Australia

We're back from 2 weeks in Australia and while it was not warm, we had a good time and would happily go back again, during their spring or fall.  The array of birds and animals that are so different from North America's was really quite amazing.  We went to a zoo in Adelaide, a wildlife preserve in Sydney and then the best part - during a wine tour, driving down a country road - we saw a mob of kangaroos in the wild!  And yes, a group of kangaroos is called a mob.  John took these from the side of the road.  Apparently they're pretty much like deer around Victoria - considered pests by the farmers and will run off if you get too close.  I stayed a bit further back because the bus driver warned us about snakes in the long grass and I had no interest in seeing one of those outside of a glass cage!

At the wildlife preserve, we got to feed and hang out with the kangaroos. 

There were lots of koalas.  

Wombats....

and meerkats.  This one is doing guard duty while the others eat.

There were dozens of colourful, noisy birds and of course, plenty of snakes.  We almost took a picture of 2 fake crocodiles in the Adelaide zoo but happened to overhear a woman pointing out the moss on one of them to her children, so we walked away.  We have hundreds of photos that we could happily bore you with but these are some of the highlights.

Australia is a lot more than animals, of course, however Adelaide was a bit dreary, to be honest.  It was rainy, cold and dark most of the time - a lot like Victoria in the middle of winter.  We did stay in a great vacation rental apartment there.  One of the owners is a chef and the kitchen has in it every spice and condiment that you could imagine, all available for use by the guests.  So between that and the Adelaide market, which is huge, we cooked quite a lot.  Adelaide also had some great restaurants, gardens, museums, etc.

Sydney is a beautiful city and has more gardens, great harbours, the opera house (that we didn't go to, sadly).  We decided to spend money on two day trips out of the city instead, both of which we enjoyed.  The first was to the Blue Mountains and while the mountains themselves are not spectacular compared to the Rockies, it was great to see something other than city.

This photo was taken from a cable car, and you probably can't see it but there are fences near the top.  Apparently people used to climb this big rock and picnic up there but it was deemed too dangerous recently and now you can only look at it.  

The source of water for the area is all underground springs and even in the worst drought conditions, the waterfalls will still be flowing.  This one is called Fairy Falls.  

The second tour was through the Hunter Valley wine region, which has something like 270 wineries in it.  We stopped at 5, all good, and great to have someone else doing the driving.  

We're back in Cebu now, in the new condo, and I'm back at work tomorrow.