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Trains, Planes, and Automobiles… and More Planes

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Sorry we haven’t blogged in a while, but the last week has been a total blur.  We went back to the US for a “long weekend” to be in our friends’ wedding.  It went something like this:

Trains – We took The Overland from Adelaide to Melbourne.  It’s an 11 hour train ride, and one of the “classic” routes in Australia.  The train was actually pretty comfortable and the views were pretty nice too.

Planes (part 1) – We flew from Melbourns to LAX to SFO.  There’s just no getting around it – the flight is LONG.  The weird thing is that you leave at 11 AM and arrive at 7AM the same day.  Begin jetlag.

Automobiles – After weeks of deep concentration led to us finally being comfortable driving on the left, we got our rental car in SF and were right back to being confused again.   Wipers?  Turn Signals? 

Wedding – Dinners, cocktails, rehearsals, haircuts, more dinners, more cocktails, fittings, ceremony, more cocktails.  It was a whirlwind weekend, but great to see so many of our friends all in one place!  We’ve got to do this more often.  My Baha Fresh craving was satisfied – mmmm.   

Planes (part 2) – Back on a flight to Melbourns and this time it was the new A380.  The plane is cool, but unfortunately nothing can make economy class comfortable for 15 hours.

More pictures will be on Smugmug soon, but here’s a few of the Lehigh bunch at the reception.  Looking at this it’s hard to imagine that just 3 weeks ago we were covered in red dust in the Outback! 

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Posted in Travel | 3 Comments »

The Island

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

After 5 weeks in Australia, we had only seen two ‘roo’s in the wild. This was about to change with a visit to Kangaroo Island. Getting to KI is pretty interesting itself. It’s a 2 hour drive south from Adelaide and then the car goes onto the ferry for a 45 minute ride to island. KI is over 150 km long, so having a car is a must in order to see even a fraction of it.

We set out on the first day to Flinders Chase National Park. The walk to Admirals Arch has a fantastic payoff with a view of New Zealand fur seals basking in the shadow of a cave. The next stop was something called the Remarkable Rocks, which are huge rocks that are, well, remarkable. Hard to describe, but check out the photo gallery link to the right.

Next we attempted a hike to Snake Lagoon, but were defeated by hundreds of flies swarming around us. As silly as it may seems, they were just incredibly annoying to the brink of insanity. Dejected, we headed back to the car for the long drive to the hotel on the other side of the island. We still had not seen any Wallabies, Koalas, or Kangaroos that were supposedly so plentiful on the island. Well, not live ones anyway. The road sides are littered with dead ones that didn’t make it, so we knew they must be there somewhere.

Dusk is the perfect time for wildlife as the lazy marsupials begin to wake up from their naps during the hot part of the day. I spotted a Wallaby munching away on some grass along the road. And then another. And another. When Eric finally pulled over to take a picture, we noticed something else just behind it. Two huge Kangaroos in a field. They were the first of many of the island’s namesake and of much more wildlife to be seen. Next up were Koalas hanging in the trees and Little Penguins on the beach at night.

The next morning we headed to the Lathami Conservation Park for a short walk with more Wallabies and a unique spiky animal called an Echidna. After lunch, Seal Bay showed off it’s namesake in the form of huge Australian Sea Lions lounging on the sand. Finally after dodging Goanas on the road, we visited a honey farm, home to a strain of Ligurian bees from Italy that only survive in this place today.

Kangaroo Island is fascinating and an incredible place to see all the wildlife that Oz is famous for in one microcosm.

This may be the last blog from down under for a while. We’re starting a long journey back to the US for our friends’ wedding, starting with the Overland train from Adelaide to Melbrourne, then catching a flight to Cali. We’ll be back next week, but until then, G’day.

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Posted in Australia, Travel | No Comments »

Downtime in Adelaide

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

We took a few days “off” from traveling to catch up on email, laundry, and grocery shopping in Adelaide. We’re staying in a apartment here, and it’s been good to cook again. The central market provided amazing fresh fruits and veg, as well as some huge Italian meatballs – over ½ kilo each. During our wandering around the city, we came across a cricket match in progress at the Adelaide Oval. While we’re still trying to figure out a few of the nuances, it’s actually starting to make sense! Unfortunately the local South Australia Scorpions weren’t doing too well against the Victoria Spirit. Bummer.

Adelaide is a nice small city of about 1M people. The downtown area has a free bus service, but you can walk just about anywhere. It’s got a few quirks, but where else can you see a Christmas parade with the 3 Kings riding on real camels?

We also spent a nice afternoon in the Barossa and Eden Valleys visiting some of the many wineries. They are less than an hour drive from the city and produce some great Shiraz. Some of the vineyards export to the US and we found a few familiar names. We tasted a few at these cellar doors: Penfolds, Yalumba, Stanley Lambert, and Peter Lehmann. Most of them offer at least a dozen wines for free tasting and it was so difficult to decide which to try. In this area, you really can’t go wrong with a dry Reisling or a Shiraz blend.

Also, I wanted to thank all our friends and family for the comments you’ve been sending!  Keep ’em coming.  Finally, can anyone explain this scoreboard to us?

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Posted in Australia, Travel | 1 Comment »

WA does not mean “Washington”

Friday, December 5th, 2008

It stands for Western Australia, an enormous state in Australia, where we had grossly inadequate time to explore. We spent our time in Perth and the SW section of the state, but wish we could have spent time really exploring the state; driving north up to Monkey Mia, or explore the Kimberly (one of the last great frontiers on earth), or visit the Bungle Bungles, or drive the longest straight highway in the world on the Nullarbor Plain (and visit some of the great mines of the world). 

Perth was refreshing after baking in the Outback and reminded us of San Diego, or even Seattle (with good weather). it’s a very outdoorsy city with lots of parks and bike trails along the Swan River stretching all the way to Fremantle. We spent some time exploring the parks and biking. We then rented a car and headed south to the Margaret River area for some wine tasting. The region is renowned for premium wines and we quickly found out why.

We’ve had a lot of really forgettable, inexpensive Aussie wines. Margaret River reminded me just how amazing a full bodied Shiraz or Cab-Merlot blend can be. Just about everything we tasted was excellent, including a few Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blends that changed my mind about this combo. We visited these wineries: Cape Montelle, Leeuwin Estate, and Voyager. And the best part? All the tastings are free! Take that, Napa.

On our way back from MR, we decided to take a detour to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, which is the most South and West point in Australia. It’s also the place where the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean meet. Along the way, we stopped at a beach called Prevelly Park to dip our toes in the Indian Ocean and stumbled on a surfing competition. The huge 4m waves were breaking perfectly, and the local guys seems to be winning against the Tassies and Queenslanders.

Back in Perth, we spent a day on Rottnest Island off the coast. We hired bikes and rode around the island stopping at different beaches for lunch and views. When we first arrived there was a big sign with “Do not feed the Quokkas. Danger, venomous snakes.” It soon made sense as we saw a “baby” Dugite, which is a poisonous snake, sunning himself along the road. We didn’t have to look far to find one of the native marsupials on the island called a Quokka. They are related to kangaroos and wallabies, but are about the size of a cat. Here are a few snaps from WA:

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Posted in Australia, Travel | 3 Comments »

Kangaroo Tails and Tales

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

This post is coming after a visit to the Northern Territory. It finally feels like we’ve entered the iconic outback image that travel agents, Hollywood, and that certain steak house have burned into our minds.

We arrived in Alice Springs to a rare downpour and got lucky enough to actually see the Todd River flowing.  It was dry again by dinner time, but a great sight anyway.  We took in pretty much all there is in “the Alice,” including a big night out at the local saloon where the menu includes prawns and ‘roo steaks, aka Reef ‘n Hop.

In order to see as much as possible in a short amount of time and on a tight budget, we booked a camping “safari” tour to Ayres Rock, otherwise known as Uluru.  Distances in this area are huge, and the roads are long, straight, and very empty.  After a 4 hour drive through sparse cattle stations and camel farms, we arrived at another rock formation called Kata Tjuta or the Olgas.  They are even taller than Uluru and very impressive.  We spent the night camping, but were up at 3:45AM in order to see the sunrise over Uluru.  Fantastic!

The Rock is even more interesting up close than I expected.  We did not climb it because the Aboriginal people consider it a sacred site and ask that you don’t.  Instead, we walked around the base, which pretty much takes up half a day in the unbelievable heat. 

The next evening included some good tucker cooked over the campfire, including a traditional outback bread called damper and a special treat, kangaroo tail.  After that we turned in, but not before I got to see the biggest scorpion I’ve ever seen.  Add to that an Indiana-Jones-sized centipede, and I decided to sleep in the tents, not in a swag on the ground.  Our next stop was Kings Canyon for a great hike around the rim and into an oasis called the Garden of Eden.

This part of the trip was truly hectic, dusty, and exhausting, but the scenery and experience was more than worth it.  I know everyone takes this photo, but who can resist the view?

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Posted in Australia, Travel | 2 Comments »

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