Adelaide

After another long drive thru the featureless desert of New South Wales we finally reentered civilization in the Barossa Valley  just north of Adelaide. It was quite a dramatic change. One minute we were in the middle of the barren wastes and the next we were surrounded by vineyards and pretty little villages nestled in green valleys.

Adelaide never gets its just due in my opinion.  While other large Australian cities like Sydney and Melbourne hog most of the attention, the fact is that Adelaide is just as pretty as either. Doesn't have the magnificent harbor that makes Sydney so unique but it does have a laid back charm all its own.The state of South Australia (Adelaide is its capital) was the only Australian colony that didn't begin as a prison. It was instead established in 1831 with land grants from the crown as a prospective home for free settlers...both from the other Australian colonies and England. It's a University town, with several institutions of higher learning in the City, so there's always a bit of a buzz here. They fancy themselves as the "Festival Capital" of Australia and I wouldn't quibble with that description. It really is a neat place...and one of my favorites.

Adelaide was a planned community and as such doesn't have the haphazard layout of the other big cities. Instead, the planners organized it in neat little grids with parkland all around, so if you ever get tired of the city you always have the option of stepping out of it whenever you want - the nearest park is probably only 2 blocks away. And what parks they are...like scenes of England all along the river Torrens which cuts its way thru the city and divides it into North Adelaide and South Adelaide. This stretch of river walk goes for 25 miles, from downtown Adelaid all the way to the sea at Glenelg.

The facade of our apartment along North Terrace Road is typical of the Victorian sandstone architecture that make the city such a delight. We were right across the street from the botanical gardens, and right next door to Ayers House - the Adelaide home of the same gent for whom Ayer's Rock near Alice Springs is named.

We happened to be in the city for ANZAC Day (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps) - their version of Memorial Day and Veteran's Day combined. The parade began just up the street from us so we walked down to take it in, and were glad we did. These things are typically huge in Australia, where national pride runs high. The original ANZACs were the colonial troops who went to Europe to fight for King and Country in WWI. Their big trial by fire - and the battle that began their legend - was Gallipoli in 1915...an absolute disaster for the Brits, whose troops (mostly the ANZACs) got hammered by the Turks before withdrawing in glorious defeat. They've since fought for the British Commonwealth in every subsequent action from WWII, to Korea, to Vietnam, to the Gulf war. The parade lasted an hour and a half and included representatives from every veterans group within a 500 mile radius, and they had these parades in every Australian city of any consequence. And the thing is - everyone turns out for them. The crowds were enormous. Very heartwarming.

As with any good parade there were lots of bands playing martial music to help the marchers stay in step. One unique thing about this one was the number of Scottish Pipers taking part - must have been at least 8 or 10 all together. Believe me, you haven't lived until you've heard "Walzing Matilda" played on the bagpipes. Actually brought a tear to the eye.

After the parade we wandered down the street to the Botanical Gardens - a garden within a park next to the river. Beautiful.

St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral.

And another look at the river walk just behind the University of Adelaide...also just up the street from us.

  

And finally a short film clip of the Pipers marching. We weren't quick enough on the trigger to record them playing Walzing Matilda but instead caught them playing "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag", one of many WWI era tunes they belted out along the route of march.

We leave today for Sydney, where we'll be for a couple of nights before catching our return flight back home on the 30th...which is actually the same day we'll be arriving back in Vancouver thanks to the magic of crossing the International Dateline.  I think we arrive at the airport in Portland before we take off from Sydney come to think of it.

Really sorry to see this trip end. We've had the chance to truly savor the country on this trip thanks to the luxury of having plenty of time to explore some destinations that are way off the usual tourist track. Australia continues to rank near the top of my favorite places on earth, and the Australian people are without a doubt the nicest on the planet. I've been smitten by this place since my first visit to Tasmania in 1976 aboard the Enterprise, and hope to be able to return here periodically for as long as I live.

Homeward bound now.

Broken Hill

  After we left Goondiwindi and started heading thru the open country we started seeing more and more Aboriginal people in the small towns we passed thru. Appeared that there were numerous aboriginal homelands interspersed throughout the territory of Western Queensland and Northern NSW, and at any rate we started to encounter them more and more as we proceeded on. Even had the unique cross-cultural experience of waiting in line at the McDonald's in Broken hill behind a couple of aboriginal teenage girls, who acted just like any other girls the same age except that they came from a culture that can trace its origins in Australia back 60,000 years...and some say as long ago as 80,000.

Broken Hill was an interesting place in a true "Wild West" sort of way. It began as a mining town around 1885 when the richest lode of silver ore ever discovered was found along an exposed 7 mile seam. They've been mining here for 130 years and it appears that there's no end in sight. It was this discovery that began the mineral rush that has resulted in Australia being the largest net exporter of a variety of metals in the world...and made millionaires out of the original station hands who chanced to stumble upon the lode of silver oxide while boundary riding on their cattle station.

Looking up Sulphide street towards the mother lode that dominates everything in the town. The structures sit atop the slag heap of tailings from the mine. One is a Miner's Museum, and the other is a trendy restaurant with a very nice view of the town and the surrounding desert - just have to lift your gaze a bit from the moonscape in the immediate vicinity.

 

 

Most of the houses in the town were similar to this "Tinny". The place we stayed was just a few doors up the street.

One side trip was to the old ghost town of Silverton about 20 kilometers outside town. It was the location of the first strike in the area, but was quickly overshadowed and faded into obscurity once the mother lode was discovered in Broken Hill. Today it's a little time capsule of how it used to be around here. This hotel is a famous Australian icon - has served as an outback film location for everything from local beer commercials to motion pictures - Mad Max was filmed here, among other films.

The Anglican Church still looks to be in pretty good shape considering it's over 100 years old. It was the film set for "A Town Like Alice"...one of Rita's favorite films.

This view only hints at the remoteness of this location. The pavement ends about 5 kilometers further on and the road changes to gravel and dirt after that. If you continue to drive north on this road you have to go another 850 miles before you encounter the next paved highway...in northern Queensland. Now that's remote.

A look at the desert between Broken Hill and Silverton.

Back in 1860 an expedition departed Melbourne with the intention of being the first to cross the continent from north to south, to open the way for a telegraph line and further settlement. The expedition was led by a couple of blokes named Burke and Wills - two very famous Aussies (especially in Victoria) - their version of Lewis and Clark I suppose. Anyway, the explorers made it almost to the Gulf of Carpentaria before they were forced to turn back because of the torrential rains. Both perished in the desert on the return leg thru a combination of bad planning and bad luck. This is Maidens Hotel in the town of Mennindie on the Darling River...famous as the last stop for the explorers before they headed into the "Ghastly Blank" as the Australian interior was referred to in the 19th century. Probably doesn't look much different than it did for the farewell party held in the explorers honor before they pushed off. Quite an evocative place, actually.

Lots of stately sandstone buildings in and around Broken Hill testify to the flush times of the Victorian era.

It was kind of a quirky place too. Came upon this monument in one of the local parks - turned out to be a memorial to the bandsmen of the Titanic, whose courage in continuing to play until the ship sank was so admired by the local population that they commissioned this obelisk in their honor. Thought there might have been a local angle regarding the sinking, ie maybe one of the new silver barons was aboard but, no, nothing like that. They just admired the story and wanted to memorialize it in their own way.

After 5 nights in Broken Hill we headed another 6 hours further west to Adelaide...another one of my favorite cities.

Into the Sunburned Country

After 8 weeks of heading north from Melbourne, we finally turned the car towards the west and started our journey thru the outback of NSW. Spent one night in the small town of Goondiwindi, then continued on to the mining town of Lightning Ridge - famous as the source of most of the world's black opals.

Lightning Ridge was a pretty rustic place, still dominated by the mining activity that goes on here in search of the sought-after opals. This was one of the original miner's cottages on the main drag...now open as a tourists photo stop. Thing is - most of the other buildings in town (and all of the shacks on the various claims) looked pretty much the same.

Case in point being this one which served as the home of one of the original miners for over 50 years...and which is still an active claim.

Here's a good look at the highway west of Goondiwindi. Parts of it were as straight as a pistol shot, and all I had to do was engage Cruise Control, point the car in the right direction, and try to stay awake. Saw several big Red Kangaroos cross the road ahead of us, as well as a couple of herds of wild goats, which caused me to cut my speed (posted limit of about 70 mph) about 30 mph since I didn't want to hit one of them at speed.

Also saw about 50 wild Emus grazing along the side of the road and in the fields that stretched left and right of the highway. Once the trees and other vegetation gave way to open grassland it was like driving thru the African savannah. Stark, but beautiful in it's own way.

After departing Lightning Ridge we continued further west to the town of Cobar (good luck finding it on the map). Passed thru Wilcannia on the way - in fact stopped here for a cup of coffee and a short walkabout to stretch our legs before continuing on. Lots of old Victorian buildings from the flush times about 80 years ago when this whole area was the center of wool production in the colony of NSW.

Only spent one night in Cobar, but had time to walk around the town a bit and meander off into the bush a few kilometers along a heritage trail. Came upon this flock of Galahs grazing in the grass of the local golf course, whose fairways were grassy but whose greens were all sand. Not sure how they putt out to complete the hole, but that's bush golf for you I guess.

Our most surprising encounter was with this young camel who was grazing in the scrub next to one of the athletic fields (or ovals) along the trail. She had apparently broken loose from her tether at some point and was completely on the loose.

 From Cobar we proceeded on to the Silver mining city of Broken Hill - the Capital of outback NSW and the only oasis of civilization between here and Adelaide. We'll be there for 4 nights.

Lamington National Park

One of the stops we were most looking forward to on this trip was our one week stay in Queensland's Lamington National Park, located about an hour inland from Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast. We first came here back in 2005 for a few days and liked it so much that we wanted to spend more time in the area. This time we stayed in an elegant 3 bedroom vacation home overlooking the valley you see below. The hiking trails in this area really are terrific and, when the weather decided to cooperate with several beautiful and sunny days we were out the door pretty quickly to attack some of the trails.



The view from the living room looking out at the lanai. Spectacular...even in the rain that came later in the week.



And the view from the lanai. Great place for a cup of morning coffee or an evening glass of wine.



Since we were at eyeball level with the trees we had lots of visitors...especially in the mornings and evenings, including this Kookaburra who decided to adopt us after the first day, and who roosted in this tree next to the lanai the whole time we were there.



Saw this sign on the road heading up to the house.



And as soon as I walked out onto the lanai once we arrived I looked up and saw this little guy in the tree next to the house. There was also a female with a Joey nearby.




Another frequent visitor - one of a group of Lorikeets that usually stopped by in the evening. The forest around here looks and sounds as if they opened the gates of the aviary at the San Diego zoo and just let all of the exotic birds spill out into the countryside.



Lots of pretty vistas along the trails. The tracks here range from easy half-day walks to multi-day excursions of 40 miles or more.




A photo op along the trail.



On our homeward leg one day we chanced upon this 6 ft. Carpet Python trying to cross the path ahead of us. He looked like a baby compared to the big bruiser we had seen about a week before, but was still big enough to calibrate my startle reflex. It was a standoff for a few minutes - he stopped and we stopped, and each waited for the other to make a move. I finally grew impatient for him to get on with and hit him with a rock which diverted him enough to allow us to pass. A couple of hundred yards up the trail we passed a lady heading the other way, so I warned here about the python just ahead of her. Her response was typical Aussie: "a python, eh? Well, they're harmless" and she proceeded on with barely a break in her stride. A few days later we encountered leeches in one of the boggy places after it rained (had to pick them off our boots and trousers in fact). A bit further up the trail I alerted a group of middle-aged hikers heading the other way that there were leeches ahead (thinking they might appreciate the head's up since they were all wearing shorts) but the bloke's response was "ah, they don't eat much and, besides, they drop off when they've had enough". Gotta love the Aussies...



One of our lunch spots along the Coomera River. (No leeches here).




Different day but another pretty lunch spot along the trail. This pond was full of freshwater crayfish, or Yabbies as they're called here. Most were only about 2 or 3 inches long, but we saw a couple that were the size of small lobster...must have been 5 or 6 inches long.




And here he is. Good eating too, I'm told.

And finally, a chance for you to practice your Aboriginal language skills courtesy of this signboard in one of the nearby forest parks we visited one day.



Here's a better look at the Yabbies in the creek. Must have seen 10 or 12 of them just in this one pond.



Our week here passed much too quickly but we're now headed towards the interior of New South Wales on our way to Adelaide...with enroute stops in the Opal mining town of Lightning Ridge and the Silver mining town of Broken Hill.

Coffs Harbor

Spent Easter weekend in the beachside town of Coffs Harbor - located about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane along the eastern coast of NSW. Although the beaches a little further to the north are a lot better known, this stretch of coastline is about as nice as it gets if you like the beach. We went to a couple over the busiest weekend of the year and pretty much had them all to ourselves.





The place we stayed was this small, self-catering "Queenslander" tucked away in the hills...and up in the jungle. No danger of sleeping late - the racket of the various bird calls at sunrise guaranteed that we were up with the sun as well.



Our nearest neighbors. One of the perks of the place was all of the eggs we could eat courtesy of the 4 laying hens.


One reason we opted to stop here for a few days was the close proximity of a couple of terrific National Parks. In fact, much of this area is World Heritage listed due to the unique nature of the rainforest around here. Apparently, this forest is truly ancient...harking back to a time when Australia was part of the super continent of Gondwana millions of years ago, ie before the various land masses separated to become the modern continents of Africa, South America, Europe & Asia. Spent a particularly enjoyable day in one of the parks - Dorrigo - about an hour from Coffs and home to some great walking tracks thru the bush.



The trails in the park were really well done. This track wound its way for about 2.5 miles through the jungle, with occasional views of some towering cascades like this one. The bridge provided a perfect viewpoint of the creek, the falls, and the jungle panorama below.







Did a short side trip on the way home and stopped off in the town of Glenreagh for lunch...with this oversized dingo in front. The Aussies seem to love these things. Coffs is also the home of the "Big Banana" - a theme park/working banana plantation celebrating everything banana. There's also a Big Lobster, a Big Pineapple, and a host of other "Big" attractions along the remote highways of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.




Spent most of Saturday and Easter Sunday chilling out on this beach. Found a Pandanus tree about halfway down that provided a shady spot and so camped out for the day, walked along the beach and read our books for a few hours. The surf was up, and the remote beach was unguarded, so we didn't risk going in. Saw a total of 5 people all day.


Here's a short clip that will explain why we didn't go in the water. Great surf, but a little to big to tackle without swim fins.

Hunter Valley and Port Stephens

Just finishing up 4 days in the Upper Hunter Valley and then Port Stephens for a few. Beautiful places both. Here are a few photos:



Stayed in a beautiful mountain cabin near Barrington Tops National Park, complete with this view from our front porch/lanai.




The countryside in this part of Australia is especially pretty, with lots of rolling hills and valleys like this scene. The Hunter Valley wine region was just to the south of us, in fact there were a few vineyards in the foothills near us.


Did a couple of very nice, and challenging, hikes. These grass trees apparently grow to be quite old - don't even start to grow the trunk until they're over 20 years old we're told. Our host said that these were upwards of 500 years old, and from the charring on them must have seen and survived several bush fires during the course of their lives.




Did a long hike up in the National Park, and on our return leg we came upon a big, fat Black Python lying in a pool of sunlight right next to the trail. He was HUGE - not in length (about 5 ft) but in girth (about 12 inches around, expanding to about 2 feet around his midsection where a great big lump indicated that he's just swallowed a small wallaby or maybe a possum earlier that morning. Was just sunning himself and digesting breakfast as we passed...on tippy-toes I might add. He never moved a muscle though - wasn't at all concerned about our presence or close proximity.


Drove over to the nearby town of Gloucester one day just to have a look around and spend the afternoon in the pretty town. During our walk we came upon this hotly contested game of lawn bowls going on in the local park. They do love their sports here - had everything going on from a swimming competition to a rugby match to soccer games. Am frankly a little surprised at the Aussie affection for some of the pedestrian British sports like lawn bowls and cricket. They just seem a bit too tame for the rough and tumble Aussies.


After four nights we drove down out of the mountains to Port Stephens, still only a couple of hours from downtown Sydney but right on the coast. The harbor here is supposed to be about twice as big as Port Jackson (Sydney Harbor) and it's absolutely gorgeous. Reminded us a lot of Hawaii - Kauai especially.



Nice view of the coastline from our front porch.



Just around the point from our rental is this stretch of shoreline sand dunes stretching for over 20 miles...supposed to be the biggest in Australia. All I know is that it looked like Saudi Arabia off to the right as we walked along the beach.



This is Fingal Bay. On either side of this headland we had the place all to ourselves. The views called to mind Hawaii...or maybe Tahiti. The water was crystal clear and about 72 deg. - a bit chilly by Hawaii standards but still plenty warm enough to swim in. Have to be careful though - lots of rips in this area.



We explored all of these pretty little beaches on subsequent trips to the area. The little sand spit connecting the two islands in the top of the photo above is dry at low tide and you can walk across the neck to the lighthouse.



Pretty typical view from about two blocks from our rental house. Would have liked to have had some snorkeling gear to hunt for lobster in these rocks - the place must be teeming with them.


Heading north tomorrow morning to another beach community about 5 hours up the coast called Coffs Harbor...home of the "Big Banana".