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.