17 SEPTEMBER 2014

Hi all!

I hope all is good wherever you are in the world!

So my time in Australia is sadly drawing to an end:-( In the end I had a wonderful 6 1/2 weeks in Sydney, four days in the Northern Territory and six days in Melbourne. There are no prizes for guessing that I really liked Sydney!

Around about the time I sent my last update, I made friends with some locals and basically spent six weeks hangin' out with them and being a tourist whenever possible. So I went to museums and galleries, and tried out belly dancing, which was an interesting experience! I may not be able to pop my hips, but boy can I shimmy! I went rock climbing, which I haven't done in over twenty years, and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I spent a lot of time reading, writing, thinking, watching documentaries, and generally just chillin’ out. I basically did lots of things that I never quite get around to doing when work gets in the way.

We also went to see a few of talks at the Opera House, including the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, which was excellent! I guess it's a little like TED, but it's an annual event with the weekend full of talks and debates on controversial topics.

I was such a tourist the first time I saw a koala and a grey kangaroo! Kangaroos are so friendly (grey ones) and their fur so soft. I spent a couple of afternoons just chillin’ with them and took a few selfies. I posted a pic on FB and everyone seems to like it so much, I thought I'd attach it here.

So a couple of Sunday's ago I flew to Ayres Rock. As we were landing I could just see the red landscape, and I remember thinking 'where on earth are we going to land?' but there was a runway and the smallest airport I've ever seen!

In a previous email I sent from Sri Lanka I said the guide books compared Sigiriya Rock to Uluru (Ayres Rock), but as I'd never been, I couldn't comment.  So here goes with my commentary now that I have been: they look alike, but the colour is completely different and Uluru is significantly bigger. From memory, it's about five miles if you were to walk around it. Sig has lion paws carved into the rock. It's ok to climb Sig. It's not ok to climb Uluru, although people do it. Uluru feels very spiritual and calm, whereas I didn't feel this at Sig.

The experience was amazing - to see Uluru from the plane, to see it from the minibus, to touch it, to walk around it and just sit and be was pretty special. That evening we watched the sunset. Opposite the sunset was the moon and in the middle was Uluru - it was pretty spectacular.

We also walked Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon - both were very early starts to avoid the heat of 36 degrees by 10 am.  I really liked the Kings Canyon trek.

The other really cool thing about this mini trip was that we slept under the stars with a full moon. I feel I was mis-sold what a swag is, but nevertheless, it was a really nice experience. The fact that the weather was good defo helped!  A swag is basically a sleeping bag inside a canvas envelope. And you are definitely sleeping on the ground!

I don't normally like tours, but this one was defo worth the pennies.

So I'm currently in Melbourne. It's very different to Sydney! I'm not going to say too much as I haven't really given it a chance only having been here for six days and I haven't seen local life. But I do like it. I like the coffee shops. I like the cycling culture. I like the fact there are so many events here. I'd never heard of AFL until I got to Melbourne and somehow we managed to get tickets right at the front the day before. We didn't know who to support - Kangaroos or Cats? I like both! We chose Kangaroos in the end, only because we were surrounded by them (it's the local team), and they won!

So I'm now going to call it a night. It's approaching 1 am and I need to wake up at 5:30 am to catch a flight to Singapore. I'm meeting my mate Dave and we're off to see the Grand Prix!  I remember at the time we booked the tickets, my visa to Sri Lanka still had not been approved, but we were going to the GP! Gosh, that was a long time ago and what adventures I've had since!

Love

Vidia aka Vidi (I've been re-branded since being in Australia!) xxx

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