Australia - Returning Home - October 12

Time to Return Home

Sunday, October 12, was our last day in Australia. We had a leisurely breakfast and a relaxing walk through a Chinese garden near our hotel. At 10:30 am we had a brief group get-together where we shared some of our best experiences of the trip. Surprisingly for us, the opera at the Sydney Opera House was one of our best experiences on the Elderhostel tour. We say "surprisingly" since we're not opera buffs. At 11:30 we caught the bus for the trip to the Sydney airport.

We want to thank Elderhostel and especially, Phil Hayes, for a great tour of Australia. Phil was an excellent leader and made all of us feel comfortable during the entire trip. Here's a picture of Phil (on the right) with our Sydney site leader, Russel.

We also want to thank the Fletcher family (including Saffie) for taking us in for a week. We had an exciting week in Canberra and fun just "hanging out" with them. This really allowed us to get our feet on the ground before starting our Elderhostel tour.

Our flight back to the USA was uneventful - as all good flights are. We arrived in LAX a bit early and had plenty of time to relax before catching our flight from LAX to DFW - which left on time and arrived a bit early. John was there to meet us at the airport.

We want to thank John and Jennifer Stonecipher and family for taking care of us in Ft. Worth. John picked us up at the airport, Jennifer cooked some great meals for us, and we enjoyed getting to see Savannah, Whitney, Blayne and Reagan. They're such a great family. They also took care of Sam for the last few days before we got back - thank you very much for dog-sitting.

We also want to thank Becky and Keith Beckham and family for taking care of our dog, Sam. We knew he was in good hands while we were in Australia.

Finally, we want to thank Julie and Dale Stoncecipher for putting us up - again - before we flew out. Julie got up extra early to drive us to the airport on Wednesday morning, September 17. Thanks, too, for the road snacks for our return drive to Arkansas.

We left Ft. Worth Monday morning, October 13, at about 9:30. The drive through Dallas was interesting as construction delays made for messy traffic. Oh well - it makes us glad we live in HSV, where more than 5 cars is "rush hour." We got back to HSV at about 4 pm. It was great to get back home!

Australia - Bridge Climb - October 11

Climb the Bridge!

On Saturday we had a free day in Sydney. Our friend, Lorraine, had made reservations for the 3 of us to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The climb takes you to the top of the bridge for a fantastic view of Sydney harbor (and a lot of the surrounding area). We were very impressed by the safety of the climb; the climb company had obviously worked through many issues over the years and had continually improved their product. Everything was attached to the suit we wore. Also, we were not allowed to take anything with us - no cameras, watches, etc. We were "attached" to a line the during the entire climb.

Here are several shots of the bridge we took prior to the climb. If you look closely, you can see the people (look like ants) on the bridge.

Surprisingly, the climb was fairly easy. We stopped often to rest and enjoy the view. Here's a picture of Bob, Rosie and our friend, Lorraine, from near the top of the bridge with the Sydney Opera House in the background.

Thanks, Lorraine, for making the arrangements; climbing the Bridge was a great experience.

Australia - Sydney - Blue Mountains - October 10

BLUE MOUNTAINS

A two hour bus ride took us into the Blue Mountains World Heritage Site. This is the fourth World Heritage Site that we’ve visited on our tour. The mountains are part of the Great Dividing Range that spans the continent. They get their name from the blue haze that is given off by the eucalyptus trees that make up the forest. This is a picture of the Three Sisters peaks that gets its name from Aboriginal folklore. At Katoomba we took the scenic sender, a cable car that descended a vertical drop of 450 meters at a 52 degree angle. This area had been a coal mining area so there were many areas with mining explanations. We took a walk through this temperate rainforest before having lunch in a revolving restaurant. We didn’t realize that it revolved until we came back from washing our hands and found our group on the other side of the room!

On the way home we stopped at a small mountain town called Leura. They were preparing for a garden festival the next day. We also drove around Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Park before returning to the hotel. There our friends Graeme and Robyn Harris (whose home we stayed in on our previous visit to Sydney) and Lorraine Fletcher joined us for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in nearby Chinatown.

Australia - Sydney - October 9

SYDNEY REVISITED

On Thursday we had a full day of Sydney culture. First we went to the world famous Opera House which is actually a performing arts center with 2 concert halls and 3 performance (drama) halls. The Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, who designed the building was a modernist and visionary although his design was influenced by ancient cultures. The solid base was modeled after Aztec monuments that looked upwards to the gods while having a firm base on earth. The drainage scheme was influenced by ancient Japanese designs. The white “sails”, which actually are supposed to represent clouds, were an engineering challenge. Finally, a scheme was developed to have the arches take the form of cuts from a sphere. The entire project was to have taken 3 years to build at a cost of about 5 million dollars. It actually took over 16 years to complete and the final price tag was over 100 million. Even though the initial design was controversial, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognized icons in the world.

Thursday evening we actually got to attend an opera at the Sydney Opera House. We saw “The Pearlfishers” by Georges Bizet, the composer of “Carmen”. Thanks to a pre-opera lecture and super titles in English, we were able to appreciate this production which was sung in French. During intermissions, we took advantage of the lovely harbor views which are accessible from each of the theaters.

During the day we took a harbor cruise, seeing Sydney from a water viewpoint. The Sydney Harbor is one of the best in the world. After a steak lunch at a lovely restaurant right on the bay in a restored original colonial building, we had a walking historical tour through the “Rocks”, which was the lower-income area during the colonial days. However, today the area has been saved from modern construction and restored as a vital tourist and economic area. The final photo is one of the first instances of "tax evasion". People were taxed on the number of windows that their houses had. Notice how some of the windows have been bricked in to avoid the tax.

Australia - Great Barrier Reef - October 7

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

Tuesday we took a catamaran trip ~ 2 ½ hours from shore to the Great Barrier Reef. Thankfully, it was a large ship (with 150 passengers) so it didn’t rock much. That, plus a couple of ginger pills, kept Rosie from hanging over the bow “feeding the fishes”.

We took a “beach buggy” from the ship to the coral beach for snorkeling. The sand there is composed of ground up coral, thanks to the parrot fish that can each produce ~5 tons of coral sand each year. We were surprised to find that the sand really was not hot even under the mid-day sun.

The snorkeling was outstanding with lots of coral and fishes. Bob said he’s seen all those life-forms in the Philippines, just not in such quantity. I loved the florescent colors! We also saw a ray and several giant clams. We later took a semi-submersible ride where we took some photos. Unfortunately, the brilliant colors didn’t come through with those photos. The reef is the largest living organism in the world, made up of thousands of species of corals. The corals are nocturnal, so we missed all the tentacle activity that goes on at night. There are both hard and soft corals with the soft ones waving in the breezes of the water currents. The reef covers an area larger than the state of Texas and its length is approximately equal to the distance from New York State to Florida. It’s also visible from outer space.

The coral cay (island) where we snorkeled is the most important bird breeding ground in the reef area. There were over 23,000 birds breeding there, an increase in population of over 22,000 in 4 weeks. The sooty tern (black and white) lays one sand looking egg on the beach and stands over it to shade it from the sun. These birds breed every 9-10 months.

There were many common noddy (brown) terns lined up on the beach “loafing”. These are the unmated birds that are “hanging out with their mates” in hopes of finding a real mate—kind of like hanging out in the pub. When they do mate, they build a bowl shaped nest in the grass using bits of coral. There were two crested terns nesting on the other side of the hill. We could only see their heads.

All of these birds spend the rest of their lives flying in the air, only coming to earth to reproduce. They have the ability to eat, and sleep in the air since one side of the brain shuts down at a time.

Wednesday morning we made a brief stop at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Park to learn about the northern aboriginal culture. We saw a film on the treatment of the aboriginals by the European settlers, another film about the dreamline, and a live performance of aboriginal dancing using a didgeridoo, wooden digging tools and boomerangs as musical instruments. The men’s bodies were painted with traditional nature designs. Although they had on clothing covering their bottoms, traditionally they would have only worn loin coverings usually made of hair.

Following a short bus ride from the Park to the Cairns’ Airport, it was time to say good-bye to the tropical area of Queensland and hop onto our airplane headed to Sydney where our journey will end in a few more days.

Australia - Cairns - October 6

BREAKFAST WITH THE BIRDS

A pretty lorikeet joined us for breakfast at the Rainforest Habitat Centre. We enjoyed all the tropical fruit with passion fruit and star fruit being new to us although we’d had passion fruit juice before. After breakfast, we had a guided tour through three sub-climate areas: rainforest, wetlands, and grasslands. We saw more birds, animals, crocodiles, and fruit bats.

A coach ride along a steep climbing road took us to the little town of Kuranda which reminded us of a hippie village with lots of tourist shops. We had a look around the shops before lunch of fish and chips. As today’s guide said, these activities and field trips are just to fill the time between meals.

Next we had a tour of the Butterfly Sanctuary. There we got to see many native butterflies and their developing caterpillars as well as learn how they are fed at the sanctuary. It was harder to photograph them than the birds!

Next came a sky rail ride over the rainforest canopy. We were amazed at the colors that were evident in the dense growth of plants. Although we couldn’t see any animals, we could certainly hear many birds and cicadas. When we got back to the hotel, we had snorkeling practice in the pool in preparation for tomorrow’s trip to the Great Barrier Reef. A lecture on the reef by a marine biologist preceded dinner.

WOW! What a contrast tropical Cairns is from the arid center of Australia!

Australia - Ulura and Kata Tjuta - October 4 and 5 am

ROCKIN’ AUSTRALIA

We arrived at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and went immediately to the Cultural Centre where we were told the “dreamtime” story of two snakes. The female snake had brought her eggs (represented by fallen rocks in the landscape) to the monolith Uluru, an Aboriginal sacred site. She found that her nephew had been wrongfully killed by neighboring snakes while being disciplined for a wrong with spears. (The holes on the rock represent the spear marks.) She flew into a rage and hit the offending snake two blows which first stunned him and then killed him, thus, avenging her nephew’s death. (There are two large gouges in the rock showing his wounds.) Next her body intertwined with that of her dead nephew to form a large snake that guards the water hole that she had dug in her original rage. (It actually had a bit of water in it from some recent rain.) If the aboriginal people don’t care for the water hole appropriately, the guardian snake dries up the water as punishment.

Each group of Aboriginals has their own dreamtime stories that somehow intertwine with those of their neighbors although none of them have a deity. The dreamtime stories teach morals, the consequences of behavior, and acceptable ways to deal with behaviors.

We walked on two trails of Uluru. We went into two caves that had wall paintings. One seems to have been a classroom to teach the meaning of the pictures which are still used in aboriginal communication today. One of the caves also had a honeycomb ceiling caused by erosion. This huge rock is composed of fine sand sediment. Since it is a sacred site, we were asked NOT to climb the rock or to take photos of the men’s and women’s caves which are used for special ceremonies.

We joined lots of other tourists and tour coaches on the sand dunes in front of Uluru to take photos at sunset. We took photos every 5 minutes in order to capture the gradual color changes of the rock. However, we never got the brilliant reds and purples of the postcard photos. We did, however, get a group photo. Our tour guides had set up a “celebration” of sparkling wine and snacks as well as providing folding camp stools for us to use. One end of the rock seemed to look like a sheep’s head, appropriate for Australia with many sheep!

Here's a photo of our Elderhostel group with Uluru in the background.

Notice the "sheep" on the right side of the mountain? At least it looked like a sheep to us.

On Sunday we traveled about 30 minutes to visit Kata Tjuta which means many heads. There are 36 distinct rock formations formed from sediment flow from the same mountain range that formed Uluru. However, this sediment contains much more rock. We saw one rock that looked like a turtle. Since this is another sacred, men’s ceremony location, little is known about the beliefs concerning these rocks. We enjoyed a walk to one of the gaps between two rocks. There were several new flowering plants along the walk. The desert does have a beauty of its own. Following lunch at the hotel, we were off to the Ayers Rock airport for the flight to Cairns (pronounced “cans”). More next time on our visit to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.