So many great adventures in the last five days. First and foremost, we have seen roos - lots of roos.

We are still camping and have covered much of the north coast of New South Wales. The Hunter Valley, with its beautiful rolling hills, has more than 200 wineries. We tasted the local wines at two vineyards. The pourers at both wineries were very charming young men and enjoyed sharing their wealth of knowledge about wine as well as some fun Aussie tales. One taught us some local lingo such as “She be right” meaning everything will be fine. We stayed at a small caravan park and enjoyed the curry from the Thai restaurant next door. There seem to be a lot of Asian people in Australia likely because of the close proximity to Asia.

Next we worked our way to the coast and have been blown away by the beauty. The water is turquoise blue-green and the waves are huge. The sand is very fine, not coarse like we are used to. But the best part is that the beaches are unspoiled. Miles and miles of pristine beaches and no one is on them. Not because the locals don’t enjoy the beach, but because there simply is just so much beach. We camped at Booti Booti National Park and enjoyed watching two surfers riding the waves. I waded in the surf and was surprised how warm the water is. We didn’t feel comfortable swimming though because there were “blue bottlers” on the shore (see photo). They are a type of jelly fish that is very blue and has a very long tail. They can sting you with that tail and apparently it hurts a great deal. But they aren’t deadly like the jelly fish further up north. In a couple of weeks, we will fly to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef where the deadly jelly fish are. One sting and you are a goner. We have been told that they are not on the GBR however but are found along the coast (the reef is about 10 miles out into the ocean). We will ask around and get some more information before we take any chances. It seems to be a big concern here.

After a night at Booti Booti, we headed further north to Trial Bay in Arokeen National Park (just south of Coffs Harbor). If there is a “Shang-gri-la”, this is it. It is a perfect spot. We set up camp right on the beach and will be spending three days here. A sailing regatta is going on (the championship for New South Wales) which has been fun to watch. Today there was a strong wind and several boats capsized.

Trial Bay is a campground set at Trial Bay Gaol (French for “jail”). Around 1877, the prison was actually built to house prisoners that were working on building breakwaters (a build-up of rocks that create a protected area for incoming ships). We toured the prison then went on two hikes through the rainforest. Definitely one of the top ten hikes of my life. The vegetation is so interesting and different than we are used to. The birds are abundant and fill the air with their sounds. Some sound like they are laughing; another sounds like a baby crying. We saw two kookaburra which is what that famous Australian song is written about. Along today’s morning hike, we came upon a wallaby not 8 feet in front of us on the trail. They are smaller than a kangaroo and with a rounder face. They both look so weird when they hop, their short arms dangling in front of them, looking useless as can be. I even observed a kangaroo “boxing”. It was by itself so it was just basically air boxing. It was quite a ridiculous sight actually. Now we are in search of koalas. We have been in dense rainforests of eucalyptus trees, but they are difficult to spot. The trees shed their bark this time of year and are therefore white. The “bums” of the koalas are also white so it makes it tricky to spot them when they are high up in the trees.

And my final comment for this entry - I drove on the “wrong” side of the road in the “wrong” side of the car (see photo). I was a weird experience.

We are back in Sydney for 4 or 5 days. I will write again in a couple of days about our visits to Bondi Beach (Chris Martin from Cold Play was spotted there yesterday), Manly Beach, Sydney Aquarium, and more. Cheers.