We left Uluru airport and landed back in Sydney. We were greeted again by Angelo, and we had been looking forward to our return ever since leaving the 'Masters' almost 4 weeks ago! Time goes so fast when travelling. Time becomes no obstacle and that means we often don't even know the day of the week... Amazing! We seem so far from our crazy London lives and endless desire for a day off to arrive. Isn't this how life should always be?
We arrived back 'home' and were so happy to see Trudy again. We once again had a lovely meal, a good catchup of all our adventures and a sneaky shot of Drambuie! We felt at home once again.
We only had one full day in Sydney and a priority was to see a Koala bear. If we didn't I would never hear the end of it, plus I wanted to see one too! So in the morning we headed off to a place called Simbio wildlife reserve. We had perfect instructions from Trudy, and again given a lift to the train station by Angelo. Our train journey was interrupted by a replacement bus service (london underground sprang to mind)! We told the bus driver where we wanted to go, and despite Simbio being about 5km from the station we were originally going to get off, the driver dropped us off pretty much outside Simbio... Legend and typical of the Aussies!
We arrived in good spirits and went straight to the Koalas. Although we didn't get to touch them (New South Wales state law) we took some cool photos and Sophia had a beaming smile... Job done! We fed some kangaroos and saw the almost extinct red panda too. We headed back and aimed for the station where we expected to catch the replacement bus. After 3km we asked a lady at a petrol station if we were heading in the right direction. The answer was yes but we still had a few km to go. To our surprise she asked where we were heading, so we told her. To our amazement she said 'jump in' which we did almost literally! She took us to within 10 minutes drive of 'home'. Our second hitch-hiking experience! Contemplating how to complete the final leg of our journey home (we didnt want to inconvenience Angelo again); to our amazement Angelo appeared in front of our eyes. As coincidences and conveniences go, the journey there and back was probably organised by God. Thank you.
That evening Trudy had arranged for most of the family to come round as a farewell and get-together dinner (missed you Katie and Luke). There were 19 of us including 6 children... It was great fun, great food and a special dinner. We also had a great chat with Katie's 90 year old grandma, who is a living legend. She told us stories of how she repaired the canvas of battered bombers returning to Oz during the WWII, and we listened intently.
We said some emotional goodbyes, Louisa particularly emotional no surprise, and headed to bed.
In the morning more goodbyes, a special goodbye to Angelo and Trudy who were like surrogate parents to us, and Greg and Shelly (Katies brother and sister-inaw) took us to the airport. Such was the love we received from these people that they even got us 3 books as farewell presents. We all had a coffee at the airport and said somemore emotional goodbyes before emarking on our new but short adventure to Fiji. Woohoo!
