I've been flying to Australia for almost 10 years now, and have taken numerous trips into the countryside on trains and buses, scouring the treetops in the rich eucalyptus forests until my eyes hurt, hoping to spot a koala in the wild. I've never seen one, and began to think that their nocturnal habits kept them hidden, or perhaps, understandably, they avoid the trees near the roads. I'd not given up hope though, and today I finally got my wish. My sharp-eyed husband -- who can spot a tiny purple nudibranch under a rock on a coral reef, or a reclusive octopus jammed in a hole, caught sight of a furry lump of koala in a skinny eucalyptus tree.

We've rented a car for four days to catch up on errands, and took advantage of a cool, cloudy Saturday to go exploring in the nearby mountains. We'd pulled into a campground to have a look at Australian camping, and there it was -- sleeping on the thinnest little branch, the young tree swaying in the breeze. We pulled the car onto the grass and lept out, oohed and aahed and got a few pictures, patted ourselves on the back a number of times, and then, as we were standing there marveling at our good fortune, the little critter woke up, stretched and reached out for a snack, munching on the young leaves sleepily. Amazing. The ultimate teddy bear.

And the Australian nature show goes on: as we were gazing up at the little bear, joined by a South African family who'd come up to camp for the weekend, a gang of wild white cockatoos flew over making a huge squawking fuss, landing in trees overhead and spreading their gorgeous yellow headdresses in a display of obvious irritation. And then we spotted the colorful parrots, some of them quite large, one with lime green and brilliant red. Earlier in the drive I almost ran over a big lizard that crossed the mountain road, racing across the street on his hind legs like a little T-Rex. It was a fabulous day of terrestrial discovery and got us all fired up about our latest idea of buying a camper van here for the next 2 months.

So a little backtracking is in order to come up to speed: we're in the process of importing the boat to Australia, a tedious and costly process that's required before we can put it up for sale here. (Unless you know someone who wants it: if you do, let us know ASAP so they can come and buy it as an "offshore buyer" and they'll save a hunk-o-money if we don't have to import. And then, they can hang out in Australia for the sailing season here, and when cyclone season is over in a few months in the Pacific, they can continue the journey! Great Barrier Reef! Thailand! Indonesia! Europe! I'm just saying.)

But, to continue, the import process involves complex forms and inspections, and while Allan is going through that I'm busily clearing out all the stuff we stuffed on the boat before we left, dividing it into 5 piles: ship home, give away, leave for new buyer, keep for the next 4 months of our adventure, or sell tomorrow at the flea market. Which brings me to the next fun thing: the Scarborough Sunday Flea Market at the show grounds: $6 to drive your car into a spot and pop open your "boot" and $2 for an optional table. It's a big "Boot Sale" and people come with their junk and sell it out of their trunks. How fun! Hardest part will be to resist the temptation to check out other's people's Boot Loot. Hyo from IO, Mary from Carpe Vita and I are all getting up at 4:45am tomorrow and driving the loaded rental car to the show grounds with hot mugs of coffee and maybe some stale Clif Bars (I found 1,000 of them in our ditch bag -- I think I was ready for a month at sea in the liferaft ...) and see what we can get rid of. $5 is the going rate for everything, we jokingly decided. We're optimistic, and at any rate, we'll have fun.

The clearing-out is -- as spring cleaning can be -- cathartic and exhausting at the same time. Combined with other complex financial issues that have arisen, we've been a bit crazed, but the good part is that the Scarborough Marina is a great place, we love our spot, we have some wonderful people around us, and a fabulous breeze blows all the time. We've even had some rain, which keeps it cool and fresh.

The mystery of how to ship our things home is big on our minds. It's apparent that will be a more costly endeavor than we'd expected, hence the selling-off and giving-away that is hopefully liberating us from a lot of our useless and burdensome possessions. This process again reminds me of George Carlin's routine entitled "A Place for My Stuff" -- brilliant, if you haven't heard it -- we're now in the second phase of "creating an even smaller version of our stuff" as Carlin describes it -- the stuff we'll have with us for the next 4 months as we camp through Australia and New Zealand.

But not too fast -- first: import the boat (unless you know a buyer, remember); second: put the boat up for sale (unless you've sent us a buyer); third: find as many people interested in buying the boat as seem to want to list the boat (numerous brokers have stopped by); and fourth: take the money and camp. We'll see how it all goes.

Send buyers.