Old news is better than no news...
December 31, 2006
This morning, we got up pretty early and since we were heading back to Kuranda, we decided to drive around a bit first because the stuff in Kuranda didn’t open until 10 am. Driving in Queensland is lots of fun because the roads are windy, there is hardly any traffic, the speed limit is 100 kph, and the scenery is amazing! Well…it is fun for me, but maybe not for Evelyn who, I noticed hanging onto her seat and occasionally pumping the air break!
Lake Tinaroo became our first destination. It didn’t seem to like the traditional lake shape and instead had lots of twisted and bendy shores. The area around the lake was pretty and we walked around for a while before heading to the dam. Apparently the lake was too full or the stream below was too empty because they were shooting water from one to the other.
Somewhat unimpressed with the lake, we got back on the road. Since it was still early, at the next brown sign we decided to take a look. It happened to say Granite Gorge and I head read something about the area. Unable to remember exactly what it was since I have read countless pages of pamphlets and guidebooks, it was a gamble.
We won! Granite Gorge turned out to be beautiful! After paying the $5 entry fee, $1 for wallaby food, and getting the most unhelpful map I’ve ever used, we wandered inside. Unable to really see what was ahead, we opted not to change from flip flops to tennis shoes and we skipped the sunscreen. Oops and double oops! Luckily, neither ruined the experience.
Hmmm…how to describe Granite Gorge seems to be taxing my brain so much that even with two breaks to take pictures of the sunrise (I am actually typing this on Jan. 2) and several minutes pondering the task, I can’t do it justice. I guess the first thing that jumped out at me was that the whole scene seemed out of place. How did that bunch of gigantic rocks and boulders get to the edge of the rainforest and why do they look so different from the other areas nearby? Baffled by that question we headed deeper inside.
Before even walking for 3 minutes, we noticed a rock wallaby watching our progress. Since we had breakfast for him, we stopped to say hello. He was happy enough to eat the food right from our hands until I decided to see how soft his fur was and tried to pet him. That was definitely not on the list of approved activities and he hopped away refusing any more food. Note to self: Feeding = good, petting = bad!
Walking further into the gorge, we realized that we were surrounded by giant boulders. The path markers indicated that we should climb over them and that sounded like fun to us, so we did. After a while, it became obvious that my cheap flip flops were not as helpful as Evelyn’s Lands End version. Being a Florida girl, I was happy enough to go barefoot so I could grip the rocks with my monkey-like toes (as Josh always said).
We climbed and wandered and climbed until we were pretty sure we were completely sunburned and then we headed back…well, tried to head back. The map was no help, so we just climbed back in the direction we thought was the entrance. It took awhile, but led us to a wallaby waiting for lunch. He must have sounded the alarm before eating because lots more wallabies showed up for food. One was very aggressive and grabbed my hand so that I couldn’t move the food away from him. A baby came up and the aggressive one chased it away. I thought that was mean, so I tried my wallaby petting trick. It didn’t scare him…he just kept eating! So, FYI, wallabies are soft and furry (softer than koalas, but more on that later). To round out our time with the wallabies, a momma wallaby came for food with her little baby poking his head out of her pouch...it was so cute!
Finished with Granite Gorge, it was time to head to Kuranda. When we arrived it was lunch time and I headed right back to Annabelle’s where I had gotten a sausage roll on our last visit. They had lots of meat pies too, so this time I got one of each. I have been excited to see that they have meat pies all over the place here and they are yummy…just like the ones we used to get at the Scottish Games in Chicago! Mmmm!
After lunch we went to the Australian Venom Zoo. They taught us about all of the deadly creatures that we should have been looking for while wandering and swimming over the last week or so! I was so glad that we didn’t visit that place first or I would never have gone swimming in any of the falls or wandering in any of the woods! They even had the five deadliest types of snakes. After viewing those guys, we got to watch the owner milk two tarantulas for their venom. Apparently they are doing all sorts of research with venom from different species and they use it to make medicines and other helpful stuff.
Although it was very interesting, we were happy to head out of the venom zoo and over to the Butterfly Sanctuary. I learned that an aviary has to do with any flying thing…not just birds…makes sense as I sit here and realize that aviation fits the pattern too…go figure! Anyway, the butterflies were really pretty and there were several different colors and sizes. The Ulysses is a brilliantly blue one that stands out beautifully from the greenery, but he hides his prettiness when he lands so it is hard to get a picture of him.
After visiting the butterflies, we headed over to the Kuranda Koala Gardens. With a brief look at a few crocodiles, I made a beeline to the Koala area and jumped in line to cuddle a Koala. I had read about it early in the trip and had been waiting to not only see one but to hold it. Hogan turned out to be the koala that I held and he was just as sleepy as all of the rest of the koalas. He was very cute, but not as soft as the wallabies. His claws were lots longer than I would have thought, but I guess they would be important for climbing and sitting in trees.
After seeing the koalas, we wandered through the kangaroo pasture, the snake cage, and the wombat area. They were all very neat, but it was time for us to move on. Since it was New Year’s Eve, we needed to make it back to Cairns to check into our hotel before all of the craziness started. Having accomplished that, we tried to pack all of our things back into our suitcases. Hmm…it was rather more difficult than I remembered it being at home. With that completed, we went wandering around until the fireworks started at 9 pm. They were very pretty and there were lots of people enjoying the entertainment on the Esplanade. It was really nice. After the 9 pm fireworks we headed back to the room and fell asleep until right before midnight. We headed out again for the grand finale show and rung in 2007 before everyone else that we know! ;)
January 1, 2007
We were probably the first and only people awake for breakfast this morning…okay, that is a little bit of a stretch, but not much! We ate, skipping the ever present Vegemite as usual, and headed out to the airport for our flight to Alice Springs. The weather in Cairns had been very similar to Florida in the spring or fall. It was sunny, warm, and humid.
The flight from Cairns to Alice Springs apparently took us into a different land. There was lots and lots of nothing in between the two places, and the temperature was way hotter…41 degrees Celsius (about 105 degrees Fahrenheit). There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was blazing. It was amazing to contrast the rainforest one day to the desert the next! Even more amazing was that the time difference between Cairns and Sydney was ½ an hour! Huh?!?!?! Craziness!!!!
By the time we had gotten our luggage and car, we were thoroughly hot and tired. At the car rental desk we were given some unique instructions: Don’t stand on the car, watch out for camels and cows, no driving on dirt roads, and don’t drive after dark. Okee dokee! We jumped in the car (the steering wheel, of course, was too hot to touch) and tried to head out…oooohhhh… a manual! Fun! Shifting with the left hand!!! Even better!
After we bucked and shimmied to our hotel, I was completely baffled as to why anyone would want to live in the desert. There didn’t seem to be a single redeeming quality about the entire place. We dropped off our junk in the hotel room and headed into town. There wasn’t a soul in sight and everything was closed (probably since it was New Year’s Day). We had trouble finding a place for dinner, but once we did, things started to look up.
The sun cooled off a little and we decided to explore the city and surroundings. As the sun went down, the mountains took on awesome colors and the bluffs were really pretty. We drove a long time in many directions and enjoyed the views all around. The desert redeemed itself some in the evening hours, but I still don’t think I am going to be moving there any time soon!
Among the amazing sights that we encountered were completely bridges that spanned completely empty rivers and streams. These “waterways” were identified by signs on the banks, but each and every one that we passed was completely dry. I shudder to think what happens to the children in this area when they venture into other parts of the world and find that a river generally indicates that there is water flowing.
We also found a few cars that were in rather sad shape. There was not sign paying homage or any indication what had gone wrong for the poor traveler, so we had to make up what had happened. This was not easy since the cars generally had shattered glass, flat tires, and paint that had apparently been burned in an devastating fire. Not only that, but these cars were most often sitting in or near the main road. How does this happen? What could possibly have gone wrong?!?!?
One of these cars was found at the beginning of what seemed to be an Aboriginal neighborhood… settlement …um… refugee camp?!?! The conditions were deplorable! The poor people were out in the desert with nothing to keep them covered or cool or even alive. We saw on poor little boy just laying in the dirt in the yard! UGH!!! It broke my heart! And these were not the only Aborigines we encountered. The first ones were sitting in downtown in the sun doing not much at all. Their houses were completely open to the elements and it was all rather sad. Other than complete sadness, the only thought that came was, “Does Compassion sponsor any children here?” It was so sad! It seem that ignoring the Aborigines seems to be the acceptable way to handle the problem…the Australians have a long way to go in that area!
As we contemplated the fate of the Aboriginees, we continued driving aimlessly. Pretty soon we were encircled by the MacDonnell range. When we stopped to examine the scenery, we encountered rocks that weren’t any more substantial than sand castles. Smashing them to the ground caused crumbling…that’s not a rock, it is a dirt clump! But that seemed to be what made up most of the rocks and hills and mountains that we encountered. Granted, these rocks were rejects from the strangely shaped mountains that lined the highway. I decided that God had created these mountains first, and they must be the practice mountains. Evelyn decided, on the other hand, that they must have been created after all of the rest, when God was tired of the same old symmetrical mountain and wanted to make something truly unique! Hmm…that may be it since they were very different from anything I had ever seen!
As we were out driving aimlessly, we came up on the Tropic of Capricorn. Wow! I think that may have been my first crossing of on of the notable lazy line of latitude that I taught my students about last year. I took a picture of the marker and Evelyn actually asked for a picture of herself (unheard of!) at this momentous place!
After extensive exploration of the desert around Alice Springs, and lots of sweating, I decided that the infamously wonderful dry heat that I had heard of was really just a load of crap! Basically, it seems to me that the difference between this “dry heat” and the humid, sweaty heat that I encounter in Florida is the same as the difference between boiling and baking… either way, you are cooked!
January 2, 2007
This morning I happened to stir before the sun was completely up. At that early hour, it seemed reasonable in my muddled brain that since the sunrises and sunsets on the boat in Cairns had been less than thrilling, I should get up and watch the sunrise. If I had known at that moment what was coming, I would have happily turned over and gone back to sleep. Instead, I groped around in the darkness to find my computer and a sweatshirt to bring along. I left the room less than quietly, as was evidenced by the fact that Evelyn showed up a few minutes after I had found a mound of sand from which to watch the sun enter the summer sky. She had decided to go running and thought that I might appreciate having the key…she is so kind…I had not thought that far ahead and wasn’t sure how I was going to get back into the room after sunset. So I sat and watched the sunrise and how it changed the colors of the MacDonnel Range and blogged a bit.
And that is where I stopped blogging and didn’t start again until February 3rd so you get the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version…shhh…stop cheering!
Basically that day we drove through the desert from Alice Springs to Uluru and Kata Tjuta. There is a lot of nothing between the two. We did see camels and kangaroos…but all of the kangaroos we saw were road-kill. L Later we found out that if you see kangaroo road-kill, you are supposed to stop and check it out. If it is fresh, you are supposed to feel around in the pouch to be sure that there isn’t a pouch baby in there that could be saved!!! Ewww!!! Glad I didn’t know because then I would have felt guilty for not stopping!
We also saw Mount Conner…but we didn’t know that it was Mt. Conner and we thought it was Uluru. We pulled over at the lookout and saw a dried up lake…Swanson’s Salt Lake to be exact. When we finally arrived at Uluru we took lots of pictures. It was about 2ish and we had to stay to see the sunset, so we headed to Kata Tjuta first. We took two hikes – not a good idea because it was 104 degrees! Although we carried and drank lots of water, I must have gotten some sort of heat exhaustion because at the end of the second hike, I started to shiver and I felt terrible. We went back to the car and napped and read until sundown. I felt much better by then and the sunset was beautiful. It was really neat because the moon was already out!
When it was dark, we headed to our dorm room. Since there is only one hotel complex near Uluru and it was milking its monopoly for all it was worth, we ended up paying $35 each to stay in a dorm room. Seemed like a good idea…not so much! The lights never went off and people never stopped coming and going, but my favorite was that at 3 am, everyone starts getting up, rustling their stuff and getting ready to go! By about 3:30, Evelyn couldn’t stand it anymore and got up. Since I wasn’t sleeping either, we just got ready and headed out.
January 3, 2007
Uluru was pretty and the sunrise was awesome! I decided that but Kata Tjuta and Uluru look like the opposite of a canyon. I also decided I like Kata Tjuta better because it is interesting to look at. I liked “exploring” Uluru better however, because we did it from the car. Still tired from the hiking yesterday and from lack of sleep, we drove around the perimeter of the Rock, took pictures, and went on our merry way. After breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, we got our stuff and headed back to Alice Springs. On the way, we stopped for gas and I asked the owner how she liked living in the middle of nowhere. She said she loved it and that most of Australia is the middle of nowhere! By the time we got to Alice Springs it was lunch time and we were starving. After checking into the hotel, we went into town. After lunch, we were exhausted and our plans to shop and then go to a spot near the MacDonnel Ranges were cancelled in favor of a nap. And a wonderful nap it was!
Dinner found us back in Alice Springs where there really isn’t much to do, so we went back to the hotel and watched tv...I think…I can’t really remember what we did that night. Oh well…couldn’t have been too interesting!
January 4, 2006
Basically a travel day…we left Alice Springs at about 11 am and arrived in Sydney at about 3 pm. More nothing in between… We noticed the temperature as soon as we walked out of the airport. We got our car, sans strange instructions, and headed for the hills...well, the Blue Mountains to be exact. The drive was beautiful! The area kind of reminds me of the Smoky Mountains, but not exactly…maybe the Smoky Mountains with an accent! ;) By the time we got to the hotel, it was getting late, so we dropped our stuff and headed into town for dinner and then back to the hotel to read and sleep.
January 5, 2007
Well, I haven’t blogged for the last few days and so I am going to have to go backwards! Since I am pretty good at doing things bass ackwards, it shouldn’t be a stretch!
Today was pretty darn close to perfect! The hotel that we are staying in is amazing…apparently it was built in 1904 by some rich guy who bought amazing land looking over a valley in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Priceline.com didn’t seem to know that it is quite a ritzy place and listed in my Australia book as a must see place in Medlow Bath. They not only gave us a great deal to stay for two nights, but they threw in the breakfast buffet as well! Such a deal!
Anyway, we slept in which was a first in several days since there always seemed to be something we had to do at the crack of dawn and today there was nothing pressing. We weren’t even sure where we were going to go, we just planned to drive around the Blue Mountains stopping wherever we felt like…and that is just what we did. After waking up, showing, enjoying breakfast in the elegant hotel dining room, we jumped in the car and headed to Katoomba. The town was very touristy and we wandered for about 10 minutes before deciding to move on. Having read about the great views at Scenic World (hmmm…their advertising people need to think of a less cheesy name), we decided to head there.
Scenic World has several different forms of transportation to take you to different places in the rainforest, looking over cliffs, hiking for hours, or waterfall viewing. We decided to start with the new skyway so that we could see Katoomba falls first.
The view was awesome and once on the other side, we decided to walk down closer to the falls before taking the skyway back to Scenic World and the next spectacular view. We were VERY pleasantly surprised to find that the walk down to the falls and into the gorgeous valley was not only downhill and stunning, but that the cableway which we had already paid for would meet us at the bottom to transport us back to the top! Hiking down without having to go back up is my kind of hiking…I hate going up!
So after about an hour of heading down, stopping to take pictures at the amazing lookouts, we found the cableway and hopped in line. That ride was beautiful and took us right past the “Three Sisters” formation and “Orphans Rock”. More pictures, lots of oohing and ahhing, and we were back at Scenic World ready for lunch. I had a meatpie… still loving those!
Last, but not least, we rode the scenic railway. It is the steepest incline railway in the world and it was a lot like riding a rollercoaster. It is 450m long and goes down the mountain at a 52 degree angle. That may not seem like much, but it sure felt steep! We were so impressed that we waited for the next car so that we could ride it up in the front seat! Very cool!
Finished with Scenic World and ready for a new adventure, we took off on the Blue Mountain Road. It was curvy and windy and fun to drive. The next stop turned out to be the Leura Cascades. Since they weren’t very high, they weren’t really considered waterfalls, but they were very pretty none the less. Unfortunately, this time there was no train to carry us back up. L
After wandering around and admiring the cascades, we drove on until we saw a little brown sign that said “Grand Canyon”. Hmmm…that was too intriguing to pass up! After weaving and turning and driving lots, we finally arrived. The view was breathtaking! Since I haven’t actually been to the Grand Canyon in the US, I can’t compare them, but this one was beautiful! We hiked a bit around there, more up and down, to see it from several lookouts and vantage points. All were spectacular!
Several trails throughout the Blue Mountains are closed because of a huge bush fire that they had at the end of November. We could still smell some of the smoke and could see fire damage everywhere. It actually made for some pretty colors down in the canyon, but apparently the fire was huge and spread throughout about half of the national park.
By the time we were finished with the Grand Canyon, we were hungry. We are always hungry before places open here…apparently it is unheard of to be hungry at 5:00 pm or actually any time before 6:30 pm! We were happy to find a single chicken and chips place open. We got our food and went outside to eat at a picnic table in a little park. This seemed to be a major event for the bird of the area and they proceeded to congregate and call their friends. By the time we were finished eating, I had lost count of the number of birds that were eyeing our food. We threw it onto the ground and sat back to watch them devour every last morsel. It was quite a show down to the last piece of hamburger bun.
After dinner we decided to look for Wentworth Falls. We easily found the town of Wentworth Falls and then the Wentworth Falls Lake, but the actual fall proved much more difficult to find. We weren’t the only ones who had this problem, however. We stopped to ask a woman walking her dog for directions and she informed us that we were in Wentworth Falls. When asked if there were actual waterfalls, she replied that she did not know how to get there! After a little more driving around, we finally stumbled upon the right road.
Of course, seeing Wentworth Falls required traversing down lots and lots and lots more stairs. The view of the valley below was great, though, so it was a nice walk down. There were a couple of lookouts that showed of the great colors of the lowering sun and then a big opening where we could see the falls themselves. Wow! It was really pretty! Since we could only see the very top portion of the falls, the possibility of getting a better view suckered us into walking down even further. We were rewarded with better views of the falls and of the Jameson Valley. Again, the colors were spectacular because the sun was near setting. When we decided to turn around and head back up, Evelyn said she was going to hurry because she only had her prescription sunglasses and was worried that she wouldn’t be able to see. I wanted to play in the waterfall and watch the sunset, so I did!
I splashed around for a while and rinsed my hair under the waterfall, and then wandered back to check the progress of the falling sun. It had a ways to go, but wandering back over there, I realized that the temperature was much lower now that the sun was disappearing. It occurred to me that if I didn’t hurry, it would just get colder and colder, so I headed back up. And up. And UP! When I finally made it, Evelyn and I decided to hustle back to the hotel to try and catch the sunset from the back of the hotel. It took some fancy driving and lots of speeding, but we made it in time! It was TOTALLY worth it because the sunset was amazing! Wow! What a day! To top it off, I headed back to the room, ran a bubble bath, and climbed in to finish my book. It had a happy ending and so did my lovely day!
January 6, 2007
Since the Blue Mountains were so pretty, we had a hard time deciding how to proceed today. After another yummy breakfast and a walk around the hotel gardens, we headed away from Sydney. We ended up wandering around in a couple more towns before we found ourselves out of the mountains and into the foothills and valleys. It was pretty in an entirely different way than the mountains. We enjoyed the scenery and the pretty drives, but we steered clear of any more hiking up and down since we both had very sore calves.
We weaved and roamed until we found our way out of the brown valleys and into the green grasslands. It was yet another entirely different landscape for us to enjoy. We were headed to Fitzroy Falls, but by the time we arrived, it was getting late and we still didn’t have a place to stay. Luckily we made our way to Kangaroo Valley and found a great place to stay. We will head back to explore the valley and the falls tomorrow.
Since it was pretty early when we arrived, I am trying to get caught up on blogging, but the TV is distracting me…ya gotta love Wife Swap!
This morning, we got up pretty early and since we were heading back to Kuranda, we decided to drive around a bit first because the stuff in Kuranda didn’t open until 10 am. Driving in Queensland is lots of fun because the roads are windy, there is hardly any traffic, the speed limit is 100 kph, and the scenery is amazing! Well…it is fun for me, but maybe not for Evelyn who, I noticed hanging onto her seat and occasionally pumping the air break!
Lake Tinaroo became our first destination. It didn’t seem to like the traditional lake shape and instead had lots of twisted and bendy shores. The area around the lake was pretty and we walked around for a while before heading to the dam. Apparently the lake was too full or the stream below was too empty because they were shooting water from one to the other.
Somewhat unimpressed with the lake, we got back on the road. Since it was still early, at the next brown sign we decided to take a look. It happened to say Granite Gorge and I head read something about the area. Unable to remember exactly what it was since I have read countless pages of pamphlets and guidebooks, it was a gamble.
We won! Granite Gorge turned out to be beautiful! After paying the $5 entry fee, $1 for wallaby food, and getting the most unhelpful map I’ve ever used, we wandered inside. Unable to really see what was ahead, we opted not to change from flip flops to tennis shoes and we skipped the sunscreen. Oops and double oops! Luckily, neither ruined the experience.
Hmmm…how to describe Granite Gorge seems to be taxing my brain so much that even with two breaks to take pictures of the sunrise (I am actually typing this on Jan. 2) and several minutes pondering the task, I can’t do it justice. I guess the first thing that jumped out at me was that the whole scene seemed out of place. How did that bunch of gigantic rocks and boulders get to the edge of the rainforest and why do they look so different from the other areas nearby? Baffled by that question we headed deeper inside.
Before even walking for 3 minutes, we noticed a rock wallaby watching our progress. Since we had breakfast for him, we stopped to say hello. He was happy enough to eat the food right from our hands until I decided to see how soft his fur was and tried to pet him. That was definitely not on the list of approved activities and he hopped away refusing any more food. Note to self: Feeding = good, petting = bad!
Walking further into the gorge, we realized that we were surrounded by giant boulders. The path markers indicated that we should climb over them and that sounded like fun to us, so we did. After a while, it became obvious that my cheap flip flops were not as helpful as Evelyn’s Lands End version. Being a Florida girl, I was happy enough to go barefoot so I could grip the rocks with my monkey-like toes (as Josh always said).
We climbed and wandered and climbed until we were pretty sure we were completely sunburned and then we headed back…well, tried to head back. The map was no help, so we just climbed back in the direction we thought was the entrance. It took awhile, but led us to a wallaby waiting for lunch. He must have sounded the alarm before eating because lots more wallabies showed up for food. One was very aggressive and grabbed my hand so that I couldn’t move the food away from him. A baby came up and the aggressive one chased it away. I thought that was mean, so I tried my wallaby petting trick. It didn’t scare him…he just kept eating! So, FYI, wallabies are soft and furry (softer than koalas, but more on that later). To round out our time with the wallabies, a momma wallaby came for food with her little baby poking his head out of her pouch...it was so cute!
Finished with Granite Gorge, it was time to head to Kuranda. When we arrived it was lunch time and I headed right back to Annabelle’s where I had gotten a sausage roll on our last visit. They had lots of meat pies too, so this time I got one of each. I have been excited to see that they have meat pies all over the place here and they are yummy…just like the ones we used to get at the Scottish Games in Chicago! Mmmm!
After lunch we went to the Australian Venom Zoo. They taught us about all of the deadly creatures that we should have been looking for while wandering and swimming over the last week or so! I was so glad that we didn’t visit that place first or I would never have gone swimming in any of the falls or wandering in any of the woods! They even had the five deadliest types of snakes. After viewing those guys, we got to watch the owner milk two tarantulas for their venom. Apparently they are doing all sorts of research with venom from different species and they use it to make medicines and other helpful stuff.
Although it was very interesting, we were happy to head out of the venom zoo and over to the Butterfly Sanctuary. I learned that an aviary has to do with any flying thing…not just birds…makes sense as I sit here and realize that aviation fits the pattern too…go figure! Anyway, the butterflies were really pretty and there were several different colors and sizes. The Ulysses is a brilliantly blue one that stands out beautifully from the greenery, but he hides his prettiness when he lands so it is hard to get a picture of him.
After visiting the butterflies, we headed over to the Kuranda Koala Gardens. With a brief look at a few crocodiles, I made a beeline to the Koala area and jumped in line to cuddle a Koala. I had read about it early in the trip and had been waiting to not only see one but to hold it. Hogan turned out to be the koala that I held and he was just as sleepy as all of the rest of the koalas. He was very cute, but not as soft as the wallabies. His claws were lots longer than I would have thought, but I guess they would be important for climbing and sitting in trees.
After seeing the koalas, we wandered through the kangaroo pasture, the snake cage, and the wombat area. They were all very neat, but it was time for us to move on. Since it was New Year’s Eve, we needed to make it back to Cairns to check into our hotel before all of the craziness started. Having accomplished that, we tried to pack all of our things back into our suitcases. Hmm…it was rather more difficult than I remembered it being at home. With that completed, we went wandering around until the fireworks started at 9 pm. They were very pretty and there were lots of people enjoying the entertainment on the Esplanade. It was really nice. After the 9 pm fireworks we headed back to the room and fell asleep until right before midnight. We headed out again for the grand finale show and rung in 2007 before everyone else that we know! ;)
January 1, 2007
We were probably the first and only people awake for breakfast this morning…okay, that is a little bit of a stretch, but not much! We ate, skipping the ever present Vegemite as usual, and headed out to the airport for our flight to Alice Springs. The weather in Cairns had been very similar to Florida in the spring or fall. It was sunny, warm, and humid.
The flight from Cairns to Alice Springs apparently took us into a different land. There was lots and lots of nothing in between the two places, and the temperature was way hotter…41 degrees Celsius (about 105 degrees Fahrenheit). There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was blazing. It was amazing to contrast the rainforest one day to the desert the next! Even more amazing was that the time difference between Cairns and Sydney was ½ an hour! Huh?!?!?! Craziness!!!!
By the time we had gotten our luggage and car, we were thoroughly hot and tired. At the car rental desk we were given some unique instructions: Don’t stand on the car, watch out for camels and cows, no driving on dirt roads, and don’t drive after dark. Okee dokee! We jumped in the car (the steering wheel, of course, was too hot to touch) and tried to head out…oooohhhh… a manual! Fun! Shifting with the left hand!!! Even better!
After we bucked and shimmied to our hotel, I was completely baffled as to why anyone would want to live in the desert. There didn’t seem to be a single redeeming quality about the entire place. We dropped off our junk in the hotel room and headed into town. There wasn’t a soul in sight and everything was closed (probably since it was New Year’s Day). We had trouble finding a place for dinner, but once we did, things started to look up.
The sun cooled off a little and we decided to explore the city and surroundings. As the sun went down, the mountains took on awesome colors and the bluffs were really pretty. We drove a long time in many directions and enjoyed the views all around. The desert redeemed itself some in the evening hours, but I still don’t think I am going to be moving there any time soon!
Among the amazing sights that we encountered were completely bridges that spanned completely empty rivers and streams. These “waterways” were identified by signs on the banks, but each and every one that we passed was completely dry. I shudder to think what happens to the children in this area when they venture into other parts of the world and find that a river generally indicates that there is water flowing.
We also found a few cars that were in rather sad shape. There was not sign paying homage or any indication what had gone wrong for the poor traveler, so we had to make up what had happened. This was not easy since the cars generally had shattered glass, flat tires, and paint that had apparently been burned in an devastating fire. Not only that, but these cars were most often sitting in or near the main road. How does this happen? What could possibly have gone wrong?!?!?
One of these cars was found at the beginning of what seemed to be an Aboriginal neighborhood… settlement …um… refugee camp?!?! The conditions were deplorable! The poor people were out in the desert with nothing to keep them covered or cool or even alive. We saw on poor little boy just laying in the dirt in the yard! UGH!!! It broke my heart! And these were not the only Aborigines we encountered. The first ones were sitting in downtown in the sun doing not much at all. Their houses were completely open to the elements and it was all rather sad. Other than complete sadness, the only thought that came was, “Does Compassion sponsor any children here?” It was so sad! It seem that ignoring the Aborigines seems to be the acceptable way to handle the problem…the Australians have a long way to go in that area!
As we contemplated the fate of the Aboriginees, we continued driving aimlessly. Pretty soon we were encircled by the MacDonnell range. When we stopped to examine the scenery, we encountered rocks that weren’t any more substantial than sand castles. Smashing them to the ground caused crumbling…that’s not a rock, it is a dirt clump! But that seemed to be what made up most of the rocks and hills and mountains that we encountered. Granted, these rocks were rejects from the strangely shaped mountains that lined the highway. I decided that God had created these mountains first, and they must be the practice mountains. Evelyn decided, on the other hand, that they must have been created after all of the rest, when God was tired of the same old symmetrical mountain and wanted to make something truly unique! Hmm…that may be it since they were very different from anything I had ever seen!
As we were out driving aimlessly, we came up on the Tropic of Capricorn. Wow! I think that may have been my first crossing of on of the notable lazy line of latitude that I taught my students about last year. I took a picture of the marker and Evelyn actually asked for a picture of herself (unheard of!) at this momentous place!
After extensive exploration of the desert around Alice Springs, and lots of sweating, I decided that the infamously wonderful dry heat that I had heard of was really just a load of crap! Basically, it seems to me that the difference between this “dry heat” and the humid, sweaty heat that I encounter in Florida is the same as the difference between boiling and baking… either way, you are cooked!
January 2, 2007
This morning I happened to stir before the sun was completely up. At that early hour, it seemed reasonable in my muddled brain that since the sunrises and sunsets on the boat in Cairns had been less than thrilling, I should get up and watch the sunrise. If I had known at that moment what was coming, I would have happily turned over and gone back to sleep. Instead, I groped around in the darkness to find my computer and a sweatshirt to bring along. I left the room less than quietly, as was evidenced by the fact that Evelyn showed up a few minutes after I had found a mound of sand from which to watch the sun enter the summer sky. She had decided to go running and thought that I might appreciate having the key…she is so kind…I had not thought that far ahead and wasn’t sure how I was going to get back into the room after sunset. So I sat and watched the sunrise and how it changed the colors of the MacDonnel Range and blogged a bit.
And that is where I stopped blogging and didn’t start again until February 3rd so you get the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version…shhh…stop cheering!
Basically that day we drove through the desert from Alice Springs to Uluru and Kata Tjuta. There is a lot of nothing between the two. We did see camels and kangaroos…but all of the kangaroos we saw were road-kill. L Later we found out that if you see kangaroo road-kill, you are supposed to stop and check it out. If it is fresh, you are supposed to feel around in the pouch to be sure that there isn’t a pouch baby in there that could be saved!!! Ewww!!! Glad I didn’t know because then I would have felt guilty for not stopping!
We also saw Mount Conner…but we didn’t know that it was Mt. Conner and we thought it was Uluru. We pulled over at the lookout and saw a dried up lake…Swanson’s Salt Lake to be exact. When we finally arrived at Uluru we took lots of pictures. It was about 2ish and we had to stay to see the sunset, so we headed to Kata Tjuta first. We took two hikes – not a good idea because it was 104 degrees! Although we carried and drank lots of water, I must have gotten some sort of heat exhaustion because at the end of the second hike, I started to shiver and I felt terrible. We went back to the car and napped and read until sundown. I felt much better by then and the sunset was beautiful. It was really neat because the moon was already out!
When it was dark, we headed to our dorm room. Since there is only one hotel complex near Uluru and it was milking its monopoly for all it was worth, we ended up paying $35 each to stay in a dorm room. Seemed like a good idea…not so much! The lights never went off and people never stopped coming and going, but my favorite was that at 3 am, everyone starts getting up, rustling their stuff and getting ready to go! By about 3:30, Evelyn couldn’t stand it anymore and got up. Since I wasn’t sleeping either, we just got ready and headed out.
January 3, 2007
Uluru was pretty and the sunrise was awesome! I decided that but Kata Tjuta and Uluru look like the opposite of a canyon. I also decided I like Kata Tjuta better because it is interesting to look at. I liked “exploring” Uluru better however, because we did it from the car. Still tired from the hiking yesterday and from lack of sleep, we drove around the perimeter of the Rock, took pictures, and went on our merry way. After breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, we got our stuff and headed back to Alice Springs. On the way, we stopped for gas and I asked the owner how she liked living in the middle of nowhere. She said she loved it and that most of Australia is the middle of nowhere! By the time we got to Alice Springs it was lunch time and we were starving. After checking into the hotel, we went into town. After lunch, we were exhausted and our plans to shop and then go to a spot near the MacDonnel Ranges were cancelled in favor of a nap. And a wonderful nap it was!
Dinner found us back in Alice Springs where there really isn’t much to do, so we went back to the hotel and watched tv...I think…I can’t really remember what we did that night. Oh well…couldn’t have been too interesting!
January 4, 2006
Basically a travel day…we left Alice Springs at about 11 am and arrived in Sydney at about 3 pm. More nothing in between… We noticed the temperature as soon as we walked out of the airport. We got our car, sans strange instructions, and headed for the hills...well, the Blue Mountains to be exact. The drive was beautiful! The area kind of reminds me of the Smoky Mountains, but not exactly…maybe the Smoky Mountains with an accent! ;) By the time we got to the hotel, it was getting late, so we dropped our stuff and headed into town for dinner and then back to the hotel to read and sleep.
January 5, 2007
Well, I haven’t blogged for the last few days and so I am going to have to go backwards! Since I am pretty good at doing things bass ackwards, it shouldn’t be a stretch!
Today was pretty darn close to perfect! The hotel that we are staying in is amazing…apparently it was built in 1904 by some rich guy who bought amazing land looking over a valley in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Priceline.com didn’t seem to know that it is quite a ritzy place and listed in my Australia book as a must see place in Medlow Bath. They not only gave us a great deal to stay for two nights, but they threw in the breakfast buffet as well! Such a deal!
Anyway, we slept in which was a first in several days since there always seemed to be something we had to do at the crack of dawn and today there was nothing pressing. We weren’t even sure where we were going to go, we just planned to drive around the Blue Mountains stopping wherever we felt like…and that is just what we did. After waking up, showing, enjoying breakfast in the elegant hotel dining room, we jumped in the car and headed to Katoomba. The town was very touristy and we wandered for about 10 minutes before deciding to move on. Having read about the great views at Scenic World (hmmm…their advertising people need to think of a less cheesy name), we decided to head there.
Scenic World has several different forms of transportation to take you to different places in the rainforest, looking over cliffs, hiking for hours, or waterfall viewing. We decided to start with the new skyway so that we could see Katoomba falls first.
The view was awesome and once on the other side, we decided to walk down closer to the falls before taking the skyway back to Scenic World and the next spectacular view. We were VERY pleasantly surprised to find that the walk down to the falls and into the gorgeous valley was not only downhill and stunning, but that the cableway which we had already paid for would meet us at the bottom to transport us back to the top! Hiking down without having to go back up is my kind of hiking…I hate going up!
So after about an hour of heading down, stopping to take pictures at the amazing lookouts, we found the cableway and hopped in line. That ride was beautiful and took us right past the “Three Sisters” formation and “Orphans Rock”. More pictures, lots of oohing and ahhing, and we were back at Scenic World ready for lunch. I had a meatpie… still loving those!
Last, but not least, we rode the scenic railway. It is the steepest incline railway in the world and it was a lot like riding a rollercoaster. It is 450m long and goes down the mountain at a 52 degree angle. That may not seem like much, but it sure felt steep! We were so impressed that we waited for the next car so that we could ride it up in the front seat! Very cool!
Finished with Scenic World and ready for a new adventure, we took off on the Blue Mountain Road. It was curvy and windy and fun to drive. The next stop turned out to be the Leura Cascades. Since they weren’t very high, they weren’t really considered waterfalls, but they were very pretty none the less. Unfortunately, this time there was no train to carry us back up. L
After wandering around and admiring the cascades, we drove on until we saw a little brown sign that said “Grand Canyon”. Hmmm…that was too intriguing to pass up! After weaving and turning and driving lots, we finally arrived. The view was breathtaking! Since I haven’t actually been to the Grand Canyon in the US, I can’t compare them, but this one was beautiful! We hiked a bit around there, more up and down, to see it from several lookouts and vantage points. All were spectacular!
Several trails throughout the Blue Mountains are closed because of a huge bush fire that they had at the end of November. We could still smell some of the smoke and could see fire damage everywhere. It actually made for some pretty colors down in the canyon, but apparently the fire was huge and spread throughout about half of the national park.
By the time we were finished with the Grand Canyon, we were hungry. We are always hungry before places open here…apparently it is unheard of to be hungry at 5:00 pm or actually any time before 6:30 pm! We were happy to find a single chicken and chips place open. We got our food and went outside to eat at a picnic table in a little park. This seemed to be a major event for the bird of the area and they proceeded to congregate and call their friends. By the time we were finished eating, I had lost count of the number of birds that were eyeing our food. We threw it onto the ground and sat back to watch them devour every last morsel. It was quite a show down to the last piece of hamburger bun.
After dinner we decided to look for Wentworth Falls. We easily found the town of Wentworth Falls and then the Wentworth Falls Lake, but the actual fall proved much more difficult to find. We weren’t the only ones who had this problem, however. We stopped to ask a woman walking her dog for directions and she informed us that we were in Wentworth Falls. When asked if there were actual waterfalls, she replied that she did not know how to get there! After a little more driving around, we finally stumbled upon the right road.
Of course, seeing Wentworth Falls required traversing down lots and lots and lots more stairs. The view of the valley below was great, though, so it was a nice walk down. There were a couple of lookouts that showed of the great colors of the lowering sun and then a big opening where we could see the falls themselves. Wow! It was really pretty! Since we could only see the very top portion of the falls, the possibility of getting a better view suckered us into walking down even further. We were rewarded with better views of the falls and of the Jameson Valley. Again, the colors were spectacular because the sun was near setting. When we decided to turn around and head back up, Evelyn said she was going to hurry because she only had her prescription sunglasses and was worried that she wouldn’t be able to see. I wanted to play in the waterfall and watch the sunset, so I did!
I splashed around for a while and rinsed my hair under the waterfall, and then wandered back to check the progress of the falling sun. It had a ways to go, but wandering back over there, I realized that the temperature was much lower now that the sun was disappearing. It occurred to me that if I didn’t hurry, it would just get colder and colder, so I headed back up. And up. And UP! When I finally made it, Evelyn and I decided to hustle back to the hotel to try and catch the sunset from the back of the hotel. It took some fancy driving and lots of speeding, but we made it in time! It was TOTALLY worth it because the sunset was amazing! Wow! What a day! To top it off, I headed back to the room, ran a bubble bath, and climbed in to finish my book. It had a happy ending and so did my lovely day!
January 6, 2007
Since the Blue Mountains were so pretty, we had a hard time deciding how to proceed today. After another yummy breakfast and a walk around the hotel gardens, we headed away from Sydney. We ended up wandering around in a couple more towns before we found ourselves out of the mountains and into the foothills and valleys. It was pretty in an entirely different way than the mountains. We enjoyed the scenery and the pretty drives, but we steered clear of any more hiking up and down since we both had very sore calves.
We weaved and roamed until we found our way out of the brown valleys and into the green grasslands. It was yet another entirely different landscape for us to enjoy. We were headed to Fitzroy Falls, but by the time we arrived, it was getting late and we still didn’t have a place to stay. Luckily we made our way to Kangaroo Valley and found a great place to stay. We will head back to explore the valley and the falls tomorrow.
Since it was pretty early when we arrived, I am trying to get caught up on blogging, but the TV is distracting me…ya gotta love Wife Swap!
