Introduction

Rob Easterling here. I'm starting this new blog to report on the trip that Albuquerque friend, Dick Reinert, and I are taking to Australia in September - an AussieOdyssey.

If you are reading this, it's likely that you have read some of our http://tuzigoot.blogspot.com/ reports -- which Susie and I started for our Malia-adoption trip to China last December. Since then we have added reports mostly dealing with the trips in our motor home, named Tuzigoot Two, or TuziTwo. Rather than add to that blog, I thought it better to start a new blog -- with Australia pictures, etc. up top.

Last December, just after Susie and I returned from China, I happened to be visiting with Dick Reinert at church. He asked if I knew anything about the E-W train trip across Australia. Only vaguely. Dick had heard something about it and was intrigued. It crosses the barren emptiness of western Australia and includes a stretch of 297 miles of perfectly straight track! Well, that intrigued me, too – I like wideopenspaces. I knew Susie was not inclined to take another 15 hr. cross-Pacific flight followed by three days on a train, so I made the bold and accurate assumption that she wouldn’t want to go. That led to Dick and me planning a September trip. Our itinerary is in column two.

We chose September, the southern hemisphere's early spring, because we didn't want to go during their summer or winter and our springs and summers were full of commitments and plans. Also, my brother Lael alerted us to the spring wildflower season in SW Australia around Perth, so all that made September attractive.

Our reports follow. I'm going to post more background information before we go. I don't know what internet access we will have in different parts of Australia, but you might check this site occasionally in September to see what's going on with us. Please feel free to add comments. If you've been to Australia and have suggestions or whatever, we'd be interested to hear from you.

G'day Mates!

Rob