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Yesterday, Grandad and I went for a swim in the Continental Pool in Wollongong. This looks like any normal swimming pool, with lanes and changing rooms and showers, but it is fed by the sea. As you swim, you can hear the sea hitting the outside pool wall. It was icy cold – it took two lengths for my toes to thaw and my breath to return!! (It will get warmer as the Australian summer arrives). Because it is salt water, it is much easier to float than in a chlorine pool – Grandad was able to do his swimming impression of a floating log with arms and legs, a very strange sight!

Now when you come, you will need to make sure you have your swimmers and your rashie, and you might need your sunnies too! Shall I translate? (I’m learning Australian!) You’ll need your swimming costume/trunks, your T-shirt to protect you from the sun, and your sunglasses.

The pictures above show the pool; and also the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House which we visited on Wednesday.

After I’d finished work yesterday, Grandad and I went for a walk in the Wollongong Botanic gardens and had a great time Australian animal hunting (only to see, not to catch!) We saw rainbow lorikeets flashing their wings in the trees above us, and a water dragon (lizard) sunning itself on the paving, and best of all, some kookaburras. We heard them laughing first – a really loud laughing chatter, almost like humans. And they are very obliging about having their photographs taken – they pose on the gum tree branches, and don’t seem to mind us getting very close! Can you spot the rainbow lorikeet?

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Well, here we are, 10,717 miles later, in Wollongong, where it is warm and sunny! The first thing we noticed as we disembarked from the plane at Sydney was a strange smoky smell, which was even stronger once we were outside the airport. We found out that this part of New South Wales has had some terrible bush fires this week (there is a drought here) and the air is still full of the smoke particles. All the way from Sydney to Wollongong as we drove through the Royal National Park we could see evidence of the fires – blackened trunks and scorched leaves. I hope there were no koalas in there!

Grandad and I went for a walk along the beach in the afternoon to try and stay awake (you’ll have to be good at staying awake when you come). It was quite windy so the waves were flinging spray up at all the rocks – the wild Pacific Ocean. But there is also a small lagoon at the end of North Beach, where it was much calmer and more tropical.

You will be pleased to hear that there have been no signs of any pythons, spiders, or snakes: just an elegant pelican waiting for the fishing boats to come in, and some very noisy birds outside.