Saturday, November 10

After our McD fix in the morning, we headed off to Anzac Parade, the very large road that leads from the War Memorial to Lake Burley Griffin.  The Parade is lined with 12 memorials to various branches of the military, or to specific campaigns.  There was a multi-Geocache with required you to visit and get clues from each one.  Since we were early for the museum, we spent some time doing the cache.  We saw about 4 tour buses full of Turkish people at the Australian-Turkey memorial, so had to skip that one.  I would say that these rival, or even exceed, the ones in Washington, DC... they are on that same scale. 

This is the Australian Navy memorial.  It's a stylized ship, with the figures depicting typical shipboard jobs.  And for those of you doing the geocache, it has 13 lines radiating from it!

 

Off to the war memorial again.  Drew headed into the aircraft hall (duh), then to the ANZAC hall.  I wandered around kind of everywhere.  Again, it's a spectacular museum/memorial.  In the Hall of Valour, there were probably close to 100 VC recipients commemorated, with their citation and in most cases their medals.  Reading their stories... it is just incomprehensible what they did.  We ask so much of those who defend us, and can never repay their sacrifices. 

 

This is one half of the roll of honour, where over 102,000 names of those who gave their lives in conflict are recorded.

 

Drew will have to add his aeroplane stuff here!

 <Drew here>

The aircraft displays were excellent.  Lots of aircraft, all presented in excellent condition, and with the histories of the particular machines and artifacts outlined whenever possible.  There were two multimedia displays, one outlining WWII RAAF bomber command, and the other WWI Aussie Royal Flying Corps, both which used the displayed aircraft as a part of the show.  Both were well done and appeared to be well received by all of the visitors.  I especially appreciated some of the Luftwaffe aeoplanes displayed in their original paint... and would have loved to take one or two of the WW1 planes up for a few circuits around the patch!

 

Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk

Mitsubishi "Zero"

P-51 Mk. IV Mustang

 

Avro Lancaster

 

Messerschmitt BF-109

 

SE5a

 

Pfalz D.XII

a very tidy AVRO 504

 

Souvenir's from Richthofen's shoot-down,

including his Fokker's compass and one of his flying boots

 

Albatros D.Va

 

 

<back to Marie!>

 

Overnight, a clutch of ducks were hatched.  Museum staff said the duck has been coming for a couple of years to hatch her ducklings in the shrubs along the reflecting pool.  They usually relocate them to the lake, but they thought the would let them be for the day, as Prince Charles and Camilla were coming to the memorial later this afternoon.  Staff put up a ramp (upper right side of the pool) so the ducklings could get in and out of the pool, and put up barricades along the right side of the pool so that no one could disturb the ducklings.

 

 

 

Inside the Hall of Memory rests the tomb of the unknown soldier, and also four huge mosaics depicting the three branches of the service, along with Nurses, I believe.  Here is a big giant sailor.  For scale, I would come to just above his boot.

 

 

 

We met Geoff and Angela and the whole Skellam clan at noonish, and headed off to pick up some lunch supplies.  We drove what seemed like forever (but was only about 40 km) through some beatiful landscapes to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.  This is the complex that first received and relayed the images of man on the moon to earth.  They did the same for the recent Curiosity landing on Mars.  There is a small but very interesting visitor centre, with some good overall info on man's space effots.  There was even a display on how the astronauts poop in space.  Highly intesting, and not what you would think at all!

 

A modern aboriginal painting in the deep space visitor centre.

 

After driving for quite awhile through a landscape of rolling hills, you turn a corner and see this!  It reminded me very much of the NRC radio telescope complex outside of Kelowna.

We crested a hill and came upon this wire with about 30 gallah's perching on it.  Lucky for us, there were still a few left by the time we got the picture!

 

Next on the agenda was a late afternoon bushwalk in the Tidbinbilla Reserve.  We saw our first large groups of kangaroos, along with an emu that was getting a little too close for our comfort.  The ranger at the visitor centre told us they had daily sightings of platypus in the 'Sanctuary', so that's where we headed.  Sure enough, Stewart with the sharp eyes pointed one out to us, as we were all looking in the other direction.  I'll have to believe everyone that it was a platypus, because really... it could have been a seal, or an otter, or a diving bird.  We just saw a small little creature breaking the surface of the water.  But it was fun! 

 

Interesting rocks in the Tidbinbilla Reserve.

 

Platypus.  Honest.  The big ring on the right.

 

I think this is when Drew said 'uh oh', and all of us started backing away.

 

 

We were so lucky to have all the Skellamses guide us for two of our Canberra days.  Geoff, Angela, Stewart (sorry, I don't know which spelling you use), Gabby and Rhiann... thank you, thank you, thank you!  As we were heading back to the city, we pulled off the road to say our good byes.  I hope we will get the opportunity to host you in Victoria some day!

 

Drew and I got back to the hostel, had a quick bite around the corner, and collapsed into bed again!

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, November 9

McDonalds has wifi, so our first mission of the day is to head to McD and download e-mail, post to FB, etc.  We were meeting Angela and (almost three year old) Rhiann sometime around 9am to spend the day together, and to de-ballast the 10 kilos or so of stuff I brought for her... two boxes of Cream of Wheat, which are surprisingly heavy, and her Landsharkz order!  We went off to Ginninderra Village (think 'there's gin in dare'), which has an old schoolhouse dating back to 1884.  Today its kind of like Whippletree Junction, with some shops and a couple of tea rooms... and a big outside bird aviary!  We did a nearby geocache, so that I could add ACT to our Australia map.

 

Beware the swooping magpies!  Since it's spring here, they are nesting and can be quite defensive.

We went to lunch at a nearby club that Angela and Geoff are members of.  Part casino, part betting hall, part golf club... it was nice, and had great sandwiches, and a stunning view.

After lunch, we headed up to Mt Ainsley, which gives a fabulous view of the city.  It is directly lined up with the War Memorial, Anzac Parade, and Parliament House.  This view really shows that Canberra was a planned city, and laid out on a drafting board with rulers and protractors!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the War Memorial. This is without a doubt one of the most comprehensive museums I have ever been to.  The kids area was very hands on, with a very real helicopter playing videos of Viet Nam.  I know a few people who would not be able to enter, with the fear of flashbacks.  A temporary exhibit was also on.  During WWI, Allied soldiers (many of them Aussies, as they were active in the area) would stop at a photography studio run by a French couple and have their portraits taken... sometimes their last.  Someone had found all these glass plate negatives in the farmhouse before it was to be sold, so the Museum printed the portraits and has them on display.  Everything is so well researched... if they didn't know the fellow's name, they could at least tell which regiment they were with, and could piece together a story and timeline.  They even had the photographers original backdrop that could be seen in most of the portraits.  This museum/memorial is vast, so we knew we would have to come back a number of times to do it justice.  At 5pm, there was a closing ceremony with the piper playing the all so familiar lament.  It was very moving. 

We got Angela and Rhi home, and Geoff, Stewart and Gabby were there to meet us.  Geoff asked me if I liked mushrooms, which I thought was a very random question.  Seems Angela and Drew and talked about having dinner together!  We had steaks and sausage, and some very excellent MANGOES for dessert.  We really enjoyed our day together, and visiting at dinner, so made plans to meet for the following day.

We were out the hostel door by about 8 am, and back in well past 2130... a long, active day with lots of walking.  Rhi was absolutely fabulous for a little one, and we were able to keep up to her pace!  I'm glad we didn't book a fancy hotel, cuz once we got to the room, we were pretty much unconscious!

Thursday, November 8

We were up and out the door by 0545 to get Shaun to SYD for his flight to Hong Kong.  He was on reserve for today, and got a call.  It took a bit of logistical planning, but since we were going that general direction anyway, it worked well for us to keep the car for the trip to Canberra.  We did a bit of a scenic route going down to Woolongong, then over a very twisty MacQuarrie Pass up to the southern highlands.

Curious crimson rosella.

Twisty MacQuarrie Pass.

We stopped at a very big giant potato on the side of the road in Robertson.

We seem to be in ranchland, with lots of cows, horses and sheep. Mmmm.... lamb!

Around 11, we arrived at Goulburn to the home of JP and Carolyn.

 

JP was a Fly-Baby builder when he lived in Darwin (we almost connected with him there in 2005), but he sold his project to Mick in Canberra. We had a lovely visit, and JP was a great tour guide for our drive into Canberra. He even took us to the 'Big Merino', a giant, anatomically correct cement sheep. Pictures are on Facebook.  Sheep farming is big here.

We went past a big giant lake, Lake George, that has been dry but is coming back.  Lots of wind turbines along it.  When you drive along it, the GPS shows it as a lake, but I bet it's a kilometer or two before you actually hit water.  There are lots of cows and sheep grazing 'in the lake'.  JP told us that there is a myth that ties this lake to one in NZ.  When that lake is low or dry, this one is full.  When this one is low or dry, that one is full.

JP guided us around Canberra and described some of the sights to us. The Parlament House is really striking! Then we went off to Chiefly to meet up with Mick the Fly-Baby owner. Here is Drew's narration: We enjoyed a cuppa and spent several hours talking aeroplanes before JPs family picked him up for his return home. In the four hours we spent with JP, we met up as acquaintences and left as friends.  Mick and I then spent a further hour discussing some of the finer technical details of building, maintaining and flying a Fly-Baby.  We departed with mutual invitations for the next time that either of us are in each other's cities and made arrangements to keep in touch.  These fellows were wonderful hosts.  The Fly-Baby community is second to none!

We checked into the hostel and got dinner at a nearby restaurant that JP recommended... Digress.  Indian/Italian fusion, and pretty darn good!  I called Angela to make plans with her for the next day, and then we were off to bed.

Excuse the typos and the inconsistency... this isn't the easiest thing to do on flaky connections and on my tablet.  I think we will be doing most of our trip updates on Facebook from now on!  The only time we can get consistently good internet is at the Demmitt's.  We didn't bring the laptop, and now we realize that we can't upload our camera photos onto the tablet unless we e-mail them to ourselves as attachments and then save them... blah.  Facebook is much, much easier.  Sorry, Randy... you will have to go onto FB!

Wednesday, November 7

This morning we went off to Bankstown, where the Australian Aviation Museum  is.  It is strictly volunteer run, and reminded me alot of the BC Aviation  Museum at Victoria  International.  And that's about it for my description!  There were only two other visitors, so we had an interesting guide all to ourselves.  I'm sure Drew has a million pictures of bolts  and fittings and engine things that he may upload later.

Here is Drew's narrative that he typed out last night: Today was a fairly relaxed day. We drove into Bankstown where we visited the Australian Aviation Museum. The volunteer staff and guides were allquite helpful and the gentlman who gave us a personal guided tour had a great story to tell about his father, who was a doctor and a pilot, and got pitched out of the RAAF during WWII, and became a flying doctor in another organization. Inside the hangar was a sea of exhibits ranging from local homebuilts, to a rare DeHavilland Drover tri-motor to the only remaining ex RAAF Mirage fighter left in Australia. There was a lot of material crammed in the hangar and I had an enjoyable morningsifting through it. Outdoors, there was a sizeable collection of assorted hulks, equipment, and aeroplane exhibits which were in varying stages of dilapidation, disrepare or distress.

 

Unfortunately, the museum is getting evicted and will move its archives, shops and collection to Camden. We wish them well.

 

This picture below is of a Catalina that we saw while having lunch nearby.  For Bob!

My exciting news of the day is that I got a bluetooth keyboard for my tablet... yea!!!

Tonight at dinner time, I booked  our flights to Melbourne.  $304 for both of us, all in!  We are going there very early on Monday the 19th, and coming back on Tuesday the 28th.  I still need to book accomodations, and side trips, and are we  getting a car... Drew seems less than interested in helping plan this stuff.  I also booked two nights in a hotel in downtown Sydney for next Tuesday and Wednesday.

We are leaving here very early in the morning for our Canberra days.  Shaun has an early flight Sydney to Hong Kong, so we are dropping him at the airport on our way out.  We are meeting one of Drew's airplane acquaintances in Goldburn at around 11am.

Drew said he was going to help me compose this day... but he's snoring.

Tuesday, November 6

This morning we did alot of relaxing again, which is pretty darn easy to do with great friends, good scenery and non-stop lattes!  After a leisurely lunch, we went off exploring a bit.  Our destination was Lennox Bridge, the first bridge built on the Australian mainland.  We (I) thought this would be a bit of a hike, so once we reached the parking area, I pulled out the gps to figure out where to next.  The signs, most of which were vandalized, were pretty ambiguous.  Then it dawned on me... we had just drove over the bridge!  So much for a big hike.  We explored the bridge a bit, but because the stream was absolutely dry, there was no point in walking down to the falls. (We didn't take a picture, so this one is scavenged from the Geocaching cache page).

This bridge is important in the area as it was not only the first bridge built on the mainland (we wonder if there is an older one in Tasmania), but also because of the huge engineering feats of putting first railroads, then automobile roads through the Blue Mountains.  We drove along the original highway pass road, which took us to an area called Knapsack Park, which is where the original Great Western Highway used to be up until sometime in the 90s.  There was a giant cairn in a clearing that was dedicated to the fellow that oversaw most of the railway construction in the area, and we found a geocache near the old ruined stationmasters cottage.

Like old rail lines, they turned it into a park area.  we walked down the wide, wide trail to a pretty impressive big sandstone bridge.

We took a side trail that climbed up and gave us some pretty good views of the area, and took us past an old railway platform abandonded in the bush, and past an old quarry from the old railline.

 

Easy walking, but warm.  We saw a big lizard on our way back, just hanging out on the path.  Hopefully it wasn't deadly.

Drew was very excited to see a VW pickup parked on the street as we drove by.  He discreetly got a couple of pictures:

I had a swim once we got in, enjoyed a lovely lasagna dinner, and then  ran an errand with Leanne.  We drove into Penrith, and drove along the Nepean River, with beautiful parks.  When we got home, I went into trip planning mode, booking our hostels for the Canberra trip. I put some tentative plans together for the Melbourne trip on or around the 18th, but Drew was more interested in talking airplanes with Shaun, rather than planning his own vacation.  So Leanne and I decided to go to Melbourne, and leave the boys home.

Pictures tomorrow. We are having a bit of a time coordinating all this technology... and i hate typing on this tablet keyboard!

Monday, November 5

Shaun and Leanne have graciously loaned us the use of a car to get around the local area. Thank goodness Drew is OK with driving on the left, because I am definitely not!

We went to Katoomba, up the road about an hour, where I had stayed before.  It kind of reminds me of Nelson, kind of hippy-ish, a bit.  We drove around the town, getting our bearings, and then had a bit of lunch before going out on a couple of walks.

Our next stop was at Echo Point, which is a large viewpoint for the Three Sisters.  Here we are!

 

We walked a bit on the Prince Henry Cliff Walk, and thought we would leave the big Giant Stairway climb down for another day.  Afterall, this was only really Day 1 of vacation, and we were both still feeling a bit dehydrated from the plane trip.  We picked up some Gatorade-like drinks and sunscreen, and headed off to find a nice park to relax in.  We ended up nearby at Leura Cascades, where we had a nap on the grass before a walk down to the actual Cascades.

It was nice and cool in this bit of a valley.  After being in the cool, almost rainforest environment, it was a surprise to emerge at the end of the path to this vista:

It was literally breathtaking.  The cockatoos in the valley below were flying up to the falls beside us to take drinks.  Soon we had a whole flock of curious birds entertaining us. 

The fellow behind me is one of three young men that we saw earlier that day at the lookouts near Echo Point.  They were doing the whole cliff walk, while we drove between points.  We all enjoyed watching the cockatoos, and taking each others photos. 

The hike back up wasn't nearly as much fun as the hike down, so we decided to call it a day and head back to Blaxland and the Casa Demmitt.  After another perfect supper on the veranda, Drew watched around 50 cockatoos come into the valley to roost.  He figures there was more that he couldn't see, and judging from the noise, I'd say he was right!  By the time I came to look, though, they were no where to be seen.  Probably tucked away for the night.  I had a swim in the pool with the kids, Drew and Shaun were chillaxing on the big sectional, and life was good.  We spent some time tonight trying to figure out logistics for getting to Melbourne and beyond, sometime next week after our Canberra excursion.  Oh... there was a bit of lightning tonight, and a brief rain shower!

In hindsight, today probably would have been a good day to do nothing, as neither Drew or I were much up for any hiking.  Oh well... it was a great day nonetheless!

Sunday, November 4

We have the lovliest guest suite at Shaun & Leanne's.  Drew and I will have to do an addition on our house to meet this kind of standard!  The house is gorgeous, with fabulous views of the valley and the Blue Mountains beyond.  I'm always amazed at the variety of birds (expensive, pet store birds) just flying around, and their unusual birdsong.  And the smell of eucalyptus (or however you spell it!).  It is so nice to see everyone again... Shaun, Leanne, Brad and Ali.  It's like being on the houseboat again, that comfortable, welcoming feeling.  We are free to use their car to get around, although it may take another day or so to get used to the left side of the road.  At least up here, there is not alot of traffic, and people seem to drive at a normal speed... not like England!  I went out grocery shopping with Leanne in the afternoon, but generally we just relaxed outside and visited with everyone.  We managed to get in a brief before dinner nap, and suprised everyone when we actually woke up in time for dinner!  It's amazing to know we are sitting outside in our shorts, having dinner, in November.  Lovely!  We enjoyed an hour long walk around the neighbourhood and a little bit of bush walking. We are on the edge of the national park, and there is alot of public space.  We got to bed at a decent hour, ready for Monday! 

Saturday, November 3

We really didn't have a Saturday.  The flight at best was uneventful.  Which is exactly what you want in a 16 hour flight over vast open ocean!  It wasn't the most comfortable flight I've ever taken (that would have been business class on SAS back  in my travel agent days with Liz), Nor was it the most uncomfortable flight (that would have been a BA flight with a group of jr. high students on a field trip).  But then again, I'm not 6 foot two, crammed into a window seat on an absolutely full airplane.  Drew started taking the pharmaceuticals rigtht away.  I managed to sleep alot, and he did a bit, too.  We shared our row with a fellow who started his day in Conneticut, came through Toronto to YVR, then onto Sydney for a business trip.  He then had another two weeks on thoad through Japan and China.  Fun times for him ahead.  He  worked for a company that manufactured airport ground handling equipment, and I take it he spent alot of time at airports all around the world... but not much time in the actual cities.

Our flight was pretty uneventful until it came time to clear quarrantine (Drew).  We had brought some food with us to eat on the plane (this was Air Canada afterall).   We ate most of it, but still checked the box about food on the quarrantine form.  We ditched the leftovers before we hit quarrantine, but because we checked the box on the form, we still had to go into the special line where the beagle comes and sniffs your luggage.  And he really liked Drew's backpack!  We offered several times to open it, but they let the dog do his thing.  Of course, we eventually had to do the full search.  No worries, no food!  Behind the counter there were about 4 beagles all napping in their crates.  I guess they have a pretty good collective agreement with regards to hours of work and break times!

We were lucky enough to coordinate up with Shaun's schedule perfectly, as his flight from Hong Kong got in just after ours.  We all got a shuttle together to his car, and off we were to Blaxland.

Monday morning, November 5

Enjoying morning coffee on the veranda, with the birdsong and spectacular views.  Lots of sulphur crested cockatoos.  Maybe that should be birdSCREAMS.

Friday, November 2

Sandy gave us the all important lift to the airport Friday at around 5... thanks Sandy!  I had a headache most of the afternoon, mainly from not sleeping the night before.  A grande latte at the airport Starbucks took care of that!  Its a good thing that we got to the airport with lots of time to spare, because it took a bit to get Drew through security.  His backpack caused some alert ansddecondary screening.  Hmmmm... not one, but TWO knives in his backpack!  The screener was really nice about the whole thing.  Drew always gets selected for secondary screening whenever he goes through Heathrow.     If this was Heathrow, I'm pretty sure we would still be there!

We had a 4 Hour connection at YVR, so mumsy came over for a visit and supper at the White Spot.  It was a great visit,a lovely send off.  YVR is a great airport for a long layover.  Great public art, and some nice areas to sit and relax.  And once I figure out how to upload photos (once I have had some sleep), I can show you one!

G'day!
Drew and I are about to embark on a trip to Australia.  Our general plan is to fly to Sydney on November 2, and stay with our friends the Demmitts in Blaxland, NSW.  We will use their place as a home base for the month of November, and travel the SE states of NSW, Victoria and South Australia.  Oh, and the ACT!!  Stay tuned for updates as we start our trip.  And for kicks, you could read our adventures of 2005!
Marie

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!