second time around

My last bit of time in Melbourne was fun. I went to the Melbourne Museum and saw the “King Tutankamun” traveling exhibit. The detail work of the jewelry and carvings was exquisite. Given that these were done 1350 BCE or thereabouts, the workmanship is unbelievable. I took a walk through the “rainforest” that they have growing in a very cool outdoor atrium in the center of the building. The “wildlife” section was quite small but very well done. In a room maybe 15 meters by 20 meters by 10 meters high they had about 300 stuffed animal specimens all around the room on the walls and stages. In front of each section and at a few places in the center of the room were large touch screens with pictures of the area of animals. If I touched an animal it popped up a big picture and information about the animal. Worked wonderfully.

I had a nice flight on Quantas back to Sydney which was good, because 3 days later Quantas stopped ALL flights because of ongoing labor disputes. I took the ferry to Manly Beach (it is Australia there is no “Wimpy Beach”) so I could see the Sydney Harbor and the iconic view of the Opera House. I had some fish and chips on the beach while watching the surfers and again with the seagulls. One of the blighters actually flew in and took 1/2 a french fry right out of my hand as I was putting it to my mouth! It was quite windy that day and the sailboats were out in force which impressed me as it was mid-week. They love their harbor here and love their sailboats. Flying in I could see literally thousands of them moored in a series of inlets and bays all around the Harbor.

A rental car and off to the west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains and a town called Katoomba. The blue mountains are so named because of the bluish haze as one looks over them caused by the mist and eucalyptus oils in the air. They reminded me quite a lot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Kentucky. Of course when I arrived and went along the scenic cliffside drive which is at 3500 feet elevation what I noticed most was that the cloud level was 2500 feet and I could see about 15 meters (48 feet) out into the Jamison Valley. It stayed like that the entire day and into the night. But that actually turned out to be great. I was staying at the Carrington Hotel which was built in 1885 and was a wonderful throw-back experience. I checked in early and took the elevator (with the outer and inner door that you open seperately) to my room with a view, on the top (3rd) floor. The rest of the day I shot some billiards on their classic table, sipped on a schooner of Guinness and read in a nice overstuffed chair in the Henry Poste Room. The place was a wonderful sense of the past. During dinner (a very tasty lamb duo) they had Nat Cole, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra playing in the background and I was loving it.

The next morning I drove on to the Jenolan Caves. For those of you who don’t know or remember I would refer you to my blog post of June 6 “Carlsbad Caverns” to get a sense of how I feel about Carlsbad so you can understand when I say Jenolan Caves are the tiniest, tiniest bit less impressive than Carlsbad. The drive in is exciting as well. The last 10 km or so the road is one way from 11:30 to 1:45 to allow the buses to come in. That is good, because although around the curves they paint a striped line down the center of the asphalt to show the lanes, it is still only 2 1/2 meters (8 feet) wide!! Only once did several cars have to stop and help guide the local bus and the up-bound pickup truck back and forth for ten minutes to unwedge and get past each other. Once you reach the caves, the road goes right through a short but large cavern. I spent the day walking up and down steps and trails and saw three large caves. These caverns are not as large as the “big room” at Carlsbad (which is 1220 meters long 191 meters wide and 110 meters high) but are very impressive. The walkways here are quite narrow and lots of tight passages through to other cave rooms which put you very close to the formations. And the formations (speleothems) are spectacular, especially the Helictites which defy gravity and grow sideways and sometimes look like bushes. These are spectacular caves. At lunch I had a pair of Rosellas pestering me for some of my chips, what is it with the birds in Australia? And while I am at it, what is it with the Australians and chips (french fries)? They have chips with every meal at every restaurant. The only time I ever saw mashed potatoes was on a shepherd’s pie. Never saw au gratin, scalloped, boiled or any other kind except for the occasional adventurous change of “wedges”.

I drove back to Katoomba to find that the sun was out and the views were great. I particularly liked that the Jamison Valley is totally undeveloped so there are no roads or towns or logging areas, just a large carpet of trees all through this huge valley.

Back to Sydney and last night I had a great Indonesian dinner with Johan and Lily from my China tour. They live here in Sydney and they took me to a lovely Indonesian restaurant and treated me to a great sampling of their foods. They are transplants from Indonesia. It was very nice to see them and maybe someday they can visit me in Orlando. All in all Australia has been a great time; the people are warm and helpful, the scenery spectacular and the wildlife plentiful. Tomorrow I am off to New Zealand where I will meet Poe and together we will explore what I hope to be an astoundingly beautiful place.

Well sadly for those I left aboard the Spoilsport on the Great Barrier Reef it turned out that Tuesday was the most rainfall ever recorded in Cairns! I however had spectacular sunny skies and 72 degrees in Melbourne. I forgot to mention one of the more interesting things I found in Cairns. At dusk they have spectacled flying foxes that come back to roost in their trees. These are HUGE fruit bats! About a two foot wing span and shaped just like the classic Halloween cut outs. Sitting outside at dinner I saw maybe 20 or 30 of them flying around, it was a bit odd I thought.

I like Melbourne, the atmosphere is young and active without being too hectic. The architecture is an interesting mix of old stone buildings and very avant-guard almost whimsical ones. Transportation is good, but I mostly walk. The first day I went up to the Melbourne Zoo and enjoyed the local animal exhibits the most. I got some good looks at Kangaroo, Wombats, Platypus and Koalas. Then in the afternoon I went to the space exhibit at the Australian Center for Moving Images. It was all about the history of spaceflight in the movies and TV, back to some very early things in the twenties. Lots of fun. That evening I treated myself to a night at the Theatre. I had a great seat for “Love Never Dies” a sequel to “Phantom of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was a wonderful production and I enjoyed it immensely. Occasionally one needs a bit of culture in a vagabond life.

I spent a morning cruising the Queen Victoria Market which was two blocks from my hotel. They sell everything from Fish to electronics, meats to shoes, produce to clothes to souvenirs. One gigantic flea market. They have a series of fairly bizarre 20 foot high black statues on display around the center of town. They are Demon/Angel Babies and I am a bit put off by them, not sure what the artist is going for. I also enjoyed listening to some of the speeches at the “Occupy Melbourne” camp of hippies and such on the lawn of the town hall.

Checking out of my hotel and walking around the block to the car rental place and for the next 2 hours of driving it did drizzle rain on me. Once out of Melbourne it stopped and was just overcast. I made my way to the GOR (Great Ocean Road) which follows the Southern Ocean coastline for a couple of hundred kilometers. Much like the Pacific Coast Highway in California, but I liked California’s better. There are high cliffs of Limestone and the ocean has been wearing them away for eons. By lunch the sun came out and the rest of the time it has been perfect. I stayed overnight in a small town about 12 kilometers from the famous site and viewpoint known as “The Twelve Apostles”. There were nine “stacks” or high (100 meter) columns of Limestone about 300 meters off the beach. Originally they were called the Sow and Piglets but as it became a big tourist draw the Australians naturally renamed them “The Twelve Apostles”. One of them has since collapsed and so there are only eight left, but it is still the Twelve Apostles. I got some nice views in the fading sunset light.

Driving back I came the inland route and enjoyed the beautiful rolling hills with pastures and forests. Had a nice walk to “Triplet Falls” and spent the night in Geelong. The colors are striking; vibrant greens with deep blue water and sky, and multiple shades of brown in the sandstone hills. This whole area is very heavily into sheep and cattle farming. It’s like they say: “Australia where men are men, and sheep are nervous.”
Today was a pleasant drive and a ferry ride to get over to Phillip Island. Cowes is a small beach town with lots of fish and chips places. While having dinner Al Fresco I was slowly surrounded by 30 or so seagulls. Combined with the small seaside village it was a very Hitchcock moment.

The real claim to fame on Phillip Island belongs to the Little Penguins. (That is what they are called and it fits.) These guys stand about 25 centimeters (10 inches) tall and every night as soon as it gets dark they come out of the ocean and back to their burrows in the hillocks and dunes of the beach. They group up in the water in “rafts” of 20 or so birds and then come ashore and make their way to the burrows. There are 20,000 mating pairs around the island and roughly 3000 pairs at this particular site. Since it is breeding season many are on the eggs or newly hatched chicks and so about 1000 come in each night from the water. Many oohs and aahs as the cute little things waddle their way in. Now it is back to Melbourne and on to the Sydney area before I meet Poe in New Zealand.

I spotted this sign in an antiques window along the way, and it struck me as the expression of why I am on this trip.

How am I? Well as everyone here says all the time for “you are welcome”, “Of course”, “it is fine”, and any generalized positive answer: “No worries, mate”. North Queensland has been wonderful and ... [Continue reading this entry]

I am heading for Australia this morning. It was exciting riding the subway to get to Nagoya for my train connection, during rush hour with a suitcase and knapsack, . My car didn’t have a map so I had to ... [Continue reading this entry]