South from Sydney

My daughter, Jessica, and I have been having a great time exploring southeast Australia. We have been looking around Sydney for the last couple of days. Can you tell what the building is behind us?

You got it. It is the famous Sydney Opera House. We are told it is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Here is is in daylight from the other side of the bay.

The bridge behind Jessica is the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It is nicknamed "The Coathanger". I think that is a pretty good nickname for it. We walked about half way across it. Here is a view from the footpath across the bridge:

Sydney is a nice city with a lot to see, but once you have seen one cathedral in the world you've pretty much seen the lot.

I was much more interested in strolling though Sydney's Botanical Gardens and taking pictures.  Here is one of a Kookaburra in a gum tree (I always thought that song was about a bird in Europe).

And this is a Lorikeet. These little parrots are all over Southeast Australia, and they are very noisy.

After a couple of days in Sydney I was more than ready to leave. I am not a big fan of large cities. I like the mountains and forests much better. The only problem was that it was poring rain all day. Jessica and I stopped at a beach as we drove south and took a pictures of the kangaroos there. You can probably tell how soaked this little joey kangaroo was that Jessica is trying to entice into a petting moment.

This little joey is still inside mama kangaroo. Cute, isn't it?

Kangaroos are grass eaters, and they look a lot like deer in the face. They also often group together in herds like deer.

We had to be careful, Jessica and I, because kangaroos often jump out onto the road. Hit one of them and it would ruin both his and your days.  There are a lot of kangaroos in Australia, all the way from the big gray kangaroos like these down to the small tree kangaroos. They are fun, but what do you think of this Australian Crimson Rosetta? There are a lot of colorful birds in Australia, and they are a lot prettier than kangaroos.

Jessica and I are south and east of the capital, Canberra, tonight. It is still raining, so I did not make Jessica camp in a tent. Instead, we are in a nice motel room in a tiny little town up in the mountains. I hope it stops raining tomorrow.

Ron