Our trip to Orange

Last Monday and Tuesday Shami had a two day pulsar meeting in a town called Orange, about a 4 hour drive West of Sydney. We were excited to finally get out of Sydney, and see a bit of the countryside. The adventure started when we rented a car, and experienced driving on the *wrong* (as in, not the right!) side of the road. Shami did all the driving there and back, and did very well. On Monday, I took the car out all by myself and tried my hand at driving here. It was a challenge, but it went well. I explored the town, and went to the local botanic gardens. One of the hardest things to get used to is that you must look up to your left for the rearview mirror!


The countryside was mostly dry, rolling hills dotted with cows and sheep.




We drove through the Blue Mountains area, which has been designated a World Heritage site because of its amazing biodiversity, and stopped at the town of Katoomba, which has a famous rock formation called the Three Sisters. There are steep steps leading down into the valley below, and gorgeous views all around.





We were hoping to see a kangaroo, or perhaps even a wombat. Unfortunately we saw only roadkill-roos, but at least we enjoyed the kangaroo and wombat crossing signs. In the Australian countryside, they are about as common as deer crossing signs in upstate NY, but seemed so much more exotic to us.



On Tuesday I went to an amazing playground with Laura Beth and Finn, and Steve and his twin girls, Rose and Xyla. I did a double take when I noticed this plaque. It turns out that this fantastic playground, in a small town in Australia, on the other side of the Earth from home, was designed by a company in Ithaca! In fact, when I first moved to Ithaca, I used to run with a designer at this company. It really is a small world...