The Outback Rock Stars

"I have been here for more than 400 million years and have seen the land around me changing shape as the wind and water swept through eroding the far off mountain range and creating small hills and dunes.  I have seen the sun rise and fall more times than I can count.  Around 50,000 years ago, I was visited by these small two-legged creatures carrying spears.  They were awed by my size and color as I stand much higher than anything around me.  I could see they were happy to find a good watering hole in my shadow and they soon made use of the caves around my edges.  Before I knew it, I became a regular stop on their journeys across this vast land.  They would gather close to me and tell stories, perform dances, and play these strange musical instruments.  It was nice to have the company after so many years of being alone.  I felt they never got over their initial awe of my size and they always showed me great respect.  

Then another kind of man started arriving.  I call them man as I believe that is how they refer to themselves, but for me they will always be the two-legged creatures.  Anyhow, this new pale-skinned man had different ideas and they started climbing over me like ants on a hill.  Quite funny really.  But even funnier is how they travel from far away countries to see me and gather by the hundreds at dusk and dawn to watch how the sun settles on my surface.  I know I am beautiful, I can see it in their eyes.  But I am only a rock after all.  And the earth has plenty of fine looking rocks."

Well, if rocks could talk I wonder what tales Uluru would share with us.  Almost half a million people come to visit every year admiring this giant of a rock.   Uluru is still a sacred place for the aboriginies and they have made a nice job of educating visitors at the cultural center and with the signs posted around the site sharing stories that were passed down to each generation. 

Uluru is truly a star amongst rocks. Only when you see it up close and personal can you appreciate  how large it is.  We walked around Uluru today, 10.6 kilometers.  Uluru reaches a height of 348m and geologists say we are only seeing a small part of it and that it continues as much as 7 kilometers below the surface.  Uluru is not alone in the Red Center, but has a cousin sitting quietly 50km to the West.  Kata Tjuta is not as grand or as famous as Uluru, but is also quite a dramatic site to see.  And some people say the rocks look a little like Homer Simpson lying down for a nap.  

..... Drinking our way through South Australia

Hic.  Oh boy.  We arrived to the Barossa Valley and started wine tasting at 10am with a visit to Jacob's Creek.  Yes, there is a Jacob's Creek.  And they do make a rather fine Shiraz.

Let's go back a bit when we kicked off our wine tour up in Milawa, Victoria with a visit to Brown Brothers' cellar door at 9:30 last Sunday morning.  A sip of wine in the morning is actually not a bad thing even if you aren't in Church.  I don't know why we don't do it more often.  

But now we are in the Barossa region.  Home to the likes of Wolf Blass, Jacob's Creek and Peter Lehman amongst many others.  We stopped at the ones we knew as well as a couple of smaller ones and made off with some goodies to drink on our journey.  We sampled a sparkling Shiraz (quite nice) at Jacobs Creek and a lovely Grenache at Turkey Flat.  

We spent about $180.00 on 5 bottles of wine... for that money we could have bought 30-40 bottles of clean skins.  The power of branding!  

The wine tasting is done a little differently in Australia.  There seems to be no limit to the number of wines you can sample nor the price range, and they don't charge you a penny.  We sampled a $180 bottle of Meschach at Grant Burge vineyards after making our way down their tasting list.    You feel somewhat obliged to buy a bottle and perhaps a wee bit tipsy after all that sampling.  At least we do, and that's how we ended up with so much wine.

Our next stop was McLaren Vale where we had to visit Shingleback's Cellar Door.  These guys are the producers of Red Knot which was the wine we served at our wedding.  We felt it was an appropriately named wine for our 'red and white' wedding.  We discovered that Red Knot is their basic level wine and sells for $12.00 a bottle here (not much less than what we paid for it at the LCBO).  We sampled the mid-level Shiraz under their flagship brand Shingleback and of course we had to buy a bottle of that.  Even though Rosemount is just around the corner, we didn't stop at any other vineyards in McLaren Vale - KiaRoo is starting to look like a bottle shop and we still had one more valley to visit.  

This is Shingleback's vineyard - they also produce a cold-pressed olive oil.  

The Clare Valley is one of the prettiest we have seen.  We visited the Jesuits vineyard, Sevenhills, sampled some wine and I don't need to tell you the rest of the story. 

Sevenhills has been producing wine since the 1851 when it was founded by the Austrian Jesuit priests.  You can buy a bottle of Altar wine in their shop in case you didn't get enough of it at Mass on Sunday.

Australia - This and That

 We have been traveling around Australia for just about three weeks now and have a made a few interesting observations.  Apart from the obvious - it is a big country and although they speak English it is a slightly different version - we have discovered the following:

1.  The Grey Nomads.  This is caravan country.  It seems almost obligatory to purchase some kind of house on wheels once your hair starts to turn gray.  And once retired from the work force you then must spend a good part of the year traipsing about from one site to another and should occasionally venture into another State.  We are amongst the youngest couple in every camp site we have been to and at every attraction visited so far.  My goodness, even the surfers here are gray-haired. 

A game of bochi ball to start off the day. The dogs, the ladies with their knitting and the wonderful all round camaraderie.  

2.  The Highway Buffet.  I somehow thought kangaroos would be an occasional sighting.  Not so.  They are everywhere.  And they are not terribly road savvy. Actually, neither are the emus, but I guess that is not such a surprise.  The early morning on the outback highway is a feeding frenzy for the birds of prey where they have plenty of fresh road kill to choose from. Now we know why all cars have bull bars.

This guy thought he could outrun us.  We did let him win in the end. 

3.  Everything is accessible by road. Quite different from New Zealand where we hiked some 400 kilometers to see the great sites.  It seems here in Australia a long hike is considered to be about 5 kilometers.  Most of the scenic points are accessible by car with a 500m walk at most to get to the lookout.  Maybe this is linked somewhat to item 1?

KiaRoo takes on the outback.

4.  Clean Skins.  This is Australia's version of Two Buck Chuck.  Any excess wine that can't be sold under a well known and therefore expensive label, is bottled with a plain white label and sold for $4.00-$6.00.  We tried some the past two nights and really must ask ourselves why we would spend $20.00 for a bottle of wine.  Well, ok.  It's not that good, but certainly better than home-made wine.

...no photo...

5. Parrots and Cockatoos.  The love affair is over!  We were so enthralled with our first sightings of the colorful parrots and flocks of cockatoos. These beauties are only ever seen in cages in our home country so to see them flying in large numbers in the wild was quite exciting.  However.  They are noisy as heck and it seems they don't sleep through the night.  A very large group came over our camp last night making a huge racket and, of all things, pooped on our tent and newly washed car.  

Two Great National Parks

Would you believe me if I told you we have been to the Grand Canyon and The Wall of China these past few days?  Well it's true.  But perhaps not the ones you think.

The Grand Canyon was at the Grampians National Park and although quite amazing, I think it is probably not as grand as its US counterpart, but still beautiful in its own right.

We camped overnight at Grampians and were introduced to the bushman's alarm clock.  The delightful Kookaburra is a genius at waking up all living creatures with its distinct and very loud laughing call.  As soon as the sun is up, they position themselves right over your tent.  One starts "laughing" and it isn't long before another joins in, and then another in the distance.  And the clever birds stop as soon as everyone is awake and moving about.  But one fellow was nice enough to stick around for a photo shoot.  

We had hoped to see some aboriginal rock art in the park, but a terrible fire swept through there last year and many of the access roads are still closed.  So it was off to Mildura, a town famous for its position on the Murray River and also our jumping off point to get to Mungo.

Mungo was once a huge inland lake.  Actually one of several that dried up 15,000 years ago.  A discovery in the '60's changed what they knew of aboriginal life in Australia which dates back some 60,000 years.  The remains of what they call Mungo woman and Mungo man were discovered in the sediment and evidence proves they lived in this area 25,000 years ago.  Archeologists' findings show a nomadic lifestyle but with complex social structures including ritual cremation, a variety of tools including returning and nonreturning boomerangs and bones of several species of fish and animals long extinct, piecing together a picture of the people from that time. 

The wall of China refers to the lunettes created by the prevailing wind which swept sand from the dried up lake bed onto the North Eastern edge into a crescent shape.  Huge sand dunes have formed and although most of the lunette was once covered by a variety of trees, grasses and shrubs, the introduction of sheep farming in the 1800's caused a great deal of destruction to the natural vegetation.  The arid conditions meant the plants couldn't grow at a fast enough pace which led to erosion of the lunette.  The land has once again been turned over to Mother Nature and the scrub land is slowly regenerating.  And the emu and kangaroo are home again.  

The erosion of the lunettes, although creating interesting shapes, means it will eventually disappear completely.

The sand dunes at the back side of the lunettes.  Ps...I am the one on the left and no, Jens is not wearing a dress, he is wearing shorts. 

The natural vegetation of the lake bed.

The Coast, Part II

We have travelled on the "Great Ocean Road" from Torquay to Warrnambool passing through some gorgeous coastal towns and stopping at numerous view points along the way.  We visited the famous eroded monoliths known as the 12 Apostles, stopped in a cove known for shipwrecks reading the stories of those who perished and those who survived, and gazed out to sea hoping to spot the Southern Right Whales who should be arriving from the cold waters of the Antarctic any day now.  The coastline has some rugged steep sandstone cliffs eroded into some beautiful shapes and colors.

...above and below:  The Twelve Apostles. ... A few must be on holidays cause we couldn't find twelve.

...above and below:  Loch and Gorge - site of a shipwreck

The Coast

If I had traveled to Australia in my 20's I think a letter home would have started something like this:  "Dear Mom and Dad:  am just loving it here.  In fact, I have cashed in my return ticket so I could buy a surf board and stay a little longer."

I can't imagine anyone living near the coast and not surfing.  It is definitely a passion here.  Imagine heading out to the beach for a bit of surfing before checking into the office?  Or a quick stop for a surf on the way home.  Sorry mate, can't give you a lift, I have my surf board in the passenger seat.

Surfing is a bit foreign to Canadians and Danes.  Not a surprise considering the following statistics.

• 25 surf spots in Denmark which has 7,300 km of coast line -- on average a surf spot every 292 kilometers of coast.
• 76 surf spots in Canada which has 202,000 km of coast line meaning a surf spot every 2,658 kilometers.   Realistically a little better than that because there are 30 surf spots each on the West and East coasts ... no surfing is happening on the arctic coast...go figure.
• 1,418 surf spots in Australia which has 25,800 kilometers of coast line, giving on average a surf spot every 18 kilometers.  Which way to the beach? Do you really need to ask??

Beyond Sydney

It is an easy day trip from Sydney which means lots of tourist buses and accompanying tourists; which results in Jens and I spending as little time as possible there.  I am referring to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves.  Both quite spectacular in their own right.  And if you are willing to pay the hefty entry fees, you could probably spend at least a full day at each location.

We started in Katoomba and did the self guided walk to see the Blue Mountains' famous three sisters rock pinnacles, took in the stunning views of the gorge marveling at the blue mist caused by the oils from the thousands of eucalyptus trees, walked down to the coal mine (now closed of course) and took the steepest train in the world back up to the top of the ridge and then it was off to Blackheath.  

The three sisters (I'm the one in the middle)

A tribute to the miners and their ponies.

Oh, and a Danish cavalry man.

We had a most delightful lunch in Blackheath at a little cafe called Anonymous. It qualifies as one of the best lunches and coffee we have had for a long time.  And for a little afternoon leg stretch we visited the Govetts Leap Lookout and embarked on a walk to the Bridal Veil Falls (only 468 steps down and then back up of course).

Beautiful escarpment at Govetts Leap.

From there it was a couple of hours drive to Jenolan Caves.  We arrived at dusk and quickly realized it was going to be a bloody cold night.  So we struck camping off our list and took a room at the inn.  Good decision - the temperature dropped to 2° C.   Brrrr.

We decided to opt out of the cave tour the next morning and walked around the Blue Lake and down to the valley instead.  Another good decision.  We got to see our first platypus in the wild.  Oh Ya!!

Little Platy playing in the lake.

And a duck.

Sydney Highlights

Our brief visit to Sydney was better than expected.  The weather was spectacular including the rising of the full moon over the Sydney Opera House.  Because our time was so limited and neither of us relished driving around the city to the sites, we spent our day on the 'hop on hop off' bus tour followed by a boat tour of the Harbour.  Here are some of my fav photos of the day.

Sydney Harbour bridge affectionately known as the coat hanger.  They offer walking tours over the top rails...we decided to look at it from below.

Hyde Park fountain.

I call this a green building.

Vintage Coca Cola sign from 1974.  They are applying for World Heritage status.  Interesting.

And, of course the Sydney Opera House with the full moon rising.  We had a nice dinner on the Quay at Wolfies - steak and a bottle of 'Idiot' Shiraz.  

Sydney! At Last!

We have been in Australia since October and have finally made it to Sydney (not counting the trips through the airport).  We arrived yesterday afternoon, checked into a hotel, spruced ourselves up a bit, had dinner and then it was off to the Opera House for the premier of Sydney Symphony Orchestras' performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah.  For our readers who are opera aficionados, the role of Elijah was sung by bass-baritone Andre Foster-Williams; and tenor Thomas Walker, mezzo soprano Deborah Humble and soprano Gillian Webster completed the quartet.  They were joined by the Sydney Philharmonic Choir for a powerful and moving performance.

The Opera House was just as spectacular in person.  The organ at the back of the stage was quite impressive. 

Sydney by night.

Our drive to Sydney consisted of two stops.  The first was Byron Bay, the easternmost point of Australia and famous surfing hub for the young and frisky.  The lighthouse is very picturesque, probably one of the nicest we have seen for a long time.  Unfortunately, rain showers that morning meant we had to pass up a hike and instead drove to the point.

Our second stop was in Newcastle where we visited Fort Scratchley.  As forts go, this one was impressive only because it actually fired on a Japanese submarine during WWII. 

As promised, plans do change.

As you can see on the map below, we have already ventured off our plan.  The red dots are where we have been (about 3,000 kilometers traveled in a week) and the purple are where we plan to go.  We still plan to do the big circle and will get started on that on Monday.  The nice thing about not being part of a corporation is that we don't need to seek permission to change plans.

Oh, and the wallabies in the blog post from last week were actually kangaroos.  And a group of kangaroos is called a 'troop' not a herd (I knew that...).  And the long beaked bird in the background was an Australian White Ibis.  

The Queensland Outback

We have had a taste of the Outback - the long, straight, dusty roads that seem to go on forever with only the occasional train truck passing by.  It is a big country.  And enormously fantastic.  We have seen dozens of kangaroos, emus, goats, birds of many feathers, cattle and some sheep.  We have passed through acres and acres of cotton fields, seen the harvested cotton rolled or sometimes stacked in huge rectangular bails lined up as far as you can see ready for shipping to China.  We have gone through the reddest soil imaginable, visited two huge inland lakes, one of which is quite saline; and been to the Opal towns of Queensland.  We have had our first official bush camp complete with sausages cooked over a campfire.  And we have enjoyed every minute.

Major Mitchell's cockatoos - we came across a flock of them at the Granites in Cunnwinya National Park.

Pelicans at one of the inland lakes.  This area was once under the sea and the soil is very saline.

Emus.  They are just about as dumb as can be; as we know.  But we still love them.

Here is a statue of the Cunnamulla Fella commemorating the young fellas that used to work on the sheep and cattle stations in the outback during the 50's and 60's "when Australia was riding on the sheep's back" as they say.  They left school in eighth grade to work as cattle rustlers, sheep sheerers and whatever other jobs they could find, working long hard days. At the end of the day they would squat around a campfire on their saddles or swags (bed roll) yarning (talking) about the days events.

  

We are learning a little more of the language.  Jens was surprised to know that billabong is not a brand of clothing but is a word taken from Australia.  A billabong is pond or pool of water left behind after a river changes its course.  And we discovered wallabies are not the same as kangaroos.  They are similar in many ways but basically wallabies are smaller. 

We are now making our way back to Brisbane.  Since leaving Brisbane last Saturday we have driven 2,300 km and we have another 800 to drive before getting back.  As a reference, Australia has a population density of 3 people per square kilometre.  This compares to Canada which is about 4 and Denmark which is 130 or so.  This means long we have long distances between towns in Australia.  

We stopped at Toompine today, lured in by the road sign advertising cold drinks.  Toompine has a population of 1.  But the pub does serve cold drinks and food.  Thank heavens for the two seasonal workers from Canada helping out.  Otherwise, the one person in Toompine would have been run off her feet serving us and the other two guests.  

Australia's Nature Show

We woke up to an orchestra of birds all doing their morning voice warm ups.  It was a true symphony of sounds ranging from high pitched peeps to chirps to loud and gurgling caws and not to forget the R2D2 sounds of the black birds.  Another chilly morning but as the sun rose and shone through the fog, we were witness to a wildlife show.  First came the little rabbit, then two ducks waddled by followed by a long beaked bird.  The wallaby was the big finish hopping by and through the creek to the other side.  Then it was a short walk to the edge of the lake to witness the largest pelicans we have ever seen followed by a herd(?) of wallabies bouncing through, one with a joey in her pouch.  What a wonderful start to the second day of our GADE (Great Australian Driving Expedition).

Today our destination is Bald Rock, the largest exposed granite rock in the Southern Hemisphere.  I have to say, I add this to my list of "how cool is that" things.  It was definitely an awesome sight and climbing to the top gave us some pretty fabulous views.  We were also quite impressed with the huge boulders we passed along the way.

And from here we have decided to get a taste of the outback, heading west to Texas before setting off to Cunnamulla.  Yes, Texas.  They have a small town here called Texas - go figure.