DAWN AWAKENINGS

Since we've bought some computer time, even though the day is only half over, I thought I'd tell about our morning adventure.

We got up at 5 am and hopped on a bus at 6.  It was still dark.  We drove through the bush from a two lane road, onto a one lane road, and eventually onto a one lane dirt road.  Charlie explained that Gene Shoemaker died on a one lane outback road.  We survived and ended up at a dune.  We had tea, orange juice, a breakfast sandwich, and a scone while we waited for the sun to come up.  The sunrise on our dune revealed Ayers Rock (Uluru) and a host of weird birds.  An Australian mocking bird and a quail like thing.

We then drove close to the rock, eventually driving all around it.  We stopped at several sites.  The first, a climbing site.  I wasn't really interested in climbing Uluru, but after looking at the chains leading to the top (it was blowing about 25 km/h to boot) I was REALLY not interested.  The local people view Uluru as a sacred site and aren't happy about people tromping to the top.  So I was not a coward, I was respectful.

Our second site was a close up of the rock (it's sandstone covered in wonderful lace like etched areas and caves).  We got a bit of Aboriginal folklore, and a peak at teaching-paintings on the inside of a cave.  There was a large pool of water nearby as well.  We've learned a lot about hunting kangaroos as well.  From the first bunch, rub some people smell on a boomerang, toss it up wind of a group of kangaroos.  They think your on the upwind side and run towards you.  Clever!  Today we heard that as the kangaroos pass on the way to the water hole, you count them.  Then, when they leave, count again, and kill the last one out.  That way, they don't realize that the slow poke got gacked, maybe he was just lost, and they'll return to the water hole.  Clever again!

We stopped at a cultural center.  We only had a half hour which really wasn't enough time, but interesting as well.  The locals stop by when they feel like it, so no one is really sure what will be explained, if anything.  We listened to a woman explain the local seeds that she collected, and what they were used for.  One of the most interesting pieces was her mortar and pestle.  The rock for the base could be any rock around, but the grinding stone she held was precious and was handed down mother to daughter.

Back to the bus, and one more "post card" shot of Uluru in the morning.  We had some fruit as a treat.  Back to the hotel, and here we are writing of our adventures.  Tonight we go off on the "Sounds of Silence Tour".  We'll get dinner, an Aussie-miscellaneous-animals-to-eat Bar B Q.  After dinner we'll get a talk about the Southern Sky.  I'm really looking forward to that, although, I'll probably freeze solid and not hear it.  It was extremely cold this morning, and not all that warm now.

ULURU AKA AYERS ROCK

We had breakfast in the hotel, and then got our ride to the airport in Cairns.  Our flight was almost empty, but very nice.  As we flew a bit away from Cairns, we began to see the red desert of the Outback.  For some time it looked like we were flying over Mars - red, flat, nothing.  As we approached Ayers rock, there seemed like there was some vegetation on the ground.  While we were landing, I was surprised to see trees - quite a few trees.  Some thin some regular none huge.  More vegetation than I expected, but we were told later that there has been an exceptionally wet fall here (and to watch out for centipedes - peachy).  After we checked into the hotel, we found our room wasn't ready, so we marched across the street to explore a bit.  Our internet connection here is a bit wonky.

Our room looks out at Ayers Rock.  We decided to buy a couple of beers and sit and watch the sunset from our porch.  We added several layers of clothes AND jackets for our scenery watching - it got cold when the sun went a bit low.

Tonight we wandered over to a restaurant and had dinner.  This place is one large resort with several hotels connected together.  We're in Desert Garden.  On the way back from dinner we gaped at the stars.  Amazing view of the southern sky.  Tomorrow, we're supposed to get some explanation of what the heck we were looking at tonight.

Until the next internet connection

SUNDAY IN THE RAIN FOREST

We left the hotel this morning and headed toward the Tjapukai Cultural Center.  The tribe of Aborigines nearest to Cairns are the Tjapukai, and their center was our first stop.  Before we got there, I was fearing the corniest, golly-like embarrassing show on the planet.  Fortunately, I was wrong.  There were several stages, the first one, and really the best, had a guy playing and explaining how to play a didgeridoo.  We've been hearing them a lot and had a lot of questions.  1.) how do you make the noise - vibrating you lips  2.) how do you make other odd noises while playing - sticking your tongue out at various moments and various angles  3.) how do you keep playing on and on without breathing - you DO breath, just while you make the odd noises, you breath in (somehow).  We saw a performance about their creation myths, about different weapons, about dances, and about local foodstuffs.  A lot of what they eat would be poisonous raw, but they soak the nuts/seeds/ whatever in the river for three days, then when cooked, you don't die.  Here's a few photos.

After our boomerang shooting attempts (I was told I throw "like a girl" - good thing dinner doesn't depend on my shooting) we went over to the gondolas that left the valley floor, and eventually ended up in Kuranda.  Here's a few more photos.  The sharp rise and cold air caused it to rain on the upslope, and caused it to be a bit damp in our gondola.  We stopped a couple of times.  The first was at "Red Peak" where we had a ranger tell us about the forest and a few creatures.  Here's a basket fern.

Once we got to Kuranda, we had lunch (WONDERFUL meat pies) and strolled around town a bit.

We decided to wander a bit into the forest again, stopping at a Flying Fox rehabilitation station -

The fern like plants (proto ferns?) have thorns on the back of their leaves in order to cling to trees and make it through the forest floor to the light above.  They looked very much like the type of plants I imagine dinosaurs munched on - this is one of the oldest rain forests on earth.

At three we went to the Kuranda Rail Station and took the Kuranda train from the top back to the valley floor.  Views from the train are spectacular - a few that are as good as I could get.

We got back to the hotel at 6, got our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight, then wandered into Palm Cove for dinner.  Tomorrow - off to Ayers Rock.

AS CLOSE TO CAIRNS AS WE'RE GOING TO GET

We had a great dinner for our last night in Sydney last night.  We asked the concierge at the hotel for suggestions, and he recommended "Fish at the Rocks".  Most of the restaurants we had walked past on our hikes have beautiful views of Sydney Harbor and ridiculous prices - like $20 for a caesar salad.  A quick note:  The Australians called appetizers "Entrees" and call Entrees "Mains" - lends itself to some confusion.  The area around the arched bridge is called the Rocks - that's where our hotel was.  We walked along the wharves, climbed three sets of stairs and reached Kent Street.  There was a famous pub, Lord Nelson Brewery, clearly a popular place filled to the brim with people.  We went outside and found seats along the sidewalk - quieter than inside and had our Australian version of British bitter - quite good - name unknown.  Unfortunately, so many people were squashed in and around the place, the pub pickup boy kept asking people to go inside "We can't have people standing on the sidewalk drinking, it's against a public ordinance"  We then walked over to the Fish at the Rocks.  I had baby Baramundi - excellent, despite the baby part of its name.  Charlie had grilled prawns - he decided it sounded like shrimp on the barbie.

This morning after breakfast, we got a ride to the airport and took our Quantas flight to Cairns.  Warm, tropical, beautiful, if a bit windy.  We're staying at a place called The Spa Temple Resort and Spa at Palm Cove.  I'm really not a fan of resorts.  The last time we went to Cairns, many years ago, I really liked it and was looking forward to getting back.  To get dumped 25 km away at a resort seemed annoying.  But, as it happens we are traveling way off season.  The suite of rooms that we ended up in is absolutely bizarre.  We have a full kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom, lanai, and to top it off, up a curvy ladder we found a hot tub and a huge bar B Q.  Good grief.  Here's a few photos of this place.

Once we got settled we set off to find the local "town" called Palm Cove.  Somehow I keep thinking of Murder She Wrote.  It's a tiny seaside place with restaurants, a pub, a post office, and a gorgeous beach.  Here's some photos of our walk and the town.

In town, we stopped at a pub, Apres Beach Bar and Grill, and had coffee and cake. Both were excellent.  I'm not sure I'd call our cake, "cake".  Imagine an apple tart without the crust.  That may not sound very good, but it was delicious.  Coffee has funny words associated with it around here too.  Here's a few:
There are the usual cappucinos and lattes.  Flat white, if no one had told me I would have assumed it was a cappucino, but it really is outstanding coffee.  Long black, expresso with water.  Short black, expresso without extra water.  I'll keep adding to my Australian dictionary, as I learn the words and translations.

Tonight we're having sandwiches for dinner.  We had bought them because our flight today was over lunchtime.  Who knew that Quantas at home provides meals onboard as part of the travel?   Until tomorrow.....

FRIDAY IS, APPARENTLY, FISH DAY

We spent most of today walking, walking, and then, some more walking.  Our first goal was to find the Aquarium.  I remember going a number of years ago, but the aquarium here has improved vastly.  What a great place.  Here's a few photos.

There were a number of fabulous lego structures in the aquarium, here was our favorite

These were actually constructed in the Checzck republic - all were amazing.

From the aquarium we wandered over to the Fish Market.  We should have just used our sense of smell, but the wandering was fun too.  Here's some photos there.

On the way to and from our main attractions, we wandered past some other nifty things.  The ironwork along the road to the fish market on local houses was wonderful.

Once we got back home and rested a bit, we wandered back out to the Botanical Gardens, met up with some odd birds - really - then went back to the hotel for a rest.  Along the "rocks" the pathway near our hotel along the bay, we saw the Moon Park exhibition.  It has the creepiest "moon" ever - verging on clown scary!

After our strolling about, we went to a restaurant recommended by the concierge - The fish at the Rocks -.  The Rocks is the part of Sydney located under/near the arched bridge across from the opera house. It's a wonderful walking area and VERY close to where we're staying.  After our couple of days marching around, we really feel like we know Sydney.  It's a little like San Francisco down under.  Urbane, clean, fun, open, We obviously like it a lot.

Until tomorrow and Cairns......

SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA

Hello! June 23:   The trip was very easy, looonnngg, but very easy. One of those 1.) watch a movie 2.) eat dinner 3.) sort of sleep for 8 hours, 4.) think of something else to do for the next 4.5 hours.

June 20, Monday, however, was extremely stressful.  Our travel lady, Marsha, called in the morning to tell us that part of our trip had to be altered due to the ash cloud over Australia.  She then said, "I hope it doesn't effect your travel."  What ash cloud????  It seems that the Chilean volcano that had erupted several weeks ago, and that had already disrupted travel in New Zealand was making a return appearance.  On its repeat run, it was swinging past Tasmania, Adelaide, and was on its way to confuse air traffic in Canberra and, gasp, Sydney.  I spent the day watching the news reports, videos of swirling ash around South Australia, and listening to dismal reports about cancelled air flights.  The capper was watching the United site and "our" flight that was supposed to leave Monday night (we left Tuesday LA time).  First the flight was delayed 2 hours, and then cancelled altogether.  Gasp.  I knew we'd get here one way or another, but it would mean losing our air miles/business seats, and hopping all over the Pacific in little, uncomfortable bursts - Guam here we come.  Fortunately, the ash cloud swept to the south (its still disrupting flights in and out of Tasmania), but Sydney was clear.

The only time I can remember a trip that had a beginning like this was our trip to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.  We had booked an entire tour with Varig Airlines, which had been the national airlines of Brazil.  A few weeks before we were to leave, Varig announced in was going into bankruptcy and was canceling all of its flights.  Then a few days before we left, they announced they were going to try to fly again.  Our trip, as far as I know was the last few weeks of Varig.  One of the strangest flights ever was the flight from Santiago, Chile to Sao Paulo Brazil.  We were seating in business, with a huge airliner and no more than 20 passengers altogether.  It was like flying on a ghost ship.

We landed in Sydney at 7 in the morning.  We got to the hotel around 9.  We discovered that the room had an ether net cable, but Charlie's MacBook Air doesn't have a port for the cable.  We enquired at the desk and they told us about an Apple store about a half hour from the hotel.  It was a great walk, we found both the store and, obviously, since I'm writing this blog, the cable.  We played around Circular Quay until our Sydney Lunch Cruise at 12:30.  I'm not sure what I expected, but it was a very elegant lunch.  The day was beautiful, too.  Here's some photos of our walk, and the cruise.

The photo of me is outside of our hotel.  The next photo is one of the hotel from the harbor cruise.

A QUICK VISIT TO HAYWARD

On the weekend of May 20 - 22 Charlie and I drove up to Hayward to see Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet.  Ian's first year at Holy Names was over and Sarah's semester was over.  We figured this would be the least intrusive weekend to drive up at this time of year.  I took Friday off from school.  It was a very necessary personal leave day.  I can tell when it's time for a bit of a break - I get down-right cranky.

We drove up at a careful pace.  On our last visit Charlie was convinced that 88 mph was OK on the 5 freeway.  The answer is - "No it isn't".  He got a ticket - did his time in traffic school - and is now on an 18 month - "No more mistakes or points will get added to you license" time.  Actually it was a very relaxing trip, and, actually took about the same amount of time.

Here's some views of Sean and his class's performance

Sean and Harriet played a bit before the songs and dances began.

The 20th happened to also be the end of year dinner at Sean's school for the Mandarin immersion class.  Sarah brought a spinach lasagna (very tasty).  Since everyone brought food - there was a mountain of choices.  Each class (K-3) did a little performance.  On Saturday we drove up to Holy Names to finally see Ian's school.  It sits in a gorgeous location - the hills overlooking San Francisco Bay.  It's not a big place, but has a nice feel to it.  Especially good if you need some stair/hill climbing exercise.

Some views of our walk around Holy Names

Ian had his math/art on display in the library.  One of several there is seen below