AUSTRALIA

A trip to Australia requires a lot of patience. We flew from Seattle to San

Francisco to Sydney to Cairns.This amounted to over 24 hours in transit.

Flying into Cairns Queensland.

We are picked up by Anne and Les Mills at the Cairns

airport and are guests at their home near Kuranda.

Anne and Les raise Welsh ponies on their farm.

Click on this picture for a good look at the Joey in it's mother's pouch

When we were here in 2004 Les had just started building this boat.

In 2007 it has come a long way towards being finished.

We take a few days and visit Mission Beach

located about 4 hours south of Cairns.

With Les and Anne we travel on to Cooktown which is the site of the 1st white visitors to Australia. Captain James Cook, having accidentally struck the Great Barrier Reef off the coast north of Cape Tribulation, struggled up the coast and beached the H.M. Barque Endeavour on the shores of the Endeavour River. Cook and his crew were to stay on the river's edge from 17 June to 4 August, 1770

Captain Cook's journal states that he climbed to this same

location to view the surrounding area with his spyglass.

Relaxing on the veranda of our hotel.

The view from our Cooktown hotel.

We spend a day at Port Douglas near Cairns.

Saint Mary's by the sea at Port Douglas

This picture i NOT a double exposure

Located in Kuranda the Australian butterfly aviary

is home to over 1500 magnificent tropical butterflies.

We visited the Cairns Wildlife Dome, a spectacular all-weather wildlife exhibit enclosed by a 20 metre high glass dome on top of Cairns' iconic Reef Hotel Casino.

Pictures taken from within the wildlife Dome in Cairns.

In Faxton Queensland we visit Joan's

brother John and his wife Margaret.

. . . . . and their friend the Kookaburra . . . . .

Jim and Joan with Joan's mother Elma, brother John and his wife Margaret

We rent an apartment in mooloolaba with a terrific view.

After crossing into New South Wales we stop in at the farm of Glen and Lita Hoby. In 1965 Glen and Jim hitch hiked 2,000 miles from Sydney to Cairns where Jim met Joan for the first time while taking the ferry from Green Island to Cairns.