Fantastic hospitality from Murray's cousin Simon and his
wife Mandy. We cannot thank Simon enough for ferrying us around. Sydney is a
really buzzing sophisticated city. Most of all we really enjoyed Simon and
Mandy's garden with kookaburras, parrots, and cockatoos all giving voice. From
their garden you can easily walk out into the bush and see tons of dragons and
lizards, with the odd echidna. Their fridge had an identification chart for
spiders; Mandy did warn us to stay away from any larger spiders, but reassured
us that Australia does have some really good anti-venom. Thankfully we didn't
see any large one's, but it was another reminder of how many
things Australia has that can kill or eat us. Humans are not at the top of
the food chain here.
