Thoughts on the trip

Our flight from Sydney to Dallas was long but uneventful. I watched four films.

At 15.5 hours, QF 7 is the longest regularly scheduled flight in the world. Each time we fly Qantas, we find that something is missing that used to be standard. This year, I noticed that we no longer were given the bag with the bottle of water, the tooth brush and the sleeping mask. The staff are still friendly and efficient, the food and wine were fine and I enjoyed my glass of Bundy rum and ice.

Immigration at DFW now has passport scanner machines for US and Canadian  passports. It reduced the time waiting to have your passport inspected significantly and there were no long lines for US citizens. Unfortunately, all that time saving becomes wasted when you have to line up in a very long queue to exit through Customs. There was only one desk operating for all US citizens and every person had to have their passport and custom form inspected.There was a separate long line for non citizens.

I traveled around the world in 84 days, which is four days longer than the days allotted in Jules Verne's novel. It was good to stop living out of my bags and to sleep in my own bed. However, I do miss being able to go out every day and see stuff that I had never seen before. It's mentally very stimulating.

I wore out some of my clothes on the trip so I have been ordering some new travel clothes. I just received a new pair of cargo pants from LL Bean. What I really like about them are the buttons on the cargo pockets which are perfect for storing your passport and other valuables. The buttons make it difficult for pick pockets since it's difficult enough for me to get at anything in the pockets. It's a lot more convenient and comfortable than a money belt and I think I will get another few pairs of these pants.

I've been going through the blogs on a laptop with a big screen and the quality of some of the photos really impresses me. When I create the blogs, I don't get the full effect on the small screen of the netbook I take with me. All I can do on it is crop, adjust the exposure and try to straighten up the tilted photos.

So nothing big is planned for quite a while now. We have arranged exchanges near Leipzig in Germany and Selestat in France for July and August next year. It's time to get back to listening to classical music on my hi-fi system and also building amplifiers.

Catty-watty has been glad to see us but I do miss the dogs in Sydney.

Stroud

This was the day before we would fly back to to the USA. Since it would take over four hours to drive to Sydney, we decided to spend the night in the Hunter Valley before heading on to Sydney the following morning.

Oyster beds in Tuncurry. It's a very quiet and peaceful area.

Driving in Australia is much better when you get off the main highways between the big cities. The road west towards Gloucester was wonderful as the road went round and over the hills near the coast. Eventually we reached this overlook near Gloucester.

The town is overlooked by Barrington Tops.

The typical winter brown of New South Wales.

Stroud is a very small town but has a good number of buildings that are old by Australian standards.

The convict built Court House.

We should have bought it. By Aussie standards, this was cheap at $219,000.

Bus waiting area.

Most country towns in Oz have a main street. The side streets are usually very quiet.

The Post Office.

Old stamp machines.

The yellow XXXX sign would not have been there years ago since XXXX is a Queensland beer. Since the multinationals bought up most of the Aussie beers years ago, there is not too much state loyalty anymore.

The War Memorial. Next year in 2015, there will be massive commemorations for the 100 year anniversary of the landing of the Anzacs in Gallipoli on April 25, 1915..

Town Hall. It was almost noon so it was time for lunch which we had in a small cafe.

Marianne and I shared a bottle of pineapple / ginger beer. It was more of ginger than pineapple but was very good.

My meat pie.

Marianne's chicken pie. Both pies were good. It's getting tough to find a lousy meat pie in Oz these days.

Robin had scones with her tea.

It looked like your basic Aussie cafe.

Very plain Uniting Church.

Click on the photo to get a larger image.

Old school beyond the old graves.

This pole really ruins the photo. This town should really try to have its electricity wires buried.

Not all of the old houses are grand.

The road south to Sydney and the Hunter Valley.

A keen gardener lives here.

Our room at the motel in Cessnock. We loved the colours and we enjoyed staying there. The owner was very friendly and helpful.

The lighthouse at Seal Rocks

A few years ago, Robin and one of her friends from her University days came up to Seal Rocks. She wanted to come back to show us the light house. Geoff and I also came to Seal Rocks but for some reason or other we did not walk up to the light house.

It's not often that you see Dingo warning signs. They are a real problem on Fraser Island off the coast from Urangan in Queensland.

I suspect this bush-fire was a supervised burning off exercise since the vegetation on the left hand side had not been burned.

First view of the light house. It's about a 500 meter walk from the car park.

Just before the headland are two inlets where the ocean waters rush in. 

The big swells from the storm off shore were producing lots of spray.

Make sure you keep watching the video until the end where spray covers the whole gap.

The chasms.

We finally reached the headland. This is the beach to the south, totally deserted.

The light house keeper's cottages. They can now be rented.

I think this light house is the most elegant I have ever seen.

We climbed up a very steep path to the light house. The wind was ferocious.

Seal Rocks. At one time there was a seal colony here but not now.

Steps going up the side.

The wind got even worse as I mounted the steps. I really had to hang on to the railing so that I would not be blown over.

The bluffs separating the chasms.

I cowered in this doorway to take photos.

The path to a flag pole a few yards north of the light house.

Bent over trees.

Isn't it beautiful. Not very tall, but very elegant.

The cottages. We talked to the lady who was running the rental business and she just loved working up there. Whatever the weather, it was always wonderful.