October
26...
Hello friends and
family! We are 10 days into our holiday to Australia, have 1,634
km. on the odometer, and want to give you a travel report.
We were fortunate to have arranged a Bikeshare this year with
Dave Mason in Medowie, New South Wales. Special thanks to Tom
Burklow and Trans-Atlantic Bikeshare (TABS) for the organizational
skills. Dave and his partner Lyn have hosted us like old friends
- special thanks to them and to Rob, who lended his 1984 BMW
K100 RT to our tour. We were even treated to the sight of our
first kangaroo in Dave's back yard at dusk!
After a few days enjoying being shown the area around Medowie
(including Newcastle, Nelson Bay, Hunter Valley, etc., for those
of you with Australia maps), we set our sights south toward
Melbourne, Victoria, where Joni's Snohomish High School Class
of '74 friend Wilma and her partner Doug Z. were waiting for
us. We traveled along the Tasman Sea and took advantage of some
wonderful camp sites - Kiama (gorgeous, complete with lighthouse
and blowhole), Narooma, Marlo (where a friendly kookaburra went
on a ride on a twirling clothesline which Don was spinning rather
than give up his grasp on Joni's drying umbrella), and Waratah
Bay (definitely we're off-season
campers, being one of only two at this campsite right on the
bay). Other sights we've seen include Central Tilda, a tiny
National Trust town with a chatty general store owner, and where
sheep were being sheared right on the sidewalk; Wilsons Promontory
National Park, the southernmost point of Australia, where we
saw kangaroo, emu, echidna (a porcupine-like creature), wombat,
lorikeet, not to mention breathtaking scenery of forest, bush
and sea; and the State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi, where we literally
went underground to appreciate this difficult way of making
a living.
Today Wilma and Doug took us to Healesville Sanctuary, so we
could see some of the animals we probably won't in the wild,
such as platypus, Tasmanian devil, dingo, and the ever popular
but elusive koala. And for the first time it REALLY rained off
and on - as a matter of fact, Doug and Wilma are at this point
making dinner and we can hear the rain pour outside. Oh well,
they've been in a drought and need the replenishment. The sun
has otherwise smiled on us for the most part, except for a little
rain as previously alluded to as we camped at Marlo (but a German
couple in a motor home next door felt sympathy for us and invited
us in to share breakfast and
conversation).
This weekend - Philip Island and the penguin parade, Melbourne
shops, and a house auction. We also will meet up with fellow
BikeShare members Peter & Gudrun before we continue west
on the Great Ocean Road. More to follow!
Don & Joni
October 31...
Hello everyone! It is now the first of November, and we are
at a point where we will leave the wonderful ocean sights we've
been blessed with and head north to the Grampians. Yesterday
was an especially important day - on the long road out to the
Cape Otway Lighthouse, we saw ten koalas up in the trees! What
should have been a ½ hour round trip of driving easily
stretched to 1 ½ hours. They're extremely cute but not
very active, so it can be a challenge spotting them up in the
trees.
We had a great visit with Wilma and Doug in Black Rock, near
Melbourne. They showed us the City, the Healsville Sanctuary
which we told you about
last time, and on Sunday we made the trip to Philip Island and
saw a couple of amazing wildlife scenes. Seagulls were nesting
all over at Seal Rock, and baby gulls of all ages plus protective
parents were everywhere, much like a Hitchcock movie. And at
dusk we were in the audience for the Penguin Parade, when tiny
Fairy Penguins gather for safety in numbers and make a rush
for the shore from the sea. It's a tough life for them. They're
adorable!
Monday we had the pleasure of finally meeting Peter & Gudrun,
fellow TABS BikeShare members. Many thanks to them for their
wonderful hospitality, feeding us twice, and helping plan the
remainder of our trip from the view of fellow motorcycle enthusiasts.
The past two days have been traveled on the Great Ocean Road,
built as a remembrance for the Australians who served in WWI.
Breathtaking scenery is everywhere. Toward the end of yesterday
we stopped at all the limestone formations along the coast in
this area, formed over thousands of years of the sea cutting
at the land and forming all kinds of pillars and islands and
arches, which will all disappear in time.
Today we're in the little fishing village of Port Fairy, will
do some exploring and then head for the Crater Wildlife Refuge.
We're having a great time, and hope all is well with you.
Don & Joni
November 11...
We're back to Medowie now, ready to fly out of Sydney tomorrow
evening, Monday 12 November. We've had a great time, although
rain has paid a few visits. People should pay us to be rainmakers
when we visit their countries, especially when they've been
in drought conditions as Australia has!
We'll write a more comprehensive report of our final days in
this wonderful country once we've returned home.
Don & Joni
November 14...
Hello, friends and
family! As promised, here is Chapter 3, the conclusion of our
marvelous trip to The Land Down Under.
In our last e-mail
we were communicating from the Port Fairy post office, in the
State of Victoria. At that point, we headed north and away from
the ocean for the Grampians National Park, where we made sure
we gathered our groceries before heading in and camping in the
primitive (as in no showers, mirrors, hot running water, garbage
cans) Jimmy Creek Campground. You haven't lived until you're
woken at night because kangaroo are busily thumping right past
your tent! Victoria Parks has a rule that what you pack in you
pack out, but Joni found herself in conflict over a piece of
fat from her campstove steak. Garbage must be packed out, yet
surely something would eat it if it were left. Politically ticklish
problem met - a kookaburra swooped right alongside her head,
landed in her plate, looked at her, and
made off with the fat! We thought we were special, until the
next day at MacKenzie Falls a brazen kookaburra swiped a bicyclist's
sandwich out of his hand just as he was about to take a bite.
We've had urban experiences,
too. Ballarat is a town full of imposing, sturdy Victorian architecture,
built on the back of the Australian Gold Rush. The nearby tourism
attraction Sovereign Hill is just like an Old West Colonial
Williamsburg (in Virginia USA), with costumed employees conversing
with and educating visitors in the ways of gold mining and life
in general in the mid-1800's. The schoolmarm was quite harsh
with Joni, telling her that being left-handed was the mark of
the devil and making her change her ink nib to her right hand
immediately - Don was in total agreement!
It was Saturday,
and the Melbourne Cup horse race was the following Tuesday.
Many of you won't understand (we certainly didn't) that Melbourne
Cup Day is considered a dress-up holiday by many, and many others
use the holiday as an excuse to get away for a four day weekend.
So when we searched for a place to pitch our tent in Echuca,
on the Murray River, we were turned away from the first place
we checked because they were full. However, the caravan park
which did accept us figured we wouldn't take up too much room
with a tent and motorcycle, and made room for us by having us
share a site with someone else. Although the Murray River twists
over a thousand miles before it reaches Echuca, the city was
at one time Australia's largest inland port. Today it is home
to the world's largest collection of
steamboats, and we went rollin' on the river on the "Emmylou".
And remember the story from our first e-mail of the German couple
who felt sorry for us at the soggy campground in Marlo, and
invited us to share breakfast in their campervan? Almost two
weeks later we encountered each other again as we were headed
to the "Emmylou"! They had been to South Australia
and back, and had another week to return the campervan to Sydney
so they could fly to New Zealand. It can really be a small world,
after all!
We next camped in
the delightful town of Bright, which is a ski area in wintertime,
for access to nearby Mount Buffalo National Park and marvelously
spectacular views. We had hopes for much the same in the Snowy
Mountains, but they were the rainy and overcast mountains when
we went through. We figured if we were going to get wet it might
as well be by the ocean, so we put in the heaviest mileage day
to get to Malua Bay and a terrific little kitchen-equipped motel
which would have slept seven in our unit. What fun it would
have been to have friends and family together to watch the fierce
thunder and lightning storm to which we were treated as we happily
munched our pizza from the café next door!
Saving the potentially
most challenging visit for last, we rode the motorcycle right
into downtown Sydney via the Princes Highway and Royal National
Park to the Tourist Information (TI) at The Rocks, the oldest
part of Sydney. We can't praise the helpful staff enough. They
found us a wonderfully central hotel for not that much money
(our splurge at $104 AU per night, that's about $52 US), with
secured underground parking for the motorcycle. We used the
hotel as our base to walk, walk, walk. Over the Sydney Harbour
Bridge, completed in 1932 (over, but not on - there's a thrill-seeking
bridge climb where you can pay $125 - $175 AU per person to
literally walk over the top girders of the bridge). Around and
around the Opera House, an icon now but a way-over-budget scandal
in its time. Along the busy streets of the Central Business
District, where the official uniform seems to be in the color
black. And we rode the efficient ferry system for some wonderful
waterside sightseeing, both day and night.
All good things must
come to an end, of course, and our hosts Dave and Lyn welcomed
the American travelers back to Medowie with activities including
a visit to a few of the seemingly endless wineries in the Hunter
Valley. We can't thank Dave and Lyn enough for hosting us, and
Rob and Sue for lending us our trusty BMW ride.
Lyn took us to the
railroad station Monday 12 November so we could make our journey
back to Sydney Airport and home. Lyn, you'll be surprised to
learn that Australia didn't see the backs of us that day!
A note to everyone, post-September 11 don't take anything for
granted; just because you've got an airline ticket it doesn't
mean you've got a ride. We arrived in plenty of time to catch
our 7:00 PM Qantas flight, only to be told that for now Qantas
has canceled that flight. They managed to notify everyone but
us - because we had purchased the tickets over Expedia.com Qantas
didn't have any contact information! But they were more than
kind to us, and instead of righteously scolding us for not calling
to confirm they booked us on the
3:45 flight the next day and put us up at their expense at the
Sydney Airport Hilton, including dinner and breakfast and a
three minute
international call. That worked great for us! We were able to
take the train and make it into Sydney one more time, to climb
the AMP Tower to get views of this beautiful city from its highest
point (the weather hadn't been clear enough the previous days
to make the trip worthwhile).
Now we're home, with
a month's worth of mail to sort. Many thanks to Jeremy, who
babysat the house and cats while we were away. Jeremy filled
this valuable role last year, but in September we added a spirited
Siamese kitten named Peter, a roadside find, to our more mature
feline combo of Teddie and Benjamin. Judging from the note Jeremy
left, Peter proved to be a mischievous handful. Hope this doesn't
put Jeremy off for next time!
Until next time...
Don & Joni
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