Uniquely Australia

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Just a quick update to our uniquely Australian experience.  

We have made arrangements for a 10 day Way Out Back Experience in a 4 wheel drive from Alice Springs to Darwin.  Really excited!  You can check out our itinerary here.  We're going to be the jolly swagmen...hmmm...swagpeople, camping, and letting someone else doing the driving.  We are really getting used to  kicking back.  We leave Brsibane a week from tomorrow.

So after we made our 4x4 travel arrangements, we spent another day in Brisbane walking around and visiting the city museum, the state museum, and the state library, and then taking a nice bike ride. 

My picture of the day was the young man above dishing up a side of Vegemite in a mall cafe.  If you are a New Zealander and enjoy Marmite, you might enjoy Vegemite.  If you are an Aussie, you probably love the stuff.  If you are anybody else, you would probably prefer a pre-colonoscopy cocktail!  Crikey.  This is miserable stuff.

And then, we have been brave enough to go bicycle riding during Magpie nesting season.  Last year, you may recall that our first ride resulted in being attacked by a mad male magpie.

Hey!  Isn't that a part of my ear on the end of your beak?

He nearly knocked me off of my bike and took a good swipe at my ear drawing blood.  After getting the "local" advice, we put cable ties on our helmets.  We were also told that the birds attack from the back when they think you are not looking.  It was suggested that we put some sunglasses on our helmets backwards so the birds couldn't tell if we were "looking" at them.

Is the one on the right, coming or going?

Symmetrically Stylish with Black and Red Cable Ties

I'm Getting Rock N Roll!

What channel are you getting Russ?

Before we did all of this, because we thought it might be an Aussie-American initiation joke, we observed that many Aussies were riding around looking like helmeted porcupines.  So today, we tied on the cable ties and sunglasses and hit the pavement.  We enjoyed our ride.  I did see a shadow of bird flying over my head, but he didn't come near me.  We both still have our ears!  Cheers!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's  on SV Worrall Wind