Cairns & Sydney, Australia

Cairns is located in the northeastern part of Australia, closer to the equatorial tropical zone. Contrary to Alice Springs in the outback’s hot and dry desert, the weather took a complete turn around and changed into a wet and muggy one. In just a couple of hours of plane ride (actually more like three hours since our small plane took a short detour to Uluru at the last minute – that’s when we got our aerial photo of the Ayer’s rock), we were in an area where flooding had occurred. Not surprisingly, when we landed early in the evening, it started to drizzle. We quickly grabbed a cab to our hotel on the waterfront and retired for the night, eagerly anticipating what this new town had in store for us.

When we woke up the next morning, the drizzle had become a downpour. What we had hoped to do while in Cairns, which was to go snorkeling and diving in the outer Greater Barrier Reef, had to wait another day. We learned through the hotel concierge that the only option we had on a rainy day was to visit the tropical rainforest – of course, what else? So, we opted to visit the area of Kuranda, which is only about 15 miles away by car. We first went up on a long cable car ride, with two stopping points where we got off to take a walk in the middle of the rainforest.

The rainforest was a dense jungle of tall trees, plants, and vegetations. They were all striving to grow taller or somehow find a way to get their share of sunlight. This resulted in canopies of leaves high above the ground, and in some cases vines and plants growing high on top of trees.




Unlike the other vast parts of Australia, water is abundant here. At times, the scenery looked like we were in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

The small town of Kuranda is located on top of a mountain at the end of our cable car ride. There, we had a chance to visit some of the Australia’s native animals in a small local zoo.

These are fresh water alligators. They are much smaller than the ferocious, meat eating, saltwater alligators. The locals say they will swim along the fresh water alligators, but never with the saltwater kind. One can tell from the size of it – the saltwater kind is much larger, some growing up to 30 feet.

The Koala bears are nocturnal animals and they mostly sleep during the daytime. There were several in the zoo, sleeping away but luckily this one stayed awake just for this photo moment.

Joanne got a chance to hold a Koala for a photo (of course, for a price). This one is called ‘Princess’ and she should be on their payroll (she works 4 hours per day and is trained to be docile), being a star attraction. Do not try to hold a wild Koala – they have sharp claws and could be dangerous.

The wallaby is the smaller version of the kangaroo. They weren’t shy; they came right up to our palms to feed.

On the way down, we got on the slow trains (took an hour) stopping in a couple of places for photos. Originally, the trains were for the use by miners, a long time ago.

The next morning, the view from our hotel balcony indicated that it was going to be sunny. But, with a cyclone warning the night before, all the boat companies had decided not to operate. So, we went out and rented a car and drove up to the Daintree National Park, about 100 miles northwest of Cairns.

The road hugged the coastline and the view was spectacular.

On our way out, a friendly porter told us about a restaurant called the Salsa at Port Russell where we must stop for lunch. It must be good since this is where even Bill Clinton stopped for lunch. Take a closer look at the date. You now know where he was on that fateful 9/11 day.

I don’t know what Bill Clinton ate but we asked to be seated where he sat and ordered jambalaya. It came with alligator sausage and it was delicious.

We continued through the national park. We even got on a ferry with our car, which took us across a river and deeper into the jungle.

This was one of our stops, where the so-called rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef at the beach. It reminded me of a scene from a movie Papillon when Steve McQueen escaped from the jungle to reach the sea. The beach was totally deserted without a single person to be seen except one.

We saw something on the sand that looked quite unusual. It looked like pearl-sized sand balls scattered in a floral pattern.

In the midst of this sand balls were tiny sand crabs (called “Bubble Crabs”) busily making these things and then spitting them out of a small hole. I caught one in action. That single person we saw on the beach told us that once a year some scientists from the US come and measure the size and shape of these sand balls for study.

This photo is deep inside the national park, near Cape Tribulation. Cape Tribulation was named by Captain Cook in 1770 after he experienced a great deal of tribulation – “here began all our troubles” when his ship ‘The Endeavor’ crashed on the rocky reefs near there.

Although the distance we covered was only about 200 miles, because of the narrow and winding roads through the jungles, as well as stopping for lunch, it became a full day affair. We were recommended by Kevin and Tess to stay at a place in Daintree, but having booked a trip to the Outer Great Barrier Reef the next morning, we drove back to Cairns. The ever-changing, beautiful colors of the sunset followed us as we left the rain forest behind us.


The night before, we were notified by our hotel to fill the bathtub with water, in case the Cyclone Hamish (like a hurricane) hit the city and we needed fresh water. Fortunately, the cyclone decided to move southwards, missing Cairns altogether. The next morning, sun came out blazing and it looked like we were going to have a fine day of snorkeling and deep sea diving.

By a high-speed catamaran, it takes about an hour and a half to get to the Outer Great Barrier Reef. They say it is where the reef is more beautiful.

With the boat filled with excited young Chinese, Japanese and tourists from other countries (our boat had mechanical problems and all of us had to be merged into another boat), we got there in about two and a half hours. The day was fine but the sea was not as calm at all and by the time we got there, and trying to have lunch on a floating platform, many people were already wishing to be taken back to firm ground.

Our dive instructor, Chris was excellent. He was as patient and gentle as an instructor could be. Despite our stomachs churning from the boat ride, we had a wonderful time diving and experiencing the Outer Great Barrier Reef. It was an amazing experience that we will cherish forever. With the oxygen tank on our backs and with the weight belt around our waists, we could barely stand up, let alone walk, due to the extra heavy weight. However, once we were in the water and once our fears were gone, the time that was spent underwater was incredible. While I had to come up early, Joanne stayed longer to enjoy swimming in the beautiful underwater world.

The fee to rent a waterproof camera was prohibitive, so we have no pictures of all the beautiful corrals, giant stingrays, the largest shell-fish, and thousands of fishes. But this photo that we took on our plane ride to Sydney over looking the Great Barrier Reefs was free.

The Sydney harbor from the airplane – Joanne is learning to take good pictures from the window seat.

The Opera House is “THE” landmark in the Sydney Harbor. Some Sydney residents thought it was an eye sore when it was first built. Now, it is considered to be one of the most beautiful and recognizable architectural structures in the world.

The Sydney skyline from the Opera House – it turned out to be another fine day to tour around the city.

The Opera House from the other side of the harbor presented more classical lines.

We met up with Julie, Simeon and their young daughter Jamima at a restaurant in China Town. We first met them on our trip to Halong Bay in Vietnam when we took the over-night cruise. Julie and Simeon treated us to the best seafood restaurant in China Town. We gorged on delicious crabs and spent a wonderful evening talking about our trips and their lives in Sydney. With our hearts filled with love, we had to say good-bye to the family until we hopefully meet again, in the states.

Before leaving Sydney, we had one last day to enjoy the city; we took a bus that took us around to all of the attractions in the city and the surrounding suburbs.

This is the famous Bondi beach with its white sandy beach. It reminded us a lot of the many beaches in southern California.

Where there’s surf, there are surfers. Again, I’ve seen crazier looking vehicles around the beaches of southern California.

Our journey down under had taken us to many beautiful places and gave us a chance to meet beautifully kind people. If it’s not as expensive to live there, as it is in the states, we almost wanted to pack up and move right in.  Actually, we don't need to worry about packing since whatever little that we have left has already been packed.

Australia

As we all know, Australia is a large country, so large that it is also a continent. The question is, how do you experience a country that large without spending a lifetime there? Given almost unlimited options, of which I’m sure we only scratched the surface, we started out by flying into Melbourne, then to Alice Springs to visit Ululu or Ayer’s Rock and to experience the culture of Aborigines. We then flew to Cairns to see the tropical rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef, and then to Sydney as a departing pointing to London. Flying between these time zones, we also hooked up with some of our Aussie friends, whom we had met earlier during our journey in other countries, and had the most wonderful time getting together again.

We flew into Melbourne late in the afternoon and took the airport express into the city center to a large train station called the Southern Cross Station. From there, we took a short train ride to our apartment, which was conveniently located close to a train stop. For the first time, we tried the ‘fully serviced apartment’ (more like renting a condo with maid service in the U.S.). It worked out great. It made us feel like a local.

The next day we checked out the city by taking a short walk to the Royal Botanical Garden and then hopping on a free city circle tour bus designed just for tourists. We then went on a short walk to the city center to a museum and stopped at the information center. We found that Melbourne is extremely tourist friendly. It has a large tourist center and free buses and trolleys that take you around to all of the sights and attractions in the city.

Inside this beautiful museum, they were holding a special Bugatti exhibit where we got to see the three generations of Bugatti’s sculptures, automobiles, furniture, and art.

This building is the central train station across from the Federation Square and the tourist information center.


Federation Square is the central meeting point for the residents of Melbourne. When we were there, there was a benefit concert for the families who had lost their homes and loved ones from the devastating brush fires a few weeks prior to our arrival. One of the performances was by the performers from the musical “Wicked”. The day was scorching hot and yet the very next day, the temperature suddenly dropped by about 20 degrees F. The temperature variance was due to the direction of the wind; from either the cold Antarctic air from the south or the hot and dry desert air from the north.

As a part of the free tourist center program, we signed up for a guided walking tour of the city. Another couple from Seattle, who were on a cruise ship (which had docked), spent a very pleasant three hour walk with us around the various alleys and historical buildings.

Skyline of Melbourne.

The war remembrance memorial building with an eternal flame.

The next morning, we rented a car to drive about 3 hours north to a small town, Howlong. We went there to meet up with our friends whom we had met in New Zealand. They had invited us to visit them at their farm in Burrumbuttock near Albury. Kevin met us at Howlong to lead us to his farm. We drove for another ten miles or so on country roads to get there. Our GPS system failed in finding their farm.

At the farm house, we met the entire family of Kevin and Tess Hunt. Their son Adam, and her parents, Les and Josephine. Instead of the typical Aussie BBQ, Tess cooked us a wonderful corn beef dinner – totally delicious.

Afterwards, we sat out on their front porch to watch the sunset with this idyllic background. It was the most peaceful and relaxing scene from a front porch that I have ever seen, especially with a cold VB in our hands– Kevin’s favorite Australian beer.
I have always wanted to see the star formation of “the southern cross” since it is only visible from the southern hemisphere. It happened that Kevin’s neighbor was an astronomy buff. All of Kevin’s family, along with the two of us, hopped on Kevin’s pick up truck to drive over (took about 5 minutes) to his next door neighbor’s house. He could name all of the stars, constellations, galaxies, clusters, and planets for us. He even had a powerful laser pointer, which he used to point out exactly where “the southern cross” is as well as other various formations in the sky. With no lights around the farm, the sky just glittered with millions of stars, like sparkling jewels.


We slept well in their house for the night. The Hunts were the most eco-friendly family that we have ever met; the farm was self sufficient with its own water tank filled with rain water, nothing gets wasted – all of the leftovers gets fed to the animals, and a lot of things are recycled.

Since both Kevin and Tess had to go to work, Les cooked us a lovely full breakfast, turning up the Barbie in the back patio – a first time for us to have BBQ breakfast. Les, Joanne and I were supposed to get a round of golf in the next morning, but instead, we went out for wine tasting in a local winery and spent the afternoon with Les and Jo. In the evening, we invited the entire Hunt family out to dinner (we let Tess pick her favorite restaurant), including Hazel, Adam’s great grandmother (she was as fun and jovial as the rest of the family). After dinner, we drove back to Melbourne in preparation for the early morning flight to Alice Springs. More than any other sights we saw in Australia, the time we spent together and the fun we all had, will be remembered and will remain as the highlight of our trip to Australia.

This is an emu bird; it looks like an ostrich. Look very closely at the bird’s eyes. The small dark spot in the middle of the lighter patch, is not the eye! The eyes are actually located in front of that dark patch.

Here’s looking at you kid!

Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock, is considered a very sacred place by the Aborigines. This is located in the very center of Australia, in the middle of a vast desert; the Australian Outback. I expected this area to be super hot; it is not uncommon for the unprepared tourists to suffer from heat stroke. However, on the day we were there, the temperature was very pleasant with even a light drizzle sporadically. From Alice Springs, we decided to tour this area by joining a tour. This was a long one- day tour; lasting from 6:00AM till 1:00AM. It took 5 hours to drive there and 5 hours to drive back; good thing I didn’t have to drive.

On our way to the ‘valley of the wind’ – we were lucky the temperature was nothing like the day before from the rain the night before.

Another thing we needed to prepare was a fly net around our face. Without it, what you see on Joanne’s hat would have ended up in our mouth, nose, eyes or ears.

A mishap of wearing a fly net is that you could look like a jellyfish when the wind blows. Everyone in the tour got a good kick out of me looking like I was about to fly off at any minute.
One of many natural overhangs for the Aborigines to cool off and provide shelter.

We found a number of wall paintings left behind by the Aborgines, inside the caves. All I remember is that the concentric rings represent water.

Uluru during sunset was magical – the shade of color changed ever so subtly. The barbeque dinner complete with Champaign got all of us in a happy mood. Afterwards, we all had a long five hour bus ride back to town.

Joanne took this picture from the plane as we flew out on our way to Cairns. We also witnessed a fresh water river flowing from Queensland (where it had been flooding) to the desert. The pilot told us that this happens only once in about ten years.

This is only a part of our trip to Australia.  More will follow very soon.  We're in Ireland now.  We will need to update on our trip to UK as well.