Australia is blessed in birds, fantastically coloured, fabulously singing birds. And in beaches! Endless miles of gloriously sandy beaches, with squeaky sand. Kinda like walking on snow, in a Southern Hemisphere sort of way. The country also has a surfeit of UV, so we cover up to keep our Canadian skin in its pristine Northern Hemisphere condition!

Everyone is fun and friendly and welcoming. Despite being on opposite ends of the Earth, considering our similar Commonwealth heritages and somewhat similar histories, Australia and Canada are rather like the hot and cold sides of the same coin. We are also united in another way; in possessing a vastness, a geographic length and breadth unknown to most countries. This wilderness exists in actual fact and in the back of our minds. Whether visited or not we are aware of its beauty - and potential to kill the unprepared! In Canada, it's the cold that will get you, or maybe a bear or wolf; in Australia, it's the heat, or all manner of stinging, biting, poisonous plants, creepy-crawlies or larger creatures.

Coffs is a great small town with all the services you could want, a great climate, a super little airport and a free botanical garden a mile's walk away along Coffs Creek. We really enjoy every day here. During the month Jim repairs the broken steering with some fine-as-hair shims and installs a new house battery. We enjoy the company of many old and new friends, like Daniele & Phillip on Sweet Surrender, Ross & Diana from Ottawa on One White Tree, and transplanted Quebecers Guy & Helene on Carbon Neutral. A very hospitable local fellow Dennis takes us all under his wing and shows us the sights, such as the various look-outs and a walk in a (leach-infested) rainforest. We see mobs of kangaroos as we make our way back to his home, a garden oasis just up the road from Coffs.

Another friendly boatie, whose name we've unfortunately forgotten, lent Isabel two wonderful books on Aborginal languages and the work being done to save and resurrect them.

The winds are either from the North or the South, and there are a good many entertaining thunderstorms in the evenings. One day while walking in town there is yet another drenching downpour. We had not expected it so had left some portholes open! Both galley and head were sodden and very clean when we finally got back!

While in Coffs we take advantage of a good secure berth in which to leave Sonsie, and also of the handy local airport, and use our interline flight benefits to travel for a few days each to Perth/Fremantle and Adelaide. We are tremendously lucky! We visit the maritime museums, botanical gardens, riverfronts and bone up on Australian history. Ever since Isabel's parents emigrated from Weston-Super-Mare, England in 1964, choosing Montreal over Perth, she had longed to visit so it was a wonderful thing to get there at last!

In Fremantle, we meet an interesting older fellow who sailed with HW Tilman on his voyage to Heard Island. In Adelaide, Jim notices a restaurant called, "CheckMate" - the name of his former, beloved C&C in Yellowknife - so suggests we go there for supper. Turns out it's a strip bar, though! So instead we go next door to the Salvation Army and help serve a community supper there. The next evening we watched a Christmas Carol concert from across the Torrens River (also known by its native Kaurna name Karra wirra-parri). The South Australian Museum is fantastic and worth many more hours than we could spend there on our whirlwind visit.

Interestingly, by the flight time of the red-eye flight from Perth to Sydney on a 737-800, we would only have made it to Thunder Bay, Ontario from Vancouver!