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11/17/03 MK

It’s now day 4 in Australia.  We’re on the dive boat Diversity about 25 nautical miles out to sea.  Today is our 3rd day of diving 4 dives per day.  Initially, Lisa and I thought 4 per day would quickly be too many for us, however, I’m proud to say we’ve risen to the occasion.  It’s 11:45 am, we already dove twice today and I’m anxious to get back in the water.  After draining my tank on the last dive, I returned to the boat, dropped my tank, put on my mask and snorkel and jumped back in the water.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m tired, but the ocean life here is so incredible I just can’t get enough.  This last dive was a spot called Pixie’s Pinnacle.  It’s a single spire rising from about 20 meters depth (66 feet) to a few feet shy of the surface.  Surrounding the pinnacle is the most diverse number of marine life outside of Seaworld.  Far too many to list here but some of the highlights include:  Lionfish, Anemonefish, also known as Clownfish (famous from the movie Nemo), Moorish Idol, Parrotfish, Barracuda, Giant Clams, incredibly colorful corrals of all shapes, and many many others.

 

This morning we dove a spot called Cod Hole.  It’s one of the more famous sites, best known for the huge Potato Cod, which you can feed by hand.  Potato Cod are about 5 feet long with the girth of a full-grown man.  Seeing one stare you in the face from only inches away is an interesting experience.  Additionally, there were a large number of Red Bass that were aggressively swimming around us. 

 

Some of the highlights from our earlier dives include a number of White Tipped Reef Sharks, Moray Eels, and Cuttlefish.  Cuttlefish are easily the strangest marine life I’ve seen.  They are about the same shape and size of a poodle and resemble nothing I would expect to be of this earth.

 

11.20.03 LK

We arrived in steamy hot Cairns, Australia in the early morning and took about an hour-long van ride to Port Douglas.  We were to meet at the marina later that day to check in for our 4-day Great Barrier Reef trip.  While I was almost overjoyed to finally be warm (yay!), Michael and I were both well overdressed and dripping sweat in our jeans and long-sleeved shirts.  I was looking forward to changing into shorts and a tee shirt.  Besides my lofty goal of changing my clothes, I was also very excited to begin what would be the most days of consecutive diving I had ever done!

 

As our luck would have it, it was cloudy and drizzling when we met the crew and our fellow diving companions at the marina.  The boat, Diversity, was a pretty new catamaran around 60 feet.  We had a fun little cabin called “Minke”, after the Minke whale.  After we settled in, the Diversity crew gave us a briefing for our trip and for our immediate drive out to what was supposed to be the eastern end of the reef.  Unfortunately, the weather was still not cooperating with us.  As it turns out, the seas had been rough for a number of days and the swells were quite big.  Traveling outside of the reef for any length of time was not going to be an option unless we wanted to spend the night emptying the contents of our stomachs into little white paper bags.  The captain told us that he was going to travel outside of the reef for only a couple of hours and then duck back inside for some protection so that we could try to get some sleep before our first day of diving.

 

As a rule, neither Michael nor I get sea sick, but I have to say, that first night’s drive gave us a run for our money.  The seas were about 6-10 feet high.  The sky was pitch black by this point and it was hard to focus on the teeny tiny lights dotting the horizon with the intense tossing about.  The crew had strongly recommended sea sickness preventives before we left the dock and we were both thankful we had taken some, despite our skepticism that we’d need it.  We were definitely on the verge of tossing our cookies.  Michael was a lovely shade of green and I am sure my complexion was of a similar palette.  Along with most of our shipmates, we gripped our little white bags and tried to hang on to the railing around the stern deck for about 1 hour before lying down in our cabin.  Needless to say, we didn’t get too much sleep that night but we did manage to stave off using the little white bags.

 

The seas were much calmer inside the reef, though over the four days they were never as calm as I had imagined the GBR would be.  While we never made it to “Osprey”, the famed diving spot at the farthest end of the reef, we had an absolutely amazing dive experience.  We did four dives a day, including our first night dive and saw an abundance of beautiful fish, crazy new sea creatures, sharks, and intensely colored coral.

 

I love diving.  I feel like a great adventurer, exploring a whole new world, going where no man has gone before and all that.  This was an especially exciting trip because it was like four mini-adventures a day.  Each dive provided the opportunity to see some amazing new creatures living in and around distinctly different bommies (big clump of coral and stuff) or along reef walls.  One of my favorite things about diving is being able to just float and observe the wildlife in their natural environment.  I feel like if I get my buoyancy just right and remain still enough, they won’t even notice I’m there.  That way I can sort of blend in with their school or float just alongside their little cave on the reef wall and spy on what they’re doing.  At one point, a huge  school of medium-sized bright yellow fish was swimming just a few metres away from the reef wall we were exploring.  I quickly swam in the middle of the big yellow mass of fishes.  Those gorgeous and quiet creatures let me swim along with them for a while, not seeming to notice the enormous and clumsy wet-suit clad fish swimming among them.  It was exhilarating. 

 

Our first night dive was definitely one of the most fun.  You don’t dive as deep at night and you don’t stay down for as long, but there is something kind of exotic about diving into the pitch black water.  Since it is so dark, I thought it would seem like Michael and I were the only divers in the sea.  Ironically, I found you have to look harder for fish at night with only your torch (flashlight) to guide you, but you see many more signs of divers than you do in the daytime.  Especially since another dive boat had recently anchored for the night, it seemed as if we were virtually surrounded by spotlights.  It kind of added to the exotic feeling of the dive for me.  I was a little nervous about losing my buddy, but we did a good job of sticking together down there and we saw a bunch of cool stuff including a big and thick Moray Eel, Blue-spotted Ray and funky colored crab. The big hunky packs of fish swimming around small clusters of reef looking for some food were so West Side Story.  They were like the “Jets” lurking around corners looking to pick a fight with the "Sharks".

 

Of the fish we “met”, my favorite was the Anenomefish or clownfish (I think it’s Michael’s favorite too).  We saw a bunch of these guys in Fiji but given that was my first real dive trip, I didn’t spend a lot of time studying the fish.  I was kind of concentrating on breathing and equalizing and basically just trying not to freak out.  There are a bunch of different kinds of clownfish, but all of them are brightly colored and so cute.  They always live in and around a particular patch of soft anemone with which they have a special symbiotic relationship.  Besides being so darned cute, it is its relationship to specific anemone that makes the clownfish among the most photographed and well-studied fish.  Photographers and marine biologists can always find them in the same spot.  During one of the day dives, I happened to be close to one of our dive guides who was snapping her fingers in front of a real cutie patootie to try to get its attention.  For whatever reason, this little guy was not at all stressed by her close presence.  He let us touch his smooth little side a few times before darting back into the safety of the anemone.  After I told Michael about this special encounter, we tried to entice the clownfish each time we came upon them.

 

The biggest and most cheeky personality we met was Humphrey.  Humphrey is an absolutely huge and bulky Humphead Maori Wrasse.  Humphrey is well-known to our dive guides as he lives at the Dynamite Drift (a dive spot along the reef) and makes frequent visits to the Diversity.  Almost immediately after anchoring, Humphrey appeared at the stern of the boat swimming along the surface and looking for some frozen fish.  He was very entertaining.  He managed to lure most of the men into the water equipped with their snorkel equipment and underwater cameras, while our dive guides hand-fed him frozen fish.  Apparently, Humphrey usually goes about his business after eating and swimming with folks for a while.  But, he must have really liked us because he swam along with us for all of our hour-long dive!  Michael got some great shots of Humphrey you’ll see on the site.

 

I could go on and on, so I will just end by saying it was truly a wonderful trip.

 

11/21/03 MK

6:38am.  We are on a plane from Cairns to Ayers Rock, which is located in the center of the continent and the heart of the Australian Outback.  This means it is surrounded by many miles of nothing.  Sprawling arid, desert-like terrain as far as the eye can see and beyond.  Known by the indigenous people as Uluru, Ayers Rock is the world’s largest monolith covering some 3.6 kilometers in length, and rising a towering 348 meters from the surrounding sandy scrub brush.  Despite it’s remote location, it is a major tourist attraction and is considered Australia’s most recognizable landmark.  Although tourists regularly climb Uluru, it goes strictly against the Aboriginals spiritual beliefs.  It’s not a difficult climb, but the heat is severe, so I’m very happy to appease the locals and limit my activities to gazing from a distance.  If the weather cooperates, I’m hoping to get some great photos. 

 

11.22.03 LK

Ayers Rock and the Olgas were fantastic.  Their beauty was in the stark contrast to their surroundings and the range of colors the light elicited as the sun set over their imposing walls.

 

Gladly, as we got off the plane we noticed that the intense heat we were expecting was replaced with pleasantly warm and somewhat breezy weather.  Since we didn’t have much time in Ayers Rock (in the end, we didn’t need one minute longer) we set out almost immediately to a neat reptile show at the hotel across from ours.  Ayers Rock, the town, is really a small collection of four or five resorts and a little shopping center.  Thanks to their monopoly on accommodations in the area (the place is aptly referred to as “Red Center” since it is smack in the middle of Australia) all of the hoteliers are basically extortionists.  A simple, nondescript room in any of the bloody four or five places starts at U.S. $350!  That said, the rest of the place is kind of cool.  It has a sort of outback-OK-corral kind of feel.  We saw our first dingos (Australia’s wild dogs) and strange creatures like the thorny devil which have adapted well to the harsh environment of the outback.  After the reptile show, we went on a short hike of the Olgas – the multi-peaked range of massive rock formations rising up out of the desert.  Then we drove to watch the sun set over Uluru.  In a funny coincidence, we ran into two of our friends from Diversity, Dorte and Michael.  We watched the sun set with them and literally hundreds of others who had gathered at the “sunset viewing location”.  Most of the tours had set up wine and champagne for their tour groups.  Some had food.  Sadly, ours did not and I was bloody famished.  Despite my dour mood, there was kind of a celebratory mood around the “Rock”, as it is affectionately called by locals (all 25 of them!).

 

For the second day in a row, we awoke at a very ugly time – in the “fours” - at 4:15 a.m.  We were planning to watch the sunrise over Uluru.  Yes, we are hard core and in search of the perfect picture.  Unfortunately, our search for the perfect photo was thrown off-course when our bus arrived 40 minutes late.  By the time we got out to the Rock, the colors we had heard so much about were already fading and the night sky was turning to day.  Michael dutifully set up his tripod and embarked on his work anyway.  He managed to shoot a number of lovely photos though we were not pleased with the whole thing.  We did have a fun sighting during the sunrise.  We saw a reddish brown kangaroo hop right past us in the scrubby bush.  After a tour around the base of Uluru and a visit to the Aboriginal Cultural Center, we sat around the pool back at the hotel waiting for our ride out of there.  By the way, the breezy weather that we experienced upon debarking our plane was replaced with pretty darned hot weather.  The sun was really intense and hard to bear for more than a few minutes at a time.  We were grateful for our hats and sunscreen.

 

11.27.03 – LK

Perth is a nice city on a river.  We are staying in a little motel in a residential area right near a big pretty park, called Kings Park.  We’ve done a few fun things over the last few days like swim with dolphins and go to the aquarium, but most of our time here has been spent taking care of some other important items.  Michael has been having some pain in his leg which we tried unsuccessfully to get diagnosed in Queenstown, NZ.  After a few visits to doctors here and an MRI, we now know that Michael has a deteriorated disc – L4 – to be exact.  Apparently the disc was injured, perhaps many years ago and it has been stressed by some recent impact causing it to bulge.  The bulge squeezes the nerves and causes pain.  If he rests for about 6 weeks, the bulging should decrease and go back to normal.  Poor sweetie has to take painkillers and anti-inflammatories, though I am quite sure that the hardest part of this whole thing will be resting for 6 bloody weeks.  One of the primary things we wanted to do together while in Australia was surf.  Surfing for sweetie is out. 

 

A couple of days ago, we drove down to Rockingham, about 50 kilometres south of Perth to meet up with the dolphin boat.  Rockingham is a little town on the water near lots of industrial sites along the ocean.  The swim with dolphins was really cool.  The guy who started the eco-tour developed his own technique.  He never feeds or entices the dolphins in any way.  His trips allow people to swim with the dolphins based on the mutual friendship and trust he and his team have established.  The deal is that a guide swims with a little water scooter thing and a small group of swimmers (like me and Michael) grab on to the belt of the person in front of us.  In this way, the guide pulls the line of swimmers through the water.  Another guide, “the dolphin magnet”, as they call him, takes a scooter and dives down to attract the dolphins and lure them closer to us.  It was amazing how close these large groups of dolphins swam to us.  We were swimming among a group of about 30-40 dolphins with up to 8 or 10 right around us at some times.  They were all bottlenose dolphins, like Flipper, the kind of dolphins that look like they have a little grin painted on their faces.  As you would imagine, they were playful and curious and very active.  Though the water was colder than I expected (about 18 degrees Celsius), we had a lot fun.   We learned some fun facts about dolphins, like a group of dolphins is called a party because while they do stick with their favorite “mates”, they are still constantly traveling among different “parties” and meeting up with new mates. 

 

The dolphins and the cool aquarium we visited were the best parts of the Perth area.  As you can surmise, we are not overly impressed with Perth, It is not very happenin’, though we liked the cute neighborhood of Subiaco.  It has a nice strip of fun restaurants, bars and cafes.  The Perth city center has all the services and stores you’d expect in a city but everything seems like it needs a bit of a face-lift.  In any event, we are ready to move on and are trying to change our flights to leave for Melbourne today.

 

Oops. I almost forgot to mention the other fun thing we did (in the pouring rain!).  We went to a wildlife park just outside the city and saw koalas!  They are sooo cute and loveable.  We held a small koala and had fun feeding it some eucalyptus branches. That is the only thing koalas eat.  They don’t even drink water.  They get everything they need from the eucalyptus.  We took pictures of the sweet koala so that Mallory could see them up close. We also saw a huge number of kangaroo, of both the red and brown varieties.  This park was very different from parks in the U.S. where you’d expect the animals to be in cages.  We were actually walking among the kangaroos in an extremely large gated area.  When you left the kangaroo area, you were walking right next to large emu, alpaca, incredibly big peacock-like birds and other animals that were not behind gates of any kind.  If it hadn’t been pouring rain we would have enjoyed spending more time exploring this park. 

 

12/2/03 MK

9:29am.  We are currently on a train enroute from Melbourne to Sydney.  We’ve traveled by plane, boat, car & foot, so we thought adding a train to list might be fun, and a good way to see the countryside. 

With a population of 3.5 million, Melbourne is Australia’s 2nd largest city.  It’s Victorian-era buildings, many parks and gardens, and the Yarra River running through it’s center, make it a very beautiful city.  While we enjoyed our time here, I can’t say there is anything particularly interesting to report.  Visiting Melbourne is much like visiting San Francisco, Washington DC or any number of American cities.   Very beautiful and a good time, but not at all culturally interesting or different from what we already know.  That said, we elected to move on a few days early.  Another reason for this is that we are looking to add the Maldives to our itinerary.  We’ve met a number of divers who raved about how incredible the sea life is there.  Additionally, since I won’t be able to enjoy Australia’s surf, due to my ailing back, we would like to add in another surf destination after I’ve had time to heal.  Consequently we’re looking to make up a little time so we can squeeze it in.

 

By the way, for the past 1½ hours on this train, we’ve been unwillingly listening to an elderly woman (well in her 70’s) who is seated at the back of our car.  She sounds like she’s spent a lifetime with a whiskey sour in one hand and a ciggy in the other.  Though her pollop encrusted voice and heavy Australian accent make her difficult to understand, she is quite entertaining, although I’m sure I’ll feel otherwise by the end of our 11-hour journey.

 

12/7/03 MK

We arrived in Sydney on the 1st and were welcomed by the same rain that seems to be following us around the world.  The rain was supposed to stay so we thought we wouldn’t.  After 1 night, we rented a car and drove a couple of hours outside the city to Katoomba.  Katoomba is a very quaint small town with a New England feel.  It is also the gateway to the Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters, one of Australia’s natural landmarks.  On the 3rd, we went for a hike to Wentworth Falls and continued on a trail called the Overcliff Pass.  As it happened the trails are not very well marked and we missed a couple of important signs.  After climbing down a number of ladders to the valley floor we ran into another hiker who was lost himself.  Together we reviewed the map and figured out our errors.  Basically we added a solid hour and had to climb back up the series of ladders we had just descended.  That said, the hike and the waterfalls were beautiful and we had a great time.

 

 

12/15/03 MK

We’re doing a terrible job of keeping up to date with the journal.  I think the problem is that while Australia is beautiful and we love it here, it’s not a cultural experience or anything that inspires us to write.  That said, I certainly don’t want to understate how much we are enjoying the country.  Before leaving the states, I often spoke about how I had a feeling that Sydney was going to be that perfect town that Lisa and I are looking to move to.  Having now spent several days there, I can say with great confidence that I was right.  More specifically, Bondi, which is just outside of Sydney, is the perfect place for us.  Beautiful coastline.  Great surfing.  20 minutes from downtown Sydney.  It has it all.  Don’t worry Moms; we have no plans to make Australia our home.  California is far enough.

 

OK, a quick catch-up on our Sydney experience.  The highlights:  climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge (see photos).  Our 2 days in Katoomba.  Purchasing 2 Nelson Mandela paintings.  Actually, they are lithographs but they’re very inspiring.  Bondi in general was a highlight, as was simply exploring the city. 

 

Over the last 5 days we’ve been driving North from Sydney heading up the east coast.  We spent 2 days at a surf camp in Seal Rock.  Lisa surfed while I was stricken to the beach due to my ailing back.  We are now in Byron Bay.  Byron is a very popular holiday town and is also popular with young backpackers who seem to cover the streets.  We just arrived and haven’t explored town yet, but everybody said we need to come here so we’ll let you know what we think.

 

12/22/03 MK

12:02am.  Our drive up the east coast was great.  I wrote earlier about how much we loved Bondi, but Byron Bay is now our favorite town.  Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos, and given that it’s 12:08am I’m a little tired to write, so you’ll just have to take my word for it or hop on a plane and see for yourself.

 

After Byron, we drove to Brisbane and spent the night and following day with Sonia and Michael Szymanski who we met in New Zealand on the Milford Track.  It was great to spend time with friends and to sleep in a home for the first time in 88 days. 

 

We leave for Bangkok in 2 days and are really looking forward to it.  Australia was a great time but we’re ready to step up the adventure quotient with some more exotic travel and cultural exploration.

 

12.22.03 LK

Wow.  I just realized how long it has been since I last wrote.  I guess it’s because, as Michael said, while we’ve really enjoyed our time in Australia it hasn’t been shockingly different from home (with the exception of the Great Barrier Reef).  That said, we’ve seen many wonderful sights and had great new experiences. 

 

So, what can I tell you about what has happened since we last spoke?  I’ll start with the mundane.  Much like we do most mornings, Michael and I are sipping our flat whites in a cute café right along the ocean in Bondi Beach.  Today, like most days, we’ve ordered muesli with fruit and yogurt.  It finally seems like summer is here to stay - it’s been quite warm and mostly sunny for a number of days.  At the risk of sounding too cynical, we’ve continued to have more than our fair share of rain! 

 

We are really starting to miss home now.  Sometimes, something as simple as sleeping in our own bed would help quell the feeling.  Of course, most of the time we miss not hearing the voices and seeing the faces of our family and friends.  Also, I will admit I frequently dream about my cat, Willow.  I miss her a lot too.  I still dream about Cosette, my twelve-year-old kitty who died a few months before we left the country.  Strangely, I have also had a number of dreams about bagels.  Mostly, the bagel dreams are of the wish-fulfillment variety – me wishing that we wake up and find the perfect bagel shop right next to our hotel or that Michael has heard about a great bagel shop in the next town we are about to visit.

 

Hmmmm.  So far, I haven’t told you much more about Australia . . . My thoughts pretty much echo what Michael has said, but here’s my recap.  We love Sydney.  If Sydney were in the U.S. we could definitely see living there.    It is a perfectly situated city (according to us) and aesthetically beautiful.  In many communities in and around Sydney you could have a great house with a deck overlooking the ocean just a few minutes outside of this hip, sophisticated city.  The ocean around here is not just gorgeous and blue – it also has great surf.   I mean, what could be better than a surf in the morning before work or relaxing on your deck to watch the sunset each night – all without a commute?!! 

 

Our favorite new place is Byron Bay.  It is an ultra-laid back town on the coast, about seven hours north of Sydney and two hours south of Brisbane.  The town has got a great mellow vibe.  You know the type.  Picture lots of little cafes, surf shops, arty boutiques, health food stores and bulletin boards full of advertisements for holistic healing, massage classes and yoga.  Of course, in our world, a great town comes with great surf.  There are easily ½ dozen well-known surf beaches in Byron.  There are also a few trendy and delicious restaurants.  The only problem with Byron that we could come up with is that there is not a huge diversity of available work.  With a little creativity, we’re pretty sure that could be worked out.

 

A big thank you to our friend John Garner for buying us a very special and delicious dinner at Rae’s on Wategos.  (Wategos Beach happens to have excellent surf).  John used to live in Australia so he knew about Rae’s.  When he heard we were going to be in Byron, he called the restaurant and set the whole thing up.  It was a great evening.

 

Before Byron, we went to a two-day surf camp near Seal Rocks and Smith Lake, just a couple of hours north of Sydney.  Unfortunately, Michael’s sciatica is still healing so he had to sit out of the surf and watch me partake.  He was a real trooper and managed to enjoy the beach and the water anyway.  The surf camp was nestled deep in the woods of a national park right on the ocean and a big lake.  Our “camp” sat right on the shallow lake.  I never went to summer camp, but this place was sort of like a summer camp for semi-grown ups.  We slept in very basic cabins, shared bathroom facilities and ate our food (the non-delicious variety) out-of-doors under a big tarp.  The mosquitoes had a field day on my legs and feet.  The semi-adults were in rare form after a day of surfing instruction – they partied literally all night long with music blaring.  I’m sure I could have guessed it, but I am now quite sure that I am too old for camp.

 

The surf at Seal Rock was fun and really good practice for me.  The waves here seem much stronger, faster and steeper than at home.  We surfed all morning on Day 1, took a break for lunch and then surfed all afternoon.  I could not lift my arms on Day 2. 

 

After Seal Rock and Byron, we drove to Brisbane to meet up with our friends Michael and Sonia.  As Michael mentioned, we met them in New Zealand on the Milford Track.  We had a great time staying in their beautiful and newly refurbished home.  We also saw some more Koalas! (something I was dieing to do again before we left Australia).  Brisbane is a lovely city right on a long and winding river.  The city has done a great job creating usable space along the riverfront.  There are long walkways, restaurants, bikepaths, and even “beach-pools”.

 

So, here we are on our last day in Australia.  It’s been a wonderful trip.  We know this a place where we would love to return.  We’ve already been talking about how much fun it would be to rent a house in Byron Bay with our family (it’d have to be a big one!).

 

Tomorrow we leave for Bangkok and meet up with Kim and Steve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We will spend two weeks with them, including Christmas and New Years traveling around Thailand.  I cannot wait to share my old hometown with Michael, KP, and Steve.  As sad as I am to be spending my first Christmas in 36 years away from home, I am literally bursting with excitement about how special it will be to spend the holidays with my husband, sister and brother-in-law in a city I love.

 

Talk to you soon.

   

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