Sounds, Smells and Strange Sights

I completely forgot to mention the sounds of the birds that we woke up to every morning. They were incredible. We had Magpies with their beautiful song that is so different from other Magpies from different areas of the country, very complex and so lovely to listen to. It was awesome. We heard Peewees, it's a smaller bird that almost looks like a Magpie, their song was sort of a shrill sharp tweet, peewee! peewee! peewee!... There was usually always the screech of the white Cockatoo, or the multicoloured Cockatoo, which is called a Multi.... go figure..... Then, the cream of the crop, which we didn't hear a lot of, but is the best of all, the Kookaburra... It's song has to be the most hilarious thing we have ever heard in our lives... It makes you think of a wild monkey in the jungle having a long cackle at some predator.... Kookookookookoo ackackackackack kookookookookoo ackackackackack kookookookookoo ackackackackack, on and on and on for about 20 seconds, so incredible, and you just had to stop what you were doing and listen and laugh in wonder... So amazing.... And such a beautiful bird, quite plump and solid, about 12 - 15 inches tall (30 - 40 cms).

In Hervey Bay we encountered the Dusky Moorhen, initially we were calling it a Coot, just because we didn't have a clue what it was until I just looked online this minute, lol. It is a water bird and has the funniest hoot/screech/bleet, it was more of a shrill bleet that anything.... Too funny.....The bird life was so wonderful and it was somehow comforting just to have them around... There were so many different kinds of birds and only a rare few are the likes of what we have here in Canada.... In this picture, we have an old coot feeding the pretty birds, some ducks, some Dusky Moorhens and a couple Ibis's...   ;-)

I think I mentioned before about the smells of this country.... I guess initially it was the smells of the people, or rather, the products they used.... It smells just like it did in England, Scotland and N. Ireland. Now that in itself is not a big deal, but it's just so prevalent. I was really surprised by it.... The season of course was autumn so most of the spring time blooming of flowers was done but there were still lots of flowering bushes. There were a few plants that had a scent, but not a lot. The gum (eucalyptus) trees, on the other hand, had a wonderful mentholyptus smell that reminded me of having a cold and the Vicks Vapo rub that would be used to sooth your throat.
Speaking of trees, we saw so many new types of trees. It was amazing. The eucalyptus was of course expected, and so many of them!! Forest upon forest, never ending, in some places. We each eventually had a favourite in each area of the country... Mine was the Desert Oak, we only saw it on the Lassiter Hwy on the way to Yulara..

 Then there were the ferns and palm trees! Unbelievable! I thought we had seen every kind of palm tree just from what you see on tv.... Total bunk!!!! Even when we got to the coast and went to Cairns, we saw so many... Every day after that, when we took a walk down a street or on a path, yet another type of palm tree would show itself. We were blown away by it... So diverse, so amazing.... I'm planning things for the new front yard already, lol....

The smells of the food cooking was also different as they cook such different things than we do. I am not sure I can eat any more french fries for a few months... Everything down there comes with chips (fries)... It started to get maddening after awhile. You would order this classy meal, like a t-bone or other expensive steak, and it comes with chips.. No vegetables, no option for rice or baked or mashed potatoes. One night I ordered pork chops, with chips.... It was horrible.... One time in an RSL (Legion), I ordered chicken parmesiana and it came with chips, in a pub one afternoon, I had lasagne, with chips.... Those Aussies really love their chips...


Another strange sight we saw was all these cars just abandoned and burnt out and just left on the side of the road or dragged off into a field a few yards... It became quite a novelty to see them and we laughed at each one and started to say "car!" each time we saw one, just like you did when you used to play street hockey as a kid......

The stars were cool to see. We have a formation up here that to me, looks like a Yield sign, (actually called Orion), down there, it's upside down!!!! Go figure.... Mark even saw the Big Dipper - upside down of course.... We really didn't get a good chance to be out of all the light pollution to see the Milky Way, other than at Yulara, and then it was at 5:30am. It was not at spectacular as was hoped. But still it was fantastic to see...

This is Orion - i think...

One, or rather many of the disturbing things we saw constantly was the lack of removing the roadkill on the sides of the roads... It was a bit upsetting... We saw skeletons, I repeat, skeletons of kangaroos still on the side of the road... There were all sorts of varying states of decay left on the roads... Then there was also the scavengers that were killed as they were hit while feeding on that roadkill... It was somewhat disgusting to see. We are thinking of writing the highways department and giving our opinion.... So much death and no one seems to care if there is more carnage.... We just don't understand......

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

There are a lot of things that can be said about this country... The post title says 3.... You can go around and not wear a shirt... You can go around and not wear shoes.... But most importantly, you can go around, to most eateries we are sorry to say, and you get no bloody service.... Honestly... It's pretty bad and it's all over the place... No condiments, no cutlery, no napkins and no service with a smile... No help, no directions, nobody seems to care, nobody seems to live around here and therefore, nobody seems to know, anything... But the great thing about all that is....... No Tipping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We just don't understand it........ Well, maybe we do....

Moving right along......
If you come to this country, bring money..... The cost of everything is, or could be, from 10% to 100% more than we pay at home.... Things that are 'necessity' based, bread/milk/fruit/canned goods/meat, in a large supermarket, are within a reasonable price range... As soon as you start with the luxury, or 'options' based items, the price sky rockets... meals that we pay $8 - $12 for will go for $14 - $22.... You can barely escape a $40 lunch...  We paid as much as $2.11 per litre in Yulara and the average was $1.60 per litre for gas... Snacks are close to 100% difference, and even bottled water....... No two ways around it....... We reused water bottles for days but inevitably we had to buy more and more as the fridge in the van just couldn't keep up with the demand of keeping them cold...

So, bring money.... Even if you wanted to do this country on the cheap, you will still need $$$$$$.... Don't deny yourself... You can eat home made sandwiches etc and home cooked meals if you have a unit... But to see the attractions, you need $$$, for everything.... This is a great country.. So much to see and do.... There are treasures of every sort to be found everywhere... It all just depends on what your tastes are... It really has something for everyone... But don't deny yourself by going cheap....

The people are fantastic... We met so many nice travellers. Maybe they were great because they were travelling too, who knows..... In general, mostly everyone was great... The service industry has a lot to learn and you get very frustrated with them and want to curse and shake your head... We did both.... It doesn't help.....

If you come to this country, you will most likely survive it... 22 million people every day survive all the dreaded and demeaned scary creatures that we were so adamantly warned about... Too funny.... Contrary to  popular folklore, those nasty spiders and snakes are not roaming the wilds and tames just looking to get into your shoes or bathroom or kitchen or what have you.. We only saw two Funnel Web spiders, one was scurrying into it's web in the depression of a corrugated fence in Melbourne, and the second was in the toilet house in Wycliffe Well. We only saw one poisonous (Tiger) snake... It was coiled up in shock and fear in the middle of the road between Hughenden and Charters Towers and we drove over top of it (between the tires), and when we turned around and went back to see it, it had hustled itself back into the ditch on the side of the road.... Now, having said that, we ourselves didn't live in a household for our six weeks here, so that could be different.... But I'm really very sure that on  average, one would not ever see anything poisonous while here on vacation, and certainly not in a threatening situation....

This is a very beautiful, vast, extreme country... The people are just like people everywhere... They care about their families and they want a good future, and they complain about the government. There are always the bad with the good, but it is not a country full of rednecks going out every night shooting roos and crocs... At least not in the places we visited. I have not heard one man call a woman a sheila.. Although I did hear a gent call another man a bloke in his telling of a story....

If you can come to this country, I would highly recommend it... It is truly amazing.... You will not regret it.

In closing, we want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for following along on our blog and for your comments.  It has made us feel like someone cares and we did enjoy the jibs and jabs... It brought smiles to our faces daily... Thank you...

And just to end the mystery... The gnome, Ja'Roam, was brought along on this trip purely as a folly, but soon he began to represent all of you whom we carried in our hearts on this trip. So now you know.... Also, he was a lot easier to bring along than all of you, I can guarantee you that for sure.....lol  xoxo

Thanks, and good night..... See you soon.... xoxoxoxo!!!!!!!!

A Look Back

Well, I thought I'd do a recap of this trip just so I can refresh my memory of all - most/some/a few of the things we've done...
Here goes...
We dined at the Sydney tower.
We camped in the Blue Mountains in Katoomba.
We saw the parliament buildings in Canberra.
We went to the Melbourne Zoo.
We went to the Melbourne Aquarium.
We walked on St. Kilda beach at Port Phillip, Melbourne.
We went to the lookout floor in the highest building in Australia, Eureka 88 Skydeck.
We drove along the Great Ocean Road and saw The Twelve Apostles.
We walked in the Otway Treetop Forest Adventure.
We had our first, one on one, experience with Kangaroos in Halls Gap.
We saw an Australian deer in Halls Gap.
We golfed in Horsham.
We took a wood fired, steam engine, paddle boat cruise on the Murray River in Mildura.
We drove the narrow, twisted, heaving stretch of highway featured in Mad Max  and saw the car from the Mad Max movies in Silverton.
We swam in the Southern Ocean in Port Augusta.
We encountered and somehow endured the unbearable swarms of black flies - Port Augusta to Charters Towers.
We drove endless hours in the vast, extreme and wondrously beautiful outback of Australia.
We went into underground churches in Coober Pedy.
We experienced temperatures over 36c daily - Coober Pedy to Richmond.
We flew over Lake Eyre and The Painted Hills and the largest cattle station in the world - Anna Creek.
We walked in 39c heat in the Walpa Gorge at Kata Tjuta (aboriginal for - many hills) Olga Range.
We saw Uluru (Ayers Rock) at sunset and sunrise.
We saw a wild camel herd in the Uluru park area.
We went on a camel ride at Yulara.
We saw a Huntsman spider and cheesy alien paraphernalia at Wycliffe Well.
We saw the sunrise on the Devils Marbles.
We had a smoking hot Ethiopian curry meal in Mt Isa.
We saw a Tiger snake on the highway between Hughenden and Charters Towers.
We saw hundreds, possibly thousands, of fruit bats (Flying Foxes) at Charters Towers.
We stayed in the #1 holiday park in Australia - Cairns Coconut Holiday Park.
We went to the Hartley Crocodile Adventure Park and saw our first crocodiles, Cassowaries, and Koalas.
We stayed on 'The Strand' in a beautiful beach front hotel in Townsville.
We went by ferry to Magnetic Island and swam in stinger protected enclosures - Horseshoe Bay.
We swam in the breakers like little kids - Alma Bay, Magnetic Island.
We rode on a fastcat ferry for 2 /12 hours in 3 - 4 meter seas - Airlie Beach to Reefworld.
We dove and snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef at Reefworld - Airlie Beach.
We went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo at Beerwah, north of Brisbane.
We ate dinner at one of Australia's top 100 chinese restaurants - Tamworth.
We swam in a beach front, surf fed, public swimming pool - North Narabeen (Sydney).
We saw an Aussie Rules Football game - Sydney Swans vs. North Melbourne Kangaroos 101-61 Swans.
We saw several Airbus A380 planes at Sydney airport.

There are so many other fantastic things that I can't even remember that we did on this trip, but really, the most amazing has got to be that we survived 40 days in a motor home that was really too small for us, we didn't kill each other, and we didn't crash it, and we covered almost 40% of this vast country.....  Too bloody amazing....

Mona Vale - Sydney

Well we found a gem in Mona Vale... Actually it was Narabeen that the campground was located in.. We decided to go for a swim on Friday and were excited to be back in sunny weather and looking forward to some surf type swimming.... What we found was a bonus...

The shoreline of this bay is beach on one side, for the surfing types, and a rock shelf that has been chiselled out to make this beautiful walled in swimming area... It is so ingenious!! It fills itself with the new surf and drains out at the shore end.....

HUGE White Bird of Paradise flower

 Anyway, we had a really nice sunny hot day and it was welcomed beyond belief. We started to get ourselves organized and partially packed and cleaned out so we could bring back the van nice and clean on Saturday...
We overpacked right from the word go in Nanaimo.. As soon as we bought even one souvenir we would need to have more luggage... Luckily we picked up another suitcase in Rockhampton. Bloody hell....
We eventually got packed and headed for Thornleigh on Saturday morning to bring back the van... It was a bit hairy driving through Sydney's northern end.... But we found our way and got the van back and there was no damage (yay!!!!!) and no speeding tickets (yay yay yahoooooo!!!!!!!!) so we were free to go and got a ride to the train station to head back into Sydney's Central train station......
We spent the last two days just kicking around the city and we even got to go to an AFL (Aussie Rules Football) game on Sunday afternoon... It was awesome!!

We then took a free bus back to Central Station and walked to China Town and had a great dinner and then walked back to our hotel....


































We took a shuttle bus this morning to our airport hotel and are here now enjoying watching the planes land and take off and we have seen the famous A380 - Spirit Of Australia - the super airbus that had an engine explode in mid air last year... It was doing test flights and we got some pictures of it taking off and landing... Too cool....
So now we are just relaxing and winding down... We are up tomorrow around 6:45am (Tuesday) for a shower and then it's off to the International Terminal and our flight home that leaves at 10:25am......
See you soon.... xoxo
Thanks for following....

Tamworth - Dubbo

So we left the 'Gold Coast', it was cloudy and not very nice out...

We thought we'd head inland to get some sun or at least a chance of it.. We headed to Tamworth NSW. The land is very much still farm land, cane fields and a few pineapple plantations. Livestock farms started to pop up and then became the dominant feature, cattle mostly, with a few sheep farms too... The landscape is still very 'mountainous' with wide valleys, and rolling hills with sparsely placed gum trees.... So lovely, I tried to capture the perfect scene of them in my constant camera clicking but I don't think I can do the beauty justice. We underestimated our travel time and ended up driving in the dark for almost 30 minutes to get to Tamworth, in the rain... It was not a pleasant end to that day, so stressful....

From Tamworth, we headed off to Dubbo. The rain from the trip to Tamworth had depressed us and we were hopeful to get even a bit of sun. The day started off nicely enough and we set out sites on Parkes NSW. Just outside of Parkes is the radio telescope that was used in 1969 to broadcast to the world, the landing on the moon by those famous astronauts,,,, whose names escape me at the moment, lol.... So much for famous, doh!!....

From Parkes we headed south again and were initially planning to spend the night in Lithgow. As we went through town after town,
Orange,

 Bathurst,

Lithgow,

We found that we were making better time than expected so we changed our minds and decided to go straight through to Mona Vale.. We have decided that Mona Vale will be our last two nights (Thursday and Friday) in the motor home... So through rush hour traffic in Sydney, and the eventual dark, and a bit of rain, we made our way through the maze and got ourselves to MV...... We are tired, we are exhausted, we are just about at the end of our tether.... So we are returning the 'van' two days early, on Saturday, and spending two extra nights in Sydney...

Typical Day on the Road - Outback Style

I've been wanting to write this for awhile but just haven't been able to find the time or the internet connection.... Here's a typical day on the road in the outback as seen through my eyes... The names have been changed to protect the innocent.................
     The Outback - A typical day on the road.....
 One of us (the one that doesn't rhyme with - me) gets up at some unbelievably ridiculous hour and gathers his toiletries and heads out of the van (motorhome) and heads for the shower.... The other one (the one that does rhyme with - me) rolls over and relishes all the space she never had in the 3/4 size, overhead and cramped, cement like cushions posing as a mattress bed, and wonders how long she can get away with another few minutes before she'll have to get up and get her own butt in gear for the day..... Bloody hell, do I really have to wait until I'm 80 before I can get some sleep???.......
Then she does eventually get up, and packs her own toiletries bag and puts on her flip flops and reluctantly heads out the door to the showers, and passes the man who had the nerve of waking her up so damn early, on his way back from the showers.... She showers and tries not to look around too much in fear of noticing any frogs on the tops of the separating walls or spiders in the corners or beetles on the floors or other people's hair on places and things she has to touch.... She has a thing about other people's hair and it's really starting to get on her nerves..... lol
 She finishes her shower and heads back to the van and finds tea and brekky all made and waiting for her... So nice..... Fresh fruit after brushing your teeth.... Not so yummy......
Anyway, he drives for the first hour or so, blah blah blah, and then it's her turn..... Yay!!!!!
 She gets behind the wheel, and it's all normal now... The driving on the left side of the road... Even the standard gears on the wrong side of the 'car' are normal now... It all seems like it's a road trip in your own country but it's just a part that you haven't been to before.... It's long days in the outback and we have to take turns.... He does most of the driving but he still needs a break... So now is my chance to just enjoy the whole thing for myself....
He needs a nap now, so he gets his pillow, and he punches it, and he prods it, and he fluffs it and puffs it into just the right shape... And just in the nick of time too cuz if he fussed with it for just one more second you'd be tempted to toss him out the damn door... "I'm trying to drive here, ok?" ;-P
'And oh ya honey, make sure you lock your door'.........
So now he's resting quietly and you have the whole road and the whole country and the whole world to yourself.... It's beautiful.... You have some classical music playing and the road is very quiet because you are literally in the middle of nowhere, and it's still sort of early in the morning.... The outback is not flat like flat flat.... It is flat and rolling, and flat and fields, and there are random trees and fences and shrubs and scrubby trees, and creeks and floodways, lots of floodways, and billabongs and man made reservoirs... The landscape is the same but yet it changes every few miles.... There is always something new and different to see... It is wonderful and it is all yours to yourself.... As long as he's sleeping.... You are woman and you are driving in this great land down under and this is your life long dream, you are so happy and you can't even believe you are even doing this.... It is all so incredible.... So fantastic....
You watch the road for anything that looks like it shouldn't be there.... You don't want to run over anything... After all, you've come here to see and appreciate the wildlife, even the nasty things, not to kill it... So you look for and watch any black or dark shapes on the road ahead, you wait for it to move and hope it doesn't... You don't want to have to swerve to miss it and then by accident hit it by trying to miss it... And when you get to the shape, are thankful that it is just a tar repair mark, or a shredded truck tire, or a stick.. Then you see a  really cool Perentie lizard, or bearded lizard and say, wow!!! so cool!!!..... And then a Dingo crosses the road about 50 yards in front of you and you are again, in awe of this land...
You drive like you own the place and are so thankful to be here and doing this.... It is such a great experience and you're just so much in awe of the land..... It is truly a beautiful country....
 And then, sleeping beauty wakes up and it all fizzles away and you have to come back down to earth..... But you get to share it with him and it's all still great and wonderful......
And that is pretty much how the long days on the road in the outback went... So fantastic... I will never forget... They will always be cherished....
And I share them with all the women who read this.... xoxo

Surfers Paradise

So we left Hervey Bay on Monday morning and went down to just north of Brisbane to Beerwah where the Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) Australia Zoo is. We pulled into the parking lot and gasped and cursed at how flipping full it was.... Hundreds and hundreds of cars... We went to the second lot and found a spot in the half full overflow lot. We walked to the gate and paid our fee and started walking around. The animals were great and you just can't get tired of seeing crocodiles in their habitat and lizards running freely around on the sidewalks... It was pretty cool.. They did a show around noon or so and it involved crocs at one time, birds of prey and some really big black cockatoos.... It was awesome, even though it was a bit Hollywood...... It is a first class place they have got here... Really first class.....

keeping cool in his own pool

Tasmanian Devil

 Cassowary

 Jabiru Stork

 

  Andian Condor

 

 

Crocodile

 Tortoise

one of many Kangaroos in the park

 We left the zoo a couple hours later and drove through the outskirts of Brisbane to our park of choice which was one in Surfers Paradise.... Holy cow..... So many high rises...... The park was overpriced and it rained all night... We see now how easily it can flood here. The rain was not that heavy and within 20 minutes even in the park, the grass was overflowing with water and the storm drains in the roads in the park were gushing with so much water.... There just is no depth of the soil here... You dig down a couple feet and it's bedrock... No chance of normal absorption of the water.....
We left the next morning and was glad of it... Bloody overpriced mudpit......
We drove through Surfers Paradise and were really blown away with how many high rises (hotels, condos & holiday apartments) there were in this place..... Totally both a bedroom community for Brisbane and a surfer's paradise....

Brisbane

bridges in and out of Brisbane over the Brisbane river

quick stop in Surfers Paradise

We finally got out of there and headed south... We found ourselves on the highway and Byron Bay was in the back of our minds for some reason....

So we cut off the M1 and headed east for it.... It was a really cool surfer type town... So many board shops and summer clothing shops.... We were bushed and decided to have brunch... It was 11:20 or so and we stopped at this restaurant and couldn't have lunch because they didn't serve that until 12:15, so we had the last of the brekky's that was served at 11:30.... They didn't serve any food between 11:30 and 12:15..... Go figure......

Anyway, we finally left there and decided to try to get out of the bloody rainy weather and we headed inland....
 

We figured we'd go to Tamworth tonight and Dubbo tomorrow (Wednesday).... We are really hoping we can get a few days of sunshine and heat before we have to head home.... YUCK!!!!! I don't even want to think about that right now....

And here we are now, in Tamworth NSW.... We got here around 6:15pm... Our first evening drive... It was totally dark by the time we got here and found our park... We went down the street half a block to a Chinese restaurant that has just won an award for being one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in Australia 2011... It was mostly awesome food...  Really good... The preparation is so different from ours.....
Anyway, that's where we are now.... Dubbo in the morning....
Bye for now... Thanks for following....
And no, we don't want to know any hockey scores.... Thanks.....