"My emails home" a Australia Travel Page by fullcirclea

2/26/2006

So we have arrived! 20 hours in the air later we have been here for 72
hours and it t feels like a week probably because we lost 1 day in the plane- just like that -Thursday of last week no longer exists for us we get a day back when we return but it will never again be thurs day feb 23 it will be gone forever
We have had a few exciting and fun days here just off the plane we were met by our friends and hit the ground running armed with a Sydney rail day pass we visited the Sydney Harbor Bridge , the opera house and sailed on a commuter ferry to Manly beach so named for the aboriginals described ( by the captain who first landed here) as... manly Back at our friends home we had dinner and a good visit before bed and an early morning rise ( what time is it here?/!!) and off to the Buck & Hens Day ( bachelor & bachlorette parties) I had a day at the races- a semi formal affair complete with hats and headpieces of feathers and flowers and a Banquet lunch ( Belmont read on!) I won 4 out of 9 races so it was a good day at the track
Frank headed to Newcastle for a day of quad biking the sand dunes, BBQs and an after party of which the details are top secret but included dinner drinks and a show hmmm....
Tomorrow we will hit the tourist trail in the Blue Mountains We arrived this afternoon and were treated by our hosts to a BBQ fit for a King!
See our photos at www.notbob.us

2/28/2006
It is raining down under
Yea it rained in the Blue Mountains so we couldn’t see much except fog but Lo and behold Tuesday morning- sunshine! So we headed to Scenic World took the steepest railway in the world down to the jungle floor and after some bushwalking back up on a cable car The Blue Mountains are really blue! They get that color from the eucalyptus trees Probably the only place like that in the world. Australia is home to many plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world including the kangaroo which Frank has been on a quest to see. The closest he's gotten is to pose for a picture with his arm around a cardboard one. Not quite what he was expecting but we haven’t left yet!!! Unless you want to count the dead wallaby on the side of the road...ewww!
We saw a king Parrot at the mountains but nothing like at our friends house where we hand fed the rainbow lorikeet parrots. We had about six surrounding us at a time and we could see and hear the cockatoos perched in the trees above us
In Bilpurn I saw a black cockatoo fly overhead (Frank missed it!) and later we had dinner at the local Apple Bar
Now we are back in Sydney and just had dinner in Chinatown (doesn’t every city have one?) Tomorrow morning we are off to Tasmania more on that later

3/2/2006
Last stop b4 Antarctica
We are in Tassie and yes you read right it is the last stop before Antarctica don’t think we have ever been this far away from home before Tasmania is a beautiful state full of mind-blowing scenery. Today we took a tour that drove thru picturesque fishing villages down the Tasman peninsula to Port Arthur. A prison for repeat offenders that closed in the mid 1800's After the penal colony closed 800 or so tourists took a boat walked among the ruins, danced in the mess hall and locked each other in cells for fun and a tourist attraction was born. So today in the spirit of things we learned of convict’s lives in Port Arthur which was self sufficient even making their own boots it is also the scene of one of the most horrific mass murders in Tasmanian history. 36 people died in 1996 by a gun wielding madman. Maybe some of you remember it in the news. There is a memorial but none of the staff will talk about it as many lost friends & family Tonight we will dine in Salamanca Square before we head out early tomorrow morning for the wedding festivities PS no kangaroos yet...

3/8/2006
Kangaroos & more kangaroos
Yes we have finally found them and got photos to prove it! See the pics at notbob.us
We are now in Melbourne after Tasmania we went back to the Central Coast where we enjoyed the wedding, the bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome and we all ate, drank, and danced. We had time to meet all the bride & grooms family & friends who treated us as if they were our friends and welcomed us into their homes and cars and showed us the sights and told us stories. In Gosford we went to the Reptile Park for our 1st roo experience. The kangaroos are in a fenced area called free range area that has picnic tables BBQ and kangaroos Then in Melbourne we went to Gumbya Park that had bigger roos that we fed and got the well sought after million dollar shot of Frank with his arm around one! We had a walking tour of the city done by our friend Jane, drinks with Paula and are on our way out to dinner with our friend Ari Melbourne is a beautiful brightly colored city and we are just having a blast. Tomorrow we go to The Great Ocean Road then onto Uluru for a 3 day camping trip in the desert before we hit the Great Barrier Reef

3/9/2006
Alice Springs
We have started the 2nd leg of our trip meaning we have seen all our long lost friends and now we are going on 2 adventure tours. We will miss all the people we were able to see and had a great time catching up and visiting, reliving travel memories as only they would understand. Kudos to all our hosts, you showed us a part of Australia we could never see without you! We are constantly overwhelmed with their generosity and hospitality of all our friends these are the things that make traveling precious. We are richer with every new experience.
We have seen different stars here. The Southern Cross is only visible in the southern hemisphere and we have had a few good looks. The 1st and most memorable was on the Central Coast.
Yesterday we toured the Great Ocean Road ( I love bus tours!) and visited Apollo Bay, took a helicopter ride over the 12 apostles limestone cliffs left by the destructive sea and got a picture of the famous London Bridge ( yea Australia has 1 too) that fell in 1990 ! leaving 2 tourists to be rescued by helicopter. It was a long day and we headed back to Melbourne with the moon in the sky before sundown and watched the sky turn all sort of colors till we were greeted by the night lights of Melbourne. This morning we boarded yet another flight and landed in another time zone in this red dessert city of Alice Springs, which is directly in the center of Australia. Tomorrow we start a camping tour to the largest monolith in the world called Uluru (Ayers Rock)
By the way see our Kangaroo quest fulfilled at www.notbob.us

3/13/2006
Outback
Just returned from our 3 day tour of the outback Red sand ,green bush and 3 dimensional clouds were just the beginning we set off with a group of 17 plus 2 guides Lumpy and Mickha after we hiked the Olga’s we watched the sunset at Ayers Rock ( Uluru) and camped out for the night. Our sites consisted of wood frames covered in canvas with bedrolls and sleeping bags. Our guides cooked us campfire lunches & dinners with cast-iron camping ovens we tried Kangaroo tail cooked in the coals then rose at 4am ( 4 am!) to watch the sunrise. The highlight of the trip was Kings Canyon , unlike the Grand canyon it is caused by a crack in the earth rather than a river because it had rained we were able to see the waterfalls and drank fresh rain water This is the only country I have been to that I can drink the water- clean, fresh and pure we met new friends and enjoyed our last night in Alice Springs with the group at Melankas - a bar that is described in Lonely Planet as a place that really goes off like a frog in a sock. They had music and contests such as a scavenger hunt and music trivia I was eliminated in the 2nd to last round but one guy from our group was the grand prize winner with prizes like free drinks and hats & key chains, It was a fun end to a great 4 days here in the outback Today we fly to Cairns and tour the Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas all the sights on the backpacker trail
3/20/2006
Calm b4 the storm
We left before the hurricane; in fact it happened during our international flight home. Remember that day we lost on the way? Got it back now and we got 2 Sundays this week. How often does that happen? We landed in Cairns (another time zone) and was told there had been a meter of rain and the roads to Cape Tribulation which we were scheduled to go to by bus had been flooded. As we arrived so did groups who had been stuck there for 4 days, those who chose to wait it out instead of catching a helicopter out. So to err on the side of caution we changed our tour to a 1 night tour instead. We drove up to Cape Tribulation through a road cut out of the rainforest with only a sprinkle of rain and arrived at a hostel where the largest rainforest in the world meets the beach one of the few places that does
As time was limited we hit the ground running and went right to the jungle surf- a trip that suspends you with only cables and a harness from rainforest tree to tree and a strong guy at either end. The last leg was upside down and we got a once in a lifetime view of the tree tops. Of course it rained but it is after all, a rainforest. After we went on a fruit tasting tour where we tasted Jackfruit and bread fruit, strange looking things that tasted like potatoes and bananas. On the way back we had sun again and took a crocodile tour on the Daintree River we were able to see 2 crocodiles and 2 babies that are only 6 inches long! Back in Cairns we joined 200 other tourists on a huge catamaran to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef another of Australia worlds largest We flew back to Sydney and had our last night with a friend- drinks and dinner at the Rocks before we had our last look at the Harbor Bridge and the Opera house at night. So we are back home a day sooner than we left and in yet another time zone. Wow...