We met up with a short but quick tour of Sydney and stopped at several different hotels to pick up passengers and then wound our way out of the city. Then there were miles and miles, then kilometers and kilometers of driving to do. Oh what fun the bus can be! We did see some kangaroos and some emu along the roadside. Sorry, no pictures - the animals were only posing for pictures on the other side of the bus. We were also speeding past them at 80-100 kph. I think that is about 60-75 mph. I assure you there will be pictures of the kangaroos later on.
On our first day of travel we laid down 633 kilometers;
that is 380 miles. The first stop we made was in Mittagong. We had not
really met any of the 30 people on the bus ("coach" I have just been corrected),
so Nina and I set off to explore Mittagong in 30 minutes or less. We did
find the Mittagong Public School, but there was nobody in class today as
it was Saturday. In the garden in the front yard, we found this neat bottle
brush plant. Our first day was a bit drizzly, but made for this great double
rainbow. The rainbow picture and the next one were taken on the Hay Plain.
Then we stopped in the town of Hey for Morning Tea. By now Nina and
I have hooked up with some friends on the bus. We met Nic from New Zealand
and Amy and Samantha from Sydney. After a cold night and riding on the
bus across kilometers of nothing, we spent morning tea wandering around
Hey looking for a store that was open on Sunday and the score of last night's
soccer game. My roommate back home works at an IGA store and low and behold
I found one here in the down under, so this photo is for you Rod. After
tea we breezed into the visitors' center in Hey and Nina found some really
cute koala finger puppets made from local Hay wool. Later that day we
continued over the Murry River and made a wonderful stop at the local Target
store in Mildura. After the first night of camping, many of our new friends
remembered what they had forgotten for the camping trip. I had forgotten
batteries for my camera and soap to do laundry. Nina remembered exactly
where she left her knit hat, at home in Reno. Target was very good to us
this day.
Camping our second night in Renmark was much more fun.
I think it was only slightly warmer, but that made all the difference. We
were camped right along the Murray River and some of the locals came to visit
the camp next to ours. I could walk right up to this pair of pelicans, but
they reminded me to keep a respectful distance. Pelicans, I can tell you,
are very rude birds. This pair would fight each other for every scrap of
food tossed to them. As soon as the cracker hit the ground they ignored
it like a piece of dirt. These animals are way too full of themselves. The
night of June 23rd also celebrated Paul and Edy's 14th anniversary, Congrats!
They are from the San Francisco area. Wow, what a small world! That night
we all sat around a great campfire and told jokes, riddles, and played brain
teasers. This was a really great night. The people in this picture are
from left to right ...,..., Jackie, Laura, Robin (blue jacket and orange shirt),<empty
spot> Joy, Jean, Cathren, Owen, Colin from England, Nic me tent mate,
Amy, and Samantha on the end. Next door we also found a possum in the tree.
I think this possum made his home here in this tree because all he had to
do was walk a bit down and 3 people would hold up biscuits for him to take
away. It was like cracker shopping. I can only imagine that this happens
every night there are 3 campers around this tree and the pelican figured
it out too. The possum knows all the love flows to him first. This is
Catherin form Belgium feeding it.
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