Happy Holidays from Down Under

In lieu of a real Christmas card...



I hope at least a *few* of you print this out and put it on your fridge! (click through for a bigger version)


Current update:

We've finally driven far enough south in Queensland that we aren't sweating buckets day and night. Despite the relative chill, it still doesn't feel quite like Christmas to us, being so far away from family and friends.

We've been to a lot of amazing places in the last few months - Uluru and the Olgas, the MacDonald ranges, Kakadu, Darwin, Singapore, the Atherton Tablelands, Daintree, the Great Barrier Reef - the list goes on and on. It's a lot of fun, even if Christina's pictures fail to convey the heat or the insect density.

The Queensland coast is spectacular, and we'd love to share a bit of the warmth and a vision of the bright blue skies and clear waters with everyone back home who is shivering with the midwinter doldrums. So hope you enjoy the Great Barrier pics in the post below :)

We'll be spending Christmas and New Year's housesitting and wwoofing on a farm outside of Brisbane - should be great fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's!

Justin and Christina

Our Early Christmas Present

The Early Christmas Present - Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

We decided to spend some of our Christmas gift money from Kathrine on a snorkeling trip out on the Great Barrier Reef. It's something we both always wanted to do, and now that we were over here on the Queensland coast, we were eager to go. We picked a snorkel trip which stopped at 2 places - Michaelmas Cay, where you can both snorkel and observe seabirds nesting, and Hastings Reef, which is an outer reef and has no island but much more varied and larger sea life.

We went with "SnorkelStar", who advertised a small boat with a maximum of 30 passengers. It was actually pretty nice. The passengers were mostly couples and families with grown children, and no one staggered on looking like he or she'd spent last night getting plastered.



The day was spectacularly clear with the kind of vibrant blue skies you see in advertising brochures for the reef. The boat itself was a catamaran, and the sea was fairly calm, so our ride out to Michaelmas Cay was quite smooth. The trip out to the cay took about 45 minutes, during which we had a snack, got fitted for snorkel and flippers, and learned a bit about the reef.

We got to Michaelmas Cay before any other tour boats - another advertised feature we liked - and then opted to walk on the cay and observe the birds. A small inflatable launch took us on a loop around the island and then landed us on the narrow strip of sand on which visitors are allowed to walk. The island is an important seabird nesting site and too much disturbance would probably chase them away.



Some bird shots:










After getting scorched for an hour or so looking at birds, we took the launch back to the boat, slipped on our snorkel gear and stinger suits, then clumsily lurched off the boat into the water. This time of year the tropical waters off Northern Queensland harbor poisonous jellyfish - the box jellies and the irukandji - neither of which is particularly pleasant to encounter. The stinger suits weren't too bad, though after watching everyone struggle in and out of theirs, I'm not sure all the other passengers would agree.

The water was fairly clear, and we immediately began to see fish. If you've never snorkeled, it's not quite what you expect. Without the need to constantly keep raising your head out of the water to breathe, it's easy to get lost in looking around at all the underwater life. We saw quite a few different fish.



The hour in the water went by all too quickly, and we climbed back onboard for lunch. The included lunch was quite nice - cold deli meats, prawns, fruits, and salads. Swimming does wonders for the appetite.



After another short boat ride, we anchored off Hastings Reef. One of the guides put on a short fish identification talk, then we jumped back in the water. Here, much nearer the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, the fish were more varied and larger. The coral varieties were also astounding. It's hard to imagine just how diverse the forms the corals take without actually seeing them first-hand.

Here are a few photos:









After 2 1/2 hours here, it was time to head home. We climbed back on the boat, stripped off our stinger suits for the last time, then settled back with coffee and tea to watch the waves roll by. The ride back to Cairns in the late afternoon was quick but not rough. We talked a little more to one of the crew, who, it turns out, was a girl from NZ. She was working her way around the world on boats, working as a member of yacht crews and as a dive instructor. We compared travel notes and talked about NZ.

All too soon, we arrived back in Cairns. It was a long day but a whole lot of fun.

Above Water set
Below Water set

Birthday Boy

It's Justin's birthday today (Dec 6th) so let's all wish him a big...


Happy "good on you mate" Birthday!!


Here's a couple pics Laura sent us to celebrate Justin's humble beginnings - isn't he cute? (I know he'll get me back for this on my birthday!)


(Laura wondering just what exactly is so cute about baby brothers)



(Justin practicing for a future of 4wd tracks in the outback!)

Thanks Laura :)

Singapore was Great!

Hi all,

We're back in Australia after a week in Singapore, where we really enjoyed ourselves! Everything was decorated for Christmas and very festive. Also Singapore is truly a food paradise - we indulged in a different cuisine for every meal: Malaysian, various Chinese styles, North and South Indian, Thai, Japanese, and even Egyptian! Yum. Plus lots of snacks - avocado milkshakes, pork buns, bubble tea, kaya toast, fried bananas and lots and lots of iced coffee.

When we weren't busy eating, we went to three animal parks where I got to hold a vulture, feed lorikeets and elephants (not at the same time!) The rest of the time we just walked all over taking in the sights and local colors. We stayed in the Little India neighborhood which was a lot of fun and very lively. We had a great time and hope to get back there again.





In other news, we've decided at the last minute to bail on Western Australia and to instead drive to Queensland to reduce our driving. We really want to see WA someday, but it's just going to have to be on another trip.

We've been too busy (and too hot!) to write any more posts yet, but I'll get some current ones up soon. What did you think of the last three posts? I can't believe I haven't gotten any comments on the "Arf burger" yet?!! haha.

A few more old posts

Hi all - here are a couple more posts from our time before Ayer's Rock. I'm still working on the backlog :)

We're in Darwin right now (where it's very hot, humid and buggy.) We'll be going to Singapore for week next Monday to renew our visas - it only costs a little more to leave the country and come back than to stay here and pay for a visa extension. Singapore should be really fun!

-Christina

A Day on the Oodnadatta Track

Muloorina to William Creek
09Oct08

Today we drove a long section of the famous Oodnadatta track which follows the old abandoned train line and telegraph line that were historically very significant. Everyone used this particular route through the harsh desert because it follows a string of natural springs.

First stop was in the town of Marree to see some old train tracks and an engine.



Next up was the not-so-historical Sculpture Garden full of various sculptures cobbled together from random junk. This airplane sculpture was inhabited by cockatoos (who were not happy with us!)



My other favorite was this robot-like statue of a film maker :)



And here's Justin playing the gongs...



The land in this area is extremely arid, harsh and flat - very surreal. At one point we were driving along listening to my favorite Dead album - Live Dead - and I realized that the song "Feedback" is the perfect compliment for this bizarre landscape.

Later on we stopped at the Wabmu Mound Springs National Park to see, you guessed it, mound springs. These are salty hot springs bubbling up from the giant underground aquifer that have built up large hill-like mounds from all the minerals in the water. The springs are pretty but unfortunately inhabited by biting flies that quickly chased us back to the car! This was our first encounter with the friendly biting fly... as though the bush flies constantly dive-bombing into our eyes, nose and mouth weren't bad enough!



Our last stop for the day was a ghosttown called Strangeways (how could we pass up a place with a name like that?)It was a town built around one of the telegraph repeater stations.



The telegraph line across the center of Australia was so extremely important because it linked the populated area of SE Australia with the rest of the world via an underwater cable from Darwin to Indonesia. Strangeways was an interesting place with many half-crumbled buildings and some good information about the town's history, but again there were clouds of bush flies following us around so we could only stand it for so long before running back to the car.

That night we stayed at the holiday park at the William Creek roadhouse - the only settlement within at least a 100 mile radius. This is a proper outback roadhouse - a tin roofed rambling building with a bar/restaurant/gas station decorated with everything from rusty lanterns and faded photos, to foreign paper bills and ladies underwear stapled to the walls! We were hoping to eat a real meal there so we hurried to shower before the kitchen closed at 8pm. But alas when we returned at 7:30 clean and hungry, the rather acerbic young women at the counter informed us that it was too late - the kitchen had closed. I started to argue about the time and she just snapped, "you're in the wrong time zone!" So frustrated and hungry we trudged back to the truck to scrounge up something to eat (more canned soup) and tried to figure out how we had crossed time zones! We didn't figure it out til about a week later in Uluru when someone clued us in that South Australia had switched to daylight savings time while we were camping in the Flinders - and by then we were completely confused because NT (Northern Territory) doesn't follow DST! So it seems that we now can't keep track of the date, day of the week or even the time of day :)

Oodnadatta track photoset

Muloorina Oasis and Lake Eyre Salt

Muloorina Waterhole and Lake Eyre
08Oct08

In an attempt to see the dawn chorus we crawled out of bed just as the sun crept over the horizon, but these desert birds are extremely early risers and we had already missed the crescendo.



However it did mean we got an early start on the day, which is something we keep trying to do since it gets oppressively hot by midday.
After breakfasting with some curious galahs, I got my first driving lesson in the landcruiser. Yes, I'm terribly embarrassed to admit it but I'm not comfortable driving a manual and Justin did all the driving in NZ and in Australia thus far. However Australia is so large and we will be doing so much driving that I really need to be helping out. So since we had the campground to ourselves it was a great place for me to practice driving on the wrong side and shifting gears. Fortunately the truck is pretty easy to shift and not prone to stalling (like the VW which convinced me I'd never drive a stick!), so I did fine. Now all I need to get used to are roundabouts :)

After that bit of fun we drove north to Lake Eyre – I should say Justin drove because the road was terribly corrugated and sandy and I wasn't quite ready for that! Lake Eyre is a giant salt lake, currently dry, surrounded by very bleak and flat desert.



The lake itself is immense. We walked on it for a good thirty minutes towards the center and we only covered a fraction of it. When you're standing in the middle of it you can see a near 360degree mirage on the horizon. The mirage looks so much like water shimmering in the distance that we kept thinking that perhaps there was water in the lake after all – until we walked a bit further and realized that rock we thought was sticking out of water, was just stuck in the salty mud.






Back at Muloorina that afternoon we relaxed under the shade of a gum tree and under the protection of our fly net (the flies are horrendous here) and watched all the birds at sunset from the comfort of our folding chairs :)

Muloorina photoset

Arf Burgers and Parrot Sunsets

Arkaroola to Muloorina Station
07Oct08

Today we were tempted to take one of the expensive geology or observatory tours at Arkaroola, but as they were all booked up or not running the decision was made for us. We did however need diesel before we could leave – gas stations are few and far between out here – but they were just filling the diesel tank with fuel that had been trucked in from Pt Augusta so we had to wait. This gave us an excuse to check out the small but charming geological museum and to learn more about Reg Sprigg, one of the founders of the Arkaroola Reserve and a fascinating man. He was involved in many important geological explorations and discoveries in Australia including finding the world's oldest fossil animals (the Edicarian era) in the 1940s. I'll have to read more about him when I have time.



The delay also led to us to guiltily indulge in lunch at the cafe. We both ordered the “Ark burger” which sounded good but turned out to be a towering monstrosity we've dubbed the “Arf burger”. It started with a huge patty that was more like a flattened meatball than a burger – what they call a rissole here. Plus lettuce, tomato, cheese, pickled beets, a fried egg, bacon, and bbq sauce. Amazingly we ate most of it, but we groaned about it for the rest of the day!

And here is what I consider to be my best photograph EVER of Justin and the Arf burger:


nice, eh?

After that we drove through more desolate arid county to the small town of Marree, where we refueled and headed to the Muloorina Station campground for the night. A station is what they call a really large ranch out here. We saw several sheep wandering with practically nothing for them to eat, which led to my brilliant idea of the Lucky Sheep Contest. (drumroll) I think that every year they should run a lottery to choose one lucky Australian sheep whose prize is to be moved to the lush pastures of New Zealand to live out his natural life. It's only fair considering what hard lives the sheep have in the desert!
On the way we crossed the famous “Dog Fence” - the longest fence in the world stretching over 3000 miles and built to keep dingos out of southern Australia. Don't worry, I remembered to shut the gate behind us :)



I was very excited to stay at the Muloorina campground as we'd been told by a friendly stranger in Pt Augusta that it was a beautiful oasis and a fantastic place for birdwatching. What the stranger forgot to add was that the campground had FLUSH toilets and only cost $2 per night! Sigh, I could have stayed here forever. The campground is located on the shores of a lake oasis that is fed by a bore (or well), and indeed has more birdlife than I've seen since NZ. We arrived just in time for a glorious sunset and a cacophonous dusk chorus.



Galahs, corellas, herons, ravens, coots, stilts, swamphens, and plenty of other birds I couldn't identify were all flying about and settling in for the night. Very enchanting...



Arkaroola photoset

What's New?

Hi everyone! We've finally gotten some new posts and photos up. To get the big picture read Justin's summary of Australia so far. I'll still be writing detailed posts of everything - but be warned we aren't going to be in chronological order anymore.

I just posted our days at Ayers Rock and in the MacDonnells. And I'll be slowly filling in the gaps (between Sydney and Ayers Rock) when I have time. And I haven' forgotten about NZ either...

As a final update, we're just about to leave Alice Springs at the moment to drive north to tropical Kakadu NP and Darwin. It should be very hot and humid up there this time of year so wish us luck :)

Cheers!
Christina

Palm Trees and Art Lessons

Palm Valley, Hermannsburg and on to Alice Springs
16Oct08

In the morning I was very excited to see a pair of Major Mitchell Cockatoos! I've been looking for these for awhile since reading about them in my bird book. They are spectacular birds with white bodies, pink under the wings and a very showy crest that has red and yellow stripes. Have I mentioned how much I love parrots yet?? The camp had lots of birds including butcherbirds and our old friend, "santa crow" who goes "ho-ho-ho" in a strange strangled voice.

The actual Palm Valley trailhead was a few kms up the road, but the "road" was a very rough 4wd track down a dry riverbed. I thought it was great fun - but I wasn't driving! Several times we had to stop and investigate on foot to find the best path over the rocks. The Landcruiser is a lot tougher than we give her credit :)



The drive was worth every rattle - Palm Valley is an amazing oasis of prehistoric palm trees in a lovely sandstone gorge. We took a 5km loop walk that takes you through the dry scrub and spinifex on the ridge above the gorge before dropping down into it and following the riverbed back to the trailhead. Once along the rivedbed you walk between towering red cliffs on one side and swaying palm trees on the other. I think it may be my favorite spot in Australia so far. I'll let the photos speak for themselves...









After that we drove to nearby Hermannsburg to eat the famous apple strudel that Lotti and Heike told us about. Hermannsburg is an aboriginal town with an historic center that used to be a Lutheran mission. We ate strudel in the cafe (very good) before checking out the buildings.



The older couple who live onsite and run the place were very amusing. First they insisted that we watch a short film from the 40's about Albert Namatjira, an aboriginal artist from Hermannsburg who became fairly famous for his western-style watercolor landscapes of the MacDonnell Ranges. The film was quite interesting and I really liked his paintings, although sadly his success did not make for a happy life. I bought a print of one that depicts a large red river gum tree in the foreground with rocky bluffs in the distance - a scene that he painted many versions of and that I'd been trying to capture with my camera for days!

Hermannsburg also has a nice gallery of original paintings, including two Namatjiras plus many paintings in the same style done by his descendants. But our favorite part of the visit was when the proprietor proceeded to point out dozens of hidden images in the Namatjira paintings, including some that were so racy he would only show Justin and I had to leave the room! haha... we could only see about half of what he pointed out and I have no idea whether any of the imagery was deliberate or not. Now I can't wait to hang up my print and invite guests to find subliminal content.

Palm Valley photoset
Hermannsburg and Alice Springs photoset

Emus at Breakfast and Kings Canyon

Curtin Springs to Kings Canyon
14Oct08

While Justin took a shower I made the mistake of feeding a wild emu. When my emu friend became more interested in the open truck doors I quickly realized that it's hard to shoo away a 4 foot tall, sharp-beaked bird. Before I could find a way to stop him he took a chunk out of the rubber door gasket! Must not have tasted too good though, because he wandered off after that :)



Today we drove north to King's Canyon through more beautiful red dirt country, and camped at the caravan park inside the national park. Another resort inside a national park that doesn't have regular campgrounds. There were tons of playful galahs and several wild dingos. The dingos must be a real problem because they even had gates on the bathrooms to keep them out.

By the time we got checked in it was too hot to do a hike so we just relaxed. By relaxed I mean I poured over the maps to plan our itinerary while Justin reattached several bits and bobs that had rattled themselves loose on the car ;) Plus that night we indulged in an hour of very poor satellite internet access that was more frustrating than useful. I can't believe we ever complained about web access in New Zealand!



Kings Canyon
15Oct08

Today we did a very nice loop hike in King's Canyon.



You start the hike by climbing to the top of the canyon and then it's easy walking though amazing "beehive" sandstone formations with periodic views down into the canyon. About halfway you descend into a gorge with a year-round waterhole that is home to many birds, animals and plants. Dubbed "the Garden of Eden" it's a spectacular spot.



It used to be a popular swimming hole but the park asks you not to swim anymore since sunscreens and lotions can pollute the water. Speaking of swimming, as we left the water hole we passed an odd middle-aged couple - the man was nondescript, but the woman was wearing a strapless bikini... did you get that? She was hiking in a bikini AND wearing a mozzie net hat. It was the strangest thing I've seen in awhile!



Throughout Kings Canyon we passed many handsome examples of the "prehistoric" MacDonnell Cycad, a plant that doesn't grow anywhere else, but I'll leave it to the resident flora expert to elaborate :)



We also had the great luck to see a bower bird guarding his bower! These are very cool birds that build a "showroom" nest to attract the females, decorated with bits of trash and so forth that they have collected (like a magpie.) This particular bower bird needed to work on his collection and I would have donated something if I'd had anything appropriate.

After the hike we embarked on the dreaded "Mereenie Loop Road." This is a short cut in distance, but after driving it we aren't sure it's worth it!



We'd been warned by Lotti and Heike that it was a bad road - they didn't take it - but the woman at the campground reception said it had just been graded so we figured it'd be ok. So we bought the permit and headed off (you have to have a permit to go through the tribal land.) Needless to say it was heavily corrugated (washboarded) and full of bulldust holes and we had to lower the tire pressure considerably. The country was beautiful though and we saw wild camels and horses, which redeemed it slightly.



Eventually we reached the turnoff for the Palm Valley NP campground, another 16km on bad road, but we were rewarded with a fantastic campground that had flush toilets and solar-heated hot showers! Plus a merciful lack of flies and mosquitos - what more can you ask for? We relaxed and watched the full moon come up while bats darted in the twilight. Something, possibly a small bat (or a big roach) actually flew into the truck for a moment, but quickly found it's way out fortunately. While we washed up the dishes we had a nice conversation with another camper who told us all about going on safari in Africa. It sounds fantastic -maybe we'll have to amend our itinerary (if we ever get out of Australia!)

Kings Canyon photoset
Mereenie Loop photoset

The Magnificent Olgas

The Olgas and more Uluru
13Oct08

Today our goal is to see the Olgas - a second rock formation in the park that isn't nearly as famous as Ayers Rock/Uluru but is just as wonderful. The Olgas are a group of monolithic rocks that are made of a conglomerate rock that the guide book describes as "plum pudding." Sigh - I was hungry for British pudding the whole day!



We took the "Valley of the Winds" walk through the Olgas which is fantastic, and in some ways more interesting than the walk around Uluru just because you can get so much closer.



The day was very hot and we were pretty worn out afterwards even though it is only a 7km hike. The heat here can really take it out of you and we are being very diligent about sunscreen, hats and drinking lots of water (yes, even me.)



We headed back to the resort complex for lunch and a little A/C, stocked up on ice and supplies at the store, wrote a few postcards, and then drove back to the official sunset viewing site of Uluru. Since watching the sun set on Uluru is the main attraction in the park the viewing area has a crowded, party-like atmosphere. Couples are drinking wine, and kids are running around with cameras. Determined to get a good photo I set up my tripod on the roof of the "troopy" and waited for the light.



Alas the light never really came - the sunset on this evening was dampened by some clouds on the western horizon. C'est la vie. At least we got to see one good sunset!



In the twilight and under the full moon we drove one last time around the rock - very eerie at this time of night. Then we drove away to Curtin Springs - another roadhouse that has free camping. You really have to watch out for wildlife at night and we came across both kangaroos and cattle in the middle of the road. Exhausted we ate cold sandwiches and went straight to bed.

Olgas photoset