Brisbane -- River City

Our final stop in Austalia was in the northeastern city of Brisbane. Founded as a penal colony for recidivist prisoners from New South Wales (Sydney), it was designed to be so terrible that no one would want to be sent there. Fortunately for us, today Brisbane is a really pleasant city built mostly along the curving Brisbane River.

One of the things we really wanted to do while in Australia was attend an Australian Baseball League game. The schedule worked out for us to see the Brisbane Bandits take on the Canberra Calvary. The game was slightly away from the area where we were staying, but very easy to access by bus. Unfortunately, the level of play was fairly low (for those who follow the minor leagues, I suspect it was about A-ball level). Most of the players were has-beens or never-weres. A few young Americans were in the game as they play "winter" ball to keep their skills up before returning to the minor leagues in the US spring.

Although we did see the Bandits win, it was a game marred by five errors, including one that allowed the winning run to score in the 11th inning. The teams also combined to strike out 23 times, and basically looked like they would lose to a good college team. The stadium was quite small, but could seat many more than the announced crowd of 600. All of that said, it was a very nice night (while it was hot in  during the day, it cooled down nicely after sunset), and we did enjoy seeing live baseball.

We spent a good amount of time walking around Brisbane just seeing the city. Among other things, there are many public works of art:

One of the cooler things we found, was the Nepalese Peace Pagoda, originally brought to the city by Nepal for the 1988 World Exposition. It has since remained in Brisbane as a site for relaxation and meditation.

We took a tour of the City Hall building and learned a bit about the history of the city, including the building itself, which cost almost $1 million pounds to build in the 1920's!

We also saw a lot of art, including a visit to the Art Gallery of Queensland where we continued to see a lot of Indigineous art, much of which is overtly political -- Richard Bell in particular loves to make bold statements:

Later, we attended the opening weekend of an exhibit called "Air" at the Gallery of Modern Art, including attending a talk by the curators of the exhibit. There were a lot of interesting large scale pieces, which focused on air as something that, while invisible, is made visible by the many issues it impacts such as pollution and climate change:

Finally, we wanted to spend some time seeing the city from the river. But, rather than take a tour, we simply used our transport cards and hopped on a public ferry, the City Cat (a catamaran), which we rode to the end of the line and back spending more than 90 minutes taking in the scenery. No commentary, but we got to see a lot of the parts of the city where people actually live, including many old buildings that have clearly been repurposed and plenty of nice rivierside homes, while chatting with some of the ferry staff.

Now, on to New Zealand.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Airlie Beach - Jetski and More Snorkeling

We had a lovely week in Airlie Beach, a beautiful location between Port Douglas and Brisbane with the Whitsunday Islands right offshore. One day, we took a nearby hike out to a literally deserted beach with great views of a couple of the nearby islands:

The Great  Barrier reef extends through the Whitsundays; so of course we had to do another snorkeling trip. Although it was not as spectacular as the one from Port Douglas, we still saw a lot and had fun:

The tour  taught us a bit about the local indigineous tribe and how it lived on the islands, and made a stop on Whitsunday Island itself (the largest of the group). The scenery there is absolutely gorgeous:

This area essentially serves as a "nursery" for young sea life, and you can see many small animals in the shallows including baby fish, turtles, crabs and, most interestingly, sting rays, which are easily found resting on the bottom:

We also took a jetskiing tour, which was supposed to take us to one of the inner islands nearest to Airlie Beach, but bacause of weather conditions (the sea was very choppy) we just stayed in the city's bay. Nonetheless, it was extremely fun to jetski in those conditions, as we often caught air off the waves at 25-30 mph. I had a blast driving, and Shana enjoyed hanging on and screaming in my ear:

Note that we borrowed the silly hats from the jetski company, but given how strong the sun is in Australia in general, and in the tropics in especially, almost everyone wears a hat all the time. In particular, we've noticed that school uniforms (and almost every kid in Austrlia wears a uniform to school) include hats.

While in Airlie Beach, we stayed at a cabin slightly outside of town. While this gave us the chance to eat many of our meals in, which was good, it was a bit rustic for our taste, with the number of bugs making it difficult-to-impossible to enjoy the outdoor area around the cabin. We were often visited in the afternoon by really cool cockatoos who came to feed on the provided birdseed, but we never did see any larger animals that are supposedly in the area. The bugs were really vicious and while bug spray was available, it only helps so much when the bugs are flying near your head.

And, speaking of missing wildlife, one day we drove a long way to Eungella National Park to see platapodes (one of the accepted plurals of platypus). Because of how far away the park was, we could not be there during their most active times of day -- early morning and late afternoon. So, despite watching and remaining really quiet for over an hour at several viewing spots, we failed to see a single platypus! Shana, particularly, was very disappointed. However, the park was extremely beautiful, and we stopped for some great views on the drive:

Overall, we had a really good time in the Whitsunday Island area, it was very relaxing and we enjoyed both of the tours we took. Most importantly we had time to plan our Vietnam itinerary. Now, on the Brisbane and then New Zealand!

Ciao,

Jeff and Shana

Port Douglas: The Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest

We spent four fantastic days in "FNQ" (Far-North Queensland) enjoying beautiful, tropical Port Douglas and the surrounding areas. We enjoyed the area and our resort, which is the only resort on Four Mile Beach:

We spent a day in the Daintree Rainforest area doing two tours. First, an Aboriginal Dreamwalk through the Mossman Gogre rainforest with an indigenous guide was as fascinating as our previous such walk at Tower Hill. While there were similar themes in this walk, it was most interesting to learn about the differences between how the indigineous tribes lived based on the nature of their territory. We began the tour with a smoke ceremony, which is a method the indigineous people use to welcome strangers onto their land:

After we had all walked through the smoke, we headed into the rainforest, with our guide showing us several dangerous plants and poisonous fruits. In addition, he taught us about plants that are useful for medicinal purposes, including one whose leaves, mixed with water can be crushed to form a lather that is useful for sunburns, bugbites and as an insect repellent -- all very helpful in the rainforest. Toward the end of our walk, he showed us what he called his "identification and passport," body paint that would be used by an indigineous person when entering the land of another tribe:

Given the heat and humidity on our walk, I barely lasted one-and-a-half hours in the rainforest. I would never make it through the tribal initiation process where boys as young as 8-9 spend up to twelve months living there.

After our walk, and a surprisingly good Thai lunch in a small town, we took a leisurely one-hour cruise on the Daintree River. The main purpose of this cruise is to see the giant saltwater crocodiles, and we were not disappointed:

That is Lizzie, a relatively small female who measures only about 2 meters (about 6-and-a-half feet). She was swimming along and although our guide said she was certainly aware of us, she gave no indication that she cared we were there. Our guide had an amazing amount of knowledge about the crocodiles in the area although we were unable to find any of the other adults, he did spot a couple of juveniles, which were tough to see among the bush, and really looked like large lizards (sorry, we couldn't get a decent picture). We also saw some bird life including this Great White Heron, who flew by our boat and perched nearby:

All-in-all, it was a really nice day of learning different things about both the rainforest, and the river environment.

The best day of our stay, however, and one of the best days of our trip so far, was our snorkeling day on the Great Barrier Reef. Based on the advice of many people, we chose a small-boat tour, and they turned out to be right. Our tour had only twelve people and it took an hour and a half for the boat to get to an outer part of the reef. We were something like 25 miles from shore, so it was like snorkeling in the middle of nowhere, and we were the only boat there. In the water we were divided into two groups of 6, each accompanied by a guide (one a marine biologist, the other a zoologist) who really knew the reef and its inhabitants. Our guides (Sam and Jen) were super enthusiastic as they spotted particular fish and showed us things we might have otherwised missed. They really made this an unforgettable experience.

First, we found "Nemo" (you have to look closely as clownfish fish are very small, and they often try to hide from humans):

Actually, we found lots of Nemos and many of his cousins around the reef -- there are six types of clownfish there. What was most amazing about this snorkel trip was it was like snorkeling in an aquarium, there were just so many diverse corals and so many fish you didn't know where to look:

Shana had a great time exploring:

Overall, we snorkeled for almost two-and-a-half hours at two different locations on the reef. We only briefly saw a reef shark, and most of the largest fish stayed away, but it was an amazing day of snorkeling. On the way back, we stopped briefly near a beautiful island near Port Douglas just to get photos:

Now, we have moved on to another tropical location in Queensland -- Airlie Beach near the Whitsunday Islands -- for more adventures and relaxation.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Road Trip Conclusion: Kangaroo Island & Adelaide

 

Over our 11-day road trip we covered just short of 2500 kilometers, so we were happy to return the car in Adelaide. Although Jeff has gotten comfortable driving on the left side of the road, one thing we did not enjoy was the bit of nighttime driving we had to do -- two-lane roads with no streetlights. We are happy to report that we did not hit any wildlife along the way. Phew!

On our way to Kangaroo Island we stopped in Victor Harbor, a cute coastal town with a causeway you can walk across to Granite Island. If you don’t want to walk you can ride on an old trolley car pulled by a horse.

Oddly, on our walk back across the causway, we saw people taking camel rides on the beach in Victor Harbor. Yes, we said camels and we have the photo to prove it:

We were excited to board the ferry to Kangaroo Island. They pack the cars in so tightly that passengers must walk on. Jeff could barely get out to join me up top. There are less than 5,000 residents on the island, which is the size of Bali or Long Island. Like other places we’ve visited, there are more sheep than people. More kangaroos as well – an estimated 65,000 (about 14 per human resident) – but we didn’t see many of them as they know how to hide.

We found our sweet spot on KI – between the wildlife and wineries we were very happy souls. We stayed on Emu Bay on the north side and had a beautiful view from our porch where we spent the afternoons sipping wine.

We toured Seal Bay Conservation Park with a ranger, which allowed us to be on the beach with the sea lions. This is the third largest Australian sea lion colony with an estimated population of 800. There were plenty of pups nursing or awaiting mom’s return. Watching the seal lions surf the waves, play in the water, and laze in the sunshine was marvelous.

We spent the afternoon kayaking on the Harriet River and then enjoyed a wine tasting at The Islander Estates Vineyards. Jeff was worried about showing up slightly damp from our river adventure, but KI is super casual. No worries, mate.

We ventured out to Stokes Bay, which has a beach that is reached by going through a narrow passage through rocks. What a great beach to walk along, but not swim – there’s a nasty rip current and the water wasn’t very warm.

Springs Road Wines was another treat, especially meeting Buddy the dog. Afterwards we stopped at Emu Bay Beach, where you can drive and park your car – very odd!

Our third day was a wildlife bonanza. While at Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Distillery, we met, and I fed, Angie and Benji, two rescue kangaroos (17 and 11 months old respectively). They are such sweet creatures:

Back at our place I went looking for the koalas and sighted a total of six, including a mom and baby. They were low enough that I got some good photos -- the baby is in the upper right hand corner of the second photo:

I spent an hour watching them eat, climb, and sleep. We did hear them at night, including some mating activity. It’s a good thing our aboriginal guide had warned us about this noise!

After leaving KI we stopped in the McLaren Vale wine region – so many wineries, so little time. Our tasting at Oliver’s Taranga was amazing. We also stopped at Down the Rabbit Hole, a winery with a true hippie vibe, where we had a fabulous platter for lunch.

Our first impressions of Adelaide weren’t great. The traffic was something awful and it didn’t seem too scenic, even though the center is surrounded by fabulous park areas. A walkabout through the city changed our minds. We stayed in North Adelaide and the late 1800’s Victorian style houses are gorgeous and classy.

We love to visit markets and Adelaide’s Central Market is top notch. It was as enjoyable as the market in Lyon. We also enjoyed the Botanic Garden and even made a brief stop at the Australian Space Discovery Center. The Town Hall and other locations are already sporting holiday decorations, which considering the warm spring weather seems strange, but Christmas is a summer holiday here.

We are already plotting a return to KI, which could allow us to enjoy the other wine regions in the Adelaide area (the Barossa Valley and Adelaide Hills). For now, onward to the eastern coast and the Great Barrier Reef.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff