Chapter 3

The marathon trip around the world continues. We arrived Down Under nearly two weeks ago and it’s been pretty much work work work since we got here as we had NOTHING planned in advance. Even so, adapting to the Australian lifestyle was pretty easy since Australia is pretty much just Canada with palm trees. Seriously. My new name for Australia is Bizarro Canada. Here’s why: they drive on the other side of the road (yet another driving challenge I conquered when we rented a car in Sydney). It’s summer in January and winter in August. Instead of the icy arctic hinterland they have the steamy-hot outback. Instead of forest-dwelling grizzly bears they have ocean-dwelling sharks. Instead of playing hockey on frozen lakes in sub-zero temperatures they surf on warm ocean water under the tropical sun. And oh yeah, the water turns the other way when you flush the toilet. Nevertheless, other than people not pronouncing the ‘R’ in certain words and adding an ‘R’ in words where there isn’t one*, you might think you were back in Canada when you walk around town.

Now for a quick update on what we’ve been up to lately (for our curious parents…). After a few days of doing the Sydney thing spent a couple days in the Blue Mountains region (near Sydney, not Collingwood) hiking in the rain. Then we went to a paradisiacal seaside hamlet called Stanwell Park, south of Sydney, where we spent a few days with the second cousins of a good Troglie friend of mine (heaps of shout-out here to Sox and the Forsythe’s, aka the Nicest Family Of All Time). Even with the constant rain (DON’T WORRY, we are VERY far away from the flood region!), I managed to get some surfing and tennis in with 16-year-old Liam - ahhh.. to be on summer vacation from high school again...

And now for our big announcement: we have a brand new member of our travelling family (no, Elise is NOT pregnant!). I’ll give you a hint: it’s another Mitsubishi. It’s a bit older and bit bigger than the Mitsubishi Space Star we bought in Eastern Europe. This one is more of a family car, really. Actually, it’s more of a mobile home in our case. Who buys two cars during their trip around the world anyway?

-G

*for example, ‘Melbourne’ becomes ‘Melbun’ while ‘pawn shop’ becomes ‘porn shop’.

Nature

More nature

And more...

Famous Manly Beach 

Us and pro surfer Big L

See below for what that pile of cash bought us

Our new baby! (Man, I need to cut that 'fro!)