The Great Ocean Road

So, we’ve now traveled from Kangaroo Island in South Australia to Melbourne in Victoria via the Great Ocean Road. Which has got to be one of the most scenic coastal highways anywhere in the world. Also, one of the windiest, and today quite chilly. The locals are saying that the weather is unseasonable cool. We ran into a spot of rain and highwind, then the traffic came to a dead halt. Everyone parked just hanging out on the roadway. Evidently a fatality accident ahead, as we can see a helicopter has landed on the road. But, being resourceful we back track around on a country road and skirt the scene. It was still along day of driving, we started the day at 6:15am and got in about 10:30pm, and had 2 ferry crossings. We got into Melbourne, and only had the afternoon to look around the CBD (central business district) before we caught a flight to Sydney.

A word about the domestic airlines here in Australia. Though the are nice, clean and efficient, (they don’t even check ID, and you can carry water through security). They don’t give you a morsel to savor whilst in route. Not a water, soda or a peanut. If you want something, you buy it. So don’t be thinking that Southwest Airlines is all that bad!!!

Here are a few pics, most didn’t turn out so good. So windy, water spots on the lens….difficult day for good photography from an amateur photographer.








Proof that it was very windy!!!!!

The water just makes you want to go and jump in it, it was so beautiful











2 of the 12 apostles

















The Grotto
















Our first sighting of a koala joey







This is the view from our B&B in Apollo Bay

Ever seen a Was-A-Roo?

We have spent the last couple of days on Kangaroo Island which is 30 miles south of mainland Australia near Adelaide. KI has the largest concentration of native Aussie animals including wallabies, kangaroos, echidnas, and koalas. We stayed at the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Resort near Flinders Chase National Park.

Here are pics of some of the animals that we saw. Most of the animals were nocturnal and come out at dusk.



Koala—you can smell them before you seen them due to the pungent eucalyptus smell. The males also make the most interesting sound, kind of like a motorcycle. This island has 14,000 koalas.














Kangaroo—there are 3 varieties on the island and this one is extinct on the mainland








Wallabies – there are 800,000 thousand on this island. Some are very tame and will eat from your hand. They have interesting reproduction: one young joey, one in the pouch and a fertilized egg on stand by.







New Zealand Fur Seal—they are in breeding season now and are very territorial. These two males were fighting for their mating territory.






Australia Sea Lion-we were able to walk down on the beach and see them up close. This is the only place in the world where you can see them this close. They swim 75 miles out to sea for 3 days at a time then come to this beach to sleep. They just went on the endangered species list last month.








Ring tailed Possum—these are rare and we were lucky to see one.












We also saw some amazing scenery:






The roads on KI are littered with animal carcasses. As we were heading back to the ferry this morning 3 kangaroos jumped out in front of the car. I was able to avoid two of them but the smallest one went right under the car and became a Was-A-Roo. :(

We have enjoyed this island and wish we could have stayed longer. We are now on way to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road and will spend a few days on the road.

M

Kakadu National Park

On Monday we drove to Kakadu National Park which is 3 hours east of Darwin. All along the road to Kakadu there are these huge termite mounds. This was one of the biggest that we saw, there are bigger ones further east.

Kakadu has a good collection of aboriginal rock art and drawings. We toured two different places that both had several art sites. The amazing thing about these sites is that the art is done on sandstone and the aborigines used crushed rocks and other materials to paint the drawings. We saw drawings that were done 1,000 to 20,000 years ago. It is amazing that they are still preserved so well! We hiked up to a lookout for sunset and were able to see the wetlands and one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, which ended w/ a spectacular lightening show. It is the start of summer here and the end of the dry season so we didn’t go to any of the waterfalls as they have no water this time of year.

There are only 3 hotels in Kakadu and only one was available when we booked. Ironically, it was our most expensive hotel night so far on this trip and sadly the worst. The room was old and rundown and my "favorite" part was the two cockroaches that greeted us as we turned on the light. James promptly squished them as I ran out of the room (one was at least an inch and a half long!). It was a long night for me…I don’t really like cockroaches.

Tuesday morning we did a river cruise. This one was guided by an aboriginal clansman and he talked to us about their culture. He showed us different plants and tools they use and how to throw a spear. It was a very informational tour and I liked learning about the indigenous people of Australia who have been here for 40,000 years. As we cruised down the river we also saw birds, crocodiles and more crocodiles. There were crocs on the bank at least every 50 feet.
Kakadu was a very hot, but fascinating place and worth the drive out there to see the incredible art sites.

M

Food for thought

The hardest thing to do while traveling is to find food. Especially when you need 3 meals a day or at least 2. You never know where to go, whats good, whats bad and if you have a language barrier only adds to the complexity of the situation. China was Chinese food 3 meals a day that got real old after 17 days, Africa was totally disgusting all meals all days. Australia has been relatively easy, they eat what we eat. We’ve not even had to resort to MacDonalds, and there are plenty of those around. They do seem to love meat here, I realized yesterday when eating our cesear salad with bacon bits that Maija was having bacon for the 3rd time that day. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast, bacon and cheese croissant for lunch, and then bacon bits on salad for dinner.

But, we’ve had kangaroo in Cairns, which was very delicious. I expected to sample it, and push it away. It was served as kabobs and was delicious. We both finished it all. Barramundi is “their” fish here, you can find it anywhere. It’s a white fish and very good, we’ve had that several times served in various ways. In Darwin we found a Sunday night BBQ buffet, which had bbq, beef, pork, lamb and chicken complete with fresh salad, vegetables, baked potatoes and rolls. One of the best meals we’ve had here! Darwin is in the very north part of the country, closest to Indonesia. So we’ve also had very good Thai food. They also have many varities of exotic fruit which we’ve tried all of them and most are good, soursop, mangosteen, dragon fruit. And, the usual pineapple, cantaloupe, mango, and watermelon.

So, really what I’m saying here is that Africa was a really good diet plan, and Australia is not. Do not expect us to come home 10lbs lighter.

See last 2 posts for new photos...

we finally got faster internet here in Darwin. See last 2 post for the photos that were supposed to go with them.

A Day in the Daintree Rainforest

Yesterday we left Cairns and headed north to Daintree, the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. They are in the far northeast coast of Australia.. The Daintree Rainforest is aworld heritage site, and the only place in the world were one site begins where the other ends (Great Barrier Reef). We stopped in Daintree and did a river cruise on the Daintree River which is home to hundreds of crocodiles. They like to eat people, in fact our guide told us that a local man was eaten by one just two weeks ago when he went out to check a crab pot. Needless to say, we got nowhere close to the water! We were lucky enough to see a 15 foot, 2,000 pound crocodile feeding on a dead cow on the river bank. It was HUGE and very fascination to watch.


After the river cruise we took a a ferry across the river into the Daintree National Rainforest. We explored the Discovery center which is an interpretive center for the rainforest. It was a great place to learn all about the rainforest and to see birds and other jungle/forest animals.

We then made our way up the coast to the town of Cape Tribulation and our accommodations. It was a B&B called the Rainforest Hideaway (google it if you want to see what it looks like). It is a small place with a couple of cabins in the forest. We had a little cabin that was the size of a hotel room and included a bathroom “out back”. The bathroom was completely outside, built onto the back of the cabin on a covered patio. It was the most unique bathroom I have even seen. It had complete plumbing, a flush toilet and an outdoor shower. Basically, when we were in the bathroom we were also in the forest. We had a great time and loved the room.





This pic is of Ellis Beach in Cairns. Today we arrived in Darwin where we will stay a few days exploring Kakadu National Park and several aboriginal sites. It is hotter than a motha”……think Miami in mid summer!!!!!

-M

Agincourt Ribbon Reefs diving……

From our digs in Cairns we drove up the coast about 45 minutes to a place called Port Douglas. When we turned off the main highway towards the Marina was a nice palm tree tree lined road. I said to Maija “this looks like were driving into Princeville on Kauai”. If you’ve ever been there, gives you an idea of the kinda place we’re hanging out. Real nice and tropical and touristy!!!!!

So we signed up to go out on a boat called Poseidon. There were about 50 people, only 13 of which are divers, so 2 small groups. The nice thing about diving the reef, is that’s all shallow diving about 60 feet was max depth. Our first dive we drop in, swim around the backside of this pinnicle we see 4 white tip reef sharks!!! Spectacular!!! We look off toward the open ocean and there sitting on the sandy bottom was a MANTA RAY!!!! Dive master says he only sees 1 every 3 months. I was so excited that I sucked all my air, and only got 43 minutes out of the dive. This was the best dive I’ve ever been on, tons of fish, great colorful heathly coral, crystal clear water. If you’re a diver, put the GBR on your list of must see places and make sure you go to the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs.

Here are the pics...although they don’t do justice to the size of the Ray or sharks due to distance, but it was 12-15 feet across.

J