Hello I am back

Thank you very much Donna God Bless Gwen

Thank you Ophelia - I think we kind of sighed a sigh of relief when we got back with out any problems at all - the car did not cough and thank goodness we did not even see any accidents and almost 17,000 ks is along trip for all to keep going well God Bless Gwen

Thank you Mirjam - missed you too God Bless Gwen

Thank you Noreen - I hope you and Don have been well while I have been away god Bless Gwen

Thank you Janice - I cannot believe the numbers of wonderful welcomes here - it is worth going away !! It is very good to be back God Bless Gwen

Thank you Nora - I figured I had taken "time off" when I got home for long enough and it is time I got back into the swing of things God Bless Gwen

Thank you Christine - I guess there is not a great deal more to tell - almost 17,000 ks about a dozen towns of any size beyond one hotel and six houses or less and in between red earth, red dust, and mile of spinafex but then a lot of this journey was on the edge of the Great Sandy desert - beach on one side and desert on the other - so what else can one expect. Fortunately the roads in Western Australia were very good God Bless Gwen

Thank you Tante Jan, you are quite correct we did go clockwise around the continent - actually headed south to Sydney to get on the train ( Sydney is about 500 miles south of us - we are literally on the border of NSW and Queensland - you map might show Coolangatta or Tweeds Heads or even Southport - all suburbs of Gold Coast City and we are five minutes north of Coolangatta..

The train went to Perth ) which your map would show and then we drove all around the area south of Perth - you map might show Busselton, Bunbury or Albany all of which we visited . Your map would not show New Norcia it is about 70ks north of Perth and not on the coast however Geradton would be on your map I would think and there we joined the coast again -we literally followed the coast all the way to Broome which also would be on your map the wnet to Kunnunurra- just below the Gulf of Carpentaria and then on to Katherine in the Northern Territory and from there to Brrlooloo on the gulf - just to say we got to the gulf then into Queensland to Mount Isa and up again to the Gulf at Normanton and then back to Queensland to *Green* at Atherton and right up the northern coast to Cairns and Cape Tribulation and finally all the way down our coast to home( this part we had seen before , of course)

Yes the only really green area of Australia is the east coast and then southern part of Western Australia and because of the irrigation the area around Kurrurunna ( the Kinberly area)

The flights were just one afternoon and one full day both taken with Aligator Airlines from Kunnunnurra.

I hope that allows you to follow the map a bit better God Bless Gwen

Thanks Karen - yes it was a great trip - at least we saw the parts of Australia where we had never been and never likely to be again. I do not think it matched the travelling all over the USA but than no home grown things are ever as exciting as the foreign ones God Bless Gwen

Welcome back Gwen, we missed you......Cher

Actually Gwen, I think it depends on what it is you are seeing and who you are enjoying it with. Personally I look forward to one day travelling a bit more around Canada. Even Ontario alone has a lot to offer when it comes to historical places. :o)

I know when I drove my Mom and Matthew out to British Columbia (even though on the way out we went totally through the northern States and not Canada... it is shorter and faster that way) I was very excited everytime we passed by someplace I had learned about in History in school. Going over the bridge near where all of the three largest Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan & Superior, for those who don't know much about North American geography) join, I was very excited. Then when we passed over the beginning of the Mississippi River (at the top end of course), even though it was merely a trickle, I was so thrilled that we were passing where the explorers of so long ago travelled with their canoes. I was shocked when I was so thrilled about it, that Matthew looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know what you're talking about". I had learned all that stuff in elementary (grade) school, and he was already in high (secondary) school and hadn't learned it at all.... has history (the real history of the discovery of countries) become so unimportant that they just aren't teaching it anymore? How sad! :o( Needless to say, Matthew was told what I remembered while we were travelling.

One of the places I'd love to see in Ontario is Hudson's Bay, way up north... because I remember learning about that area and the trading posts of the explorers that went there. When we go to Midland to the Shrine (Saint Marie among the Hurons), I get very excited to look out over Georgian Bay and know that many years ago the missionaries and explorers paddled their canoes across there, while their comrades watched from the very place I am standing... and that attacks of the Huron Indians to the missionaries took place on that spot as well.

I'd also love to go to (I *know* I'm going to spell this one wrong) Drumheller in Alberta someday. That is a big area where a lot of dinosaur skeletons have been found. How neat that would be to stand where you *know* that these giant creatures once walked. Yes, I know that they were almost everywhere, but there have been actual documented cases of skeletons being found there. :o)

So I'm sure that even though you would be excited to visit other countries and see the sights, you must have had a feeling of awe while travelling around your own country too. :o)

Peace & Love! Gemini

Hi Gwen! I must agree with Auntie Nora. Welcome home and let your needles fly whenever they want to.

Best: Pirjo

Thanks for the additional info. I'm going to save it until I find a better map. Although I love to travel, yours is a trip I would only want to do vicariously

You spelled it correctly, Gem, and it IS a great place! We took Kandace there one year, and her highlight was holding dinosaur poop.

Katherine

Yes, Gwen, I would agree...Katherine is in the Northern Territory. LOL

Janise

Katherine

Yes, Katherine, you are in the northern territory from me. LOL

Janise

I am in the northern territory form almost everyone! LOL

Kather> Yes, Katherine, you are in the northern territory from me. LOL

?????????????? What is this meaning mirjam