Alice Springs Photos

Here are a few photos from Alice Springs: Dave in flynet (very necessary here as well as Uluru), a gullah parrot on the grounds of our hotel, a view inside a plane from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Dave with some students as the school after we had read to them, and a quilt put together by a group of students from the School of the Air.

Adelaide photos

Isn't the shopping arcade lovely?  I couldn't resist the bronze street art.

3/1/15 Daintree National Park

We had a very nice dinner last night:  ciabatta bread, three different types of salad including one with butternut squash, barbecue beef medallions and mushrooms, reef fish, a selection of mini cakes and fresh fruit for dessert.  The watermelon here is outstanding!  We celebrated John's birthday after dinner as he is a leap year baby and doesn't have a proper day this year.

We woke up early this morning for a sunrise walk on four-mile beach.  One of the couples is from California and I hadn't thought about the fact that they never see sunrise over the water there - only sunset.  We went back for breakfast and then hopped on a coach for our trip to the Daintree.  We had a guided walk through the rainforest at Cooper Creek Wilderness.  We saw some trees that came from a species that has been here for 170 million years.  We had morning tea and then went down the road a bit for a boat ride on the Cooper Creek to see the mangroves and spot some crocs.  There was one huge male about 15 feet long, a female and a baby croc.  We had lunch at a nice lodge down the road - sandwiches and fresh fruit and then stopped at an ice cream shop.  Dave had frozen mango puree and I had the special of the day, which was four small scoops - banana, wattleseed (like a coarse chocolate), raspberry, and soursop (quite tart and good).  On the way back to our resort, we stopped to see the flying foxes (large fruit bats) hanging from the trees.  The bus driver made some noises and some of them flew overhead - they have a very long wingspan.  Just as we were getting ready to leave, someone spotted a baby in a small tree nearby.  It was very cute with large eyes.  We stopped at an overlook to four-mile beach and took a few shots before coming back to the hotel.  I was going to go for a dip in the lagoon pool before dinner, but Louise said that the next hotel does not have good wi-fi reception so I thought I should work on the blog a bit and see if I can catch up on some photos.

2/28/15 Great Barrier Reef

We got on a large catamaran to go out to the reef.  It took about an hour and a half.  We stopped and tied up at a large multi-level pontoon where there were activities for all.  There was a viewing station, a submersible, scuba, snorkeling, helmet diving, guided snorkeling with a marine biologist and a heliocopter ride over the reef.  The water was a lovely temperature and I saw two turtles, two white tipped reef sharks (about three feet long), a giant clam, and a number different corals and fish species.    Unfortunately, we could see some damage to the hard corals and there were very few soft corals in our immediate area.  We had a lunch buffet on the pontoon and got back to shore about 4:30.  We have just showered the salt off and will go to dinner soon.  I believe we are having another BBQ tonight.  We had another full day, but hopefully I will have some time soon to post some more pix.

2/28/15. Port Douglas

We had a great flight to Cairns.  It was amazing to look out the window and see the great salt plains and the desert over the center and then to notice the green fields and the ocean and estuaries as we neared Cairns.  We had an hour bus ride to our resort hotel, which is quite luxurious, here in Port Douglas.  Apparently we drove along the coast and many sugar cane fields, but it was too dark to see anything but the road ahead as we sped along the curvy roads.  We have had breakfast (including a pineapple and leeche fruit smoothie) and will leave shortly for our catamaran trip to the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling.  There is a high predicted for 109 and 89 percent humidity today, but since we will be on the water, I suspect it will be cooler.

2/27/15 Uluru to Port Douglas

We got up early this morning (4:30) to catch a ride to the sunrise viewing station.  We stopped along the way at the sunset station to view the night sky.  The milky way was brilliant and we were able to see the Southern Cross.  When I turned back toward Uluru, I was able to see Mercury just over the rock.  The sunrise if not as spectacular as the sunset here, but it was still nice to see the rock lit up by the rising sun.  We took a walk to the Kantju Gorge and along the Mala walk where we were able to see more rock art in a teaching cave.  Our bus driver then delivered us back for an 8:00 breakfast buffet.  Dave had skipped the sunrise tour as he was pretty wiped out by the heat yesterday (about 103 in the shade) so he slept in and met us for breakfast.  The extra sleep was great for him.  We will be leaving here at 10 AM so am trying to catch up on the blog before we leave.  Some of the group are going for a heliocopter ride over Uluru.  The plan for today is to drive to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and take a walk into Walpa Gorge.  We will then return to Yulara Town Center for lunch and a quick shopping before going to the airport for our flight to Cairns and a bus ride to Port Douglas.  I am so glad we brought our flynets as the flies are quite pesky - always trying to get into mouths, eyes, and ears.

2/26/15 Uluru (Ayers Rock)

We had a 5:45 AM wake-up call this morning and then boarded a larger coach for our trip to Uluru.  We stopped for a bathroom break or as Louise would say "a stop at the Happy House" at a camel farm and four of our group took a camel ride around the paddock.  We had lunch at Curtin Springs Cattle Station.  We had sandwiches and orange cake while the woman of the house gave us a history of the station and some of the trials and good times on such an isolated ranch.  They have 1.1 millions acres and run only 5000 head of cattle maximum.  Even though it is green right now due to the rains in January, it is usually much drier.  She said they can only count on a good year once in every ten years.  They rely on dug wells from 9 feet to 400 feet down.  At this cattle station, they make half their income off of tourism now.  We continued on and at one point saw what looked like Uluru in the distance, but Louise said it was called "Fool-aru" as so many people make the same mistake.  We stopped to take pictures of the great salt flats and arrived at the Outback Pioneer Hotel (more like a motel) around 2 PM and had a chance to throw our bags in the room before going off to visit Uluru.  We stopped at the Cultural Center for an introduction to the local Anangu people and their land and customs.  We then traveled partway around Uluru with a nice walk from Kunya Piti to the Mutitjulu Waterhole.  We saw some indigenous rock art and had a chance to tap the rock, which sounded hollow in some spots much to our surprise.  We arrived at the sunset viewing spot and were treated to champagne and orange juice and some cold nibbles.  Unfortunately, the sky was quite cloudy so we did not get the full effect of the setting sun, but it was quite beautiful all the same.  We came back to our hotel for a quick dinner and then off to bed as we have a 4:30 AM wakeup call tomorrow to view the sunrise on Uluru.

2/25/15 Alice Springs

Dave and I took the morning off to do laundry and relax while everyone else went toThe Desert Park.  We had been there eight years ago when we were in Alice so decided to skip it this time.  We rejoined the group after their tour and went to visit a third grade class at the Yipirinya School.  This is a school for indigenous students.  They learn in English and also in their own language and learn their own culture.  We read to the kids and some of them were able to read to us.  We visited their library and then had lunch in the cafeteria.  We all gave them gifts of books, crayons, pencils, and markers to supplment their supplies.  The kids were cute and loved having their pictures taken even though many adults do not like to be photographed.  When someone  dies, their picture is covered or removed from view and their name is not spoken until the grieving period is over, which may be a few weeks, months, or even years.  We continued by coach to The Purple House, which is a dialysis unit as well as a clinic.  The indigenous people have a propensity for kidney disease and therefore there is a great need for dialysis units.  Many of them are in remote areas so that the people do not have to come into town, away from their families to get treatment.  Our next stop was the School of the Air.  It is a studio where the teachers give lessons and the children in outlying areas tune in from cattle stations, roadhouses, parks and other areas that are too remote for a school.  The students only get to come together four times a year for a week at a time for assessments and social activities with other children that they have only seen as icons on their computers.  It was all very interesting and we got to see the end of a live lesson and part of a taped lesson.  Later, when we came back to the hotel and were in the pool, we talked to two little girls who attended the School of the Air.  The family lives on a remote cattle station.  They were 7 and 6.  The were moving to another remote area in the north and had to wait eleven days for their furniture to be delivered so were taking a mini-vacation in Alice.  We had a traditional Aussie BBQ out on the lawn of the hotel - steak, chicken, and shrimp on the "barbie", along with bread and salads.  It was all very good.

I am having a hard time finding the time to put pix on, but hope to make up for it at some point.

2/24/15 Alice Springs

After breakfast, we gathered to hear an Aboriginal man, Lindsey, talk about growing up in the outback region of the country.  He spoke of the men's rites and rituals that boys face when they come of age.  These included getting a front tooth knocked out to prepare oneself for handling pain and circumcision (with a sharp rock).  He also spoke of the Stolen Generation.  This was quite a blight in Austratlian history as half-castes were taken from their families and moved many miles away to be brought up by Caucasian families.  Apparently, the Aboriginal blood is recessive so the children of mixed parentage are a lot lighter than the Aboriginal parent.  This practiced started in the 19th century and continued into the 1950's or 60's.  Many of these children were never able to find their birth parents.  Some of the children were encourage to both learn "English ways" and well as retain their native language (especially those raised in groups by the Lutheran Church).  He also showed us some of his native art and told us the story that was depicted on the canvas.  We boarded our bus and headed to the airport for our next adventure.

We arrived in Alice Springs and hour and a half after take-off and it was HOT (about 105).  We crossed the Tod River which was completely dry now, but a month ago, there were torrential rains (12 inches in two days - equal to their annual rainfall) and the river was in full flood.  We had a bit of time when we landed at our hotel so Dave and I jumped in the pool for a refreshing swim.  We walked to the visitor center and museum of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  We were given a talk about the history of the service and shown a short movie.  They have over 60 planes and cover most of the country except for the coast where the majority of the population lives and has easy access to good medical care.  They service people living in remote areas in both emergency situaltion and as a clinic for non-emergency visits.  Each plame has a pilot and a highly trained nurse on board who is in contact with a doctor at all times.  It was started in the 1920's and is still going strong today.  What an amazing service!  We were picked up by coach and driven to the Old Telegraph Station - a repeater station for the telegraph line that ran from Adelaide to Darwin a distance of 1800 miles.  The advent of the line allowed news to reach outlying areas in hours rather than months.  We practiced throwing boomerangs in a field there.  I absolutely stunk at it, but some of the guys (including Dave) had the knack and did have some great throws and returns.  We also visited the Anzac monument and got some great views of the foothills surrounding the town.  We went for dinner located in the mall area and then came back to the hotel to catch up on email before going to bed.

2/23/15 Adelaide

We took advantage of a free morning and walked down the street to the mall area.  Unlike our malls.  these are individual shops and beautiful Victorian arcades in a car-free zone.  We did a little window shopping and picked up a few things for the grandkids.  The weather was in the 80's with a nice breeze.  We stopped for lunch and picked up some fresh fruit to supplement our breakfast tomorrow.  The breakfast buffets have been lovely, but there has not been an abundance of fresh fruit.  After lunch, we met up with most of the rest of the group (three of our single ladies went off on an all day bus tour into the wine region) and took a bus to the Haigh's chocolate factory.  The factory has been family owned for one hundred years and we got to see them working on cherry cordials, hand dipped truffles, and the Easter collection.  They don't have Easter bunnies here, but Easter billbies along with eggs, chickens, and ducks.  We were given samples both before and after the tour so all was good!  We met up later and walked to the Red Ochre restaurant for a lovely dinner.  Dave had kangaroo, but I stuck with chicken, not being as adventuresome.  We didn't get back to the hotel until 10 so it was off to bed.

More pix from Melbourne and Adelaine

Here are a couple more pix that didn't make it on the other day.

Melbourne/Adelaide photos

Cradle Mountain Photos

2/22/15 Adelaide

We had a good last night in Melbourne.  We went to a restaurant in China Town and then walked around with several hundred thousand of our friends (it was sooooo crowded with people just milling around the closed-off streets) to enjoy White Night.  There were a multitude of venues for film, bands, the symphony (which we were going to attend, but as we had had a thundershower, we decided to skip so as to not sit in the wet grass) and light shows.  The highlight for me was the huge display of giant lotus flowers on the river - magnificent (see pic).  There were fireworks later on, but we were at the hotel and in bed so could only hear them.  Apparently, the festival went on all night as one of our group met someone as she was going to breakfast and that someone was just coming back to the hotel from the festival at 7 AM!

This morning we got on a plane to Adelaide (a smaller city of 1.3 million with the feel of a large town as it is surrounded by green spaces and parks).   I sat next to a young lady, Dominique, who was a PR person for Haigh's Chocolates - we hope to go on a factory tour in Adelaide.  Her father owns a vineyard and produces three local labeled wines.  We were driven straight to Cleland Wildlife Park in time for lunch in their cafe and then we were free to roam the grounds and get up close and personal with the kangaroos, including one with a joey in the pouch.  We also saw echidnas (spiny anteaters), potoroos (small marsupials), wallabies, wombats, a Tasmanian devil, koalas, dingos, kookaburras, and rainbow lorikeets.  It was an excellent day!  We had a city tour on the way back to our hotel, which is right in the city, but next door to the red light district.  The view from our room is the rear entrance to a gent's club and a peep show.  We had time for a wash up and a change of clothes and then went to our home hosted dinner.  Our hosts were Rosie and Dave who live in an 1880 slate house.  It was quite lovely and so were our hosts.  Dave had been an accountant and then they ran a cafe in a technology park.  Rosie later worked in a book shop.  They have two children and five grandchildren.  Their daughter lives in Sydney and their son teaches at an English language school in Thailand.  We had a lovely time.  The temperature today was 110, but it was a dry heat and not too bad.  It did stay hot in the evening so I was glad that we had dinner in their air conditioned house instead of on the patio.

The internet here is very slow so I may have to wait until later to post the pictures for the day.

Koala, Emu, and Kangaroo pics

2/21/15. Koalas and Kangaroos

Today we took a bus ride about an hour from the city to see some wildlife.  We first went to You Yangs Regional Park to see koalas.  We saw two young females, Elizabeth and Aris, and an older dominant male named Anzac.  The were all just hanging out in the crotches of eucalyptus trees - very cute.  We helped to get rid of an invasive of this area by pulling up bone seed.  We also saw some galah parrots, gray and pink.  We climbed up Big Rock, a sacred place to the local aboriginal peoples, to see the water depressions carved into the granite.  We had a lovely lunch of sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and bush tea (flavored with lemon grass) before moving on to Serendip to see the emus and kangaroos.  These were the grey Roos who get about six to seven feet tall.  We saw males, females (including a pregnant one) and a Joey out of the pouch.  Although it was hot, in the nineties, no one was complaining as it was so wonderful to see everything out in the wild.  We had a great local guide, Sam, who was knowledgeable and articulate.  All in all, it was a spectacular day!  We are feet up now and were slated to go to an open air concert tonight, but it is pouring just now so the plan may change.

2/20/15 Melbourne photos

2/20/15. Melbourne

We had a wonderful and long day today.  The weather was in the 80's, but with a lovely breeze.  We started off with a bus tour of the city after breakfast.  We drove by all of the sports stadiums - cricket, soccer, football, and tennis.  The were all huge stadiums and apparently fill up when the matches are on.  We went to the Old Melbourne Gaol and were given a private tour.  We learned the story of Melbourne's famous outlaw (bushranger), Ned Kelly.  He and his gang (think Billy the Kid) heard that the police were closing in on them and built body armor out of plows.  When the confrontation was over, Ned had 29 bullets in his arms and legs, but was alive.  He was taken to the Melbourne jail where he was hung at the age of 25.  The gaol was built by Scottish stone masons and when they finished, they were commissioned to build Melbourne University nearby.  The hours were long and the work hard so they eventually went on strike.  Their mantra was 888 - 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation, and 8 hours of rest.  Their wishes were granted and that began the 8 hour work day.  The idea spread throughout Australia and then around the world - the year was 1856!  There is a monument to this effort outside the gaol and I will try to put a pic on the blog.  We stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, but couldn't go in as there was a private Mass going on. We then took a stroll through Fitzroy Gardens and saw Cook's Cottage, Captain Cook's childhood home that was brought over from England and rebuilt here.  We visited the Shrine of Remberance - dedicated to the soldiers of WWI and finally took a lovely walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens, where we had lunch in a cafe by the lake.  We saw a black swan there (we saw many of them on Tasmania also) and a number of moorhens.  The flowers and trees were lovely and we soaked up the atmosphere as we know we won't see the same at home for a long time.  We went back to the hotel for a short "feet up" and then went down to the beach for dinner.  There were a large number of kite surfers at the beach - great fun to watch.  After dinner we walked down a long pier to see the sunset and watch the little penguins come back to the rocks to their nests.  They are very small and quite cute.  We didn't get back to the hotel until after 10.  I will try to put pics on separately.

2/19/15. Melbourne photos

Louise took us through a long alley in the city where graffiti is allowed by the local government.   Many of the pieces were quite good.  The first picture shows the artist at work.  I don't know what happened to the third pic, but I think you can get a feel for the alley by looking at the photos that did come through.

2/19/15. Melbourne

We drove to the airport after breakfast and turned in the rental car.  Dave and John were glad to see the end of it as it had bucket seats in the front that were extremely uncomfortable.  We got our tickets and then stood in a hugely long line to get through security.  We only had about five minutes to spare before they started the boarding.  We had a short hour and ten minute flight to the mainland, but then had to wait a half hour to get our bags - such are the joys of air travel!  We were met by our driver hired by the tour company who delivered us to the hotel in the docklands area of the city.  Our tour guide met us about 10 minutes later and we were able to catch up with the rest of the group who flew in this morning.  Louise (our guide) took us on a tram ride into the city (trams are free to ride here for everyone) and then for a walk around and through some hidden parts of the city.  Melbourne is large - about 4.2 million people.  We walked past nice shops and lots of small eateries and then across the river.  The architecture is amazing - late 1800's buildings cheek to jowl with very modern (and equally interesting) ones.  We came back to the hotel and had just enough time to throw in a load of laundry before going to our welcome meeting.  After the meeting, we had twenty minutes to get the clothes out of then dryer and back to the room.  Unfortunately, they weren't completely dry so our room looks like a Chinese laundry - clothes drying on the backs of chairs, on hangers in the closet, and on a line that Dave rigged up from the closet to the towel bar in the bathroom!  We met up again and all walked to dinner at a nice restaurant across the street.  Dave had a steak with fruit for dessert and I had wild mushroom risotto with sticky fig pudding after.  We will go to bed soon as it was a fairly long day.  Tomorrow we will have a city tour by coach and then a walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens.  I will try to put pictures on tonight, but the Internet time here is limited so I may not have enough time to get them on.

2/18/15 Launceston

We decided on a quiet day today so after a lovely breakfast at the B and B (Kurrajong House - see photo), we walked down the hill into town.  We stopped at the post office, which was housed in a lovely old building sporting a clock tower (pic).  We poked into a wood and antique jewelry and found a funny Aussie bling bikini (pic).  I hope this is meant to go over a cloth bikini, but maybe not?  We walked along the river and over a bridge to visit the Queen Victoria Museum.  We spent most of our time in the natural science and history section.  I have included a pic of an Alfa Romeo for Dan and a Tasmanian tiger for Nathaniel (they have been extinct since the 1930's).  We waked back into town and had lunch at a bakery.  We did a little window shopping and then decided to walk back up the hill to cool off before dinner.  We walked through City Park and enjoyed the antics of some Japanese Macaques.  I have included a pic of a mother and baby.  Right next door to Kurrajong House is a sports center.  The last pic is of some folks lawn bowling, which seems very popular with the senior set.  They also have croquet and tennis courts that we could

see.  We will walk down hill again later to have dinner at the Jailhouse Grill, which was reccommended by our Aussie guide in an email.  We will be taking a taxi back as walking up the hill once per day is quite enough!  We will fly to Melbourne tomorrow and join up with our tour.

Cradle Mt. And Launceston photos

The cabin, King's Bridge, the seal, a very cute wombat and the canyon walls at the gorge.

King's Bridge

Photos from Cradle Mountain

2/17/15. Launceston, Tasmania

Dave and I woke up early so took a walk around the cabins.  I was still looking for the elusive echidna and wanted another chance to take a photo of a kookaburra, but we settled for a wallaby who was out grazing.  We packed the car and went back to the cafe at the visitor center for breakfast.  We then hopped on the shuttle to show Dave the view of Cradle Mountain.  Unfortunately, it was a bit drizzly out and the mountain was concealed in the fog.  Dave will just have to look at the pictures from yesterday.  We took the shuttle back to Ronny Creek and took a lovely walk on the overland trail.  We saw another wombat beside the path.  He had a very cute face.  We walked up to Weindorfer's cabin - Weinheim.  Gustavo Weindorfer fell in love with the area and ultimately led to it being named a national park.  It is quite beautiful and we really didn't have enough time to do it justice.  We went back to the car and headed for Launceston (pronounced lawn chess ton).  Our B and B here is in the "blue chip" district according to our hostess - lots of beautiful old and stately homes.  We are located on top of a very high hill overlooking the town.  After checking in, we walked down into town for a late lunch and then continued walking over King's Bridge to the gorge.  The views were lovely and we saw a seal frolicking in the water.  We walked back into town and decided to have ice cream for dinner as we were still quite full from lunch.  Our feet were still smoking from all the walking we did today so we opted for a taxi ride up the hill.  I think I will put the pix in a separate blog.

2/16/15 Cradle Mountain

We packed up the car after breakfast and headed for Cradle Mountain.  We went along many winding roads with hairpin turns and ran into a big traffic jam at one point (about a thousand sheep)!  We were exhausted by the time we got there.  Dave stayed to take a much needed nap while the rest of us walked from our accommodations to the visitor center (enough of the car already) and grabbed the shuttle bus to see the mountain at Dove Lake.  The mountain was lovely.  Lana wanted to go back to the visitor center, but John and I opted to take a short walk through the pencil pine rain forest.  We all met up at the cabins and shortly after went down the road for dinner at Peppers.   On the way, we stopped to take pictures of a wallaby.  After dinner we walked out to the pond to see if we could see a platypus, but they were all in hiding.  On the way back to our cabins, however, we stopped to take pictures of a mother wombat and her very shy baby - very cute.  There was a kookaburra outside of our back porch, but he flew off before I could get him in focus - drats!  We heard there were echidnas around, but we didn't see any.  I will put some pix on after I write the next blog as there was no wifi at our cabins.

2/15/15 Hobart, Tasmania

We got to Tasmania and picked up our rental car at the airport.  We drove about 20 minutes to get to the hotel on the waterfront in Hobart.  Although not the most up-to-date, it is clean and convenient to the waterfront.  Our options were limited for dinner last night as it was Valentine's Day and most of the restaurants were either booked or had a set price menu (very expensive).  The manager of the hotel directed us to a fish and chips place and we had a fine meal.  We came back to the hotel and collapsed as we were all very tired.

We woke up this morning feeling so much better!  We had a lovely breakfast and then headed out to Port Arthur.  The day was a bit dreary with mist and a few sprinkles, but perfect weather for where we were headed.

It was an hour and a half drive along some pretty countryside.  Port Arthur was very interesting.  It was a prison which was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies.  The idea was to use discipline and punishment along with religious and moral instruction and training and education to rehabilitate the men sent there.  Some of them left there as blacksmiths, shoemakers and shipbuilders, while others became broken men.  The facility was quite large (about a hundred acres) with many of the buildings open for viewing.  We got a 40 minute walking tour as an overview and then a 20 minute harbor cruise.  I will try to include some pix.  We drove back to town and Dave took a nap while John, Lana and I did some window shopping.  Unfortunately as today is Sunday, most of the shops were closed.  We came back to the hotel to pick up Dave and went to dinner.  Tomorrow we will drive to Cradle Mountain.  I don't know if there is wifi there so the blog may have to skip a day.