07/29/2026 – Well, now we remember why we are doing Australia now
We left the hotel early in the morning to do some more hiking in the Blue Mountains. We intended to hike the Grand Canyon Loop Trail… that is, until Kathy spotted on a sign near the trailhead that the hike involves a bit of “swimming” across a 30-meter wide river. With the temperature at 48 degrees F, we decided to save that hike for another day. Besides, we left our swim suits back at the hotel. We did a few hikes to various overlooks – all of which included many, many stairs down, then back up. After hiking over 8 miles yesterday and another 5 miles today (and that was just the horizontal distances!), we remembered why we chose to come back to Australia now rather than hold off a few years. We expect to still be hiking in our 70’s, but maybe with a little less vertical distances.
We have also been a little disappointed at the dearth of wildlife we have seen so far on this trip. We have seen some amazing birds, but we can’t recall seeing any mammals as of yet. No koalas, no wombats, no echidnas, no spotted-tailed quolls…nothing! Maybe winter just isn’t their thing? Oh, well, at least the spiders and snakes have been missing as well. Gotta take the good with the bad. We will see amazing wildlife in the Great Barrier Reef in the next few