Broken Hill & Sydney

Hello again! On the 23rd we flew to Broken Hill which is out at the edge of Outback country. It's mainly a mining town, but our goal was a sunset camel ride and to see a bit of different landscape.

We arrived in the afternoon and were picked up for the ride which was out in Silverton (an old silver mining town). The place where they had the camel rides was pretty entertaining. Definitely a change from the big city... :)

But we ended up with a private sunset camel ride since no one else had booked, so that was nice. We got on our camels, Cowgirl & Barley, and had a lovely ride.

They took any chance they got along the trail to grab a bite of their favorite salt bush.

We also saw a lot of kangaroo crossing the land as we rode along. They never got very close (since they are hunted on the mainland), but there were a lot of them and it was fun to watch them hopping off.
We also saw a flock (?) of emu. Our first wild emu sighting.
Some fun camel ride shadows.
And the flies, oh the flies... Apparently we were lucky, this was the low season for flies. :)

The long, flat road back to Broken Hill and an almost full moon.

That night we stayed at a motel in town. Didn't feel like splurging since we were there for only one night. They had a nicer, renovated wing and one that, let's just say, was waiting to be renovated... They also gave us a choice of a free bottle of wine or continental breakfast since we were on our honeymoon. We chose the breakfast, not realizing they seemed to have meant a single breakfast...
The next morning we wandered around the downtown and stopped in at a few sights including a railroad museum which had this fun sign (distance in kilometers). And then we were off to Sydney!

A few of the flies hitched a ride on the plane. And Matt had fun getting a pic of them.
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Now THIS is a honeymoon room! Looking for rooms in Syndey, we ended up getting a really good deal through a website that's like Hotwire in the US. We ended up with a Harbour Bridge view room just a few blocks from the main harbor. One of those buildings on the right is blocking the Opera House, alas.

So we had to take a short walk down to get a view of the Opera House. Here we are on our first night in Sydney.
And Matt getting fancy again looking back at the city from the Opera House.
The next day, another view of the Opera House.
All right, a break from the Opera House and a walk through their lovely Botanic Gardens. What you're looking at is their very large colony of flying foxes (or bats), that live in the middle of the park. When we saw something flying above the strongly lit Opera House at night we figured it was them, but it turned out to be seagulls. These guys apparently only feed on nectar.
We went for a tour of the Opera House, but they didn't have any shows that worked for us to go see. Oh well, another time. :)

We also took the ferry across to Manly, a nice, beachy suburb.
Timed it so we would be coming back at sunset. :) Can you see the people climbing the bridge? Lisa thought of doing it until she found out how much it cost and that you can't bring your own camera. Guess they want you holding on with both hands (you're already strapped into a harness). Safety schmafety. :(

We'll leave you with a lovely view of the harbour at sunset. We're off to Tonga for the next 10 days and don't expect to have reliable internet for awhile. Check back in with you after that with hopefully some great whale pics!