Around West and South Australia to Sydney

After Memphis, and another big family trip for Thanksgiving, we rejoined the ship in Bali to sail around the western and southern side of Australia, then spent Christmas in Melbourne and rang in the New Year in Sydney.

As you might imagine, the country is enormous. 90% of the 24 million people live in urban areas along the coast and the rest is a vast, empty continent. In the north, the sand and earth is a bright orange or red as it is rich with ore. Massive mining operations and ports have developed over recent years to feed China’s insatiable steel industry.

Much of the coast is beautiful with long expansive beaches, cliffs and rock formations. Here’s the problem – sharks, blue ringed octopus, salt water crocodiles, and box jellyfish are plentiful. Box jellyfish kill more people than all of the other combined. We didn’t go in the water.

On land, almost all of the snakes are poisonous, as are centipedes, scorpions, and many spiders. Even kangaroos can be much more dangerous than they look. Little known fact – kangaroos can’t walk backward. I’m sure you’ve been wondering.

So, Western Australia did not make our short-list for a place to live. But we did enjoy the cities, played some nice golf courses, visited some wonderful vineyards, and heard some great live music. Then in Melbourne we enjoyed a day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day and watched the first day of the cricket test match between Pakistan and Australia. We always enjoy learning about new sports, and while I knew the basics of cricket, spending the day with serious fans was very educational. These test matches usually go for five full days, and often end in a tie! It was a lot more interesting than you think – seriously.

Finally, we sailed to Sydney harbor and had a great vantage point to watch the midnight fireworks on New Year’s Eve (along with 1 million of our closest friends). I tried to video about 3 minutes of the highlights (below), but as they launch from many locations around the harbor, I couldn’t do them justice. Youtube might be a better source if you’re interested. We’ve always loved Sydney – it was fun to be there on such a special day.