Great Ocean Road

Yesterday, we left Portland to go to Geelong along the Great Ocean Road. It was built by the veterans of World War I, and covers both open areas along the coast and the Otway National Forest. All I can say is amazing!!! The sea has been eroding the limestone cliffs for thousands of years, and the resulting rock formations are absolutely beautiful. (Sorry, I loaded one picture sideways).

Misleading GPS and the House of Ill Repute

We left Adelaide on Monday, March 29th, and headed down toward Portland in Victoria. The GPS was set for fastest route, but somehow it really was on shortest route - not the same thing at all. We saw some parts of Australia that we otherwise wouldn't have seen. Like sealed roads that are really only one lane wide and are in the middle of nowhere. Just lots and lots of fields of sheep and fields of cattle. The GPS guided us to a dirt road, which Walter refused to take, so Penelope (we named the GPS) rerouted us through a forest in the limestone coast area.

Now I've always thought that mountains or tall buildings can interfere with the satellite reception on GPS. But Penelope didn't seem to like forests either. She kept telling us to turn left or right where there wasn't any road to turn on. If you've ever seen the screen on Magellan or TomTom or Garmin, or any of those, you know how the car is shown on the road? Well, Penelope had the road to one side (sometimes left, sometimes right), and the car in the middle of nowhere. Everyone once in a while, she would pick up the signal correctly, and we'd know we were heading in the right direction. Finally, after Penelope directed us to go around a sheep pen, Walter pulled over and checked. Sure enough, 'fastest route' was not the selected option. After resetting Penelope's programming, we made good time into Portland.

One the brighter side, the limestone coast has some of Australia's well known wineries - like Lindemans and Penfolds. Their vineyards are huge. The coast area, in addition to having large forests, also has large open plains and the vineyards stretch as far as we could see. Nothing like the Barossa Valley or McLaren Vale or Yarra Valley, which are all surrounded by hills. We didn't stop to see any though.

We arrived in Portland after setting Penelope straight. Our B&B, the Victoria House, has an interesting history. It was built in the 1830's as a private residence, and is in the grand Georgian style. Huge reception rooms downstairs and about 6 bedrooms upstairs. It was only a private residence for 11 years, before it was sold, and for the next 60 years or so, served as the town's local whorehouse. The house was built beside the local tavern. The main landing on the second floor, beside the largest bedroom, now has a huge window, but the current owners, who also own the old tavern, but that in. Before that, the window was actually a door, and there was a staircase outside directly to the tavern. Men would go to the tavern ostensibly for a drink or two, and then go upstairs to the whorehouse to sample the local wares. The main bedroom? That was the gentlemen's waiting room.

Footy - Australian Rules Football

Today, Walter and I went to see a footy game - Australian Rules Football. Port Adelaide was playing North Melbourne. If you're thinking of football in Canada or the US - don't. It's not the same.

There are four goal posts. If a player gets the ball between the centre two, the team gets six points. If the ball goes through the first and second, or third and fourth, the team gets one point. There are other rules around scoring points, but I can' remember what they are. A player can't run with the ball, like in Canada or the US, and a player can't tackle another player's head. No one wears any protection, and being hit and falling is quite common. It's a fast-paced game played in four quarters of 30 minutes. The referee doesn't blow the whisle to stop play very often, so the game moves quickly. There are no offisides, and no downs. It's pretty much constant movement on the field. More kicking the ball than I've seen in a long time.

Port Adelaide was leading by a huge margin (40 points or so) for most of the game. In the fourth quarter, North Melbourne started to make a comeback, and Port Adelaide lost some good scoring opportunities, but Melbourne couldn't sustain the charge, and in the end Port Adelaide wont 95 to 83.

I'm not a big sports fan generally, but I enjoyed this. Before the game, Margy (so supports Port Adelaide) and Walter and I met up with her father and three of her sisters for a tailgate party at the stadium before the game started. We had wine, been, coffee, tea, chicken, bread and cheese. Not bad, considering that this the only day where it's rained all day since we've been in Australia, and we ate food and watched footy in the rain!

Tomorrow we start our journey back to Melbourne. We'll be going along the Great Ocean Road, and stopping overnight in Portland. I can't believe this trip is almost over. It's gone by so quickly.

I've included a few pictures from the wineries in the Barossa Valley - Wolf Blass, Chateau Yaldara and Jacob's Creek. These wineries do nothing by halves! They are grand buildings with cellars door tasting rooms, restaurants, private function rooms, conference facilities, and oh yes, wine making facilities. If you've been the Niagara on the Lake wineries, think of those only bigger.

Kangaroo Island

We spent a day on Kangaroo Island - the third largest island off the coast of Australia. Tasmania is the largest, and I don't remember the name of the next, but that doesn't really matter. The history lesson part follows, so if you're not interested in that, skip to the next paragraph. Kangaroo Island was discovered by Matthew Flinders in 1802. That explains why the name Flinders is so prevalent in Australia - Flinders Street, Flinders Central Station, Flinder Chase National Forest, Flinders University, etc. Flinders was an English explorer who charted much of the southeastern and southern part of Australia. At the same time that Flinders was doing his thing, Nicolas Baudin (a Frenchman) was also exploring the same area. The peninsula on which Adelaide is situated is called Fleurieu Peninsula (here that's pronounced flur-ri-oo). Some of the names on Kangaroo Island are French, because of Baudin's explorations. Flinders didn't realize when he discoved the island that that's what it was, until he climbed to the top of Prospect Point, and realized that he was surrounded by water. He could, though, see the southern coast of Australia in the distance - as it turns out only 12 km away.

The island is beautiful, and most of it has been declared national park land, so it can't be developed. There are miles and miless (here that would be kilometres and kilometres) of mallie trees (gum trees), and few sealed (paved) roads. The town of Penneshaw, where the ferry from Port Jervis landed, is so small it doesn't have a post code. There is one general store, which serves as petrol station, food shop, general goods shop and post office. We took a bus tour, as we quickly figured out that we would neveer see anything on our own (because we wouldn't know what to look for).

The tour took us first to Seal Bay, where wwe could get within 10 metres of the sea lions. The colony of sea lions returns to the same bay all the time. There are about 600 sea lions in this colony, and at anytime about half of them will be on shore. The area we were in had several dozen, but as the beach stretches for miles, I'm sure the number would quickly add into the hundreds.

They spend about 3 days out in the water, and then return to the shore to rest, also for about 3 days. While we were watching and taking pictures, a female and her pup were reunited. It was incredibly to watch. One on the shore calling as soon as he recognized his mother, and the mother coming out of the water returning the call. Then both of them moving across the sand to greet each other. Amazing! Kristin got a video clip of that, and as it's on one of my cameras, I'll find it and upload it when I can.

The soil on the island is very sandy and colourful. The sand changes from red (think PEI) to honey brown. Many of the roads are unsealed, and so you can see straight red lines through forests of green and gray. There is, unfortunately, a reason for the gray. In 2007, the island had a major forest fire that destroyed 20% of the forest. The tour guide explained it was really more of a brush fire, and the trees burned, but didn't necessarily die. Despite fire fighters best efforst, the fire finally stopped because it reached the sea and the wind changed. Nothing else was making any difference, as the area was too large. The tree tops are all gray (no leaves), but the undergrowth has come back to a height of about a metre and a half and is a lush green. Hence, the green and gray. In another two years, you won't be able to tell there had been a fire.

From Seal Bay, we took off down the coast to see something called the Remarkable Rocks. What makes them so remarkable is that they are granite - in an area that is mostly limestone. The rocks have been twisted and shaped by wind and water into incredible sculptures, reminiscent of Henry Moore and Antoni Gaudi. From the rocks, there is nothing further south for a few thousand kilometres until you hit Antartica, about 4000 km away.

From the rocks we went down to Cape de Coudic to the lighthouse and the Admirals Arch. The lighthouse had a lighthouse keeper until the 1960s, when the island finally got electricity. Until then, the keeper had kerosene lamps burning in the lighthouse to warn ships about the reefs. At the bottom of the cliffs where the lighthouse is, there is a colony of New Zealand fur seals. We couldn't get close to them, as the cliffs are too steep and dangerous, but it was fun to watch them from a distance all the same.

After a long day, back to the ferry to take us across the water, called Backstairs Passage, to Port Jervis and then back to Adelaide. It was a beautiful trip and well worth it.

Gray Nomads and Mrs. Wigley

We've been in Adelaide for a few days, visiting John and Margy. They have an absolutely beautiful view of the Adelaide Hills from their house. Adelaide is a lovely city with three universities and some very great Victorian buildings. The city centre is Victoria Park, which has a fountain commemorating the visit of Queen Elizabeth in the 1960s.

Today, we went to McLaren Vale and then along the coast to Maslin Beach. In visiting Pirrammima Winery, we tasted a great Sauvignon Blanc called Gray Nomad. We learned that the wine is named for one of the indigenious peoples of Australia. The Gray Nomads first started to appear in the 1960s, and tended to travel around the country in box-like contraptions called caravans. Over time, they travelled farther afield, and their homes have evolved into more luxurious accommodations. Gray Nomads are said to be very friendly and approachable, especially when offered wine. The males have white fur on their faces, although this is not always visible. Gray Nomads have been sited in other countries, and Australia claims that they have seen other foreign varieties of Gray Nomads within its borders. It would appear that Walter and I have become Gray Nomads without even knowing so.

One of the other wineries we visited was Wirra Wirra. One of the wines was named for Mrs. Wigley. Now Mrs. Wigley was very special. She arrived one day, and attached herself to the owner of the winery. She grew so attached to him, that the owner allowed her to stay, and becoming increasingly fond of her, allowed her to do pretty much what she wanted until the day that she died. Why is this so special? Because Mrs. Wigley was a cat.

Tomorrow we're off to Kangaroo Island.

Some of Walter's pictures

These are two of the pictures from Walter's camera. Walter and I are in the garden in Melbourne. The picture of Kristin and I is from one of the vineyards in Yarra Glen.

More pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our trip.

Arrived in Adelaide

The drive from Horsham to Adelaide was beautiful. Some of the plains seemed vast and endless. There was only an occasional clump of trees to break up the landscape, and so we could see for miles and miles. It's a huge grain growing area, and the rail lines and highway run parallel to each other for most of the trip. In coming up to towns along the way, we could see the grain silos long before we actually entered any town. In some areas, the road had tumbleweeds - small bits of grasses that with even the smallest hint of a breeze rolled across the hardtop. We also had a first experience with road trains.

You know those 18-wheelers we see going down the 401 or the TransCanada? They have usually 53-foot boxes. Now imagine that with two boxes attached. We saw quite a few of those on the way. They all have signs indicating 'long vehicle' for good reason - they seem huge when they're in the lane next to you. The only safe way to pass them is to wait for the overtaking lanes and then use all of that space to get around them. When you see them in the oncoming lane on a two-lane highway, they can see pretty daunting.

All along the highway, there are signs warning about fatigue. The highway, in addition to overtaking lanes, has powernap stops and drivers are encouraged to drive no more than two hours before taking breaks. Typical signs include 'stop, rest, live', or 'micronaps can kill in seconds' or 'fatigue kills - powernap area ahead'. Much of the Western Highway is two lane, and the overtaking lanes (we would call them passing lanes), and power nap areas make a lot of sense. Drivers tend not to overtake except otherwise, and the overtaking lanes are frequent enough that there isn't any need to try to pass when there are only two lanes - it's not worth the gamble.

Gradually, the scenery began to change to gentle hills - still huge tracts of grain land, but also cattle farms (or stations), and more trees. As we got closer to Adelaide, we started going through the Adelaide Hills, beautiful forested hills with a sharp descent into Adelaide, situated on the Torrens River.

Jon and Margy, where we are staying, have a house on the hillside overlooking the Adelaide HIlls - a spectacular view of the countryside.

We're in Horsham

We've arrived in Horsham, after leaving Yarra Glen this morning. The drive took us through the Grampians, up and down hills and through some large seemingly empty valleys. At one point, we got off the road to go to a scenic lookout - well worth the 4 km detour. I'll upload some pictures later. Tomorrow, we'll be in Adelaide. John and Margie have talked about seeing a footy game, and I'm definitely interested.

J-turns, Speed Snakes, and Yarra Valley

At last, I'm back on the internet. It's Thursday, March 18th here.

We left Sydney on Friday, March 12th to go to Melbourne. We had cheapie seats on a 9 am flight from Quantas, with no exchange, refund, etc. Wouldn't you know it, with five people to organize, we left Jaime and Jon's a bit late, and missed our plane. Jon was fantastic. He went up to the Quantas counter and somehow got us all seats on the next flight so we got to Melbourne only 1 1/2 hours later. We didn't get into apartment, though, until midnight.

Instead, once we had the rental car, we went off to Philips Bay to see the koalas and the penguins. Didn't know that Australia had penguins? Neither did I. But more about them later.

We saw about 7 koalas. They don't leave the eucalyptus trees, except to go to other eucalyptus trees, and so can spend their entire lives in the branches. The leaves are the only things they eat, and have been known to literally eat themselves into starvation. According to the rangers in the koala reserve, the koalas will eat the leaves from the eucalyptus until the tree dies, and once that happens, they are out of food, and so will starve. The rangers put huge plastic panels around some of the branches to keep the koalas away and allow the trees to recover. The reserve we visited had about 37 koalas, of which we only saw 7. The rangers told us that the reseve isn't big enough to sustain the existing koala population, so they will be relocating some of the koalas to other areas of Australia.

From the reserve, we drove down the road to the Nobbies. That's an area of Victoria which has wild rugged coastlines and seal and penguin populations. You would have thought you were in parts of Ireland, or Scotland. The coastline is rocky and rugged, and drops off into the sea. The vegetation is a lush green, and looks so different from the inland scrub and dust. The seals were out on the rocks well off the coast, so we could only see them in the distance. The penguins, on the other hand, are another story.

The south coast of Australia is home to the little pengquin (really, that's its name). It's the smallest of the penguins at about 8 to 12 inches high. They like to nest in burrows in the ground. At the Nobbies, we were walking along the board walk, and could see babies in the nests, just a few feet from us. Also, quite a few of the penguins were nesting under the boardwalk. The walk itselft twists and turns, and by lying down on one section, I could see under another section, and so got a few photos of them.

At night, after dusk when it's safe, the penguins come ashore. There are about 6000 in this area of Australia, and we saw probably about 1000 of them. The first few come up to the beach and wait among the rocks. The only reason we could tell where they were was because we could see their white bellies in the dark. They wait for another group to come ashore. As each group comes out of the water, the waiting group greets them. When they reach a critical mass (a safety in numbers thing), they all dash across the beach to the green hillsides. You can hear their babies calling them. Once they reach the safety of the grass, it's every penguin for themselves as they hurry back to their nests. As we were walking back up to the car park, we saw some many of them walking to their waiting babies. One little group had two babies who were rubbing against their parent (and we all went 'ohhhh' when we saw them).

We left that area of Victoria and got into Melbourne around midnight. The next few days were spent exploring the city. Melbourne is very different from Sydny - more cosmopolitan, and had great ethnic neighbourhoods. We spent four days looking around the city and enjoying great food and coffee before Jaime and Jon went home to Sydney.

Traffic in Melbourne can be somewhat daunting to drive in. Not only does Melbourne have trams which operate in the middle of some very wide streets, but it also has something called a J-turn. This is not for the faint of heart. It works like this: In order to turn right, across the tram tracks (remember, we're drivng on the left side of the road), you have to get over to a separate far left lane, and wait. (Yes, you read correctly - you get into a left lane to turn right). This allows the regular straight going traffic to go through. Then, when the traffic on the cross street to you stops, you come out of your lane, across and stop. By now, you're in front of the traffic on the cross street that's going in the direction you want to go. When you get your signal, (not the same as theirs, and if you're not used to it, can be hard to tell) you go across the tram tracks and literally cross the street you whose left lane you just left. The first time Jon did this, we all thought we were going to die. There were several quickly muttered prayers in the car! But we made it. When Walter had to do it (I refuse to drive in Melbourne traffic), we all prayed again. I'm glad to say Walter mastered it, and not every intersection requires this manoeuvre.

One of the other interesting things about Melbourne is speed snakes. In residential areas, instead of having speed bumps to slow down traffic, they have parts of the road that narrow and twist right and left, which unless you learned racecar driving and do it for a living, means you have to slow down. It's very effective, because if you don't slow down, you're liable to do some damage to the bottom of your car.

On our last day in Melbourne, we went up to the Eureka Tower. This is the highest residential building in Australia at 88 storeys. On the 88th floor, there is an observation deck. Now I've been up to the observation deck at the CN Tower, which is actually higher, but this was more scary. The Eureka Tower has large plate glass (I think it's plexiglass, but I didn't ask) windows. The floor actually slopes up to the windows slightly, and the windows bow out just a little. Just enough to give you the opportunity to look almost straight down. And because there is nothing to tell your brain that there is a barrier (i.e. the glass), you get the feeling when you look down that you'll fall. The view, though, is magnificent. You call see all of Melbourne, the port and the peninsula, and the mountains in the distance.

For the last two days, we've been in the Yarra Valley - only an hour and a world away from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are some great wineries here, and Walter, Kristin and I have visited quite a few. It's very rural - also lots of cattle and horse farms. This morning we were up early and took a ballon flight over the valley. Hot air ballooning is amazing - gently gliding across the sky. We were up for a little over an hour. The hilarious part is getting in and out. The only way to do it is to climb into the basket, (and it's a little over chest height for me,) and then climb out. There are holes you can put your feet into, to help you up, but you still have to get your legs over the basked edge. All I can say is, I'm not as limber as a I used to be. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

We're here until Saturday morning, when we start our trek to Adelaide. Australia is great. We've met some wonderful people. I'll write more when I get another chance.

Pictures from Sydney

Here are few pictures from Sydney.

Dead Bats and Foggy Mountains

On Saturday night we went out for supper at a Thai restaurant in Newtown. That's the area that Jaime and Jon used to live in when they were in university in Sydney. The area has great shops, boutiques, and restaurants. Restaurants in Sydney are often byo, so Jon brought along a bottle of wine from home. Newtown is also, apparently, the gay and goth area of Sydney. While enjoying some of the best Thai food I've every had, we were entertained by the street opera along the footpath. That's Australian for the sidewalk. It's an increbibly vibrant part of the city, and definitely geared toward a younger generation.

On the way back, we were driving along a saw a bat hanging from one of the overhead wires. Bats here are not like bats at home. This one was the size of large rat or a small cat. Apparently, it's not uncommon for bats to hang from the wires. The problem with this one? A few days ago, there was a high wind, and it swung the hanging bat into a live wire, thereby executing it. The dead bat is now hanging over of the main streets in Newtown. I didn't ask how long it would hang before someone removes it.

On Sunday, we all piled into Jon's VW golf to go to the Blue Mountains. They are about an hour and a half west of Sydney. The area is supposed to be one of spectacular views and majestic rock formations. Unfortunately for us, the higher we drove up the mountain, the more foggy and rainy it became. At some points it was so foggy that we couldn't see the cars in front of us. By the time we got to the lookout, the weather had cleared a bit - just enough for us the see the trees about 20 feet away on the other side of the lookout barrier. We couldn't see the anything! Jon and Jaime kept apologizing, but Walter, Kristin and I thought it was funny. There were several other tourists with friends/guides/relatives, who were all busy apologizing for the weather. The fog was so thick that it covered the valley (which we were assured was right below us) and all of the mountain sides.

We opted to go back part way down the Blue Mountans to Katoomba. Think Jasper or Banff, but in Australia. What a lovely little town. It was misting (not really raining, but still in the clouds), so we toured a huge antique market and then stopped for lunch.

On the way back down toward Sydney, the weather started to clear, so we stopped to see kangaroos in Euroka (still in the Blue Mountains, but at a lower elevation. We were lucky enough to see two roos - one of which was pregnant, as well as cuckaburras (a very noisy bird) and cockatiels. After taking several photos, we walked toward the Redhand Cave. The cave looks more like an overhanging rock that has been eroded from the inside out.

In Sydney, the weather was still sunny and warm, so it was a swim before supper and then relaxing at home.

Following the moon

Over 24 hours flying in the night sky. It seemed that we were following the moon around the world. After travelling 34,000 kms in just over 24 hours, we have arrived in Sydney. It's now Saturday, March 6th here.

When you think about it, travel's pretty amazing. Just a little over 100 years ago, we would have been doing this trip in ships, and taken probably weeks to get here. Now, technology allows us to pack several hundred people in a long metal cylinder and fly it at great speeds through the sky, then land it safely halfway around the world.

We left Toronto on time on Thursday. The flight was uneventful, and we arrived in Vancouver at 7:40 Pacific time. The airport has undergone an amazing renovation. If you haven't seen the Vancouver airport in the last few years - you wouldn't recognize it. Lots of native artwork and Olympic memorabilia everywhere. We had an unexpected treat - a fantastic view of the Olympic rings all lit up at night. I wasn't expecting that. The rings shone al gold and luminous against the water. What a treat!

Another surprise, although not such a great one, was that pretty much all the restaurants close at 8 pm. Doesn't seem to make much sense when we came in just before 8 and weren't leaving until 11:45 pm. Luckily, we found a Subway that was still open, and had sandwiches while we waited for the plane.

The flight from Vancouver to Sydney is l-o-n-g. I don't think my legs have recovered from being in a bent (sitting) position for so many hours. My recommendation to anyone who contemplates doing this in the future is to stop in Hawaii for a few days. By the time we flew over Hawaii, I was thinking I'd had enough of airplanes (and I like to travel!). But several Sudoku games, movies and snoozes later we arrived in Sydney. Sometime during the seemingly endless night journey, we crossed the equator and the international date line.

It's hot! The temperature is supposed to be on 22 degrees Celsius, and it seems much hotter. The sun is bright and burning, so I'll need to buy as strong a sunscreen as I can find. From Jon and Jaime's front window, we look out directly onto Bondi Beach. I'll try to load pictures later, but for now we're all going for a walk on the beach. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Blue Mountains.

Five more sleeps

We're almost ready. Kristin and Rob arrive on Wednesday. We'll celebrate their engagement with them, and then Thursday we'll off to Australia. We're all getting excited. We still haven't planned exactly what we'll do. But that's part of the fun. We have a few ideas, and will make and remake plans over supper on Wednesday. Once we arrive, any plans we've made may go out the window, as they often do, because we discover something or somewhere that captures our imagination.

Jaime and Jon have told us we're going to the Blue Mountains the day after we arrive - sounds great. I can't wait. I've charged the batteries in both cameras. I plan to take lots of pictures and play with my new toy - a video camera. Last year in Mexico I took over 600, so Australia should account for at least that many.

Won't be long now.

Preparing for the trip

This will be something new - keeping track of my travels on line, as opposed to writing in my journal. I'll most likely end up doing both, as I've often gone back over the journals to remember special moments on previous trips.

My plan is to keep this updated as we travel. Only the future will show how well I will have done.