Going Down Under

A serene gem of a hideway

First off, happy belated New Year’s! Yeah, I know, only almost a month late with that one. But really it couldn’t be helped. Being sixteen hours ahead of your accustomed time zone throws quite the wrench into blogging. What really twisted up all the motivation and excitement for blogging on the road was the size of my cell phone screen. Compared to my laptop it’s a wee bit smaller and typing more than a tweet’s allotted characters… I couldn’t decide if my thumbs wore out or the frustration of misspelling (from true error or simply tapping the wrong, miniscule letter) many, many times made the idea of bite-sized posts so appealing.

For sure and for certain I had thought that there would be coffee cafes aplenty, those jewels of a city that sell amazing, if not at a minimum, decent coffee. Where the wi-fi would be plenty and easily logged on to. Hmm. Partly due to our travels and partly due to the lack of being native, cafes were aplenty but the coffee not so much and the wifi was like a rare sun dog. Clearly, we didn’t venture far off enough off the main roads to find those hidden gems.

Since hubs has been Down Under before his phone was gifted with the little chip of all-knowing goodness and data allowance. Mine was a paper weight in my purse, kept alive (turned on) for any quick, inspired photo that I hoped wasn’t blurry. So I apologize that the posts haven’t been weekly like I had envisioned and sparse. One, I’ll admit it, I got one posted. Yikes.

Of course, going to Australia means you fly. I like flying; I don’t get too stressed out once we’re passed the whole take-off and landing phases. What you don’t realize is when the tickets indicate you’ll be flying for 10 plus hours, they’re serious. Silly me, I thought ‘oh, I drive seven hours one way going home so this won’t be too bad.’ Ha. Ha. Ha.

Mt. Fuji as we passed by

The difference between driving and flying is that you commandeer the vehicle and can make it stop for a nice long stretch and/or walking break. Flying, well, you’re basically cargo that pays good money. And stretching has to be done carefully so you’re not punching hubs near the eye with your elbow or tripping a stewardess. At least I packed an eye patch thingie and ear plugs so sleep could at least be tempted, if I didn’t pass out from sheer exhaustion first.

Aussie farmland as we began the descent

When we woke from a decent sleep, on the last flight of our journey, on Aussie time, there were few clouds so we could see Australia from above. The outback has a certain appeal from the air but very empty. Unfortunately we didn’t think to get our camera out until we were close to landing. It was pretty cool to fly down the middle of Australia and see it change the farther we went.

Hubs and me with the friend's dog, Flash. Photo credit: Stuart

 

That first step outside the airport, it looks like any other city. As we drove with our friends, the landscape was ‘wow.’ We truly were Down Under.

 

Countryside view. Note how the trees are farmed around.

May your week be filled with family, friends and thoughts of summer time.