Susan on the Road - Ageless GlobeTravels

Our Last Days in Australia: A Bridge-A Botanical Garden-A House Museum & Just Walking

7/25/2013

I’m closing out my series on our Australian Trek really missing Australia. This country that takes up an entire continent was amazing and I long to go back.

During these last days, we watched from the harbor while Bob and Bonnie climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge. There was no way I was putting on overalls hooking myself to steel girders and climbing to the top of that bridge! I’ll leave that to braver souls than myself!

Instead, Jim and I took a walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens. We are addicted to gardens and they called to us like a siren song! The Botanical Garden was established in 1816 and is the oldest botanical garden and scientific institution in Australia. It is home to an outstanding collection of plants from around the world with a focus on Australia and the South Pacific and the green rolling lawns, dotted with statuary roll out before you with curving paths to take you wandering through the garden. We were awed at some the strange and interesting trees and plants, many of which we had never seen before.

OK I’m also a House Museum addict so Bonnie and I visited the Van Cluse House! This historic house was built in fits and starts from 1809 through the early 1860’s and is considered to be lacking in cohesion and grace and is a mix of styles. That said, I thought it was fanciful and uniquely Australian in design and the grounds were a well-planned Victorian design with fountains, rolling lawns and a pleasure garden.

As befitting this quirky home’s style, its builder, William Charles Wentworth (1790-1872) is known today as one of the early colonial statesmen in Sydney. Unfortunately, his sense of his place in society was undermined by illegitimacy and convict associations. With the rising tide of Victorian morality, his wife Sarah was shunned as lacking respectability and the family had to socialize outside of colonial society.

The rest of our last day was spent wandering downtown Sydney, savoring our last hours in Australia and I leave you with a few of those wonderful photos.

Back in Sydney! Darling Harbor & A Riverboat Cruise

7/23/2013

Finally Back in Sydney for the last few days of our Australian Trek. We decided to check out Darling Harbor which is named after Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, who was Governor of New South Wales from 1825 to 1831. It was originally part of the commercial port of Sydney, but is now a major tourist district and is home to a busy waterfront promenade, the Sydney Aquarium, The Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney’s Casino, Australia’s Northern Territory and Outback Center and a host of other entertainment facilities along with lots of fun shops and restaurants along the Warf area.

We spent some time in the Outback Center which is a mixture of tourist kitsch and culture as it is a combination of souvenir shop, art gallery and performance space where you can watch didgeridoo performances. If you want to pick up any items you forgot to buy earlier, here is where you can get your boomerangs, spear-throwers, and bullroarers!

With what I consider our unique travelers luck, we ran across the Matilda Paddle Wheel Cruise and set out for the Sunset Cocktail Cruise. The boat was beautifully restored and you could really imagine what a riverboat cruise of the harbor would have been like back in the 19th century.

As advertised, we cruised through the harbor sipping cocktails and eating canapés before we headed up to the top deck to watch the sun sink its golden light into the horizon. Little by little harbor lights twinkled on, casting bright fluid reflections into the water.

The well-known bridge and opera house took on new magical qualities, projecting sweeping shadowed silhouettes against the evening sky and the city skyline projected up into what was left of the suns golden light which was rapidly losing out to the dark blue-black of early evening.

We could even see the tiny ant-like silhouettes of the last group climbing across the Sydney Bridge and we watched them knowing that our companions Bob and Bonnie would be up there high over the harbor the next day on their own climb.

Blue Mountains & A Turn of the Century Health Retreat

7/22/2013

The Blue Mountains of Australia…… the dividing range between the coast and the interior. For twenty years during the penal colony days, no convict made an escape over them. As a matter of fact, the convicts thought “China and the Indies” were on the other side. This massive escarpment is actually the beginning of a 1,000 mile inland plateau which has been carved with fissures, steep valleys and cliffs by eons of erosion. They earned the name “Blue Mountains” because of the blue haze that hangs above them. The blue haze on the mountains reminded me very much of the Blue Ridge Parkway area of North Carolina near where I live in the U.S.A. and were just as hauntingly beautiful.

Driving northeast into the Blue Mountain National Forest, we decided to visit the Jenolan Caves. These caves are the oldest open caves in the world and are filled with dazzling limestone creations and underground rivers. There are lots of tours to accommodate different levels of walking abilities when you are finished touring the caverns you can stop by the café and order lunch.

Beware; you’ll be eating under the sharp eye of the colorful parrots that perch expectantly on the railings coveting your food. FEEDING THE PARROTS IS FROWNED UPON! It’s not good for them. But naturally, Jim who simply can’t follow directions snuck French-fries to them (believe me I didn’t condone this in any way!).

And as usual we ran across the resident Kangaroo!

One of the most iconic rock formations in the Blue Mountain Nation Forest is the crop of three rock formations called the “The Three Sisters”. They stand 3000 feet above sea level and according to Aboriginal legend were originally human:

“The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.

As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle.”

We also ran across “Hartley” a preserved historic village from the 19th century. It was originally a judicial and administrative center for New South Whales’ towns as settlers and explorers moved inland looking for greater opportunity. The courthouse was very busy during that time dealing with a constant stream of robbers, thieves and convicts.

We decided to stay overnight at the Hydro Majestic Hotel Blue Mountains (what a name!). The hotel is currently under renovation and boy did it desperately need it!

The beautiful, shabby, historic hotel was opened in 1904 as Australia’s first health retreat. The historical record says, “The inner workings of the resort were all thoroughly modern and included a steam-driven generator imported from Germany. In fact the Hydro Majestic had working electricity four days before the city of Sydney”

Many famous and notable Australians stayed at the resort including Australia’s first prime minister Sir Edmund Barton (he actually died there), Author of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a handful of opera singers and the first Australian to ever win a gold medal (in Paris, 1900), all presumably taking in the “health benefits” of the retreat.

The halls would have been hung with valuable art, there were tennis courts, a swimming pool, and spa facilities and in the evening, they would gather in the grand Casino Ballroom (no gambling though) and on the wide terraces with stunning vistas of the Cliffs and Valleys of the Blue Mountains.

The center lobby had a huge fireplace which was crackling, warm and cozy on that chilly evening. In fact, there was also a large Christmas tree in the lobby! In July! That’s when we found out that Australians have a tradition of celebrating “Christmas in July” in order to revel during the cold “wintery” months of their year. Christmas twice a year? I’ll bet the kids love that idea!

Even though the weather was cool, the terrace is where we gravitated for drinks before dinner and lazed there for quite some time, Jim smoking a cigar and the rest of us just enjoying the view.

Our rooms were definitely worn out Victorian luxury, especially the bathrooms which looked straight out of the turn of the century, but we loved even this tarnished ambiance. I’m glad this amazing hotel is being renovated because even in need of a lot of TLC, I could see it was a special place. I hope they are able to retain its historic feel! If you would like to read more about their redevelopment vision, go to The Hydro Majestic Hotel website.

Goldmines & Sheep & Kangaroos: Driving the Heart of Victoria

7/18/2013

Leaving the coast of Southern Australia behind, we hung a right at Warnambool and headed into the “bush country” taking a road which was paved in only one direction! The way it worked was that each car drove on the blacktop and when you met; one car would pull onto the gravel lane of the road. Which one is pretty much a negotiation I guess! The bush actually turned out to be small towns and wide flat grazing land filled with sheep and kangaroos. In fact, finding kangaroos hopping through the neighborhoods and gathered in mobs across the landscape as we drove by, absolutely delighted me. One actually crossed at what can only be called a leisure pace in front of our car as we drove through a subdivision and stopped to give us a measured look-over. What fun!

What luck, right out of the gate, we found the inland city of Ballarat. Not planned, but turned out to be the perfect place to stop for the night. Just saw the sign from road. The sign said “Sovereign Hill” and advertised an old frontier gold mining town which turned out to be absolutely something you should see.

The city of Ballarat was named by Scottish squatter Archibald Yuille who established the first settlement—his sheep run called Ballaarat—in 1837, with the name derived from local Wathaurong Aboriginal words for the area, balla arat, thought to mean "resting place".

The city is actually pretty populous for an inland city and offers lots of amenities, but to me Sovereign Hill, the old gold mining camp which is a living history museum tops the list of attractions. You will be taken back in time to the Victorian gold rush in Australia.

Every guide you speak to will remain in 1850’s character whether you are shopping at the general store, visiting one of the miner’s tents, visiting the school-house or a Budist altar that would have been used for worship by the Chinese workers. Best of all is the trip down into the gold mine where you walk the narrow underground channels where the wall and roofs are supported by thick wooden beams (not for the claustrophobic), see the antique mining equipment and where you can view the largest gold nugget ever found in Australia!

The next morning we pushed further north, driving through more tiny bush towns. I must say that I had the eerie feeling of driving through 1950 & 60’s USA. The architecture felt so familiar to me even though I could see there were subtle differences in the slope of the eves over the long wide verandas that are a hallmark of the Australian bush home. The town main streets were lined with beautiful old Victorian buildings much like those found in America, featuring Italianate, Georgian and other favorite European styles with ornate facades and arched lintels above the doors and windows.

But the thing that finally met my movie/novel picture of Australia bush, were the sheep. Adorable, fluffy, huggable sheep. Then we ran across a wool warehouse and sale building and the picture was made complete. My vision of Australian sheep farms was met.

Stoked up on views of the great expanse of grazing land, the next day we drove until much too late in the day and found ourselves at a tiny town (think wide spot in the road here) and had to take rooms at a motel right out of route 66 and even better, the owner/receptionist was a real live Crocodile Dundee, hat and all! (Much older version though) We chatted for a bit and he assured us that he had traveled out of Australia once to visit his kids in Canada and the rooms were clean and cozy.

This crazy duality continued as we walked the one main street to a smoke filled bar right out of Victorian times. The thick cigarette smoke really turned us off, so we opted not to go in and found ourselves at a tiny pizza parlor where a small group of white and aboriginal teenagers were happily picking up a to-go pizza order.

This really brought home where we were and the modern cultural realities of inland Australia. Movie fantasy meets the real world!

Apostles, Whales & Shipwrecks: The Great Ocean Road

7/16/2013

The Great Ocean Road is truly one of the most beautiful drives in the world and we spent the day leisurely driving along it stopping whenever the beauty called to us even though it was chilly and we had to fight the brisk wind to walk out to toward the sea.

Fortunately this cold harsh wind swept the sky to crystalline clearness so you could see every crevice of the rocky cliffs. To our disbelief but utter happiness, before our eyes, out on the horizon, the graceful Southern Right Whales emerged from the sea arching high into the air on their migration trek. It was one of those moments when we looked at each other and couldn’t believe our luck at being right there staring out to sea just as they passed.

Some of most interesting rock formations are located at Port Campbell National Park and we spent some time admiring the dramatic windswept geomorphology. Limestone pillars called the “Twelve Apostles” rise out of the Southern Ocean like craggy sentinels posting watch along the steep cliffs. Other formations are given names that truly depict their shapes, like the “London Bridge”, though its span has separated from the mainland and stand a bridge to nowhere out in the sea.

Be sure to check out the fascinating history of the many shipwrecks that took place along this treacherous coast. The Shipwreck Coast extends from Moonlight Head to Port Fairy, a little over 80 miles (130 kilometers) further west. The temptation for ships to cut about 750 miles (1200 kilometers) from their trip from England to Sydney by negotiating the treacherous and unpredictable Bass Strait was strong and resulted in over 160 ships coming to grief on this coastal stretch.

Just a note: There are lots of motels and small hotels along the Great Ocean Road so take your pick, but if you are visiting during high season in the Australian summer, they fill up fast, so you probably want to make a reservation from one of the visitor centers. Since we were starting out by car from Melbourne, we stopped at the Geelong Visitor center a few miles into the drive and it was full of useful information about the area’s history, sites and accommodations.

Melbourne: Too Little Time in a Beautiful City

7/13/2013

Melbourne is one of those wonderful cities you really need to spend several days exploring. Unfortunately, we only had one afternoon and evening since we were picking up our car early the next morning to drive the Great Ocean Road. Don’t you make this mistake! Stay at least a few days!

The region was originally occupied 40,000 years ago by the Koories, the wandering Aborigine tribes of south-eastern Australia. In 1770, Captain Cook arrived off Cape Everard, on the easternmost coast of what is now Victoria. In 1803 a settlement was established at Port Phillip Bay, but this was not a success and the settlers moved across the strait to the Island of Tasmania.

Finally, in 1835, John Batman returned to the area and founded a new settlement on the Yarra River. Batman bought the land from the Woeworung and Kurnai Aboriginies, for a few dozen blankets, knives, 12 red shirts and some mirrors and axes.

Nowadays, Melbourne is Australia’s 2nd largest city and is a combination of Victorian blue-stone buildings nestled between sleek high-rise blocks. It is said that Melbourne has a distinctly conservative feel, and I think this is correct. We felt a little out of place in our tourist clothing as we walked the busy streets surrounded by black wool coated and business suited locals dashing to and from work and business lunches. And speaking of wool coats! I remind you, even though it was July, it was WINTER in Australia. This was no problem in sunny Sydney and tropical Cairns, but down in Melbourne, the weather was frosty, so we quickly donned jeans and as yet unused jackets we had packed in our luggage.

Our hotel we chose was the Saville Park Suites Hotel. The suites were beautiful, they were modern, clean and comfortable with sparkling kitchens and the views from the balconies from our rooms on the upper floors are amazing. Saville Hotel Suites is steps from the best shopping, restaurants, museums and theaters in the city.

Overall, the city feels very British and the shopping is amazing. Beautiful, stylish high fashion can be found the boutiques and I fell in love with the city at that moment. In fact, the shopping in Melbourne can’t be matched anywhere else in Australia, in my humble opinion! I will definitely get back to that city someday.

One of the best things about Melbourne is the fact that it is truly a melting pot. More than 140 different nationalities are represented in this city of over three million inhabitants.

Strangely enough, after Athens and Thessaloniki, Melbourne is said to be the third largest Greek city in the world and a visit to Swan Street in the Richmond section of town feels like wandering the streets of Athens. Or you can savor the flavor of Vietnam in Bridge Road and Victoria Road (little Saigon), or Turkey in Sydney Road (Brunswick).

We decided to head out to China Town located on Little Burke Street. Beware, the hawkers will call at you as you pass the dozens of Chinese restaurants and the smells will make you want to stop at each one. Take your pick, something tells me they are all pretty amazing if you love Chinese food!

Camel Rides & Sacred Caves: The Magic of Uluru

7/9/2013

Rested up with time in the sun and sand of Yorkey’s Knob, we headed out via Quantas Airlines to the red center of Australia, Ayers Rock, or ULURU as it is called by its aboriginal name.

It was the “wet”season for Uluru National Park though that still means a minimum of rain, but the winds were just strong enough for our pilot to abort our landing and head for Alice Springs a small town near the National Park. We sat on the tarmac for about 30 minutes waiting for the weather to clear and listening to a small child whine “please daddy!” over and over. It was a very long 30 minutes!

Finally though we were able to fly back to the national park airport for a landing into what from hundreds of feet up really looks like Mars. From the air, the flat red plains looked barren, dotted with scrub trees and some grasses creating an eerily beautiful landscape.

By the time we emerged from the airport, our shuttle to Ayers Rock Resort was waiting for us. Pretty much everyone stays there if they are lodging within the national park. Otherwise, people stay in Alice Springs and bus or drive into the park.

I recommend the resort due to its proximity to everything you want to experience and also for its beauty. It is surrounded by outback and you can walk out onto the paths around the resort and within a few minutes be up close and personal to the natural Australian wilderness. In the distance we could see not only Uluru, but in the other direction its mate called Kata Tjuta (also called the Olgas) which is a rock made up of 36 domes.

Ayers Rock Resort provides a variety of accommodation options for every possible taste and budget. They have the premium Sails in the Desert Hotel and the award winning Desert Gardens Hotel which is where we chose to stay.

They also have the self-contained Emu Walk Apartments and the authentic Outback Pioneer Hotel and Lodge. They even have an ultimate luxury wilderness camp called Longitude 131°.

Even if you choose to stay at one of the hotels like the Desert Gardens, you can use the pools at any of the other hotels as well the restaurants and other facilities, which give you a variety of experience within the resort. The resort also offers many different tours and experiences to choose from. I really loved both of the tours we picked and would recommend them to everyone.

When we arrived at Uluru Camel Tours, I spied the huge camels waiting patiently for new riders, but first we had to get our “safety” talk. They went over all the measures for safe camel-riding, but I don’t remember them mentioning that they will bite at your but if you don’t watch out! Naturally Jim and I got a camel named “Satan” and the camel behind us was “Devil”. This cute guy with soft brown eyes and long long lashes was fascinated with biting at Jim’s back pocket which was unfortunately very near his rear-end. No worries though, Jim is alive and well no actual camel-bites occured!

We rode through the silent desert just as sunset glossed everything in gold. It was absolutely magical with only the creaking of camel saddles and soft thud of hooves on the hard ground to break the quiet of the evening. After the ride, we sampled traditional outback tucker including Camel and Kangaroo meat, crickets and other unique foods, some of which (like the crickets) I simply couldn’t make myself try and I have to admit, I felt really guilty trying the Camel and Kangaroo meat. It seemed like eating your pet!

Early the next morning, we headed out by van to watch the sun rise over Uluru along with lots of other people, some of which came by bus from Alice Springs so they must have started out in the middle of the night to get there (over 6 hours drive)! After sunrise our little group was gathered for our tour.

SEIT Uluru Trek - 14 km Base Walk
As we started the trek around the 14 km base trail of Uluru we embraced the culture, geology and environment that is the essence of Ayers Rock (Uluru). The guide told us the cultural stories (Tjukurpa) of Liru (the poisonous snake) and Kuniya (the python), as well as many other Aboriginal creation stories associated with the rock like the one below.

Long, long ago, in the time of the Tjukurpa (The Dreamtime or creation period), there was a young woma python (Kuniya) snakeboy who was surprised and ambushed by a group of Liru (which are venomous snakes). The Liru threw spears at the Kuniya and killed him. So hard did they throw their spears that the points made holes in the Uluru rock. (see the holes made in Uluru by the points of the Lirus' spears).

Along the trail we visited waterholes and rock art sites of the ancients and learned about Uluru’s cultural significance to the Anangu. The word Anangu simply means “human beings” and has come to refer to the local aboriginal people.

I think we were the last group to ever see the “school room” because our guide told us that it was being sealed due to dangerous shifting of the roof rocks. It’s amazing to think of small native children getting instruction about the stories of their ancestors and cultural activities of their community.

Leaning about the history and significance of Uluru added a depth and dimension to our visit to the National Park and I would highly recommend either taking one of these tours or reading up on your own before you go.

We didn’t see any hikers on the rock because of the time of year, but it is highly discouraged due to the sacred and cultural importance of Uluru to the aboriginal people of Australia.

There is an Aborigine legend that Uluru was once an ocean, but after a great battle at its shores, it rose up in revolt at the bloodshed, forming the great blood-colored rock that you can often see glowing red, during sunset.

So…. We probably shouldn’t be climbing all over it. I believe they are in the process of planning to prohibit all hiking on the rock going forward.

Staying in Yorkey's Knob? Visit the Kuranda Rainforest & Great Barrier Reef!

7/5/2013

32 hours on a train? I wasn’t too sure about that idea at first, but we had a blast spending most of our time Kangaroo spotting.

We reserved 1st class railway compartments on the Sunlander from Brisbane to Cairns. There are a few different compartment configurations and by the time we booked our tickets, all the larger compartments were booked, so we put our name on a waiting list and went ahead and booked individual sleeping compartments. They turned out to be pretty cool because each compartment has a comfy single chair that turns into a single berth and they each have a tiny sink. They felt like strange space-travel pods so at first we kept the doors open so that we could talk back and forth across the aisle.

The travel fates were looking out for us fortunately and Jim and I were upgraded to a full sleeping compartment for two with seating for all four of us, so we hung out at our place all day and when it was finally time to turn in for the night, Bob and Bonnie went back to their single sleeping pods and Jim and had the bunk beds made up. My only suggestion would be to be sure to book the upscale dining car because the normal dining car fills up really fast and the food is pretty unremarkable. As it turned out, we brought our dinner (packed to go) back to our compartment and ate dinner from our laps. NOT OPTIMAL DINING.

After a surprisingly comfortable night, we arrived in Cairns where we caught a taxi to Yorkey’s Knob just north about 30 minutes and checked into the Golden Sands Resort our wonderful apartment hotel. Each couple had a two bedroom suite with full kitchen and balconies that face the interior courtyard. The pool is located in the courtyard surrounded by deep green foliage and shaded by tall palm and other trees where Kookaburras perch watching us with curiosity. I never thought I would see a Kookaburra in wild sitting just a few feet away from me. (Actually, until then I didn’t know they were a bird!)

A Short walk through the palms takes you to the wide sandy beach where kite boarders surf the waves and flip and turn in the air as their kites pull them high above the waves. This beach is a favorite for kite boarding.

They did warn us not to walk too far down the beach to where the nearby river flows into the ocean as it is a hang-out for crocodiles. Needless to say, I kept my eyes peeled even though we didn’t go near there. Since we were there in the winter time, we didn’t have to worry so much about stinging sea creatures, but the beach was dotted with boxes on posts, containing sting antidotes.

The highlight of our time at the beach for Jim and Bob was when they realized that a couple of young women tourists were lounging naked out on a sandbar about a half mile out into the ocean. (Picture me frowning here).

Yorkey’s Knob is located perfectly for anyone planning to go to the Kuranda Rainforest (a World Heritage Site) and you can’t come to this area of Queensland and not visit the rainforest.

We booked tickets through Skyrail. This company offers a number of combinations of Cableway and Railroad experiences within the rainforest. We decided to take the Kuranda Railway up into the rainforest and to the Tjapukai Cultural Center and explore the rainforest via Skyway Cable Gondola.

The famous Kuranda Scenic Railway was built over 120 years ago and winds its way through the tropical mountain ranges between Cairns and Kuranda. The view of the blue sea off the coast and wide flat valley far below changed to deep green canyons and graceful waterfalls and then finally lush green rainforest as our train chugged up the rail hugging the side of the mountain.

When you arrive at Kuranda “The Village in the Rainforest”, there are lots of shops and cafés and galleries to explore. There is also an interpretive center and museum that explains the natural history of the rainforest and explains the culture and history of the aboriginal people who populate the rainforest.

An art center features an amazing variety of authentic hand designed arts and handicrafts and you can talk with local artisans who may be working at the center when you are there. I bought a hand painted pottery piece, but Jim really went for it and bought a Didgeridoo after being told how it was made from wood hollowed out by insects and fire and then of course instructed on how to play it!

The Skyway experience takes about 1 ½ hours as you move through the rainforest canopy layers and stop at mid-stations where rangers take you walking through the forest while they explain the cultural and medicinal uses of the plants. The walks were really interesting and hanging in the rainforest canopy peering down from the treetops to the ground far below was a beautiful experience.

Finally, we took the skyway all the way back to the Caravonica Terminal where we caught a taxi back to Yorkey’s Knob.

I was really excited the next day as we headed off to the Cairns to catch our catamaran ferry out to the Great Barrier Reef. I had never dreamed I would be swimming at the Great Barrier Reef!

We had booked our tickets through Reef Magic Marine World and I must say snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef is an experience of a lifetime. Three of us decided we would snorkel, while Bonnie opted for the underwater observatory where you can see all the amazing creatures without getting wet.

Jim, Bob and I donned our on-loan wetsuits and pushed ourselves out into the rather-cold water. This barrier reef hosts one of the most colorful arrays of sea-life I have ever seen in my life. Jim held a sea-cucumber and we all marveled at the HUGE (I’m talking about 5 feet long) friendly fish called Walley that regularly waited for the tours to arrive, when the crew would give him treats. I have to admit, I was afraid to touch anything. Being in the water with strange sea creatures creeped me out a little!

After our swim, lunch and dry-out on deck in the sun, we also took a narrated ride in the submarine to check out even more of the underwater world of the reef. All in all, the experience is pretty amazing and there are a host of companies to choose from that provide a variety of barrier reef encounters. If you get to Australia you absolutely MUST go out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Brisbane Australia & Holding a Koala at the Lone Pine Sanctuary

7/2/2013

There are a number of airlines in Australia from which to choose when hopping from Location to location. The main airlines are the long-established Qantas and budget airlines JetStar, Tiger Airways and Virgin Blue. Qantas has the most extensive flight network followed by Virgin Blue and Jetstar. Research the airline that works best for your budget and flight needs.

We opted to stick with Quantas Airlines when booking our flights within Australia and our first flight was to the beautiful city of Brisbane.

Brisbane is a mix of tall sleek modern waterfront architecture and beautiful, old historical buildings near the city center. We chose to stay at the Goodearth Hotel. The location was amazing since it was just a short stroll to downtown Brisbane and all the great shopping and restaurants. I couldn’t recommend the actual accommodations though because it was rather rundown and dowdy when we stayed there. I can only hope it has been remodeled because the staff was extremely helpful and friendly and the location was perfect.

I must admit, once we entered the Queen’s Street shopping mall, we had a really hard time trying to make ourselves leave it to check out some of the more historical parts of Brisbane. The variety of shops is wonderful and I wanted to buy some Australian fashions. Eventually sated with our shopping and eating, we headed into central Brisbane to soak up some of the history of the old city.

Brisbane is the capital of Queensland and the climate is subtropical so the gardens around the city are lush and full of mango trees and banana plants. The site the city now occupies was originally one of the most notorious penal colonies in Australia and life for the convicts was a living hell with no escape as the waters off the coast were full of sharks and the interior full of hostile Aboriginal communities.

Prisoners who were considered the worst of the worst were sent to this penal colony. In 1839, the penal colony was disbanded and the area was opened up to settlers and eventually cattlemen. While the capital grew, it retained its provincial flavor and continues to be a laid back city even today.

The best part of visiting Brisbane was our trip to Lone Pine Sanctuary. If you want to get up-close and personal to all that unusual Australian wildlife, you must go there.

By far the best way to get to Lone Pine Sanctuary is to take the river cruise from Warf Road by Victoria Bridge in the center of town. It takes about 1 ½ hours each way, but the view from the river is beautiful. We even saw the creepy site of huge black bats hanging upside down from the eucalyptus trees lining the river.

You will be able to see all the incredible variety of native animals like koalas, kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils, wombats. Cockatoos and Parrots and various species of reptiles, as well as a platypus which arrived at the sanctuary during 2010 from Melbourne.

It was incredible to actually hold a koala. They are surprisingly heavy, like small dense balls of fur that cuddle against you as you hold them. The sanctuary is one of the very few sanctuaries in the world where visitors are allowed to hold koalas for a fee. Strict regulations ensure that each koala is not held for more than thirty minutes every day.

Visitors can also feed and pet the free-roaming kangaroos in the 5-acre kangaroo reserve, where more than 130 of the animals freely reside. Kangaroos are sometimes seen with a joey in their pouch and we saw several cuties hanging out with their tiny limbs hanging over the edge of the pouch.

This was one of our favorite places in Australia. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit Lone Pine Sanctuary when you visit Brisbane!

Australian Trek: Long Trip Getting There But Oh that First VB!

6/26/2013

I have to admit, when Jim and his brother decided that we should travel to Australia, I wasn’t overly excited. It had never been high on my list of places to visit. It didn’t have castles or grand museums or tall cathedrals or ancient temples so to my mind, it didn’t sound very interesting at all. Thank goodness I was really, really, REALLY wrong! Australia turned out to be one of the most interesting and exciting places I have ever visited.

Jim was in charge of airline tickets, and since we are loyal Delta patrons, we booked our flight through the internet with a Delta partner, Korean Airlines and used frequent flyer miles we accumulated not only from previous flights, but from our Delta American Express Card. We buy EVERYTHING with it to rack up those points!

As you can probably figure, when you are flying halfway across the world; this is one of those excruciatingly long plane flights! We flew from Atlanta to Korea non-stop, refueled and flew the rest of the way to Australia.

A flight this long is worth using every frequent flyer point you own in order to upgrade to business (or even better first!) class or at least comfort seats, especially if you are not a 20-something with young limbs and backs that won’t cramp up about half way through the flight.

The strategy Jim and I use every time we fly is to reserve one of three positions in the plane.

1.       Bulk-head – best because you can stretch out your legs. And often easy to stand up and stretch.

2.       Emergency Exit Row – also good leg-room

3.      Odd Placed Seats - Depending upon the plane, there are these great comfort seats where the aisle seat (which is the third in the row) doesn’t have any seat in front of it because the row in front has only two seats. Jim always likes to take that seat. Unfortunately, that means that I have to sit in the middle. That’s why it’s third choice of these options!

Now here is the key to getting a good seat…….. Keep checking on-line or call to confirm that your seats have not changed over the weeks/months before your departure and keep checking regularly. The reason this is important, is that airline notoriously change plane models and will knock you out of your seat assignments to some other random seat! If you don’t keep on top of this, you will be in store for an unpleasant surprise when you finally board for your wonderful vacation.

We absolutely loved Korean Airlines. The service was the best we have ever received starting from the lovely bow at the front of your cabin that your airline attendant gives just before takeoff. If you are feeling adventurous you can order a traditional Korean meal served in a bamboo bowl rather than the usual airline food! I have to admit, the smell in the plane was pretty pungent during dinner.

Fortunately after our long flight, we actually arrived strangely refreshed and ready to go. Maybe it had something to do with flying east to west instead of our usual west to east to Europe where we drag ourselves around jet-lagged for a day at least.

Talk about amazing coincidences though…….. There we were picking up our bags and checking out the monitors to see what time my in-laws would be arriving from Los Angeles, and before my eyes appeared Bob and his wife who had incredibly landed at exactly the same time as we did even though they flew a different airline, from a different direction and distance than we had flown.

I will never figure out how that happened, but we were really thankful that the travel fates conspired in our favor for a change! We shared a taxi ride to our hotel, where we were able to check in and finally see whether the myth was true about toilets swirling backwards when flushed Down-Under! (I won’t be telling you the answer to that. You just have to find out yourself!)

There are a number of great hotels in Sydney, but since we were only staying one full day, before heading by plane to Brisbane (we would be coming back for a longer stay later), we chose a hotel near the airport and took a taxi into the Sydney Harbor.

This harbor is the same beautiful cove that Captain Cook admired as he sailed past in 1770 and at which eighteen years later, a fleet of British ships carrying convicts and government officials landed in 1788, founding the settlement of Sydney.

We decided to start our journey at “The Rocks” with a look back into Sydney’s colonial history in the oldest part of town. The Rocks is where the transported convicts and officers of the First Fleet established the furthest outpost of the British Empire. The area is named for the rocky outcrops that dominated the area.

In colonial times, "The Rocks" was a raucous waterfront neighborhood inhabited by seamen, traders, prostitutes and criminals and the narrow cobbled streets were full of pubs, brothels and lodging-houses, like the Lord Nelson Hotel which officially opened in 1840. Before then, it had been the proprietor’s home.

Of course, Jim, like a homing pigeon wanted to head into this oldest licensed pub and hotel in Sydney for an authentic “Australian” beer which actually turned out to be a bitter, “Victoria Bitter”. We fell in love with this brew and have pined and longed for it ever since. (It’s is impossible to find in the U.S. and hard to find Europe). We always try to find it when we travel!

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the converted warehouses and colonial buildings which house shops and galleries where you can find some the best original Australian art and handicrafts in the world, though they can be very expensive. I personally drooled over the sparkling Opals, some of which were set in unique, artistic, hand-made settings.

Don’t worry; there are also plenty of touristy souvenir shops where you can find merchandize that won’t break your pocketbook!

Seemingly floating over the harbor with its gleaming sail-like roofs bellowing outward and its magnificent harbor-side location, you can’t help but be drawn to the view of the Sydney Opera House. We spent quite some time strolling around the outdoor terraces savoring the architecture and watching the sailboats and yachts cutting smoothly through the sparkling water.

Be sure to check out the ceramic “tiles” that cover the “sails”. It really makes you appreciate how much design thought was invested into what was considered revolutionary at the time of its construction and was given the nickname “The Hunchback of Bennelong Point” by locals who were not impressed. Fortunately it has earned appreciation over the years and is now a landmark you can’t miss out on.

The Opera House would be our last glimpse of Sydney Harbor for the next three weeks as we would be heading off up the coast to adventures in Brisbane the next morning.