Awaydays Blog Post 8: Nature n Stuff

Yesterday we went to Mulligan's Flat with Susan's sister Kathy. We saw three echidnas in the space of a 3km walk (bringing my lifetime total of echidnas to 4).

We also saw kangaroos and wallabies, but no good photos available on our phones.

Afterwards Kathy's husband John joined us at the café for an excellent lunch, before we headed off to the National Arboretum café for ice cream. It was hot and windy, so Susan, Kathy and John headed out to look at bonsai while I sat in the cool.

Tonight for dinner we're looking forwards to home made pizza. 

Yum!!

All the photos on the blog whilst we're away will be taken from our cheapest available phones. Camera photos may (or may not) follow.

Awaydays Blog Post 7

Four pictures. A walk, a view from home, and a nighttime art tour.

Awaydays Blog Post 6: Transport

Today was all about transport. First, a ferry (although this image was taken last night)

Then a train

And the purpose of today, Dad's new wheels.

Then we drove back to Canberra.

Awaydays Blog Post 5

It was a big day yesterday - three ferries, light rail, three buses, 6.7 km walked, a sculpture trail, a shark alert, and dinner with friends we met in Tours. Add to that 7 beaches, 30°C heat and humidity, you'll excuse us if we write no more.

Why is no-one swimming at Manly?

They're all at Bondi.

I'm getting good at selfies.

Awaydays Blog Post 4: The Phoney War

Last time Susan and I were in Australia we brought our little Wiko brick phones and my "big" phone that we only used for satnav. Unfortunately, even though France still hasn't turned off it's 2G, Australia did that ages ago. This meant we had to shift the SIM card from one of the little phones into the big phone and work like that.

This time we boxed clever, brought our French 4G phones, and on our first day here (traumatically and expensively) bought an Australian SIM card for one of them. That worked great for 24 hours, giving us phone calls, texts, and data - and then it suddenly died. No amount of changing settings, putting the SIM in different slots (and different phones) made any difference.

A picture of a beach to help me de-stress.

It transpires that Australia turned off its 3G system on Friday. I knew that was coming. What we (and many other people) didn't know is that it also turned off parts of the 4G system, rendering all but the most expensive 4G phones brought in from overseas useless. (France is planning to turn off 3G in 2027)

After much debate, we eventually bought, for $127, a new, Australian mobile phone. It might also work in France, it might not. We're using it for texts and phone calls, but also as a USB hotspot, meaning that both of us can use our phones for everything except for phoning and texting.

Another picture of a beach. It's not working.

We have now spent a day and a half of our visit sorting out phones. We are peeved.

Awaydays Blog Post 3: Burdlary

We were out for lunch with my father. We all ordered battered barramundi with salad and chips - as you can see.

Susan realised they hadn't delivered Dad's coffee, so she went off to check. She was gone a while, dad and I were deep in conversation, when (literally) out of the blue a kookaburra flew down, and was just about to strike at Susan's fish when I flapped it away.

Apparently about three people a day lose their lunch that way, but the restaurant just replaces it. We had a giggle about it with the ladies at the next table and later spied the bird with a delicious morsel, sitting on a branch near the restaurant.

No photos of the bird, as I considered saving Susan's lunch more important than reportage.