After 14 months in Bahrain, the Two Crabs took advantage of one of the best benefits/job perks of the Foreign Service: R&R. 

R&R stands for Rest & Recuperation, and it is a benefit and means of allowing employees to briefly get away from a high-stress, dangerous, isolated, uncomfortable post.  The amount of R&Rs depends on the hardship of a post. For our tour, we were entitled to one R&R during our two-year tour.  As part of this park, the government pays for one airline ticket back to the U.S. or the designaated "R&R point.  For our post, the R&R point is London.  Most people tend to fly back to the States. We went for a third option and decided to spend our R&R at a far-away destination we have always wanted to visit: AUSTRALIA!

The Two Crabs started our trip by flying to Bangkok for three days, then heading off to Sydney. For the next two and a half weeks, we drove from Sydney to Airlie Beach, camping or staying with friends along the way. The photo above was taken in the picture-postcard perfect Whitesunday Islands, off the coast of Airlie Beach. No, this is not a screen saver! 

After Oz, Mr. Crab has now visited every continent (not counting Antarctica), and 65 countries total; and Mrs. Crab has one more to go (South America).  The stop in Bangkok also gave us our first brief glimpse at Southeast Asia, a part of the world that we are looking forward to exploring on our next tour!  

Back in Bahrain, and back to the grind!