It's now nearly 4 weeks since my brother, Phillip, and his partner, Jane, returned to England after their 3-week visit to Australia. It was his first trip here in about 30 years and Jane's first ever and both had a great time. Alas, I've been very busy since they departed for home and it's only now that I've found time to record their visit on this blog.
After their arrival in Sydney early one morning we soon hit the road doing the traditional sights of Sydney, where they spent the first two complete days. And guess where we headed first. Yes, Bondi beach! It was a gray, cool and blustery day early in October so there wasn't much life on the beach and both our visitors were rugged up.
I and Phil were born just 1 year and 20 days apart. And he was delighted to see that one of central Sydney's main streets was named after him!
The next stop was also hardly surprising. Here's the Corso at Manly which one reaches by a lovely ferry trip from Circular Quay. The three characters are, of course, Phil, Jane and Dot.
Max was also with us since it was school holidays and I picked him up at Sydney's airport after Bec had placed him a plane in Canberra. Once again P and J posed on the beach-front for a photo.
And, on our return journey, Max was amused to see a water taxi named after him!
After two days seeing the local sights the five of us departed for Armidale, but we couldn't all fit in our Rav4 given the huge amount of luggage P and J brought with them. The solution was simple I drove P and J with me back home and we had a race with Dot and Max who took the train. In Europe the winners would have been the latter two, but Australian country trains are rather slow. The c. 500 km rail journey to Armidale took over 7 hours and we beat them by a cool two hours. We took the back-road home via Thunderbolt's Way, named after a 19th century local bush-ranger who held up stage-coaches and robbed passengers. This route has some interestingly named small villages on it, including Stroud, Stratford upon Avon, and Gloucester! After those, the route heads through 200 km of almost empty and often beautiful countryside.
On getting to Armidale we did some local sights in the town and surrounding countryside. One was a ritual trip to Wollomombi Falls, which captivated them. Here are P and J admiring the gorge and waterfall.
Another trip took us, including Dot, to visit the nearby National Trust historic home, Saumarez. In particular we explored its lovely gardens and had a delightful lunch.
Another ritual trip was to Dobson's distillery c. 40 km south of Armidale. This local farmer turned to making some exquisite drinks - for example gin and whiskeys - many of which have won awards. And there is a nice restaurant attached, where we had lunch.
And our return journey took in some historic sights like this attractive little church at Gostwyck which served a massive nearby farm of the same name.
A couple of days later we took to the road again to Brisbane - the subject of the next post. En route, the two ladies on the trip had the opportunity to extract Excalibur from this stone in a paddock at Glen Innes. The flag flying nearby was also interesting. Have a guess what it's about ... answer at the end.
Well, what's a common theme for all components? Yes, they're all Celtic symbols ... from places like Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Well, Glen Innes claims to be the Celtic capital of Australia.
AS
After their arrival in Sydney early one morning we soon hit the road doing the traditional sights of Sydney, where they spent the first two complete days. And guess where we headed first. Yes, Bondi beach! It was a gray, cool and blustery day early in October so there wasn't much life on the beach and both our visitors were rugged up.
I and Phil were born just 1 year and 20 days apart. And he was delighted to see that one of central Sydney's main streets was named after him!
The next stop was also hardly surprising. Here's the Corso at Manly which one reaches by a lovely ferry trip from Circular Quay. The three characters are, of course, Phil, Jane and Dot.
Max was also with us since it was school holidays and I picked him up at Sydney's airport after Bec had placed him a plane in Canberra. Once again P and J posed on the beach-front for a photo.
And, on our return journey, Max was amused to see a water taxi named after him!
After two days seeing the local sights the five of us departed for Armidale, but we couldn't all fit in our Rav4 given the huge amount of luggage P and J brought with them. The solution was simple I drove P and J with me back home and we had a race with Dot and Max who took the train. In Europe the winners would have been the latter two, but Australian country trains are rather slow. The c. 500 km rail journey to Armidale took over 7 hours and we beat them by a cool two hours. We took the back-road home via Thunderbolt's Way, named after a 19th century local bush-ranger who held up stage-coaches and robbed passengers. This route has some interestingly named small villages on it, including Stroud, Stratford upon Avon, and Gloucester! After those, the route heads through 200 km of almost empty and often beautiful countryside.
On getting to Armidale we did some local sights in the town and surrounding countryside. One was a ritual trip to Wollomombi Falls, which captivated them. Here are P and J admiring the gorge and waterfall.
Another trip took us, including Dot, to visit the nearby National Trust historic home, Saumarez. In particular we explored its lovely gardens and had a delightful lunch.
Another ritual trip was to Dobson's distillery c. 40 km south of Armidale. This local farmer turned to making some exquisite drinks - for example gin and whiskeys - many of which have won awards. And there is a nice restaurant attached, where we had lunch.
And our return journey took in some historic sights like this attractive little church at Gostwyck which served a massive nearby farm of the same name.
A couple of days later we took to the road again to Brisbane - the subject of the next post. En route, the two ladies on the trip had the opportunity to extract Excalibur from this stone in a paddock at Glen Innes. The flag flying nearby was also interesting. Have a guess what it's about ... answer at the end.
Well, what's a common theme for all components? Yes, they're all Celtic symbols ... from places like Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Well, Glen Innes claims to be the Celtic capital of Australia.
AS
3 comments:
Hi Tony, Wow Max is all grown up! What a handsome dude.
ps It is good to see some mirroring taking place. Finally some intelligent people!
I should have added that on a course back in July I learnt that body language is 55 per cent. How we say something eg tone of voice or soft or loud is 38 per cent. What a person says eg words counts for 7 per cent.
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