Adelaide

I stayed 2 nights in Adelaide... I don't know if it is because I was out on a beautiful island full of exotic animals, basking in the ocean & sunlight the day before or what, but I just wasn't into it the first night... I went straight to bed.

The next day, however was a different story ;0) I walked around the town taking in the small, dustry frontier town scenery... with lots of big ol' victorian buildings to break it up... and found my way to the royal botanical gardens - here I discovered they had a planting of the Wollemi Pine ( a tree only discovered a few years ago in the blue mountains and thought to be extinct from the time of the dinsosaurs... pretty cool). I also also checked out the rainforest exhibit, which is one of the coolest (and hottest, humid places I've ever been) - this pic was taken from the biggest rose garden I've ever seen ;0)

I also stopped off at the National Wine Gallery and learned about the differnt varieties of grapes, then did a small wine tasting with some backpakers from Israel and Tokyo... it was fun. Of course by this point my appetite was up... so I had a nice oyster lunch...

Eventually, I made my way to the South Australia museum and after having some coffee in a cafe surrounded by massive whale skeletons... had just enough time to check out the exhibit on Abiriginols and their way of life.. it was great exhibit (lots of video documentary from the turn of the century) - not one word of all the horrible things that happened to them with colonisation which I found a little odd. This is a pic of a human skull that the aborignals used to use as a way to drink water... damn)....

I had a nap and then I went out to a big dance and had fun until 7 or so in the morning... it was great! Some of the 'shows" they put on even shocked me a bit... ;0)

The Ghan

After 2 hours of sleep (:0) I took the Ghan Train from Adelaide up to Alice Springs (in the very center of Australia - and the very center of the outback). It's called the Ghan in recognition of the Afhanistan guys who came over on their camels and helped chart the early tracks through the center of Australia... It was different from the Indian Pacifc in that when I went to sleep looking at flat red desert puncuated by arid trees and sagebrush looking bushes, that's exactly what I woke up to...

but let me tell you, it was a great sight to watch go by out the windows. The only thing that wasn't as good was the lack of animal life... didnt' see see any kangaroos or emus this time (I was really looking for dingos anyway ;0). But the red sand and dried up salt lakes were great to see.

I made some buddies from Ireland and we looked for animals together (we also all had the same guide book which was funny):

One of them saw a kangaroo early in the moring, but the only thing I saw were these "camel melons" growing in clumps by the tracks... they look very succulant (and therefore very out of place in the outback) but I learned later that they were brought over in the saddles of the Ghan camel guys and taste REALLY bad.. so bad that no animal in australia will touch them.. at least that keeps them from spreading...

I was also able to see lots of the Spinifex grass (which grows in round clumps and is essentially made of silicon... that means glass). This stuff was very hard on the early exploreres and their horses... I tried touching it and was instantly stabbed by it with a sliver of glass... ouch that stuff is nasty...

I think the coolest thing on the trip were all of the dust devils we saw....

And the world's oldest river (the course has remained unchanged for millions of years.. you can see why it really hasn't changed much from this pic ;0)

Indian Pacific to KI & Adelaide

I've been in numerous taxis, on a train, on numerous bus rides, on a ferry and driven all in the last 3 days... phew... it was worth it though - I've seen so many great things!

I started my journey from Sydney to Kangaroo Island on the Indian Pacific railways. I purposefully took the train so I'd see the country and boy did I. The trip started out through the beautiful Blue Mountains and then wound down into verdant green hills, broken up with farmhouses, sheep & cows... I sat and talked with a Dutch couple (who are going around the world looking for shipwrecks) and watched out the windows for Kangaroos (we saw lots! - couldn't get any good pics though).



I went to sleep that night and when I woke up I was in the brilliant red desert of the Outback - it was great! To be honest, my first thought was that if Scotty transported me there I wouldn't be able to tell if I was in OZ or in Wyoming - until, that is, you spot kangaroo, emu, wedge-tailed eagles (which have a huge wingspan, can't really tell in the pic) and flocks of brillant white cokatoos with bright red bellies instead of the normal antelope ;0)





We stopped off that morning in an old mining town called Broken Hill and I had time for a quick 1 hour tour - it was what you'd expect from a small frontier town (touristy now of course). We also toured the Royal Flying Doctors headquarters for the area - they actually fly doctors out to people all over outback and its a free service... don't tell Hillary.

This all kept me very enteratained until I pulled into the Adelaide train station and jumped on a bus to get me down to Kangaroo Island.

I got there just in time for sunset. I made freinds with the car rental guy and we sat and had a beer watching it - he gave me some great pointers on where to go (early) the next morning - then (in exchange for a ride to the airport in the morning) he took me on a nocturnal tour of the area looking for penguins, possums and lots of wallabies (he sidelights as a tour guide) - it was fantastic ;0)

My first port of call the next day was Seal Bay - the tour guide took us right down onto the beach among them! They actually aren't seals, but Australian Sealions (this is because they have 4 feet, unlike seals which only have 2 and 2 flippers). It was great to watch and learn about them - the little pups were very fun to watch. There was an awful lot of fighting going on between the "teenage boys" in the group though and they have BIG teeth ;0)

After the seals I had lunch (a great fish sandwich recommended by my friend) and went to a secluded beach to eat it with a huge beer. The water was the clearest blue (azure I think ;0) I've ever seen and it was warm enough for nice long swims... although I have to admit I never went in past my knees and dunked down (way too many stories at this point about sharks and crocadiles on deserted beaches) I kept my eyes on the water at all times ;0) [at least Sealy the Dead Seal wasn't around this time] - there were also some really neat rock formation @ one end of the beach with some cool looking birds hanging out on them.

I stopped off @ Litte Sahara and played in the huge sand dunes and a Koala Sanctuary - this Guano scared the hell out of me when I was walking around looking at things like the termite mound...

Then I headed down the coast & saw Admiral's Arch, which is fantastic enough on it's own, but just happens to also have a colony of Australian Fur Seals that call it home! They were fun to watch, but and I spent a little too much time there (I didn't get to the platypus ponds I meant to stop by on my way back) - see if you can spot the seals in the pic... there were LOTS more of them on the other side of the arch.

Just around the bend are the Remarkable Rocks - these are huge boulders left over on top of a magma bubble. Really neat to walk around in...

It was a long drive back and then (after a quick beer with my friend) a ferry ride back and a longer bus ride to Adelaide (I was glad to get here - I was so tired that I went straight to bed - on a FRIDAY night!!!). I did see some dolphins playing in the ferry's wake though...

Sydney (The End of a Great Visit)

Sydney WOW, what a great city.... its lots of fun and full of friendly Aussies... has a very NYC feeling to it (It's super multi-cultural, open 24-7 and fast paced). I'm glad I stayed in Melbourne first and relaxed a bit before heading here - I was ready for it though - its really a beautiful harbour city and the clubs are GREAT ;0)


Even better, the sun finally came out on Saturday so I was able to really enjoy it. I took a ferry up to Manly beach on Sat. and watched the waves roll in with a freind - he took me to a place that night that only serves chocolate... I had one of the best chocolate lava cakes (or chocoate souffles as they're called here) I've ever had. I stayed until the sun set wandering down at the beach hunting for tidal beasties - I'd about had my fill of crabs, spiders and strange squirting things on the rocks when out of nowhere a bunch on Fairy Penguins came strolling up out of the water to their rooks.... it was SO great to finally see them out in the wild! (I couldn't take a pic as the flash in bad for their eyes, but they are damn cute ;0)



Not that everything on the beach was cute - I saw these bizzare and disgusting jelly doughnut looking anemones and I think this might be a funnel web spider (only the MOST deadly one in the world... yeah)

I also got some nice views of the city from the ferry on the way back and watched some people on racing sailboats... they got so close to the boat I was sure they were going to hit it, great fun to watch.

I also finally made it out to THE city beach (Bondi) and watched the surfers for a while, it looked very fun (you can see all the surfers in the 2nd pic).

It so happened that "sculptures by the sea" was happening that day... it was a bunch of artists showing there stuff right on the seacliff walls... very dramatic (the mow-hawk look is very "in" here):

I went back to Bondi yesterday (another 80+ day) with a freind and he introduced me to Aussie beach delicicies - Lychee Martinis and Sydney Rock Oysters... yum. I also went for my 1st swim, which was warm and wavy (and devoid of all the Blue Bottle Jellyfish I'd seen the first time I went there - one of them got me that day when I was walking down the beach... ouch).

I wasn't all bad in the rain though... I went to the aquarium (one of the best I've been to - reminded me a lot of the one in San Fran that Uncle Curtis and Aunt Terri took me to), especially the underwater tunnel with a huge gray nurse shark looming overhead (this revived my fear in sharks nicely [not to mention the story my friend told me about his surfer buddy who was eaten by Hammerhead Sharks in his home town not far from Cairns])... ahh well - there are worse places to end it all I guess.

I also went to see "Let it Be" @ the Sydney Opera House! It was a great show, good song/ singers and I got to hear some Beatles music I'd never heard before. This is the "wing" I was in, the accoustics were amazing...

For my last day in Sydney I took a bus tour out to the Blue Mountains (so named because the oil from they eucalyptus trees gets fried by the sun and makes a bluish haze over everything)... they're beautiful mountains with a huge canyon in them (which, along with angry aboriginals, wasn't a pleasant discovery for the early settlers (convicts). There are some great rock features there called the 3 sisters (which aboriginal tales say were the 3 daughters of a witch doctor who had to turn them to stone to protect them from a monster - which devoured him before he had the chance to turn them back to flesh...) The best part is you get to take a VERY steep tram ride straight down the mountain and walk around the bottom (and play Tarzan in the vines) - after taking a cable ride over the valley floor - with glass bottoms... there's NOTHING below you for a long way down ;0)

On the way there we stopped off @ a wildlife park and I was able to finally "cuddle" a Koala - they're cute but my friend Andy was right - they smell like stinky eucalyptus... the snake was a little too cuddle for my taste ;0)

It was a great way to end my time here - its been fun and I met some great people... I am looking forward to my train trip out to Adelaide through the outback tomorrow though...