The land down under

I just returned from 3 weeks in Australia. What a fabulous trip that began in Sydney and ended about 1500 miles away in Cairns. It was chilly as it’s their coldest month but it made for some great skies and cool crisp mornings. During the first week my battery charger for the D2X fell victim to the 220 volt current and I was faced with dying batteries and not one camera store that stocked the charger. In a total fluke, I walked into Camera House in Taree NSW and Alan the manager happened to have a used one there. Alan gave me the tour of his personal shots which were excellent – very Jay Maisel. David also pitched in and helped with selling me the charger. Really cool – thanks guys I REALLY appreciate it. 

It was a great experience. Will I go back? Probably not the flight is long, long, long. The people I met along the way were so friendly. Everyone was in a great mood and willing to chat on just about anything. They like Americans but not our government so much, but that makes two of us. Their food is not so good, it kinda lacks taste or richness – it’s actually healthier that way but sometimes healthy doesn’t cut it. The beaches are beautiful, towns are really clean and people seem to move with a bounce in their step. In the heart of Sydney with tons of cars moving in every direction you rarely hear a horn blow. It’s a graceful ballet of flow interupted by the weird sounds from the “walk” signs. People seem to have patience and more tolerance for each other. Maybe it’s because 90% of them live near the beach and the balmy weather lends itself to happy thoughts.

Nope, I didn’t see Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe or Keith Urban but I wasn’t looking. However, I was told that Nicole frequents the harbor where this pic was taken. G’day mate.