Manly Beach

Surfing Manly Beach

On our last day, we decided to take the Ferry to Manly Beach. This little town is on the peninsula between Sydney Harbor and the Tasman Sea. The beach here is famed for surfing. While Mary relaxed near the beach, I took a quick hike along the seashore to Sydney National Park. There were quite a few scenic views of the beach and the rock cliffs as well as flowers blooming in the bushes along the path. I had a pleasant one hour hike, but you could have made a good 4-5 hour hike of it. We had a great lunch at the Jellyfish Restaurant along the beach and continued to watch the surfers and beach volleyball players. The weather continued to be beautiful in the low 70s, but as it started to cool late in the afternoon, we returned across the harbor to Sydney. A nice, relaxed day.

Hiking Sydney National Park

How would I summarize the trip? As you’ll recall, the weather was interesting, while it was fairly cold in Tasmania with some rain and snow and we had a fierce rain storm in Adelaide, about everywhere else, the weather was quite pleasant. Only two weeks earlier, it would have been quite hot (80’s-90’s) in Alice Springs and Port Douglas. I think we got a good feel for the variety of Australia. Everyone here was quite friendly, we had quite a few conversations with the Aussies as we toured around. The highlights had to be Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, Alice Springs and Uluru, and the Great Barrier Reef and Rainforest around Port Douglas. We also enjoyed every encounter we had with the animals, plants, and birds, particularly how marsupials predominate here. Not surprising, given that we prefer nature to big cities. It was quite interesting hearing the stories and history of the Aboriginals and the early colonization of the country. As usual, we appreciated Wayne our guide from OAT, he’s been doing this for over 20 years and his knowledge and humor were appreciated. In particular, going to an Aussie Rules Football game was fun! We also enjoyed meeting our small group of travelers, those of us who went to Tasmania together seemed to bond together particularly. A good trip – now we just need to see Western and Northern Australia. Lastly, I’ve never eaten so much fish and chips in such a short time.

If you'd like to see more pictures and videos, there is a 22 minute video available on youtube. 

The Blue Mountains

The group left for home or New Zealand today, but we stayed on and did the Grey Line Tour to the Blue Mountains. Why Blue Mountains? Because the evaporated oil from the Eucalyptus tree makes the mountains look blue from a distance. It took a little over an hour and a half to drive into the mountains.  Our first stop was Scenic World, which has three rides to provide views of the scenery. First we took a skyway tram across the Jamison Valley getting a picturesque view of Katoomba Falls. From there we took the scenic incline railway down a 52 degree plunge into the valley. This used to be the passageway to reach the coal mines on the valley floor. Because this valley is protected, the valley has rain forest vegetation. Here we spotted a Lyre Bird. It was busy digging in the soil to uncover worms and grubs which it fed to its youngster. Then up to the top on a cable car. The other interesting formation is called the Three Sisters, which has a legend about 3 sisters being turned into stone.

Lyre Bird

After lunch, we had a 25 minute Waradah Aborigine Culture show. Here we heard some of the stories about the totem animals of this region as well as dances celebrating these animals. We also learned about some more about the didgeridoo and how you can play it to represent the various animals during the various ceremonies. From here we walked to Echo point to get a close up view of the Three Sisters and an expanded view of the valley below.

Cassowary

Next we went to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which had a large collection of Australian birds and animals. We saw quite a variety of kangaroos and wallabies, koalas, and the best collection of birds we had seen. Some of the highlights were the owls, the Little Penguins, various parrots and cockatoos, and several varieties of eagles.

White Breasted Wood Swallows

As darkness approached, we headed back to Sydney, but instead of having to drive through all the rush hour traffic, we stopped near the Olympic Center and took a cruise down the Parramatta River to Circular Quay. This was an expensive tour ($199), but worth every penny!

Botanical Gardens, Sydney

Interior of Queen Victoria Building

Wayne gave us a short tour of some of the interesting shopping areas. The highlight was the Queen Victoria Building built in 1890. Built as a shopping center, it has served other purposes, but now is restored as a shopping center. Then we visited the Strand Arcade and Martin’s place, where the 1883 post office has now been turned into a Westin hotel, preserving the original façade, but with a completely new interior. We then spent most of the day in the Botanical Garden, a huge park on the peninsula that eventually leads to the Circle Quay. It was nice to feel far away from the city while in its midst. On the way home, we passed St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Mary is the only Australian saint. 

After a quick nap, I visited the Australian museum, it had a good exhibit on the sea coast Aboriginal culture, and different exhibit of animal skeletons. Our day concluded with a dinner at a pub in the Rocks area, followed by a walk across Harbor Bridge. Okay, so we didn’t climb the Harbor Bridge (at a cost of $260), but we did cross it!

Australian Museum exhibit

City Tour of Sydney

Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge

Yesterday, we had a relaxing morning, slept in till 7:30, breakfast, a walk along the shoreline, and then headed to the airport for a 1:00 flight. We had a great lunch on our Quantas flight, chicken salad, chocolate, and an ice cream bar. Arriving about 5:00, we had a pub dinner at a nearby restaurant to our hotel, the Sydney Boulevard Hotel.

Today, we packed in a full day during our city tour. The bus took us to a great viewpoint of the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. We walked to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair, where it is rumored the first governor’s wife would observe the harbor. Then we started tour around Sydney harbor by bus: Rose Bay, Watson’s Bay, the entrance to the harbor, and Bondi beach, learning the history of Sydney as we toured. The tour ended at the Circular Quay (pronounced kee) where the ferries leave for all points around the harbor. In January, 1788 Captain Phillip and his 11 ships and convicts arrived in Botany Bay. This Bay had been recommended by Joseph Banks, the botanist on the Endeavor under James Cook. But lack of water, had him move to Sydney harbor nearby. This is also where the first settlement was created. Over time, 22000 prisoners were transported here in 806 ships. After almost starving because of lack of good soil near the shore, the colony began to flourish. Governor Macquarie (1810-21) took it upon himself to turn Sydney from a prison colony into an attractive community with churches, hospitals, and barracks. Free settlers began arriving as good farm land was found closer to the Blue Mountains while the convicts provided free labor. Today the city has over 5 million inhabitants.

The Endeavor

After lunch we took the Sydney Harbor cruise, getting a view from the water of many of the bays we had seen earlier that day. Of course, the Opera house and Harbor Bridge were quite recognizable. But we also saw Kirribilli House, where the prime minister lives, the Admiralty House the official residence of the Governor General and a replica of the Endeavor. After our cruise, we visited the Opera House. Jorn Utzon won the 1957 design competition, but it took until 1973 to complete the building. Part of the problem was that he hadn’t worked with an engineer to determine whether his design could actually be built. They eventually found that by making the shells a section of a sphere, it could be built, but it took over 10,000 laborers to complete. Inside our 5 theaters and underneath is a 13 story car park. The main auditorium was quite spectacular and we got to hear part of the orchestra’s practice for a concert of David Bowie music coming next week at part of the Vivid Sydney celebration. The highlight of the day, however, was exiting the auditorium with a Princess ship exiting the harbor in a gorgeous sunset. 

Sunset in Sydney

Daintree Rain Forest

We headed north from our hotel through lots of sugar cane fields. In the 1800’s, the settlers cut down the red cedar trees to plant sugar cane. Sugar cane harvesting was a labor intensive activity, until they invented a machine that cuts off the grassy tops and then cuts the cane into 3 foot long sections.

After 45 minutes, we arrived at the Mossman Gorge part of the Daintree Rain Forest National Park. This is home to the last of the Cassowaries, an ancient bird that looks somewhat like an Emu. The region receives 12-45 feet of rain per year and over 400 different species of plants live in each 100 square meter area. We had an aboriginal guide who helped us understand the ancient ways in the forest. We started by walking through the smoke from a paperbark fire for cleansing. The first plant she showed us was a Waitawhile, which has barbs on it can be used to trap animals since it takes a while to release yourself from them. The vine can be used as fishing hooks. The base roots from the Red Cedar was used to fashion shields and killer boomerangs, which hooked the legs of small animals.  Further along, she pointed out the stinging tree which has fine hairs that irritate your skin, the more you scratch the worse off you are as the hairs dig further into the skin. The solution – pee on it, your urine is acidic and shrinks the hairs. Sarsaparilla grass can be crushed and it makes a good soap (which also helps with insect bites) and the stem when crushed helps provide deep heat, like Ben-Gay does. Along the banks of the river, we learned that a reason we’ve seen so many pictures of aboriginal men with white clay on them is that the clay helps hide the human scent when the men are hunting. Jenny then demonstrated how an aboriginal from this region would paint themselves. Each tribe had a different set of symbols to help communicate where they were from when trading.   We then learned about the different nuts and fruits in the rain forest. The Pandani fruit tastes like pineapple. The Daintree has a nut that tastes like coconut. They Cycad tree is from the time of the dinosaurs, it has a poisonous fruit, but when soaked in the stream for several days, the poison is removed and you have a fruit which can be turned into flour for a bread.

Jenny with tribal markings

We also learned some about life in the past and present for an aboriginal. Women are initiated when they reach puberty, they go into the bush to learn women’s traditions and skills for collecting and cooking. They use a shell to cut a brand on their skin which indicates that they are now a woman. Men historically married 5 women: the first would be in their 50’s past menopause to teach the man the family ways, and then others would be younger to produce children. Today, they only have one wife, but before marriage, he must visit the woman’s grandparents, who will provide the entire family tree. This is done to prevent accidentally marrying a close relation, quite possible because of the lost generation. We ended our walk with an example of an aboriginal hut. In this region, several generations would live in close proximity and live in an area for 2-3 months before moving to another area of the forest.

Fruit from our lunch

We had our best lunch of the trip at the Daintree Forest Tea House. On our plate beside our chicken, fish, or steak, was 8-10 different varieties of fruit, all of which grow in this forest: passion fruit, star fruit, dragon fruit, etc. Our host explained each of the fruits we were eating and how they were similar to or different from similar fruits in Asia, or the Americas.

Saltwater Crocodile

After lunch, we went on a crocodile cruise on the Daintree river. We did see quite a few crocodiles, even a one month old. We learned that the saltwater crocs lay about 55 eggs, because of predators, only 20 will hatch and most likely only one will survive to adulthood. But we also had quite a few other discoveries:  a sacred kingfisher, several rainbow bee eaters, an azure Kingfisher, and a python coiled in the tree, quite a trip!

Rainbow Bee Eaters

The Great Barrier Reef

Coral on Great Barrier Reef

We sailed from Port Douglas on a 350 passenger catamaran, the Quick Silver 5 out to the Great Barrier Reef. Thankfully, the ship was only about half full. The seas were pretty choppy, so they encouraged everyone to have a couple of ginger tablets. It took an hour and a half to power out to the platform anchored to the Agincourt Ribbon Reef about 1/3 down along the 2300 mile set of 2900 reefs. The facility there was quite sophisticated. We had a choice of activities: snorkeling and semi-submersible boat rides were included. You could also scuba dive or take a helicopter flight above the reefs. I did 3 separate snorkel trips and a trip on the submersible. The blue staghorn coral and some of the yellow mushroom coral was spectacular. I also saw more varieties of fish, then I’ve ever seen: lots of parrot fish, butterflyfish, surgeon fish and a 4 foot long Maori Wrasse. 

Maori Wrasse

Just before leaving, Wayne took us out to see some of the clownfish he had spotted earlier in the day. I also saw a reef shark and 3 green sea turtles. It was a great day! Unfortunately, the only pictures I took were from the submersible and the colors just didn’t come out well. Fortunately, Wayne also took some pictures. 

Clown Fish

Uluru

Sunrise at Uluru

We woke up in time to see sunrise on Uluru, of course, at this time of the year, that isn’t too bad – sunrise was at 7:15 AM. No champagne, this morning, instead we had tea (or in my case, hot chocolate) and biscuits. The sunrise wasn’t as spectacular as sunset, probably because at this time of the year, only part of the face of the rock lit up. We had breakfast at our hotel before heading back to the rock.

Our four climbers with the chains behind us

Four of us, decided to climb Uluru. This was a controversial decision, since the Aboriginals consider this to be a sacred site. In fact, there are places as you walk around, where you are not allowed to enter or take pictures. Most of these restricted areas have to do with men’s or women’s business. Only those who have been properly initiated and the right sex, know what the meaning is for these sites and are allowed to visit them. Now what about climbing? Well, the governor of the Northern Territories is an aboriginal man and he says it’s okay, yet there were signs saying please don’t climb, but yet again there is a chain installed on the trail to help you climb up the trail. So who knows? Anyway, four of us started out. Two quit initially, when they saw how steep it was (30 degrees?) then tried again and made it to the first summit at the top of the chain. Dale and I continued on and at least on the way up, we utilized the chain, because it almost became a steep climb. It took us ½ hour to get to the top of the chain. At this point, Dale said go ahead. The top of the chain turned out to be one of three false summits. But at least the trail wasn’t as steep after the chain. There were portions where I had to scramble up and down little valleys with hands and feet, occasionally resorting to a spider walk. But the scenery was fantastic. Dark streaks from the rain, numerous holes carved by wind or rain. And then about 2/3rds of the way up, the view was like waves of sandstone. 

Water holes and wave formations in background

At the top, was the required geological marker. It had taken me an hour to reach the top. From there it was a 360 degree view with Mt. Connor on one side and in the other direction, Kata Kjuta. When I came down to the top of the chains, Katy, Dale, and Ashley were waiting. Upon reaching the bottom, we still had time to see some of the wave caves, these caves look like they are waves made of stone. I’ll probably be sore tomorrow after today’s climb

Wave Cave

Our flight to Cairns left Uluru at 3:15 in the afternoon. We got to our hotel, the Reef House in Palm Cove about 7 PM and had a great dinner of steak, sausage, and about 5 varieties of salad.