Australia 3

We settled into the flat a little on Saturday afternoon when we arrived. The bigs and I bathed and we discovered that the flat has a very small supply of very hot water but that it recovers fast. You can take a fine shower as long as you keep the water pressure very low. We'd already planned to stay up to six or so then an all go to bed and sleep through to morning, so we had about four hours to kill. We were also hungry. We walked down to the beach and the kids ran around and played in the sand while David and Astrid and I sat at a beach-front cafe. We all had a little food, though the kids didn't like most of what was on the antipasto plate I ordered for them. This was our first discovery of the gluten-free friendliness of this area. We asked about gluten in the food and they cheerfully substituted gluten-free bread. I enjoyed a half a dozen oysters on the half shell.

Our mission in going out, beyond killing time until bedtime and eating, was to procure some European-Australian outlet converters, of all things. David had assumed that Australia used the European standard and all our power converters are European. Fortunately the difference between the European and Australian outlets is just shape, so we only needed outlet converters. We were still able to use the European power converters we brought. We found them at a little hole-in-the-wall electronics store and headed back to the flat. I used most of the rest of gf bread and cheese and hard salami we had to top off the bigs' and David's tummies and then we all collapsed into bed. It was 6:30pm local time - about 36 hours after the beginning of our journey.

Food here is expensive. It's hard to tell exactly how expensive because we're in an upscale, seaside resort area - food would cost a fortune in a seaside resort in the US, too. We should get a better idea on this on the way east to Mallacoota http://www.visitmallacoota.com.au/ next week - while Mallacoota is a park/tourist area, the places we'll pass through on the way are not.