The Other "Grand Canyon"

On Friday, Pete and I took an evening train from Sydney’s Central Station to Katoomba, a small town just a few hours west, nestled on the edge of the “Grand Canyon” among the Blue Mountains. Our hostel had advertised itself as “deluxe,” though what that actually meant we weren’t sure, given that it was one of the cheaper accommodations available. It was spacious and much of the interior had been redone in 2005, so it was quite spiffy-looking, but what the ad hadn’t mentioned was that it was some kind of converted hospital. The high ceilings, industrial kitchen, and roomy dining area were all nice on paper, but the atmosphere, as Pete reluctantly pointed out, was something straight out of The Shining.

Saturday morning we woke up early, packed a lunch and put on our hiking shoes. It was only a 2k walk to Echo Point, the main entrance to the walking tracks leading down into the canyon. We got a map and followed the throng of Japanese tourists down a cement-paved walkway. At first we were worried that we’d fallen for a glossed-over version of the natural world—conveniently wheelchair accessible and kid-tested to be complaint-free. But as we meandered farther along, elbowing our way onto the lookout platform, we realized that we’d be descending into a canyon steep enough to weed out the frail and faint of heart.

Here’s Pete standing in front of the Three Sisters, three rock pillars that form one of the main visual attractions of the Blue Mountains. You can only see them from the other side of the canyon, so I opted for this shot of Pete mocking the stereotypical pose of a Japanese tourist (the peace sign).


A series of ladders and natural stone and wood steps stretched down into the bottom of the canyon for over a kilometer. This required steady legs, and in some cases, holding on to the railing on either side.

After reaching the bottom of the canyon we were surrounded by dense rainforest—and the occasional intrepid tourist. The sound of the cicadas was so freakishly loud that I took a short video to share the noise with you.


We followed the trail for a few kilometers, stopping for a snack and some views of Katoomba Falls. At this point my camera batteries were dead, so you’ll have to wait for Pete’s photos of all the good stuff. Eventually we made our way back up the canyon on the loop trail, facing another set of natural and unnatural stairs, feeling the burn. I guess we’re not quite in the shape we were in while working on the farm in Hawaii. It felt great to take in the fresh mountain air and expansive vistas after having been cooped up in Sydney for two weeks.

Our day ended with a nap, home-cooked bean burritos, and a spectacular pink-and-purple sunset. Exhaustion and satisfaction, while sometimes opposites, are definitely members of the same family.

Almost Summer in the Almost City

It's the second rainy day in a row in Sydney, and there's nothing on our agenda today. We've spent nearly two weeks in the Brooklynesque suburb of Glebe, and we're starting to feel like we live here. I have my new passport--in the record time of 4 days--and my New Zealand working holiday visa. Pete got his mandatory chest x-ray for his visa (since he'd "spent more than 3 months in the last 5 years in a country not considered low risk for TB"--that's actually how they worded it), and this weekend we're heading to the Blue Mountains as a reward for all of the hoop-jumping we've done. Good thing we Americans have been trained to deal with bureaucracy; it seems to be a global epidemic.

We've managed to do as many of the low-budget tourist attractions as we can handle: walking across the Harbour Bridge, enjoying the NSW art museum (free!), checking out the fruit bats while strolling through the botanic gardens (also free!), taking a ferry to the beach suburb of Manly, poking through the junk at the Chinatown markets, admiring the sharks in the Sydney Aquarium, and of course, walking all over the city.

We leave for New Zealand on November 2nd, and are staying in Christchurch, on the South Island, until we figure out what we want to do from there. The holidays will be upon us soon, but we're in a seemingly endless summer. Do I dare to dream of a white Christmas?

Crocodile Cruise

One of our last activities in Far North Queensland was a crocodile cruise on Cooper's Creek. We rode bikes from our hostel, Crocodylus, all the way there. It was hot and humid so the ride seemed much harder than it actually was. Our group assembled on the muddy banks of the creek to wait for the boat to return from the previous cruise. There were little crabs and mud skippers running in the mud which drew us to the waters edge. A khaki-clad tour guide emerged from the bushes and yelled "Oi! Away from the water!" I think it was more a device to get us excited about the possibilty of spotting potentially-man-eating crocodiles than an actual safety precaution.

The boat pulled up and a sad group of tourist got off. They hadn't spotted any crocodiles.

Like yet another clone of Steve Erwin, our boat captain/crocodile tour guide was also wearing all khaki and, incidentally, Crocs®. He told us he was having bad luck that day and maybe we could help him spot some crocodiles. The information he gave as we drifted up the creek had mostly to do with the mangroves. There are something like 150 different kinds of mangrove trees and that provides more than enough factoids to fill an hour long tour. It was begining to look hopeless as more and more various kinds of branches and roots became less and less interesting. Then, very casually, Micaela pointed and said, "There's one." Everyone stood up and got their cameras out and oohed and ahhed at what looked very much like a log. It was actually a crocodile, 2.4 meters long according to the guide. An older woman who seemed slightly confused pointed and said very loudly, "There, there, I see a crocodile!" It was obviously Micaela's sighting.

Scuba Diving

Scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef was great. My batteries died on the morning we had the best visibility, which was kind of nice because I could just enjoy the reef without fussing with my camera. Here are a couple of pictures from the first day.

Maps!

Here's my first attempt at putting a real map on our blog.

View Larger Map

This shows some of the places we've been in Far North Queensland. Click around and see how it works. I'm still figuring it out for myself, but it looks like it has great potential.

Sharks!

Grey Reef Sharks are not dangerous to humans, but they're still scary.

Shipwreck Bay

Even though we were tired, we got up with the sunrise to kayak to a private beach. Micaela and Pete shared a kayak and I was paired with the girl who wouldn't stop asking questions about sharks, stingers and how to paddle a kayak... lucky me. Thankfully we paddled our way without incident to the empty shores of Shipwreck Bay. There were only seven of us in total and we took full advantage of the chance to snorkel on the fringe reef about 80 meters offshore. It wasn't nearly as clear or as awesome as the Great Barrier Reef, but the peace and quiet made it a completely new experience. The snorkeling was peaceful since the water was calm, and I think we all wished we could stay there all day. Before paddling back, we walked the empty beach collecting shells and watching crabs scramble under the sand as we passed. The water was warm, the sun was out, and by the time we got back to our cabin in the rainforest, our day was just beginning.

Birdwing

This is the Cairns Birdwing. In my opinion it's the most beautiful and photogenic of the bunch and is only found in the Daintree Rainforest, which is the oldest rainforest on earth. We saw more rare butterflies on our excursion, but most of them took off before I could snap a picture since birds love to feast on them. This particular butterfly allowed me to take a few pictures and was my favorite.

Air and Water

Last week while we were staying in Cairns, Morgan and I decided to go to the village of Kuranda, originally an Aboriginal village, now a popular tourist destination. We didn’t care much for the gift-shop atmosphere or the trinkets being sold, but we wanted to go anyway since there is a gondola that runs the 8 kms there, with amazing views of both the ocean and rainforest. Here’s a picture of the shire of Cairns from our gondola.

While in Kuranda we went to the Butterfly Sanctuary, formerly the largest one of its kind in the world, until a larger one was built in England. Since Pete was at his scuba diving refresher class, I decided to take a few butterfly photos in hopes of both impressing and informing him. Here was my favorite picture:

The butterflies are attracted to bright colors, but they particularly like white. Morgan was wearing her Yankees hat in support of her team during the playoffs, and the butterflies seemed to enjoy the white embroidery of the logo.

Our main reason for staying in Cairns was so that we could take an overnight boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We booked the trip at our hostel—Morgan decided to go snorkeling, I signed up for introductory scuba diving, and Pete, who is a certified diver, signed up to do some dives as well. The weather was perfect—80s, sunny, calm water, amazing visibility, and not much wind. At our last dive location on the second day, you could clearly see portions of the coral reef from the deck of our ship. These were the actual colors—this photo wasn’t altered.

On my first attempt at diving, I couldn’t seem to equalize the pressure in my ears, and after 20 minutes we all came up for air. After that I stuck to snorkeling with Morgan in hopes that my ear would heal. My ear never equalized, but it wasn’t so bad since snorkeling was better—I could maneuver into smaller spaces and float above coral that was just a few feet below the surface.

I’ll let Pete post his underwater photos, but the highlights included a large turtle, electric-blue coral, white-tipped reef sharks, and giant clams. There were more colors and more species than I’ve ever seen in such a small area. It was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Koalas and 'Roos and No Bears--Oh My!

While in Brisbane we visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary--the first and oldest koala sanctuary in the world. I was determined to "cuddle" a koala at the price of $15, timeless photo included in the purchase. We prefer Pete's version of the photo, so that's the one I'm posting here.


There were also a bunch of fenced-in kangaroos that we were allowed to feed. Here's Morgan feeding one:


Not only did I learn that a koala is not a bear (yes, Morgan and Peter, you were right), but it's a pouched marsupial. Their pouches are much less visible than those of the kangaroo, but they're for the same purpose (housing their young, who only gestate for 20-30 days before making their way into the pouch). They weren't the most excitable creatures given that they sleep 18-20 hours a day due to their low-energy diet of eucalyptus leaves, but they became quite animated when fed.

We had a couple of really great days enjoying the Brisbane nightlife, relaxing at our friendly hostel, and cooking delicious meals for ourselves. On Tuesday morning we flew to Cairns where we're staying at one of the nicest hostels that we've been to so far. A swimming pool, hammocks, air-conditioners, free dinners and DVDs, and not a single bunkbed in the place. The weather is humid and almost tropical and there are lots of nearby rainforests, though it's the end of the dry season here in northern Queensland.

Saturday is our last day at the hostel and then we're going to do a two-day, one-night scuba/snorkelling trip out to the reef, which is about 60 km offshore. Until then we might take a daytrip to the Outback, though we haven't decided yet. Lots of options...

Fraser Island

Fraser
Originally uploaded by Peter B. Tzannes

Getting there is half the battle...

So you've probably noticed that Micaela and Pete have been slacking a little on the blog - well, you can blame me for that (at least partially). After some contemplation, though more on a whim than anything, I decided to join them in the "Land Down Under". Since it was cheaper to fly to Honolulu and then to Sydney, I made a 3-day, 2-night pit stop and stayed on Waikiki Beach before continuing on my way. This first leg of my journey involved two, 6-hour flights with a 4-hour layover in Las Vegas. The second leg of the trip was the worst! I endured a roller coaster ride from Honolulu to Sydney. I say "roller coaster ride" because for the first 2 hours of the flight the plan shook violently from side-to-side as we encountered some of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced. Upon our approach to Sydney I was elated to finally spot land, but it wasn't long before my hopes were dashed and replaced by my worst fear... the plane suddenly made a sharp, banking U-turn back out over the ocean and the only thing I could see out my window was the sky. My stomach dropped as the woman next to me shouted, "Jesus Christ!" Thankfully after a few minutes we circled back and landed safely on the ground.

The Australian customs agent confiscated my stash of Slim Jims (brought for emergencies) in the airport as he laughingly informed me, "You can't bring meat products into this country and that includes Slim Jims." I didn't have the energy to argue about the meat content of a Slim Jim, so I sadly handed them over and went to find a taxi. I took a cab to a hostel in Sydney and immediately went to sleep upon arrival. With the 20-hour time difference between Honolulu and Sydney I had lost almost an entire day.

The next morning I boarded a Greyhound bus for Brisbane where I would meet up with Micaela and Pete. The ride was a mere 16 1/2 hours! The bus stopped for 3 "meal breaks" which all consisted of a roadside gas station selling some form of deep fried seafood, meat pies or other deep fried items coated in various coagulated sauces. This was my introduction to the Australian diet.

When I arrived in Brisbane at 11:30 pm, I called my sister and let her know that I had made it. She said to go outside and meet her and Pete by the front steps of the transit station. As soon as I turned to look down the street, I saw a hand wave and immediately recognized Mic and Pete. I ran across the street and into her arms for a long awaited reunion. After travelling alone for almost a week and not having seen her in several months, I began to cry out of happiness. I had almost forgotten that I had a destination and I was finally there!