Head out on the highway looking for .... Wollongong

Pictures are still a problem - even when I can find somewhere to put them on the web it costs a fortune to upload them in internet cafes. When I get back I'll do a slide show. For now back to words.

We hired a car and set of to explore. There are lots of big tourist sites, and we saw some, but we wanted to get a feel of what NSW is like to live in.

The first hour was just driving through suburbs heading south. Dame Edna fans will be sorry to hear we didn't see Moonie Ponds or any gladioli. Maybe it's not gladdi season. Almost every house did have big blue or white aliums however. I think this will be seen by future generations as a mistake. They are already beginning to colonise the bush and are all over NSW. No corrugated iron shack is so humble and no farmer's bungalow (with mock grecian columns) so grand as to be without the blue menace.

Driving is easy and roads are well sign posted. Eleanor's favourite sign was "Do not overtake if it is unsafe to do so", true but do you have to be told it? My favourite came later as we were ascending a steep pass in the outside lane. The road was narrow and winding, the drop precipitate and unprotected. A sign said, "Beware of large trucks reversing around corners on the wrong side of the road". I bewared as much as I could. Another feature, all along main highways, are signs telling you who to ring if you see a wounded animal. We never saw one for wounded people. Maybe you just pretend to be a wombat.

There are also lots of advertising hoardings. Macdonalds and KFC in particular. A couple of more quirky ones appealed to me, "Walk in skip hire" which could be useful if you had room in your pocket for a skip, but my all time favourite has to be, "Christmas presents for all occasions".

We encountered a more problematic sign in a small national park we passed through. Australia has thousands of national parks. Some as small as Wales. This one consisted almost solely of thorny scrub and notices saying "No jumping or diving within the park". Why would you dive into thorn bushes? Eventually we found a beautiful seaside lagoon where Eleanor went swimming. And at the end of the lagoon were rocks from which people were jumping and diving into the water. Sensibly there were no signs prohibiting such activities.

The park introduced us to another feature of Aussie life which was repeated thoughout our trip. 99.99% of Australians are welcoming, friendly people who will do anything to help a visitor. The remaining 0.01% work in tourist information offices. Trusting, hopeful visitor: "Do you have a map of this region?" "We've just got a road map of Wagga Womble" (three houses, a McDonalds and a sheep). "Which is the main road to Wollongong?" (there are only two possibilities). "Not sure really." On the other hand you can buy tea towels with aboriginal designs on them or biros shaped like boomerangs. You might be able to get a digeridoo - but don't expect any help on which end to blow

In Wollongong we stayed at a motel run by Sybil Fawlty: "We would remind you that this is not just a business; it is also our home and we ask visitors to respect it". She had both accent and intonation just right. So no throwing the fridge out the window then.

"What's a good Aussie beer?" I asked the barmaid.
"I don't drink beer", she replied.
"Well what does your boy friend drink?".
"Whatever's cheapest."
"Just give us a couple of beers then".
She gave us two Mexican beers with slices of lime in the bottle neck.

The next morning we strolled down towards the sea to be met by the most self possessed beggar I have ever encountered. He was about 16, wearing baggies, tee-shirt and baseball cap. He had obviously just returned from surfing. "Could you lend me a couple of dollars to ring my mother?". He might have done better had he not been carrying an obviously well stuffed wallet in his hand. Young people today etc.

I think I'm turning into a whingeing pom but I liked Wollongong. It has great locally caught fresh fish which are excellent eaten with a big bag of chips. Eating in Wollongong is snootily dismissed by the Rough Guide so yaboo to them.

Tomorrow we visit rain forests, go white water canoing, get wet (several times) and hear of the fabled delights of Thredbo. Watch this space.