End of Australian Odyssey

So this concludes my Australian odyssey, which had many highlights and a few not so high-

• Like when I was staying in the dorm room in Uluru (had not booked a single room in time and booking at the 'Resort' was very tight) when I had nothing but young Chinese male roommates.  The first one never looked up from his phone the entire time and the second I found sleeping with a surgical mask on when I entered at 2:30 in the afternoon.  Great, I thought, I rooming with some guy who has typhoid fever or the bubonic plague... The guy did not wake up until 2 am when he suddenly got up and, naturally, began, playing with phone until he left at around 4:30am.  I figured he was determined never to get off of Beijing time or some such.

• Or when I paid a lot of money for this dinner in the desert while at Uluru which had this allegedly great overview and presentation of the Southern Hemisphere night sky.  But that night was... completely overcast.  Saw nothing.  Whoever heard of an overcast sky in the desert?  What was up with that?

But overall a great trip.  A few final pictures showing the incredible diversity of Australia-

Western Australia coast-

Sydney-

Mt Kosciosko (highest mountain on the continent)-

Yarra Valley wine region-

12 Apostles along the GOR-

Tazzie-

Melbourne-

A small town in the Outback-

Uluru-

Crocs-

And Wombats, etc-

That's all folks.  Thanks for reading.  

Some stats and reflections

Next to last post on Australia trip.  It was a fun, fascinating and quite actibe trip.  I was quite fortunate with the weather and saw much of the best of Australia, I think.  Lot of planning and logistics required and, while I was here almost 6 weeks, time was actually pretty tight.  Some stats and highlights=

• Flyabout=  Took 9 separate flights while here and spent time in all 7 Aussie states and all of their big cities  
• Dribeabout=  Rented 7 cars and drobe more than 3000 miles.  Toured the Great Ocean Road and it libed up to its billing with the 12 Apostles (not to be missed if you eber come)
• Walkabout=  Did 15 separate hikes, including Mt. Kosciosko (highest mt in Aus), Cradle Mt (iconic Taz hike) and Uluru (arguably the world"s most famous rock, at least so the Aussies claim)
• Bikeabout=  Rented bikes on 6 separate occasions and biked around cities and wineries
• Wineabout=  Toured more 30 wineries and 6 separate wine regions (recommendations= McLaren Bale reds and Taz pinots)
• Swimabout =  swam in 3 different oceans and one camera losing water hole in the outback
• Sleepabout=  booked 27 separate bridges and hotel rooms....
• Camelabout=  rode the camels into the sunset in Uluru (that was fun)
• Dibeabout= did a couple of introductory dibes on the Great Barrier Reef and a lot of fun snorkeling
• Snakeabout=  missed all snakes, spiders and jelly fish, tho did see one deadly snake in the wild
• animalabout=  Australia really does habe some cool and different animals 
• Yakabout=  The Aussies like to talk...and talk.. but they are so friendly helpful and trabeling alone it is a big plus that they are so socialable

So a fascinating place oberall.  While comfortably Western and quite modern, it does habe exotic elements, especially if you leabe the big cities of Melbourne and Sydney.   It also has a lot of geographic dibersity, from the Sydney harbor to the rugged mountains of Taz, to the desert of the outback, to the great ocean biews of Western Australia and the GOR, to stunning and unique Uluru, to the spectacular GBR.  

 As I said, the Aussies must be the friendliest and perhaps the most talkatibe of almost any people I habe met anywhere.  They generally seem confident and curious and quite proud of their beautiful and fascinating country.  I would say that there is a noticeable political correctness hanging ober the place, but no where is perfect and perhaps that is a quibble.  (they were stunned by the Trump election, btw, and generally think he is something of a lunatic, tho they appear somewhat fascinated by him).  

   So who should come?  Anybody and eberybody who likes to trabel at all or who enjoys the different, but in a safe, modern and generally comfortable atmosphere.

Brisbane

Left Cairns and flew this morning to my final Aussie stop- the city of Brisbane (about 2 hrs by air south of Cairns).  Brisbane has weather similar to Miami,   Checked into my cheap but breezy accommodations-

While none of my mates seem to do it, you can bathe by just rolling out of your sleeping bag.  Quite convenient.

Like Melbourne, Brisbane has a nice river scene-

Believe it or not, the tallest building on the bottom is my hotel which is quite nice, especially after having lived under that bridge for a few days.  And relatively cheap at $100/night.  Admittedly the river view is not quite as proximate, but you can't have everything.


For some reason, I took a wrong turn walking around Brisbane and ended up at in Katmandu (Nepal)-

Hugging Koalas and a rock garden from the Dolomites

The place with the crocs, as we here affectionately call them, also had a lot of other interesting animals, including the ever lovable (and sleepy) Koalas-

You too can hold a Koala... for a mere $20 (Koala hugs are cheap but short and rather insincere from what I could tell)-

Some interesting Aussie birds-

Finally, I see a snowy owl, in the rain forest of all places-

And then a rock garden that had an eery similarity to one in the Dolomites-

The Great Barrier Reef and Crocs...

My 2nd day in Cairns was the primary reason I (and most others) come here- to dive and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.  I booked a tour with a well regarded boat which included hotel pick up, 2 introductory scuba dives, unlimited snorkeling, high staff to customer ratio and lunch- all for about $250, which I thought was not a bad price considering all they do (e.g. they put your fins on/off you every time you go in the water which was nice as those things are a pain).  You can pay less, but I wanted a safe and good experience and they were (deservedly) rated very high.  .

Now here are all my photos from the trip-

Of course I do not have an underwater camera and I was planning on buying some photos from the pro on board, but her camera turned out not to be working underwater that day...my bad luck with cameras is now affecting others.  In any case, it was a great experience.  The intro scuba dives- each lasting about 25 minutes- were a lot of fun, tho my right ear did not seem to like the water pressure changes.  The guide was excellent- you go down about 35-40'.   But truthfully, you could see almost as much snorkeling as diving- the water is very clear and the reef is not deep (less than 6' in places)- and it would be worth it simply to go and snorkel.  There were all sorts of large and small fish of all colors- red, blue, pink, orange, green, etc. as well as really colorful,exotic and texturally interesting coral.  It was undoubtedly the most fascinating water experience of my life.  No sharks or sting rays, which are actually pretty uncommon according to the guides (not sure if it was the parts of the reef we visited, the time of year or what).   Anyway, I liked it so much that they had to blow the whistle for me to come in at the end- thankfully they did not pull away until I got on board.

And for those doubters, here is my dive certificate-

Yup, a full blown, fully accredited 'Certificate of Recognition', which is almost the same thing as a PADI Dive Certificate and qualification in my book.

The next day I traveled 1 hour up the coast to this private natural crocodile park, which turned out to be excellent.  They have different shows and feedings of the crocs, as well as on Australia's venomous snakes.  The saltwater crocs are huge, impressive and pretty frighting in their power.  They can be 20+' in length and their jaws are the most powerful on earth. In fact, when you hear them snap their jaws shut, it sounds like a gun going off- boom!  The guy who got in the arena with them...my hats off to him-

These are fresh water crocs, much smaller and far less threatening-

Can you tell the difference between the fresh water and salt water (below)-

The crocs infest many of the beaches here- as you do the jelly fish during the rainy season- so most of the beaches are closed this time of year.  This guy might have wondered why he was swimming alone-

Sorry, but I was not going to jump in and save him if he was attacked by a croc-

The Alice, sunken cameras and the rain forest

I took a short flight from Uluru to the Alice, as we here call it, or Alice Springs to you Americanos.  The Alice is a good 4.5 hour drive from Uluru, but the rental car drop fees, plus the mileage add ons, made flying to the Alice and then renting another car a less expensive option.

When I got to the Alice, I found that I had actually forgotten to rent a car.  Later in the day, I went for a short hike in the East MacDonalds, a small mountain range 20km east of Alice. And while walking in a scrubby field there, I spotted and took a picture of this wheeless, broken down, rusted station wagon which looked like it had been sitting in place since the 50s.  As my camera got wet and ruined the next day- see below- you will have to imagine that rusted car, sunken car-

And that is all they had available to rent at the airport...

I also took a picture of this graffiti covered large steel cylinder- (imagine photo)-

 and thought to myself that this street art is definitely not ready for Melbourne, much less Valporaiso.  

Imaginary photos and virtual humor... maybe not quite the same.  

The next day I drove 2 hours west into the outback from Alice to hike in the West MacDonald range, which is truly in the middle of nowhere.  Actually, the Alice is in the middle of nowhere so this is a good deal west of nowhere.  While hiking there- quite by myself for some reason in the 90+ degree heat- I encountered a water hole which had to be crossed in order to continue on the trail.  While I welcomed the water hole, I did not foresee how deep it was and soon found myself up to my chest in water.  All of this might have been ok...if I had had the foresight to carry my camera and backpack over my head as I walked.  As it is, the camera has been on the fritz ever since.  A shame for sure, as it was a nice camera, and i have no pictures of that day at all.  It was nice swimming in that surprisingly cool water hole 120 miles west of no where, but the incident was a sore mishap with the loss of my camera.   

In any case, now left only with my phone camera, I flew the next day to Cairns on northeast coast, and the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rain Forest.  I journeyed into the rainforest in back of Cairns on this historic 19th century train to the authentic Aborigine village of Kuranda about 30 km into the mountains.   I could tell Kuranda was authentic because it was filled with souvenair shops selling all sorts of Aboriginal authenticity.  

You ride this old train up and then a gondola over the rain forest canopy back down- it was interesting and fun.  

They did have some interesting birds in Kuranda, however (there are different and colorful birds all over Australia)-

 And the drops on the Barron River which flows down from the rain forest to the coast were naturally impressive-

I felt like I was on the train on "The Bridge Over River Kwai".  

climbing the big red rock

You must get up; early if you want to hike the world’s most famous rock, Uluru, as the aborigines call it,  or Ayer’s Rock, as the English named it.  They close the hike at 8am due to the heat and it is a half an hour from the penal colony (I mean the resort).  Though no one lives near it and it is in an Australian national part, the local aborigines claim for their own and discourage people from hiking it.  As a result, few appear to do so-

And, though not long, it is  an arduous hike and so only the most fit attempt it-

As so many of the hikers this day were Japanese, I would guess the Aboriginal word- or at least its guilt trip- has not traveled as far as Japan.  It is not a long hike- only about 1200’ vertical- and it only took me 45 minutes to get to the top, but it is pretty steep and I had to pass half of Tokyo clinging to the chains on the way up.  While steep, I did not think it particularly exposed or dangerous (not to compare to the Dolomites).  At the top-

On the descent-

Pictures hardly do it justice, but is quite the unique place- this huge red rock with incredible texture in the middle of a vast desert plain-

There is a trail at the base that circumnavigates the rock and I walked part of that-

 

And then I drove around the rest-