Australia pt2

The next day after gathering fuel receipts and sending reports off, we decided that horseback riding would be the thing to do. We had one girl* (she was black) who was scared to death of the horses. The three of us talked her into riding and she agreed, but was scared to death.  These horses were trail horses, you would think were well trained. The stable man matched us up with our riding skills. Two of the girls were old hands at it and me and we’ll call her Mary* were the rookies of the pack. I had been riding maybe twice in my life, and like I say, Mary was scared to death and had never ridden a horse before. The two experienced girls left us in the dirt, I was third and Mary was behind me.  We were trotting right along when I heard Mary screaming like a banshee. I turned around and her horse was kneeling on the ground with his butt still in the air. All I could do was laugh at her. It was quite hilarious to me. I wasn’t in a position to help her. The stable master heard her screaming and came to her rescue. She wanted off the horse, but I talked her into staying. Well that was our first mistake. These horses were having their way with us. They took off at a gallop and tore out after the other two. All I could do was laugh and poor Mary was screaming again. You really had to be there, because it was quite hilarious.

Our horses ran up the hill and caught up with the other two. It was so cool, because there were a ton of kangaroos just hopping around. What a beautiful sight. Once at the top my horse and Mary’s decided they were having a good time and went galloping down the hills and weaved in and out of the kangaroos. You know me, I’m still laughing and poor Mary was still screaming. It was a good time, but needless to say, Mary will probably never get back on a horse. 

We just chilled for the afternoon and a couple of the girls went out drinking with the guys. I opted not and enjoyed a quiet evening in. The next day we were flying into Sydney. Like every other morning, I collected fuel receipts and we sent reports back to the squadron. We arrived in Sydney midafternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

The next morning, we decided we wanted to take a bus tour up to The Three Sisters mountain. It was a nice relaxing ride to the mountain top. The legend is, The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and 'Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.

These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.

As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come. (bluemountainsaustria.com)

The panoramic view at the mountain top was beautiful. It’s one of those things you have to see to get the full beauty of the sight.

After the mountain we went back to our accommodations and relaxed and the other ladies went out with the guys again. I drank so much in Diego Garcia I had no desire to pick up a drink. Here again I had a nice relaxing night watching TV. You have to understand that we had been TV and radio deprived for six months. The commercials were so stupid all I could do was laugh at them.

We flew back to Hawaii after five days of enjoying Australia. We no sooner got back and they needed someone to go to Panama for a month. I volunteered, because my son was still in the states and the rest of the people who worked for me had family.

Let me tell you Panama was a trip too. I will tell you about that in another post.