Welcome to Australia

	Welcome to Australia

Before the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the Australian continent. Our tour of Queensland took us to Carnarvon Gorge a section of Carnarvon National Park. this Aboriginal rock art on sandstone overhangs is a fragile reminder of Aboriginal people's long and continuing connection with the gorge. Some of the finest Aboriginal rock art in Australia, including rock engravings and freehand paintings can be seen here.

Everyone that I know who visits Australia wants to hold a cute Koala bear including me. While visiting the Koala Sanctuary we discovered that the Koalas which look like cute teddy bears aren't even related to bears. The koala is a mammal related to the kangaroo and the wombat you see above. Australian koalas population has dropped by 90% in less than a decade! We we're very fortunate to see the koala above in the wild and capture great photos.
The wallabies range in size from the size of a rabbit to almost 6 ft long. Unlike the abundance of wallabies seen around Australia, the wombat which live in hilly forest country and likes to burrow underground, are rarely seen in the wild.

	City Cats (cat being an abbreviation of catamarans) are one of the fastest, and funnest ways to get around the riverside areas of the Brisbane. The Sydney Opera House completed in 1973 is one of the world's most distinctive 20th century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts centers in the world.
The Parkes Observatory is a 64 meter telescope used for radio astronomy. It is located about 20 kilometers north of Parkes along the Newell Highway about 380 kilometers west of Sydney. When Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon in 1969, it was the Parkes Observatory’s giant radio telescope that received the transmission, broadcasting it to a television audience of 600 million people.

	After two years of not much exercise we decided it was time to get back into some kind of fitness program. Brisbane and Redcliff area proved to be a great place to do just that. Within a few days of running and just a few weeks of swimming and biking Kip decided he was ready for a triathlon (a 900 meter swim, (in the ocean) a 9 km bike ride and a 2.5 km run). Riding on his little bike brought a lot of attention. The other riders laugh at it, but he had his own cheering crowed. "Go little bike go"

I joined Curves (a ladies gym) back in December after my sister Jeannine and her husband Emile left with the Tim Tams (double coated chocolate wafer cookies). I enjoyed the workouts and met a lot of wonderful ladies. With over 1400 km on our little bikes Kip and I are in much better shape.

Adelia spent the last seven months dock at the Scarborough Marina. We enjoyed our time here and also enjoyed a trip back to the United States and Canada. It was great to see family and friends. Australia is a beautiful country but very far from home. Back on Adelia it was time to check out the equipment to make sure everything worked well before our departure. It was not surprising the the GENERATOR (yes again) did not work. This time the engine needed to be replaced.

It's hard to believe we've been here close to seven months and it's already time to leave Australia. We've really enjoyed this part of Queensland. We found the Australian people to be very friendly and kind. We will miss all our new friends and we hope you will follow our continuing journey through this web site.