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We headed to the airport to start our next great adventure…driving on the other side of the road!

We picked up our Mitsubishi Mivec with ease and after getting acquainted with the vehicle, we hit the road. In our brains was the single message…keep left on the road!

We had no GPS but we had some maps and some google maps images I had saved onto the ipad. With these in hand, we have to admit that the trip went pretty well considering. Google Maps hp gets strange with their directions sometimes but it reminds me of the GPS on the 401 where you go straight and it thinks you are changing highways all the time.

Driving on the highway is easy work, its when you get into the town and make turns where you have to remember where to drive. All in all, Vero and I got the hang of it over six days and between us we only hit the windshield wipers instead of the signal lights under ten times!

First stop…the Australian Zoo, home of Steve Irwin’s clan! Crikey! This place is definitely playing up the legacy of the Crocodile Hunter and why not?! He is a great lover of animals and put Australia wildlife on the map with his over the top personality.

Our favourite part upon entering is the statue of the Irwin family…quite surreal.

We only had a few hours to kill before we headed to Hervey Bay. We didn’t want to be on the road around dusk because of the kangaroos.

John and Maureen would have loved this place. I only have faint memories of going to a zoo when I was a kid but it was nothing like this.

First up was a show of the wildest creatures in Australia…when we arrived late a giant bird swooped in towards Vero when we entered the arena!

Then we got to see a crocodile come out and entertain the masses. Crocodiles are massive and would be scary up close. Quite interesting to see.

Next up,were photos with animals…Vero wanted to hold a koala in a photo and there was also a photo with an alligator available today! Bonus! Imagine getting a photo with a huge reptile! Vero has always wanted to wrestle a creature such as this and this was her chance to prove it.

The koala was quite soft haired and was holding onto Vero with all her might. I think it might be because they live in trees so their hands are always grasping at something.

Next up was the alligator…we saw a massive bench set up and figured that it would hold this mighty beast.

Then we saw the alligator come out and we couldn’t stop laughing. It was the size of a hot water bottle! We felt like fools thinking they would bring out a large alligator to pose with. Luckily they refunded the photo opportunity we had already purchased.

We walked into Roo Heaven which held the kangaroos. I didn’t realize how awesome this zoo was until I realized they let us into the actual kangaroo area and we can approach and pet them! Definitely different than animals in cages! It was a fabulous experience.

The Australian Zoo definitely didn’t disappoint and its a shame we only had a few hours there before hitting the road to Hervey Bay.

Who ever called this a vacation when you have to wake up at five in the morning? Lord knows when we got to sleep.

No matter, it was time to catch the sunrise at Uluru! We parked near the same spot as yesterday and there were no other tourists there at this time in the morning! I’m very thankful I packed my toque as it was quite cold while waiting for the sun to rise.

Like any sunrise, it was beautiful and I’m glad we had the opportunity to watch it across the Outback.

Mark then dropped us off to walk around Uluru. I have a sneaking suspicion that he headed off to get some bacon and eggs and a nap while we walked for three hours around the rock. It was a nice walk and a group of us had a hilarious time making up stories of things we saw….Justin Bieber holding concerts on top of the rock and that’s why it looks like Uluru has tears, aliens parking their spaceship on top of the rock…silly stuff but it made the walk entertaining. I truly appreciated how the Swede spoke of two men and women who made the trek to Uluru and became inspired to become ABBA!

The smaller group of us found the path to the watering hole while the rest of the group completely missed it. I’m glad we weren’t following the rules and sticking together with the herd or else we would have missed it.

Aboriginals around Uluru ask that people do not climb the rock as it is am important part of their culture…a boy goes on a walkabout for years and if he survives he can scale the rock and come down as a man in his tribe. It is very sacred to them. On the flip side the Australian government knows that this is a great tourist attraction…who wouldn’t want to climb up one of the wonders of Australia? So they leave the entrance open with a ton of signs saying its against the Natives wishes.

None of our group did the hike up but there were quite of few others that we saw climb it. I find it interesting…on one hand I am a fan of ‘to each their own’ but at the same time this is like someone swearing in church, or worse. I told Vero that if she wanted to climb it, I wouldn’t judge her. But it shows a mans character if they choose to disrespect someone’s beliefs. Much like how I have the rule of no sex on my couch upstairs at home. People laugh about this rule but I would find it quite disrespectful if guests decided to go against my wishes. Andreane, Guillaume and Mike…I’m looking at you while you look after the house!

After the hike, it was the long trek back home. We pulled over for a quick lunch which had literally thousands of flies getting into the food. There is nothing like the sight of 543 flies in one can of tuna…yummers! Vero had to run around while eating her wrap so she didn’t eat any houseflies!

Outside Alice Springs we stopped for a group photo on the ‘Welcome to Alice Springs’ sign. I climbed to the top with Vero but when I jumped off I stumbled and skinned my leg in the sand. OUCH! It was like it was sandblasted and even a week later, it is taking its time healing up. The bright side is that it happened within civilization.

We went to supper a few hours later with Andy, Astrid and David to the Outback Steakhouse where we tried crocodile (not bad!), and kangaroo (good but still nothing different than beef). We have to thank Gaetan and Danielle for passing some cash to spend on somewhere to treat ourselves. It was a great meal. Merci!

Afterwards we headed to the Rock bar where the rest of the group had gathered and we listened to some excellent live entertainment who had the same Takamine guitar as me. He was a great time and I loved his finale of Copperhead Road.

The night descended into madness when mark bought Vero, myself and Simon something called the impression bomb. It was quite colourful and quite deadly. It boiled down to the delivery. Pick up the first shot glass and it triggers another to fall into a glass of red bull. Down the first shot, down the red bull and another shot, then chug the rest of the drink in the jug. As you may know, I am not one to chug so Simon, Mark and Vero definitely beat me at this contest!

Many cheap beers later, Vero and I stumbled (ok, I stumbled…Vero was fine after drinking about thirteen pitchers of water) back to the Motor Inn and hit the sack.

I am pretty sure I boxed with a kangaroo considering how I felt the next morning when we woke up. Drinking and flying the next day do not mix. It didn’t make me feel better to see Simon and Elaine in the same boat when they arrived at the airport. Vero and I flew into Sydney and then onto Brisbane to spend the night before heading to Hervey Bay. It was panic station in Brisbane when we couldn’t figure out where the heck the shuttle to the hotel was, but we eventually figured it out.

The Rock Tour is probably going to be the highlight of our trip. At first the thought of travelling to the Outback with twenty strangers is daunting but it turns out to be a fantastic time in the end. I went into the Outback quite scared but came out with an appreciation of it and realized that there aren’t snakes at every stop.

A little story about the Outback…Mark would go duck hunting with his father when he was nine. Not old enough to hold a rifle, but at the same time, after a day of following his father around, he would sleep in his swag and his father placed a shotgun next to Mark and said “If a snake comes close, pull the trigger.” He could never figure out why he wasn’t able to hunt duck, but it was acceptable to give a nine year old a loaded shotgun to sleep with.

With that said, we thoroughly enjoyed roughing it but I don’t think I would want to be thinking of snakes in my sleep!

Vero and I awoke to a safe swag as well as Vero’s birthday! Technically it wouldn’t be until the next day in Canada but Vero shushed me when I brought it up! (although in Australia it was indeed the 15th, so she had all rights to celebrate)

We had a quick breakfast of toast and cereal along with an outback shower…deodorant! We hopped onto the bus and headed to the next campsite to go have a shower. Would have been nice to find this out before Vero and I changed clothes and brushed our teeth!

The next long trip had me passing out in the backseat while we headed to Kata Tjuta, a large rock formation used by the men of the Anana tribe to use as hunting grounds. This area is also a key area in training young men in the ways of the hunt.

Vero nabbed my kangaroo hat because it was her birthday and I lathered the sunscreen to the back of my neck considering I only had the ball cap. I must admit that I was a little sluggish after a hard sleep in a swag. It was definitely an easier trek than the day before but was still cumbersome with my sloth like pace. Kata Tjuta was quite impressive as a large rock formation. It is red from the iron in the sand.

We learned quite a bit of the Aboriginal culture around the area and their beliefs which were interesting.

Lunch was some wraps which were quite tasty. We laid everything out on a picnic table and gobbled it up like it was our last meal. After cleaning it up, we headed to the main attraction…Uluru!

Uluru is a fantastic rock formation in the middle of the Outback. It resembled Mars at various points due to its red colour, and the fact that the moon was overhead during the day! We learned that a few areas of Uluru were mainly for women’s use…kitchen, birthing areas, etc. Men were not allowed to look at these areas and to this day, they are sacred to the point where no photos are allowed.

It was getting near sunset so we headed a kilometre away so we could see Uluru change colour when the sun set. It was packed with tourists who solely come to the Outback for this single experience. Buses of Asian people sitting at tables with champagne were surrounding us. We drank our cheap beer in style around them!

We were joking around that it would be a great spot to propose to someone and sure enough, it happened! Andy got down on one knee and proposed to Astrid who accepted! The party was going into overdrive tonight!

A great supper was prepared by Mark and we munched on it while we continued to look at Uluru. Unfortunately, I was either not paying attention or blinked…because I missed out on Uluru changing colour! Good thing Vero got a few pictures.

Another night of sleeping in swags descended upon us as we returned to the new campground. Good thing we had beer on hand to get us through the night! Vero decided to partake in some beverages in the form of apple cider which she enjoyed. Let us not forget that vero has a rule to only drink alcohol outside of Canada.

Landa and Elaine surprised Vero with a triple chocolate muffin with a flaming twig on top of it. They also got her a pin if Uluru rock which was very nice of them.

We chatted with the guide quite a bit who regaled us with stories of how some tour groups are better than others and that ours was definitely in the top three. But how could we really compete with the Swedish bikini team he had once! He also said that some people sign up for something they are not prepared for and are expecting hotels at the end of the night instead of swags around the campfire! Imagine their surprise when they realize they didn’t read the details!

The night continued on with chats around the campfire, drinks and tunes….all the while admiring the cloudless night and marvelled at the stars, moons and Bigfoot sightings.

We played a few excellent games…the Irish girls came up with Musical Swags where we set them up around the campfire like musical chairs. There were teams of two except for ours where we brought on Thomas to be a threesome. We called ourselves Team Canadian Bacon where Thomas was the bacon. The rules of the game were simple….walk around the campfire and when the music stops, dive head first into the swags with your partners and hope you all make it out alive! Last one without a swag loses that round and they take another swag away.

I played Canadian rules with beer in hand which was quite interesting when it came to three of us diving into a one man swag and somehow I had to still manage to keep my beer upright! There are pictures of all of this on a USB stick that we will have to check out in Canada.

I would like to thank the members of Canadian Bacon for bringing us to glorious victory in the final round! People cheered and we felt like we won an International sporting event.

Next up was another partner game where we were put into….interesting positions as dictated by the newly engaged couple Andy and Astrid. They would yell out positions for us to form and the one that looked the worst was voted out. Landa and I ended up as partners while Vero ended up with Mark. Hilarity ensued but I have to say it all fell part for Landa and I when we had to demonstrate the “Hopping Kangaroo”. We were quite ashamed of our performance and the verdict of our dismissal from the game was justified. Vero and Mark hopped their way to the final round but had to be content with the silver medal. I guess the Canadians can’t win them all!

Considering I had got quite dirty from rolling around in the Outback dirt during Musical Swags, I decided to take a quick shower before bed while Vero and the others played a Dirty Alphabet game which consisted of coming up with dirty words using the alphabet. It was going strong when I returned but it was time for bed for me so I unrolled my swag and curled up, marvelled at the stars again and we all called it a night before the early five o’clock wake up call would come.

Before I forget, i would also like to thank Tom for telling me that he saw a huge venomous brown spider walk not three feet from the campfire right before I settled in for sleep!

We teared down the outback highway after our dip in the pool. Each time we hit a highway the bus erupted in cheers as there are only three highways we were driving on so it was a rare experience. Tour guide Mark loved it.

Next stop….firewood and beer! We stopped on the side of the road and grabbed logs of dry wood from the outback. They are very brittle and we could snap them easily from their still standing brush. Vero ended up with some nasty splinters later on but we managed to get those out with some tweezers from Landa (Ireland).

After strapping the wood down to the trailer, we picked up some beer for the next two days at a truck stop. A truck stop which looked like the local watering hole and I was thinking we should hang out for a bit! I also stole some toilet paper from the bathroom realizing I never packed any for the trip! Turns out I didn’t need it as Mark packed some for everyone. Imagine being in the Outback without the essentials!

We pulled into a field with not much cover and set up for the night. The winds were crazy fierce. I would say over eighty km/hr. Vero and I were on fire duty and Vero got it going as she always does…with style! It was way too windy for Canada fire standards…the flames were moving horizontally by a few feet…but I guess it wasn’t an issue in the outback.

Supper was prepared by all…we had a great meal of chili, grilled veggies and rice. Fantastic after a long day out in the hot sun! It was super warm this night and there was no need to wear my pants.

We got to know the rest of the group…Tom (Belgium), Betty (Germany), David (England), Dmitri (US), Simon (England), Elaine (Ireland). It was a great night with a few beer and Ciders.

The campfire had a few stories from the guide but overall, not many people had great stories to offer. I think everyone was getting themselves psyched out for the sleep!

The night was quite cloudy which was strange for the Outback. Not many stars could be seen. I had my eyes peeled for critters every time I walked out behind a bush. I was glad when the moon peeked out behind a cloud on my walk away from the campfire.

We settled in for the night with an intro to Aussie swags. Essentially, you sleep in a sleeping bag and then a canvas swag envelops the sleeping bag and has a giant monster flap to hopefully save you from any monsters crawling towards you in the night. This did not zip up so I wondered how the critters wouldn’t find the little cracks in the flap. Also, how can I breathe with a honking huge monster flap over my face? Mark told us to form it into a tent to have air go through. Like bloody hell! Basically there can be tarantulas, snakes and probably Bigfoot roaming around!

Mark recommended drinking some beer to make the sleep more comfortable and I took him up on the offer!

We settled in for the night around the fire which was hot on a night like this. It was easily still twenty degrees outside and here we are bundled up in canvas…what a sauna! But we knew it would drop temperature soon enough.

Was it the best sleep ever? No way. Did any monsters show up? Not at all! Bonus!

We awoke before the sun came up and it was pretty cold. We groaned at the morning that awaited us, but I think we were all relieved that nothing dangerous happened during the night. Vero slept with her knees up at one point and then dreamt there was a snake under her which she wrestled. When she awoke she wondered where that snake went!

First night of sleep in the Outback…success!!

Vero and I get picked up at six in the morning by the tour bus. Up comes a twenty seater hauling a large trailer where we throw our bags into.

Our tour guide Mark introduces himself and we hop on with six other people who also look groggy this morning. Vero brings us to the seat at the back and I whisper that we should sit with the others, but in hindsight Vero’s choice of the backseat was the best seat in the bus. You never need to turn around to talk to someone and you have a view of everything happening on the bus. Plus it was next to the cooler of beer!

We ended up with a full bus to the point where someone even had to sit up with the driver for the next three days! We chatted with Melanie (Germany), Sabrina (Austria), Natalie (Belgium), Andy (Melbourne), and Astrid (Sweden) who were all sitting near us. After chatting for awhile, everyone dozed off for awhile until we hit up Elrdunda truck stop. Actually, I am not sure if Erldunda is the name of the area or the truck stop. I think in the outback there is not a lot out there so it centres around truck stops which double as pubs and the center of the area.

Mark then laid down the rules of the trip. We are a family for three days so we better get to know each other and have fun together. All the people on the bus were roughly in the same age range which was great and there was a lot of energy with the group. We each took our turns on the microphone on the bus to introduce ourselves and answer some funny questions like “Who would you like to sleep with?” And “what would you bring the outback if you were lost.” Some funny stories were shared and then we settled in for the five hour trip.

I have to admit that after the first hour, the view was pretty monotonous. It’s like driving through Northern Ontario. It consists of dirt, bushes, and hills in the distance. No wildlife other than some cattle. In fact, we pretty well saw some cattle and horses. We did see a wild pack of camels once in the three days which was cool.

After a few pitstops, we ended up at Kings Canyon for a hike. It was a hot day but with a strong wind and a lot of clouds. Very different than normal days in the Outback. It was a blessing.

Mark checked that we had our mandatory three litres of water and recounted some tales of a girl last week who needed to be air lifted out because she didn’t drink enough water. Message received!!

The first step started us out on Heart Attack Hill which was a straight up climb of two hundred (or more?!) steps. I would like to thank the gang at work who walked/jogged/climbed fifteen flights of stairs with me for the past month because without that I would have:

– lost a lung
– kept huffing and puffing until Christmas
– cried like a baby.

Those are not multiple choice…they would have all happened. It was pretty tough.

Luckily that was the worst trek for the entire three days. Good to get it done in the first fifteen minutes. It also helped that we had Marks water gun in hand at various points. I am pretty sure I pissed off some people with my spraying!

The rest of the hike was great. It was all amongst the rocks of Kings Canyon. We stopped at various points to hear about the wildlife, plants and Aboriginal culture. We bonded as a group during the trek and we got to see that the tour guide had a good sarcastic side to him which would grow in the further days.

2.5 hours later (an hour under schedule!) we arrived back at the bus with more water than we needed. Bonus!

Next stop…a quick dip in a pool which was fabulous. I especially appreciated Thomas (Denmark) who decided to cannonball into the pool a few times which the rest of the locals were not impressed with!

Tired of updating this tonight…more later.

I just remembered that the third season of Survivor was in the Outback? I have to rewatch that.

The airplanes have been a real bonus in that there was another tv screen at my seat on our trip to Alice Springs. I watched Oblivion which had a decent sci fi premise.

Arriving in Alice Springs, we realized that THIS is where things get different in the world! Welcome to the Outback! Walking into the airport we were already getting annoyed with the flies around our heads. Would this be worse while sleeping under the stars?

We hopped onto the shuttle bus to town and ended up at the Alice Springs Motor Inn which is a ten minute walk out of the city centre. The town itself isn’t too large…probably a little smaller than Hearst. Very easy to find your way around the city center.

Alice Springs Motor Inn reminded me of the hotel that Aunt Lana and Uncle Tony had in Spanish, Ontario. Gee was an excellent host and let us know everything we needed to know about the town. It was pretty hot (thirty) so far and he said its around fifty degrees in the summer months! His family enjoy running the Inn and it looked quiet packed while we were there. We loved the rooms and the hospitality. Two thumbs up!

We walked into the city center and witnessed the Aboriginal culture hanging around the local liquor store. Very similar to some Canadian sights. We were informed that Alice Springs is safe enough at night but be prepared for drunks who like to get into a lot of fist fights. Luckily on the last night when we decided to walk home, the only drunk we encountered was the one in the mirror!

The Rock Tours eased some fears of mine as I was worried how I could fit three days clothing in the backpack as well as the mandatory three litres of water for each hike. Luckily they said we could leave things on the bus whenever we headed to a hike for the day. Vero and I went to the local KMart (When is the last time we saw that store?!) and picked up some bags and some snacks. We also picked up our water and some pepperettes which were definitely not the best tasting! I didn’t want them stinking up our bag all trip long so I ditched them.

I decided to bite the bullet and pick up a typical outback hat to cover my head for the trip. We checked out a few stores and settled on a fine kangaroo leather hat for seventy bucks. It was a little pricey but I figured it would be a useful souvenir and I wanted to see if it worked better than my ball cap. I have fallen out of love with souvenirs that don’t have a useful purpose.

I popped it on as soon as we exited the store and felt like a king. Vero thought it looked quite fetching on me.

We walked into the didgeridoo store next door and immediately the owner looks at me and says “You should go to the soup kitchen, am I right?” Or something like that. He was laughing when he said that and all I could think about “What the heck!” Vero started chatting him up but I was so insulted and I thought “This must be a local tourist joke! Get the tourist to spend seventy bucks and look like a chump!” I was ready to return the hat immediately.

When we left the store Vero noted that I was upset. I told her how I couldn’t believe that the guy was making fun of me and my local tourist trap hat. She laughed and said “He was talking to the drunk Aboriginal guy who was leaving the store!” I couldn’t believe it! We had a great laugh after I explained her my viewpoint! I ended up telling this story to the tour group later on and they had a great laugh.

It was around supper time so we decided to try a beer and some wild meats. Luckily we found a great little restaurant with a bushmans plate of kangaroo and camel meats. Kangaroo was good but nothing entirely different than cow beef. The camel sausage was pretty great though. The Coopers Pale Ale was good enough for another to be ordered. Note: We are realizing that food and drink are pricey…nine dollars for a beer.

We headed back to the hotel, packed our bags and Vero listened to my fears of tarantulas, snakes, hiking with too much stuff on my back…she is a great woman in that she pushes me to go on these adventures and also assures me that whatever happens, we will make it through together. Even if it is a snake bite on the ass that she has to suck the venom out of.

Running out of juice on the iPod so I will make this quick. Fabulous trip to the outback. Only setback is that I scraped my leg once we got back into town! I guess there’s the silver lining in that!

Vero celebrated her birthday yesterday and somehow is sneaking another one in today!

Vero and I bid adieu to Sydney where we had an excellent day of going to Manly Beach, the Opera House and the Royal Botanical gardens. Let us not forget about a trip to the Rocks as well as finding the Apple Store (shout out to my mates at work!).

Next stop Alice Springs and then a tour to Ayers Rock where we sleep under the stars. Vero is excited, I am cautious…but it isn’t it always like that?

Radio silence until next week.

September 11

Must admit that it is quite noisy in the morning in our apartment. We are on a main drag. Nonetheless, I think it was time to get up around six as I think I had a mild case of dehydration. I woke up to find myself drinking about nine glasses of water while catching up on the news and blogging. It was a nice way to start the day.

Before I forget, I have to mention the Coopers sparkling ale in the fridge. Quite delicious!

We headed out to the city center to check out the ‘I’m Free’ city tour. Three hours of getting a taste of the city. The city was definitely a lot colder than the day before….I was frozen stiff with my bathing suit ( for the afternoons activities) and a tshirt. Bad move! Luckily Vero kept close to wsrm me up and as the day went on, it warmed up significantly.

Our tour guide Ross/Russ was an entertaining fellow who had a great humour to him. We had a large group of forty people and he handled us well.

Some highlights:

Martin Place: where I found out they filmed the Matrix scene where Neo sees the woman in the red dress!

Tavern: The oldest tavern in Sydney (160 years old!) which would give new visitors all the drinks they could handle…for free! What a nice bunch of people! Too bad that on their last drink, a trapdoor would spring open under your chair, they would you your last drink while you are blazing drunk, and in the morning you would find yourself with a nasty hangover and a new occupation…a slave on a ship!

Harbour: Beautiful spot with a great view of the Opera house. I think we will return again.

We passed Ross a few dollars for his troubles and cut out on the tour early to catch a bus to Bondi Beach. We were excited because the cloud cover had passed and the sun was shining for our day in the surf!

Bondi Beach is a fabulous spot in Sydney. A nice boardwalk around the beach with little shops and bars that cater to the crowd. We found our way to the ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ shop where we met our instructor Ash and Wil who gave us some forms to fill out. We got into some wetsuits where I felt like a superhero when putting it on! They had a good laugh at this.

It was a gorgeous day and we were coupled with some folks from California and England. They were all a great time to be around.

We grabbed our boards and learned some basics of how to go from lying on top to getting up on your feet under a wave. Easier said than done! Ash was a great help and would push us along the wave when it came along to give us a head start.

I don’t know if it was normal. But Bondi Beach had fabulous waves to surf on. It was a neverending onslaught of waves!

I managed to cramp up my thigh muscle to the point that it was near impossible to jump up on the board. It didn’t take away from the beautiful day too much and I spent the time trying my best to get up on the board. I managed to successfully get up onto one knee. Vero was a pro and she was quite happy with that.

The last wave I caught had me on top of the break and I first felt what all surfers must feel…the rush of adrenaline riding a large wave! Ash didn’t want us going on the big ones for now but it was there behind me and I knew she said we had one more wave to go so I took it. It was fabulous. This is what surfing is all about! I figured I couldn’t too that one so I called it a day.

Wil and Ash were fabulous instructors and even gave us some free photos as a honeymoon gift. !uch appreciated!

We then watched the sunset at the beach and headed to a bar called The Beach Hut where we had the best fish and chips ever (even better than Dublin!) and a good dark ale. Food and drink seem a bit pricey in this city…25 for a fish and chip and nine for a pint. Probably because we were directly on the beach.

We headed back in the bus where surfboards clearly are a part of the transit system and relaxed ( read: let our bodies recuperate!!!) for the evening.

I’m writing this the morning after and it feels like another cool morning in the city. We plan to head to another beach and the Opera House today. After this, we head to the outback for three days hiking. Not sure if they have wifi attached to the backs of tarantulas out there!

Years ago, Vero and I travelled to New York City and stumbled upon Angelina Jolie in Central Park.

This morning I read in the news that her family is here in Sydney taking in the sights as we are.

(Definitely not taken by my camera!)

The question is, why does she keep following us?