Me again!
Jen and I are now sitting in a cave - literally - in the underground hostel at Coober Pedy. This is a small mining town in the Outback of South Australia, and is famous as the opal capital of the world. It took us about seven hours to drive here from Kings Canyon, and let me tell you, what a drive it was!
For starters, driving south along the Stuart Highway made the drive we did in Western Australia look... um... busy. :-) The desert here in the Red Centre has a lot more vegetation than I was expecting, but even what plants there were kinda shriveled up and disappeared, the further south we got. The last couple of hours as we approached Coober Pedy, we were driving through scrub that reminded us uncomfortably of the Nullarbor! The last 45 minutes of the drive took us through opal fields, and thousands and thousands of mounds of potch (leftover dirt/rocks from opal fossicking). The place reminds me very much of the movie set for "Holes". The land is so flat here that I don't even know if I'll be able to snap a good photo to show how strange it is!
The only excitement in our long, long, LONG drive happened early on, before we even got to the Stuart Highway. We startled up a group of seven feral (wild) camels that were grazing alongside the road! After coming to a screeching halt (and yes, Mom, it was safe to do so, it wasn't like there was any traffic whatsoever!), we managed to snap some impressive photos! Then later on, we passed a man who was leading a pair of camels down the road. The camels were hitched to an old wreck of a car, and towing it as if it was a stagecoach. Very strange. Unfortunately we passed him too quickly to get a photo.
There was lots of roadkill today, and we saw many, many eagles and other birds of prey nibbling on the bones. There are no vultures here, so it appears that the eagles, hawks and kites fill in instead. Icky but necessary.
So now here we are in Coober Pedy, and staying in an underground hostel. Our dorm room is at the very end of a loooong, dark, creepy tunnel. Suffice it to say that I will be making VERY sure that I've gone to the bathroom before going to bed tonight! Yikes! Tomorrow Jen and I will explore the opal mines and museums and underground homes, and hopefully purchase some opals for ourselves. After all, since we're both October babies, opal is our birthstone!
I will fill you in on my Uluru/Kata Tjuta/Kings Canyon adventures later... gotta run!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Still Alive and Reporting from Kings Canyon
So after being at Kings Canyon for the past two days, NOW I discover where they hid the internet booth! But at $5 for half an hour, I've just jumped on quickly to check my email and make sure the world is still turning. I will write a full report of my recent adventure when I FINALLY return to Melbourne (and my own computer and my ability to webchat!!) this weekend.
The short version:
The short version:
- Watched the sun rise and set over Uluru - WOW
- Walked around the base of Uluru and did the Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta with Jen - ASTOUNDING
- Walked with my Mom and Dad and Jen through the gorge at Kata Tjuta - GO MOM!
- Hiked the Rim Walk here at Kings Canyon - SO BEAUTIFUL
- Discovered that the "Beware the Dingoes" signs posted all over this campground are NOT just for show - we've now been up close and personal with Australia's wild dogs (some say subspecies of wolf)
- Enjoyed naps and time in the pool.
Tomorrow Jen and I will be driving to Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world, and staying at an underground hostel. COOL! Then it's back to Alice Springs on Wednesday, catching the Ghan train to Adelaide on Thursday, and flying to Melbourne on Friday. I'm looking forward to getting home!
Gotta run!
Monday, March 24, 2008
From Darwin to Alice Springs
OK, I put a bit more time on my internet card, so we'll see how this goes. We've been in "The Alice" for a day now and are getting ready to hit the road again first thing tomorrow morning to drive to Uluru. I'm so excited! But the journey here from Darwin was an adventure in itself, so let me tell you about it.
Mom, Dad and I left Darwin two days ago at about 7am. We wanted to get an early start because we knew it was going to be a 12 hour drive to get to our overnighting spot at Tenant Creek. We drove just under 1000 km's on Saturday, in pretty much a completely straight line, from Darwin to Tenant Creek. The landscape along the way really surprised us. I knew it was going to be mostly flat, and I knew that we would get out of the tropical wet forest pretty quickly, but it took a long, long, long time for us to end up in "Outback" desert vegetation. I would say we spent the first eight hours driving through open eucalypt forest, of the type that I've seen all over the country. The main difference was the termite mounds! The termite mounds in the far north are HUGE - up to 7 feet tall - and they're absolutely everywhere in the forests, almost as numerous as the trees. As we headed south, the termite mounds became smaller, but still often climbed to 3 feet high. Craziness.
We made a few stops along the way. We stopped for coffee about 9am at the Adelaide River Roadhouse. Dad was not impressed that he paid $2 to drink a cup of instant coffee. Ha ha! This roadhouse, like all the ones along the highway, had its quirks. In the Adelaide River Hotel, we found a stuffed water buffalo that apparently had a starring role in the movie "Crocodile Dundee". Now I know I've seen that movie, but I have no memory of their being a water buffalo in it - guess I'll have to see it again. Further down the road, we stopped for lunch at another random roadhouse, which was a little on the sketchy/scary side. We ate on a rickety picnic table in the field beside the pub, standing up, 'cause we were afraid that if we sat on the picnic table it would completely collapse. There was a random stray chicken from the yard that kept watching us, hoping to get fed. Oh, and the wreckage of a bomber airplane from WWII. Strangeness.
In fact, all down the Stuart Highway there are tons of significant WWII sites, including many different airstrips. We finally pulled off to take a look at one when we reached Daly Waters. I had promised Jen's mom that I would take a picture of the Daly Waters sign, since her maiden name is Daly and she's pretty sure she has relatives who settled there. The airstrip at Daly Waters turned out to be the most important one along that stretch of highway during the second world war. It was an important staging point for Australian and American air forces as they prepared to go to war in the Pacific. It was also a stopover point for international flights heading from Sydney to Singapore, until the airplanes developed to a point where they didn't need to stop there to refuel anymore. The town of Daly Waters was a whole experience in itself. The pub there is quite famous, and we went inside to take a look and buy a drink. WELL! The walls of the pub are decorated with such a huge variety of objects you couldn't see the walls anymore. Items on the walls included international currency, stubby coolers, bras, licence plates, and much more. There was a rodeo going on in town and the place was packed, so we kinda slipped in and outta there as quickly as we could.
It was a long, long, long drive to Tenant Creek, and the last few hours were pretty harsh. The speed limit on the Stuart Highway is 130 kms/hr for most of its length, and even so, it seemed to take us forever to get to Tenant Creek. I'd booked us a room at an actual motel for the night, and we enjoyed an evening of luxurious comfort - including having a TV in our room, our own private bathroom, and air conditioning that actually worked! We enjoyed dinner in the motel's restaurant and made it an early night.
In the morning, we went back to the motel's restaurant for breakfast and enjoyed eggs, toast, fruit salad, bacon, and lots of tea and coffee before hitting the road again. The highlight of this part of the trip was visiting the Devils Marbles, which are about 100kms south of Tenant Creek. These are huge sandstone boulders scattered in crazy piles just beside the highway. Some of these boulders are 20 feet tall or more, and most of them are spherical or ovoid in shape. They were really cool. Apparently they're formed by the land eroding around harder rock (sound familiar? We've seen other versions of this phenomenon as we travel around the country). The boulders really did look like giant marbles or eggs. Dad and I snapped a number of pretty cool pics, which I promise to post on Facebook when I finally get back to Melbourne in April. It was insanely hot and the flies were really really annoying as we toured around the Marbles, so we didn't stay for as long as I would have liked.
Although we only had another 500 or so km's to go to get to Alice, it took us most of the day to get there. There were just too many interesting things to see along the way! The road itself continued to be pretty darn boring and straight (as in, we kept exclaiming things like "OOO! Traffic!" when lone cars passed us going in the opposite direction, and "ooo, topography!" when we saw a slight rise in the land). We pulled over at most of the roadhouses along the way. At Wycliff Hill, the UFO capital of Australia, we chatted with the bartender, sipped ginger beer, and snapped photos of the strange decor of the pub and the UFO parking lot outside. At Aileron, we admired the giant statue of an Aboriginal hunter. At Ti Tree, we stuck our heads into the local Aboriginal art gallery, where Mom bought some beautiful glass artwork. We took photos at the Tropic of Capricorn marker and ate freshly made mango ice cream at the Red Centre mango farm.
As we approached Alice Springs, the land finally began to fold into hills - and then we were finally here! (I could tell we'd arrived in Alice because my cell phone beeped - sometimes the only way you know you're approaching civilization in this country is when you get cell phone reception again.) Jen had flown into Alice Springs from Melbourne earlier in the day and when I finally got in touch with her on the phone, she was pedalling around the city on a bike, scoping the place out for us. She met us back at the hostel. It was awfully good to see her after these three weeks we've been apart!
Alice Springs is not a big town, and its topography is similar to Mount Isa (well, except for the part where there's a honking huge mine in Mount Isa and there isn't one in Alice). The four of us unpacked our stuff and moved into our room, and then took a walk through the downtown core to see what there was to see. Because it was Easter Sunday, most of the stores and restaurants were closed. We ended up at the local saloon, Bojangles, for dinner. That in itself was an experience! Bojangles, like many of the Outback pubs I've visited in the last few days, has very quirky decor. In the front of the bar there was a crocodile skin and skull nailed to the ceiling. There was a replica set of Ned Kelly's armor set up in a coffin, and you could grab a handful of peanuts from where the codpiece of the armor would have been. (sigh) In the back room, there was a fabulous model train set built all around the walls of the room, up by the ceiling. Dad and I shared a plate of all sorts of Aussie bush meats for dinner. We sampled croc, emu, roo, and camel - and they were all good, although I thought that the camel was rather chewy.
We had to return to the hostel after dinner, as nothing was open and unfortunately there were largeish groups of drunk and rowdy folks out and wandering the streets. In fact, the hostel felt a little like a security compound - there was a double-locked door for us to pass through and high fencing all around. Not the most comfortable feeling!
This morning, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast (thanks mostly to Jen, who had gone grocery shopping for us when she arrived in Alice Springs yesterday) and then headed to the Alice Springs Desert Park, just outside of town. This was a really cool place. They have four different central desert habitats represented in the park, and a good series of interpretive signs to teach us about them as we walked around. We first headed for the Nature Theatre, for the birds of prey show. This was the BEST wild bird show I've ever seen. The ranger who was running the show stood in centre stage and talked, and on cue, as if by magic, the birds she was talking about would suddenly appear in the sky, swoop down, and sit on one of the trees or rocks in the display area. (What was happening was the birds' enclosures were just out of sight behind the theatre's audience stands, and they were being released at certain cues. The birds knew to fly into the theatre to get food.) The ranger had the birds demonstrate some of their natural behaviours, which was really cool. The black kite leaped upon food on the ground; the whistling kite snatched bits out of the air and ate them on the wing. The bustard used a rock to crack open a simulated emu egg. It was great!
Jen and I took off on our own for about an hour so we could watch a presentation by an Aboriginal ranger about the traditional tools used by the local indigenous peoples as they gathered foods from the bush. We learned how to use certain trees to make coolamons (bowls) and digging sticks, we examined various types of edible seeds and berries, and examined spear throwers and boomerangs. The ranger showed us how to throw a spear using the spear thrower, how to use a deflecting shield, and how to winnow seeds in the coolamon. It was great.
We were running a little late now, so we collected Mom and Dad from the theatre (where they were watching a film in air-conditioned comfort), and headed back to the hostel for lunch. Our afternoon destination was the Starlight Theatre, a block from the hostel, where a local didgeridoo artist gives free didgeridoo lessons every afternoon. Yep, we all sat and learned how to play a didgeridoo - even Dad! (The photos are very funny. The video my mom accidentally shot is even funnier. Yes I will post them when I can.) Let me tell you, it is a LOT harder to play a didgeridoo than it looks! I could make the basic sound, but had no luck flattening out my cheeks and doing circular breathing. Apparently this will come with time. Mom, of course, bought a didgeridoo last week, and now she owns a CD and a DVD on how to play, so maybe I'll get some time to practice it when I get home!
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for art (no luck) and opals (Mom had some luck here, but not me). We took a quick jaunt out to the airport to the Europcar desk so Jen could get put on as another driver on our rental car, then drove back through town to check out the view from the top of ANZAC Hill. We enjoyed dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, and now we're back at the hostel again, getting ready to head out first thing tomorrow morning.
I am so excited to finally get to Uluru. In many ways, it is the spiritual centre of this country. In some way I feel like my whole year's journey has been leading up to this point, and I am close to the end of my pilgrimage. We will be leaving here early in the morning and should arrive at Uluru in mid-afternoon. Wish us a safe journey, and I will report back when I can!
Mom, Dad and I left Darwin two days ago at about 7am. We wanted to get an early start because we knew it was going to be a 12 hour drive to get to our overnighting spot at Tenant Creek. We drove just under 1000 km's on Saturday, in pretty much a completely straight line, from Darwin to Tenant Creek. The landscape along the way really surprised us. I knew it was going to be mostly flat, and I knew that we would get out of the tropical wet forest pretty quickly, but it took a long, long, long time for us to end up in "Outback" desert vegetation. I would say we spent the first eight hours driving through open eucalypt forest, of the type that I've seen all over the country. The main difference was the termite mounds! The termite mounds in the far north are HUGE - up to 7 feet tall - and they're absolutely everywhere in the forests, almost as numerous as the trees. As we headed south, the termite mounds became smaller, but still often climbed to 3 feet high. Craziness.
We made a few stops along the way. We stopped for coffee about 9am at the Adelaide River Roadhouse. Dad was not impressed that he paid $2 to drink a cup of instant coffee. Ha ha! This roadhouse, like all the ones along the highway, had its quirks. In the Adelaide River Hotel, we found a stuffed water buffalo that apparently had a starring role in the movie "Crocodile Dundee". Now I know I've seen that movie, but I have no memory of their being a water buffalo in it - guess I'll have to see it again. Further down the road, we stopped for lunch at another random roadhouse, which was a little on the sketchy/scary side. We ate on a rickety picnic table in the field beside the pub, standing up, 'cause we were afraid that if we sat on the picnic table it would completely collapse. There was a random stray chicken from the yard that kept watching us, hoping to get fed. Oh, and the wreckage of a bomber airplane from WWII. Strangeness.
In fact, all down the Stuart Highway there are tons of significant WWII sites, including many different airstrips. We finally pulled off to take a look at one when we reached Daly Waters. I had promised Jen's mom that I would take a picture of the Daly Waters sign, since her maiden name is Daly and she's pretty sure she has relatives who settled there. The airstrip at Daly Waters turned out to be the most important one along that stretch of highway during the second world war. It was an important staging point for Australian and American air forces as they prepared to go to war in the Pacific. It was also a stopover point for international flights heading from Sydney to Singapore, until the airplanes developed to a point where they didn't need to stop there to refuel anymore. The town of Daly Waters was a whole experience in itself. The pub there is quite famous, and we went inside to take a look and buy a drink. WELL! The walls of the pub are decorated with such a huge variety of objects you couldn't see the walls anymore. Items on the walls included international currency, stubby coolers, bras, licence plates, and much more. There was a rodeo going on in town and the place was packed, so we kinda slipped in and outta there as quickly as we could.
It was a long, long, long drive to Tenant Creek, and the last few hours were pretty harsh. The speed limit on the Stuart Highway is 130 kms/hr for most of its length, and even so, it seemed to take us forever to get to Tenant Creek. I'd booked us a room at an actual motel for the night, and we enjoyed an evening of luxurious comfort - including having a TV in our room, our own private bathroom, and air conditioning that actually worked! We enjoyed dinner in the motel's restaurant and made it an early night.
In the morning, we went back to the motel's restaurant for breakfast and enjoyed eggs, toast, fruit salad, bacon, and lots of tea and coffee before hitting the road again. The highlight of this part of the trip was visiting the Devils Marbles, which are about 100kms south of Tenant Creek. These are huge sandstone boulders scattered in crazy piles just beside the highway. Some of these boulders are 20 feet tall or more, and most of them are spherical or ovoid in shape. They were really cool. Apparently they're formed by the land eroding around harder rock (sound familiar? We've seen other versions of this phenomenon as we travel around the country). The boulders really did look like giant marbles or eggs. Dad and I snapped a number of pretty cool pics, which I promise to post on Facebook when I finally get back to Melbourne in April. It was insanely hot and the flies were really really annoying as we toured around the Marbles, so we didn't stay for as long as I would have liked.
Although we only had another 500 or so km's to go to get to Alice, it took us most of the day to get there. There were just too many interesting things to see along the way! The road itself continued to be pretty darn boring and straight (as in, we kept exclaiming things like "OOO! Traffic!" when lone cars passed us going in the opposite direction, and "ooo, topography!" when we saw a slight rise in the land). We pulled over at most of the roadhouses along the way. At Wycliff Hill, the UFO capital of Australia, we chatted with the bartender, sipped ginger beer, and snapped photos of the strange decor of the pub and the UFO parking lot outside. At Aileron, we admired the giant statue of an Aboriginal hunter. At Ti Tree, we stuck our heads into the local Aboriginal art gallery, where Mom bought some beautiful glass artwork. We took photos at the Tropic of Capricorn marker and ate freshly made mango ice cream at the Red Centre mango farm.
As we approached Alice Springs, the land finally began to fold into hills - and then we were finally here! (I could tell we'd arrived in Alice because my cell phone beeped - sometimes the only way you know you're approaching civilization in this country is when you get cell phone reception again.) Jen had flown into Alice Springs from Melbourne earlier in the day and when I finally got in touch with her on the phone, she was pedalling around the city on a bike, scoping the place out for us. She met us back at the hostel. It was awfully good to see her after these three weeks we've been apart!
Alice Springs is not a big town, and its topography is similar to Mount Isa (well, except for the part where there's a honking huge mine in Mount Isa and there isn't one in Alice). The four of us unpacked our stuff and moved into our room, and then took a walk through the downtown core to see what there was to see. Because it was Easter Sunday, most of the stores and restaurants were closed. We ended up at the local saloon, Bojangles, for dinner. That in itself was an experience! Bojangles, like many of the Outback pubs I've visited in the last few days, has very quirky decor. In the front of the bar there was a crocodile skin and skull nailed to the ceiling. There was a replica set of Ned Kelly's armor set up in a coffin, and you could grab a handful of peanuts from where the codpiece of the armor would have been. (sigh) In the back room, there was a fabulous model train set built all around the walls of the room, up by the ceiling. Dad and I shared a plate of all sorts of Aussie bush meats for dinner. We sampled croc, emu, roo, and camel - and they were all good, although I thought that the camel was rather chewy.
We had to return to the hostel after dinner, as nothing was open and unfortunately there were largeish groups of drunk and rowdy folks out and wandering the streets. In fact, the hostel felt a little like a security compound - there was a double-locked door for us to pass through and high fencing all around. Not the most comfortable feeling!
This morning, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast (thanks mostly to Jen, who had gone grocery shopping for us when she arrived in Alice Springs yesterday) and then headed to the Alice Springs Desert Park, just outside of town. This was a really cool place. They have four different central desert habitats represented in the park, and a good series of interpretive signs to teach us about them as we walked around. We first headed for the Nature Theatre, for the birds of prey show. This was the BEST wild bird show I've ever seen. The ranger who was running the show stood in centre stage and talked, and on cue, as if by magic, the birds she was talking about would suddenly appear in the sky, swoop down, and sit on one of the trees or rocks in the display area. (What was happening was the birds' enclosures were just out of sight behind the theatre's audience stands, and they were being released at certain cues. The birds knew to fly into the theatre to get food.) The ranger had the birds demonstrate some of their natural behaviours, which was really cool. The black kite leaped upon food on the ground; the whistling kite snatched bits out of the air and ate them on the wing. The bustard used a rock to crack open a simulated emu egg. It was great!
Jen and I took off on our own for about an hour so we could watch a presentation by an Aboriginal ranger about the traditional tools used by the local indigenous peoples as they gathered foods from the bush. We learned how to use certain trees to make coolamons (bowls) and digging sticks, we examined various types of edible seeds and berries, and examined spear throwers and boomerangs. The ranger showed us how to throw a spear using the spear thrower, how to use a deflecting shield, and how to winnow seeds in the coolamon. It was great.
We were running a little late now, so we collected Mom and Dad from the theatre (where they were watching a film in air-conditioned comfort), and headed back to the hostel for lunch. Our afternoon destination was the Starlight Theatre, a block from the hostel, where a local didgeridoo artist gives free didgeridoo lessons every afternoon. Yep, we all sat and learned how to play a didgeridoo - even Dad! (The photos are very funny. The video my mom accidentally shot is even funnier. Yes I will post them when I can.) Let me tell you, it is a LOT harder to play a didgeridoo than it looks! I could make the basic sound, but had no luck flattening out my cheeks and doing circular breathing. Apparently this will come with time. Mom, of course, bought a didgeridoo last week, and now she owns a CD and a DVD on how to play, so maybe I'll get some time to practice it when I get home!
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for art (no luck) and opals (Mom had some luck here, but not me). We took a quick jaunt out to the airport to the Europcar desk so Jen could get put on as another driver on our rental car, then drove back through town to check out the view from the top of ANZAC Hill. We enjoyed dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, and now we're back at the hostel again, getting ready to head out first thing tomorrow morning.
I am so excited to finally get to Uluru. In many ways, it is the spiritual centre of this country. In some way I feel like my whole year's journey has been leading up to this point, and I am close to the end of my pilgrimage. We will be leaving here early in the morning and should arrive at Uluru in mid-afternoon. Wish us a safe journey, and I will report back when I can!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Now Reporting From Alice Springs
Me again!
I have about 6 minutes before I run outta time on this internet card, so this'll be quick. Mom, Dad and I have spent the past two days driving from Darwin to Alice Springs, and wow has it been an adventure. We found the UFO Capital of Australia, bought a drink at the Daly Waters Pub, and spotted many, many cows along the side of the road. We got here late this afternoon and met up with Jen at the hostel. All is good! We just got back from dinner at Bojangles Saloon, which is a local watering hole with lots of... um... colourful personality! It was great. I ate croc. And emu. And camel. And roo.
More another day!
I have about 6 minutes before I run outta time on this internet card, so this'll be quick. Mom, Dad and I have spent the past two days driving from Darwin to Alice Springs, and wow has it been an adventure. We found the UFO Capital of Australia, bought a drink at the Daly Waters Pub, and spotted many, many cows along the side of the road. We got here late this afternoon and met up with Jen at the hostel. All is good! We just got back from dinner at Bojangles Saloon, which is a local watering hole with lots of... um... colourful personality! It was great. I ate croc. And emu. And camel. And roo.
More another day!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Greetings from the Top End
I'm writing this entry from the YHA in Darwin, Northern Territory - otherwise known as the Top End. It is incredibly hot and humid here, and Mom is not taking the heat well. PLUS I'd somehow completely forgotten about Easter Weekend! It's Good Friday today and all the museums and shops are closed. This is my only day in Darwin. WAH! So once the laundry's done we're going to head out and do as much exploring as the heat will allow, but I'm not sure what we're going to be able to see. At least we have a rental car and it has air conditioning, so we'll be able to move about in comfort.
Anyhow! It's been a few days since I've had the ability to write, so let me bring you up to speed. I last left off on the day that Mom, Dad and I went out to the Great Barrier Reef. We were all soooo tired when we got back to the hostel that night, we made it an early night. Which was good 'cause we had to be up at 6am the next day for our next tour! We'd booked a day trip with the Billy Tea Bush Safari company. They picked us up at 7am (so early!) in this huge, 16-seat Toyota 4WD SUV. So cool! Our destination was the Daintree Rainforest.
It took about 1.5 hours to drive north from Cairns to the Daintree, along the spectacular coastal highway. The land north of Cairns is mountainous and I spent the whole way staring at the scenery. The hills were lush and green and so high that many of them were topped by clouds. This is one of the only places in the world where the coral reef systems are close to shore, too - so there were spots where literally out one window of the vehicle we were admiring rainforest and out the other window we were looking at the tops of coral reefs in the ocean. Simply beautiful.
The Daintree Rainforest has World Heritage listing, as it is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. There has never been an ice age here, and scientists have dated some of the plant families found in the forest back 125 million years! The Daintree is not a huge forest, but it contains something ridiculous like 25% of all the species found in Australia, so it is also hugely significant for biodiversity. So all in all, it was definitely a worthwhile place to visit!
Our tour made many stops throughout the day. We went for an interprative walk along a boardwalk in the rainforest, where our guide explained about many of the plants we were seeing all around us. There were King Ferns growing in some of the gullies - their fronds were upwards of 10 feet long! We spotted several cool critters along the way, including a Boyd's Forest Dragon, a cool lizard that was hanging out on the side of a tree, waiting for insects to come by. We also saw many Golden Orb spiders, web-weaving spiders bigger than the palm of my hand. You will have to be proud of me. I got as close as I dared to one and snapped a cool picture! Whenever I manage to make it back to my own computer so I can upload pics, I'll post that on facebook for sure. The spider was beautiful, but as soon as it started to move, I backed away rapidly! (I was glad that our tour guide was taller than most everyone else in the group - this meant that as we walked through the forest, HE could encounter all the spider webs for us! Ha ha!)
Our next stop was way, waaaay up in the hills, to a beautiful stream where we could safely swim (no crocodiles!). To get there we had to drive down some pretty rough roads, and I was sure glad we had a 4WD! There were several places where rivers crossed the road and the truck had to drive right through the water. It was clear that this was a normal procedure, and that the water levels were currently low-ish. The way that the roads were situated, it appeared that you couldn't build bridges to cross the water - in flood, the water would simply wash the bridges away. Hence the fords.
The stream was absolutely crystal clear and cold, but refreshing, since the air was hot and muggy. Dad and I plunged in with many of the other tourists, while Mom watched us from the shore. The water was surprisingly deep and the current was really strong. It took all my strength to swim upstream, and even then I couldn't do it for long. While we were swimming our tour guide was preparing a snack for us of various tropical fruits. We sampled dragon fruit, custard apple, and several others whose name I now forget, but they were all yummy. We also ate damper (the Australian version of bannock) smothered in golden syrup, and billy tea, cooked in a billy can over a fire. Yum.
Then it was back down the mountain for a stop at Cape Tribulation. This is one of many places along the east coast of Australia that was named by Captain Cook as he did his explorations in 1770. His ship got stuck on the reef just off the Cape and it was only through some quick thinking that he and his crew managed to save it. They were beached for 5 weeks as they repaired the ship, and Cook began naming all the landmarks in the area - including Cape Tribulation, where all his "trials and tribulations" began. It was very beautiful. Too bad we couldn't go swimming here too - the risk of lethal jellyfish in the water was too high. We did see a lace monitor, though - a huge, 5-foot long goanna lizard - as it wandered through the brush looking for food. COOL!
Another 30-minute drive took us to the lunch stop, where we enjoyed BBQ'd steak and all sorts of other goodies. There was a small wildlife sanctuary here too, and so we all got a chance to hand feed some kangaroos and pandemelons. They were so cute! Mom's now finally gotten to see a roo up close. And personal! She was trying to feed the big grey kangaroo, and the roo was being a little pushy, and it planted one of its forepaws right on my mom's thigh! Problem was, the ground was all muddy and it left a big mucky footprint on her pants. Ha ha!
The last stop for the afternoon was at the Daintree River, where we enjoyed an hour long cruise. The skipper of our boat was very knowledgeable and taught us all sorts of things about the river's mangrove ecosystems. We also went hunting for crocodiles! We spotted two female crocs, each about 4m long, stretched out in the mangroves on the river's bank. It was a little unnerving though... the female crocs were so beautifully camouflaged that we wouldn't have seen them if our guide hadn't already known where to look. AND, along this stretch of river, all the females are "girlfriends" to one big dominant male croc, which we never spotted. It was kinda creepy to know that there was a 6m-plus long croc cruising the river that we never saw!
By the time we got back to the hostel it was 6:30pm, and we'd been touring for almost 12 hours. Suffice it to say we were a little pooped. We dragged ourselves out for dinner and then basically went to bed!
Yesterday we enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in - all the way to 8am - and then packed, ate a leisurely breakfast, and got ready to leave. Mom had bought a didgeridoo a couple of days earlier and Dad was a little worried about having to carry the blasted thing through all the airports for the rest of the trip. So he and I set off to find the one company in Cairns that specializes in shipping didgeridoos overseas. The cost? $130 to ship the didg to Canada. YIKES. But it's winging its way homeward now, and we don't have to carry it. :-)
We caught a taxi around noon to the airport, thinking we would be arriving in lots of time, as our flight wasn't leaving until almost 2. So imagine my surprise/shock/horror when we arrived at the domestic check in counter for JetStar to discover that our flight was leaving from the international terminal - and we only had 15 minutes to get there and get checked in! AAAA! The international terminal is located in a completely separate building, and we really had to hoof it to get it there in time. Poor mom - with her broken arm, she's not moving so quickly, and she can't carry any real weight - so Dad and I had all our luggage and we booted it as fast as we could.
Turns out our flight was leaving from the international terminal because it was stopping in Darwin on its way to Singapore. We got checked in OK, but then because we were on an international flight, we had to go through customs and extra security. Both Dad and I had completely forgotten about the sunscreen we had packed in our carry-ons (which would not have been an issue if we were flying domestic), so we lost all our sunscreen in the security screening. DRAT. But we finally made it to our plane and settled in for the flight.
Now for the next surprise - we actually got FED on the plane! This was funny, 'cause we'd packed ourselves a lunch! I thought it was rather surprising that we'd get fed on the way to Darwin, instead of waiting to only feed folks who were flying to Singapore. Ah well. We enjoyed the extra sandwiches and snacks anyway. When we got off the plane, we discovered we had to go through Quarantine - even though we'd not actually left Australia. How confusing! Then it was off to the car rental desk, where we picked up our rental car for the next three weeks, and then into Darwin itself.
We didn't have much time to explore yesterday, what with all this excitement and the time change (I forgot again) and all. By the time Dad and I had come back from the grocery store it was almost 7pm, so we grabbed Mom and headed out for dinner. Mom did some laundry in the evening while Dad and I enjoyed the pool (which felt great, except for the part where I misjudged where the side of the pool was and kicked it really REALLY hard with my toe, which still hurts - I'm amazed it didn't bruise). The air conditioning in our room leaves a lot to be desired, but it's still better than the mugginess outside.
And so now we're off to do some exploring and see what's actually open. More later!
Anyhow! It's been a few days since I've had the ability to write, so let me bring you up to speed. I last left off on the day that Mom, Dad and I went out to the Great Barrier Reef. We were all soooo tired when we got back to the hostel that night, we made it an early night. Which was good 'cause we had to be up at 6am the next day for our next tour! We'd booked a day trip with the Billy Tea Bush Safari company. They picked us up at 7am (so early!) in this huge, 16-seat Toyota 4WD SUV. So cool! Our destination was the Daintree Rainforest.
It took about 1.5 hours to drive north from Cairns to the Daintree, along the spectacular coastal highway. The land north of Cairns is mountainous and I spent the whole way staring at the scenery. The hills were lush and green and so high that many of them were topped by clouds. This is one of the only places in the world where the coral reef systems are close to shore, too - so there were spots where literally out one window of the vehicle we were admiring rainforest and out the other window we were looking at the tops of coral reefs in the ocean. Simply beautiful.
The Daintree Rainforest has World Heritage listing, as it is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. There has never been an ice age here, and scientists have dated some of the plant families found in the forest back 125 million years! The Daintree is not a huge forest, but it contains something ridiculous like 25% of all the species found in Australia, so it is also hugely significant for biodiversity. So all in all, it was definitely a worthwhile place to visit!
Our tour made many stops throughout the day. We went for an interprative walk along a boardwalk in the rainforest, where our guide explained about many of the plants we were seeing all around us. There were King Ferns growing in some of the gullies - their fronds were upwards of 10 feet long! We spotted several cool critters along the way, including a Boyd's Forest Dragon, a cool lizard that was hanging out on the side of a tree, waiting for insects to come by. We also saw many Golden Orb spiders, web-weaving spiders bigger than the palm of my hand. You will have to be proud of me. I got as close as I dared to one and snapped a cool picture! Whenever I manage to make it back to my own computer so I can upload pics, I'll post that on facebook for sure. The spider was beautiful, but as soon as it started to move, I backed away rapidly! (I was glad that our tour guide was taller than most everyone else in the group - this meant that as we walked through the forest, HE could encounter all the spider webs for us! Ha ha!)
Our next stop was way, waaaay up in the hills, to a beautiful stream where we could safely swim (no crocodiles!). To get there we had to drive down some pretty rough roads, and I was sure glad we had a 4WD! There were several places where rivers crossed the road and the truck had to drive right through the water. It was clear that this was a normal procedure, and that the water levels were currently low-ish. The way that the roads were situated, it appeared that you couldn't build bridges to cross the water - in flood, the water would simply wash the bridges away. Hence the fords.
The stream was absolutely crystal clear and cold, but refreshing, since the air was hot and muggy. Dad and I plunged in with many of the other tourists, while Mom watched us from the shore. The water was surprisingly deep and the current was really strong. It took all my strength to swim upstream, and even then I couldn't do it for long. While we were swimming our tour guide was preparing a snack for us of various tropical fruits. We sampled dragon fruit, custard apple, and several others whose name I now forget, but they were all yummy. We also ate damper (the Australian version of bannock) smothered in golden syrup, and billy tea, cooked in a billy can over a fire. Yum.
Then it was back down the mountain for a stop at Cape Tribulation. This is one of many places along the east coast of Australia that was named by Captain Cook as he did his explorations in 1770. His ship got stuck on the reef just off the Cape and it was only through some quick thinking that he and his crew managed to save it. They were beached for 5 weeks as they repaired the ship, and Cook began naming all the landmarks in the area - including Cape Tribulation, where all his "trials and tribulations" began. It was very beautiful. Too bad we couldn't go swimming here too - the risk of lethal jellyfish in the water was too high. We did see a lace monitor, though - a huge, 5-foot long goanna lizard - as it wandered through the brush looking for food. COOL!
Another 30-minute drive took us to the lunch stop, where we enjoyed BBQ'd steak and all sorts of other goodies. There was a small wildlife sanctuary here too, and so we all got a chance to hand feed some kangaroos and pandemelons. They were so cute! Mom's now finally gotten to see a roo up close. And personal! She was trying to feed the big grey kangaroo, and the roo was being a little pushy, and it planted one of its forepaws right on my mom's thigh! Problem was, the ground was all muddy and it left a big mucky footprint on her pants. Ha ha!
The last stop for the afternoon was at the Daintree River, where we enjoyed an hour long cruise. The skipper of our boat was very knowledgeable and taught us all sorts of things about the river's mangrove ecosystems. We also went hunting for crocodiles! We spotted two female crocs, each about 4m long, stretched out in the mangroves on the river's bank. It was a little unnerving though... the female crocs were so beautifully camouflaged that we wouldn't have seen them if our guide hadn't already known where to look. AND, along this stretch of river, all the females are "girlfriends" to one big dominant male croc, which we never spotted. It was kinda creepy to know that there was a 6m-plus long croc cruising the river that we never saw!
By the time we got back to the hostel it was 6:30pm, and we'd been touring for almost 12 hours. Suffice it to say we were a little pooped. We dragged ourselves out for dinner and then basically went to bed!
Yesterday we enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in - all the way to 8am - and then packed, ate a leisurely breakfast, and got ready to leave. Mom had bought a didgeridoo a couple of days earlier and Dad was a little worried about having to carry the blasted thing through all the airports for the rest of the trip. So he and I set off to find the one company in Cairns that specializes in shipping didgeridoos overseas. The cost? $130 to ship the didg to Canada. YIKES. But it's winging its way homeward now, and we don't have to carry it. :-)
We caught a taxi around noon to the airport, thinking we would be arriving in lots of time, as our flight wasn't leaving until almost 2. So imagine my surprise/shock/horror when we arrived at the domestic check in counter for JetStar to discover that our flight was leaving from the international terminal - and we only had 15 minutes to get there and get checked in! AAAA! The international terminal is located in a completely separate building, and we really had to hoof it to get it there in time. Poor mom - with her broken arm, she's not moving so quickly, and she can't carry any real weight - so Dad and I had all our luggage and we booted it as fast as we could.
Turns out our flight was leaving from the international terminal because it was stopping in Darwin on its way to Singapore. We got checked in OK, but then because we were on an international flight, we had to go through customs and extra security. Both Dad and I had completely forgotten about the sunscreen we had packed in our carry-ons (which would not have been an issue if we were flying domestic), so we lost all our sunscreen in the security screening. DRAT. But we finally made it to our plane and settled in for the flight.
Now for the next surprise - we actually got FED on the plane! This was funny, 'cause we'd packed ourselves a lunch! I thought it was rather surprising that we'd get fed on the way to Darwin, instead of waiting to only feed folks who were flying to Singapore. Ah well. We enjoyed the extra sandwiches and snacks anyway. When we got off the plane, we discovered we had to go through Quarantine - even though we'd not actually left Australia. How confusing! Then it was off to the car rental desk, where we picked up our rental car for the next three weeks, and then into Darwin itself.
We didn't have much time to explore yesterday, what with all this excitement and the time change (I forgot again) and all. By the time Dad and I had come back from the grocery store it was almost 7pm, so we grabbed Mom and headed out for dinner. Mom did some laundry in the evening while Dad and I enjoyed the pool (which felt great, except for the part where I misjudged where the side of the pool was and kicked it really REALLY hard with my toe, which still hurts - I'm amazed it didn't bruise). The air conditioning in our room leaves a lot to be desired, but it's still better than the mugginess outside.
And so now we're off to do some exploring and see what's actually open. More later!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Great Barrier Reef
At last, at last, I got out to the Great Barrier Reef! I was trying so hard not to get my hopes up, since we were so disappointed with the conditions in Townsville two weeks ago. But today's trip was absolutely wonderful. I can cross another item off my life's "to do" list.
The morning started off a little crazily. I had it in my head that we needed to be ready to go for 7am, so mom, dad and I were all up at 6, ate breakfast, got all ready... and then sat outside the hostel, waiting and waiting and waiting for the bus to come get us. I eventually re-checked the flyer, and realized that we didn't need to be ready until 7:45! Oops. So we walked across the street and I bought my folks a coffee. By the time that was done with it was time to ACTUALLY catch the bus, and off we went!
We did our reef tour with a company called Quicksilver, and they operate out of Port Douglas, a town about 35 minutes north of Cairns. We pulled in to the harbour at Port Douglas around 10am, got straight on the catamaran (a HUGE one!), along with around a hundred other people, and headed out to sea. Our destination was a section of the Outer Reef, where the continental shelf drops away into open ocean. Quicksilver owns exclusive rights to this part of the reef, so there were no other boats out with us.
The ride out to the floating platform took about an hour and a half, and during this time the staff played a number of videos, instructing us in safe snorkeling, a history of the reef, and an introduction to some of the fish species we would likely see. I just couldn't wait to get into the water! The ride seemed to take forever.
One of the reasons I chose this company was because they had several activities for people to do that didn't involve getting wet, so my Mom could enjoy the day too. The first thing we did once we arrived at the platform was get into the semi-submersible sub and do a half hour reef tour that way! Mom loved it. Both she and I tried snapping photos through the windows of the sub, but I'm not sure how well they turned out. The sub sure was claustrophobic though, and I'll admit I was glad to get out of it at the end of the tour! Next came lunchtime so we all grabbed something to eat. I would've just gone straight into the water but with Dad's diabetes, it's not a good idea for him to skip a meal. So we ate. As quickly as I could!
I rented those dead-sexy stinger suits for Dad and I to wear, and Mom sure seemed to enjoy taking horribly embarrassing photos of the two of us as we slithered our way into the suits. Then once we'd grabbed fins and a mask for Dad (I'd brought my own), into the water we went! The whole operation was really well put-together. There were these semi-submerged platforms for us to put our fins on, and it was easy to launch from there straight into the water. There was also an underwater viewing platform where Mom spent some time, watching the fish (and the humans!) go by. She tried snapping some photos of me as I swam; we'll just have to wait and see how well they worked.
The snorkeling was incredible. I am so glad we went. The water was much deeper than any other place I've snorkeled so far, and it took some getting used to. But Dad and I paddled all around the swimming area and saw tons and tons of fish. There were giant clams as large as some of my students. There were huge schools of tiny, bright blue damsel fish. Near the platform were all these striped fish who were hanging around, waiting for a handout (the dive staff do two fish feedings near the viewing platform; I missed both of them.) At one point I saw a school of about a hundred triggerfish of some sort, paddling their way along the bottom. And the coral! Coral in all shapes, sizes and colours. There was brilliant blue staghorn coral. There was bubble coral, brain coral, and soft corals too. I saw a sea cucumber (I kid you not) as long and as big around as my entire arm! It was too deep for me to dive down and take a closer look. I also found myself swimming in a school of squid at one point - all of them goggling me with their huge eyes and changing colours in brilliant flashes.
It was great.
Dad tired out after about an hour of swimming, so he and I paddled back to the platform for a rest and a drink (gads seawater tastes bad!). I headed back into the water for the rest of the afternoon on my own. The only reason I came back in to the platform in the end was because I had to - otherwise the boat would've left me behind!
Yep. A totally wonderful day.
The ride back to the mainland was REALLY choppy - some of the folks on the boat got a little seasick. I was really glad we were sitting in one of the inside decks... the spray being kicked up by our boat was pretty intense. And as I sit here, finishing today's blog, I can still feel the waves and the motion of the water. Going to bed tonight is going to be interesting!
The morning started off a little crazily. I had it in my head that we needed to be ready to go for 7am, so mom, dad and I were all up at 6, ate breakfast, got all ready... and then sat outside the hostel, waiting and waiting and waiting for the bus to come get us. I eventually re-checked the flyer, and realized that we didn't need to be ready until 7:45! Oops. So we walked across the street and I bought my folks a coffee. By the time that was done with it was time to ACTUALLY catch the bus, and off we went!
We did our reef tour with a company called Quicksilver, and they operate out of Port Douglas, a town about 35 minutes north of Cairns. We pulled in to the harbour at Port Douglas around 10am, got straight on the catamaran (a HUGE one!), along with around a hundred other people, and headed out to sea. Our destination was a section of the Outer Reef, where the continental shelf drops away into open ocean. Quicksilver owns exclusive rights to this part of the reef, so there were no other boats out with us.
The ride out to the floating platform took about an hour and a half, and during this time the staff played a number of videos, instructing us in safe snorkeling, a history of the reef, and an introduction to some of the fish species we would likely see. I just couldn't wait to get into the water! The ride seemed to take forever.
One of the reasons I chose this company was because they had several activities for people to do that didn't involve getting wet, so my Mom could enjoy the day too. The first thing we did once we arrived at the platform was get into the semi-submersible sub and do a half hour reef tour that way! Mom loved it. Both she and I tried snapping photos through the windows of the sub, but I'm not sure how well they turned out. The sub sure was claustrophobic though, and I'll admit I was glad to get out of it at the end of the tour! Next came lunchtime so we all grabbed something to eat. I would've just gone straight into the water but with Dad's diabetes, it's not a good idea for him to skip a meal. So we ate. As quickly as I could!
I rented those dead-sexy stinger suits for Dad and I to wear, and Mom sure seemed to enjoy taking horribly embarrassing photos of the two of us as we slithered our way into the suits. Then once we'd grabbed fins and a mask for Dad (I'd brought my own), into the water we went! The whole operation was really well put-together. There were these semi-submerged platforms for us to put our fins on, and it was easy to launch from there straight into the water. There was also an underwater viewing platform where Mom spent some time, watching the fish (and the humans!) go by. She tried snapping some photos of me as I swam; we'll just have to wait and see how well they worked.
The snorkeling was incredible. I am so glad we went. The water was much deeper than any other place I've snorkeled so far, and it took some getting used to. But Dad and I paddled all around the swimming area and saw tons and tons of fish. There were giant clams as large as some of my students. There were huge schools of tiny, bright blue damsel fish. Near the platform were all these striped fish who were hanging around, waiting for a handout (the dive staff do two fish feedings near the viewing platform; I missed both of them.) At one point I saw a school of about a hundred triggerfish of some sort, paddling their way along the bottom. And the coral! Coral in all shapes, sizes and colours. There was brilliant blue staghorn coral. There was bubble coral, brain coral, and soft corals too. I saw a sea cucumber (I kid you not) as long and as big around as my entire arm! It was too deep for me to dive down and take a closer look. I also found myself swimming in a school of squid at one point - all of them goggling me with their huge eyes and changing colours in brilliant flashes.
It was great.
Dad tired out after about an hour of swimming, so he and I paddled back to the platform for a rest and a drink (gads seawater tastes bad!). I headed back into the water for the rest of the afternoon on my own. The only reason I came back in to the platform in the end was because I had to - otherwise the boat would've left me behind!
Yep. A totally wonderful day.
The ride back to the mainland was REALLY choppy - some of the folks on the boat got a little seasick. I was really glad we were sitting in one of the inside decks... the spray being kicked up by our boat was pretty intense. And as I sit here, finishing today's blog, I can still feel the waves and the motion of the water. Going to bed tonight is going to be interesting!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Chilin' in Cairns
I'm sitting here in the teeny little internet room at the YHA hostel in Cairns, enjoying a few moments of peace and quiet. So here's the latest update:
Mom, Dad and I arrived here late last night, in the pouring rain! I'm talking bucketing, sheeting, pissing rain. We couldn't see the tarmac of the airport until the plane actually touched down (a little harder than my liking, too, I'd like to add!). The Cairns airport is pretty small and we had to exit the plane down these open stairs! I was so worried that Mom would slip and fall, but she did ok. By the time we got into the terminal building we were all soaked. And so was our luggage, when we picked it up from the carousel!
I hailed us a taxi and we hied off to the YHA, where we are now. This is a pretty nice hostel. It's built somewhat like the one at Monkey Mia, where all the rooms open onto a central courtyard. There's a pool and hot tub in the courtyard, as well as lots of tables and chairs and all sorts of lush tropical greenery. Pretty sweet! Mom and Dad have their own room, I'm in a dorm.
We got here about 10:30pm last night so basically we went straight to bed, after raiding the "free food" cupboard for some tea and lemon! Early this morning Dad and I walked across the road to the grocery store and stocked up on some supplies to keep us going for the next few days. Then after breakfast, he and Mom cleaned up and made lunches, while I went off to book tours.
The next three days are likely going to be some of the most expensive of this entire trip, but well worth it! Today we took the Sky Rail cable cars up the mountains to Kuranda, a village high in the rainforest. It was so beautiful! This was my first time seeing actual, tropical rainforest, and it was great. There were huge trees, vines everywhere, strange bird calls, beautiful waterfalls, and all the other sights, sounds and smells you'd associate with the forest. I loved the huge variety of epiphytes growing off the trees. I took some pictures of basket ferns that looked like they'd just taken over the trunk of one of the trees. The weather today was cloudy but not rainy, and there were lots of rainforest butterflies, including the stunning Ulysses butterfly, flittering about.
The cable car ascended into the rainforest in three stages. At the first changeover, we walked a short boardwalk through the rainforest that explained a little bit of basic rainforest ecology. Dad remarked that the information signs could've been written for Tofino on Canada's west coast, and he's right - in some ways, a rainforest is a rainforest no matter where it is. But man, we are sure in the tropics here! The humidity was very high and the plants were out of this world. At the second stop on the cable car, we got out to admire the raging Barron River and Barron Falls. There's been so much rain here in recent weeks that the waterfall, which is huge on a normal day, was an absolute torrent. Local Aboriginal lore says that this waterfall is one of the resting places of the Rainbow Serpent... and at one point while we were at the falls, the sun peeked through the clouds and a beautiful rainbow formed over the gorge. Very cool.
One last cable car ride and we were at Kuranda! The village is very much a tourist trap and we enjoyed it immensely. We didn't go to the koala sanctuary, the butterfly gardens or the aviary, but we did wander the streets and do some pretty serious shopping. Mom, being a music teacher, has been in the market for a didgeridoo pretty much since arriving in OZ. Well today she finally bought one. The lady in the shop where we purchased it was very helpful and showed us how to play it. Turns out I have the "right mouth" (her words, not mine!) for playing the didgeridoo! Ha ha! The lady wrapped the thing up so tightly I don't think we'll ever get it out of the packaging, and it's gonna be an interesting adventure passing it through airports for the next few weeks, but Mom now owns a didgeridoo.
We rode the cable car back down the mountains again (it's a loooong ride, about 45 minutes all told) and took the shuttle bus back to the hostel. Mom was wiped so we sent her off to rest while Dad and I did some exploring to find a restaurant for dinner. In the end we ate at a little Mexican place which was quite nice. However, I'm really beginning to think I've gotta just lay off the Mexican permanently - I must admit I've not been feeling all that well since dinner, and this is not the first time that Mexican food has affected me this way. Groan...
Dad and I tried out the hot tub when we got back to the hostel. Wait... did I say hot tub? Let's make that COLD tub! With bubbles! No heated water here. Dad seemed to quite enjoy the water's temperature but me, not so much. Ah well. The bubbles, at least, felt good!
And now I'm off to bed. We're booked on a reef tour tomorrow (AT LAST!) and need to be ready to go for 7am, so I've gotta get some sleep. Wish us luck - we've all been recommended to take sea-sickness pills before we go, 'cause the water will be choppy. Not so sure this is a good idea after a bit of a questionable dinner...
Mom, Dad and I arrived here late last night, in the pouring rain! I'm talking bucketing, sheeting, pissing rain. We couldn't see the tarmac of the airport until the plane actually touched down (a little harder than my liking, too, I'd like to add!). The Cairns airport is pretty small and we had to exit the plane down these open stairs! I was so worried that Mom would slip and fall, but she did ok. By the time we got into the terminal building we were all soaked. And so was our luggage, when we picked it up from the carousel!
I hailed us a taxi and we hied off to the YHA, where we are now. This is a pretty nice hostel. It's built somewhat like the one at Monkey Mia, where all the rooms open onto a central courtyard. There's a pool and hot tub in the courtyard, as well as lots of tables and chairs and all sorts of lush tropical greenery. Pretty sweet! Mom and Dad have their own room, I'm in a dorm.
We got here about 10:30pm last night so basically we went straight to bed, after raiding the "free food" cupboard for some tea and lemon! Early this morning Dad and I walked across the road to the grocery store and stocked up on some supplies to keep us going for the next few days. Then after breakfast, he and Mom cleaned up and made lunches, while I went off to book tours.
The next three days are likely going to be some of the most expensive of this entire trip, but well worth it! Today we took the Sky Rail cable cars up the mountains to Kuranda, a village high in the rainforest. It was so beautiful! This was my first time seeing actual, tropical rainforest, and it was great. There were huge trees, vines everywhere, strange bird calls, beautiful waterfalls, and all the other sights, sounds and smells you'd associate with the forest. I loved the huge variety of epiphytes growing off the trees. I took some pictures of basket ferns that looked like they'd just taken over the trunk of one of the trees. The weather today was cloudy but not rainy, and there were lots of rainforest butterflies, including the stunning Ulysses butterfly, flittering about.
The cable car ascended into the rainforest in three stages. At the first changeover, we walked a short boardwalk through the rainforest that explained a little bit of basic rainforest ecology. Dad remarked that the information signs could've been written for Tofino on Canada's west coast, and he's right - in some ways, a rainforest is a rainforest no matter where it is. But man, we are sure in the tropics here! The humidity was very high and the plants were out of this world. At the second stop on the cable car, we got out to admire the raging Barron River and Barron Falls. There's been so much rain here in recent weeks that the waterfall, which is huge on a normal day, was an absolute torrent. Local Aboriginal lore says that this waterfall is one of the resting places of the Rainbow Serpent... and at one point while we were at the falls, the sun peeked through the clouds and a beautiful rainbow formed over the gorge. Very cool.
One last cable car ride and we were at Kuranda! The village is very much a tourist trap and we enjoyed it immensely. We didn't go to the koala sanctuary, the butterfly gardens or the aviary, but we did wander the streets and do some pretty serious shopping. Mom, being a music teacher, has been in the market for a didgeridoo pretty much since arriving in OZ. Well today she finally bought one. The lady in the shop where we purchased it was very helpful and showed us how to play it. Turns out I have the "right mouth" (her words, not mine!) for playing the didgeridoo! Ha ha! The lady wrapped the thing up so tightly I don't think we'll ever get it out of the packaging, and it's gonna be an interesting adventure passing it through airports for the next few weeks, but Mom now owns a didgeridoo.
We rode the cable car back down the mountains again (it's a loooong ride, about 45 minutes all told) and took the shuttle bus back to the hostel. Mom was wiped so we sent her off to rest while Dad and I did some exploring to find a restaurant for dinner. In the end we ate at a little Mexican place which was quite nice. However, I'm really beginning to think I've gotta just lay off the Mexican permanently - I must admit I've not been feeling all that well since dinner, and this is not the first time that Mexican food has affected me this way. Groan...
Dad and I tried out the hot tub when we got back to the hostel. Wait... did I say hot tub? Let's make that COLD tub! With bubbles! No heated water here. Dad seemed to quite enjoy the water's temperature but me, not so much. Ah well. The bubbles, at least, felt good!
And now I'm off to bed. We're booked on a reef tour tomorrow (AT LAST!) and need to be ready to go for 7am, so I've gotta get some sleep. Wish us luck - we've all been recommended to take sea-sickness pills before we go, 'cause the water will be choppy. Not so sure this is a good idea after a bit of a questionable dinner...
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Snorkeling at Clovelly Bay
I actually got to sleep in this morning. It felt wonderful. I'd realized yesterday that I've been going pretty much flat-out for the last three weeks, and it kinda caught up to me. So this morning I lazed about a bit, did the laundry, caught up on email, and all that sort of stuff.
The afternoon, however, was quite different.
Ever since Carroll took me on a driving tour of Sydney's southern beaches and bays back in the spring (our fall), I've wanted to go back to Clovelly Bay. Today I finally got the chance. Covelly is a wonderfully sheltered little bay. A breakwater has been constructed at the ocean end of the bay, creating a deep cove which is an absolute haven for fish. Clovelly is particularly famous for its blue groper fish, which are at least as long as my arm.
Bill drove me to Clovelly and was happy to watch my stuff and catch a nap on the beach while I snorkeled. Wow did it feel strange to be snorkeling without my buddy! But there were lots of other people around and the beach is patrolled by surf lifesavers, so I was just fine. So pretty much as soon as we got there, I slipped on my fins and mask and dove into the water!
I couldn't believe how many different types of fish there were in this little bay - especially considering how many people were splashing around in the water too! You'll definitely want to check out this link I found, which shows pictures of many of the different fish and other critters that call the bay home. I kid you not, I saw pretty much all of these, and many more too! I was especially excited to find an octopus! No, it was not a deadly blue-ringed octopus, and no, I didn't try to touch it, but it was very, very cool and I watched it crawl across the rocks and kelp for a long time.
Everywhere I turned there was something new. I found huge purple sea urchins the size of a dinner plate. I followed the blue gropers as they swam around in the deeper parts of the bay. Some of the other snorkelers were diving down and turning over rocks on the bottom. This would stir up the detritus underneath and attract all sorts of fish to come and investigate. I swam in the middle of a huge school of mados (the small striped fish in this picture), who seemed to be fascinated by my fingers. I absolutely loved the flutemouths, which hung out in the shallows and were as long as my arm, but very slender. So yeah, to put it mildly, it was a great day.
I'm all packed and ready to go for the next part of this adventure. Tomorrow I head to downtown Sydney to meet up with my parents as they return from their short jaunt to Canberra, and we will be flying up to Cairns in the hopes of getting out to see the Great Barrier Reef. The weather forecast up north continues to look dismal though, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
I will be living in a variety of hostels for the next three weeks, and have no idea what my internet access will be like. So don't worry too much if you don't hear from me for a while. I will be back in Melbourne on April 5th, so you should definitely hear from me by then!
Happy (early) Easter everyone!
The afternoon, however, was quite different.
Ever since Carroll took me on a driving tour of Sydney's southern beaches and bays back in the spring (our fall), I've wanted to go back to Clovelly Bay. Today I finally got the chance. Covelly is a wonderfully sheltered little bay. A breakwater has been constructed at the ocean end of the bay, creating a deep cove which is an absolute haven for fish. Clovelly is particularly famous for its blue groper fish, which are at least as long as my arm.
Bill drove me to Clovelly and was happy to watch my stuff and catch a nap on the beach while I snorkeled. Wow did it feel strange to be snorkeling without my buddy! But there were lots of other people around and the beach is patrolled by surf lifesavers, so I was just fine. So pretty much as soon as we got there, I slipped on my fins and mask and dove into the water!
I couldn't believe how many different types of fish there were in this little bay - especially considering how many people were splashing around in the water too! You'll definitely want to check out this link I found, which shows pictures of many of the different fish and other critters that call the bay home. I kid you not, I saw pretty much all of these, and many more too! I was especially excited to find an octopus! No, it was not a deadly blue-ringed octopus, and no, I didn't try to touch it, but it was very, very cool and I watched it crawl across the rocks and kelp for a long time.
Everywhere I turned there was something new. I found huge purple sea urchins the size of a dinner plate. I followed the blue gropers as they swam around in the deeper parts of the bay. Some of the other snorkelers were diving down and turning over rocks on the bottom. This would stir up the detritus underneath and attract all sorts of fish to come and investigate. I swam in the middle of a huge school of mados (the small striped fish in this picture), who seemed to be fascinated by my fingers. I absolutely loved the flutemouths, which hung out in the shallows and were as long as my arm, but very slender. So yeah, to put it mildly, it was a great day.
I'm all packed and ready to go for the next part of this adventure. Tomorrow I head to downtown Sydney to meet up with my parents as they return from their short jaunt to Canberra, and we will be flying up to Cairns in the hopes of getting out to see the Great Barrier Reef. The weather forecast up north continues to look dismal though, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
I will be living in a variety of hostels for the next three weeks, and have no idea what my internet access will be like. So don't worry too much if you don't hear from me for a while. I will be back in Melbourne on April 5th, so you should definitely hear from me by then!
Happy (early) Easter everyone!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Pictures from Queensland, and Disco Soccer
So it's taken me a few days, but I finally figured out how to upload pictures to my facebook profile from my friend Ruth's computer. She's got a Mac and the interface is different enough that I've had a hard time getting the machine to do what I want. So! If you're interested in checking out my pics from my recent adventures in Townsville and Mount Isa, check out the following links:
Queensland - Part One
Queensland - Part Two
This week in Sydney is just flying by, and in just two days I'll be on the road - again - heading to the far north of Queensland to the town of Cairns. (Note: this is apparently pronounced "Canes", as the Aussies don't really ever seem to pronounce the letter "r", but I'm having a hard time saying it properly. I'm blaming the two years of French Immersion I did as a teenager. I *like* my r's.)
As far as I know, my parents are having fun in Canberra, but I haven't heard from them at all today so I really don't know.
I went back in to Ruth's school again today and basically took over her class. In the morning I led a discussion with the students about yesterday's field trip and reviewed some of the new vocabulary words we learned (how many third graders know words like "proton", "gamma radiation", and "periodic table"?). I also taught them how to do a PMI journal, which the kids seemed to really enjoy doing. Ruth's putting together a "Reflections" scrapbook journal for her class and the students' entries from today's activity will become part of that book. I also read a chapter from the novel they're studying, "Boy" by Roald Dahl, and actually managed to have her whole class absolutely quiet for about 5 minutes. Apparently this is a bit of a minor miracle. Ruth describes her class this year as being "feral". :-)
Since today was Friday, there was a grades 3-6 assembly just before morning fruit break (aka recess). It was really interesting to see how assemblies are run here. The students sat in neat rows in the assembly hall (there's no gym at this school, or indeed most schools), legs crossed, backs straight, hands in laps. Each week a different class is put in charge of running the assembly, and this time round it was one of the grade 6 classes. Several grade 6 students sat in chairs up on the stage and they took turns announcing what was happening next in the assembly. Various teachers got up and handed out merit awards for academics, homework, and sportsmanship. At the end of the assembly, one of the AP's (Assistant Principals) handed out an award for the best-behaved class during the assembly - which just happened to be Ruth's class!
The rest of the day was given over to sport. This is also typical of Australian elementary schools. All the students involved in competitive teams (more than half the student body, grades 3-6) headed off to meet their coaches (a number of the teachers) at the buses, and they went off to compete in their respective sports in a variety of locations in the community against teams from other schools. Ruth is one of the teachers responsible for the in-school sports program for students who are not on the competitive teams. So I spent the hour before lunch and the hour between lunch and the end of the school day coaching indoor soccer games, inside the assembly hall.
I must admit, when I first realized we'd be playing soccer inside the assembly hall, I was worried. There are glass doors all down the one side of the hall, and they're not made of safety glass. There's an LCD projector mounted in the ceiling, along with a whole variety of stage lights and speakers and the ubiquitous overhead fans. None of these are set in safety cages. This hall is not designed for sports - this is a space where the school meets for student assemblies, plays, and dances. I felt a little better when I discovered that the ball we were using was essentially a Nerf soccer ball, very squishy, and there was no way that ball could go through glass or do any damage to the ceiling fixtures, even if it was kicked really hard.
So yeah! I reffed soccer games. Indoors. In a hall fitted with a giant disco ball in the middle of the room. I would like to point out that the grade 3's and 4's, who played during the afternoon, played MUCH better soccer than the grade 5's and 6's, who played in the morning. I was joking with Ruth afterwards that a number of the grade 6 girls were already developing that familiar, oh-so-wondrous, intermediate "I'm too cool for this" attitude.
One of the things I really like about the Australian education system is its emphasis on sport and physical fitness. It is approached differently in the various states, but overall sport is a much larger part of school culture than it is in Canada. All the kids must participate in organized sport as part of their school life. At Jen's school, all the kids are on competitive teams - the kids get to sign up for the sport of their choice, but they all must participate. At Ruth's school, the more athletically talented kids are on the competitive teams, and the rest participate in in-school activities each week.
I also really like the emphasis placed here on healthy food choices at school. Morning recess here is called "fruit break". The students are allowed to eat a piece of fruit or other healthy snack at this time, but nothing junky. In fact if teachers see students with junk food or candy, the kids are told to put the food away. It's so ingrained in the culture at this school that the kids don't even argue, they just put it away. Children are expected to bring healthy food for their lunches too. The school has a canteen that's open three days a week at lunchtime, but only after the actual eating time is over. This is to prevent the students from loading up on sweets. Apparently if a student tries to buy $10 worth of ice creams at the canteen, the ladies working there won't allow it. They'll only let the student buy one or two portions instead and make them take the rest of the change home. At Jen's school, the students are allowed to eat a snack at any time during the school day - even during lessons - as long as it's healthy food!
As I was looking around the hall during the assembly today, I realized that the number of overweight kids was much smaller than what we see at home. Ruth admits that she's lucky she teaches in an affluent community full of well-educated parents, who for the most part make good healthy choices for their kids. I can't help but wonder if we can implement some of these ideas back in Canada though. Today has definitely given me some "food for thought".
Queensland - Part One
Queensland - Part Two
This week in Sydney is just flying by, and in just two days I'll be on the road - again - heading to the far north of Queensland to the town of Cairns. (Note: this is apparently pronounced "Canes", as the Aussies don't really ever seem to pronounce the letter "r", but I'm having a hard time saying it properly. I'm blaming the two years of French Immersion I did as a teenager. I *like* my r's.)
As far as I know, my parents are having fun in Canberra, but I haven't heard from them at all today so I really don't know.
I went back in to Ruth's school again today and basically took over her class. In the morning I led a discussion with the students about yesterday's field trip and reviewed some of the new vocabulary words we learned (how many third graders know words like "proton", "gamma radiation", and "periodic table"?). I also taught them how to do a PMI journal, which the kids seemed to really enjoy doing. Ruth's putting together a "Reflections" scrapbook journal for her class and the students' entries from today's activity will become part of that book. I also read a chapter from the novel they're studying, "Boy" by Roald Dahl, and actually managed to have her whole class absolutely quiet for about 5 minutes. Apparently this is a bit of a minor miracle. Ruth describes her class this year as being "feral". :-)
Since today was Friday, there was a grades 3-6 assembly just before morning fruit break (aka recess). It was really interesting to see how assemblies are run here. The students sat in neat rows in the assembly hall (there's no gym at this school, or indeed most schools), legs crossed, backs straight, hands in laps. Each week a different class is put in charge of running the assembly, and this time round it was one of the grade 6 classes. Several grade 6 students sat in chairs up on the stage and they took turns announcing what was happening next in the assembly. Various teachers got up and handed out merit awards for academics, homework, and sportsmanship. At the end of the assembly, one of the AP's (Assistant Principals) handed out an award for the best-behaved class during the assembly - which just happened to be Ruth's class!
The rest of the day was given over to sport. This is also typical of Australian elementary schools. All the students involved in competitive teams (more than half the student body, grades 3-6) headed off to meet their coaches (a number of the teachers) at the buses, and they went off to compete in their respective sports in a variety of locations in the community against teams from other schools. Ruth is one of the teachers responsible for the in-school sports program for students who are not on the competitive teams. So I spent the hour before lunch and the hour between lunch and the end of the school day coaching indoor soccer games, inside the assembly hall.
I must admit, when I first realized we'd be playing soccer inside the assembly hall, I was worried. There are glass doors all down the one side of the hall, and they're not made of safety glass. There's an LCD projector mounted in the ceiling, along with a whole variety of stage lights and speakers and the ubiquitous overhead fans. None of these are set in safety cages. This hall is not designed for sports - this is a space where the school meets for student assemblies, plays, and dances. I felt a little better when I discovered that the ball we were using was essentially a Nerf soccer ball, very squishy, and there was no way that ball could go through glass or do any damage to the ceiling fixtures, even if it was kicked really hard.
So yeah! I reffed soccer games. Indoors. In a hall fitted with a giant disco ball in the middle of the room. I would like to point out that the grade 3's and 4's, who played during the afternoon, played MUCH better soccer than the grade 5's and 6's, who played in the morning. I was joking with Ruth afterwards that a number of the grade 6 girls were already developing that familiar, oh-so-wondrous, intermediate "I'm too cool for this" attitude.
One of the things I really like about the Australian education system is its emphasis on sport and physical fitness. It is approached differently in the various states, but overall sport is a much larger part of school culture than it is in Canada. All the kids must participate in organized sport as part of their school life. At Jen's school, all the kids are on competitive teams - the kids get to sign up for the sport of their choice, but they all must participate. At Ruth's school, the more athletically talented kids are on the competitive teams, and the rest participate in in-school activities each week.
I also really like the emphasis placed here on healthy food choices at school. Morning recess here is called "fruit break". The students are allowed to eat a piece of fruit or other healthy snack at this time, but nothing junky. In fact if teachers see students with junk food or candy, the kids are told to put the food away. It's so ingrained in the culture at this school that the kids don't even argue, they just put it away. Children are expected to bring healthy food for their lunches too. The school has a canteen that's open three days a week at lunchtime, but only after the actual eating time is over. This is to prevent the students from loading up on sweets. Apparently if a student tries to buy $10 worth of ice creams at the canteen, the ladies working there won't allow it. They'll only let the student buy one or two portions instead and make them take the rest of the change home. At Jen's school, the students are allowed to eat a snack at any time during the school day - even during lessons - as long as it's healthy food!
As I was looking around the hall during the assembly today, I realized that the number of overweight kids was much smaller than what we see at home. Ruth admits that she's lucky she teaches in an affluent community full of well-educated parents, who for the most part make good healthy choices for their kids. I can't help but wonder if we can implement some of these ideas back in Canada though. Today has definitely given me some "food for thought".
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Field Trip to ANSTO
Between the double-whammy combination of having stayed up way too late last night and getting up way too early this morning, I'm pretty tired. But it's been another full day of random adventures! My Mom and Dad left about 7am with Bill to get downtown to the bus station and on their way to Canberra, where they will be exploring for the next few days. I just got a call from Mom to say that they got there all right and are moved in at the hostel and all is well - and then she got cut off on the phone. I think there's a time limit for pay phone calls here but I don't really know how it works, since I've had a mobile pretty much since the beginning of my trip.
I went in to school with Ruth today. Her school has undergone some serious construction work since I was last there in September, and the new admin block looks great! We don't have nearly as much space in our offices at Charlton. Ruth has also moved her classroom to one of the buildings on the opposite side of the school campus from where she was last year. Her current room is actually considerably smaller than the portable she was in before, and it felt more crowded. On the other hand at least this year she has a straight grade 3 instead of a split, so that's something.
In the morning Ruth taught a lesson on the elements of a narrative, using an excerpt from "The Twits" by Roald Dahl. I circulated the room, keeping kids on task, and of course observing, observing, observing. I figured out pretty quick who the extra-energetic kids are in her class this year, and by the end of the lesson I had two of them sitting off to the side with me in an attempt to get them back on task. Some things don't change, no matter where in the world you teach!
In the afternoon, all the grade 3's went on a field trip to ANSTO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. This facility uses a small nuclear reactor to create a variety of the radioactive medicines used to treat cancer. It was a neat tour. The whole place was under really tight security, so neither the kids nor the teachers were allowed to bring backpacks or even hats or water bottles along. We had to leave our cell phones and cameras behind, too, of course. I even had to show my passport! We learned about atoms, radioactivity, and how the nuclear reactor works. We watched a video of the scientists working in the reactor (since of course we couldn't actually go IN there), and even got to try out a geiger counter. I have to hand it to the scientists who were leading our tour - explaining radioactivity to grade 3's is a big challenge. I think they did a pretty good job.
The kids were rather restless during the trip, though... it was really hard for them to sit still and so I spent a lot of time herding kids and redirecting. By the time we'd made it back to the school at the end of the afternoon, I was pooped! Ruth and I went out for coffee with a couple of other teachers after school was over, and it was all I could do to sit upright and drink my coke without falling asleep. Ruth eventually took pity me and brought me home. With any luck, I'll actually get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight!
I went in to school with Ruth today. Her school has undergone some serious construction work since I was last there in September, and the new admin block looks great! We don't have nearly as much space in our offices at Charlton. Ruth has also moved her classroom to one of the buildings on the opposite side of the school campus from where she was last year. Her current room is actually considerably smaller than the portable she was in before, and it felt more crowded. On the other hand at least this year she has a straight grade 3 instead of a split, so that's something.
In the morning Ruth taught a lesson on the elements of a narrative, using an excerpt from "The Twits" by Roald Dahl. I circulated the room, keeping kids on task, and of course observing, observing, observing. I figured out pretty quick who the extra-energetic kids are in her class this year, and by the end of the lesson I had two of them sitting off to the side with me in an attempt to get them back on task. Some things don't change, no matter where in the world you teach!
In the afternoon, all the grade 3's went on a field trip to ANSTO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. This facility uses a small nuclear reactor to create a variety of the radioactive medicines used to treat cancer. It was a neat tour. The whole place was under really tight security, so neither the kids nor the teachers were allowed to bring backpacks or even hats or water bottles along. We had to leave our cell phones and cameras behind, too, of course. I even had to show my passport! We learned about atoms, radioactivity, and how the nuclear reactor works. We watched a video of the scientists working in the reactor (since of course we couldn't actually go IN there), and even got to try out a geiger counter. I have to hand it to the scientists who were leading our tour - explaining radioactivity to grade 3's is a big challenge. I think they did a pretty good job.
The kids were rather restless during the trip, though... it was really hard for them to sit still and so I spent a lot of time herding kids and redirecting. By the time we'd made it back to the school at the end of the afternoon, I was pooped! Ruth and I went out for coffee with a couple of other teachers after school was over, and it was all I could do to sit upright and drink my coke without falling asleep. Ruth eventually took pity me and brought me home. With any luck, I'll actually get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Doing Darling Harbour With my Parental Units
I'm still playing tour guide for my parents. Today, Bill joined Mom, Dad and I to go and explore Darling Harbour, which is where the Aquarium is, among other things. I couldn't believe it - Bill and Ruth have lived in Sydney for the last 25 years and raised two kids here, and neither of them have been to the aquarium! (How is such a thing possible?).
We caught the train down to Town Hall station and headed to the Aquarium first off. It's quite a walk from any of the train stations to Darling Harbour, and by the time we got there Mom needed to rest her arm and Dad needed a coffee. So we ordered drinks and sat in the Aquarium's cafe, just watching the world go by (including about eighteen kajillion schoolkids on excursions... the place was a sea of school uniforms, I swear!). Once again our YHA cards came in handy (I made Mom and Dad become members) and we got concession priced tickets to the Aquarium.
I loved the Aquarium as much the second time round as I did the first! I've now been to four different aquariums in Australia, and I can safely say that the Sydney Aquarium is still the best. It has by far the best information plates by its tanks, and lots of activities and panels directed at kids to keep their interest. I'd forgotten that in each of the three big tanks, they pipe in music appropriate to the setting. We sat and ate lunch in front of the big window at the very end of the Coral Reef tank, which was delightful.
Once we'd made it through the gift shop, we decided we all needed another coffee, so it was back to the cafe near the entrance to the Aquarium for round two. I would like to point out that Dad and Bill had beers instead of coffees, and tried to convince us that they were drinking "flat whites". Mom and I were not fooled.
Mom's feet were really bothering her after yesterday's walk, so today she tried wearing her walking shoes instead of her sandals. Unfortunately it appears that the damage had already been done - although we kept to a slow pace and took lots of rests, it was clear that Mom was finding walking quite painful as the day progressed. There's another tourist train similar to the one we rode yesterday in the Botanic Gardens that runs a circuit around Darling Harbour, so we decided to take it down to the other end to the Powerhouse Museum, our destination for the afternoon.
I had originally planned to get us all dropped off at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre about halfway down the harbour, so Mom could watch the didgeridoo demonstration - but the place is closed! Wah! Hopefully we'll have better luck in the Northern Territory.
The Powerhouse Museum was pretty cool. I think my brain was on a bit of overload though, as I was having real problems concentrating and taking in any new information. The museum is dedicated to Australian technological advancements, and had all sorts of interesting displays. We took a picture of Bill beside the first train to ever run in NSW. Mom and I enjoyed watching the replica of the Strasbourg Clock go through its hourly display - that was pretty amazing. There was a whole gallery on how technology and design has changed throughout the centuries, and included examples of clothes, furniture, and household objects from the 1700's onward. Another gallery was full of steam engines used for different purposes. Down on the lowest level was a gallery about the development of computers and artificial intelligence. The material there was a little bit dated but still interesting. However I was getting pretty tired at this point and had pretty much stopped reading all the little info blurbs.
Mom and I had wandered around the museum separate from Dad and Bill. We finally found them again, sitting on one of the couches by the entrance, about 15 minutes before the museum was to close at 5pm. Apparently they'd been looking for us for about 45 minutes, and had been completely unable to find us! Ha ha! In the meantime, they'd enjoyed yet another cup of coffee.
Poor Mom's feet were really hurting, so it took us a long while to get back to Central Station. When we got there we decided we needed one more break before getting back on the train to Caringbah - one more coffee it was! Our train was absolutely packed and we had to stand for most of the hour-long ride back, although one woman was kind enough to give up her seat for Mom. (Sometimes having your arm in a sling can be an advantage.)
When we got home, Dad and Bill headed outside to enjoy another beer and to swap stories over the BBQ, and Ruth, Mom and I drank tea at the kitchen table. Mom's soaking her feet in salt water in the hopes that her blisters will go down. Hopefully tomorrow's bus ride to Canberra will give her some time to rest. I, too, am quite happy to have my feet up this evening. I'm a wee bit sore too! And I have another long walking day ahead of me tomorrow - I'm going on a field trip with Ruth's class. But more on that another day....
We caught the train down to Town Hall station and headed to the Aquarium first off. It's quite a walk from any of the train stations to Darling Harbour, and by the time we got there Mom needed to rest her arm and Dad needed a coffee. So we ordered drinks and sat in the Aquarium's cafe, just watching the world go by (including about eighteen kajillion schoolkids on excursions... the place was a sea of school uniforms, I swear!). Once again our YHA cards came in handy (I made Mom and Dad become members) and we got concession priced tickets to the Aquarium.
I loved the Aquarium as much the second time round as I did the first! I've now been to four different aquariums in Australia, and I can safely say that the Sydney Aquarium is still the best. It has by far the best information plates by its tanks, and lots of activities and panels directed at kids to keep their interest. I'd forgotten that in each of the three big tanks, they pipe in music appropriate to the setting. We sat and ate lunch in front of the big window at the very end of the Coral Reef tank, which was delightful.
Once we'd made it through the gift shop, we decided we all needed another coffee, so it was back to the cafe near the entrance to the Aquarium for round two. I would like to point out that Dad and Bill had beers instead of coffees, and tried to convince us that they were drinking "flat whites". Mom and I were not fooled.
Mom's feet were really bothering her after yesterday's walk, so today she tried wearing her walking shoes instead of her sandals. Unfortunately it appears that the damage had already been done - although we kept to a slow pace and took lots of rests, it was clear that Mom was finding walking quite painful as the day progressed. There's another tourist train similar to the one we rode yesterday in the Botanic Gardens that runs a circuit around Darling Harbour, so we decided to take it down to the other end to the Powerhouse Museum, our destination for the afternoon.
I had originally planned to get us all dropped off at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre about halfway down the harbour, so Mom could watch the didgeridoo demonstration - but the place is closed! Wah! Hopefully we'll have better luck in the Northern Territory.
The Powerhouse Museum was pretty cool. I think my brain was on a bit of overload though, as I was having real problems concentrating and taking in any new information. The museum is dedicated to Australian technological advancements, and had all sorts of interesting displays. We took a picture of Bill beside the first train to ever run in NSW. Mom and I enjoyed watching the replica of the Strasbourg Clock go through its hourly display - that was pretty amazing. There was a whole gallery on how technology and design has changed throughout the centuries, and included examples of clothes, furniture, and household objects from the 1700's onward. Another gallery was full of steam engines used for different purposes. Down on the lowest level was a gallery about the development of computers and artificial intelligence. The material there was a little bit dated but still interesting. However I was getting pretty tired at this point and had pretty much stopped reading all the little info blurbs.
Mom and I had wandered around the museum separate from Dad and Bill. We finally found them again, sitting on one of the couches by the entrance, about 15 minutes before the museum was to close at 5pm. Apparently they'd been looking for us for about 45 minutes, and had been completely unable to find us! Ha ha! In the meantime, they'd enjoyed yet another cup of coffee.
Poor Mom's feet were really hurting, so it took us a long while to get back to Central Station. When we got there we decided we needed one more break before getting back on the train to Caringbah - one more coffee it was! Our train was absolutely packed and we had to stand for most of the hour-long ride back, although one woman was kind enough to give up her seat for Mom. (Sometimes having your arm in a sling can be an advantage.)
When we got home, Dad and Bill headed outside to enjoy another beer and to swap stories over the BBQ, and Ruth, Mom and I drank tea at the kitchen table. Mom's soaking her feet in salt water in the hopes that her blisters will go down. Hopefully tomorrow's bus ride to Canberra will give her some time to rest. I, too, am quite happy to have my feet up this evening. I'm a wee bit sore too! And I have another long walking day ahead of me tomorrow - I'm going on a field trip with Ruth's class. But more on that another day....
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Mom and Dad's first day in Sydney
I'm very proud of my folks... they stayed up all the way to 10pm last night and were up and ready to go around 8:30am this morning! We were busy all day today and I've just sent Dad off to bed at 11:30pm. So all in all I think it's fair to say that Mom and Dad adjusted to Sydney time much easier than I did when I first came here!
I think it's fair to say that my Dad and Bill have really hit it off... the two of them have hardly stopped talking since my folks arrived. I came back from Guides tonight to discover that the two of them now even share their own "in" jokes... good grief...
Anyhow.
Once we finally got started, I took my folks downtown to get a look at the Sydney Opera House, that most iconic of Australian buildings. Since mom's a music teacher, the Opera House was basically #1 on the list of things we needed to do while here in Sydney. The building, as always, was magnificent. We enjoyed another day of brilliant clear blue skies and perfect temperatures, so we took our time to wander around the outside of the Opera House and just enjoy its shape. Then we headed inside for the tour. Boy am I glad I have a YHA card! The tours cost $35 each, but with the YHA cards this came down to $22 each. Big difference.
Our tour guide led us through both of the main buildings of the Opera House, including the concert hall, the opera theatre, and the reception halls and foyers. At several places along the way, we watched short videos about the Opera House's history, including how it was built. I just love some of the strange facts about the building's construction: (a) its design was pulled out of the "reject" pile of over 200 applicants; (b) the architect's original drawings were so vague nobody was sure it could even be built; (c) construction began before the plans had been completed; (d) the original architect was forced to leave the project before its completion due to mounting pressure over time and cost overruns; (e) the building is now world heritage listed!
At the end of the tour we learned that our tickets included a discount (not complimentary, only discounted) tea or coffee at the Opera House's cafe, so of course we had to go and enjoy that. It was nice, just sitting at the sidewalk cafe, in a warm breeze, taking in the boat traffic on the harbour and watching the Bridge in the distance. I'd been raving to my folks about the beauty of the Botanic Gardens for quite some time, so we decided to go and check out the little tourist train tour of the gardens that was offered. Not bad at all! The train took us throughout most of the main sections of the gardens and my folks got to see the fruit bat colony and some of the majorly stunning trees.
We still had a bit of time to play with once we were done in the gardens, but not quite enough time to head to one of the big museums or art galleries. Instead we found ourselves back at Circular Quay and before we knew it, we were on the ferry to Manly! This is a great (cheap) way to do a Sydney Harbour cruise, too, as the ferry has to travel pretty much the entire length of the harbour to get to Manly. We had just enough time to wander through the shops, admire the surf beach, and get a Boost Juice before getting back on the ferry and heading for home.
I was out with another Guide group tonight, so I left Mom and Dad, Bill and Ruth to their own devices for the evening. I returned to find them finishing dinner (they were originally going to wait for me, until they realized that I wouldn't be home until after 9pm!), laughing and joking and enjoying each others' company, and planning what we're gonna be doing tomorrow. Bill's going to join us downtown and we're going to go visit the Powerhouse Museum, which I haven't been to yet. Oh, and we're going to the aquarium too - and although I've already been there once this year, I'm happy to go again. You know how it is with me and fish!
I am trying to figure out how to upload some of my pics from my recent travels to Queensland, but Ruth only has Mac computers and they're giving me grief. Will try again tomorrow night, if I have any energy left at all!
I think it's fair to say that my Dad and Bill have really hit it off... the two of them have hardly stopped talking since my folks arrived. I came back from Guides tonight to discover that the two of them now even share their own "in" jokes... good grief...
Anyhow.
Once we finally got started, I took my folks downtown to get a look at the Sydney Opera House, that most iconic of Australian buildings. Since mom's a music teacher, the Opera House was basically #1 on the list of things we needed to do while here in Sydney. The building, as always, was magnificent. We enjoyed another day of brilliant clear blue skies and perfect temperatures, so we took our time to wander around the outside of the Opera House and just enjoy its shape. Then we headed inside for the tour. Boy am I glad I have a YHA card! The tours cost $35 each, but with the YHA cards this came down to $22 each. Big difference.
Our tour guide led us through both of the main buildings of the Opera House, including the concert hall, the opera theatre, and the reception halls and foyers. At several places along the way, we watched short videos about the Opera House's history, including how it was built. I just love some of the strange facts about the building's construction: (a) its design was pulled out of the "reject" pile of over 200 applicants; (b) the architect's original drawings were so vague nobody was sure it could even be built; (c) construction began before the plans had been completed; (d) the original architect was forced to leave the project before its completion due to mounting pressure over time and cost overruns; (e) the building is now world heritage listed!
At the end of the tour we learned that our tickets included a discount (not complimentary, only discounted) tea or coffee at the Opera House's cafe, so of course we had to go and enjoy that. It was nice, just sitting at the sidewalk cafe, in a warm breeze, taking in the boat traffic on the harbour and watching the Bridge in the distance. I'd been raving to my folks about the beauty of the Botanic Gardens for quite some time, so we decided to go and check out the little tourist train tour of the gardens that was offered. Not bad at all! The train took us throughout most of the main sections of the gardens and my folks got to see the fruit bat colony and some of the majorly stunning trees.
We still had a bit of time to play with once we were done in the gardens, but not quite enough time to head to one of the big museums or art galleries. Instead we found ourselves back at Circular Quay and before we knew it, we were on the ferry to Manly! This is a great (cheap) way to do a Sydney Harbour cruise, too, as the ferry has to travel pretty much the entire length of the harbour to get to Manly. We had just enough time to wander through the shops, admire the surf beach, and get a Boost Juice before getting back on the ferry and heading for home.
I was out with another Guide group tonight, so I left Mom and Dad, Bill and Ruth to their own devices for the evening. I returned to find them finishing dinner (they were originally going to wait for me, until they realized that I wouldn't be home until after 9pm!), laughing and joking and enjoying each others' company, and planning what we're gonna be doing tomorrow. Bill's going to join us downtown and we're going to go visit the Powerhouse Museum, which I haven't been to yet. Oh, and we're going to the aquarium too - and although I've already been there once this year, I'm happy to go again. You know how it is with me and fish!
I am trying to figure out how to upload some of my pics from my recent travels to Queensland, but Ruth only has Mac computers and they're giving me grief. Will try again tomorrow night, if I have any energy left at all!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Parents Arrived Safe and Sound
Today I went to the Sydney airport and exchanged Jen's mom for my parents. There was a while yesterday evening when I wasn't at all sure whether or not my folks had managed to get out of Ottawa, due to the huge storm that's currently working its way through eastern Canada. But escape they did, and I felt a whole lot better late last night when I got an email from Dad saying that they'd made it as far as Tokyo. They arrived in Sydney around 9am this morning. Janet and Bill and I went to the airport to collect them, and we somehow managed to miss my parents coming in from the Quarantine section! At one point, as I was watching people trickle through the gates, I was just beginning to think we might have missed them, when I turned and caught a glimpse of my mom over my shoulder... looking in completely the wrong direction! So I dashed over and gave her a huge hug! We collected Dad from where he'd gone to buy some coffee, and all was well.
It's kinda funny - my parents met Jen's mom for the first time today, in an airport on the far side of the world from where we usually all live! We all chatted for a while, then Janet said her goodbyes and headed off to get herself checked in and through security. She of course was flying standby with Air Canada, and so we wished her the best of luck for getting on the airplane. Since we haven't heard from her since, I assume that she got on the plane OK and is now winging her way home.
Bill drove my parents and I back home, and after lunch and a short rest we all headed out on a bit of a driving tour of the area. In fact, Bill took us to all the places that he took me on my first day in Australia! We went to Botany Bay National Park, where James Cook first landed on Australian soil. There were tons of birds in the park, including a type of parrot I've never seen before (still not sure what it was) and also a butcherbird. Two more birds to add to my list! We also checked out Cronulla Beach, where we watched the kite surfers and surf lifesavers and enjoyed a drink on one of the terraces.
We had to return to the house fairly early, as I had to meet up with Ruth so we could go to Guides. I left mom and dad chatting with Bill as Ruth and I headed out the door. It was fun going back to the Dolphin Guides; many of the girls remembered me from last year. We played games and handed out penpal letters written by some Canadian Brownies (this unit is run by a friend of a friend of mine back home). This Guide Hall has had about $18,000 worth of upgrades done on it since I last saw it in the spring, and the place looks amazing!
Ruth and I got home from Guides around 8:30, and we had a really late dinner. I must admit I was really impressed that my parents were even still awake when we got home - on my first day here, it was everything I could to do stay awake until 9pm! I've just sent them off to bed to get some sleep, as we will be up early tomorrow to tour downtown Sydney.
And now it's time for me to go to bed too - although I don't feel like I did a whole lot today, I'm really tired too. More tomorrow!
It's kinda funny - my parents met Jen's mom for the first time today, in an airport on the far side of the world from where we usually all live! We all chatted for a while, then Janet said her goodbyes and headed off to get herself checked in and through security. She of course was flying standby with Air Canada, and so we wished her the best of luck for getting on the airplane. Since we haven't heard from her since, I assume that she got on the plane OK and is now winging her way home.
Bill drove my parents and I back home, and after lunch and a short rest we all headed out on a bit of a driving tour of the area. In fact, Bill took us to all the places that he took me on my first day in Australia! We went to Botany Bay National Park, where James Cook first landed on Australian soil. There were tons of birds in the park, including a type of parrot I've never seen before (still not sure what it was) and also a butcherbird. Two more birds to add to my list! We also checked out Cronulla Beach, where we watched the kite surfers and surf lifesavers and enjoyed a drink on one of the terraces.
We had to return to the house fairly early, as I had to meet up with Ruth so we could go to Guides. I left mom and dad chatting with Bill as Ruth and I headed out the door. It was fun going back to the Dolphin Guides; many of the girls remembered me from last year. We played games and handed out penpal letters written by some Canadian Brownies (this unit is run by a friend of a friend of mine back home). This Guide Hall has had about $18,000 worth of upgrades done on it since I last saw it in the spring, and the place looks amazing!
Ruth and I got home from Guides around 8:30, and we had a really late dinner. I must admit I was really impressed that my parents were even still awake when we got home - on my first day here, it was everything I could to do stay awake until 9pm! I've just sent them off to bed to get some sleep, as we will be up early tomorrow to tour downtown Sydney.
And now it's time for me to go to bed too - although I don't feel like I did a whole lot today, I'm really tired too. More tomorrow!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Back in Sydney Once Again
So once again I am back at Ruth's house in Sydney, after traveling many kilometers by train and by plane in the last few days. Janet and I left Mount Isa on Friday, overnighted on the train, spent Saturday at Irene's in Townsville, and flew down to Sydney this morning. Phew! But once again I am getting ahead of myself in the story...
Let's rewind to last Wednesday afternoon. Annette, one of our new Guiding friends in Mount Isa, invited Janet and I to her house to get caught up on our emails. It took a little longer than we'd planned, but hey, it was great to be able to let our families know that we were still alive. Once we'd left Annette's house, Janet and I walked back towards where the Guide Hall is to look for the Tent House. This is a National Trust heritage building, and the only one of its kind left in Mount Isa. In the early years of the town's existence, many people lived in tents or crude shelters as there were no actual buildings at the mine. In fact, originally even the pubs and the hospital were tents! Over the years, as the community grew and became a little more prosperous, some of the tent shelters were half-transformed into houses. A typical tent house would have had canvas ceiling and walls, and a dirt or wooden floor. The interior would have been split into the different rooms found in a "regular" house. And of course, as time went by, the tent houses were all pulled down and replaced with more permanent buildings.
The surviving tent house has been extensively modified and was actually hard to recognize from the outside! We picked up the key to its front door from the motel on the street corner, and put our $2 donation in the fee box before entering. Outside, the entire tent house had been protected from the elements by a corrugated iron roof. Wooden paneling had been added to shore up the walls, and the house even had real windows! Inside, wooden paneling had also been added all the way up the walls and across the ceiling, so although we knew that the outside of the roof was canvas, it wasn't at all visible from inside. It was actually a little disappointing. Some of the artifacts that were displayed in the tent house were of the appropriate time period, but many were not. One of the reasons we'd wanted to visit the tent house was because Irene, our Guiding friend from Townsville, had lived in one as a small child. But what we saw didn't quite mesh with what she'd told us. Ah well!
We walked back to the hostel, which was about halfway across the town from the tent house. By the time we got there Janet and I were really, really hot, and we basically marched into our room, changed into our bathing suits, and went out to fall straight into the pool! Wow did that swim feel good. We rescued a little dragon lizard that was unhappily treading water in the pool... apparently lizards and frogs drown regularly in the town's pools. Poor critters... all they probably wanted was a drink and an escape from the heat.
Pat, our other new Guiding friend, picked us up from the hostel around five and drove us out to Lake Moondarah, where there is a large parkland and BBQ-ing area. The lake is about 20kms out of town and the drive there took us through some spectacular Outback scenery. Annette, her husband Shawn, and their kids met us at the lake and we all enjoyed a tasty BBQ dinner. It was kinda funny because in the picnic area was a large flock of peacocks, and they circled our table like so many large seagulls... or sharks. Ha ha! After dinner Pat drove us up to the top of the reservoir wall so we could check out the view and the sunset. Lake Moondarah provides all the drinking water for Mount Isa as well as all the water required for the mining operation. It's a pretty big reservoir and sure was beautiful at sunset. I was rather bemused to realize that every large body of water that I've seen in this country has been artificially created!
Thursday morning, Janet and I found ourselves hiking across town - in the opposite direction this time - to find the School of the Air. We got there just in time for the 10am tour! This was really REALLY cool. The Australian Outback is a big place and the cattle stations are enormous. The reality is that the kids growing up on the cattle stations just can't possibly get to a regular school - for some kids, the closest town is 700kms away! So instead, the School of the Air broadcasts lessons for children from Prep through to Year 10. Students do several half-hour lessons on the air each day, covering all the subjects. Learning materials are sent out through the mail once a week, and assignments are collected and mailed back to the School of the Air where they are marked by the teachers.
The tour we did of the school was great. I wasn't sure what to expect - I figured that since the students weren't actually in the building, that the place would feel more like an office than anything. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it really was a school! The main difference wa that the classrooms were only the size of large offices, and the teachers' desks had all this radio and computing equipment on them. But there was kids artwork posted in the hallways and on the classroom walls. Each cattle station which had students enroled in the school had sent in a kid-decorated plaque, identifying the station, and these were showcased in the hall as a way to identify the school's community. I picked up a yearbook from several years ago that showcases all the activities the kids did throughout the year.
Janet and I got to sit in on part of an "on air" lesson to the Year 2's. There were five kids in the class and the teacher was discussing with her students about the model emus the kids were sculpting at home. Since the teacher couldn't see what the kids were making, she was getting the students to describe orally what their sculptures looked like. It was really cute and cool and funny all at the same time! Some of the kids definitely had better reception than others... one little girl's responses kept coming in as bursts of static. The teacher told us afterwards that the child was likely talking through a satellite phone with an unreliable connection. At the end of the lesson she asked the kids to take digital photos of their work and email it to her so she could see it.
School of the Air is a place I would love to work at some day! Think of it - small class sizes, homework always complete (it has to be so it can get in the mail on time), little to no behaviour problems (as many hundreds of kilometers separate the students), and great parental involvement. The students get together about once a term for activity days; typically the kids congregate in the town closest to where they live (this means that some students fly in!) and actually get to see each other face to face. Apparently the students of the School of the Air are consistently high achievers and excel in their studies. The teachers do make rounds of all their students' homes, about once a term, to meet the kids and their parents. And students who need extra help or who have special education needs are also visited by travelling special ed teachers. How cool is that?
I could go on and on about the School of the Air... but we've had so many more adventures since then, and I don't want to bore you all to death with the length of this blog. Once I get a chance to post my pictures, I will include more details there.
Wowee.
Janet and I got picked up from the School of the Air by our friend Annette, and we drove to the other end of town to check out the small museum for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. (Let me tell you - I am REALLY glad we didn't have to walk this distance - it was HOT.) This is another iconic Australian institution, which services the cattle stations and other people living in remote parts of the Outback. The Royal Flying Doctor Service was created by John Flynn, a traveling minister who saw that there was a need for high-quality health care in the Outback. The Service has certainly evolved over the years, and now a network of Flying Doctor bases dots the Outback, based in the larger towns. If there is an accident on a cattle station, for example, someone at the station can radio the Royal Flying Doctor Service and call an air ambulance in. The bush planes can land on pretty much anything, and don't need a real runway. The planes are outfitted as portable intensive care units, and are staffed by a doctor, nurse and of course a pilot. They are responsible for saving many lives.
In addition to this urgent care service, the Flying Doctors can also prescribe medications over the radio to people on isolated stations. Each station has a medications chest stocked with a variety of prescription drugs, all of which are assigned a code number. A doctor in Mount Isa, for example, can prescribe a ventolin puffer (drug #27) to someone on a station hundreds of kilometers away. The Flying Doctors also make regular rounds to the stations and tiny communities to provide basic health care to the people.
To put it mildly, we were having a very busy and fun day! The best was yet to come, though. After pausing at the Mount Isa lookout to snap some daytime photos and eat lunch, Annette introduced us to one of the town's true characters - Barry, one of the local radio announcers. Barry works for MOB FM, the town's Aboriginal radio station. What a funny guy! He interviewed Janet and I as visiting Canadian Girl Guide leaders, and asked us all sorts of questions about our travels here in OZ, our work within Guiding back home, and about how our involvement with Guiding has affected our trip. It was great! I got a copy of the interview on a CD, and as soon as I can figure out how to post it on the blog, I will. Barry is a true character (to be honest, I would've hated to be his teacher, ha ha, he'd be one of those kids always seeking attention) and the interview is pretty funny.
We headed back to the hostel for a well-deserved nap, and then Pat picked us up and took us out for dinner. There are very few restaurants in Mount Isa; this town is more into the pub and club scene. So we went to the Barklay Hotel pub for dinner, and then back to the Irish Club for dessert. Yummy. And another late night. :-)
Friday was our last day in Mount Isa, and we sure made the most of it! Janet and I checked out of the hostel early, and were picked up by Pat. Pat works for a local 4WD rental company, and she not only managed to get a half day off on Friday, but also a 4WD ute to drive. She took us out to Mary Kathleen, an abandoned uranium mine and town about 60kms out of Mount Isa. Once again we found ourselves driving through absolutely stunning Outback scenery. I really tried, but it's almost impossible to capture the true spirit of the place with the camera. Once we'd turned off the highway to access Mary Kathleen, I was really glad we were in a 4WD! The roads we traveled would not have been passable in a regular car.
The mine itself was an open cut, and we hiked to the edge of the pit and stared way down into the old crater. There's a small lake at the bottom now and it is stunningly blue when the sun is shining directly on it. We also scrambled down the rocks to get right to the water's edge. The place was eerily quiet and absolutely beautiful. I snapped a number of photos of flowers, trees, and the stark blue sky. The old mining town site was also eerie. When the mine closed for good in the 1980's (there's still plenty of uranium to be mined, but it became rather politically incorrect for Australia to be doing so, and they closed down the operation), the entire town was abandoned and eventually relocated. The buildings here don't have basements; in fact, most buildings in Queensland are built up on pylons to protect them from flooding and white ants (termites). So when the town was abandoned, the buildings were all carted away to other places. But the roads and cement blocks that were once driveways still remain. We drove all through the town and identified various places - the town hall, the old fountain, the residential streets, the swimming pool, the tennis courts. It was so strange. The property is all part of a cattle station now, so there were random cows wandering all over the place. Ironically enough, the only building left standing in the entire town is the old Guide hall! Nobody seemed to know why, but we think that it might have been that the Guides couldn't afford to have the building relocated. It seemed so sad, the old building just standing there in the middle of nowhere, roof falling in, windows broken.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back into town, meet Annette for lunch, and head back to the train. Pat had to be back at work for 1, and the train didn't leave until 3, so Janet and I spent an hour or so at the library to do one more check of the email. Then it was back to the train and heading towards Townsville once again. We were both hot and sticky after all our hiking in the morning, so as soon as the train had pulled out of the station, we took turns having showers! That was an interesting experience. I was worried originally that I'd slip and fall in the shower as the train lurched and moved, but the shower stall was well designed and included grippy bars to help you keep your balance. I would also like to point out that the water pressure in the train shower was considerably better than what we'd had at the hostel all week!
The train ride back to Townsville was just as smooth as the trip out, with one little exception. We had a very drunk and disorderly man in the compartment next to us and he made our lives... um... interesting for the first few hours. He came right into our compartment, stinking of alcohol and cigarettes, wanting to chat. He wouldn't take our hints to go away. We eventually got him out of the compartment and then when I went to close the door, he tried to force his way back in. I ended up slamming the door in his face. Not long after that, we smelled cigarette smoke and yep, it was coming from his compartment. Janet went down the train to find the service manager and make a complaint. So what with one thing and another, the drunk was put off the train at Cloncurry, about 2 hours down the tracks. We got to write a complaint report too! Yikes. But after that, the rest of the trip was just fine.
We arrived back in Townsville yesterday morning to sunny skies and high humidity - what a change in the feel of the air, after being in the desert for the last week! Irene picked us up and we headed back to her house for some lunch and laundry (definitely needed - let me tell you, after a week in Mount Isa, my clothes were more than a little smelly!). Then we drove to Irene's daughter's house, picked up her 4 grandkids (all under the age of 9), and headed downtown to Reef HQ. This fabulous aquarium boasts that it'll "bring you the reef", and wow did it deliver! The main tank was huge, and they had collected all sorts of live coral from the Great Barrier Reef to build the display. So not only was there all sorts of fishes, but also corals, star fish, sea cucumbers, and many more creatures. It was wonderful. Irene's grandkids had never been to Reef HQ before, and it was funny to watch their eyes get huge as the sharks and rays and fish swam by. We couldn't stay for too long, as the youngest grandchild was just 2, but we still had fun.
When we headed back to Deborah's (Irene's daughter) house to drop off the kids, we ended up staying for dinner. I basically spent the evening playing with the kids. They have a tame budgie who seemed to love sitting on my shoulder. I spent time examining the eldest boy's collection of Deltora Quest and Yu Gi Oh dragons. I read stories. I supervised them on the trampoline and searching for frogs in the yard. It was fun but definitely tiring!
And then all too soon it was this morning, and Janet and I were saying goodbye to Irene and getting on a plane to Sydney. After dropping our stuff at Bill and Ruth's house, Ruth took us down to Cronulla beach where we just enjoyed the scenery and the wonderful weather. Carroll joined us for dinner back at Ruth's, and that pretty much brings us up to the present. I'm sitting in my favourite chair here at Ruth's house, typing on a borrowed laptop (and a Mac at that, it feels so strange!), and watching TV.
Tomorrow morning we take Janet to the airport and wave goodbye, and collect my parents at the same time for the beginning of their Aussie adventures! I'm so excited!
I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to my new Guiding friends in both Mount Isa and in Townsville. Irene, Annette, Pat - thank you so much for everything. The three of you have truly been absolutely wonderful these last two weeks, and have helped make these last two weeks absolutely amazing. I know I would not have had nearly as much fun without you.
Let's rewind to last Wednesday afternoon. Annette, one of our new Guiding friends in Mount Isa, invited Janet and I to her house to get caught up on our emails. It took a little longer than we'd planned, but hey, it was great to be able to let our families know that we were still alive. Once we'd left Annette's house, Janet and I walked back towards where the Guide Hall is to look for the Tent House. This is a National Trust heritage building, and the only one of its kind left in Mount Isa. In the early years of the town's existence, many people lived in tents or crude shelters as there were no actual buildings at the mine. In fact, originally even the pubs and the hospital were tents! Over the years, as the community grew and became a little more prosperous, some of the tent shelters were half-transformed into houses. A typical tent house would have had canvas ceiling and walls, and a dirt or wooden floor. The interior would have been split into the different rooms found in a "regular" house. And of course, as time went by, the tent houses were all pulled down and replaced with more permanent buildings.
The surviving tent house has been extensively modified and was actually hard to recognize from the outside! We picked up the key to its front door from the motel on the street corner, and put our $2 donation in the fee box before entering. Outside, the entire tent house had been protected from the elements by a corrugated iron roof. Wooden paneling had been added to shore up the walls, and the house even had real windows! Inside, wooden paneling had also been added all the way up the walls and across the ceiling, so although we knew that the outside of the roof was canvas, it wasn't at all visible from inside. It was actually a little disappointing. Some of the artifacts that were displayed in the tent house were of the appropriate time period, but many were not. One of the reasons we'd wanted to visit the tent house was because Irene, our Guiding friend from Townsville, had lived in one as a small child. But what we saw didn't quite mesh with what she'd told us. Ah well!
We walked back to the hostel, which was about halfway across the town from the tent house. By the time we got there Janet and I were really, really hot, and we basically marched into our room, changed into our bathing suits, and went out to fall straight into the pool! Wow did that swim feel good. We rescued a little dragon lizard that was unhappily treading water in the pool... apparently lizards and frogs drown regularly in the town's pools. Poor critters... all they probably wanted was a drink and an escape from the heat.
Pat, our other new Guiding friend, picked us up from the hostel around five and drove us out to Lake Moondarah, where there is a large parkland and BBQ-ing area. The lake is about 20kms out of town and the drive there took us through some spectacular Outback scenery. Annette, her husband Shawn, and their kids met us at the lake and we all enjoyed a tasty BBQ dinner. It was kinda funny because in the picnic area was a large flock of peacocks, and they circled our table like so many large seagulls... or sharks. Ha ha! After dinner Pat drove us up to the top of the reservoir wall so we could check out the view and the sunset. Lake Moondarah provides all the drinking water for Mount Isa as well as all the water required for the mining operation. It's a pretty big reservoir and sure was beautiful at sunset. I was rather bemused to realize that every large body of water that I've seen in this country has been artificially created!
Thursday morning, Janet and I found ourselves hiking across town - in the opposite direction this time - to find the School of the Air. We got there just in time for the 10am tour! This was really REALLY cool. The Australian Outback is a big place and the cattle stations are enormous. The reality is that the kids growing up on the cattle stations just can't possibly get to a regular school - for some kids, the closest town is 700kms away! So instead, the School of the Air broadcasts lessons for children from Prep through to Year 10. Students do several half-hour lessons on the air each day, covering all the subjects. Learning materials are sent out through the mail once a week, and assignments are collected and mailed back to the School of the Air where they are marked by the teachers.
The tour we did of the school was great. I wasn't sure what to expect - I figured that since the students weren't actually in the building, that the place would feel more like an office than anything. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it really was a school! The main difference wa that the classrooms were only the size of large offices, and the teachers' desks had all this radio and computing equipment on them. But there was kids artwork posted in the hallways and on the classroom walls. Each cattle station which had students enroled in the school had sent in a kid-decorated plaque, identifying the station, and these were showcased in the hall as a way to identify the school's community. I picked up a yearbook from several years ago that showcases all the activities the kids did throughout the year.
Janet and I got to sit in on part of an "on air" lesson to the Year 2's. There were five kids in the class and the teacher was discussing with her students about the model emus the kids were sculpting at home. Since the teacher couldn't see what the kids were making, she was getting the students to describe orally what their sculptures looked like. It was really cute and cool and funny all at the same time! Some of the kids definitely had better reception than others... one little girl's responses kept coming in as bursts of static. The teacher told us afterwards that the child was likely talking through a satellite phone with an unreliable connection. At the end of the lesson she asked the kids to take digital photos of their work and email it to her so she could see it.
School of the Air is a place I would love to work at some day! Think of it - small class sizes, homework always complete (it has to be so it can get in the mail on time), little to no behaviour problems (as many hundreds of kilometers separate the students), and great parental involvement. The students get together about once a term for activity days; typically the kids congregate in the town closest to where they live (this means that some students fly in!) and actually get to see each other face to face. Apparently the students of the School of the Air are consistently high achievers and excel in their studies. The teachers do make rounds of all their students' homes, about once a term, to meet the kids and their parents. And students who need extra help or who have special education needs are also visited by travelling special ed teachers. How cool is that?
I could go on and on about the School of the Air... but we've had so many more adventures since then, and I don't want to bore you all to death with the length of this blog. Once I get a chance to post my pictures, I will include more details there.
Wowee.
Janet and I got picked up from the School of the Air by our friend Annette, and we drove to the other end of town to check out the small museum for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. (Let me tell you - I am REALLY glad we didn't have to walk this distance - it was HOT.) This is another iconic Australian institution, which services the cattle stations and other people living in remote parts of the Outback. The Royal Flying Doctor Service was created by John Flynn, a traveling minister who saw that there was a need for high-quality health care in the Outback. The Service has certainly evolved over the years, and now a network of Flying Doctor bases dots the Outback, based in the larger towns. If there is an accident on a cattle station, for example, someone at the station can radio the Royal Flying Doctor Service and call an air ambulance in. The bush planes can land on pretty much anything, and don't need a real runway. The planes are outfitted as portable intensive care units, and are staffed by a doctor, nurse and of course a pilot. They are responsible for saving many lives.
In addition to this urgent care service, the Flying Doctors can also prescribe medications over the radio to people on isolated stations. Each station has a medications chest stocked with a variety of prescription drugs, all of which are assigned a code number. A doctor in Mount Isa, for example, can prescribe a ventolin puffer (drug #27) to someone on a station hundreds of kilometers away. The Flying Doctors also make regular rounds to the stations and tiny communities to provide basic health care to the people.
To put it mildly, we were having a very busy and fun day! The best was yet to come, though. After pausing at the Mount Isa lookout to snap some daytime photos and eat lunch, Annette introduced us to one of the town's true characters - Barry, one of the local radio announcers. Barry works for MOB FM, the town's Aboriginal radio station. What a funny guy! He interviewed Janet and I as visiting Canadian Girl Guide leaders, and asked us all sorts of questions about our travels here in OZ, our work within Guiding back home, and about how our involvement with Guiding has affected our trip. It was great! I got a copy of the interview on a CD, and as soon as I can figure out how to post it on the blog, I will. Barry is a true character (to be honest, I would've hated to be his teacher, ha ha, he'd be one of those kids always seeking attention) and the interview is pretty funny.
We headed back to the hostel for a well-deserved nap, and then Pat picked us up and took us out for dinner. There are very few restaurants in Mount Isa; this town is more into the pub and club scene. So we went to the Barklay Hotel pub for dinner, and then back to the Irish Club for dessert. Yummy. And another late night. :-)
Friday was our last day in Mount Isa, and we sure made the most of it! Janet and I checked out of the hostel early, and were picked up by Pat. Pat works for a local 4WD rental company, and she not only managed to get a half day off on Friday, but also a 4WD ute to drive. She took us out to Mary Kathleen, an abandoned uranium mine and town about 60kms out of Mount Isa. Once again we found ourselves driving through absolutely stunning Outback scenery. I really tried, but it's almost impossible to capture the true spirit of the place with the camera. Once we'd turned off the highway to access Mary Kathleen, I was really glad we were in a 4WD! The roads we traveled would not have been passable in a regular car.
The mine itself was an open cut, and we hiked to the edge of the pit and stared way down into the old crater. There's a small lake at the bottom now and it is stunningly blue when the sun is shining directly on it. We also scrambled down the rocks to get right to the water's edge. The place was eerily quiet and absolutely beautiful. I snapped a number of photos of flowers, trees, and the stark blue sky. The old mining town site was also eerie. When the mine closed for good in the 1980's (there's still plenty of uranium to be mined, but it became rather politically incorrect for Australia to be doing so, and they closed down the operation), the entire town was abandoned and eventually relocated. The buildings here don't have basements; in fact, most buildings in Queensland are built up on pylons to protect them from flooding and white ants (termites). So when the town was abandoned, the buildings were all carted away to other places. But the roads and cement blocks that were once driveways still remain. We drove all through the town and identified various places - the town hall, the old fountain, the residential streets, the swimming pool, the tennis courts. It was so strange. The property is all part of a cattle station now, so there were random cows wandering all over the place. Ironically enough, the only building left standing in the entire town is the old Guide hall! Nobody seemed to know why, but we think that it might have been that the Guides couldn't afford to have the building relocated. It seemed so sad, the old building just standing there in the middle of nowhere, roof falling in, windows broken.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back into town, meet Annette for lunch, and head back to the train. Pat had to be back at work for 1, and the train didn't leave until 3, so Janet and I spent an hour or so at the library to do one more check of the email. Then it was back to the train and heading towards Townsville once again. We were both hot and sticky after all our hiking in the morning, so as soon as the train had pulled out of the station, we took turns having showers! That was an interesting experience. I was worried originally that I'd slip and fall in the shower as the train lurched and moved, but the shower stall was well designed and included grippy bars to help you keep your balance. I would also like to point out that the water pressure in the train shower was considerably better than what we'd had at the hostel all week!
The train ride back to Townsville was just as smooth as the trip out, with one little exception. We had a very drunk and disorderly man in the compartment next to us and he made our lives... um... interesting for the first few hours. He came right into our compartment, stinking of alcohol and cigarettes, wanting to chat. He wouldn't take our hints to go away. We eventually got him out of the compartment and then when I went to close the door, he tried to force his way back in. I ended up slamming the door in his face. Not long after that, we smelled cigarette smoke and yep, it was coming from his compartment. Janet went down the train to find the service manager and make a complaint. So what with one thing and another, the drunk was put off the train at Cloncurry, about 2 hours down the tracks. We got to write a complaint report too! Yikes. But after that, the rest of the trip was just fine.
We arrived back in Townsville yesterday morning to sunny skies and high humidity - what a change in the feel of the air, after being in the desert for the last week! Irene picked us up and we headed back to her house for some lunch and laundry (definitely needed - let me tell you, after a week in Mount Isa, my clothes were more than a little smelly!). Then we drove to Irene's daughter's house, picked up her 4 grandkids (all under the age of 9), and headed downtown to Reef HQ. This fabulous aquarium boasts that it'll "bring you the reef", and wow did it deliver! The main tank was huge, and they had collected all sorts of live coral from the Great Barrier Reef to build the display. So not only was there all sorts of fishes, but also corals, star fish, sea cucumbers, and many more creatures. It was wonderful. Irene's grandkids had never been to Reef HQ before, and it was funny to watch their eyes get huge as the sharks and rays and fish swam by. We couldn't stay for too long, as the youngest grandchild was just 2, but we still had fun.
When we headed back to Deborah's (Irene's daughter) house to drop off the kids, we ended up staying for dinner. I basically spent the evening playing with the kids. They have a tame budgie who seemed to love sitting on my shoulder. I spent time examining the eldest boy's collection of Deltora Quest and Yu Gi Oh dragons. I read stories. I supervised them on the trampoline and searching for frogs in the yard. It was fun but definitely tiring!
And then all too soon it was this morning, and Janet and I were saying goodbye to Irene and getting on a plane to Sydney. After dropping our stuff at Bill and Ruth's house, Ruth took us down to Cronulla beach where we just enjoyed the scenery and the wonderful weather. Carroll joined us for dinner back at Ruth's, and that pretty much brings us up to the present. I'm sitting in my favourite chair here at Ruth's house, typing on a borrowed laptop (and a Mac at that, it feels so strange!), and watching TV.
Tomorrow morning we take Janet to the airport and wave goodbye, and collect my parents at the same time for the beginning of their Aussie adventures! I'm so excited!
I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to my new Guiding friends in both Mount Isa and in Townsville. Irene, Annette, Pat - thank you so much for everything. The three of you have truly been absolutely wonderful these last two weeks, and have helped make these last two weeks absolutely amazing. I know I would not have had nearly as much fun without you.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Mount Isa Rocks!
I'm currently in the public library in Mount Isa, catching up on emails, killing time before we catch the train back to Townsville this afternoon. My goodness but a lot has gone on in the week since I last read my mail! I don't have time to do a full blog entry right now, but I will bring you a bit up to speed on what we've been doing:
- We toured the School of the Air and sat in on a "live" lesson for grade 2's from all over Queensland;
- We checked out the history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service;
- We learned about the tent houses that used to be found all over this town in the early days of the mine;
- We enjoyed a BBQ out at Lake Moondarah;
- We drove through the Outback (offroading, even!) in a 4WD ute;
- We visited an abandoned uranium mine and ghost town;
- We've eaten a ridiculous amount of ice cream.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
From Townsville to Mount Isa
I love being a Girl Guide!
I am currently sitting in the bedroom of a Girl Guide leader here in Mount Isa, a mining town in the northwestern Outback in Queensland. We found Annette through a friend of a friend of Irene's, our Guiding friend in Townsville. I tracked Annette down on the phone two nights ago; last night Janet and I visited her Guide unit, and today she invited us over to use her internet connection to get caught up with the rest of the world!
Once again, I am getting a little bit ahead of myself. Back to where I last left off the story...
I realized I didn't explain about our adventures on last Sunday morning, the day Janet and I left Townsville for Mt. Isa. Irene took all three of us out to the Sunday market, where we had a chance to do some souvenir shopping. Then we headed back to Irene's house, where we were all picked up by Rebecca, Irene's co-Guider, and headed out to Bluewater, the local Guide Camp. Sunday was "Clean Up Australia Day", and the local Guides had organized a work party to go up to the camp and do some spring cleaning. We got there a little later than we'd originally planned, so we didn't get to help with the actual cleaning, but we did get to tour the property. The camp is about 7 acres and has two main buildings - one a giant indoor space for cooking and crafts (kids can sleep inside it on the floor too), and another as a bunk house. I found it a little strange that the bunk house didn't have its own kitchen, but hey, styles are different wherever you go. Throughout the rest of the property were clearings where sites of tents could be erected, and shaded areas for picnic tables. They also had a "Flying Fox" (we would call this a zip line) and a small low-ropes obstacle course, which was great. I also loved how when Janet went to use the washroom, she was confused about why there were planks laid over the toilet bowl. She thought that this meant the toilet was out of order. Nope... it's to keep the frogs out of the toilets! And the frogs here are HUGE.
We had to hoof it back to Irene's for lunch, and then it was off to the train station so Janet and I could get on our train to Mount Isa. What a totally different experience from riding the Indian Pacific! Jen, unfortunately, couldn't join us for this part of the adventure - she's now back in Melbourne, working, and will meet up with me again in a couple of weeks in Alice Springs.
The weather has been terrible up here in Queensland in recent months - they've had way more rain than usual and there's been lots of flooding. One of the side effects of all this bad weather is that very few people have been traveling - which meant that our train was EMPTY. Janet and I had gotten a great 2-for-1 deal on our tickets, and had upgraded to economy berths for the trip (it was a 21-hour ride to Mt. Isa). We were the ONLY people in the berth car until we stopped in at Charters Towers, at which point one other woman joined us in a separate compartment. In total I think there might have been ten passengers on the train!
The berth car was so much more comfortable than riding in the seats. Our berth could accommodate three people, although thankfully we didn't have to share with anybody else. Janet sat by the window, and I was able to stretch myself sideways on the rest of the seat and still not touch her. It was GREAT. My knees liked this journey a WHOLE LOT BETTER than the Indian Pacific!
We ate dinner in the Club Car (the food was also better than the IP) and spent a good chunk of the evening hours watching "High School Musical 2", which was playing on the TV monitors. When it finally came time to go to bed, the service manager was very kind to us - she let me sleep in the berth one down from Janet! Since both Janet and I snore, this was a good thing for both of us. I slept in the middle bunk (three seats in the berth = a triple bunk bed; but the lowest bunk was REALLY low and there was no way I was getting up on the top bunk!). The bed was definitely narrow and it's not like there was a bumper bar to keep me from falling out, so it took me a while to get to sleep. But sleep I did. It was wonderful.
On Monday morning we woke up to a completely transformed landscape. Townsville sits in tropical forest, and so is very lush and green. But in the morning it was clear that we had crossed into the Outback. We passed through six hours of stunted eucalypts, scrubby bushes, spinnifex grass and red earth before reaching Mount Isa. Most of the land was very flat, but as we approached our destination we passed through all these low, red, scrubby hills too. Once again we spotted wild camels from the train, along with herds of cattle that Janet thought looked like they belonged in India, not Australia! Occasionally we also passed signs that humans had once lived here; there are several abandoned mining towns along the rails and it was eerie passing through them.
We reached Mount Isa around 11am, and made our way to our hostel. The place we're staying is old and run down, but clean and air conditioned too. We've been meeting the most interesting people out here! The couple that own the hostel, for example, used to own a cattle-mustering helicopter business. The husband would help drove cattle from the air in the helicopter, and the wife dealt with the finances. Since at that time they lived waaaaaay out in the middle of the Outback, their kids did school through the School of the Air, which I am going to be touring tomorrow. So their kids did all their schoolwork from kindergarten right up to the end of grade 7 by listening to a teacher give lessons over a ham radio.
It is very, very hot in Mount Isa - the locals have been happy that it's been UNDER 40C this week - so Janet and I have been taking things a little slow. After moving ourselves into the hostel, we walked a couple of blocks to the main tourist attraction here, called "Outback at Isa". There are three separate museums in this complex, and we bought a pass to get in to all of them. So on Monday we toured the Riversleigh Fossils exhibits and talked with the resident palaeontologist. The Riversleigh fossil site, which isn't all that far from Mount Isa, has proven to be one of the richest deposits of fossils in all of Australia - on the scale of the significance of Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. The difference is that the fossils found at Riversleigh are from the more recent past, and contain a huge variety of extinct Australian mammals. One deposit they're working on apparently used to be an ancient crocodile hole, and the bones of the victims were encased in the mud over millenia and preserved. Another site had originally been a cave and contained thousands of bat skeletons.
After finishing at the museum, Janet and I wandered around the downtown for a little bit, looking for a place to eat dinner. Not so much luck there! Mount Isa is a town of about 22,000 people, and the choice of restaurants is rather limited. On top of that, we're here in the 'off' season, so many of the places we checked out weren't even open for business on weekdays. In the end, we bought a roast chicken and some salad from the grocery store and ended up eating back at the hostel, which was just fine. The sun is really strong and even having just been outside for a couple of hours, we were wiped.
Yesterday we headed back to the "Outback at Isa" to do the mine tour. Mount Isa is one of the biggest mining centres in Australia and the entire life of the city revolves around the mines. We spent the morning wandering around the exhibits and learning a little about the town's history. Then in the afternoon we got all suited up in full mining gear - coveralls, gum boots, hard hats, lamps - and descended 25m underground into a recreated mine environment! (Apparently they used to do this tour over at the actual mine, but insurance and liability issues in recent years canned that. Trust me though, the recreated mine was very realistic!)
This was a fantastic experiential educational experience. We rode down in a mine elevator and then on a personnel carrier. We toured the crib room where mining crews would eat their lunches and learned about safety measures. We walked through mine shafts and learned how the drilling and blasting is done. I got to use a huge pneumatic drill to make a hole in the rock face. Our tour guide operated a variety of mining equipment for us and explained how they're used underground. At the end of the tour we returned to the crib room and had tea and biscuits and sat around the table, just chatting. What a great way to keep the conversation and information flowing! Finally, our tour guide had one of the other ladies on our tour throw the switch to detonate a (fake) blast, so we could hear and feel what it's like to experience a blast underground. It was really, really great. Our tour guide had worked in the mines here at Mount Isa for most of his adult life, and so was very knowledgeable about everything we were seeing.
Janet and I went back to the hostel to take a nap and freshen up, then we hiked across the downtown to meet the local Girl Guides for the evening. What fun! The Guiders, Pat and Annette, had had less than 24 hours notice that we were coming, and they were so wonderful and welcoming! The girls spent the first part of the meeting doing patrol activities. This included everything from baking cakes to playing silly games. For the second part of the meeting, Janet and I took over and we taught a variety of songs and games. After the meeting, Pat and Annette took us out to the Irish Club for coffee and cake. Since Janet and I hadn't actually gotten around to having supper yet, I ordered a plate of wedges instead. MMmmmmm. Wedges.
The club scene in Mount Isa is really interesting. Janet and I had already explored a bit of "The Buffs", a club right downtown. The Irish Club was on the outskirts of town and even larger than The Buffs. These clubs, and others like them in the town, hearken back to the early years of the city where restaurants and social activities were few and far between. The Irish community built their club as a place for people to meet and socialize. In its modern incarnation, it has a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, a pool room, a play room for kids, and a whole bank of pokie (slot)machines. The four of us chatted until well after 10! (I love how easy it is to chat with other Guide leaders, no matter where you are!). Then they drove us up to the city lookout, so we could get a view of the mine at night, and then back to the hostel for bed!
This morning I slept in late. I think the heat is sucking my energy away, but I'm not really complaining! Janet and I toured the town's Underground Hospital, which was built in the 1940's after Darwin was attacked by the Japanese in WWII. Although the hospital was never actually used, it was totally fascinating... the place was built under a hillside, near the actual hospital. Miners who had come off-shift at the mines worked 4 hour shifts to dig the hospital rooms and hallways. The entire place was built in 14 weeks! Totally incredible.
And that brings us up to the present. I need to get off the computer so Janet can send her emails away. For whatever reason, Hotmail is currently not letting me in, so I haven't been able to check my emails at all. Hopefully I will have better luck with that tomorrow.
Janet and I will be here in Mount Isa for two more days, and we catch the train back to Townsville on Friday. Annette and Pat, sometime in the past 24 hours, have put together all sorts of plans for the two of us - starting tonight with a BBQ out at the local lake. Have I told you recently how much I love being a Girl Guide??
I am currently sitting in the bedroom of a Girl Guide leader here in Mount Isa, a mining town in the northwestern Outback in Queensland. We found Annette through a friend of a friend of Irene's, our Guiding friend in Townsville. I tracked Annette down on the phone two nights ago; last night Janet and I visited her Guide unit, and today she invited us over to use her internet connection to get caught up with the rest of the world!
Once again, I am getting a little bit ahead of myself. Back to where I last left off the story...
I realized I didn't explain about our adventures on last Sunday morning, the day Janet and I left Townsville for Mt. Isa. Irene took all three of us out to the Sunday market, where we had a chance to do some souvenir shopping. Then we headed back to Irene's house, where we were all picked up by Rebecca, Irene's co-Guider, and headed out to Bluewater, the local Guide Camp. Sunday was "Clean Up Australia Day", and the local Guides had organized a work party to go up to the camp and do some spring cleaning. We got there a little later than we'd originally planned, so we didn't get to help with the actual cleaning, but we did get to tour the property. The camp is about 7 acres and has two main buildings - one a giant indoor space for cooking and crafts (kids can sleep inside it on the floor too), and another as a bunk house. I found it a little strange that the bunk house didn't have its own kitchen, but hey, styles are different wherever you go. Throughout the rest of the property were clearings where sites of tents could be erected, and shaded areas for picnic tables. They also had a "Flying Fox" (we would call this a zip line) and a small low-ropes obstacle course, which was great. I also loved how when Janet went to use the washroom, she was confused about why there were planks laid over the toilet bowl. She thought that this meant the toilet was out of order. Nope... it's to keep the frogs out of the toilets! And the frogs here are HUGE.
We had to hoof it back to Irene's for lunch, and then it was off to the train station so Janet and I could get on our train to Mount Isa. What a totally different experience from riding the Indian Pacific! Jen, unfortunately, couldn't join us for this part of the adventure - she's now back in Melbourne, working, and will meet up with me again in a couple of weeks in Alice Springs.
The weather has been terrible up here in Queensland in recent months - they've had way more rain than usual and there's been lots of flooding. One of the side effects of all this bad weather is that very few people have been traveling - which meant that our train was EMPTY. Janet and I had gotten a great 2-for-1 deal on our tickets, and had upgraded to economy berths for the trip (it was a 21-hour ride to Mt. Isa). We were the ONLY people in the berth car until we stopped in at Charters Towers, at which point one other woman joined us in a separate compartment. In total I think there might have been ten passengers on the train!
The berth car was so much more comfortable than riding in the seats. Our berth could accommodate three people, although thankfully we didn't have to share with anybody else. Janet sat by the window, and I was able to stretch myself sideways on the rest of the seat and still not touch her. It was GREAT. My knees liked this journey a WHOLE LOT BETTER than the Indian Pacific!
We ate dinner in the Club Car (the food was also better than the IP) and spent a good chunk of the evening hours watching "High School Musical 2", which was playing on the TV monitors. When it finally came time to go to bed, the service manager was very kind to us - she let me sleep in the berth one down from Janet! Since both Janet and I snore, this was a good thing for both of us. I slept in the middle bunk (three seats in the berth = a triple bunk bed; but the lowest bunk was REALLY low and there was no way I was getting up on the top bunk!). The bed was definitely narrow and it's not like there was a bumper bar to keep me from falling out, so it took me a while to get to sleep. But sleep I did. It was wonderful.
On Monday morning we woke up to a completely transformed landscape. Townsville sits in tropical forest, and so is very lush and green. But in the morning it was clear that we had crossed into the Outback. We passed through six hours of stunted eucalypts, scrubby bushes, spinnifex grass and red earth before reaching Mount Isa. Most of the land was very flat, but as we approached our destination we passed through all these low, red, scrubby hills too. Once again we spotted wild camels from the train, along with herds of cattle that Janet thought looked like they belonged in India, not Australia! Occasionally we also passed signs that humans had once lived here; there are several abandoned mining towns along the rails and it was eerie passing through them.
We reached Mount Isa around 11am, and made our way to our hostel. The place we're staying is old and run down, but clean and air conditioned too. We've been meeting the most interesting people out here! The couple that own the hostel, for example, used to own a cattle-mustering helicopter business. The husband would help drove cattle from the air in the helicopter, and the wife dealt with the finances. Since at that time they lived waaaaaay out in the middle of the Outback, their kids did school through the School of the Air, which I am going to be touring tomorrow. So their kids did all their schoolwork from kindergarten right up to the end of grade 7 by listening to a teacher give lessons over a ham radio.
It is very, very hot in Mount Isa - the locals have been happy that it's been UNDER 40C this week - so Janet and I have been taking things a little slow. After moving ourselves into the hostel, we walked a couple of blocks to the main tourist attraction here, called "Outback at Isa". There are three separate museums in this complex, and we bought a pass to get in to all of them. So on Monday we toured the Riversleigh Fossils exhibits and talked with the resident palaeontologist. The Riversleigh fossil site, which isn't all that far from Mount Isa, has proven to be one of the richest deposits of fossils in all of Australia - on the scale of the significance of Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. The difference is that the fossils found at Riversleigh are from the more recent past, and contain a huge variety of extinct Australian mammals. One deposit they're working on apparently used to be an ancient crocodile hole, and the bones of the victims were encased in the mud over millenia and preserved. Another site had originally been a cave and contained thousands of bat skeletons.
After finishing at the museum, Janet and I wandered around the downtown for a little bit, looking for a place to eat dinner. Not so much luck there! Mount Isa is a town of about 22,000 people, and the choice of restaurants is rather limited. On top of that, we're here in the 'off' season, so many of the places we checked out weren't even open for business on weekdays. In the end, we bought a roast chicken and some salad from the grocery store and ended up eating back at the hostel, which was just fine. The sun is really strong and even having just been outside for a couple of hours, we were wiped.
Yesterday we headed back to the "Outback at Isa" to do the mine tour. Mount Isa is one of the biggest mining centres in Australia and the entire life of the city revolves around the mines. We spent the morning wandering around the exhibits and learning a little about the town's history. Then in the afternoon we got all suited up in full mining gear - coveralls, gum boots, hard hats, lamps - and descended 25m underground into a recreated mine environment! (Apparently they used to do this tour over at the actual mine, but insurance and liability issues in recent years canned that. Trust me though, the recreated mine was very realistic!)
This was a fantastic experiential educational experience. We rode down in a mine elevator and then on a personnel carrier. We toured the crib room where mining crews would eat their lunches and learned about safety measures. We walked through mine shafts and learned how the drilling and blasting is done. I got to use a huge pneumatic drill to make a hole in the rock face. Our tour guide operated a variety of mining equipment for us and explained how they're used underground. At the end of the tour we returned to the crib room and had tea and biscuits and sat around the table, just chatting. What a great way to keep the conversation and information flowing! Finally, our tour guide had one of the other ladies on our tour throw the switch to detonate a (fake) blast, so we could hear and feel what it's like to experience a blast underground. It was really, really great. Our tour guide had worked in the mines here at Mount Isa for most of his adult life, and so was very knowledgeable about everything we were seeing.
Janet and I went back to the hostel to take a nap and freshen up, then we hiked across the downtown to meet the local Girl Guides for the evening. What fun! The Guiders, Pat and Annette, had had less than 24 hours notice that we were coming, and they were so wonderful and welcoming! The girls spent the first part of the meeting doing patrol activities. This included everything from baking cakes to playing silly games. For the second part of the meeting, Janet and I took over and we taught a variety of songs and games. After the meeting, Pat and Annette took us out to the Irish Club for coffee and cake. Since Janet and I hadn't actually gotten around to having supper yet, I ordered a plate of wedges instead. MMmmmmm. Wedges.
The club scene in Mount Isa is really interesting. Janet and I had already explored a bit of "The Buffs", a club right downtown. The Irish Club was on the outskirts of town and even larger than The Buffs. These clubs, and others like them in the town, hearken back to the early years of the city where restaurants and social activities were few and far between. The Irish community built their club as a place for people to meet and socialize. In its modern incarnation, it has a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, a pool room, a play room for kids, and a whole bank of pokie (slot)machines. The four of us chatted until well after 10! (I love how easy it is to chat with other Guide leaders, no matter where you are!). Then they drove us up to the city lookout, so we could get a view of the mine at night, and then back to the hostel for bed!
This morning I slept in late. I think the heat is sucking my energy away, but I'm not really complaining! Janet and I toured the town's Underground Hospital, which was built in the 1940's after Darwin was attacked by the Japanese in WWII. Although the hospital was never actually used, it was totally fascinating... the place was built under a hillside, near the actual hospital. Miners who had come off-shift at the mines worked 4 hour shifts to dig the hospital rooms and hallways. The entire place was built in 14 weeks! Totally incredible.
And that brings us up to the present. I need to get off the computer so Janet can send her emails away. For whatever reason, Hotmail is currently not letting me in, so I haven't been able to check my emails at all. Hopefully I will have better luck with that tomorrow.
Janet and I will be here in Mount Isa for two more days, and we catch the train back to Townsville on Friday. Annette and Pat, sometime in the past 24 hours, have put together all sorts of plans for the two of us - starting tonight with a BBQ out at the local lake. Have I told you recently how much I love being a Girl Guide??
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