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Well-deserved break after the exercise.

Gisela and Pico. After 3 1/2 years Gisela and Pico come to visit us again. We recall Pico's summary of their last visit as "My whole life I haven't been walking so much!" and continue exactly where we stopped last time. The two have hardly arrived when we start on our first walk in the Ku-ring-gai Chase national park. From the lookout platform at West Head, we head down on a steep slope to one of Sydney's lesser known beaches. The picnic down there is a sheer necessity in order to be able to make the way back up again. Gisela had put on the wrong shoes and will complain about blisters over the following days. But on that same day, we still know how to enjoy ourselves by endulging in an iced coffee at Cottage Point, a remote area of Sydney. The houses are perched over the waterways of the national park, rain water tanks make up for the missing town water, and solar panels produce the electricity. At least, there is a road — it takes about 1 hour from Cottage Point to the city in off-peak traffic. We come at the conclusion that Turramurra was the better choice for location.

Queen Mary II and the tiny Harbour Bridge

A little later: QE2

QE2 and QM2. Apart from above bush walk and others scheduled for the future — more about this later — we have feared neither cost nor effort to produce the very best entertainment program for our two guests from Florida ;-) A couple of days after Gisela's and Pico's arrival in Sydney, a meeting of the "big old ladies" of ocean liners is taking place in Sydney. Queen Mary II meets her sister ship Queen Elizabeth II. The last such encounter took place during WWII (at that time, between the namesake original cruisers). During WWII, the encounter took place clandestinely; the ships were used for troop transports. In 2007 instead, the meeting of the ocean liners is a media event. An estimated 200.000 Sydneysiders watch the arrival of QM2 at dawn and the arrival of QE2 at dusk, the shores in Sydney are packed with people. Claudia and Peter head out to watch both events, Gisela and Pico opt only for the "evening event": Again equipped with a picnic basket, we sit at Bradleys Head, enjoy the atmosphere (and the white wine) and admire the art of "parking" a ship of these dimensions.

QE2 gets the more pompous berth at Circular Quay opposite the Opera House. QM2 is simply too large for this location. Since she doesn't fit through the Harbour Bridge neither to berth at one of the other passenger terminals, she is parked at the military quay of Garden Island, which can be seen at the far left edge of the second photo.

We wait until after the fireworks display that the Cunard company sponsors to celebrate the day before we head back home again. Due to a standstill of traffic flow, the way home takes double the usual time...

10 water dragon eggs — and the result!

Little Pufflings. After our Monthly Report November 2006 we received many requests about the whereabouts of the eggs that Puff, our semi-domestic water dragon, had buried in our back yard. Well, we don't quite now any details, but we won't hide the little hints of evidence that we have found.

Checking out the nesting site 4 times a day was obviously not enough to watch the hatching of the little dragons. Alright, a day has 24 hours, and we only ever checked the nest out for a couple of minutes per day. But at least, one afternoon, when Peter returns from work, he sees a baby water dragon of finger-length size on the deck in front of our kitchen door. It is amazing how this little creature had managed to climb the 14 steps of the stairwells leading up from his nest site. A little while later, the baby dragon provides evidence of his acrobatic ability by leaping 1.5 metres from the deck down into a bush, never to be seen again.

A week later we are both lucky enough to discover a sibling of the first one. Where? Doing laps in our pool! Fearing that this little baby dragon — not any bigger than above mentioned first one — might not be able to exit the vertical walls of the pool, we get the leaf shovel to fetch him from the water. We receive the same gratitide as from Puffling number 1: With a giant leap, he jumps "into safety" in the National Park. But before this, Peter — having learned from previous experience — had taken a photo before helping him out of the water.

We still don't know what happened to the other eight eggs ...

View from Tomaree Head to Fingal Island

Port Stephens. Back to the entertainment program for Gisela und Pico. The week-end after their arrival we head towards Port Stephens, 2 hours north of Sydney and well-known to regular readers of our reports. Where Claudia and Peter normally head out to sea on their kayaks, we take a slower pace this time. Even though Gisela and Pico would certainly not call it "slower pace" :-) An extensive walking tour features again, this time along the beach of Fingal Bay. Whilst Gisela and Pico still recover from it (taking an apetiser drink on a beach bench), we quickly climb the 165 metres of Tomaree Headland at the southern entrance to the bay. The view is spectacular!

Gisela and Pico will soon leave Sydney to explore parts of Australia on their own. Thus, they receive a truckload of hints and tipps for Australian peculiarities. One of them is the all-present RSL, Returned and Services League: Established after the world wars for returned servicemen to facilitate their re-integration. Today, these clubs still offer ballroom dancing and afternoon KENO sessions. Moreover, they offer cheap food and drinks, partly subsidised by the gambling halls (hells?) next to the restaurants. We have a fantastic dinner at Nelson Bay RSL. Much later, we will learn that Gisela and Pico have returned to this RSL and others along their route.

We spend the Sunday on a dolphin-watching cruise before heading back into Sydney. The return trip is enriched by a detour through the Hunter Valley, the wine region of NSW. No-one shall say that we are not enjoying ourselves!