Aussie cities

She is of Italian descent. She was on the Australian version of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' earlier this year.

Thanks James.

I have actually been to every capitol city at some stage over the last 30 years. I've been to Perth twice - The first time I flew - it takes about 5-6 hours to fly to Perth (the capitol of Westwrn Australia) from Sydney and I returned on the train - the Indian Pacific which takes 3 days - we had a sleeper car. The train makes several stops at Kalgoolie - which is a large mining town, Adelaide the capitol of South Australia, Cook, which is a small settlement in the middle of the Nullabor (means no trees)which is a large desert area and Broken Hill in NSW which is where Priscilla Queen of the Desert and some of the Mad Max films were filmed.

Melbourne the capitol city of Victoria is about a 2 hour flight. I spent a cultural experience week there 2 years ago to see exhibitions that were only on there. I have been there 3 times all up.

I've been to Adelaide 4 times, by train and coach and crusie ship.

Hobart is the capitol of Tasmania which is not part of the mainland. Its about a 3 hour flight from Sydney. I spent a week in Tasmania 9 years ago for a holiday - the climate is quite cool there, but the scenery is beautiful

Brisbane is the capitol of Queensland and about a 3 hour flight from Sydney.

The capitol of the Northern Territory is Darwin. I've only been there once for 1 day, so I intend to go back to explore more - either by train (The Ghan) or I will fly there. I also want to to explore more of the NT and visit Alice Springs and Uluru. My sister and her husband and daughter did a self drive campervan holiday there a few years ago.

The capitol of Australia is Canberra which is half way between Melbourne and Sydney. Its about a 3 hour drive from Sydney. My niece is at university there, which gives us an excuse to visit and see some great exhibitions there.

Last year I did a 28 day cruise that circumnavigated Australia so I got to visit all the capitol cities again, as well as other places of interest along the way.

We are gearing up for bushfire season. The authorities are doing a lot of bush fire prevention back burning before it gets too hot and dry.

Edited by MargiABC - 01 Oct 2012 at 17:16

Margi... I'm impressed you've been to every capitol city in Australia.

Edited by Jo Bird - 04 Oct 2012 at 16:52

There are 2 bush fires on the Central Coast of NSW at Gosford and Port Macquarie right now. They said on the news that messages about the fires and evacuations had been sent on mass by SMS to residents in those areas. I am hoping the fires will be extinguishes asap. The temperatures have been quite high the last 3 days at average of 34 deg C and we are less than half way through spring.

Here is another natural wonder of Western Australia taken from my holiday photos in 2006. Its called the Pinnacles Desert, thousands of limestone pillars - believed to be at least 6,000 years old - rise up to 3.5 metres tall from the sand.

       

It feels like walking through an alien landscape on another planet.



It would make a great movie location for a science fiction movie. It looks very similar to the some of the locations used for the science fiction movie "Galaxy Quest" made a few years ago starring Tim Allen and Signorey Weaver.

Edited by MargiABC - 20 Oct 2012 at 08:09

Yesterday Cairns in northern Queensland experienced a total eclipse of the sun. In NSW we could have seen a partial eclipse, but it was fairly overcast in Sydney so not much to be seen.

This is a satellite picture of Australia with the cruise route superimposed onto it on the TV monitor in our cabin. The off-shoot to Bali on the far left was so Australian passengers could buy duty free alcohol as well as see some of Bali. If Australian passengers disembarked before Bali they could not buy duty free alcohol. Of course overseas passengers could buy any time.

That's great Deborah. I hope the weather is more consistent by then. Its been hot for a couple of days, then its dropped to 20deg C or less. for a few days, then up again.

Are you practising your Gangnam style for your stopover