Mission Beach to Cairns

Still on the trail of the wild Cassowary, we got up early to walk to the beach, hoping for wildlife sightings. We'd only just rounded a corner when we saw a kangaroo hop out of the bush. Good thing Brad took several photos - the first was blurry (like the ones taken in Noosa sadly), the second clear but funny, and finally the third was pretty good.

It's hard to photograph a kangaroo in the wild...

An Eastern Grey kangaroo 

I walked faster after seeing this on a small bridge...

So once in Cairns, our road trip came to an end; we'd driven 2006 kms. It was enjoyable - we just wished we'd had even more time, as there was lots to see.

Townsville to Mission Beach

The aquarium in Townsville bills itself as the "World's Largest Living Coral Reef Aquarium," and it really is impressive - we found it hard to leave. Besides looking at the fish, we went to a "Predator Talk" where there was a diver in the tank with several kinds of sharks, and visited the Turtle Hospital. Australia has 6 of the world's sea turtle species and in the tanks, recovering from propeller strikes or from eating plastic (thinking it was a jellyfish), were a 3 month old Flatback turtle, a Green turtle and a Hawksbill.

A turtle in a tank at the Turtle Hospital

 After our visit to the Aquarium we had to high tail it up the highway to get to our destination before dark (driving gets dangerous here at dusk when critters are on the move - you don't want to hit a kangaroo - like hitting a deer or moose at home). But we couldn't resist stopping at the big gumboot in the town of Tully - they claim to be the wettest town in all of Australia, and the gumboot shows how much rain they received in 1950 - a record 7,900 mm! Inside the boot there's a spiral staircase you can climb, which gives a good view of the sugar mill.

The sugar mill from the top of the gumboot

On our drive from the highway down to the small town of Wongaling Beach, south of the better known Mission Beach, we saw a lot of signs to slow down, Cassowary Crossing, but we didn't see one. At our B&B we were told we'd just missed one that had walked across the road.

Airlie Beach to Townsville

The newspaper article on cine-tourism (how people were flocking to Iceland, Ireland and Croatia to see where The Game of Thrones was filmed) hit home since that was the reason we visited the small town of Bowen. Some of the 2008 movie Australia, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, was filmed in Bowen - it stood in for Darwin.  Bowen still has its old wooden buildings and a long wharf going out into the bay, whereas Darwin lost its old buildings in a cyclone.

Photos of the making of the movie

They brought in red dirt so that it would look like Darwin, brought in 700 head of cattle for the cattle drive through town and down the wharf to the ship, brought in horses, and contructed the buildings that would be bombed and burn when enemy aircraft flew over. Over 80 Bowen volunteers helped out and hundreds of extras were in the film.

Townsville was our destination for the day, an easy drive, and we had time to visit the Museum of Tropical Queensland in the late afternoon. We were most interested in an exhibit called Colour the Secret Language of the Reef and it didn't disappoint.

Whitsunday islands

When the skipper says "buggah" and the deckhand says something worse, you know the sail raising in a strong wind and 1.5 - 2 metre swells is not going well. A crucial rope had jumped its pulley wheel, was stuck and wouldn't budge, so the sails had to come down again. While we motored, Brad and another fellow spent a long time helping to get the rope free.
We were an international group of guests on the 68 foot sailboat: 2 from Italy, 4 from Germany, 1 from France, and 2 from Canada. Our first stop was in a quiet bay to snorkel; despite the slightly murky water, we saw quite a few fish - one was a really large grouper, at least 3 feet long. Everyone wore stinger suits for protection from the venomous Box Jellyfish.

Next stop was at another island where we went ashore in the dinghy, hiked up to a lookout to see the vista of Hill Inlet at low tide, then walked down to Whitehaven beach. It's a white silica sand beach, and was just beautiful.

The Southern Cross raced in the Americas Cup in the 70's

The inlet - we walked down to a beach to the left of this photo

Getting back to the marina just as the sun sets

Yeppoon to Airlie Beach

As we drive north it gets warmer; it was 32 degrees today. We passed fields and fields of sugarcane.

A first look at Airlie Beach in the late afternoon sun

Tomorrow we go to the Whitsunday Islands on a sailboat; this is a group of 74 islands named by Captain James Cook when he explored the coast in 1770. He "discovered" them on Whit Sunday, which falls on the 7th Sunday after Easter.

Hervey Bay to Yeppoon on ANZAC Day

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and ANZAC Day is April 25th; it's the day troops landed in Gallipoli - this year was the 100th anniversary and so was marked especially well with marches and ceremonies in both Australia and in Turkey.
Yesterday when were were on our tour of Fraser Island, our guide Murray talked to other guides while we were floating down Eli Creek, and found out that a large group of students from New Zealand were staying on the Island overnight so that they could have a dawn service at the wreck of the Maheno, which was a hospital ship in WWI. They had brought the bell from the ship; it was removed from the Maheno before it was sold for scrap; the students rang it at dawn. Services were held all over Australia and in Turkey as the sun came up, since it was at dawn when troops landed. They showed a clip of the NZ students ringing the bell at the Fraser Island beach on the TV news.

Driving slowly behind a parade

Every little town had ceremonies and marches and once we were detoured around the main street and once we had to wait, then follow the marchers through town until they turned off.

Fraser Island

Our guide and driver, Murray, picked us up at 0730 for our one day tour of Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, a National Park on the World Heritage list. There were only two others on the tour: one from England and one from France, so just the five of us in total in a four wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser.
Flinders the cat lives and works on the ferry - his job is the keep the birds off - "it's easier to clean up feathers than the other," the ferry guy told us.

Flinders the cat

 Once off the ferry, we'd only gone a short distance on the sandy track when we saw a dingo - the wild dogs on Fraser Island are the purest ones in Australia since they're so isolated. There are signs and posters everywhere asking people to stay away from them and not feed them - they're wild and can be aggressive.

A lone dingo

After our "smoker" (coffee break) in the fenced picnic area, we went down to Lake McKenzie for a swim. The lake is filled by rain water only - there are no streams going in or out -it's called a perched lake.

Clear water and beautiful white sand

Lunch was served at a picnic table at what's called Central Station - the site of an old logging operation in the 1920's.  The hardwoods of Fraser Island were prized around the world.
After going down more bumpy sandy tracks we arrived at 75 mile beach, and the going was smooth.  We stopped at the wreck of the Maheno, a ship built in Scotland in 1905 and based out of New Zealand for many years.  In the first World War it was used as a hospital ship. At the end of its life it was sold for scrap and was being towed past Fraser Island in a storm when the towline snapped and it ran aground.

The Maheno Shipwreck

Eli Creek

Our last stop was Eli Creek which you walk up on a boardwalk and then walk, swim or float down - we walked down the first time, then floated - refreshing on a hot day!

Flinders rests up for his night's work

Up to the Sunshine Coast

North of Brisbane is the Sunshine Coast, and we were happy to move from stormy Sydney to warm and sunny weather. We visited old friends from University days and saw some of the beautiful Noosa area.

The bay from the Noosa Heads trail

A Kookaburra that ate from our hands at Linda and Jim's

Passion flower in their garden

Sydney monsoon, or a good day to be indoors...

By the time we arrived at the Sydney Opera House this morning for a tour, we were soaked! The gusty wind was the kind that tries to turn your umbrella inside out, and the rain was just pouring, or as they say here, bucketing down.
The tour was really interesting: we saw shorts films on how the design was chosen, and on the construction of the building with the 10 sails. Though the sails look white from a distance, up close you see that the ceramic tiles on the outside are really a cream colour; we were told they were made in Sweden. The window glass is from France, and is specially designed to withstand changes in temperature.

Harbour bridge through the big Opera House windows

When we went into the Joan Sutherland theatre, dancers were practising on the stage, for tonight's performance of Giselle. The last space we went in was the big concert hall with over 2000 seats; workers were busy onstage setting up for the symphony. The grand piano there is one of 28 at the Opera House; every time a piano is moved it has to be tuned - they have a full-time piano tuner.

Ceramic roof tiles on the left

Next up was a visit to the Australian Museum - the special exhibit of wildlife photography was stunning. There was a big section upstairs devoted to the wildlife of Australia, and an informative film about the Crown of Thorns starfish that's eating coral north of Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef, and what the Museum research scientists on Lizard Island are doing.

The room I liked the most was called Indigenous Australians; in the room were two huge soft sculptures - one a large fish about 20 feet long hanging from the ceiling, and a colourful crab on the wall - both made from "ghost nets," - lost or abandoned fishing net that fish and birds can get caught in.  Up in Queenland people pick up this netting and use it for art projects, and the museum has been purchasing some of them.

Giant fish sculpture

Crab made of netting

The Rocks

The oldest part of Sydney is an area downtown called the Rocks; a wonderful facility that tells the story of the neighbourhood is the Rocks Discovery Museum. We were in time, after touring the exhibits, to join a "walk around the block," led by a museum guide. In the 1850's there used to be 50 pubs in the area! We were told that watermen, as water taxi drivers were called, would hang out in the pubs until someone needed a ride across the harbour.
The sandstone blocks used for buildings were all cut by hand from the rocky shore.

We met up with Graeme and Rebeka, and walked through the Sunday market stalls.
Tied up at the wharf below the Rocks was a massive cruise ship:

Hunter Valley wine tour

Two hours north of Sydney is the Hunter Valley wine region; it also used to be known for coal mining, and in one small town we saw a sign that said, under the name of the town: mines, wines and people. We stopped at two boutique "cellar doors" as they call them here, and the Smelly Cheese Shop before lunch, then two more wineries and a chocolate shop in the afternoon.  We were a boisterous group of 14: four Canadians and ten Aussies - it was a long day and a lot of fun! And of course we learned a lot about wine and tasted a lot!

McLeish Estate cellar door was our first stop

The view from the Blueberry Hill Vineyard tasting room

Exploring Surry Hills

With the intermittent misty rain, it was warm and humid for our walk to Surry Hills and the Bourke Street Bakery, a tiny place that maybe holds ten people at most.  While we sat outside to drink our flat white coffees and eat our delicious snacks, a drama unfolded nearby: an undercover policeman pulled over a couple in a small car, two mounted police arrived, presumably as backup, then four more officers, in two more vehicles, to search the people and the car.  while the man was placed in a paddywagon and driven away, the woman was let go, and walked away.
Later we looked for an art studio we'd read about, and after several tries, finally found it down a narrow lane.The exhibit was called Alchemy/Pop and was quite interesting.

Tiny Bourke Street Bakery

Drama unfolds outside the bakery

Down a lane, the hard to find Brett Whiteley gallery

Boat to Bundeena

Bundeena is a seaside village south of Sydney, bordering the Royal National Park. To get there we first took a train to the end of the line, Cronulla, then a ferry.

The walk to the cliffs was a hot one, with stops to take pictures of the forest, giant spider webs, and tiny lizards.

From nose to tail it was only about three inches long

Enjoying the view from the cliff

Fisherman on the edge of the cliff

Harbour views, Bondi to Bronte and back

We were at the Art Gallery of New South Wales when it opened in the morning, to see the Yiribana Gallery of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art. From bark painting, works on canvas large and small, to ashark dance mask, it was amazing. From there we walked down to the harbour for our first glimpse of the Opera House and the bridge.

In the shade of a large tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens, we stopped for a picnic lunch on the grass.  This little bird came by to see if we would share some bits of our sandwiches.

We caught a bus east to Bondi beach and watched the surfers and swimmers:

We saw three pools like this today

On the walk to Bronte beach we stopped to admire the sandstone cliffs, the houses and the wildflowers.

Sydney Australia

Due to headwinds, our plane was 45 minutes late, so our already long 15 1/2 hour flight was actually more than 16 hours. Graeme was waiting and it was so great to see him for the first time since he left on June 30th!
Though it's Autumn here now, it's warm and sunny, and we enjoyed walking through MacKey Park beside Cooks River.  Unfamiliar birdsong, hibiscus and Bird of Paradise flowers confirmed that we weren't in BC anymore.

An Ibis beside the river

School kids are on a break at the moment so we saw quite a few on scooters and bikes on the path.  We had to remember to stay to the left, not the right as we would at home.

A happy looking Cockatoo

The next sight was an unusual tree full of Lorikeets eating red berries - we'll have to see if we can find out the name of the tree.

One of many colourful Lorikeets in the tree

Then it was time to take the train to downtown Sydney, or as they say here, to the CBD, or Central Business District, and find our apartment.

Brad and Graeme in front of the heritage apartment building