See ya, Sydney

Australia isn't a place you come to see (like the great cities of Europe), it's a place you come to do. And we did Australia. In three weeks I've cruised Sydney Harbour, sailed the Whitsundays, sea kayaked at Long Island, rafted the Tully, been diving on the Great Barrier Reef, trekked through The Olgas, base walked around Ayer's Rock, climbed Devil's Marbles, slept under the stars at a cattle station, swam in nearly every plunge pool, thermal spring, and swimming hole in the Northern Territory, bush-walked to the great waterfalls of Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, hiked the Blue Mountains, and surfed Bondi Beach. Not to mention we've traveled over an area half size of half the U.S. to do all of this. And there was a little biking and city walking in Singapore to start it all out. I don't think we could have done any more in the time we had.

It's been a heck of a trip. In the process I will have crossed the equator four times, earned tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles, and only twice slept in the same place three nights in a row. And in all this time, I've only seen Foster's beer for sale at one bar in this entire country.

But now it's time to go home. See you soon.

"Have you seen this silly game?"

For our last night in Sydney, John and I went to an Aussie Rules Football (here they just call it 'football') game at the Olympic Stadium. What a sport it is. If you can imagine a game combining the rules of American football, soccer, and basketball, played for four thirty-minute-plus quarters without timeouts, you begin to get the idea. Actually, according to a very patient Australian gentleman sitting in front of us who helped explain what was going on, there aren't really any rules at all. It's pretty much a free for all. Not a bad way to spend our last night Down Under.

Nothing beats the surfing

During the sunny interval between morning and afternoon rains, John and I got in a couple of hours surfing at Bondi Beach, just around the corner from our hostel. Though we were beginnners, I must say we excelled. I expect a call from Billabong asking for my endoresement any day now.

Unfortunately, the surf school didn't let us bring our cameras to the beach, so this view of south Bondi from the hostel will have to suffice.

Flashback
As promised, here are yesterday's pictures from the hike. At left is John on one of the easy parts of the trail - there was a ladder to get up the rocks here. Check out the vista from Sublime Point at the top though. It was well worth it.

Into the wild blue yonder

I drug John hiking to the Blue Mountains today. He wanted to do another tour, but I explained that I didn't earn my Eagle Scout by riding a bus, and he saw things my way. Or got tired of arguing. Either way, it turned out to be a great hike (more like a climb, actually), though we're still not entirely sure whether it was legal to be on the trail we hiked. The view at the end was great, though. I have some pictures to put up, but I can't do it from here. I'll try to add them soon.

Farewell to the top end

I know that my loyal readers (both of you) are getting tired of seeing sunsets. Yes, I've confirmed it - the sun does set every night in Australia! But this is my favorite one, from Darwin last night.


Litchfield National Park
I've also been swimming at more waterfalls. Florence Falls, on the left, looks like it was designed for a movie set, or a picture on a blog. Wangi falls was nice, too. And John finally got in.











Here's John scared that the water is too cold at Florence Falls.

Crocodiles everywhere!

We just got into Darwin (which is sort of like being near civilization again) at the very north end of Australia. Finally, it's warm! Here are a few more Outback highlights.

Jim Jim Falls gorge
The 220-meter waterfall at the end of the river here was barely running, and will be dry in a week, but the scenery is incredible. It took two hours in a four-wheel drive vehicle to get to the trailhead.

The determined few of our group who got up at 6:00 am to make the double trek to both Jim Jim falls and Twin Falls, stopping for a photo along Jim Jim Creek.

We saw this guy (and quite a few more like him) this morning during our boat ride on the South Alligator River. There aren't any alligators in the river, though, because saltwater crocodiles like this one would eat them!

Heading north

Outback Fuel Stop

Edith Falls
Most of my new British friends thought the water was too cold here (how ironic is that?), so I was the only one from our group who made the swim att the way to the falls and back. Not a bad lunch stop.

Deep into the Outback

We crossed back into the tropics yesterday, and it was a good thing, since we camped under the stars at Banka Banka cattle station last night. The stars, incidentally, were brilliant.

Here are a few more pictures.

Devil's Marbles
Sunset at Banka Banka

The toughest part of driving on the left side of the road...

is the turn signal. It's on the right-hand side of the steering column, where you'd expect the wiper to be. So every time we got to an intersection, our windshield got a good washing. Fortunately, there aren't very many intersections in the Outback, and, despite my ineptiude shifting gears with my left hand, we survived our road trip through the Red Centre. Ayers Rock is an amazing sight, but it's quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Just outside the "resort", heading west toward the rock, we passed a sign warning that there's no gas for the next 845 kilometers. That's the distance from Cincinnati to Macon, Georgia.

Ayers Rock (Uluru)

Sunset... John reading a book as we walk around the base of the Rock.

The Olgas (Kata Tjuta)

Seven domes rising out of the desert, the walk through the Valley of the WInds (appropriately named) here was better than the base walk at Ayers Rock.

To get from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs, we took Lasseter Highway to Stuart Highway (roads in the Outback don't have numbers - there aren't enough of them) for 400 km. Stuart Highway is a respectable if lightly traveled two-lane road. Lasseter Highway is what I'd expect a main highway to look like in a third-world country - paved, but narrow with only a faded center line for marking. The shoulders were broad and dusty and morphed into the paved roadway with no clear boundary. The bus drove on pavement but left tracks in the sand that covered to road. The sunset along the way was beautiful, though.

Oh, and John lost his jeans.

Last pics from Cairns

Rafting the Tully
Yesterday John and I rafted about 14km on the Class III & IV Tully river in the rainforest south of Cairns. The only trip available around here that's any longer requires being helicoptered in with your raft. It isn't running this month though. It was a good all-day ride. No one got wet, I promise. (Our guide appears a bit bored, though.)

Here's our raft. The couple to my right is Lorna and Neil from London (England, not Kentucky, folks), also on our tour. Lorna was my dive buddy at the Great Barrier Reef, too, making them the coolest people in our group.

Great Barrier Reef
Here are some pictures I took during the dive Sunday. Amazing what 1-hour photo processing can do now, huh?


Tomorrow morning we head to Ayer's Rock in the heart of the Outback. I have no idea what access to the Internet will be like for the next week, so forgive me if the posts become less frequent.

In the jungle

There's nothing like driving through a tropical rain forest and looking out at the crystal clear sea, which is what we did this morning. Except maybe whitewater rafting through deep rain forest gorges, which is what we did yesterday. Oh, and yes, that is a koala in my arms to the left.

A bit of the jungle near Karunda.

The last drop of a waterfall. The whole thing had to be far more than 500 feet down.

Koala mom with her baby at Karunda.

Oh, and if anyone has ever doubted my strength, here's a story. Tour buses in Australia are quite a bit bigger (both longer and taller) that we have in the United States. We had a really nice, modern coach on our tour, but just as we got to our last hotel here in Cairns Saturday night, a blockage developed in the fuel line. So after we unloaded our luggage to the rooms, a few of us guys got behind the bus and pushed it right into its parking space for the night. So yes, I can move a giant tour bus with my bare hands, thank you.

Swimming with the fishes

We spent all of today on the Great Barrier Reef. I did two dives and saw three sharks (I don't think any of them saw me). I'd been skeptical - was this reef really beter than others, or just longer than others? - and my skepticism wasn't hurt by the fact that conditions were only fair. But the reef exceeded all my expectations. It was huge and amazingly diverse and would at least equal what I remember of the Caymans if only the water was a little clearer and sunnier, which usually it is.

John and I heading down...










The longest boat ride I've ever had to a reef was about 20 minutes. The Great Barrier Reef is 2 1/2 hours off the coast of Cairns. Here we are on the deck of the catamaran Passions of Paradise with our new Austrian (yes, without the 'L') friend Sabine.

Some of our tour group on Michaelmas Cay, really just a sandbar and the only dry land for miles in every direction. This is where we snorkeled between dives.

Club Crocodile, Long Island

We're back on the mainland (stopping for lunch in Townsville, ironically enough, for regular readers), so I can post pictures again. Computers are just so primitive out in the Whitsundays. Here are some shots taken around our resort. Scroll down to Thursday for sailing - I'm not sure how to bring the new pictures to the top.


John is on this trip, for those who've been wondering.

Wallaby: n. A giant rat that hops. They were all over the island.

Here's a flashback to the Bird Park in Singapore. Are you happy now, Mom?

Is anyone keen for a tale?

So John and I are the only Americans on our tour. Of the other 20, there are two Canadians, a German and an Austrian, and the rest are British, mostly English. How ironic will it be when we return from Australia talking like we've been to England? Cheers.

Ahoy, sailor!

The Whitsunday Islands - I spent our first full day on these islands in the most appropriate way - on a sailboat. The water here is as clear as the Carribean if not quite as warm, but the scenery is much prettier, and most of the islands are national parks, so there's virtually no development. We spotted two humpback whales - a mother and her calf - on the way to Whitehaven beach this morning.


Our ride: the retired 80-foot racing maxi Ragamuffin, a champion in her day.

Afraid the sharks wouldget me? This water is home to the deadliest jellyfish in the world. Only one guy on our tour got stung. (That's Whitsunday Island - the biggie - in the background.)

Deja vu

Driving through northeast Australia reminds me of driving through Umbria, in Italy. The traffic is lighter, and the trees are different, but the forests are the same: scrubby, well-spaced trees, vast stretches of flat land fronting distant, low mountains on both sides of the highway. Who would have expected to find a slice of Italia on the coast of Australia?

Always confirm your ticket

This morning at 6:50 am we joined the crowd at the Townsville bus terminal to catch the 7:05 to Brisbane, which would take us to Airlie Beach. Forty-five minutes later after two other buses had come and gone, we were the only people left at the terminal. So John went to investigate. Turns out the 7:05 to Brisbane is actually the 6:20 to Brisbane. Appatrently there never was a 7:05, despite what our e-ticket printouts clearly say. Fortunately, there's another bus at 10:45 and we'll still get to Airlie two hours before we have to meet our tour. But we could've at least had a shower at the hostel this morning after all. I guess when Greyhound says you should reconfirm 24 hours in advance, they mean it.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of Townsville:


Local dining:

We still can't figure out why there's a giant spider hanging above the main street.

Last shots from Sydney

Spent our last morning in Sydney wandering through the Royal Botanical Gardens, where, unlike the bird park in Singapore, the animals are there by choice.

G'day Mates

It's odd changing seasons in the length of a plane ride, but that's exactly what I did last night. I woke up this morning in the dead of winter. Here are a few pics from today. (Be sure to scroll down to see the ones I added from Singapore yesterday.)

Australian driving directions...