Do you like to walk? A lot? I don't mean do you love to walk but do you like to walk far? If you do, the tour we took was for you. We were picked up at 7:00 in the morning in front of our hotel and there were only 5 of us so Rod, our guide (Nice Aussie name, eh?) decided he had enough time to take us to some more out of the way places he knew. Some of the roads were so bad I thought the van would break an axle. The views were spectacular. The Blue Mountains are not really mountains as you might think of them, but a number of ridges which have had the center or middle washed out by erosion. They get their name from the blue mist which is eucalyptus oil, secreted by the trees, mixed with mist that rises on the air currents.
We had beef pie for lunch (very delicious) which you eat by holding it in your hands, but we sat on the high point of a ridge, gazing out over the edge of a cliff at an unbelievable panorama. I said to Rod, "This beats eating lunch in an office," to which he replied, "This is my office."
We didn't see any koalas or kangaroos here. Apparently, the soil is too poor to provide enough nutrients in the eucalyptus leaves to sustain many koalas and it's not the best type of terrain for kangaroos. What we did see were quite a few cockatoos. The babies are dark so they can more easily hide from predators, but they really squawk when they get bigger to urge their mothers to bring them food. Mature cockatoos, as you know, are white.
We spent the entire day trekking through the Blue Mountains, walked about 8 or 9 miles, but it was all worthwhile.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Sydney, Australia, Part 3
The first settlers came ashore near present day Sydney in 1788, landing at a place called the Rock. Today, there are a number of shops and merchants there selling all kinds of wares. In my mind I was imagining a different place called the Rock with a number of shops built into the cell blocks of an ancient prison. (A number of early settlers of Australia were convicts from England, by the way.) The Rock actually turned out to be very much like St. George Street in St. Augustine, but with steep hills. We looked through a number of shops and in one I found my Aussie hat.
I never thought about what I might look like to the locals as I walked out of the shop wearing my hat, inspired by Crocodile Dundee. The next day our guide to the Blue Mountains said that only tourists around Sydney wear hats like mine, usually either Americans or Germans. Guilty on both counts, I thought, being an American of German descent. Still, I think I would have bought it anyway.
We took a ferryboat across Sydney Harbor to Taronga Zoo in the afternoon. (That's where the photo with the red kangaroos was taken.) It's a regular zoo with most of the animals in natural environments and some where people can actually interact with them. The most exciting part of the zoo experience was the bird show. The birds actually fly around free, some buzzing right over the spectators heads: owls, falcons, kites, hawks, cockatoos, etc. It's amazing how quietly owls can fly. It's practically impossible to hear them coming.
By crikey, Mates, it's time to end this blog and find my Way Out.
Next up: the Blue Mountains
I never thought about what I might look like to the locals as I walked out of the shop wearing my hat, inspired by Crocodile Dundee. The next day our guide to the Blue Mountains said that only tourists around Sydney wear hats like mine, usually either Americans or Germans. Guilty on both counts, I thought, being an American of German descent. Still, I think I would have bought it anyway.
We took a ferryboat across Sydney Harbor to Taronga Zoo in the afternoon. (That's where the photo with the red kangaroos was taken.) It's a regular zoo with most of the animals in natural environments and some where people can actually interact with them. The most exciting part of the zoo experience was the bird show. The birds actually fly around free, some buzzing right over the spectators heads: owls, falcons, kites, hawks, cockatoos, etc. It's amazing how quietly owls can fly. It's practically impossible to hear them coming.
By crikey, Mates, it's time to end this blog and find my Way Out.
Next up: the Blue Mountains
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Part 2
We decided to stay awake so we could adjust better to the jet lag. (There is a 14 hour difference in time between US Eastern and Australian Eastern.) We explored the Sydney underground subway system for a short time before we found the correct Platforms and trains. (Believe it or not, To get from Kings Crossing to Circular Quay [pronounced Key] you take the train from Platform 1 and after two stops you change to the train on Platform 6--but to return to our hotel you don't take 6 and then 1 you take 1 and 6 again. I still don't know how that worked, but it did--except the last time we went that route and then we took trains 1 and 5 coming back.
We took a tour of the Opera House and the architecture is stunning. Unfortunately, there was a performance going on in the main hall (there are several in the building) so we didn't get to see it. The person who won the design competition basically scribbled his entry on a piece of scrap paper which the original committee discarded but a later judge pulled out of the scrap heap and got it declared the winner. (Imagine one of the most distinctive buildings in the world not being constructed.) Originally, the building was to take 4 years to build and cost $7 million dollars. It really took 14 years and cost $105 million dollars. It was finished in 1973.
The roof is made of concrete sections which are covered by tile. (I'll try to remember to post a photo on Facebook later so you can see what it looks like.) Parts of the building are undergoing an upgrade which were designed by the original architect. (He died in 2009 so he didn't get to see his improvements finished. He actually never returned to Australia after the building was completed.)
We also visited the Botanical Gardens which is mostly a large park next to the Sydney Opera House.
This pretty much ended our first day in Australia.
(End of Sydney, part 2)
We took a tour of the Opera House and the architecture is stunning. Unfortunately, there was a performance going on in the main hall (there are several in the building) so we didn't get to see it. The person who won the design competition basically scribbled his entry on a piece of scrap paper which the original committee discarded but a later judge pulled out of the scrap heap and got it declared the winner. (Imagine one of the most distinctive buildings in the world not being constructed.) Originally, the building was to take 4 years to build and cost $7 million dollars. It really took 14 years and cost $105 million dollars. It was finished in 1973.
The roof is made of concrete sections which are covered by tile. (I'll try to remember to post a photo on Facebook later so you can see what it looks like.) Parts of the building are undergoing an upgrade which were designed by the original architect. (He died in 2009 so he didn't get to see his improvements finished. He actually never returned to Australia after the building was completed.)
We also visited the Botanical Gardens which is mostly a large park next to the Sydney Opera House.
This pretty much ended our first day in Australia.
(End of Sydney, part 2)
Australia: We've Arrived! (Sydney: Part 1)
We arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, Sunday morning at about 6:30 AM local time after an uneventful flight of 15 hours. Customs went quickly and we exited to the main terminal happy to be on the ground again. We were thirsty and went to a shop in the airport to buy a couple of sodas. I was shocked at the price for a bottle of Coke: $5:00! I thought that it was just because it was at the airport but we found out later that the regular price is $3.75 to $4.50 for soft drinks. (The price of food and drink is really high compared to the US, but more about that on a later blog.)
We next paid for a van to take us to the Pott's Point Holiday Inn. We followed a group of for about a quarter mile to a beat-up VW bus pulling a trailer. Behind it was parked a clean, white new bus and we all headed for that. "No, not the bus, the van!" our guide called out. We stuffed our bags in the enclosed trailer and then crammed ourselves into the small seats and off we went--for ten yards--and the bags fell out of the trailer. (Our driver had forgotten to close the gates.) He quickly stopped, mumbled something we couldn't understand, retrieved the bags and we were off again.
Most of the people in Australia are fairly easy to understand, but not our driver. He barely opened his mouth when he spoke, mumbling and slurring his words. His sense of direction was much better than his speech and we arrived safely at the door to our hotel. We were early for check-in (by about 5 hours) but the Aussie woman checking us in found us an open room and booked us in. We arrived on the third floor and opened the drapes to discover that we'd received an upgrade! We had a beautiful view of Sydney Harbor: the opera house, harbor bridge and the skyline of Sydney.
(End of Part 1)
We next paid for a van to take us to the Pott's Point Holiday Inn. We followed a group of for about a quarter mile to a beat-up VW bus pulling a trailer. Behind it was parked a clean, white new bus and we all headed for that. "No, not the bus, the van!" our guide called out. We stuffed our bags in the enclosed trailer and then crammed ourselves into the small seats and off we went--for ten yards--and the bags fell out of the trailer. (Our driver had forgotten to close the gates.) He quickly stopped, mumbled something we couldn't understand, retrieved the bags and we were off again.
Most of the people in Australia are fairly easy to understand, but not our driver. He barely opened his mouth when he spoke, mumbling and slurring his words. His sense of direction was much better than his speech and we arrived safely at the door to our hotel. We were early for check-in (by about 5 hours) but the Aussie woman checking us in found us an open room and booked us in. We arrived on the third floor and opened the drapes to discover that we'd received an upgrade! We had a beautiful view of Sydney Harbor: the opera house, harbor bridge and the skyline of Sydney.
(End of Part 1)
Friday, September 7, 2012
Coming Trip to Australia & New Zealand
We're counting down the last two weeks until we take a much anticipated trip to Australia and New Zealand. Most of the time we will be "Down Under" we will be on vacation, but part of the trip will include some research in the Melbourne area about the Australian Gold Rush of the 1850's.
About 1852, one of my ancestors, as a fifteen year old young man, was basically forced to flee England along with his brother and were able to bribe a ship's captain to allow them to 'stow away' on his ship which was headed for Australia.
Sometime in the future I plan to write a young adult novel about my ancestor's exciting exploits on board ship and while he was exploring Australia and mining for gold near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia.
While in Australia and New Zealand, I will be blogging about what we see and some of our experiences there, some of which will be connected with my research for a novel. Hope you will join me.
About 1852, one of my ancestors, as a fifteen year old young man, was basically forced to flee England along with his brother and were able to bribe a ship's captain to allow them to 'stow away' on his ship which was headed for Australia.
Sometime in the future I plan to write a young adult novel about my ancestor's exciting exploits on board ship and while he was exploring Australia and mining for gold near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia.
While in Australia and New Zealand, I will be blogging about what we see and some of our experiences there, some of which will be connected with my research for a novel. Hope you will join me.
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