Goodbye Australia, for now.

Sea Baths, Newcastle

The moral of this latest story is talk to your host and, as a good Scout, ‘Be Prepared’.  The ‘Little Yellow Beauty’ took us on the last leg from Newcastle to Kooloombakh (Kevin’s farm near Taree) without any mishaps, and there we finally parted.  When we first contacted Kevin we asked for about 2 weeks volunteering, but as we had not talked for a while when we arrived he was in ‘Summer Holiday’ mode and had very little work for us,  we helped for a few days, during which it rained nearly all the time.  Megan’s sewing skills were once again in demand, making curtains and cushion covers for one of his ‘helper’ caravans and I tidied a shed, but what a shed, a veritable Aladdin’s cave.  We then hastily arranged and moved on to another Helpx at Repton to help Leigh and Liz, two artists, with some jobs, cleaning the pool for me (again) and Meg general stuff and we are now house sitting for them for a few days, before couch surfing in Sydney for 3 nights.

Swimming in the 'Bogie Hole'

A bit 'Pythonesque!'

Our latest visit to Australia has reinforced our opinion of the country, the feeling of lots of space; you don’t feel the pressure of a large population like you do at home in the UK.  This manifests itself in many ways; the space on the roads when you move away from the cities, the places to stop for a picnic without jostling for a table, much less litter and overflowing bins.  

Barney looking out at the world

 After 'The Crossing'

Station Wait

In general the people here have a ‘can do’ attitude, as opposed to the finding any excuse for ‘not doing‘.  On the TV people have been interviewed during the latest flooding in north NSW and south Queensland and they just except and clean up without waiting for help.  A farmer with most of his land under water and his stock moved (days of toil) to higher ground just shrugged and said the water would help the grass grow.  Some of these people were flooded only last year in what was supposed to be ‘once in a lifetime’.

Sub Tropical rain forest

We have seen more of the country, driving west to east was fantastic and we run out of superlatives to describe it, meeting old and new friends, as well making more new ones along the way, we are going to need another year to visit all these people across the world we have become friends with.

Mylstom Beach

So now, New Zealand here we come, first we visit Megan’s cousin, Graham and his wife Sarah and their two children, Amy and Henry, then another Helpx near Nelson.  I still need a card for my Valentine.  I wasn’t going to bother! (Megan’s Comment).

View from a hilltop on Kevin's farm