Another sign of the change in lifestyle was this morning. We attended a pasture management course up at the Robo stockyard. This incidentally is believed to be one of the locations used in the film 'Babe'. Learned all kinds of stuff about working land. 

The kookaburra is a strange and unique sounding bird. However nothing can prepare for you for what I simply call the 'R2D2' bird. Yup, that's right - sounds just like a cheerful R2 unit. Someday I'll figure out what the locals call it, but I believe this name is the best description.

The house closes in a week and a half. Took a look at Google Earth (I'll provide coordinates to friends and family) and it's right at 14.6 miles from the ocean - yet a world away. If you're impatient, just find Robertson NSW - to the left and down a spit from Wollongong. 

In fact - if you climb the hill right behind our new house, you'll be looking down the Illawarra Escarpment, across the lowlands, and out over the Pacific. This amazing view is just one pasture away from our house! The view over the edge of the Escarpment itself (a huge cliff about 10 miles inland) is simply astonishing. Now this hill is private property, but maybe I can work out a concession to take a few friends up once in a while. If not there's an access road to the cliff edge a couple of kilometers away.

Change your height exaggeration to 3 in the Google Earth prefs and use a low viewing angle towards the east to get a rough idea of what I'm talking about.