FLYING SOUTH

My sister in law, Ann, is visiting Australia from England. I haven't seen her since 2008 when we met her and my brother in Switzerland for a few days holiday together. Since then my brother has died so I was keen to see Ann again while she was here. She was going to celebrate her 80th birthday in Adelaide and we flew there to join in the celebrations with her family. Unfortunately Ann fell ill on the way to Adelaide and I never got to see her. She is now recuperating at her son's home in Wodonga. Albury/Wodonga are twin towns on the Victorian and NSW border. I decided to fly there to visit Ann before she returns to England later this month. This meant flying south in winter not a warming experience at all. I flew to Sydney on a 737 jet, there I had to change planes to a small Dash 800 with props and the cabin under the wings.

 It doesn't fly very high so I had a good view of the country. This is the south coast of NSW where there are lots of coastal towns.

 Then we turned inland and flew over other smaller towns but this one was quite big and I'm guessing it was Canberra, Australia's Capital City.

 Then we flew near the Snowy Mts and they were covered in snow which only happens in winter. The props are whizzing around in the photo. Soon we started descending into Albury airport. My nephew, David and Ann were there to pick me up.

 David is a lovely person who takes good care of his mother, he is a great cook and he is mad about photography so we hit it off very well. He has amazing photographic equipment. My inadequate Point and Shoot made a blurry shot here. Poor David lost his wife not long ago, her photo is on the wall. Then David took a photo of us from his tripod..

When David went to work, Ann and I had a chat fest for the three days that I was there.

 In the mornings there was frost on the grass, this was something different for me as we rarely have frost in Brisbane.

 By the middle of the day the sun was shining but it was still cold by my standards 12°C/53.6F. David has a nice house in Wodonga.

 I braved a short walk one day. It is a pretty town surrounded by rolling hills. Too soon it was time to hug Ann and say goodbye. David drove me to the airport in the morning, it was very cold and foggy.

My plane had to come from Sydney and it couldn't land in the fog. It was delayed an hour.

There were 3 small planes circling in a holding pattern but finally they popped out of the fog and landed. Luckily my plane turned around quickly and headed back to Sydney. I was just in time to catch my connection to Brisbane. I had a good time chatting but I was glad to get back to the warmer climate.