Sunday, August 18
I woke up at 6:00 this morning. I went over to the area where meals are served and drank several cups of coffee waiting for Fabienne and Marc. I finally gave up and came back to my room. It's 9:07 now and I'm hungry, but still no Fabienne in evidence. I may go eat breakfast by myself. I wish I could sleep late, but it never happens any more--one more down side to growing old.

While I drank coffee and waited, I petted a large black dog. The woman who runs this place said that the dog had been abandoned and chose her house. I'm not sure what should happen to people who abandon dogs, but there should be some kind of punishment.

Fabienne is up, and I think I'm going to have breakfast soon.

August 17 - France
I arrived the 12th, and we've been traveling a good deal of the time. Biarritz was our first two nights. Trump arrived for the G7 meeting the same day we left.
We have had lots of wonderful meals, and my friends Fabienne, Marc, and Eugenie are wonderful traveling companions. Eugenie is only nine, but she's the most mature nine I've ever known. Among other things, she eats oysters on the half shell. She's also a very pleasant child to be around.

I can't remember the name of the town where we're staying. I'll ask Fabienne and enter it later. It is probably in the 90s here and rather humid. It's almost 6 p.m. here, but we don't usually eat until later--7:00 or 8:00.

I'll try to enter every day for the rest of the trip.

June 9, 2019
I have bought my ticket for my 16th trip to France. I leave August 11 and return August 22. I will keep a running narrative of my adventures.

March 15, 2019
I haven't added a post since my trip to Australia. I would like to make at least one more trip to France--my 16th--while I still have health that will allow such a trip. I attempted to put together for May of 2020, but it didn't make. I will keep thinking about it, and perhaps I can come up with a plan that entices more travelers. My last plan was for 5 day in Paris and 3 days down south to visit the newest recreation of the cave Lascaux. I think I had about 4 people interested, but I really need about 15 in order to get the price offered by the travel agency.

I'm sitting in the Yulara Airport waiting to board a plane to Sydney where we'll spend the night before boarding a plane to Houston. The trip from Houston to Sydney was 17 1/2 hours. The trip back to Houston from Sydney is only 16 1/2 hours--tailwind. This small airport is full of people. We didn't immediately find 3 seats together, but finally lucked out.

I have been singled out to be scanned on the way as well as again today. I'm beginning to wonder if I look dishonest. I suppose grandmotherly types might be the ones drug smugglers would use to carry their contraband into the country. 

We're all packed and just sitting here till we need to check out at 10:00--a couple hours. Our plane doesn't leave until 2:00, so we have a lot of down time. Everything is so expensive here. The hotel, for example, offered us a take-along breakfast for $38 Aus, which consisted of cereal bars, a piece of fruit, and a bottle of water. We declined, and went to the grocery store and bought the same stuff for a lot less. The hotel offers sit-down dinners for $49. We have not taken them up on that either. We've eaten several PBJs for lunch, shared a pizza one night, etc. One of the reasons that food is so expensive here is that food service people are paid a living wage, and tipping is not necessary. I did see a "tip" jar at the place where I bought some fish and chips (we call them fries.

This is our last night at Ayers Rock Resort. Tomorrow we take a plane to Sydney, spend the night there, and fly home May 21st.

This morning I took a bus trip to Kata Tjuta, sometimes called the Olgas. The most famous attraction of the Kata Tjuta National Park. It's a sandstone monolith that is world renowned for being a symbol of its indigenous culture.


Kata Tjuta (The Olgas

We also stopped near Uluru, otherwise known as Ayers Rock. For the geologists, it is an insulberg, which is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. The guide says that only about 1/3 rises above ground, about 2/3 is still below ground. I almost forgot to mention that the guy who drove us around is called Snakebite. He had a very strident voice, and he told us about several aboriginal myths, then proceded to spout poetry. One was "The Man From Snowy River," but I didn't catch the titles of the other two. Of course, I could only understand about 2/3 of what he said. In fact, I have trouble understanding some of these Aussies, 

Barbara and Herb walked 3/4 of the way around Uluru, which took about 4 hours. If I remember correctly, I have already posted something about Uluru. I'm ready to go to bed.