Adventures Down Under

I have always liked to travel. I like to see new places, and new people and learn about histories, geography, local culture, etc. For the most part I like road trips -- I especially like road tripping with very loose intineraries, and lots of maps so we can take odd turns and discover fun stuff, but still make it back to the main road. *g* I used to have no problems finding friends to road trip with me, but as we all get older and some of us get married and have kids, it's harder to find companions for my travels. Of course, the fact that I like to leave the country every once and a while is also an issue.

For the most part my group of friends here locally are still good for the shorter trips - sometimes we bring the DH's and boyfriends, and sometimes we leave them home (and in Rob's case, in charge of my honorary neice Princess Emma). Over the years as my circle of friends has grown, I have acquired several that are still single and childless (like me) and we go on the longer trips.

My friend Robin is one of those. Her job takes her to foreign countries for several years at a time, so our friendship is mostly through phone and e-mail, but we make it a point to meet up every 2 years or so and vacation somewhere we wouldn't normally go. In 2005 it was New Zealand, this year it was Australia. In 2009 it's going to be South Africa on safari. (the initial information I'm gathering all says to wear neutral colored clothing - do you think that means Lions get hungrier when they see bright pink or purple shirts?)

Until about 2 years ago, I would just up and go but as my mom's health is getting more & more fragile, I now find myself making detailed intineraries, so I can be contacted in the event of an emergency. The upside to this is that when I get home, the intinerary gives me a perfect way to tell people about my trip. Below is the Intinerary I left with the 'Rents (minus the contact info) and with some additional explanation and pictures of my trip to Australia.
--- Ann

Itinerary for Thelma & Louise's Australian Adventure:Wednesday, March 14th: Thelma’s Plane departs Dulles Airport at 7PM Thursday.

March 15th – lost in travel somewhere over the Pacific Ocean when we cross the Date Line.

March 16th: Thelma arrives in Sydney Australia at 7:00 AM where Louise picks her up; we go back to the Four Seasons where Thelma naps before setting off to explore Sydney with Louise. We took a very personalized 2.5 hour walking tour of Sydney at Twilight. Since I knew Leiha and several others of the BTS were thiking about coming to Sydney to watch Phlexie race in September, I thought I should take a few photos so they would know what to look for.....Everybody knows (I hope) that Australia was mainly settled by convicts. The walking tour took us around to show us the first governor's house, the botanical gardens, and a few interesting aspects of architecture:Yes, the bottom gargoyle is a Koala. This is the HQ of the regional healthcare system, so the top figures are supposed to represent Knights Templar. I'm not really sure what the connection between Knights Templar and Koalas are, but now I have a new quest for information as I surf the web.

Saturday, March 17th:Thelma & Louise get an early start on the 12 hour (calculated by km driven per hour) drive to Brisbane. They realize it will take MUCH longer then 12 hours as they will be stopping for Scenic Photo Ops, drinks/snacks and bathroom breaks. Eventually they will reach the destination of Brisbane, find their hotel and fall into bed. It actually took us 15 hours to get to the hotel in Brisbane -- not too bad, all things considered. *lol* We started out with Louise (my friend Robin) behind the wheel because she's been living in Wellington, NZ for the last 4 years and is used to driving a right hand drive car on the right side of the road. (I am Thelma because even though Louise's personality is more my style, Thelma sleeps with Brad Pitt. *EG*)I was very bummed to discover the car did not have a sun roof - although it was red. The sun roof makes it so much easier to take road trip photos. The passenger calls "Photo Op", the driver slows down while the passenger pops up through the sunroof, and snaps the picture. I was forced to snap through the windshield and side windows, but I made due. *g* I also have pictures of road signs for koala crossings, wombat crossings, camel and cassawary crossings.We took a few of the scenic detours that were marked on the road signs - after all were going 933KM, so we had time!
One of our stops was to take a picture of the pelicans, but they were not quite ready for their close up, and refused to smile for the camera. How Rude! And somethings have to be seen to be believed! I did some of the driving -- about 400KM of it -- but for some reason, Robin seemed to feel that she should resume driving the closer we got to Brisbane and the darker it got on the road. (maybe it was having to remind me 3 times "you really need to be on my side of the road, Ann" that did it?!)

Sunday March 18th: Sightsee in/around Brisbane. There's really not a lot to see IN Brisbane, so we spent Sunday shopping. This is the view from our hotel window. I have to tell you -- I don't buy things for other people when I'm on a trip - unless I see something that I think will be perfect for your birthday, or you are one of my friends that I exchange Christmas gifts with. This is because it's all about The Pronoun - if I am buying for YOU, then there is less money to buy things I like. (see how that works?) I found some stunning opals and picked up a pendant and earrings, as well as a freshwater pearl choker that I thought was cute, and I was very happy to find an artist with Dichroic glass in the darker colors I love. Dichroic glass is one of my favorite things to buy and wear, but so often the colors are pastels or they are shades I don't care to wear (olives, bronzes, oranges), so I was excited to find a pair of earings in a dark blue and green.

As we were leaving the shopping area, I had to stop one last time. There was a silver artist with a small booth where I found 2 pairs of freshwater pearl earrings to go with a necklace I bought when I went up to see Lina 2 Octobers ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) and a silver/sapphire pendant to complement some silver/amythest earrings I bought on that same Lina visit. (note to self - go visit Lina more often) Since I was so happy with those pieces, I also picked up a silver/multi-colored stone pendant and earrings. Do you think, as you are looking at your 5th item and the artist offers you a 20% discount, that it's a sign you're one of his bigger sales that morning?
Monday March 19th: Sight see around Brisbane - check out of hotel & arrange for hotel to hold luggage. Pick up luggage in late afternoon and get to train station to catch Train to Cairns.


We spent the day at the Australian Zoo - the one started by Steve Irwin's family. I did the cheesey tourist thing and got my picture taken holding a koala. You won't see it here because they put it on a disc with encryption software so that you can't change anything about the image. I've given it to one of my "spooks r us" friends and he is going to strip the encryption and then give it back to me so I can downsize it. (It's nice to know people isn't it? *lol*) But since I have always loved koalas, I have other (many other) pictures to show you in the meantime.
Tuesday March 20th: Thelma & Louise are on the train all day (it's a 25 hour trip) to Cairns arriving approximately 7:30 PM and take the resort transfer to Hibiscus Resort and Spa in Port Douglas.

The resort sent a car service to pick us up and take us to the resort - which is an hour north of Cairns. At first I thought our driver was just a nice chatty older gentleman. Fairly soon into the drive (and I use that word lightly) I decided he was talking to us to keep us from screaming in terror as he took the twisty, curvy, dark coastline road (with no guardrails) at 11o KM per hour (that's about 60 to 65 mph). Really, my first clue was when he complained about the $150 speeding ticket he had just had to pay - this tale was accompanied by the blaring horn of the other driver he had just cut off in the traffic roundabout. That's when I checked to be sure my seatbelt was fastened - which I never wear when I'm in the back seat.

I really can't tell you much more about the drive since my eyes were closed (I have always thought it best not to see my impending doom approach) and I was busy praying we wouldn't crash. I guess I could have kept my eyes open since the road had NO lights, it was pitch black with only the headlights for any illumination. One the positive side, I never got carsick since my stomach was constantly plastered to my ribs due to the g forces. *shudder* We arrived in Port Douglas 40 minutes after we were picked up at Cairns.

Wednesday March 21 through Friday March 23rd: Spending a day at the reef, a day in the rainforest, and a day doing whatever..... This is the Great Barrier Reef from the boat. We were 32 nautical miles away from shore at this point - which is pretty far out. The dark blue you can see in the distance is the ocean, the line of "surf" you see is the edge of the reef where the ocean is breaking as it hits the edge of the reef. The lighter blue is the water over the sandy portions of the reef and the brownish color is the coral reef itself under the water. ( the black dot in the midle is someone snorkeling - they wouldn't get out of the frame for me.) I kept thinking of the book CHAIN LIGHTENING by Elizabeth Lowell. *lol*

We went to the Spa Wednesday and had a lovely relaxing day - to settle the nerves left from the hair-raising car ride of Tuesday night. We also took time to book our diving/snorkeling reef trip and the tour of the Daintree Rainforest. I have let my diving certification lapse, so I just snorkeled. Purple Coral at the reef spot in the above picture. Since I was only snorkeling, I couldn't get close enough with my camera to get rid of the blue reflection, really when you are underwater it looks clearer.Baby Crocodile in the sun.

I was surprized to learn that Australia has a rainforest to begin with, since I just always equate rainforest with Central & South America. Anyway, The Daintree is the largest primative rainforest -- the other rainforests are considered "advanced" and it has to do with the types of plants and animals found there. Find the Crocodile!Saturday March 24th: Check out, take transfer back to Cairns, catch Qantas flight to Ayers Rock. Pick up AATKings tour at Ayers Rock airport. We had a different driver going back to Cairns. Funny how it took an hour and 10 minutes for the return trip! We made our flight and landed at the Ayers Rock resort airport. The aboriginal people call Ayers Rock "Uluru" which is how you will see it referred to presently, rather then "Ayers Rock", in guide books.

Saturday March 24th through Tuesday March 27th: AATKings tour through Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. Transfer to Alice Springs as part of tour on Sunday afternoon. Tour ends Tuesday AM. Thelma and Louise catch the “Ghan” train south @ approximately 12:30 PM to Adelaide. The Ghan lets you travel through the edge of the Outback and gives you just a glimpse of the enormous country. Now despite NEITHER of us being "Morning People" we found ourselves on the tour for "Sunrise at Uluru". While I got some nice shots, I like my sunset pictures better, and really felt we could have skipped the sunrise. Although it was part of the tour, so we did it. Neither of us is big on large guided tours, but it turned out because Ayers Rock Resort and Alice Springs are so far apart and so isolated from anything else, the tour was more ecomonical, and less stress for us (well, except for that whole "sunrise" thing"). This is the rock formation known as Tkata Tjuta (the first T in each word is silent). It is about 40KM (20 miles -/+) from Uluru. I turned around as saw it while taking pictures of Uluru and liked this shot better, so I took this one, and a few others in between my Sunset pictures of Uluru. We had a 5 hour bus ride to get to the next town which was Alice Springs. I'm an East Coast baby -- we get from point A to point B pretty quickly. In 5 hours, I can go from DC almost all the way to Boston. So I had to take a picture of the stop we made for afternoon tea. It was pretty much the ONLY place to stop along the way. The first picture is the road behind us, and the next is the road ahead of us:
We discovered a VERY interesting thing while we were in Alice Springs. What was so interesting in a town that is approximately 20 blocks long, you ask? Well, our afternoon tour had some very good looking, nice, friendly men on it that had not been on the morning half. It seems they are LA Firefighters - who were in Adelaide, AU for the World Police and Fire Games. Yes, that would be the olympics for police and fire men. It seems that over 40,000 police and fire men come to compete in sporting events..... And then since they are in the country, they tend to stay and sightsee. We kept the 2 LA firefighters company for the afternoon, dinner and drinks. Unfortunately, they were leavng the next morning for 9 days of diving at the reef (note to self: get SCUBA certification renewed) and we were off to Adelaide.

Tuesday March 27th over night through mid-morning Wednesday, March 28th: Thelma and Louise ride the rails again and arrive in Adelaide mid-morning on Wednesday March 28th. We feel the urge to shop until time to leave for the Adelaide airport to catch flight to Sydney around 6:30 PM.

We really did just shop in Adelaide. *lol* Not to worry though, we found some more police and firemen so we weren't lonely or anything....

Wednesday, March 28th: Arrive in Sydney for 3 nights.
When we came back to Sydney, we spent one day touring the Blue Mountains. The are called the Blue Mountains because so many species of Gum trees (think Eucyliptus) grow there, and the leaves are very oily, and when the sunlight hits the leaves with the oil, it refracts as a blue haze.On our way to the Blue mountains we stopped at a wildlife preserve that allowed us to feed the kangaroos and have a breakfast cuddle with some koalas. In addition to the nice policemen from the Caymen Islands, and Italy, there was a family from France with 2 little girls, so I passed on my koala cuddle time so the little girls could have more time. I did however, feed the kangaroos.We also went through a National Park (which is part of the Blue Mountains) and while there, we got to wander through some trails and see wild kangaroos up close and personal. *g* They were resting because it was late afternoon, so pretty much they just looked at us as we went by as if to say "trying to sleep!". Of course, we had to use the restroom, and fortunately, the national park actually had very clean restrooms -- considering they were outhouses. *lol* Now, I grew up going on weekend family camping trips, so the outdoors doesn't bother me, and I have always hiked -- still do, but not so seriously now. I used to hike multiple miles at a time and sleep on the trail in a tent or dorm style cabin (during college and for a few years after). It was a lot of fun, and I ended up as part owner of a velvet Elvis painting one time many, many years ago. Robin, on the other hand, is not quite as familiar with the outdoors, and so as she exited the outhouse, she looked at me all wide-eyed and said, "watch out for the spider". OK, now, I'm not found of spiders, but seriously, this is an outhouse in a park -- I would have been surprised if there HADN'T been a spider or two. Yep -- I spent the entire time looking over my shoulder as I peed!

And of course, at the end of the day we had a last dinner in Sydney.Saturday, March 31st: Check out of hotel, return to real life *sigh*. Thelma's flight leaves approximately 2:30 PM back to U.S. Arrive at Washington Dulles Airport at 10:30 PM – still March 31st (that whole Date Line thing again). The flight home was not quite as smooth as I would have hoped. When I arrived in San Francisco (approximately 10:45 AM) to change to my East Coast flight, I was told the flight had been cancelled due to weather, and the next available seat was an 11:30 PM red-eye flight to Boston with a 2 hour lay-over and connection to DC Sunday morning. There are no pictures of this part of the trip because it realy wasnt very pretty! I believe the exact phrase out of my mouth was "you are fucking KIDDING me, right?". When the chick behind the counter just blinked, I dialed it back some and asked what my options were. She offered me the option to take a bus into the city and sightsee. My response: "I just got off a 17 hour flight, what's your next suggestion? " If I wanted to go standby, I could stay at the airport, and check back with the main desk every 30 to 45 minutes. Again, my response: "And door # 3?" They gave me a hotel voucher which I took it, went and slept for 8 hours, showered, ate dinner and returned to the airport. But I am finally home, and see who was anxiously waiting for me?

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About zinreads

I love to eat and sleep. One thing is more fun to blog about than the other. In between eating and sleeping I love to travel, spend time with my family and talk about myself. :)