down under / oz

So here I am further from home than ever before.

4 months in and a month to go and I'm still not half way round. Now it's home the long way.

I'm really impressed by Sydney.

The place and the people. And not forgetting the food.

I wish I'd spent more than 3 days here. Most of the time I spend walking, and jumping on ferries across and around the harbour.

The weather is superb and the air is so clear and the sun is so bright that it feels like I've spent the last 4 months in a faded print. This is technicolor, fresh from the lab.

It is also much more multi cultural than I imagined.

I meet up with a delightful Taiwanese Australian who, on my last morning, offers to drive me round the harbour for breakfast and show me the bits the tourists don't usually go to.

There are a lot of substantial late Victorian period buildings; these and the street grid going up and over the topography combine to remind me of San Francisco, but here there is an even better relationship with the harbour and the water.

After Singapore it seems so much more lively, busy, thriving and enjoyable.

I will definitely be back.

I got the ferry over to Manly Beach and yes, there are real surfers with real bleached blond hair, boardies and flip flops, jumping into real surfing waves. But actually the thing I noticed most was the number of elderly citizens walking, jogging, sailing, fishing and just generally getting out there and doing stuff. I got exhausted just watching them. If they could bottle the energy and the positive vibes here the Australian economy would be booming!

The bridge and the opera house are very photogenic and I took millions of pictures.