12 Jan.: Canberra, ACT --> Crackenback, NSW (Snowy Mountains).

Crossfit 2600 -- great coaches

It had been awhile since we hit Crossfit and since they had one in Canberra (actually it was about a mile from McD's house), +Marc and I ventured out for an 8am class. The facility was well-kept but the class was packed. We later found out that a move to a larger space in town was imminent. The heat from the previous day lingered on so the WOD consisting of running, stairs, thrusters and then russian twists with a KG plate was tough, but necessary. The coaches were great on pushing everyone on technique. Glad we went.

After packing everything up, it was time to say farewell to our wonderful hosts. We had a great time with Ashley, +Christine (aka McD), Zachary and Jensen. Ashley continued to be very gracious with his knowledge of Australia - both geographically, politically and culturally, which we really enjoyed. And McD and the boys continued to be fun and enthusiastic about whatever came up.

Saw this on the way to the Snowy Mountains

We had a concern heading over to the Snowy Mountains because of a big wildfire near a town we would be passing through. I called the place we were staying to see if there was anything to be concerned about, and they said that the parks have been open, etc., so we ventured over. We did see a good deal of smoke at one point of the journey (near the town we were expecting to see it at), but fortunately that was the extent of our exposure to the fires on this trip.

Got to Crackenback and it was partly sunny. The proprietor of the accommodation where we are staying was very helpful on places to eat, conditions to be concerned about hiking in the region, etc. Really nice lady. On the way to dinner, we had our 1st encounter with a kangaroo on the road. Actually we had 3 jump out. We were warned that they do just jump out of nowhere. And guess what? THEY DO!

Wallabies in the wild just outside of our B&B

Grabbed some dinner in town, and kangaroo #4 came out. Guess this is life outside of the major cities of Australia, eh? And finally as we came up to the B&B to park, a group of wallabies appeared so that was our 1st sighting of those guys. Wow. Think we will have a new stat to track?

We have uploaded a bunch more pictures to the Flickr site, which includes all of the local wines we have tried out, random shots in addition to some of the scenery we have taken in. We also have added tags to the photos so if you want to overdose on pics of the Sydney Opera House or our hikes, you can select a tag to focus on what you are interested in.

Thanks for tuning in!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasawaterclown/