Socs, my friend from QIQ and Hyperion was a lovely host, along with his wife Caroline. They took us to the beach for a picnic lunch, and then Socs took us beach hopping. The next day we took a bus to the ferry (they live on the North Shore) over to walk around The Rocks, past the Opera House, through the Botanical Gardens (where we saw flying foxes – huge bat-like things hanging by the thousands from the trees), through Potts Point, then Kings Cross, then took a two-level subway train to Bondi Beach for dinner at Sobo with my friends from hiking the volcano in New Zealand. Whew!

Then Saturday, we did the Manly walk – about 7k along the north coast of Sydney Harbor, with sweeping view of the harbor and boats, passing about 7 beaches, and stopping to swim at one, seeing two goanna (large lizards). We stopped for lunch in Manly, then found a camp store to pick up fly nets for our Outback trip. We finished the day with a delicious BBQ dinner on Socs and Caroline’s deck.

Next day we flew to Adelaide – Socs drove us to the airport, and as we started to go through baggage check, I realized I had left my laptop in the trunk of his car! We were able to reach his cell phone, and he drove back to bring it to me; what a friend!!