Wild Places and Open Spaces

On the road again, travelling south. The monotony of the surroundings continued. The highlights of the driving became a) seeing if the vehicles passing in the other direction would wave, and b) devising new and ingenious ways of waving to people. This would happen every 50km or so, so you can imagine our excitement as something would appear in the horizon.

When we approached within about 30km of Coober Pedy the land got much harsher, with no green at all, and what we consider totally inhospitable. Coober Pedy was named so from the
Aboriginal words for “white man’s hole in the ground”. It is an opal mining town (about 70% of the world’s opal comes from here), where the majority of people live underground. No joke…even most of the stores and hotels are underground. They do this to escape the unbearable heat. It was 43 degrees celcius there when we arrived, and we were told that this is nothing – “come back in February when it is 50+”.

Regardless of how inhospitable the surroundings may be to us, people do live there and the majority have a hand in opal mining. We decided to camp underground – may sound strange, but it was great! Nice and cool, no bugs and we slept wonderfully. The chap that owns the campground gave us a mine tour and explained how to stake a claim, how to ‘noodle’ (looking for the opal in the dark with a black light), the differences between quality opal and potch, and how to get it out of the ground. So, if we don’t show up back at home, come looking for us in Coober Pedy as any Joe can get a claim as there are no ‘big wigs’ involved in mining here.

From Coober Pedy we drove 15 km along a dirt road to find the Dog Fence. This fence runs 3500 miles across a large portion of Australia, zigzagging along its course. Without the fence the aussies say they’d have no sheep industry – it serves to keep the wild dogs (dingos) from moving south and wreaking havoc on the pastures.

Coober Pedy even has a golf course, but they have absolutely no grass in this town. So, you have to carry around your own grass carpet to tee off on. No joke. Many movies have been filmed in and around Coober Pedy, such as Mad Max III and Pitch Black. If you have seen either of these, you may realize how ‘unfit for life’ Coober Pedy appears. A very unique place that we will forever remember.

We have been in the Outback for the last few days. It has been hot – very hot – with most days between 35-42 degrees Celcius. At times the flies have been unbearable…they apparently feel the need to try to get into any orifice they can, whether it be your ears, nose or mouth (oh, and don’t forget eyes as well..). Can imagine it is enough to drive some people insane!

The outback is a bit different than we expected. Much greener and hillier than we previously thought. Don’t get me wrong, it is very flat and scrubby in some parts, but we had expected it all to be this way. When people say there is nothing for miles and miles, they aren’t kidding. Other than the occassional cow, car and road train, there isn’t much. The “towns” are conveniently placed so that gas, accomodation and food are available every 150km-300km so it isn’t all that bad knowing that there is “help” if you need it. Mind you, most of the “towns” only consist of a gas station, motel and eatery all rolled into one, so the word “town” simply doesn’t describe the roadhouse it actually is.

When we crossed from Queensland into the Northern Territory we were greeted with ‘no speed limit’ signs – Jim took this as his licence to push the car to 160km/hr…mind you not for long as 120km/hr is pushing it for our little 1.6L engine. Thank goodness we have air conditioning – neither of us can imagine doing this trip without it. Speaking of the heat…many of you may have seen weather reports for Australia lately and they may seem to conflict with what we have been seeing. Well, Sydney has been much colder than normal, and actually had a record cold day just a few days ago. It actually snowed in Queensland a few days ago, which is virtually unheard of, and the south coast has been fairly cold as well we hear. But, Australia is a big country – just look at a map of where we have been the last few days – Alice Springs is virtually the centre of the continent which is very far from the city hubs where you may have been hearing weather reports from.

Alice Springs is a fairly big city in the heart of Australia – it services many places in the Outback, and is quite busy. People living in towns hundreds of miles away would come here to stock up on supplies. Many tours to Ayers Rock (Uluru) run out of here as it is only about 500km from town. Alice, as it is better know as, has its own airport too, and because it is so ‘out of the way’ many people fly in, go see Uluru, then fly out. We used Alice as a re-stocking venue – got supplies for the next couple of days, then moved on. However, not without seeing many Aboriginals, walking around aimlessly with booze in hand with a somewhat zombie-like look in their eyes. The situation is very sad – similar to our own native indians – their life was taken away from them and they find it difficult if not impossible to assimilate to Western culture. The government, like ours, has resorted to giving them money, but they have no use for $$ other than to drink their life away. Unfortunately because of this, their culture is being lost with each generation. (it must be noted though that some aboriginals are still practicing their culture, although they are far from the beaten track so many people don’t see this.) Most Australians it seems have little or no use for them and there is no love lost there at all. A very unfortunate situation that no one (even us with our indians) has an answer to.

The town of Yulara is just outside of where Uluru is located. The town itself is a “resort” and is only there to service the tourist industry. Many different types of lodging exist there, from camping (us) to rooms that cost in excess of $3000/night. We both nearly died when we were told it would cost us $50 ($25each) to get into Uluru National Park. But, we had driven literally thousands of kilometers to get there, so we angrily gave up our cash. Funny how not one traveller we met had mentioned this astronomical price! I am sure most people just give in like we did due to the circumstances. Anyways, we arrived just before sunset, so we drove to the ‘sunset viewing’ parking lot to take in the mighty Uluru. Quite an incredible sight – but more incredible to think of where we actually were on the map of Australia! The view quickly lost its allure, due to the sheer number of people that were encroaching on us – it was impossible to enjoy the beauty due to all the shutters flicking and busloads of people that continued to arrive. What was even more disturbing was thinking of all people multiplied by $25.00 each…where does all the money go? There are only 2 trails, 2 washrooms, 1 cultural centre and no visitor centre – we were floored that there was no visitor centre that explained the scientific geology of the area. Strange.

No, we did not climb Uluru. It is considered to be very offensive to the aboriginals of the area to climb the rock, so in the the park brochure, and around the park there are signs saying it is highly discouraged to do so. They even sell T-shirts in the shop stating “I did not climb Uluru out of respect”. However, the trail up it still remains open and people still climb up it on a daily basis. Hmmm…the $50.00 must still be worth it to the board of directors of the park (which includes aboriginal members)…funny what money does, isn’t it! (by the way, Uluru was officially given back to the aboriginals a few years ago, and the aboriginals are leasing it out to the government for 99 years…)

We discovered a hidden gem down the road about 36km from Uluru – The Olgas. Possibly it was just pure ignorance on our part not really knowing about them, but nobody seems to talk about them. Anyways, the Olgas are also part of the national park, and consist of many rock formations made of conglomerate rather than sandstone like Uluru. Much more rounded and shapely, and in our opinion more interesting (and a bit less crowded).

We saw our first and only dingo at the campground at Uluru around midnight. Hew was quietly wandering around as we were chatting in the cook shelter with another couple.

After seeing a couple of sunsets at Uluru, we decided to hit the road again – next stop, Coober Pedy.

After another successful platypus sighting in the morning at Wallaman Falls National Park, we headed towards Arlie beach to find out about the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are a group of islands off the coast with the inner barrier reef (as opposed to the outer barrier reef) all around them. The largest of the group is Whitsunday Island, and is known for its numerous white sand beaches – all the trael magazines have pictures of this beautiful place.

We booked on to a sailboat – the Matador – for 3 days, 2 nights. Because we were a last minute booking, we saved $200. See, it pays to have no plans! Spent the night at a campground and did laundry so we could jump on the boat the next day.

The Matador is a maxi sailboat – a very fast sailboat and in her day was a #1 racer. She won the Sydney to Hobart race one year, the maxi world championship in 90-91 under the name “Fudge”, and many other prestigious races.

Jim and I dove again off the boat, saw some great coral and sme neat creatures. Unfortunately there was not much wind, so down came the sails fairly soon and we motored to Whitsunday Island. Jim and I had opted to camp on shore – and all the people on the boat were quite envious as the quarters below were quite….cozy, shall we say!

We were surprised when we walked ashore on the beach…the sand actually squeaks when one walks. The sand is very high in silica content – as a matter of fact some of it was used to make the Hubble telescope. All of the camping equipment was supplied…it was luxury camping with a 4 man tent for just the 2 of us with a blow up mattress! Upon visiting the outhouse, we came upon our very first huntsman spider – an ENORMOUS thing and hairy with very large jaws that he was using to devour a cockroach. Wow. Needless to say we didn’t get too close, and instead used the handy dandy zoom lens to get our photo.

The night on the beach was wonderful. Clear skies with what seemed to be millions of stars. We slept listening to the waves lap the shores and to the occassional rat scurrying around the tent.

Next morning the sailboat anchored so we could all explore the other side of Whitsunday island. We walked to a lookout that is famous for its view – it truly was breathtaking how beautiful the sand, water and islands looked. When anyone pictures paradise, I am sure this is the vision that comes to mind.

We spent the day hiking, boating, snorkelling, and sunning – life doesn’t get much better than this. At night we had some drinks and played reverse charades with the crew and passengers – quite funny and fun. Our camping experience was not as private this night, as we had 4 more campers on the island with us…they were having trouble sleeping in the cramped quarters with the snorers.

The wind picked up tremendously overnight, and in the morning we were informed by Greg, a crew member that slept on the beach as well, that we would have to go give him a hand with the dingy….the dingy had broken off from the sailboat overnight due to the heavy winds, and had come ashore and was full of water. Luckily the wind had been blowing in our direction, or else the dingy would have been off in the middle of the sea somewhere, and we would have been stranded – quite an embarrassing situation for the crew I am sure. Anyways, we managed to get off the island – albeit soaked from the rough waters – and started yet another great day. Due to the high winds, we actually got to sail…..and I mean really sail. This boat rips through the water – it was fantastic. Jim and I sat up front on deck and the waves crashed over us as we flew through the water. It truly was an amazing experience. Probably the best part of the trip however was the people on board. The crew and the passengers (a total of 30 people) were terrific – we were lucky to have such a great group. We went out last night for drinks with them and had a really fun time. Today one of the crew members is having a barbeque at his house for us all to stop by. We will do so, but then must be on our way. Our next stop will be Uluru, and I am sure we will have many adventures on our way there through the outback!

The weather has been good – or “fine” as the Australian weatherman would say. Most days are very hot and humid – so hot that according to Jim at times his ‘head was going to blow up’, and the nights are damp as the humidity settles. Last night I woke up to being rained on, but I think it was just sprinkling from the tropical rainforest around us. We were in a terrific spot – Wooroonoonan National Park (say that five times fast) – a campsite in the rainforest and a bush pool just 400m away all to ourselves. We had a very refreshing swim in the afternoon and we later found out we were lucky that no crocs ate us for an appetizer…..just kidding; no crocs in this swimming hole.

We really thought we’d get lucky and see some night creatures in this area. There are even rope bridges crossing above the highway (these ‘ropes’ allow creatures, especially possums, to cross the road safely from canopy to canopy) indicating good nocturnal life. We had even bought an extra powerful torch (or as Canadians would say ‘flashlight’) to help us spotlight. No such luck. The only thing we managed to see was a white-kneed cricket – which actually was a feat in itself. These crickets are absolutely gigantic, quite scary looking, and can jump unbelievably high and long distances. May sound ridiculous, but it truly was a highlight to us that night.

The lack of possum sightings at night was made up by an earlier find…a cassowary!! Yup, we saw another, and this time we managed to get some photos. We saw it in a banana plantation and watched it for a couple of minutes as it made its way to the road and then crossed. I know I said it before; these are truly prehistoric looking birds, and unbelievably breath taking how strange they look. Just don’t get too close or you may get our innards ripped out!

The flashlight I spoke of earlier we bought at K-Mart (yes they have K-Mart shoppers too). While there, we searched all over the store for a lighter…couldn’t find one anywhere. After enquiring at the counter we learned that the lighters are kept locked up and no one under the age of 18 can sell one! Imagine that!

This past week we have spent much of our time in National Parks – those in and around Innisfail area suffered tremendously from cyclone Larry that hit earlier this year. The town of Innisfail looks pretty good – they have done a lot of work and it’s still a work in progress. Most of the houses have new roofs – those that don’t still have tarps over their houses. It appears everyone was hit pretty badly by Larry. Because the town has done such a good job of cleaning up, it may appear to many that not much damage occurred. However, all one has to do is take a walk through the tropics to view all the fallen trees and open canopy that Larry left in his path of destruction. Many tracks (hikes) are still closed and we came across a group of forest service men on one of the tracks who said they have been moving downed trees non-stop ever since Larry hit. One cannot truly understand the work these guys have done until walking in the forest. Anther way to appreciate the damage Larry did is to look at the price of bananas here – $12/kg – this is banana country and the cyclone pretty much destroyed the crop.

We haven’t been without our fair share of bumps and bruises lately – I visited the Doctor to see about my ears as I was afraid I was getting an ear infection – turns out I just bruised my ear drums while trying to equalize diving. Jim nearly included his thumb in our salad the other day when he was cutting up veggies…oh, and today he bit his tongue so hard that he nearly passed out. And of course we have all the expected ailments – bug bites, blisters, scratches, etc. so the first aid kit is constantly in use. But, if these remain our only ailments, I think we are doing pretty darn good, considering all the potentially deadly stuff around us.

Tonight we are in another National Park camping and were once again treated to a light show of fireflies. Thankfully the cicadias here are not as deafening as they have been previous nights – possibly because we are at a much higher elevation. The elevation means a much more comfortable sleep as it is a bit cooler up here.

The next few days we intend on being around the Whitsunday Islands, then off to the Outback to see Uluru (Ayers rock)….but, with us plans change daily, sometimes even hourly depending on who we meet or what places we come across.

Click HERE to view pictures

The furthest north that we can travel via car is Cookstown – and that is exactly where we headed. James Cook once docked here in 1770 and stayed a while until he could fix his badly damaged Endeavour (the name of his vessel). The boat had got stuck on part of the reef just south of Cookstown, so he ordered that 6 cannons be thrown overboard along with the anchor to lessen the load so they could get themselves off the reef. The James Cook Museum in town actually has one of the cannons and the anchor on display – pretty neat since they are from the 1700’s!

We stayed at a really neat place in Cookstown – we had planned on only staying one night, but got caught up and stayed two. We drove to a bush camp that sounded more appealing to us than the caravan type parks in town. The bush camp is on 250 acres of property, and the owners have Clydesdale horses and Brahman cattle. We were greeted by “Wombat”, an Australian Cattle dog X that later gave Jim a big scare at 2:30am when he got out of the tent to use the loo. Leanne (one of the owners) took us on a walk around some of the property, and showed us the river that salt water crocs live in. Hmmmm… That night we slept soundly, surprisingly enough, and in the am we were greeted with a friendly hello by Leanne’s husband, Terry. We got chatting, and were kindly invited up to the house for a tea and fruitcake….yup, fruitcake. It was the best darn fruitcake we’ve ever had – we even had seconds. We ended up talking and talking and talking all day, which led us to stay another night. We even drank some homemade rum later that night from Terry’s still – yum. Did I mention that we saw the biggest spider we have seen yet at this camp….a golden orb weaver – huge and beautiful. Luckily it stayed in its web the entire time we were there. This type of spider has little different spiders that also live in its web that help keep the web clean – in turn the orb weaver catches food for them. Pretty neat relationship.

The next day, after visiting some sights around town, including the James Cook Museum, we headed south again, to Cape Tribulation and Daintree National Forest. Our main goals here were to find the elusive cassowary, and to see a salt water crocodile, not to mention visit the rainforest.

Up until now, many Australians had told us that we were unlikely to see a croc, and even more unlikely to see a cassowary. Little did they know how hard we look for these things….and that we often have a little bit of luck on our side. Not long after we had entered the Cape Tribulation area luck prevailed…a cassowary crossed the road right in front of us! We were both in shock, and needless to say, we did not get a photograph. It was amazing to have seen such a prehistoric looking thing…they truly do look like they should be from the dinosaur age.

We found our campsite, and spent much of the night chatting around the fire with two young backpackers – one from Italy, the other from Holland. The Holland chap had spent much of his time in Western Australia working on a farm “station” – the farms here are absolutely huge, as a matter of fact they measure them in square miles. Often they drive for hours to find where the herds are.

While sitting around the fire, a little bandicoot came out of hiding and was nosing around the camp – even walked right up to the fire until it figured out it was too hot to walk on. She was a curious little thing, obviously people had fed her before because she would walk right up to us to check us out with little fear. Jim actually touched her at one point, and we were able to snap a few pics of her – very neat to see such interesting animals that we are not used to!

Next am, we ended up meeting up with the two chaps again, and did the hike up to Mt. Sorrow. This seemed to be the only “true” bushwalk in the area, as many of the others were along boardwalks and were not challenging at all. Well, let me tell you, the sign that said “you must be in extremely good fitness to do this trail” was not exaggerating. The hike was only 7.4km return, but it was difficult. All uphill the way in of course, but the downhill portion was just as tough since in areas the trail was so steep and rough. The view at the top of Mt Sorrow however, was fantastic and well worth the work to get there. The two chaps we hiked with were about 5 minutes ahead of us on the last 1km out, and they had a somewhat intimidating experience with a cassowary – the cassowary had blocked the trail in front of them, being very territorial and would not let them by! You see, cassowaries can rip you apart with their feet if they feel the need, and there were warning signs everywhere stating there was a very territorial one in the area. Finally, after a few minutes, the cassowary took off in the bush, but not before it scared the crap out of them! We were so upset that we missed all the action!

Later in the day we went for a walk to find a salt water croc. Along the way we came across some feral pigs and piglets – they are a huge problem in Australia, but very cute nonetheless. We walked down the beach to an area where the salt water flows into freshwater, as we had heard that some people saw a croc there earlier in the day. Sure enough, not far from the ocean there was a salt water crocodile sitting in just a couple feet of water! He was just a small guy, about 6ft or so long, but incredible to see in the wild. We were able to get pretty close to it…Jim wanted to go closer, but I had hesitations…and we snapped a couple pics. You see, if we hadn’t spotted one, we were planning to go on a “croc spotting tour” later that evening which would have cost us $36/pp…..so that little croc saved us a whole lot of cash!

Next day, with our sore feet and legs, we did all the other walks in the area and managed to see yet another cassowary! Again, this one was crossing the road again, and quickly made its way into the rainforest, and thus we have no pictures to show for it. So, needless to say, we are still on a cassowary hunt so that we can send some pics home to all you folks!

Back in Cairns, it was time for me to get my scuba dive certification. You see, Jim has been diving for years now, and we wanted to dive the great barrier reef together. So, I had class for 4 days (2 of which were on the reef), then we went diving together. My class was fun – only 5 people in it including myself, and I really loved the diving. The GBR is amazing – so much beautiful coral and colourful fish. I was lucky and got to see a white tipped reef sharp – it was just hanging out on the sand at the bottom and had no interest in us at all. It was a tremendous feeling being out on the Great Barrier Reef – somewhere that you always see on TV, and we actually got to go there. We loved it so much that we will likely visit it again, just somewhere more south next time.

The entire time we have been in Cairns, we have been staying with Ngaire and Dave (although Dave just got back today from Bali…he is a pilot for Quantas…) which has really been great. Once again we have been spoiled with the luxury of a place to call home, and because of this we have been able to really get to know Cairns. Believe it or not, even though Cairns is a “city”, we have found it quite nice. It is clean, feels safe, has lots of markets, has pride and is overall just a nice place to be. Last night Ngaire took us out for dinner and a walkabout downtown, and we got to try a didgeridoo….Jim was unable to muster up a sound, but I somehow managed – it isn’t as easy as it looks. Tomorrow we will leave this wonderful place and move on – much thanks to Ngaire and Dave for their friendship and hospitality.

We are keeping our ears open to what is going on in Fiji, as it sounds like there is some military and government unrest….we’ll see what goes on. We are not scheduled to go there until March, but we may have to change our plans!

Our drive continued up an interior road to Cairns…

One afternoon we stopped at a picnic area for lunch (as we often do since they are so plentiful here) and we proceded to set up our regular ‘crackers and cheese’ under a shelter. Suddenly, from what appeared to be out of nowhere, there was a huge snake (between 3-4ft) travelling across the concrete floor! I noticed it first, was dumbstruck and at a loss for words, and motioned to Jim to “look!!”, and of course he was floored! The snake was moving quite slowly across the concrete floor, unable to get a good grip, so I ran to the car (the long way around the snake I might add) to get the camera. When I returned it was at the grass and was gone in a flash as it was able to manipulate much faster on familiar territory. We got a really good look at it (unfortunately my picture is when it is in the grass and it is hard to see) and upon further investigation we learned that it was none other than a brown snake….a highly venomous creature that can get quite aggressive if it so desires.

That reminds me…Jim has been bitten – not by a snake – but we aren’t sure by what. One late afternoon we were sitting on a wooden bench at a National Park when Jim felt something on the back of his thigh. He described the sensation as “a hair being pulled out” and didn’t think much of it until it started to burn a few minutes later. Upon inspection, I found a large (loonie sized), raised, red welt had developed and did not look good. We doctored it up – cleaned it and put some cooling ointment on it – and hoped for the best. Next day it didn’t look a whole lot better – we started to get concerned that he might lose his leg or something. You see, some spider bites look okay for the 1st few days, but that’s before the skin starts to slough off on day 4, and before you know it gangarene or some crazy phenomenon has set in. Anyways, we hoped with any luck that it would heal, and now on the 5th day, it looks much better. Phew! We still don’t know what bit him, likely an ant, but it reminds us of all the dangerous creatures that surround us!

The National Park that we were at was Carnarvon NP – what a great place! The road getting there was rough…about a 27km dirt/gravel road off the main track, but surprisingly there were a number of cars that had done the trek in like us. The campground really was in the bush, but it had amenities (running water, cook shelter) which was nice. During the hot afternoons there were many Eastern Grey Kangaroos lazing around the camp, dozing in and out of sleep. Right now, because of the drought in the area, there is not much for them to eat and unfortunately many of them are quite thin and scraggly looking. But, there are areas around the camp and visitor centre that are watered and thus the roos tend to hang out on this greenery and it provides them with a bit to eat. Pretty faced (or whip-tail) wallabies are also in the area, and although they are a little more skittish than the Eastern Greys we saw a number of them as well. It was also in this park that we were introduced to our first Aboriginal rock art – tracings and carvings along sandstone walls. The tracings were mostly of hands and boomerangs, but the carvings were a little more….shall I say, interesting? One carving in the area much outnumbers all the others – in fact it is all over the rock face. It reminded me of something, but I never spoke what was on my mind. Jim, however, also was reminded of something, and he immediately said, “geez, they sure look like vaginas”! Sure enough, that is exactly what they were. They are carvings of vulvas, and they are literally all over the rock. Makes you wonder what was on their minds all the time…..

Our main goal while at this park was to find a wild platypus. The afternoon we arrived we went for a walk to scope out the best place to see them. You see, platypi (plural for platypus) are out feeding only at dawn and dusk. We found a good spot that we planned on returning to the next morning. While there, Jim spotted none other than an echidna!! They are wonderful creatures – shy and so very interesting looking. We managed to get close to it, but it got scared and wedged itself under a bush, but as we sat waiting for it to come out of hiding, Jim found another and got some close up shots of it. Funny little creatures – covered in spikes intermingled with fur, egg layers, milk producers, have pouches for their young, and are monotremes (along with platypi).

Next morning we were up at 5am to go on our platypus hunt. We were the only ones up it seemed, and we quickly headed to our ‘viewing site’. We stood, waiting in silence until Jim whispered….’there’s one!’ Sure enough, one emerged from the murky water to swim on the surface for a few seconds, then plunged again into darkness. We stayed at the site for about an hour, and we watched two platypi surface, swim around the reeds, and dive. It was so peaceful there – no one else showed up for the show – we had our own private viewing! We have since told some Australians that we saw them, and they are amazed….they have never seen them in the wild!

The interior road we travelled much of the way up to Cairns we have unfortunately nicknamed – ‘kangaroo carnage road’. At times, there were 2-3 carcasses every 100meters. Travelling at dawn and dusk can be extremely risky. Hitting a kangaroo is not only a death sentence for them, but can also be quite harmful to drivers. We stopped the car for one carcass because Jim thought it was a lizard…sure enough it was a huge goanna! So, once again, our first goanna was a dead one. While in the Mission Beach area just before Cairns, we were then warned that Cassowaries cross the road, and again, drivers must take care not to hit them. We took a stroll in the rainforest to try and find one of these dinosaur-aged looking birds, but were unsuccessful. We hope to see them when we reach Daintree National Park in the next couple of days.

Currently we are in Cairns, which is quite a nice place for a city. Much smaller than Sydney, and we find it much less intimidating. Although we find it still to be quite urban, the people who live here actually get money from the government for living so far north! Upon arrival in Cairns we met up with my Uncle’s stepdaughter, Ngaire (pronounced Naree) and were welcomed to stay at her place with her flat mate Dave. We again were spoiled with our own tour guides for a couple of days, and had a wonderful bed to sleep in. It has been fabulous hanging out with them, and we hope to do so again when we pass through Cairns again in a week or so.

The weather is good – rained a bit this am, but it was short and the rest of the day was beautiful. Spent the morning in Port Douglas at a market where we bought some terrific fruit and veggies, and browsed through local arts and wares. Since coming north it has become more humid, and the temperature has increased. The breeze is nice off the ocean, and we have enjoyed our meals at Ngaire’s place on the balcony. The stingers (box jellyfish and Irukanji) are not yet in, but will likely be here in a week or so as the rains increase and they are swept/blown in from the mangrove areas. Crocs are in the area, but we have not gone looking for one yet. I’m sure we’ll see one soon – but hopefully we will be well out of ‘lunge distance’.

So now we leave our new friends Ngaire and Dave (a big thanks to them for their wonderful hospitality) to continue north – next stop Daintree National Forest.

Our first day on the road proved exciting. Rolf and Marion led us out of town, then cut us loose to go off on our own. One of the first signs we saw had the following destinations on it: Toronto, Tamworth and Newcastle. We thought we were in Ontario again briefly! Jim did a fantastic time driving on the wrong side of the road, with me coaching….stay left, stay left….from the passenger seat. The only trouble Jim has is that there is no room to ‘gawk’, ie. they have little or no shoulders at the side of the road, so if one is caught looking around (like Jim likes to do) there really is no leeway and a couple of times I had to say gently….”watch where you are going!!”. Unfortunately, the first wild kangaroo we saw was road kill.

A nice thing we are finding is that there are rest stops every few kilometres…and nice ones at that. A strange thing is the speed limit signs – they go up and down all over the place – one minute we are going 100km/hr, then 50km/hr, then back up to 100km/hr all within what seems 200metres.

We have found that Australians are quite friendly, especially now that we are out of the city. A fellow at a gas station by mistake keyed in the amount we had to pay as $18.88 (the litre amount) rather than $23.01 (the actual money amount we owed), and when he realized it he said, “no worries, mate”, and he let us pay the cheaper amount! Then, we went into a hardware store to get an ‘o’ ring we needed for our camel back, and the fellow there gave it to us for free!

We put our car to the test on it’s first day….we drove on quite a bad dirt road for 50km up into the mountains. It did okay, but it has no guts. It gets pretty hot, then a loud fan comes on, but once it cools down again it is fine. We have since driven a full day in it and it is fine. However, we did lose a hubcap….but heard it fall off so we were able to grab it.

We have been told that Australia is in a drought (sp), but we somehow found rain. Our first night we stayed (for free I might add) in Barrington Tops National Park, and we got rained on. However, the weather was good until night fall, and then the fog rolled in. We saw many grey kangaroos and red wallabies – it is so strange seeing them just hop around wild! There are many beautiful, colourful birds as well – crimson rosellas, eastern rosellas, cockatoos, etc. and of course lots of Kookaburras.

As the fog set in, we came back to our campsite and both needed to use the washroom. Jim went into the mens and had to knock a palm-sized spider from under the seat, and I ended up having to use the mens because in my outhouse there was a centipede on the toilet paper that wasn’t moving for anything!! Because of all the wonderful creatures here, we take our shoes into the tent every night to avoid any surprises. Unfortunately overnight many creatures take refuge between the tent and the fly (tarp) so when we dismantle the tent we have to be very careful and shake things out well.

We also saw our first wild wombat….again, roadkill. Our first wild Koala….roadkill. Very sad. There are MANY dead wallabies and kangaroos on the road, and they are left to rot – no one comes to clean them up, and not much has been eating them that we have seen.

Anyways, must run. We are doing great, and are in Queensland now, as of about an hour ago….heading for Cairns on an interior road.

October 6th – October 14th 2006

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We arrived in Australia October 6th – we lost a day when we crossed the international date line – where we were met at the airport by my uncle Rolf. Rolf had a busy day that day – he retired, bought a new car, and picked us up! Marion, Rolf’s wife greeted us when we arrived at their flat in Manly, and we celebrated with some bubbly.

Manly is a suburb of Sydney, and quite well known for its beautiful beaches. It was named Manly because when governor Phillip arrived here he saw some aboriginal men who looked very ‘manly’. Rolf and Marion have a beautiful view of the water from their balcony, and the water is quite literally right across the street. Everything is within walking distance – which is really important we later learned when one lives in Sydney. Sydney is a HUGE city…much bigger than Toronto, or any city we have ever been in. It goes on and on for what seems forever. This would all be okay, except for the fact that the traffic here is unlike any we’ve seen before. Constant gridlock exists everywhere. What is only 10km away on the map could take an hour to get to when driving! On the positive side, when we visited downtown Sydney via ferry from Manly, it was really clean looking and the people friendlier than most cities.

Rolf and Marion were terrific hosts for the entire week we have stayed – they fed us amazing meals and were our own personal tour guides. Trips in the car were quite frightening at first…they drive on the wrong side of the road here! The drives are getting better now, but tomorrow will be the true test when we leave their nest and drive off in the used car we bought. We bought a 1998 Holden (General Motors) Astra – a 4 door hatchback – with 90,000km on it that we hope will get us through the 4 ½ months we need it for. Then Rolf and Marion will sell it for us – we don’t know how we would have done everything without them. They even set us up with a cel phone (those who know us well, know how strange this is for us) for emergency use. Our dearest thanks goes out to Rolf and Marion for all of their knowledge, help, and hospitality.

I was able to see all my cousins here as well – Keir, Heidi and Anton, and Anton’s little girl Emily, which was a special treat. Anton and his wife are expecting another in 8 weeks, so on our way back through Sydney we’ll get to see the new arrival.

We have seen platypuses, crocodiles, echidnas, wombats, kangaroos and koalas – but all have been in either the aquarium or animal park so far. We hope to see all these and more on our travels through the bush.

Some interesting facts: the largest croc is 7meters in length, but it is exceptional to even see one at 5 meters; Crocodiles have an antibiotic component in their blood so they heal well after being in a fight; they usually live from 50-70 years; they are more closely related to birds than lizards; the temperature in the nest affects hatching time and sex – at 32ºC most are born male, above or below 32ºC most are born female. Another interesting fact, this one about grey nurse sharks; the largest fetus in each of the two uteri eats all of the smaller eggs and embryos so that only 2 large young are born!

We have eaten some interesting things here already – lamington (butter cake a couple days old then covered with chocolate and coconut), pavlova (traditional Australian meringue, fruit and cream dessert named after a Russian ballerina) and leg of lamb….and yes my friends will be interested to know that I ate lamb! Lamb is the most popular meat here – so when in Rome, do as the Romans! Tonight we are having kangaroo sausages! We have had some chuckles about some words/phrases here as well: “budgie smugglers” are speedo type bathing trunks for men; a “tinny” is either an aluminium boat or a can of beer; the “dunny” is an outhouse; they have no restrooms, bathrooms, washrooms…they only have “toilets”; there is no garbage here, only “rubbish”; to “bushwalk” is to hike….and there will be many more to come I’m sure.

I really thought that Australia would be really “americanized”, but so far (even though the locals think it has been) we haven’t found it to be this way, which is a great surprise. They do not appear to have the huge box stores that we have, and much of their food appears to be from manufacturers unique to this area. Yes, they still have McDonalds and Starbucks, but we are hoping that this is all that will remind us of our part of the world. Sydney is very expensive, but we have been told that as we head north it will get cheaper. We are still able to buy cheap groceries if we stick to simple grocery stores, but produce is expensive (but it looks fantastic). Their bananas at this current time are more than 12.00/kg because much of the crop was damaged by the cyclone earlier this year. Internet access appears to be much cheaper here, and we are hoping that we will be able to keep in touch more often this way. Stamps are $1.20 each, so consider yourself lucky if you get a postcard!

Just as an aside – this is an excerpt from a news wire here 2 days ago: A Sydney holidaymaker has received two doses of antivenom following five bites from the world’s second-most deadly snake…The 50-year-old man was attacked by a death adder snake…in Sydney’s outer north-west.The man… suffered a heart attack and paralysis from the wounds but a CareFlight trauma team revived him.They worked for 30 minutes to stabilise the man before placing him on the helicopter’s ventilator and flying him to hospital.
He arrived at 10.20pm (AEST) and has since received two doses of antivenom and is expected to receive additional doses today, the spokesman said.The man has been moved from the hospital’s emergency department to the intensive care unit.His condition is stable and improving this afternoon, says the hospital. Kind of scary, knowing we are heading out into the bush!!

So, I hope everyone at home is having good dreams on the night of October 14th, because as you are all peacefully sleeping we will be trying our best to navigate our way out of Sydney and stay on the wrong side of the road, heading north in the wonderful land of down under.

September 19th – October 4th 2006

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During our 10 ½ hr flight on Hawaiian Airlines – which is an excellent outfit I must add; free food, beverages (including beer and wine), and excellent service from very friendly staff – we were able to reflect on our 16 days on the ‘Big Island’ – which is what the island of Hawaii is referred as.

In almost every aspect it was a lesson and very different from what our preconceived notions were; geophysically it looked different than we thought, geologically it is quite simple, and the island has nearly every ecological zone! Finally, biologically we were most surprised of all!

Upon arriving in Hawaii the first thing we noted was how very big and urban Honolulu was – definitely not our cup of tea. Oh well, we didn’t have much time to bother looking around anyway so we figured we’d check in with Aloha airlines for our flight to Kona. Low and behold, there was a plane leaving right away and it had room for us so we had zero wait time!

Arriving early in Kona we’d have to wait for our bags that would come on the next flight. This would however, give us time to get our rental car sorted out. People have always told us that Hawaii is very expensive but we never found it to be. For example: our rental car – $40.00 per day including taxes and insurance, groceries – cheaper than Canada in most departments, fuel around 0.90 Canadian/litre, camping ranged from free in the National Parks to $20.00 a night for an ‘A’ frame cabin on one of the premier beaches (click here for Hapuna Beach info) on the island. We also stayed at a bizarre hostel/farm place one night where we were informed that all the dogs had mange and to stay away from the attacking billy goat. We set our tent up under a tin roof beside an old couch and car seat and spent the night talking to a free spirited 50 year old man who was fresh off a commune on the mainland. We never did find much of a crop growing other than the tomatoes around the toilet – our guess is that there was some herb growing somewhere, we just weren’t sure where. Writing about it won’t do it justice, so just take our word for it – it was really interesting. So, needless to say we found our visit to Hawaii to be very financially reasonable and laughable at times.

The next thing we soon noted in Hawaii was its people. We felt in general the Polynesians seemed rather not friendly – not unfriendly either, but rather emotionally detatched. Almost as though we never existed. Curious indeed. Perhaps they’re bitter about being displaced from all the prime real estate by rich Americans?

Flying over the islands it was amazing how lush and rugged the islands looked. However, some islands are literally as flat as a pancake. Upon closer inspection we noted the big island was only lush in certain areas and ironically the best beaches were located on the lee side of the island that was mostly desert! The entire windward side of the island including the three monsterous mountains were extremely wet, cool, tropical rainforests. We visited these areas, but we saw enough rain when we were in Alaska so our visit to the rainy areas was short lived. We also visited some of the high elevations – we drove up 9200ft to the Mauna Kea observatory visitor station – but generally they were quite cool and often wetter. To give you an example, we spent four days in Volcanoes National Park (click here for info)– where we were fortunate to see the lava flow awaken into a violent eruption – and at sea level it would be around 85ºF and at 4000ft it would be around 65ºF! Needless to say we spent most of our time at lower elevations.

Strangely looking at the two big mountains of the island, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa which are both huge mountains rising to well over 13,000ft, they appeared much lower due to their massive volumes. They cover so much area, and in the summer lack a snow top so they just look like big hills. Anyhow, they are giant volcanoes that affect all the weather on the island and are one of the best locations in the world for the worlds observatories.

Because of the mountainous terrain, Hawaii brags to possess nearly every ecological biome on earth. That would lead one to believe the island would be very diverse in its flora and fauna, which couldn’t be farther from the truth! When the Polynesians arrived on the islands there was actually almost nothing terrestrial available to survive on! They brought their own taro, fruit and pigs. Westerners brought the rest of the introduced flowers and fruit trees that have wreaked havoc on Hawaii’s endemic species. Practically everything on Hawaii today is a non-native introduced species. This really came as a shock to us as we always envisioned Hawaii as a lush island group with beautiful flowers, a plethora of fruit and plenty of pretty birds.

There actually was an impressive bird population when westerners arrived on the islands. Unfortunately of the 71 endemic birds of Hawaii, 30 species are endangered, and even worse, 25 are extinct!

The birds now most common by far are all non native; the house sparrow, Java Finch, Myna, Kalij Pheasant…fortunately of the endemic species left on the island we were lucky enough to spot several endangered ones not found anywhere else in the world which was a good feeling. Particularly of not was the Hawaiian goose (Ne Ne), a crimson Hawaiian honey creeper (I’iwi), a Hawaiian hawk (Io) and the Hawaiian owl (Pueo).

The loss of so many birds is kind of complex and varied. The ever present ‘loss of habitat’ and displacement by introduced species. Rats brought over in early trading ships have eaten their fair share of bird eggs and to try to rid the island of rats we – in our infinite wisdom – introduced the mongoose. Mongoose would eat rats because they’ll eat nearly anything. The only trouble is their paths rarely cross as the mongoose is diurnal and the rats are mostly nocturnal, so in essence we introduced a species which also adds to the declining bird population. Probably the best animal on the island to control rats is the huge ferral cat population, but I think anyone raised watching Sylvester and Tweety knows the problem with that scenario! The most complex problem is partly due to a Polynesian introduction which proved to be a catalyst for a western introduction which worked together to spell disaster for our avian friends.

The Polynesians introduced pigs to the island which seems unrelated to any bird issue, that is until the mosquito was introduced. The mosquito is a carrier of many diseases, particularly an avian disease the endemic species of Hawaii have no tolerance of. Hawaii is a volcanic island with little soil. Volcanic rock is very porous and doesn’t hold water very easily. The shape of Hawaii is conical so it sheds its water very well. There were no mammals to dig up vegetation and that is where pigs proved to be a big problem! Pigs love to dig up roots to eat and every time they do this it leaves a hole where standing water can accumulate after a rain which in turn has helped the mosquito population to boom. That boom spread diseases throughout the bird population on the island and has caused the decline in endemic populations. Human intervention so often proves deadly for some plant or animal, and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

One last bubble to be burst for us was the clarity of air. When we landed in Kona we kind of expected clear skies. After all it’s in the middle of the Pacific with very little industry and the place chosen for the observatories. What we saw was what looked to be brown smog. But, we later learned that due to volcanic emissions called “vog” – composed of sulphur, dioxide gas and a mixture of aerosol particles – sometimes the island is plagued by low visibility! Who’d of thunk it!

I don’t want to make Hawaii sound like all doom and gloom, because it isn’t. It’s just a lot less utopian than we envisioned! We did meet a wonderful man who lives off the land in Hawaii and it is a utopia for him – he forages for his food and lives under a tarp on a lava field. He spends no more than $40/month. He spent many years living in a monastery and lives by the teachings of Budda. We spoke at length with him – the tone of his voice alone carried such peace and love – trying to become more enlightened, and grasp how he became at such peace with life and with himself. His insight, along with others that we meet along our way, will undoubtedly add to our own quest for peace and answers.

On a less gloomier note, here are a couple of interesting things we learned in Hawaii. With only 5 vowels and 8 consonants in the alphabet, all words look and sound too similar to us to tell the difference.

Coffee and macadamia nuts are the biggest cash crops of the big island. We thought about buying some of the famous Kona Joe Coffee, until we realized it cost $45.00 per pound!

Mauna Loa @ 13,677ft is the biggest volcano in the world. It emits huge amounts of lava, who’s rock makes up the entire island of a chain extending north and west all the way to Kamchatka, essentially the distance of Florida to Alaska!

Finally on the positive side and why we loved Hawaii the most: beautiful beaches, warm crystal clear waters and a huge healthy array of tropical fishes and an excellent population of sea turtles.

All said and done we’ll probably never return to Hawaii as it’s a little too busy for us, we’re happy to have had the opportunity to visit and would advise anyone interested to visit soon because it will only get busier!

September 10th – 18th 2006

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After the Chilkoot, we truly were no longer heading North – we were homeward bound with the 1st stop at Erik’s place in Fort St. John, B.C. The drive from Alaska to his place was very scenic and we were lucky enough to see a ton of wildlife along the Alaska highway – especially from Liard Hot Springs to Fort Nelson (stone sheep, bison, elk, black bears, deer, caribou). We arrived at midnight at Erik’s place to find a few notes he had left out for us to tell us where to find things – and Jim decided to take him up on the offer of “help yourself to the beer in the fridge”. However, as good as the beer tasted then, he later regretted it when he went to the store to replenish the Sleemans…$27.45 for 12 beers!!

We ended up spending nearly a week – Erik was generous to allow us to call his house “ours” for the time being. So, under the watchful eyes of his animals (all mounts of course, along with a full grizzly mount in the basement) we caught up on some laundry, sleep, and luckily we were able to spend some fun time with Erik…he even played hookey one afternoon. We went out in his boat and the boys were successful walleye fishing – had a fresh dinner that night! Erik, thanks again for being a terrific friend.

We had much to do in the next couple of weeks before reaching home – the first on the list was Jasper and Banff National Parks. As those who have visited these parks know, the scenery is beautiful. However, we once again were quite disgusted to see how our Canadian National Parks are run. We could go on and on with problems we saw…expense ($73.00 just to get us into the parks for 4 days…this does not include camping, hot springs, historical features etc.), maintenance (Jasper had interpretive boards and info boards at some of the most popular spots that looked like they were from the 1970’s, and they were in very poor condition and quite embarrassing), lack of wardens (we saw none compared to the numerous ones we always see in American National Parks), accessibility issues (really poor disabled/wheelchair access in some places), exhibits unavailable (eg. movies in visitor centers closed due to technical difficulties and they were not getting fixed), lack of recycling (the National Parks should be an example for all of Canada, not to mention nationally), etc. etc. We did some terrific hikes there, but were glad to leave via Kootenay on the 4th day and head towards the U.S. again. It is unfortunate that we feel this way about our National Parks, because they are beautiful places (albeit exploited) but maybe it will take letters from people like us to make the government realize that our Parks need desperate help – that the cuts that have been made are really affecting them terribly.

I did a really dumb thing in Jasper…I left my camera on top of the car and we drove off…we both heard a ‘clank’ and figured it was something in the trunk. We drove about 2km to a glacier, got out of the car and when I reached for my camera I immediately with horror realized that the ‘clank’ earlier had been my camera falling off the car! My stomach was upside down as we sped back to the campground anxiously hoping it was still there…and it was, and unscathed at that. Yippeee Fuji! I tell you, I beat that thing up and it just keeps going and going….I (and Jim) scorned myself because I know better – but I was lucky this time.

On the way to Glacier National Park (the US one, not the Canadian one) we happened across a great place called Fort Steele (after Sam Steele). It is a preserved historic town that runs by volunteer and private donations, as well as the entrance fees collected. Throughout the day actors in period costume perform on the streets and put on “workshops” such as making ice cream – which we did and found that it was hard work, but well worth it! We had a great time there and it was well worth the $12.50 each. (In the car before we go in anywhere we always decide a ‘cut off’ point for how much we thing something should cost – we had decided that $12.00 was our limit for this, but once we understood what it was we collectively decided the extra buck would be okay!)

I, being the worry wart, had pre-booked 3 nights at Glacier National Park because it was going to be the long weekend (Labour Day) and we ended up having a terrific time there. It is a beautiful park (and free with our US National Parks Pass), and luckily it wasn’t too busy considering it was a weekend. We did some great hikes – one in particular was about 4km up a hill to a secluded lake where we used our fly fishing skills. We caught cutthroat trout – albeit small ones – and got a close encounter with a really curious fawn.

Our plan was to be at Yellowstone the day after labour day weekend, and on our way we camped at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park which turned out to be an unexpected delight. We toured the caves with a somewhat humorous tour guide who told us that if someone was in complete darkness for a few weeks that light would blind them, which is of course completely untrue. Funny that an employee of the state park system would give out such false information…

We arrived in Yellowstone, as planned, on September 5th. Just before we entered the park we stopped at a store that advertised “cheap end of the season prices” and decided to go in to look for a couple of light shirts we needed for Australia. It was here, over the radio that we heard of the sad passing of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. We stood horrified in silence as tears welled up in my eyes. We both felt like a friend was gone. What an unfortunate accident – he was a terrific person – he did so much for animals, science and Australia in general. He will be sadly missed by both of us, along with the rest of the world.

After managing to stay out of crevasses (in glaciers) in previous parks, we now had a new danger in Yellowstone…stay out of Thermal Areas! These thermal areas are literally places of bubbling mud pots, hot sulphur springs and crusts of earth just waiting to crack and suck us into its scalding depths. Yellowstone is a “driving” park we think…I’d just be too darn scared to go backcountry there due to the fact that in many places it is so unstable. (Camping with grizzlies sounds much safer to us…). We watched ‘Old Faithful’ in awe as she spurted up as “faithful” as predicted. We visited Grand Teton National Park for a day as well which is just south of Yellowstone. That night as we set up camp an older neighbour in an RV offered us dinner (which we hungrily said “yes” to) so we chatted with them and their friends and swapped travel stories til bedtime. The next morning we met another neighbour couple who were from Whitby Ontario! Small world!

Next stop – Mt. Rushmore. We had only planned on doing a “walk in, take pictures, walk out”, but we ended up spending a couple of hours in the visitor center there, and by the time we were ready to leave, it was too late to drive far to get to a campsite. So, we decided to spend the night at a campground just a couple of miles away from the park and return to Mt. Rushmore to see the evening program when they light up the faces. It is actually a pretty neat place – the carving itself is incredible and amazingly enough about 90% or so was done with dynamite. No one was killed while working on it which seems impossible due to how they were seemingly so careless, dangling from ropes or on scaffolding with little or no safety gear. However, some have since died from lung problems due to inhaling so much dust from the granite. Borglum, the brain behind it all, died before the carving was complete – his son took over. The presidents in the carving are Jefferson, Washington, Teddy Roosevelt (our favourite president because without him the states would have no National Parks!) and Lincoln. (Just an interesting aside…Franklin Roosevelt followed the example of his 5th cousin Teddy Roosevelt and became president in 1933, but the interesting thing is that he married Teddy’s niece Anna…now that is keeping it in the family!!) We got really ripped off at the campground – I thought the guy was kidding when he told me $26.00 to camp (with no showers), but that is the price you pay in a touristy area!

Off to the Badlands of South Dakota…we saw lots of pronghorn (antelope) along the way. We were greeted at the park by hundreds of curious prairie dogs – the entire landscape was covered by their hills and holes and they loved to sit and watch us as we watched them. We spent a few hours touring around then drove to Wind Cave National Park (which is also in South Dakota). It is a large cave system which has a very fragile and rare type of formation called boxwork. We have been in many caves in the past few years – we didn’t realize until we started counting – but we had never seen this beautiful formation. The cave itself was remarkably first explored by a young man named Alvin McDonald who mapped much of the cave using only candle light and string.

We had plans to drive to a campsite that night, but when we eventually found it (which took some of Jim’s superior navigational skill) it was very seedy and quite frankly looked like the setting of an X-files episode, not to mention it was pouring. So, we made the executive decision to continue driving, knowing it would be for the long haul. So, we drove 1900 km – all night and into the morning – and surprisingly we both only slept about ½ an hour.

We were treated to many dinners during our week stay at home that whizzed by tremendously fast. We didn’t get nearly enough done that we had planned, nor did we see everyone we wanted, but truthfully we found it stressful. We couldn’t believe how busy even little Bowmanville has become!

We meant to write a summary of our North American trip, with little tidbits, expenses, etc., but unfortunately our journals are at home and now we are overseas. Hopefully the provider that maintains the blog site will not have any more problems with the site – I apologize to everyone who tried to access it for so long and came up with nothing.