by Julie

Queensland indeed

The place I am staying in Cairns - or Caans as the locals pronounce it - has no internet which is a pain so I am only picking up free internet around the city. Wifi now the priority for booking accomodation! But it's beautiful here. Was up at Cape Tribulation yesterday, which was named by Captain Cook in 1770. I imagine it looked exactly the same back then.      I didn't realise that Northern Queensland was so tropical. It's basically permanent summer. It's about 30 degrees every day and it's hell on the hair.…
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by Julie

Easter in Australia

Well it's Holy Thursday and there is no evidence that the Australians are going mad buying drink for tomorrow. I can see the queues in the Spar in Clonsilla in my mind.  A lot of places will be closed here tomorrow but I don't think the whole country is going to shut down. I hope not. I got the Ghan train down from Alice Springs to Adelaide last week and it was really cool. Slow, but cool. The train had 41 carriages and was 942 metres long - nearly a kilometre - so I suppose…
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by Julie

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Well I made it to Australia and it's just as exciting as I thought it would be. I swam in the Indian Ocean off Perth on my first day here and that was a thrill. The bottle of wine I had just scoffed with my host Kathy helped.   I went to Freemantle prison and looked for any ancestors but I don't think I can claim an Australian passport just yet.   There was a lovely parade in Perth on Sunday, and I met Stephen Keegan and his girlfriend Hilary and their friends.  I think…
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