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.

Lava Plugs

They are known as the Glasshouse Mountains thanks to Captain James Cook, but they are the remains of volcanoes formed 25 million years ago.  The erosion over those years has left only the lava plugs standing. There are eight very distinct and rather dramatic looking pillars.  We first went to the Lookout which we could drive to, and walked the short 800m circuit before we decided to climb to the top of Mount Ngungun.  Total hiking today 3.6 km.  Slowly getting back into our routine.

We have finally embarked on our Great Australian Driving Expedition (GADE).  We have to be back to Brisbane to finalise the boat clearing in process and we didn't want to venture too far away, so we headed North and today will head West before heading a little South.  It gives us a chance to test out our camping gear and set up before we get too far along in the trip.

Last night was our first night in the KiaRoo tent palace.  It works exceptionally well.  We have room for our two chairs and table to eat our meals, etc. and at night we blow up our mattress and have a comfy bed to sleep in.  We put our duvet and wool blankets to the test last night though.  The temperature dropped to somewhere around 5º C.  But we were as snug as can be and are now having our morning coffee as the sun is rising. 

The Road Ahead

10 weeks, 10,000 kilometres.  That's the plan and below is the expected route, subject to change without notice of course. 

KiaRoo is packed to the rafters with just enough room left for the driver and one passenger (that would be Captain Jens and First Mate Evelyn).  It is amazing how much more gear we have this time around as compared to the travels we did in our Lucky van in New Zealand.  We went through everything a second time to be sure we would be carrying what we needed.  Whenever we were in doubt, we would invariably say, "let's bring it along ... just in case!".   So we'll see at the end of the trip how many of these items we actually needed.   To be fair, we do have some things that we would like to bring back to Canada that we won't need on this excursion but didn't want to leave behind on the boat, being ever hopeful that she will be sold in the next month or so.  

Yes, SY Segwun is for sale and for anyone interested in our beautiful boat I have posted a link to a PDF document on my Facebook page.  We are "telling the universe" as they say, hoping we will find the right new owners for Segwun.   As for Jens and I, we have been travelling for 2 1/2 years now and are ready to do something different.   

But let's not get ahead of ourselves...we have a few months of our Great Australian Outback Driving Excursion including diving the Great Barrier Reef!  Let's get going!  

Ken and Nancy (a new crew member) on SY Moonbeam left Manly on Wedneday to sail up the East coast of Australia.  Nancy has sailed with Ken many times but unfortunately won't be with him very long this trip as she needs to get back to the US to celebrate her 60th wedding anniversary!  Jens and I will meet up with Ken and Lil in Ayr in mid-June on our way down the coast and board Moonbeam for a little sailing excursion around the Whitsundays.  

Australia : Getting ready for the Outback.

Here we are, with Captain Ken from SY Moonbeam (just to the right of Jens) together Rob Riley, a regular on the Moonbeam crew list, having a farewell dinner at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron as Rob was flying back to the US in the morning.  Jens sailed on Moonbeam with Ken, Rob and one other crew from Opua, New Zealand to Brisbane, Australia completing the 1200 nautical mile journey in 10 days.  They arrived in Brisbane a few days before I was scheduled to fly back from my short stint in Canada.  Ken will continue North this week, sailing up to Cairns where we hope to meet up with him before he continues on his Pacific Circuit sail to Thailand.

It was important for me to get to Canada this Spring as it seemed they needed someone to come in and take control of the weather.  When I arrived there was still nearly 3 feet of snow on the ground up in Muskoka.  I had to wrestle with Mother Nature, a battle she fought well, dumping a further six inches of snow the week after I arrived, but in the end I managed to get the upper hand and Spring was well in place.  

And now we are looking at maps and travel brochures, putting the framework of a plan in place hoping to see as much of Australia as we can during the next 11 weeks.  We have a few "must sees" but Australia is a big country and we know there will be some great sights we will have to miss.  In fact, we have already resigned ourselves to the fact that we won't get to West Australia, missing Perth and the beautiful West Coast.  

We bought a car when we arrived here last year and our little KiaRoo as we call her has been patiently waiting for us at the Yacht Club.  Today we outfitted her with a nifty awning which pulls out for shade onto which we attach a tent. How cool is that.  Easy to put up, easy to pull down and fold away.  The awning will give us a shady place for lunch and the tent will save us loads on hotels.  We're just about ready to go. A few more days to get sorted out and we'll be on the road exploring the outback.  

Oh, yes.  A few Aussie words to keep in mind.  Here hiking is called trekking, not tramping.  And a chicken is a 'chuk', flip flops are 'thongs', a pick up truck or SUV is a 'ute' (short for utulity) and a cooler is an 'esky' (I guess short for Eskimo which was a popular brand of coolers once upon a time).

So we can say we also bought an esky to keep our chuks cool in our ute while we go trekking in our thongs.  Got that?