I'm back! After spending the afternoon running around with Sandy, I'm beat. I've been up for close to 32 hours straight, and I think it's time for bed! I'll post my final day in Brisbane tomorrow, once I've had about 16 hours of sleep or so.

And I think I'm getting a cold.....

Happy 17th wedding anniversary, Drew, too bad we couldn't have spent it together! I love you!

The alarm rang all too early, and it was time for Drew to be off. I walked with him down to the train, and sat with him on the platform, and waved when his train took off. Back to being alone. I miss you, Drew!

I went back to bed, but didn't really sleep, so went downstairs around 7 and had the friendly hostel staff book me two tours... all day sightseeing of Brisbane today, and Moreton Island and water fun tomorrow.

Brisbane is the capital city of Queensland, and has all the typical government architecture to go with it. We drove around this morning, having all the principal buildings pointed out. One I found interesting was the old treasury building now turned into a casino. I guess you could lose your money just as effectively gambling it away as you could paying taxes. At least the gambling is voluntary! The architecture is quite nice, and there are alot of parks and public art here. For morning tea, we stopped at the Breakfast Creek hotel, where they still serve beer in wooden kegs every day at noon and 7pm.... Hmmm.... it's 7pm now! There is quite a bit of history associated with this place. It was surveyed by the Surveyor General for a potential penal colony, but the natives were very aggressive, and that boat stayed for breakfast only... hence the name. Next, we went on a river cruise and saw some expensive real estate. Then we had an hour and a half to ourselves, in the area known as South Bank. South Bank has an urban beach and lagoon, totally separate from the (grey) river. It's school holiday in Queensland, so there were about 27 million kids there today. The coach met us at 1:30, and we were off for a drive through the suburbs, and off to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. They have a ton of different animals there... koalas (go figure), wallabys, kangaroos, birds, wombats, lizards, dingoes, more birds... lots of them. The kangaroos are very tame, and you can feed them and pet them. I did the photo op with a koala, the money goes towards their upkeep. It started as a refuge for injured animals in the '20s, and they still do that today, although those kangaroos didn't look too injured to me.

After leaving there, we went to a lookout with great city views, and then back here.

That's about it for today! I have one roomie tonight, her name is Carolyn. She's probably in her 50's or so, and she's in town learning to teach ESL. Her old job was made redundant, and she is then going to travel & teach English. She's gone out for a class, so I have the place to myself till 10:30 or so. And I'll be long asleep by then!

Tomorrow, off I go to Moreton Island for some more adventure!

Cheers,
Marie

From Port Douglas to Cairns airport. We slept in a bit in our nice fancy room in Port Douglas, and had intended to go to the Rainforest Habitat and have 'Breakfast with the Birds'. But at $39 per person, I remembered having breakfast with our cockatoos Monty and Sukie... all they do is walk across your toast and eat your peanut butter! So we went back into the village, did a geocache at the lookout, took a picture, and had breakfast by the marina, watching the reef boats go out. There was the MOST unusual, unpleasant smell in the air... I didn't think it could be ME! We asked the waitress... there is a tree aptly titled the 'stink tree' nearby. It obviously has a VERY DISTINCTIVE smell of old mothballs. Num, num... very appetizing with my eggs, which I can't usually stomach at the best of times!

We headed towards Cairns, with not much planned. We stopped at the lookout that had hangliders at it the other day. No hangliders today, but there was a geocache, and lots of lizards. We also stopped at another one at Trinity Beach. Nice beach town, not many shops but lots of holiday houses. The cache was about 100m up the side of a hill, and neither one of us felt like climbing, so we had lunch and watched the world go by instead. Drew watched a Tiger Moth go by, and was hoping for a photo on it's return, but it didn't come back our way.

And that's about it for the trip back to Cairns. We got to the airport with LOADS of time, so we had a nap on a very comfy sofa. So very thoughtful for them to put real live sofas in the terminal!

We got into Brisbane and the hostel about 8pm. I have no sense of direction here. It's big, about 2 million people. No one seemed to know where the heck the shipyard was where Drew was to meet the ship. Finally, with the help of the hostel staff, a phone book, two maps and the bus schedule, we figured out how to get Drew to the ship (drat). We were to be up at 4:30, so early to bed for us. We had a rather nice room, too... our own bath! $72. I wasn't feeling well, so it was nice to have the private bathroom!

Two good things happened that I forgot to put in... the piece of barnacle FINALLY came out of my hand! That's from the fall I had in East Sooke Park back in early July. AND, my pant legs were awaiting me upon check in at the YHA in Brisbane. YIPPEE!!!

Tuesday started at 4am for Drew! He heard something outside our tent/cabin, it was big, and definitely had 4 legs! It was a big feral sow, munching away on pretty much anything it wanted. Drew says she was large pig sized, and very hairy! Of course, he dídn't wake me up, so I have no independent confirmation of the alleged sow sighting... but he was pretty excited! I woke up just in time to hear it leaving.

At 5:50, we had a knocking at our tent for our 6am kyak trip to Shipwreck Bay. I think there were 5 kyaks in total, and we were to paddle to a point, round it, and land at the second beach. no problem, except Drew and I are extremely uncoordinated when it comes to paddling. Drew blames me, then he blames the kyak. I think he's a canoe boy myself. Breakfast was nummy fruit and bread, we walked around for awhile, and Drew displayed his very handy ability to open a coconut! We could have gone snorkeling, but the tide was coming in, and visibility probably wasn't good, and it wasn't really warm... although I did manage to get a mild burn on my legs. Coming back, Drew was definitely an unhappy camper... he swears we were taking on water inside the kyak. Back to Crocodyllus for a shower and checkout, and we were on our way... north again! We wanted to see the Bat House!

The Bat House is a small little building packed with more information than you'd ever need to know on bats! It's a rehab/research place for bats. We saw only one bat... but it was a biggie! It was named Oldboy, and he was malnourished when he was held in captivity, and his tendons never formed properly, and he can't fly. He's a friendly little guy! The research guy could handle him just fine, and Oldboy really enjoyed a scratch under the chin. Oldboy is a spectacled flying fox, just like the big bats that we saw the other night. He's about a foot and a half long, and BEAUTIFUL! Eyes like a little puppy dog. The research guy told us everthing we ever wanted to know about flying foxes, including that the researchers now think they are not bats at all, but PRIMATES! Which would make it the only native primate on the Australian continent. He said the females have one baby at a time, and take care of it till it's about 6 months old. Then he went on to describe the physiology, and why they are more closely related to lemurs than a normal bat. Fascinating stuff!

But, just like at home, we had a ferry to catch. We basically drove straight to Port Douglas, and here we are. After a little nap, we walked the town of Port Douglas, and I bought some more charms for my bracelet. It took us about an hour of window shopping to make it through the whole place. This is definitely a ritzy place! The real estate windows are unbelievable... $5m for a nice little place on the hill. Hmmm.... I'll pass, thanks very much. Crocodyllus is much more our style!

We had supper here at the Port o Call, and I've just noticed that it's raining... quite alot! I would have liked to see this up north, I bet the floodways will be working tonight! It smells nice, though!

And that's it from Port Douglas. Tomorrow is a beach day... if it stops raining! We have to have the rental car back at the airport around 2pm for our 4pm flight to Brisbane.

Cheers!
Marie

Monday in Cape Trib/Cow Bay
It's Tuesday night, but I'm writing this as if it were Monday night! Drew and I decided to take it easy today, and actually slept in with no alarm! Today's plan was for nothing. We had breakfast at Crocodylus, very nummy and relatively cheap. Our general plan was to drive north until we ran out of road, and that didn't take all that long. Our first stop was to be at the Daintree Ice Cream Company, but I guess 10am was a little early for ice cream, so we went on to the Fan Palm Cafe, got some fresh juices, and walked along their boardwalk into a big grove of the fan palms. I think I mentioned that these are very slow growing, a small one is usually around 60 years old. This grove was full of palms as tall as a Doug fir, and they can live to be 3,000 years old. And I can't keep a palm even one year!

We went back to the ice cream company, where they make the strangest ice creams you're ever likely to see. We sampled 4 flavours. Plum and mango were fairly normal, although the plum melted really fast. But have you ever had black wattle seed ice cream? It was our favorite, it tasted like moca. Mmmm! The other flavour was black sapote. The fruit is also known as the chocolate pudding fruit. I didn't like it... I know, me not liking ice cream is bizzare in itself. But I usually don't like chocolate ice cream, and this tasted like a very strange chocolate ice cream to me. But the overall ice cream experience was pleasing!

Next, we went and found a beach and had a nap. We were pretty much the only people there, although we could hear a generator from the nearby beach cafe. But the overall nap experience was pleasing!

Then we drove north untill we ran out of road... which took about 20 minutes. Actually, there was still a road, but it was a dusty gravel one for about 32km, then it became a 4wd track for 120km. Both of us had already had our lifetime alotment of gravel road travel from the Kakadu experience, so we decided to head back to the Bat House, which was unfortunately closed on Mondays.

So we found another beach and had another successful napping experience! This time we shared the beach with alot of honey ants. They were very amusing to watch and tease!

At 4pm, we went for an exotic fruit tasting experience. The story of this couple (Digby and Alison) was pretty interesting, heck with the fruit! They were school teachers from Victoria (as in Melbourne) and decided to 'drop out'. So they became itinerant teachers in the Northern Territory. They ran a one room school something like 500km from Tennant Creek... which is 500km from nowhere. He said they need two married teachers, because they only had a one bedroom caravan for the teachers to live in. And they had to phone to Darwin every morning to prove that they hadn't skipped out in the middle of the night. In the early 80's, they came to Cape Trip, bought this place, and started planting strange fruit. He was a zoologist, so had no idea about plants, but they struggled along. At that time, there was NO electricity, NO phone, NO road. The closest phone was a 4 hour 4wd track away at the river crossing. It now takes about 45 minutes to get there on the road! Still no electricity out there... everyone has a generator or solar batteries. When they built the road, all the locals blockaded and protested, but it still went through. And as recent as 1995, they had a vote to go onto the power grid... which soundly got defeated.

There are lots of the agri-eco-tourism small businesses here. It's the major form of employment. Alot of these businesses are also for sale. It reminds me of the smaller gulf islands.

So we had 10 different fruits, and I know I don't remember the names. One fruit is so fragile that it cannot be marketed at all. It's a variety of custard apple, a rollinia, I think it's called. Digby says you pick one, and carefully carry it into the house. Once it sits on its own weight, it bruises almost immediately. It was pretty good and different. Digby told us all about how the fruit grows, how it's used around the world, commercial uses, etc. He's also a rainforest advocate, and actually had about half of his land put back into the national park system.

Ludger and Ina were at the tasting, too, so we all went out for dinner at the Dragonfly Cafe. Good food, if you're ever in the area! We saw a white lipped tree frog sitting in a hanging basket, another successful wildlife sighting! We relaxed and enjoyed supper for a couple of hours, then headed back in the dark.

Dark is an interesting time to be driving in Australia, and everyone will warn you against doing it. But up here, it seems to be OK. It's not like you're going to have a big kangaroo hop across the road or anything, and I think that cassowary aren't nocturnal. But we did see a flattened bandicoot (really tiny kangaroo). Ina and Ludger were driving in front of us, when all of a sudden they came to one of the one-lane bridges and stopped... out jumped Ludger, who was running after something... a bandicoot! He had his camera out and was chasing it across the bridge! I don't think the bandicoot was too impressed, and as soon as he could, he was off into the bush. I hope Ludger got his photo op!

Drew and I stopped to take a walk along the beach - the owner at the Dragonfly said the stars were nice! But when we got there, all we had were clouds... so much for the romantic beach walk!

Actually, it was nice to get to bed fairly early. Tuesday was going to be a long day!

Up bright and early with the birdies! I don't think you could sleep in here even if you wanted to, although Drew does an admirable job! We were picked up at 7am for our second reef day. With the other pick ups, it took about an hour to get to the actual Cape Tribulation, were we had to relinquish our shoes (!) and got on a small aluminum tender to go out to the boat. It was a 45+ foot converted catamaran sailboat. I still feel like I'm moving, actually! It took over an hour to get out there, the crew entertained us the whole way! We went to McKay reef, which is a couple of reefs south of where Captain Cook ran the Endeavour aground... on Endeavour reef! It was VERY choppy, and the morning snorkeling was pretty challenging for me. But we saw some interesting stuff... the normal big fish, lots of parrot fish crunch crunch crunching on the coral, then pooping out sand! They're responsible for most of the sand creation in the world, actually! I bet you did not know that. Lots of the same fish we saw at the other reef, but these seemed bigger, and there weren't nearly as many people around. We also saw the biggest puffer fish! Most of the time, the acquarium types are a little bigger than your thumb. This one was close to 2 feet long, but not puffed up. But impressive nonetheless! We also saw a blue spotted ray, and followed him around for a bit, until he was bored with us, and in the flash of an eye, he was gone!

I wasn't good for snorkelling too long in that chop, it really bothered my ears. So we went aboard, ate lunch, and listed to one of the guides talk about the fish. The afternoon was much more comfortable, the tide had gone down, and alot of the reef was exposed. Much easier going! Drew picked up an underwater camera, and I'm sure he got some fantastic shots... either that, or lots of shots of his finger! It's like swimming in an aquarium, way WAY better than Hanama Bay on Oahu! No comparison.

We left the reef around 2:30 or so, and I was feeling a bit queazy on the way back, so I had lots of trips to the stern to 'admire the sand quay'. I didn't get sick, though!

The bus ride back was fun. There is a very famous road sign here, it's by a big speed bump. They don't mess around with speed bumps here. They're about 3-4 feet long, and studded with jagged rocks. They DO NOT want you driving fast here, because of the cassowaries. This particular traffic sign is so famous, that it's on Queensland post cards. It's two yellow diamonds, the bottom one is the normal cassowairy sillouette. The upper one is supposed to be a speed bump, but 'someone' keeps coming and painting cassowary head and feet on each end of the speed bump, and putting the word 'after' on it, and the word 'before' on the cassowarry sillouette. Very effective, when we saw it the other day, it made us stop and really think, yeah, we don't need to be going this fast.

Well, the 'somone' who ammends the sign was none other then the skipper of the boat we were on! His wife and all of his kids were on the bus with us, and told us that 'someone else' DOESN'T like the fact that he paints the sign, and they go and change it back to what it's supposed to be. Then the skipper dude goes and changes it back! Evidently, this has been going on for quite awhile, and all the locals know the status of the sign at all times. 'It's messed up'.... 'It's back to norma'. And 'normal' means the skipper's way!

We saw it 'normal' the other day, but 'messed up' again yesterday. I'll let you know it's status for today! He said that he'd fix it tonight!

We had dinner here again, but got smart enought to only order one dinner between the two of us. This is evidently the place to be in the Cape Trib area, as lots of locals come here for the food. We ate our supper with Ludger and Ina, from Germany. After supper, we got our tourches and tried to do our own night walk. We saw a great stick bug, some bandicoots (look like rats, but they are actually marsupials, and related to kangaroos) and BATS! Flying Fox bats. They were very unhappy that we were shining a 5million candle light at them! We got alot of entertainment out of them. They were swooping us, and all you could here was this low, low 'foomp foomp foomp'. Those are VERY big bats.

Anyway, that was Sunday! We got to bet fairly early, by 10pm, and actually managed to stay in bed till past 8am on Monday!

I'm actually typing this on Monday, but talking as if were Sunday, hopefully I don't get confused.

Today, Drew and I met ourselves 20 years in the future! Their names are Ted and Glenna, and they live in Ontario. He is Canadian, tall, thin. She is American, short, floppy hat and not so thin. They travel around in their camper, all over the States and Canada. Nice couple!! That's us in 20 years.

Last night, we and 10 other people went on a night walk through the jungle with a guide named Possum. I don't think his mother really named him that, though. Very Aussie accent, and it was hard to understand him. He knew every plant, animal and insect that exists! We had huge 'torches', and walked for about 2 1/2 hrs. We heard more than we saw, but still saw quite a bit, even for an almost full moon. We saw a spider that weaves a basket, waits for an insect to crawl in, then closes the basket and captures the insect. Drew got two really good photos of that. We saw native stick bugs (Randy had one as a pet, named 'Fetch'), they shed their skin at night so that birds don't eat them when they're wet. We saw a scrub fowl incubation mound. These small chicken like birds make this HUGE pile, basically a compost pile, about 20 feet in diameter. They lay the eggs in the mound, the mound heats up the eggs and they hatch. The hatchlings are underground for one day, clawing their way out and eating bugs and grubs on the way. Once they emerge from the pile, they are completely on their own, and ready for anything! We saw cane toads. They have no predator whatsoever, and are very nasty indeed. They were imported from South America to erradicate the cane beetle that was wrecking havoc with the sugar crop here. Problem was that the cane beetle lives on TOP of the cane, and the frog can't get them. So that didn't work so well! The cane toad is poisonous to anything that eats it. If a crocodile eats it, the croc dies. If a human touches it, you'll get sick. They race them in bars here. We saw a Boyd's forest dragon, just hanging off a tree. A female, her body was about a foot long, with a tail twice that. Just hanging off the tree!! And bats, lots of bats. Spiders, too, beautiful spiders. A few Huntsman, which our guide told us are NOT dangerous to humans. Lots of other stuff, too, which I am sure I can't remember. We were exhausted by the end of that walk!

I forgot to tell about one of the most exciting wildlife sightings! On the bus after our snorkeling day, very near the famous cassowary sign, we finally saw a REAL cassowary! Traffic was stopped, even the locals get excited about a cassowary sighting. It had just crossed the road, and was working back through the jungle towards the beach. They're big flightless birds, about the size of an emu, and very, very shy. There's only 1500 of them left, so they are very endangered. My comment that 'they're bigger than the fiberglass ones' got alot of laughter from the locals! There are many fiberglass ones around. Thought I'd better add this before I forgot all about it!

Hi!
Picked up a little Hyndai rental this morning, went to the stupid aboriginal place to express our disappointment, but they didn't care... so I'm going to put MORE than $172 worth of bad advertisement out about them. I've already told EVERYONE I've come across today to NOT go there.

So there!

Did a geocache this morning, and get this Ickster and Buddy S... a FTF!!! Hee hee hee!!!!

Stopped at a couple of lookouts on the way, but basically came straight here... Crocodylus Village, in Cow Bay, just south of Cape Tribulation. You HAVE to google this to see what I'm talking about... we didn't even unpack, and we extended our stay by another day! Screw Port Douglas, I'm staying here! Lizzards and snakes and bugs, oh my! Evidently, there is a cassowary that hangs around here, too.

Drew is napping (he seems to do alot of that, while I do laundry and other stuff). We're going on a night rainforest hike from 8-11 tonight, then tomorrow morning going back out to the BBR, but this time on a 44 ft sailboat! Eat your heart out, Erik!

Love to you all,
Marie

OK, where was I... oh yeah... the 'Dancers' are the same guys who couldn't make the bloody fire! And let me tell you, they couldn't sing, either. Or dance. Or act. It was truly an embarasment. I hope they get paid well.

I thought Aboriginal culture was one of story telling. The only story these guys told was that they were willing to prostitute themselves for the almighty Yen.

They weren't telling any kind of story. And about the third song in, they were actually MIMING, using their spears as air guitars!

That's when I started laughing, thinking that I was in a Simpson's episode, you know the ones where they make fun of the really cheesy variety shows.

At least the ice cream was good. $172 for 4 scoops of ice cream. Yum.

Drew and I headed to the van as fast as we could. Another couple was there, too, Americans, I think. We asked what they thought... we both had the exact same opinion. He asked if I was always so honest! Then the van driver asked everyone 'Did you have a good time!'. Well, I'm nothing if not honest. A guy in the back said it was as aboriginal as Andrew Lloyd Weber, and then I enlightened him with my Simpson's comparison. The guy in front of us said it could be worse... it could have been three hours long!

So there you have it. You can only laugh!

Tomorrow morning we pick up a rental car and head to Cape Trib. Things can only get better!

Marie

Hi all! It's 5am your time, 10pm mine.

We got to sleep in a bit today, and got picked up around 8am for our trip up to Kuranda and the Atherton Tablelands. We took the 'Original Kuranda Scenic Railway' up, which took about an hour and a half, and went through lots of tunnels, around lots of curves, and over lots of bridges. Then we got shuffled over to the Skyrail (or something like that), and went back down in a gondola over the rainforest canopy. Very cool! We enjoyed watching the cockatoos flying about. Then we got in the coach and went back up to Kuranda, where we had about an hour and a half or so to look around. Kuranda is a little touristy village, which apparently became 'famous' for it's markets. There's the 'Original Kuranda Markets', and the 'Heritage Kuranda Markets', and the 'Kuranda Honey Markets' and the 'New Kuranda Markets', and probably half a dozen or more than I've missed. And they all carry the same imported Asian shit you can get at home in Chinatown. Ok, except for the kangaroo testicle change purses... I've never seen THOSE anywhere before. There were a couple of tourist attractions, too. I can't figure out for the LIFE of me why anyone would pay $14 to go into a bird aviary here when all you have to do is sit in the park with a sandwich and have as many birds as you want come and try to steal your food! Gee, can you tell I'm a bit jaded? There were TWO bird aviaries, and one butterfly conservatory (same as Butterfly World near Butchart) and then some sort of garden where you could get your picture taken with a stoned koala. Yeah, a bit jaded.

But we did enjoy ourselves. When we rode down the Skyrail (or whatever it's called), we popped over to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park and bought tickets for the diner show at nearly $200. I had heard that it was very good, and the bus driver confirmed that, as did a few other people. More on that later.

In the afternoon, we went to a fruit plantation (bananas, macadamia nuts and something else). They also make distilled liquours (can't spell that word) from their fruits, a side eco-tourism business. We sampled a banana liquer (can't spell that word, either), a lemon one (yuck) and a coffee one (yum!). We liked the banana best, and bought a bottle. Not quite sure how that's going to pack in the backpack!

Next we went to a lake that is an extinct volcanic crater. We took the boat cruise, and saw incredible wildlife. Ducks that tried eating our scones, turtles, eels, more birds... and snakes! We saw a python! Also saw a small black snake that is EXTREMELY poisonous... the guide didn't really mention that till we were almost right over it. A good cruise, the highlight of the day.

We made it back to town with about 25 minutes to spare till the bus came for us for the dinner show. We were both really looking forward to it. The building was very impressive, and had this neat paved courtyard that was like the Ecsher lizards.

Well, unfortunately, that was the highlight.

This was by far the most embarassing effort at 'entertainment' that I ever hope to experience. This was TERRIBLE. DO NOT GO SEE THIS. Drew and I got duped out of almost $200, and we will DEFINITELY be stopping by there tomorrow to seek a refund.

Where do I start. I probably don't have enough internet time to acurately describe the horror!

We were told that we would see two shows, then have dinner, and then a third show. We first went into this big room, with artefacts and paintings, very interesting and informative, and very polished. So far so good. They gave us sticks to bang together, the Asians really got off on that. Bang bang bang. I thought I was going insane. Then the music and story started, and a fellow in glow in the dark paint was doing something near the ceiling. Then this big blow up doll, the kind you see at gas stations, started doing something, then there was flashing lights. And the big blow up doll said 'don't mess with me'. I'm sure there was more, but I really am trying to block it all out.

I was not aware of the fact that traditional aboriginal people had glow in the dark green and purple paint, nor had access to air compressors.

Then we went outside, and were banging the sticks and singing and all that. These 5 guys in great costumes were trying to start fire with firesticks and coconut tinder, just like the guys at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. But the guys on Oahu can do it... these guys couldn't. We must have stood there for nearly 45 minutes, banging these gawd awful sticks, waiting and waiting. The Asians were loving it. Finally they got it going (someone gave them a lighter, they may or may not have used it). Then one of the guys shot a flaming arrow into the air, the timing was off with the big explosion, and a canoe full of other guys came ashore.

I thought, gee, when are the shows going to start.

Oh. Those were them. Hmmmm...

Then we got herded into a big room for supper, and all the Asians rushed the buffet tables. You can just imagine. Am I painting a vivid enough picture here? Everyone else just watched, then joined in. Drew bashed past a group of Japanese women... when in Rome....!

So we're sitting there, eating mediocre food. Let me tell you, the buffet on the Spirit class boats is just about the same as this food. Not terrible, but nothing to write home about. No one even came around to offer water or anything. I kept thinking... I wonder when the shows are going to start?

So most of the way through dinner, and the 'world famous Tjapukai Dancers' took the stage. Funny, I'm thinking to myself... I've never heard of these guys!

Oops, better publish before I run out of time.

Sandra,
In your infinite amounts of spare time, can you find out if we can import Eucalyptus wood into Canada? It will be treated. He wants a didgeridoo. Send me a note if you can find anything. Thanks!!!

I just wanted to add... thanks so much for the notes that some of you are sending! Keep them coming, it's nice to hear a bit of news from home!

Marie

G'day (don't think there is an equivalent for evening!)

We got to sleep in to the luxurious time of 6:30 am today, then headed out for a brekkie pie and coffee, and down to the Reef Fleet wharf for our Reef Magic day on the Great Barrier Reef. Took about 90 minutes to get out there, and on the way we had briefings on snorkeling, diving, helicopter rides and a chat from a marine biologist. Because we're YHA members, we got either a free introductory dive ($80) or a guided snorkel ($25), so we both went for the dive. We had a divemaster named Evan, from New Brunswick, who was incredibly patient. We got fitted with all our gear, which was strange enough, never mind trying to breath underwater! There were only 4 of us with Evan. Drew got down first, no problem. Yeah, then it was my turn. I did not too bad getting down, but felt a bit of claustrophobia set in, so I gave the 'tumbs up' and Evan took me back up. I really wasn't sure about this! Meanwhile, Drew was on the bottom all by himself. He took the next gal down, while I stayed above and 'practiced'. Her husband kept telling me I was doing great! Meanwhile, Drew was about 20 feet below us, and blowing bubbles!! Evan took me down last, and it took awhile, but I did it! Once I was down and linked up with the 4 others, I was ok. Except for the 'breathy thingy' pulling out whenever Evan moved. But I managed.

Let me tell you, every photo you've seen of the GBR does NOT do it justice! As soon as we were down, this BIG Maoiry Wasse named Wally was playing with us. He was the size of a small sofa! Drew said Wally was circling him the whole time he was down there by himself. Wally must hang around there for a reason (like for FOOD at 12:30!). He was really playful, and would swim under you so that you could pet him. Fascinating! There were millions of other fish, too, whose names I could never remember. And the coral! Every size, shape and colour imaginable. Hard stuff. Soft stuff. Spongy stuff. Purple feathery stuff. It was like swimming in an aquarium, except the fish were BIG! Actually, there were a couple of Wally's (I don't think we were supposed to know that). We swam around for about 1/2 hr, and then we were done! Evan kept checking to see if I was OK, and I was definitely OK once I was down there with everyone else. Drew and I both agreed it was amazing, but probably not an activity we would persue at home.

Then we had lunch. Mmmmm, food. It's amazing how much concentrating like that made me hungry. Well, maybe not... I'm always up for food!

We went snorkeling on our own after lunch, and then at 2pm, we joined a guided snorkel for about an hour with a biologist. Problem is, when your head is underwater, it's really hard to hear what she is saying! Everyone jumped off the boat... except me. I DO NOT jump into water, just one of those freaky things for me. So I made a most gracious entrance by sliding off the side, pulling myself around on a rope, and banging into the side of the boat... with about 10 people saying 'are you ok?'. Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't jump.

I liked the snorkeling much better, being able to float at my own pace and look at what I felt like. More amazing fish, like these beautiful parrot fish that chomp on the coral. You can hear them! Crunch, crunch, crunch.

So Randy, I think you need to sell everything you own and move to Cairns and lead introductory dives! Evan says if you get a company to sponsor you, they'll pay for your course. What a job, eh???

We got back around 5, and made our way back to the hostel, with a slight detour to a jeweler who made his own settings for opals. Very organic jewelery, much nicer than the mass produced stuff. I convinced Drew to get me a pendant that matches my lovely earrings (from 2 christmases ago), and would fit quite nicely on any gold chain he may or may not have purchased for me in Dubai!

Got back to the hostel, had a swim, had a nap, grabbed a bite, then headed out. Today I got a suba diver charm, and a map of Queensland. I'm up to 17 charms on my bracelet!

Tomorrow we're going to the Atherton Tablelands, and I have no idea what to expect!

Ciao,
Marie

I just gotta add this note before I forget... at the aboriginal side show, there was a couple on the bus... he was about 80, and could barely walk, really stooped and aged. His girlfriend, wife, paid escort, whatever... was about 40, and really dolled up. I thought for sure that she was on the clock, tall hooker shoes, tight lycra clothing, big hair, big makeup. But I think she was just a gold digger, like that Anna Nicole Smith character! They gave me a chuckle. It takes all kinds! She sure seemed like she was having a good time spending his money. And she actually liked the show! No accounting for tastes!

Drew and I treated ourselves to an extravagant supper at Barnacle Bills right on the Esplanade. Almost $100! We tried an Australian sampler of kangaroo, crocodile and barramundie, and also a seafood platter of scallops, prawns & white fish. The kangaroo was awesome, like very tender beef, very flavorful. We'll definitely be having more of that! The crocodile was pretty bland, it was kind of like a tough chicken. It would be very good marinated and grilled. The barramundie didn't taste fishy at all, kind of like a thick whitefish. It had a bit of a naturally salty flavour, pretty good.

We took a bit of a stroll along the esplanade, I was almost chilled! A nice change indeed from the Top End. We walked through the Night Market, which is pretty much like the International Markets in Honolulu, but with digeridoos and kangaroo products. Oh, and the t-shirts say 'Cairns' instead of 'Hawaii'.

We're just off to bed now, an early night again, thankfully! We're both bagged. Even with the three hour nap, it's been a very long day since 3:30 am. We actually get to sleep in, don't have to be down to the pier till 8am!!

Cheers,
Marie

Wow, where do I begin for the last three days!

Picked up Drew, and we went out to the Deckchair Cinema, where I promised him good food and a movie. We didn't get there early enough for the food, so had to eat chips and drink beer for dinner. The movie was a new Aussie release, 'Oyster Farmer'. Very interesting and quirky, set on a river where a bunch of interesting (and scary) characters lived. Check it out if you see it at your local video store!

Since I promised Drew good food, we went out for Thai. We were both so tired, all we really wanted to do was sleep... and the food took forever. There were a bunch of guys from his ship blowing off steam, and we kept bumping into groups of them. The food was definitely good, and the outdoor rooftop restaurant was fun!

Back to the hostel for a shower and bed, as we had to be ready to go at 6:30!

So now we're at Sunday, the 11th: Got picked up at 6:30 and put into the back of a Land Cruiser with two benches on each side. We had a bunch of people from all over: Sarah and Simon from Cork; Nigel from Dublin; Gail from Birmingham; Vitaley from Haifa; Frank and Franzeca from near Dresden; and our guide Daryl who was actually from Melbourne. Second to Daryl, I'm pretty sure Drew and I were the oldest folks on the trip. Let me tell you, it's a VERY long time between destinations! They weren't kidding when they said they pack alot into three days!! We had to make a u-turn not too long after we left, because two swags were missing. Daryl is a sub-contractor to the Wilderness 4WD company, so this loss hurt him financially. But he stayed in a pretty good mood! He was fairly quiet for a guide, and had that biting sense of humour that really came out when it needed to! Everyone was very chit-chatty on the bus, introducing themselves, asking lots of questions, discussing the worlds situation. We had discussions on the Jewish pullout of Gaza; the reunification of Germany; travel stories on where everyone had been. Vitaley was Russian, but living in Israel for most of his life. (Vitaley reminded Drew of Steve Evanitski, his 'fashion sense' and way of walking!!) We stopped at a roadhouse (thank god for those) for toilets and drink, then off for more driving. Lots of driving. We thought it was bad enough on the bitumen roads, then we went on the secondary gravel roads! Didn't see a whole lot of wildlife, evidently it was about 37 degrees and they were all smarter than us! Drew was very chatty, then got very quiet, then I realized he was getting carsick. At the next stop, he got Gravol (good on his wife for bringing it), then all was well. We drove for what seemed about 3 hours, then finally got out for a hike at Barramundie Gorge (you'll have to google these sites in Kakadu for more info!) I can't even remember the 1.5 km hike in, although at the time I'm sure I felt very hot and it was steep. We walked past a few pools that were very inviting, except for the crocodile signs. Never saw any, but if Daryl wasn't going in, I wasn't, either! At the top of this gorge were some WONDERFUL plunge pools, and we were very happy to get to them! We spent a number of hours here, enjoying the falls and pools. After that hot hike, we weren't going anywhere anytime soon! But sundown comes early, so we did leave. So much for the swim. Hiking in that kind of heat, you're satruated after 30 seconds of any kind of activity. And then it was another long, hot, dusty drive. Daryl drives like a madman! I can't honestly remember where we camped, but it was extremely rustic!!

These roads are something else. Long, straight stretches of red compacted gravel. Monsoon forests, which are pretty sparse. And that is it. Oh, there are cathedral termite mounds, very tall... like 20 feet or so!

We were definitely read for the stakes that Daryl cooked on the fire. I asked if this was just for show, or if people really camped like this, with open fire cooking. Kinda hard to do this at home with fire bans! The cleanliness of the food prep leaved alot to be desired... but thankfully no one got sick! I bet those dishes haven't seen soap in eons!

Daryl brought out the digeridoo and gave us all a go. Apparently Drew is a natural, so now he's looking for one of his own. We slep on swags right on the ground, no tents. Thank goodness for the bug net hat thingies we bought in Darwin! I got no bites, but Drew must have about 50. He's so delicate! As tired as I was, I didn't get to sleep till well after 1am.

So now we're at the 12th! Woke up after a not too good night's sleep. Breakfast isn't much... cereal and toast, and I hope you like your toast with bits of charcoal. Then back in the Land Cruiser for what seemed like another 3 hour trip (Daryl says everthing is 1/2 hr... Daryl lies!) This time we went to Twin Falls (which weren't really running). They say that the only guaranteed safe place to swim is at the Community pool in Jabiru, but it would be pretty darn hard for a croc to get where we went. We started off with a 400 metre climb, pretty much straight up, then about a half hour walk... no shade. Oh, did I mention that it was 37 degrees? Definitely the most challenging hike I've ever done, 3K in that blistering heat. Makes the Coast Trail at East Sooke look like a handicapped access trail. But I did it, and not too badly, either. Once you hit about 28 degrees, hot is just bloody hot. I must have drank about 3 litres of water! The swim was well worth it, I washed out my clothes! But it didn't matter, 'cuz 30 seconds later they're wet again. We were only up there for an hour or so, then back down and off to the next hike. This one was at the bottom of the falls, and we had a nice little boat ride. And then a 'short hike' but it was still bloody hot. We had our lunch in the shade, but definitely NO SWIMMING here. I jumped under the waterfall, and that did the trick! Drew looked not too happy, and I'm sure he was cursing the day he met me!! Back to the boat after an hour or so. That's when we noticed the 'pet' pig, tethered to a tree. More on that later!

Back for another hike, this time to Jim Jim falls. No falls, though, because it's the tail end of the dry here. I hated this hike. Not to strenuous, until the end, where you're scrambling over boulders the size of dumpsters for about 400 metres. Very tiring, and I was pretty much at the end of my limit. This better be good swimming! No such luck. It was OK swimming, but the falls stopped running three weeks ago, so the water wasn't the best. Lots of big fish here, which means no crocs! I wasn't the only one not having fun... we were really hoping for a helicopter lift out of the gorge! Everyone was beat.

Back in the Land Cruiser... on this trip in, we forded a river or two... one was the South Aligator, not quite a meter. All the 4WD have snorkels on them. The Irish couple started closing all the windows! Hee hee ! More on them... Simon was a good guy. Sarah was the typical Irish female stereotype. Her english was limited to 'Fook, it's hoot!' and 'Jesoos Chreest, it's hoot!' Every movie I've seen of a martyr Irish woman, she fit it. Nice enough, and I got a kick out of her complaining. For christs sakes, she was 100 pounds soaking wet... try the heat when you're around 170! Not nearly as pleasant, but I wasn't complaining.

We were very happy to get to bed that night. EVERYONE had a tent, because of the night before! Drew and I went to bed as soon as it was socially acceptable. We were on the Sandy Billagong, where two years ago a German woman was taken by a croc. Vitaley figured that a croc wouldn't come more than 50 metres onto land, so he was about 52 metres from the billabong! We had burrito wraps that night, and no one was doing much talking. I don't think I have EVER been so filthy in all my life. A shower would have been very nice before bed!

So now we're up to the 13th. The sunrise over the billabong was breathtaking, the most incredible pink. And the birds were amazing... lots of them, more than I ever could describe. We had our normal breakfast, and headed off... no more hiking, thank god! And unfortunately, no more swims. We went to the Ubirr site, at the northeast end of the park, past the edge of civilization I am sure. This is a well known rock art site, and we went through the visitor centre and then into the rocks. Some of the rock art is estimated to be 50,000 years old. We had a ranger doing a talk on two of the legends, and it really made the rock art come to life. God, I'm having a hard time remembering everything! We stopped for lunch at another road house, where there were a pair of black cockatoos parading on the lawn. When the tour gide rushes to take a picture, you know you're seeing something amazing. These birds are about $20,000 a piece in the pet trade at home! Another drive to another billabong, but DEFINITELY no swimming here. This was our croc cruise on Coroboree Billabong. And we saw ALOT of crocs. Holy shit, I'm glad we did this at the end of the tour, because if we did it first, there would have been absolutely no bloody way you would have gotten me near any water... and then I would have REALLY smelled bad! There were 'freshies' and 'salties'. Freshies won't attack you unless you are threatening their next. Salties will do anything they can to get you. The guide Ted warned us NOT to lean out of the boat. Hell, I wouldn't even SIT near the edge! Right off, we saw the biggest freshie he ever saw, at about 3 meters. The salties get to be about 5 meters in there, and one reached 8.5 meters! His boat was 9 meters. I was doing the math. The birds here were incredible, too. I think he said there were 250 spiecies of birds there. The crocs were just heading into mating season, and he said in another two weeks, there's be amazing things to be seen. I thought it was pretty amazing as it was! I never, ever want to be that close to a crocodile again. I was pretty scared. We got some incredible photos. This guy had a 'pet' pig, too... Pog. He was quite the character! Then Drew told me what he thought the purpose of Pog was... if someone 'accidently' fell overboard, or if a croc was threatening, Pog's name got changed to 'bait' and would go overboard. I felt bad about that, and wondered if Pog really had a chance to discuss his job description with Ted... but then I thought better Pog than me!!!

We had about a two hour dive back to Darwin. Saw the most incredible sunset, but couldn't really take a picture. Hopefully there will be a few more! We got back to the hostel, immediately showered before we were evicted, then did a load of laundry, then headed to the pub to meet up with everyone for dinner.

Did you know that cowgirls in Darwin evidently wear teeny tiny black bras and panties, and cowprint chaps, and nothing else? It's true, I saw it in the pub!!

We had a short visit, then back to the hostel for bed. This morning we were up at 03:30 to catch the airport shuttle at 4:15, for our 6am flight. When we landed here in Cairns, we had to kill about an hour and a half with shopping (Drew got a Driz-a-bone coat, me a new hat) before we could check in. Then we immediately had a 3 hour nap! And here we are, heading out for the evening.

I wish I could remember more details, but I'm too bloody tired. Today was a nothing day. Tomorrow we go to the reef!

Gotta run,
Marie

G'day!
We are at the Darwin airport, just waiting for our flight to Cairns to board. This cafe has free internet, but since the plane boards in 5 minutes, I'll just post this quick note. We were out camping for three VERY FULL days. The big challenge was a 400 metre climb in 37 degree heat for about 45 minutes... at least the humidity wasn't all that bad. Had a great time camping, although it was a bit more, uh, "rustic" than I was expecting! It was good to have a shower last night.

We didn't get killed by a salty or a king brown snake, although we did see both... from a relatively safe distance. Now I know what the pet pigs are for... more on that later!

I'll type from Cairns later today, and give you the whole scoop on what camping means here. I did notice that we were the ONLY group out there!!!

Cheers,
Marie

Real quick note tonight, I only have 5 minutes left!!

Went to the movie last night, an Indian singing-dancing extravaganza! The Deckchair Cinema is brilliant, $10 for the movie, sitting outside under the stars! They had Indian food for $9, and beer, too! Nummy. The movie was alot of fun, the normal singing/dancing stuff. I got back to the room, and my roomies were just heading out for the night! I read and general unwound, and tried to figure out where the heck I left my pant legs! Then it came to me... the abseiling place in Katoomba! That was it!!! (They have since sent me an e-mail confirming... I'm so happy!)

Got up early and switched rooms, then walked down to meet Drew! Got on the ship no problem, had a bit of a visit there while the ship cleared quarantine. They inspected EVERYONE's golf clubs and shoes! Very stringent here.

I went through Drew's bag and took out everything that was cotton... which was everything. We went shopping, and now Drew is a bit better outfitted! We went to the Parap markets and ate lots of interesting food and fruits, and then to the Aviation Museum (I had a nap!)

My feet are swelling quite badly today.

Went back to the room for a swim, and now out to the movies again!

Drew sends his greetings to everyone!

Marie

I just realized I hadn't changed the time, so all the dates/times on these entries will reflect PDT, not Darwin wacky time! It's kinda like Newfoundland... we changed time by 1/2 hr!

Consider this story: Last night on the plane from Sydney, I sat with a fellow who obviously hadn't flown much. I'm sure he was older than me, and not an anxious traveller, just relatively new at it. We chatted (yeah, I chat to everyone!!). He's from East Timor originally, and had a good government job there. He left when the Indonesian government came in and 'started killing everyone'. He fled to Hong Kong/Macau (sp?) for 4 years, then ended up in Sydney. His sister died during his 'exile', and he couldn't go home to be with his family. Now his brother is very sick, and he's making his first trip home in 12 years. Make my separation from Drew for 5 months seem pretty insignificant.

Landed after midnight last night, and it's muggy. Evidently, this is the nice time to be here!! It's warm this morning, too... my fingers are quite swollen. It's pretty bad when I'm eating my breakfast in an air conditioned cafe at 8:30, and I can feel sweat trickling down my back! Mmmmmm!!!

I have 3 roomies from Denmark who showed up this morning, straight from the plane. They're dressed in hoodies and sweats. I suggested they may want to send all that stuff home... hee hee!! Nice girls, kind of worried to be travelling by themselves, but I can't see having any problems here.

Well, maybe except for the group of 10 guys who flew here from Sydney for a 'bucks week'. Same as a stag party, except longer... I think I may see these blokes on the front page of the newspaper later this week! I think it says something when you'll fly the equivalent from Florida to Minnesota to let off some steam. Yup... front pagers!!

Drew has told me where to find him tomorrow morning, and since I seem to have this ability to sweet talk my way into situations, I'll see if I can get a nice sailor to sign me onto the base tomorrow morning!

So, as far as my losses go for this trip... lost my skoocum water bottle. I was sad to see that go. Lost my nice new combination lock... no worries. Thanks to Stoo-ie, I have the backup padlock! And the most devastating loss... I can't find the zip off legs to my dark blue Columbia shorts! Drat. Those were my most favorite pants! Now they're just expensive shorts! I e-mailed the hostel, but I bet they get a million things left behind. So today I'm shopping for a new pair of pants! I have to get Drew a few things anyhow, so it's a VISA card day!

I hope people are reading this! If you want to drop me a note, I'm at madebymarie@telus.net

Cheers!
Sweaty Marie

I walked ALOT today! What else is new? It's hot here, I can't even guess how hot, but hotter than I've probably ever experienced... which isn't really saying much! I knew I was in for a bit of trouble when everyone I came across kept asking 'where's your hat?' My answer, of course, was 'back in the room'! I actually did OK. I did the self guided walking tour thing, did some geocaching (thanks GeoWombats!), had a smoothie, checked out where Drew's ship is coming in (I'm not walking it tomorrow!), talked to a lady doing an archaeology dig, looked at some VERY expensive pearls... almost got out the VISA card!

Darwin is a fairly new town, since it was pretty much wiped off the map by Cyclone Tracy at Christmas 1974. It's a fascinating story, if you want to Google it. There are very few buildings dating previous to 1974, so the ones that are, are pretty historical. The history of everything here is 'bombed by the Japanese in 1942', and 'damaged by Cyclone Tracy in 1974'. That's it!!

Saw my second lizard today, just a tiny one. But that's enough for me to buy the lizard charm for my charm bracelet!

I treated myself to a pedicure this afternoon, and had a nice gal by the name of Haley. She's from Sydney, and I asked her what the heck brought her up here. "My husband is in the Navy"! So we had a fun chat for the better part of two hours! Her husband was in the Gulf, and is now in Sydney. In the last 18 months, she has seen her huband for a grand total of 6 weeks. And they have a 14 month old baby. Now that's tough. Makes my separation from Drew look like a slight vacation!! She got a good tip from me. And my feet feel great!

I went back to my room and rinsed out all the clothes that I was wearing. It's so humid here, so you're instantly sweaty when you go outside. Most of the shopping is in indoor arcades that are air conditioned, so you can hop from one to another. My young Danish roomies were unconscious... stamina wins out over youth every time! Hee hee!

I'm on my way right now to the Deckchair Cinema out on the beach. They screen movies at 1930 every night, and I hope there is food there! I understand that one of the better Moorish cafes has a kiosk there, so I'm looking forward to that. I hope they have beer!

The hostel in Katoomba doesn't have the legs to my zip-off pants, so I guess I'll buy a new pair tomorrow. They tell me you definitely need pants out there in the jungle or outback, or wherever it is we're going. Sand flies will eat you alive! Fun. I'll stay next to Drew. Everything eats him, and leaves me alone!

Off to the movies... and beer, I hope!

Cheers mates,
Marie

This morning, I waited till 9 for the YHA travel office to open, and am I ever glad I did. My photocopied sort of breakfast vouchers didn't even work right there in the hostel, so I didn't have much faith that my sighseeing vouchers were going to work, either. The Travel office said the vouchers were at the hostel all along, they just couldn't find them... which was the truth. The manager knew I was very, very frustrated, so refunded me $50 right on the spot. Good stuff, but I still wasn't certain that my vouchers were going to work today. She said they would, and sent me on my way. Sure enough, I got to the sightseeing bus, and for sure they did not work. So back to YHA Travel, who apologized profusely again, and finally wrote out new vouchers for both my red bus and the harbour cruise. I also talked to the hostel manager, who was flabbergasted with all the problems I had. So she refunded me my accommodation, and apologized for all the inconvenience. She even refunded the cost of the night harbour dinner cruise I bought myself on Sunday night. It cost me an hour of my time this morning, but all was resolved as best as it could be. I said it would be nice if I could stash my backpack without having to pay, and they even did that, too.

I finally got on the red bus sightseeing, which is a hop on, hop off bus. I took it all around to many of the sights I saw through my rain splattered glasses on Sunday. The nice man said 'Hang on to your ticket, you'll need it to get back on the bus'. This part is very important to the story! I got off at 'The Rocks', the original location of the convicts, and had a self guided walking tour, since I missed the touris one by 10 minutes! This is a recurring theme through the day. It was a gorgeous day today, and I took many, many photos... too bad I'm not in any of them! The self guided walking tour was great, the map was great, people are very friendly, etc. I bought myself a very small pair of crystal opal earrings, that was my big splurge! I got back to the spot to pick up the red bus, and of course, had lost my ticket. I knew that was going to happen! I sweet talked the bus driver, and told him my long sad story of my visit to Sydney, and he let me back on, no worries. He just said 'don't tell anyone'. Oops, I guess I did!

The bus transferred to another one that did a loop out to Bondi. It's a beach. There were lots of people there surfing. All with wetsuits on! Just like home! The bus dumped us back at Kings Cross, where you can pay to watch pretty much any kind of depravity you want! This is the location that Michelle and Kaitlin got put up in for a month when they first got posted to Sydney in 96... sweet.

Got back to the city proper, which isn't far... everything is fairly close. Missed my 3 o'clock harbour cruise by 6 minutes! So I hoofed it back to the hostel to get my pack, and hopefully catch the 4pm. My estimated sprint back to the hostel of 25 minutes turned out to be 45, because of all the damn tourists (!). I had 15 minutes to get back to Circular Quay, so I grabbed a cab... and he got me there with about a minute to spare! Thank the gods they had beer on that harbour cruise!

The cruise itself was really nice. It was almost sunset, though, so the light wasn't the best. I think I may have even gotten a picture of me in front of the Opera House this time out!

After the hour harbour cruise, I had to run back to the train station to make sure I was at the airport on time. Transportation here is a real treat, it is SO EASY to get around! I left the harbour cruise at 5, and I was checked in here at the airport at 5:27. Amazing. Vancouver could learn a thing from Sydney, for sure.

So here I am, safe and sound, at the domestic terminal of Sydney, with lots of time so spare. That's the first time all day that has happened! I board at 18:50.

Sydney was nice, but I can't say I'm sorry to be leaving. Darwin, here I come! And Drew, I'll see you the DAY AFTER TOMORROW! WOO HOO!!

Got back on the coach to Sydney, had a bus driver named John (evidently everyone here is named John!) He had a degree in zoology, and was also a microbiologist... now he leads tours! He was telling me of his house in Manly, and how in the backyard they always have pythons slithering about. Not much concern he says, because they are harmless! Hmmmm.....

We stopped at a national park campground, $4 for parking. Mobs of kangaroos, flocks of very loud cockatoos. Drew, if you though Monty was loud, imagine 40 of them!! It was neat to see all the wildlife just flitting about.

Yesterday's sad news is that I lost my scookum water bottle... :- (

Gotta type fast!!

Had dinner in Chinatown last night, sitting out in the open cafes. Quite neat! Good food, too.

And today, the struggle with my Sydney booking continues. Nothing is going right with that. At least it's not pouring!

Ciao,
Marie

OK, I typed out this great story of my day, then the time ran out and I forgot to hit the PUBLISH button... I guess I won't do that again, will I?

Got up and out the door by 6am this morning, I think I even beat the birds! I love walking around without anyone else out. I can stop and look and photograph whatever I want. I walked for about an hour up the hill in search of a coffee... had to go all the way to the train station, about 5 blocks up the hill. Then back down the hill to the hostel and brekkie. Went back into the room and all my roomies were STILL sleeping, and they were to bed about an hour before me! Man, half the day is gone by 8:30! Got all packed up and checked out, and headed back up the hill to buy batteries for the camera, and for my appointment with abseiling. Abseiling is German for 'rapelling', which is 'French' for 'slinging down a rockface on ropes'. I have two words to better describe abseiling...

WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!

I never thought in a million years that I would do something like this, but boy, am I glad I ever did! I can definitely see what the attraction is with going up and down rocks! I can't believe I never did this before! Where can I do this at home???

We were just four this morning... Anne from Canberra, who is just off on her own for a brief holiday. (Note to self, e-mail her pictures!) Then there was Whitney from Mississauga, who has been travelling in SE Asia for 2 months... and our guide Julie, who travels all over the world to climb around on rocks. It was very good, great scenery off of Mt. Victoria, fantastic instruction. It's only the first step off the 30 metre cliff that's hard... the rest is a piece of cake!! I can't wait to do this again.

So back to Katoomba, I had some lunch, bought some more charms for my bracelet (kangaroo and kookaburra, which I still can't spell), and had a peek in a stitching store. Hey stitch & bitch gals, this store was FULL of Thea Dueck stuff! We have the best in the world, right at home.

Back at the hostel, where I have already checked out, I'm waiting for the coach driver for the ride back to Sydney. He's running late, which is because of that gawd awful climb out of the Grand Canyon, no doubt... hee hee!!

Now I'm going to publish before I have to type this for a THIRD time!

Pass on my blog site to anyone and everyone, because I'm sure I forgot to tell most people about it!

Cheers,
Marie

I think I'm going to have to post a couple of times a day, because I already can't remember everything that I've done today!

The roomies had the curtains closed tight, so I couldn't wake up with the sun. I kept hearing this CAW CAW coo, CAW CAW coo over and over again, seems like it was coming from the room next door. I thought gawd, are they ever going to turn their cuckoo clock off? Turns out it was cukaburras (and I KNOW I didn't spell that right!) I thought 'Oooh, sunrise.... BIRDS!' so got ready to go. Too bad I locked my room key in the loo! Had to wait till 6:45 for someone to show up at reception so that I could get a replacement key! As it was, I was out the door by 7, for a 2 km walk down to Echo Point. Saw and heard LOTS of birds on the way down... finches, kookaburra's, and my personal favorite, Cockatoos!! Big ones!

I had Echo Point completely to myself, and it was spectacular. Clear as a bell, not foggy like the day before. Barry, go back and read 'In a Sunburned Country' for a good description of Echo Point! My main goal for the morning was my first successful geocache, and I got that with 'There Is No Echo'. Most of you won't know what that means, but Ickster and Buddy S will! Came back through the residential neighbourhood, got a sausage roll for brekkie from an Egyptian take away, got back to the hostel around 8. My Pom roomie is much friendlier today! Our tour left around 10 for the Jenolan Caves. We had a great bus driver, who told me all about his holiday to Vancouver Island two years ago. It was a long drive out, but the driver made it great. The scenery is nothing short of spectacular! We stopped at a couple of viewpoints for the photo ops, then on to the caves. We were there for 3 hours, and had a 1 1/2 hr guided tour through just one of many caves. Not entirely sure that my camera problems were resolved, I spent the $12 on a fancy picture book. Good call on my part... after only 3 days, my camera thinks it's batteries are dead.

Wow, I only have 10 minutes left on my internet time! I better type faster!

The caves were good. They're limestone caves, and many of them exist here along this escarpment. They remind me very much of the Postonja Caves that I saw in Slovenia in 1986 (87?). Not much more I can say about those. The engineering feat to build the road down to Jenolan, though... wow. I held on tight to the armrests whenever we met up with another vehicle!

Back to birds... the crimson rosellas are EVERYWHERE. They were begging for food, and quite tame at the caves. I have a great shot of this young fellow trying to keep his sandwich safe. After leaving the caves, we stopped and saw about a dozen kangaroos and wallabies, that was pretty nifty! (I also saw one as roadkill, along with a wombat. Still haven't seen a live wombat yet!)

We got back to the hostel around 5, and then there was an info night on more things to do in the area. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? ABSEILING! It's German for rappelling (which is French for slinging down a cliff!!) The fellow said I didn't need to commit, just show up before 9:30 and I'm good to go. He assures me they haven't had an accident ever, and they've been in business for 15 years. Looks fun! Hopefully I can follow through with it!

5 minutes left. If you see an unfinished sentence, you know what happened!

Tonight they had an $8 deal for dinner... steak, chicken, potatoes, salads, and it was nummers. The Pom is really friendly now. I think maybe it's just women she doesn't care for... yesterday evening she went to the loo in nothing but her nickers... maybe she's on the prowl for a new boyfriend! I think she's coming abseiling with me tomorrow morning.

Also met a very, very friendly family from Melbourne. Very friendly. They gave me tips on stuff to do up in Cairns. Had a lovely, lively, loud visit with them for about an hour, and it nearly exhausted me!

And now I need to shower and get off to bed. Hopefully my socks will be dry in the morning! I have to check out before I go abseiling, and won't be picked up till about 3 for my ride back to Sydney. I wish I didn't have to go back to Sydney. Next time I'll just come straight here!

Today started out bright and early (and rainy, again). It was sunny when I looked out the window of the room, but by the time I got downstairs for brekkie, it started. We left Sydney around 8am, a coach of 11 of us en route to the Blue Mountains. We went through the Sydney suburbs and Monday morning commuter traffic, passing the spot where many Olympic events were held. Our driver was entertaining enough, he had us all introduce ourselves. The only other single on the bus, a gal from London, also works in HR. She's not too friendly, though... and she's my roommate (along with two other younger gals from Cologne. They're friendly!)

We started off the sightseeing with Echo Point and The Three Sisters. The weather and visibility all the way up was good... until we got near Katoomba. Then the fog was something like out of the moors! I did get an interesting photo of The Three Sisters, just coming out of the clouds. We then went to do the world's steepest inclined railway. That was a rush! We went down into the bottom of the Jameison Canyon on a cable car, then back up on the railway. Wow. Down in the bottom of the canyon, there's a temperate rainforest with 250 year old fern trees! Definitely something out of the Jurassic period. There were three or four sulpher crested cockatoos feeding from a bird feeder at the top.

We had lunch at a deli in Blackheath, then it was on to the 3 hour hike. 250 - 300 meter descent into the bottom of the Grand Canyon, a 5 km walk along the bottom (more like a rock scramble than a walk), then the 250 - 300 meter ascent. I was fine up until that part! But since the only other way out was a 3 day hike and a 600 meter ascent, this way looked to be the easiest. At the top we were rewarded with a Rosella, posing for photos. It was just about this time that I realized my memory card was full! Two of us got dropped at the hostel here in Katoomba, and I immediately went out in search of a bigger memory card. I'm happy to say I have one, now I just gotta figure out what to do with it. I did a bit more shopping, some silver charms for my charm bracelet, then came back for a shower. Back out again for pizza, and back here for the night. I'm bagged!!

Tomorrow it's the Jenolan Caves. I hope there are no big climbs! My quads are killing me.

Hi all! I'm here!!

In YVR, I got to go out on an earlier flight to LAX, so that was nice. The LAX airport is D-U-L-L. YVR looks like a resort compared to it! I had to change terminals, the fellow gave me directions to walk through the parkade... that felt just a little awkward! After checking it out visually for gang members, I trotted right over. Not a soul, and lots of Lexus's, so I felt a bit better. Still, not too good for arriving into a major US airport. Did I mention that there is NOTHING to do there? Not even TVs to watch. I read my book, and tried to chat up a few people, but American's seem to be an unfriendly lot. The Qantas flight was great. They didn't even weigh my pack, which was probably a good thing for me because I know I was four pounds over. There was only about 160 people on the flight, so I had my two seats to myself. I probably got a good 5 hours sleep, I still feel like I'm moving. I think we made good time, too, but then it gets eaten up on the taxiway. I chatted with a nice fellow from Sydney who was coming home from Boston. Now that's a long haul! It was incredibly easy to get into town from the airport... $12 something on the train, and there was hardly anyone at the station. It feels alot like London, actually, except for the palm trees! It's very wet today, the fellow on the plane said it's nice to see the rain, as they have been in drought conditions here for a very long time. It's a good BC-type rain, that's for sure! I can't check in here yet, not till noon or so. My pack is in a locker, I've got my breakfast voucher, so I might grab some (more) food. I got my GPS to tell me where I am, so perhaps I'll surf the Geocaching site and go find a cache or two. Then as soon as I can check in, it's the shower for me! And maybe a nap.

So, I went out this morning, after not being able to check in. Did I mention that it was POURING? Good thing I waterproofed my boots some time ago. I was SOAKED to the bone! I just wandered around, with no particular destination. The guys here at the front desk suggested I spend the day indoors, either at the Australian Museum, or at the Aquarium. I walked for a bit, and settled on the aquarium. Wrong move. That place was PACKED with MILLIONS of little kids! Chaos and pandelerium. So out I went again. I walked around till about noon, then came back in to check in. Remember all those nice tours I booked? Well, they have a record of me paying for them, but no tour vouchers were to be found. Nada. They said ''we'll have to take care of that tomorrow morning", to which I replied "I'm leaving tomorrow morning!" So off I went to FINALLY take a shower, and I tried to have a bit of a lay down, but I was so upset from not having my tour documents that I couldn't really sleep. I set the alarm for 2pm, and figured one way or another that I was going to have a good time! Today was one of only two sightseeing days for Sydney, so this has really thrown a wrench into things. Well, I came downstairs at 2, and no tour documents. Damn. I'm not terribly impressed. So out I went again, a MadebyMarie self guided tour of Sydney. Did I mention that it stopped raining? Yeah, only while I was inside. Once I got outside, the rain gods saw me and let loose again, but not nearly as bad as this morning. I walked through Hyde Park, went to the Anzac war memorial, which is stunningly, emotionally beautiful. The only thing that compares in my book is the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbour. There were hardly any people out... did I mention it was raining? Saw some cool birds, I chased this one around for a bit, trying to get a good photo... then 5 minutes later the same type of bird is chasing ME! Near some of the state buildings, I came across an exact copy of the boar sculpture that is at Butchart Gardens, you know, the one you where you rub his snout for good luck. Then I walked up to the Botanical Gardens. By now the rain had pretty much stopped. The smells in there were amazing! I saw some more cool birds, and heard (but only saw from a distance) COCKATOOS! The walk along the Gardens, looking to the harbour and the bridge, are amazing. The Opera House is amazing. There were no crowds, which was nice, and I was finally starting to enjoy myself!

It was about 5pm, and I was at Circular Quay, and starting to get hungry. Feeling sorry for myself, with none of my tour vouchers, I decided heck with it and took Trevor's advice... a night time harbour cruise! This one was billed as a 'Sunset Dinner Cruise', but because of the clouds, the 'sunset' part was missing. There were only 5 parties on this HUGE boat! Must be slow season. Dinner was very nice, I had salmon. The views were nothing short of spectacular. there is some pretty bloody stunning real estate in the Eastern Suburbs. A Japanese couple and I took turns taking each other's photos. The value wasn't bad... normally $79, down to $72, and another discount because of my hostel card, $66. And all the champagne, wine, beer and other stuff you could drink! But, since I haven't really slept yet, I only had a glass of champagne and a beer. I was the only person there 'solo', and I think the hostess felt sorry for me, so I got a nice colour book of the harbour!

It was definitely dark when the cruise was over, and I'm a little leary of walking around a big city in the dark, but it definitely feels safe here. It was a 35 minute walk, and there were lots of couples and young families out and about.

I checked the pool out when I got in, but it's definitely COLD! There were a few people there who described it as 'refreshing'... they must be in advertising!

I have a roommate tonight, a young woman from Slovenia. I mentioned that I was in Lublijana in 1980 something, and of course, that's where she is from! She's travelling around on her own for a month.

So my day has definitely gotten better. Tomorrow remains to be seen. I'm supposed to be down here in the lobby just before 8, and they assure me that everything will be corrected for my 2 day Blue Mountain excursion. Not much they can do about the Sydney stuff now, but I'll definitely be squawking to someone when the travel agency opens.