Australia 2014

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Sydney to Abbotsford

Day 38 – August 26, 2014 – Sydney to Nadi to Los Angeles to Vancouver to Abbotsford - distance travelled: many kilometres. Our flight from Sydney was scheduled to leave at 1pm which gave us only a limited amount of time to explore downtown Sydney. Hence we set the good old alarm for 7am, got up a little after that, had a shower, followed by the complimentary breakfast in the kitchen/ common area of the hostel. We got our bags ready and then – as check-out was not until 11am – left them in our room and walked through the rain to the nearest bus stop for the free bus. The bus took its time arriving but it came and slowly made its way through busy morning traffic to Circular Quay. From there we walked to the Sydney Opera House for a picture with Claire in front of it, something she didn’t do in 2011 and wanted this time. So we took a few pictures and then marched back to Circular Quay to take the bus back to the hostel. When we asked the hostel to phone a maxi taxi (= taxi that will hold six people and luggage) it turned out that those were better booked ahead at that time of day and/or from that location as most companies they phoned had at least a two hour wait. As our flight would be leaving in 2.5 hours or so that clearly wouldn’t work. We ended up taking two taxis which cost a little more than one maxi taxi but still a lot cheaper than eg taking the train. The thing was, we had been planning to leave our big bags at the airport but that would cost us $90 so we decided against it. Public transportation with those bags was not really an option. We made our flight with not a whole lot of time to spare after fitting in some souvenir shopping at the airport. Uneventful flight to Fiji, where we were again welcomed with live music. Such a nice gesture! Only a few hours of waiting in the cosy small airport there; we looked around and grabbed something to eat. Next the 10+ hour flight to Los Angeles, which was uneventful expect for Jordan getting sick towards the end of the flight in spite of the travel tablet (which may have stopped working by that time and the new one clearly didn’t work quickly enough). As we gained a day it was still the same day in Los Angeles when we arrived there. As security is super tight at LAX, we had to pick up and re-check our luggage and stood in lineup after lineup to go through customs, more customs, security etc. Our waiting area at least offered free wifi; other than that wasn’t much in the way of shops at this end of the airport. The Air Canada flight to Vancouver turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as it was operated by Air Rouge, the budget arm of Air Canada. No entertainment and no free food or drinks, not even a small bag of pretzels. It got us to Vancouver, and several hours later we were home in Abbotsford, with many more great memories of Australia (and the pictures to support them).

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Welcome to Fiji!

Grabbing a bite at the Fiji airport

Monday, 25 August 2014

Darwin to Sydney

Day 37 – August 25, 2014 – Darwin to Sydney - distance travelled: approx. 3,200 kms - 32^oC high; 12^oC low. It took us a few hours after breakfast to pack everything up and fit it into the six bags plus carry-on luggage. We found a good home for our big table, griddle and some other leftover things and food: an Australian couple camping behind us with a 4 year-old son. Don had chatted with the couple several times and they happily took everything. We dropped the kids and our luggage off at the airport, dropped off our Troopy (sniff..) and took a taxi to the airport ourselves. Darwin International Airport is a little bit bigger than the airport in Abbotsford and bustling with activity. Our flight to Sydney left at 3:10pm and it took about 3h50m to fly to Sydney. It was dry when we got there but started raining quite heavily during our taxi ride to the Big Hostel near the centre of Sydney. We had looked at the weather report before we left and knew rain was in the forecast and, even though we were in denial over the possibility of rain, we had taken out our rain jackets. The Big Hostel is where we stayed in 2011 as well and the place felt nicely familiar. We settled into our 8 bed dorm which we had to ourselves, had our leftover Tim Tams, Sun Bites Grain Waves (Sun Chips equivalent), pop and beer, spent a little bit of time on the computer and went to bed.

Breakfast at the FreeSpirit Resort in Darwin

Seating arrangement in our Troopy: back row..

.. and the front row

Troopy fully packed (picture taken some days ago); note the great drawer system as well as the built-in Engel fridge (grey, tea towels are hanging on it)

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Darwin

Day 36 – August 24, 2014 – Darwin - distance travelled: 50 kms - 32^oC high; 16^oC low. We took it easy in the morning, with Don & Gwen washing our Troopy at the campground, vacuuming it at a gas station and Gwen cleaning the inside back at the campground so that we can hand the vehicle back over to the rental place tomorrow in decent shape. Mid-afternoon we headed back into Darwin and played in the man-made waves at the Wave Lagoon before strolling around Mindil Beach sunset markets where we watched the sun almost setting, grabbed a bite and checked out the crafts, souvenirs and other things that could be purchased. Nice way to spend our last night in Darwin; tomorrow it’s time for our first flight: back to Sydney.

Wave Lagoon, Darwin

Mindil Beach, Darwin

Red sun almost setting; Mindil Beach, Darwin

Claire & Shannon on Mindil Beach, Darwin

Supper time, Mindil Beach, Darwin

Darwin

Day 35 – August 23, 2014 – Darwin - distance travelled: 60 kms - 31^oC high; 15^oC low. In the morning we visited Crocodylus Park, a zoo with as main focus crocodiles. We joined the 10am crocodile tour which includes feeding some of the saltwater crocodiles, making them jump for a piece of steak – something they also do in the wild (the jumping, that is). Shannon even got to feed a saltwater crocodile by holding the stick with the piece of steak at the end over the water. At the end of the tour we all got to hold a baby crocodile, its mouth taped shut just in case. The zoo had a variety of Australian animals as well as an assortment of exotic ones. The kids also got to hold a snake later on. In the afternoon we explored downtown Darwin, especially the main pedestrian mall with souvenir stores, and we all succeeded in finding something to our liking. Back to the campground for an early supper as at 6pm the Darwin rodeo started. We were told about this when we visited Saddleworld and as none of us other than Don had ever been to a rodeo it seemed like a nice way to spend an evening. Between 6pm and 10pm – by which time those metal benches felt rather hard – we saw bull riding, steer wrestling, calf roping, barrel racing, bare back riding and saddleback bronco riding, and various rounds of most events. Interesting to see although we felt a little sorry for the calves that got roped and the steers that got wrestled down. We all enjoyed the barrel racing which was only done by women. Needless to say to especially Claire and Shannon had a good time. For Ian and Jordan one of the highlights was likely the huge inflatable slide they got to spend some time on. We didn’t stay for the live music afterwards or for the social time at the bar and were “home” quickly as the rodeo was less than ten minutes from the campground.

Saltwater crocodile jumping to get fish at Crocodylus Park, Darwin

Shannon feeding saltwater crocodile

Rare leucistic (white) crocodile

Lots of young crocodiles

Ian holding a baby saltwater crocodile

Cassowary at Crocodylus Park

Claire holding a snake

Smith Street mall, downtown Darwin

Bull riding, Darwin rodeo

Bull riding; riders had to stay on 8 seconds to qualify

Calf roping: getting reading to throw

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Surprise Creek Falls to Darwin

Day 34 – August 22, 2014 – Surprise Creek Falls to Darwin - distance travelled: 202 kms - 31^oC high; 16^oC low. Happy 12^th birthday Ian! After driving the last part of the Reynolds River track we stopped off just south of Adelaide River at Mt. Bundy Station to see if Jordan would be able to go on a trail ride – as well as maybe Claire & Shannon again. We had been told trail rides are very hard to come by in the Northern Territory and we had had our eye on this place for a while. When we got there it turned out that Mt. Bundy Station is not offering horseback riding anymore at all – something to do with insurance being too expensive – disappointing as their flyers and ads were everywhere advertising trail rides. As we continued on to Darwin, we by fluke spotted the Saddleworld store Claire and Shannon wanted to check out so we stopped there for a while. In outer Darwin we set up camp at the Darwin FreeSpirit Resort close to one of the swimming pools and then went grocery shopping. Ian picked pasta with carbonara sauce for his birthday meal and blueberry cheesecake and caramel peanut brittle ice cream for dessert which we all enjoyed. After supper the girls checked out the pool while Don & Gwen sorted through pictures and worked on the blog.

Surprise Creek Falls campground, Litchfield National Park

Quaint outhouse at the campground, with partial walls

Selfie of Claire in fly protection hoody

How deep will it be?

Not very deep

Leaving Reynolds River track and Litchfield National Park

Happy Birthday Ian!

Florence Falls to Surprise Creek Falls

Day 33 – August 21, 2014 – Florence Falls to Surprise Creek Falls - distance travelled: 103 kms - 31^oC high; 16^oC low. After hitting the road again our first stop after ten minutes or so was Buley Rockholes, a series of small waterfalls and rockholes nice for swimming. Claire and Shannon opted out but the water was so pleasant the rest of us couldn’t resist. After that we made our way down a primitive 4x4 track to the Lost City: sand stone pillars and rocks “reminiscent of ruins from a long lost civilisation”. Don and Ian had fun doing some scrambling on the rocks; the other kids were only mildly impressed. We walked to the Tolmer Falls lookout; no swimming allowed. Wangi Falls were next; very nice falls and pleasant swimming. Down the Reynolds River 4x4 only track we stopped off at Sandy Creek where we hiked 1.7 kms into Tjaynera Falls which were also very pretty and pleasant for swimming. Our last stop for the day – further down the same track – was Surprise Creek Falls where a short hike took us to the falls which – unfortunately – were dry and the pool did not look attractive enough to swim in. There were lots of pesky horseflies everywhere and a lone bull suddenly appeared on the trail which scared everyone except for Don who rightly judged that the bull was more scared of us than we were of it. As the sun was getting lower we set up camp at the Surprise Creek Falls campground, another basic national park campground but for $7.70 for all of us we were fine with that. After dark the flies luckily disappeared and we had a nice campfire in the fire pit provided.

Buley Rockholes, Litchfield National Park

The Lost City, Litchfield National Park

Track to The Lost City

New growth after a bush fire. Bush fires are very common and often deliberate to encourage new growth. The undergrowth burns but the trees are very resilient and just end up with blackened trunks.