Philynda nearly Travelled Out -- ( This Time)

Someone said to me --- "Ok , you might have driven a long way , but you hav'nt seen that much of Australia really" -- and you know what , -- they are dead right.

We make no apologise for saying that we have been here or there and it is a fact that at the end of this trip , we will have driven around 7,000 kilometres.

I think it's a bit disingenuous to say that we hav'nt been any where or seen very much and to be fair to us-- unless we pull off down every road off every highway then we can only see what we see and speak about those things that we have seen or have learnt.

Lynda & I push ourselves not to just be lazing around , especially when we are in a new continent / country we have never been before, in order to maximise what we are able to say that we have seen when we are done, even though that will just be snap shots as we pass by or through anywhere on the trip. Stopping hear and there for a coffee , beer and a chat to the locals, we do this a lot .

Of course we can only see what is on either side of the roads/motorways both near and in the distance. We can only get a picture or two of where ever we decide to pull in to or where we have booked to stay and to that end we can only write what we learn along the way.

So if there is one regret that we have on the return from |Port Douglas , down the East Coast  to Sydney , is that we did not have enough time to spend more days at Airlie Beach, Rockhampton, Noosa Head, Byron Bay -- but most of all Crescent Head.

Of all the places that we have stopped on the way down , I have to say that this is the Quintessential Australian place I have ever seen. I would liken the picture of this place as that which we have seen in magazines and on the TV ( Kind of Home & Away stuff)
From 6am this morning CRESCENT HEAD was buzzing, and the surfer dudes were there out and ready in force at that time.
I mean that by 9am the place was rammed with complete families who were on the camp sites right by the beach , or French guys who work in Sydney who had picked up the report on todays weather and surf and drove here last night, who we met and chatted to today.

The photos may not do it justice and may not depict how many there were in the water , without a wide angle but there were a great many in the water either waiting on their boards or up on them, riding the surf--- so forgive our feeble attempts but I aint lugging the camera that the guy in the seat has------

 This is the creek where there were children playing in it around 8am with Canoeing going on as well

 This is the stunning view up the hill above-- it was breath taking.

Fantastic area, quality houses and as I have mentioned before very clean and tidy.

An bigger with the lenses and he would need scaffolding -- :-)

These chaps were probably Surfer Dudes in their day who have since settled down to the life of a weekend golfer  -- and the course comes right down to meet the Beach.

 It certainly appeared to be Surf City---and the age group of the surfers was remarkable as to the spread some where between 10 and 80 I would say

 Helicopter buzzing around and I think they give regular reports on the radio stations where the surf is good

 So here is the other half or my world, who loves to take her piccies--

Just on the way out we saw our Hotel and the restaurant from last night-------

So , finally after the 6 hour journey back into the heart of the city here in Sydney , we couldn't resist getting a couple of shots of this Iconic Structure----

 

So just to round this up, I would just like to say that we may well have not seen that much of Australia---after all it is an enormous country --- but we have seen both a lot of linear kilometres of it in those 7000 kilometres of it , and we have also seen some pretty spectacular---and touched some like Ayers Rock, so we are very pleased with what we have managed to squeeze in to our 5 weeks here.

 

We do have regrets and I think we are both agreed that there is some unfinished business here in Australia, -- maybe Darwin, definitely some of the bays on the east coast and most definitely another week at the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas.

 

But above all that is the fact that we have been able to get together, no matter for how short a time, with family, way the other side of the world and that is not only special for Lynda and Me, but we hope will make a connection for the future with children and grandchildren --- nothing quite like families is there-------