falls and this time we were not greeted by a Taipan (very dangerous snake) leaving the pool when we got there!

We swam in a big lake (only fresh water crocodiles in this one and the Aussies do not seems much worried about them!

The water was crystal clear and cool....we had a blast!

Trying to push forward our biggest leg to Brisbane but within 24 h we will have the big days coming up..Brisbane is 3000km away and we have to get there by end of week....(2000 miles)

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Darwin and going south

braving the crocs at Edith falls

yes crocs......small one

Alec reflecting

upper pool Edith fall

the crowd watching sunset in Darwin

Edith falls and the boys ready to jump

Sunset in Darwin

Luca having a "carnivorus" moment

3 boys at Darwin harbor

Carol smelling roses (private joke)

Timor sea at sunset

the 4 with Darwin bay in background