JoJo Rocks

Saturday went up to Nelson Bay very pretty ocean and beach views and sand dunes where the tourists toboggan and ride camels.

We then went for an amazing dinner with some oil people who hunted Bill down on the golf course.

The drive home was challenging as we made a wrong turn and our GPS had a anurisim in downtown Sydney!!!

Today was the final day of competition and I ran 14 km of the 1/2 marathon and Jo after a rigorous training program, that started Friday, did the 5km race walk.

Jo did awesome ,not a single caution and Janice is all over her to pursue her Masters career.

We fly home in the morning .

Budgie Smugglers

That is the Aussie slang for a Speedo , we saw a lot of older Aussies wearing B.S. at the surf rescue event, not a pretty sight ,as the competitors were at least 50 years and teams cumulative ages were 130 plus.

The golf competitions now over and while Bill made it to the final, we are not bringing home any hardware.

The weather has been okay mid 20's and very windy which the Aussie's tell us is unusal but beats the weather we hear Alberta is recieving.

Tommorrow is the last day of touring and we have decided to skip the Blue Mountains in favour of Port Stanley and the Hunter Valley (wine country).

We are racing on Sunday and attending closing ceremomies.

Jo and I have been spoiled by Victoria and as beautiful and cosmopolitan as Sydney is the traffic and cost of everything in Sydney makes Victoria look pretty sweet.

Opening Ceremonies & 10 km

Our first event of the games was the 10 km on Sunday am . It was held at the Olympic Park which is a huge collection of athletics stadiums (at least 10 different stadiums) and we ran on the plazas surrounding many of them which was a great feeling. Some very good runners , I found it a bit disconcerting to be going as hard as I could and seeing from the number of the man in front of me that he was over 70 years old . We had guys in the house that ran 36 minute 10 kms and did not even come close to medaling in the 45-49 age group the winner did 32 minutes ,yikes.

Jan was 4th in her age group and beat her big brother .

The opening ceremonies were quite a thrill walking into the Olympic Stadium with your sport , seeing your picture on the jumbotron was very cool . Can only imagine how cool it would be if you were an Olympian .They put on a very good show for all of us.

Tomorrow we start golfing. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Give it a Go

We spent 5 hours today at the Carins Zoo. Highlight had to be the croc feeding those suckers are very big and scary !

Met up with Janice & Bill and the rest of the crew. There are eight of us staying in a house in the Balmain area of Sydney .The house is very cool.
It has a very oriental theme including a budda in the backyard that we like to take pictures around.

Driving in Sydney is gross, very heavy traffic and Sydney is difficult to get around due to bridges, one way streets and round abouts.Thank God for GPS and for Jo!
Jo has been doing a stellar job of shuttling everyone around in the 8 passenger van. .

There are 28,000 people from 95 countries competing in 28 events at the games . Unfortunately they were not ready to register them all and some people had to endure 5 hour line ups and are having to go back multiple times but the volunteers are trying hard and it is all good no worries mate!

We have gone from perfect weather in Queensland to monsoon weather our first couple of days in Sydney . We played golf in gale force winds and sideways rain in our Ryder Cup . Canada won and I played a 1956 Olympian retired golf pro , neat guy.

We went to Manley on the ferry, reminded us of the Seabus, and that was another trip highlight watched surfers and surf rescue competition.

down and under

Craft Disease

It has been a world wind holiday having done 4 tours in 5 days . We have now seen three World Heritage sights and been fed more information then you get watching Discovery channel for a week!

Did you know that Aus has more plants species then Europe and North America combined ? These species include an incredible array of unpronounceable aboriginal names as well as such descriptive names as The Wicked Hairy Mary Fern .

We are now suffering from information over load and C.R.A.F.T. ( can't remember a fing thing) disease. Guess that comes with age .

We can cross off the list the kangaroo and the croc in the wild .

Weather continues to be perfect and the Great Barrier Reef was awesome ! A definite must see.We were at the Agincourt Reef on the Outer Reef 1 1/2 hours by fast cat from Port. We had am amazing variety of fish and coral including white tip sharks. Jelly fish that are not usually present until Nov- Dec have already shown up due to the warm seas, the water at the beaches is 30 degrees!
They tell us that the fertilizer from the sugar cane fields is contributing to the decline of the reef. The rain forest is badly in need of rain not having had any for over 6 weeks .

"great" and "diverse" are two words that the Aussies use liberally.

Have been meeting people on the tours including other WMG competitors from Edmonton who were related to a high school classmate of mine , small world.

We head down to Cannes tomorrow and then down to Sydney the next day .

Ros thanks for the posts we have sent you and Cole emails.

No Worries Mate

Aussie really do talk like that and they also say "too easy" quite a bit .They are very friendly and helpful . Traveling is much easier when there is no ( okay only a small) language barrier.

We went four wheeling all day yesterday and that was really something .Pitching up and down single tracks roads made out of sand and racing along beaches at 80 km an hour while other vehicles come at you at the same speed and there are not a lot of rules for driving the beach so it is a bit of the wild west !!! Queensland is the Texas of Aus and the city folk grumble they can't even get them to agree to go on daylight savings .

We toured Brisbane by the city fast cats yesterday , what a great way to see a very beautiful city . The river winds all through the city and the city has done amazing job of incorporating the river into the city with river walks and pedestrian bridges . really a great model for other cities .

Went to Mike and Jan's for dinner last night , superb !!!! great to catch up with Mike and meet his family and see their beautiful home. Hope they come to Canada to visit us some day .

We are now in Port Douglas our 3rd city in 5 days and we head out to the reef tomorrow at 8 am .The drive up was very windy and we were passed by the local Porsche club and two Ferraris ,I know Cole will like that , one of the Porsche was driven by a dead ringer for David Suski !

We have a prepaid cell and the number is 043 868 9591 country code would be 61.

Weather has been great very warm and sunny close to 30 degrees most days.

On the 6th we will do a jungle tour