Moreton Fig
On our last day we enjoyed some of Sydney’s most famous landmarks. We walked around the Opera House, across the Harbor Bridge and spent several hours in the Royal Botanic Garden. The bats, flying foxes, are thick in the gardens. They are so numerous they are damaging the trees. The garden has been given permission to try some things to get the bats to move. One is noise, and we noticed some plastic spikes on some of the trees. That looks like it would discourage bats, or anything else from landing.
They had a rainforest walk and we were excited at all the things we recognized and remembered! One of the trees was a ficus, or a Moreton Bay Fig. This is the tree that creates the strangler fig, but this one seems to have germinated in the ground and it didn’t strangle anything. We loved the sign in the gardens. It said, “Please walk on the grass. We also invite you to smell the roses, hug the trees, talk to the birds and picnic on the lawn.” (In the Daintree we were advised not to hug trees, excellent advice for that part of the world.)
And now, a small moment from Mrs. Morris.
Be careful not to be over zealous when planning trips of a lifetime. When planning our trip to Australia trip Mrs. Harding and I, in our quest to save money yet do everything possible decided we co9uld handle the red eye from Perth to Sydney. In doing so we would save money on a hotel room. That also meant we had from 10:30 am to arounf 8:30 pm to find things to occupy our time swince we would not have a place to crash. Most hotels will keep your luggage for you during the day so we didn’t have to lug it around Perth. Traveling with Mrs. Harding, I knew there would not be a problem keeping busy. Our biggest problem was that we usually called it a day around 4:30-5:00 pm when it got dark. We had until 8:20 pm before we would be shuttled to the airport—a REAL airport this time—to wait for our midnight departure.
Sounds easy right? Maybe when you are 20, but as most of you know I am OLD and bedtime comes around 9:00 pm! Even in Australia! We fought to either stay awake or try to sleep in the uncomfortable qccommodations of the airport. Once on board we tried to snuggle in for the 3 ½ hour flight to Sydney. Mrs. Harding did a fine job of sleeping. I on the other hand got in 2 movies! Point to be made—I am not 20 and when planning any other trips no red eye flights! My eyes have certainly been red today!
That, however, is not my small moment. The battery on my phone died—not that we could use it for anything other than the time since my international service failed—but I wanted to charge it up so I could text family when we got to Dallas. Looked for my charger and low and behold it was gone! I struggled to remember when I used it last and that was way back on Magnetic Island! Now on top of no international service I couldn’t even call when we got back to the good old USA!
Sometimes when yo9u are dog tired things you forget come storming back. This was the case with my charger. I had a smalol bag that I kept the charger in and knew my luggage. Upon arrival at our hotel in Sydney and a short nap I looked and voila! There it was! I was ecstatic! I got my phone, hooked it up and after a minute or two I heard the sweet ring of my text alert. Mrs. Harding and I looked at each other with amazement, checked the phone and oh happy days I have international service!!! Now this news was met with exhilaration and irritation as we have one more day until we make our lon g journey home. Irritation or not I anxiously waited for the phone to charge, sent a text to my daughter and son even though it was 2:00 am back home.
It so9unds like such a minor thing, textimg, but when you are this far f rom home for this long of a time, any connection to home keeps you from feeling alone. This trip has indeed been a once in a lifetime event and one I( will remember—I ho9pe—forever! But I do miss home, family and friends and I’m ready to get back. After all there’s no place like home!!!!
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