Wednesday, September 5–We were lucky in that Rob needed to spend the night with us and was still in town to drive us to the airport. Both Rob and Josiah were with us for lunch. Josiah is going to be the go to person for my bonsai if my neighbor, Carolyn Pate, who is checking them each day, needs help. Our plane wasn’t leaving until 4:20 so we had plenty of time with about an hour’s wait after we checked in. The Jackson airport is easy to use when going somewhere since it’s rarely crowded and all the TSA people are usually very polite. We’ve never flown first class/business before so it’s a new experience for us. About the only things we noticed on this flight to Dallas were the slightly more comfortable chairs, more room, and an offer of something to drink before the flight took off. We were in the very first seats so we had even more leg room than some others. We were scheduled for a tight connection in Dallas since our flight from Jackson was supposed to arrive at about 6:00 and the flight to LA was supposed to leave at about 7:00. We became somewhat concerned when the Jackson flight was about 30 minutes late leaving since we ended up with about 20 minutes to make the LA flight which, of course, was in a different terminal. The stewardess told us to get the Sky Link—the little train—which we did and which came about every two minutes. When we exited the Sky Link we had about ten minutes to go, but luckily the gate we needed was the first one beside the Sky Link exit, and we did make the flight. They closed the doors only minutes after we boarded. We had pods in first class this time and enjoyed them. We may have to go first class from now on! We sat in side by side pods in the center of the plane and could somewhat talk. We both enjoyed discovering how everything worked except that Tom lost the volume for the movies and never was able to get it back. We were served warm nuts and cold rolls. My supper of pepper with cheese was pretty good, but Tom had something with chicken that he didn’t like. He even said that St. Catherine’s food was better! After the entrée we were offered chocolate chip cookies and another which I didn’t hear. We both took the chocolate chip and they were good. When we landed we were told that for some reason the plane could not be unloaded in the usual place so there were buses waiting for us for a four minute drive to the terminal and that our luggage would come to the #3 carousel. At that point we both became concerned that since we had such a short time to catch the plane, our luggage might not have made it. I looked for the way to get to our hotel while Tom waited for the bags. I found that all we had to do was go outside and wait for the shuttle. When I returned to Tom the bags had not started coming so we sat and waited. When we did see some come, we went to the carousel immediately and that was a good thing because our bags were almost the first coming through. It must have been “last on first off”. We took the bags, walked outside, and waited for about 15 minutes before the shuttle for Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles came by, picked us up, and took us to the hotel in just a few minutes. It was about 10:00 when we reached the hotel. Our room is generic, but comfortable. There was a carpet on the hall floor on which it was a little hard to pull our bags. It seems to be an older hotel that’s been remodeled. I took a shower and washed my hair, and we went to bed.
Thursday, September 6–We slept until after 7:00 LA time so had a pretty good night’s sleep. We were in no hurry to get up, but did dress and go downstairs for breakfast, which turned out to be more brunch than breakfast. I had lox and bagel with onions, capers, tomato, lettuce, and cream cheese. Tom had a lox scramble. He was able to eat most of his, but I took half of mine to eat for lunch later. Our waiter was very good, and breakfast turned out to be a good, but expensive experience. We asked for a little more time in the room and were told we could check out at 1:00 rather than 12:00. We went to the room for awhile and I wrote in this log, but then we decided to walk outside for a few minutes. We looked for a Starbucks, which we found, but didn’t buy anything. We were going to walk around the block, but decided we didn’t have time when the block turned out to be very long, but we did see an interesting tree.
We returned to the room and I ate the rest of my lox. Afterwards we finished packing and went downstairs to take the shuttle, which was waiting, to the airport. We were dropped at the International Terminal, but then tried to find the Quantas check-in and found that it wouldn’t be open until 6:00 pm or so. So here we wait! We found a seat next to a German couple and I was able to communicate with them slightly. About 4:00 Tom bought a mocha coffee at Coffee Beans and Tea Leaf. When he returned to where we were sitting we went to the cafe near us and I bought a Diet Pepsi (no Cokes!). We sat at one of their tables while I downloaded a chess program and for the first time in 40 (?) years we played a game of chess! It was mostly a game of attrition! When it was almost 6:00 we went to Quantas booth where at exactly 6:00 they opened. Checking in was no problem. After that we were able to go through the security gate to the One World Lounge that the ticket agent told us about. This made the Business class worthwhile by. Itself. It was a comfortable place to wait where everything we needed or wanted was available at no cost. I had a very good gin and tonic. I asked later and found that the gin used was Beefeater 24. There was an excellent buffet with all the food we could possibly eat. After we ate, we both went to the shower area where we were given pagers to call us when showers were available. Each shower was quite complete (except for washcloths) and clean. After finishing our showers it was time to wait again. We had discovered that our flight was two hours late so instead of leaving at 10:40, it was leaving after 12:00. It turned out to be 1:00 by the time it really left. As someone had told us it might be, we are on the second story of a double decker plane. The seats are not quite as private as they were on American, but everything is here.
Unfortunately, Tom’s TV was frozen and never worked. I had tomato basil soup and Tom had soup plus a Reuben sandwich. I was asleep before he finished eating.
Saturday, September 8–We really lost a day! It was nice being able to lie down, but I discovered that lying flat was not comfortable and it was better raising the head of the seat slightly. Most people seemed to sleep almost the whole way—at least the crew did not raise the shades until after they served breakfast about two hours before we landed. Our steward, Michael, was particularly helpful and gave us many suggestion about places to eat in Melbourne as did another flyer who heard us talking and who lived in Melbourne. He told us that he lived on the Great Ocean Road and that the tour we were going to take was really nice. Breakfast was good, but not great. Going through Immigration and Customs was easy. We were met by Mara just as we had been promised. There were two other couples on our plane and we had to wait a few minutes for them before being driven to the hotel. (Pam and Bob, Sharon and Larry). At the hotel we checked in and went to our room.
There was a walking tour at 1:30, but Tom wanted to rest so he napped and I arranged for WiFi in our room and rested. At 4:30 we went down to the dining room where we had an introductory meeting with Mike and then all took the tram to the Young and Jackson bar for supper. This is also known as Chloe’s Bar because of a paining of a nude woman—I guess “Chloe”. We were told that Chloe had to be moved because when people entered the church across the street, they did not appreciate seeing the picture through the window. Mike gave us tram tickets, Myki cards, so that we could get around on our own. Almost everyone had the snapper for supper. It was good although a little dry. We were going to have tiramisu for dessert, but about six of us got tired of waiting when the service was really slow and left to go back to the hotel, the Pullman Melbourne on the Park.
Sunday, September 9–Breakfast was really good! It was plentiful and tasty. I tried the vegimite that is supposedly so good on a tomato and wasn’t impressed, but Mike told me I really should try it on buttered toast with an egg on top. I’ll try that tomorrow. After breakfast we met at 8:30 in a bus—one of the big ones—for a tour of the city starting along the Yarra River. We rode by the various athletic arenas. They seem to have one for every sport imaginable. Some of them were built for the 1956 Olympics. Then we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens where our guide was an aboriginal from Queensland who led us in a traditional Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country.
(To see more of the garden tour, click on the image above.)
He took us on a tour and showed us many of the trees and plants that are important to the aboriginals. Two of my favorites were one whose leaves smelled like menthol and was used to clear sinuses and one whose leaves were very lemony. At the end of the tour he gave us some Myrtle tea which may or may not have come from these leaves—he was vague on that—and used maps as he discussed artefacts and the Aboriginal flag. We had to rush after that to go across the street to the Shrine of Remembrance because Mike wanted us to be in time for a Ray of Light Ceremony remembering fallen sericemen and women that is performed in which a light beam goes across a plaque inscribed with “Greater love hath no man” while the Australian equivalent of Taps played. There was an Australian flag on one side and a New Zealand flag on the other.
We got back on the bus and drove to somewhere where we started walking again and saw various really nice shopping malls (Block Arcade and Royal Arcade) with mosaic floors and impressive architecture as well as the Bourke Street mall all known for shopping.
We also passed the Ballet building, which is known as the tutu building because of the metal framework that ressembles a tutu.
Back on the bus we drove to the Queen Victoria Market, which is a giant flea market, food market, everything else market. Mike had given us Aus$20 to spend there. Tom and I had a Berget (Sp) made of chicken and mushrooms. Tom had three since he ate one of mine, and I had one. I also bought a salad and we bought drinks and sat at a small table in the back of the store in the food court. While we were walking around we saw a stage on which Ukrainian men were dancing. They looked like what I would think was Russian or Greek, but a sign on the front of the state said, “Ukrainian Liberation”.
We met back at the bus and were about to go back to the hotel, but changed our minds and walked over to Elizabeth Street where we took the tram to Flinders Station. It’s a railway station and Tom thought he’d be able to enjoy the trains, but there wasn’t much to see.
We then walked across the street to the Federation Square where all the buildings are notable for not having right angles and for being made of multiple materials. People were enjoying walking around, sitting, watching entertainment and just seeming to enjoy the afternoon.
We then walked down to Heiser Lane to see the street art and to St. Paul’s Cathedral (across from Chloe’s and Federation Square), which was beautiful.
We went to the tram stop in front of Young and Jackson’s and happened to meet Mark and several of our travel mates. We all returned to the hotel and Tom and I went to the room to rest. There was a talk on immigration this afternoon, but we didn’t go. We did go at 5:00 to take the tram with the group and go to the St. Kilda beach where we had supper in Leo’s Spaghetti House. I had a lamb pizza and Tom had homemade ravioli. Tom rally wanted some tiramisu, but Mike said that we didn’t have time. We left to walk to the beach and look for the Little Penguins that come out of the ocean to go to their burrows where we did see some that were mostly hiding in nests in the rocks. We used flashlights covered with red plastic that Mike supplied so that we would not disturb the penguins. There were volunteers there who were busy catching and tagging birds. After watching for awhile, we started back to the tram with a lovely view of the lights of the city from the levee.
Tom and I decided to break from the group and stopped at the restaurant for his tiramisu. I had sticky date pudding, which was also good. We then took the tram back to Flinders street where the young and Jackson bar was , change to the #75 tram and rode back to the Pullman Hotel. We decided to wash some clothes before finally going to bed.
Monday, September 10–We were catching the bus for the Grand Ocean Road tour at 7:20 so we were up in time to start breakfast at the opening of the restaurant at 6:30. Our guide for the day was Paul and driver was Peter. Both were very good. Paul did the commentary, but Peter was also very knowledgeable and was training to be a guide. Unfortunately we had a lot of road construction that slowed us down in getting out on the Great Ocean Road. I didn’t realize it when I signed up for the trip, but the ride was a total of 350 miles and turned out to be too long. The Road was built by soldiers returning from WWI, at least in part to give them work and also as a memorial to them. They used only shovels and pickaxes to build it. We stopped for tea at a beach (Anglesea?)
and then we stopped at a stop at which there was a stature of two soldiers holding a shovel and a pickax. I think this was Eastern View. Paul tried to help us get pictures without others in them by chasing others away from the monument.
Paul was careful to have us make frequent bathroom breaks, but several of the restrooms were as he said, “only one star or less”. We stopped at a small town for lunch, and I found a black metal elephant ring holder that I added to my collection. We stopped at Angehook Lorne State Park.
We stopped at Kennet River, where we saw a variety of birds
and at the Great Otway Naitonal Park. Click here to see more pictures in the park.
Our next stop was a fascinating cave within a sort of a cove between the rocks at Port Campbell National Park. There was a story of a ship, the Loch Ard, which wrecked outside the cove on the rocks. One man, a 19 year old sailor managed to swim into the cove. After reaching land he saw a young woman caught in the waves at the entrance to the cove. He rescued her and brought her to the cave, where they spent the night. The next day he managed to go for help by climbing out of the cove and rescued her. She was in bad shape and took several months to recover. They never saw each other again.
(Click on the image for more pictures of the cove.)
We then went to the Twelve Apostles—but there never were twelve, only eight, and one of those has collapsed. There was a mist, so it was hard to see them, but it was still interesting. Paul showed us pictures of how the eighth one looked before the collapse. This is how it looks now, but it used to have an arch.
(Click on the image for more pictures at the Twelve Apostles.)
We then had about a two and a half hour ride back to Melbourne, and it was almost 9:00 before we reached the restaurant. The rest of the group had already eaten dinner, but Mike was waiting for us at the Grill Steak Seafood Restaurant. Tom was so tired that he didn’t want to eat and left immediately to take the tram back to the hotel. I stayed and ate kangaroo, which was delicious and cooked rare, and then creme brûlée. I was able to get milk to drink. We all ate pretty quickly and then took the tram back to the hotel. Mike asked for a tiramisu to go for Tom since he had missed it.
Tuesday, September 11—We didn’t have to leave until 8:00 so we didn’t have to hurry too much. We enjoyed our last really good breakfast at the Pullman Hotel. We boarded the bus and drove about 45 minutes to the airport. Once there we had to get our bags to the checkin, but Tom and I checked both our bags. It was lovely not having any luggage on the plane. The flight was about an hour’s, and Mike gave us a puzzle to work. Bob, David, and I managed to solve it. We used a free cart to move our luggage at the airport to put it on the bus. Then we drove about 45 minutes to the. Cleland Wildlife Park where we had a light lunch of wraps, fruit, etc. and were able to wander and feed and pet wallabies and kangaroos and even an emu, but not the wombat.
Click here for more pictures from Cleland Wildlife Park.
The rain was just starting and never was more than a drizzle while we were there. I went to see the koalas, but Tom went to the snack area to have coffee. I was able to join Janee and David and pet a koala. He was very calm and ate eucalyptus leaves from his handler while we petted him. We drove to the Botanical Garden, but it was raining harder by then and we decided to stay on the bus and ride to the hotel rather than get off. Unfortunately Mike didn’t know we had stayed and became anxious about us. Our hotel was the Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide on Hindley.
Wednesday, September 12–We weren’t terribly rushed this morning, but had a lecture at 8:30 from Lindsay Watson, an aboriginal artist, about what has and is happening to them.
It was somewhat interesting, but he was so hard to understand that most of us didn’t hear much of what he said. Afterwards all of us except Tom went with Mike for a short walk to see the river from the North Terrace and ended up at the South Australian Museum and the Art Gallery.
Tom had decided to to to Port Adelaide to see the railroad museum and the maritime museum. He caught up with us at the railroad station before he took the train. I saw both the museum and the art a gallery and then walked back to the hotel through a pedestrian shopping center, Rundle Mall.
All the food seemed to be under the stores, but I did go down under one of them and bought some muesli and yogurt with berries and some iced tea which I took back to the room to eat. I then took our laundry to a “sister” hotel a long three blocks away`` and rested the rest of the afternoon.Below is a picture of our room and the view.
At 6:15 we met the bus to go to our home hosted dinners. Tom and I went to one hosted by David and Di, and it was delicious. Di had fixed an appetizer called “dokka” I think. It was crushed almonds, salt, and something else in which we dipped bread after dipping it in olive oil. She also had olives and almonds. The main course was a delicious Thai chicken on rice, and the dessert was Pavlova. I had brought a tin of Mississippi Cheese Straws as a gift.
Thursday, September 13–We were flying to Alice Springs today, but didn’t have to have our bags ready until 8:15 so it wasn’t terribly rushed. The flight was about an hour and a half. It’s easy making flights when we have an OAT guide who takes care of everything and tells us where to go. When we arrived in Alice Springs we went directly to the Old Telegraph Station while our driver took our big bags to the hotel where they would be waiting for us in our rooms.
(For more pictures of the Telegraph Station, click on the image above.)
We had lunch of sandwiches and wraps at the cafe there before going to see the station. It was interesting to see the telegraph station which connected Alice Springs to the outside world—even as far as London. Our guide was a young man from Virginia, Caleb, who moved here with his father’s job and got his job because he knew how to be a blacksmith. It turned out that he learned blacksmithing from You Tube. By the time we left the station we were all wearing our fly nets that Mike had insisted we bring with us. After the lunch, we had a lesson from Mike in boomerang throwing and each tried to throw the boomerang.
Both Tom and I got it in the air, but it didn’t come back. Mike offered to have good boomerangs bought for anyone who wanted one. One of the throws resulted in the boomerang landing in a tree and nothing would get it down. Caleb even tried to climb the tree, but didn’t get far enough up to do any good. After leaving the station, we drove to another memorial to the ANZAC, Australian New Zealand Army Corps, on top of a ANZAC Hill overlooking the city. Click here to see more pictures of the ANZAC hill.
Our hotel was the DoubleTree Alice Springs. The hotel also greeted us with a hot chocolate chip cookie. We then had the rest of the day off and Tom and I spent it resting before we decided to have supper in the hotel. (Double Tree Alice Springs). We made a reservation as Mike suggested, but there were only a few people in the restaurant. Tom had walked into town and didn’t quite make it back by 7:00 for our reservation, but it didn’t matter. We had an entrée (appetizer) of a platter for two with kangaroo, wallaby, emu, and camel. They were all ok, although the wallaby was tough. I couldn’t distinguish much about the tastes. We then shared an order of lamb rack and green beans, and Tom had tiramisu. Unfortunately Tom had acid reflux during the night.
Friday, September 14–We went on the optional Desert Park Cultural Tour to the World Class Advanced Ecotourism Accredited Desert Park. There was a beautiful flower on the way in.
(To see more pictures, click on the image above.)
There was a good introductory movie, “Changing Heart” art the end of which the screen went down and revealed the outside view. As we walked into the movie, there was a lovely wall hanging made of cut out cloth and stitchery. As Tom said, the scenery of this area is reminiscent of Buffalo, Wyoming. We walked around looking at the various habitats. There are “rivers” which are completely dry now, but which we are to understand sometimes have a little water. We were told that if you dig down a couple of meters there is water. Apparently there is a large aquifer under Alice Springs. Our guide showed us again the map of the various aboriginal tribes and explained again the marriage arrangements. we saw an emu and another guide, Jeff, showed us an emu egg. It seems that the male takes care of the eggs and even takes care of the chicks so that if he doesn’t breed he may be in charge of chicks as big as he is. We visited the Nocturnal House where we saw small furry animals that I think were possums—I didn’t wrie it down at the time and have forgotten.The most interesting thing in the park was a fantastic show in the open air with the birds, mostly raptors, including one very large eagle. The birds had been trained to appear and disappear on cue and to fly abound the area in which we were sitting. There was a water bird who knew to pick up his food in a little water area. We left the Park and went to Todd Mall for lunch on our own. On the way, Mike had the driver go by a place where some of the enormous trucks with three trailers were parked. Tom and I went to the food park at the mall where I had a BLT and he had a meat pie. On the way back to the bus, Tom became slightly lost and was a little late. We then went to the School of the Air for a discussion of their program and where we took a picture of all the teachers in the group—which included six of the women.
Afterwards we went to the Purple House where we learned about this dialysis program for the aborigines who seem to have very high rates of diabetes and other health problems leading to renal failure. The Purple House program was initially started by the aborigines. Our supper tonight was a barbecue which Mike set up near the swimming pool and two of the tour members helped by grilling.
Saturday, September 15–We slept until 8:00, and it was really nice. After breakfast, we returned to the room where I packed and then went to hear Andrew Langford play the didgeridoo and to try to play one. I was the only one who couldn’t make any sound at all! Tom didn’t make the workshop. Click here to see more pictures.
We had until 11:15 to get our bags out since the bus didn’t leave until 12:00. Tom and I had bought a sack lunch from the hotel, so we ate before getting on the bus. I had bought a coke when I first went to the lobby. When we started eating in some of the nearby chairs, we were told very politely that we needed to move to one of the table areas to eat. I also found that I couldn’t take my cup of ice on the bus so had to throw it out. We had only a short ride to the airport, but when we were unloading, Janee and David found that their bags had not been loaded. Luckily there was time for the hotel to send them to the airport. We all sat around the gate and sent some pictures to each other with airdrop. The trip was short—about 45 minutes—and uneventful. We went to the hotel (Desert Gardens Hotel) for a short time and about 4:00 left to drive around Uluru and to walk down to Kwangju Gorge, which was a beautiful area right under Uluru where we looked straight up the rock.
There were caves along the walk and some pictographs in one of them. To see more pictures of the walk, click here. Uluru appears very red in the sunlight. We then drove back to the tour bus viewing area where we had a table with “nibbles”, orange juice, and mimosas set up for us as we waited for the sunset. I could see one shadow that looked like a huge girl praying. We watched Uluru change colors as the sunset and then drove back to the hotel. For more pictures of the sunset, click here. Six members of our group were going to an Astro tour and needed to eat quickly, but they ended up with plenty of time. Mike took Sharon, Larry, Tom, and me out where we could see the Southern Cross and showed us how to find it. Both he and Larry had an app called Sky View that was really helpful.
Sunday, September 16—I decided to get up early to watch the sunrise on Uluru, but Tom didn’t. The wake up call was a 5:10 and we had to be at the bus at 5:40. We first drove to the place from which we had watched the sunset so that we could see the silhouette of Uluru against the light from the sun about to rise,
and then went to a sunrise viewing site to watch the sun rise.
We were there about 20 minutes before it actually rose, but Mike had arranged coffee and hot chocolate as well as cookies for us while we waited. The colors were nice as the sun rose. The sun was at about a 45 degree angle from where we were so there were really nice shadows and colors. My phone was too cold to work properly and said it had run out of power. When it warmed up later, it started working again. We then spent about 45 minutes walking at a pretty fast pace along the base of Uluru where we saw some rock art and the Mutitjulu Water Hole and some amazing chairs.
After the walk we went back to the hotel for breakfast. Tom sat with me while I ate my breakfast, but he had already eaten. We put our bags out and then got on the bus to go to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) into the Walpa Gorge for another walk. This time we were told to bring our poles, which turned out to be great advice. I had brought poles as had about half our group. The walk was uphill mostly and on very rough stones.
(To see more pictures of the walk, click on the image above.)
It was good that I had my poles. Somewhere along the day I lost the lift for my shoe. Tom and I walked almost all the way, but we were slow and when we saw others returning we turned around. We returned to the Town Center of Uluru where we had lunch. Tom and I shared an Outback pizza, which was good. We didn’t have time for much else, but got back on the bus to go to the airport for the flight to Port Douglas. This was about a two to three hour flight, but we were served a hot chicken pumpkin tart-like pie. After getting on the bus (a big one and very fresh smelling) we drove to a grocery store and liquor store before going to the hotel. Tom and I bought some milk, apples, and snack bars. The hotel is another Pullman hotel and is quite nice as well as quite large. They took us to our rooms with our bags in groups of three or four on golf carts. For more pictures of the hotel, click here.
Monday, September 17– This is Great Barrier Reef Day! We left the hotel in a large Quicksilver bus and picked up others on the way to the marina.
We took our beach towels from the hotel, and I took my bathing suit and a bag with my bathing suit and cover up and things we might need. We left the marina about 10:00 and the ride out to the reef was very pleasant.
When we reached the reef, I went on the submersible that was offered. There was barely time to fit it in before the helmets, and it was interesting.
(To see pictures from and of the submersible click on the image above of the loading dock.)
I saw a great deal of coral although only a little of it had much color. For the helmet walk we put on lycra suits, weighs, and large helmets into which air was pumped and walked about four meters down steps to a level platform where we watched as one of the leaders fed dish right in our faces.
The hardest part was the walk down the platform as it was hard to keep balance with the weights we had around our waists. Walking down and then up the steps was difficult but the crew was very knowledgeable about how to help us. We could reach out and touch the fish. A young couple went down with us, and she was terrified the entire time. We ended up buying the pictures and the video that they took.
Afterwards I tried snorkeling, but although I was more successful than in Panama, it was too crowded to be much fun. Afterwards, I took off the Lycra—with a little help from a nearby stranger—and dressed. We ordered the pictures from our walk, and by that time, it was time for the ride back to the marina. The photographer barely managed to get all our pictures ready for us. In fact, because he was having trouble getting some printed, we ended up getting both print and electronic without paying the $20 it was supposed to cost. We rode the bus back to the hotel and took showers before supper, which was a hotel prepared barbecue and pretty good. Mike kept things lively with a quiz and announcements of winners of a previous quiz. Tom and I won third prize.
Tuesday, September 18–We hurried somewhat in eating breakfast, but I did tell Gordon my answer to his quiz, and he agreed. Lee answered my email to children, but his answer wasn’t with yes or no questions. When I opened the blind on the sliding door this morning, I pulled it off. We left promptly at 7:25–7:30 Mike time. We saw much sugar cane in the field, some of which was being harvested. We also passed through the town of Mossman, which has a cane processing factory. We took a ferry across the Daintree River. We didn’t stop for anything because Mike had us scheduled for a river cruise—originally called a croc tour and now called a mangrove tour because they rarely see crocodiles.
However, we saw two big ones and two little ones. To see more pictures of the tour, click here. The were hard to see. We stopped at a small Daintree tea shop for tea and a muffin. While there we walked out on the beach to see the patterns that some crabs had made in the sand.
After the tea we went to the Daintree National Park rainforest where we spent about two hours walking in the forest and listening to Pru describe almost everything we saw. She knew a lot, but Tom and I were both exhausted before the end.
(For more pictures of Daintree National Park click on the image above.)
We then had lunch and as we ate lunch we noticed a snake skin hanging from one of the roof supports. There were also green ants on the rails, and Mike tried to get everyone to lick one saying that they were sweet. I think only one person tried. We did walk out to see a little creek near the restaurant.
After we emerged from the rain forest we drove to the Daintree Ice Cream Company where Mike treated us each to a cup of four flavors of ice cream, or really gelato.
On the way home we stopped on the road for the view of the Daintree River and almost Port Douglas and the marina.
We took the ferry back across the river and drove back to the hotel. When we returned, the blind was still on the floor so I called housekeeping and asked them to fix it. A maintenance man came up and did fix it and I also mention the spa. He fixed that also, and left us a complimentary bottle of wine. Before supper we had a very interesting talk from a marine biologist who works on the reef. I was able to share the wine with those at my table. Tonight Mike had dictated that none of us sit with our partners. I was with Jim, Susie, David, Dave, and Dana. Tom and I had started our laundry in the machines in Mike’s room before supper and after Betty and David did theirs, but because theirs didn’t dry, we were thrown late, and when we returned after supper to pick ours up, they still weren’t dry. We finally just took them out and hung them on hangers in the closet and on my clothes line outside. We thought maybe the lack of drying might have been because no one emptied the lint filter—where ever it was.
Wednesday, September 19–Neither Tom nor I woke up to go and watch the sunrise on the beach, but instead enjoyed sleeping until about 7:00 and having a leisurely breakfast. Our suitcases didn’t have to be out until 10:00, but they came about seven minutes early so it’s good that we had already put them out. We drove about an hour back to the Carnes airport on the bus with a short detour through the city to see the area along the beach including a very large swimming pool complete with sandy beaches and an equally large playground for children. The drive was pretty.
I have been intrigued by the signs in the “female toilets” throughout Australia:
We made the flight with no trouble and once again we’re happy that we had Mike to take care of the details. We were at the hotel about 6:00 pm and Mike had us meet at 6:30 for a short walk and then supper at the Lord Roberts hotel (pub). I had a steak, salad, and vegetables. It was good, but the steak was cooked a little too much. Tom decided not to go and got a pizza on his own. The hotel in Sydney was the Sydney Boulevard Hotel.
Thursday, September 20–This is the day for Evita. We met in the lobby at 8:00 and started our sightseeing tour on the bus.
Apparently we’ll end with the bus as well so we could leave things on the bus when we got out. Unfortunately, for the first time we started the day with rain. It was relatively light and did stop by about noon. The first thing we saw was Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair where she supposedly sat to view the harbor and, I think, to paint.
We then walked down to the harbor on a beautiful walk along the rocky cliffs of the harbor.
We picked up the bus again at the bottom of the hill and drove through King’s Cross, which apparently was and may be to some extent the red light district. The bus took us to Watson’s Bay Wharf. Each of our drives took us by townhouses that are very popular in Sydney and big beautiful houses costing as much as $70,000,000 in one case. Most of the townhouses were $1,000,000 to 3,000,000. At Watson’s Bay Wharf we took the ferry to Circular Quay and then walked to the Opera House for an hour’s tour with a very animated guide who obviously loved the Opera House and her job.
(For more pictures of the Opera House Tour, click on the image above.)
It was necessary to check large handbags and backpacks before entering the Opera House this time and for the performance. There were about 200 steps to climb on the tour, but not all at once. There are six stages in the Opera House, and we saw three of them. We saw the largest stage of the three smaller stages where they had experimental plays and this stage had many advanced features. The second stage we saw was the largest one and was the symphony stage where a group of children were practicing. The third stage we saw was the ballet and opera stage where we would see Evita. We were told that the stage was actually tilted so that the back was higher than the front— or upstage. After the tour we walked to the Rocks area where the convicts first lived and ate lunch at the Rocks Cafe.
I had a kangaroo burger and Tom had a goat cheese and pumpkin salad. Tom decided to take the train back to the hotel, but the rest of us walked through the Rocks area with Mike and took the bus back to the hotel.
(For more pictures from the Rocks area, click on the image above.)
Tom and I rested until 4:30 when we went down to meet the eight others who were going to Evita and take a maxi taxi to the Opera House. Tom and I had supper at the Opera Bar. He had a rigoletto (sp) pasta and I had a Chinese chicken. Both were pretty good, but we had wanted to eat at the restaurant in the Opera house and hadn’t been able to get reservations. We watched the light show at 6:14 and then decided that we had time to follow the suggestion of a very helpful worker at the Opera House and have dessert at the Opera House restaurant. We had no problem gong to the bar with an extraordinary view and a delicious dessert, granita, which we shared and each had a cup of decaf.
(For more pictures of the light show and from the bar, click on the image above.)
We enjoyed the performance although an understudy played the lead role, and it was very difficult to follow the words of the songs. The stage craft and choreography were fantastic. We all met and caught a maxi taxi back to the hotel.
Friday, September 21—We met the group at 8:30 in the lobby. Six people were going to do the Bridge Walk, which meant that they were walking up the outside of the bridge arch. The rest of us went with Mike to walk to the train and take it to cross the bridge and then walk back across it. He took us past St. Andrews, the Anglican, Cathedral and the City Hall on the way to the Queen Victoria mall.
He showed us two very elaborate and expensive clocks. One was supposed to show a history of sorts at 9:00, but it didn’t work.
The train ride wasn’t very long and totally without incident. Once across the harbor Mike pointed out to us where he and his wife, Ann, had once lived. Then we walked back toward the city enjoying beautiful views of the harbor and the city.
(For more pictures of the bridge walk, click on the image above.)
Almost at the end of the bridge the last of four pylons held a museum and allowed one to walk up to the top using more than 100 steps. Luckily the steps were divided into three groups with the pay booth and museum at one level, the gift shop at the next level, and then the top level where there was a 360 degree view of the city and harbor.
(For more pictures from and in the pylon, click on the image above.)
At the end of the bridge we started for the Opera House so that Tom could buy a mug, but we became totally lost and eventually decided to go directly to the Sydney Tower. We took the train at Circular Quay, where we’d taken it before and got off at St. James stop. We only had about a block to go to the Tower, but once we found it and entered the Westfeld Building we went up the wrong elevator first and then had trouble finding the correct one. When we finally did find the correct one and the concierge, we decided to go to the à la carte dining room rather than the buffet, which turned out to be the better decision because it put us in the head of the line for the elevator and put us in the revolving restaurant. We had a delicious meal of the best salmon I’ve ever had. They had done something with the skin that made it crisp and peppery. We stayed about two hours and the restaurant revolved twice while we were there. After eating, Tom took the train back to the Opera House and I started looking for someone to repair my glasses. I looked at the Pitt Mall, a pedestrian street mall, but found nothing. Finally I returned to the Westfeld and found two places—one which had no help, and a second where a young man did make some temporary repairs which I hope will last. I beat Tom back to the hotel by a few minutes.
We had time to rest for a few minutes before heading to the wrap up meeting where every gave their thoughts about the trip—almost totally good. We then took a bus to the farewell dinner at the Hero of Waterloo Hotel.
Saturday, September 22–Mike had said that we would have to use machines to check in, but somehow he used his magic and got us all checked in by people. The airport at Sydney is enormous and very full of shops of all kinds. We had a long walk to our gate, but all made it on the way to New Zealand.