BootsnAll Travel Network



The Land Down Under

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.



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