Sydney

 Between Japan and Dog sitting, Eddie and I spent a week in Sydney. It was great (except for the 36 hours spent with a stomach protest against some frozen Indian food - do not eat Lamb Rogash from the supermarket in Australia).

Here are some pics.

In a (sweaty) beach walk of about 2 1/2 miles.

A cemetary with an ocean view

The Sydney Observatory

Eddie on the beach walk

That cemetery again.

An old Deco staircase under the. Harbor Bridge

Eddie on a ferry from downtown to Manly Beach

At Manly

Fitzroy Falls

 I was surprised to see that the area near us had several waterfalls. In reality, Aussie weather makes the falls vary by season, but we ventured to a few. This one at Fitzroy Falls was right off the route inland. They were cool looking.

The falls are in a national park, and so the falls themselves were very close to the visitor center. The paths were well paved and overlooks were well done.

While we saw it from right above, this was the view from about a 1/2 mile away.

Eucalyptus trees on our vacation

Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia. They have been exported all around the world, but they are ubiquitous in Australia. In fact, there are very few other trees. 

Now there are different types of Eucalyptus - 900 in fact - and they are the dominant tree, often the only tree, in most of Australia. They are twisted and beautiful and often fragrant. We hiked through a lot of the country and they were everywhere.

I'm Back

 I have no idea why I couldn't get to Blogger easily overseas. But I'm back now and I will post some pictures.

We were south of Sydney for the dog sitting. The weather was nice and cool. A little too cool some mornings, but much better than the 115s here.

First, the dogs. Callie is the big mixed dog - a girl - a super powerful. Sweet, but looks a little frightening. Diego is the greyhood. He is a rescue from a dog track. He is the most laid-back dog ever. He liked being scratched, but you only knew it on rare occasions when he came to you, head down. Most of the time he just lazed around on the dog beds in the front room with us.

And yes, Eddie had to walk them morning and night for the last week after I fell on my fractured ribs, again. So yeah for him.

A nice walk on the beach about a mile from the house.

Hanging out on the deck in the sun.

Diego

Callie

This was taken for scale of the Bird of Paradise plant.