Bondi Beach

Can't visit Sydney without going to Bondi Beach,  it's only about five miles east of  downtown, the easy way would have been by bus, but we took the harbour ferry instead to Rose Bay and the a 45 minute walk.  The ferry is a high speed cat, 280 passengers.  I asked the dock guy what the top speed was, it does 27 knots and he said they normally cruise at about 26.5.  The harbour is very busy, but the skipper was very courteous, he took lots of transforms including the leeward end of the 49ers race course.  It was pretty breezy up front taking pics.  Check the hair.
Q

Here's apic of the beach, very busy on 

Sunday,  pretty good surf.  At the ferry terminal in Rose Bay there were two very active dinghy clubs out racing, including a couple of Flying Dutchmen.   Quiet day coming up tomorrow, Larry doing  laundry, Beth shopping and then the ship on Tuesday.  FYI.   On the Princess Cruise Lines web site down on the lower right under additional information I think is a link called "Bridge Cameras" these are fixed cameras and a blurb saying where each ship is.  Ours is Diamond Princess.   Larry

Bus tour. Ship darture

Larry here, we did the bus tour this am, it was quite informative, but a bit of a pain as the driver is the only one on board so some of the stops are long as he is selling tickets to dimwits like us who don't know what they want, plus he's trying to pressure people into buying more expensive all  inclusive tickets to see other crap.  We stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens,  now that was a heart stopping experience, so much so that I don't think I can do that and the high altitude bridge walk in this lifetime.

These two trees

Are in the botanical gardens.  It's amazing how large they grow, but without snow, ice and cyclones there's really nothing to harm them.  One of the funnier stories on the bus was about a famous Australian sculptor who gave one of his sculptures to Quantas airlines in return for unlimited tickets for a certain period.  Quantas promptly auctioned it off for $2.8 million.   I'm off to the bridge to try and see another ship sail, I continue this diatribe when I return.  L

Well here she is backing out of her berth, I'm in the middle of the bridge,  I thought she would be steaming under the bridge but I was disorientated, must be the sun, anyways inspite of that she got off fine.  In the pic below our hotel would be at the extreme right, from bridge centre to hotel about 15-20 minutes.  When I returned to our room Beth was supposed to been cooking dinner, but she revolted.  Luckily on my way back from the bridge It had been quite dry and dusty so I'd stopped at a little hotel on the way and overheard someone mention how good the pizza was, sooooo off we went, and they were right, it was great.  That's it for now, tomorrow we'll probably do some sort of harbour tour or ferry ride to Bonding beach.    L

The Dam Oosterdam

As we mentioned yesterday we were going down the waterfront to watch this big beast sail.   Wellll it was supposed to sail at 4pm so we installed our selves at the Opera Bar from where this pic was taken to watch the big show.  By six we'd had several drinks and now sign of action on the ship, so Beth got fed up and left.  I talked to the security guy who informed me sailing time was delayed til 4am.  There's another leaving today at 5:30pm but I'll speak to security first and this time we'll watch it sail beneath our feet from the harbour bridge.  Next pic is a view of the Opera Bar on the promenade of the Opera House.   We're doing the bus tour today.   Certainly relaxing ok in the rack last night at 9:30. Up at 8:30......Larry.     Our hotel is in about the third row of buildings....

Now that's a bridge

Larry here, we went for a walk intending to take the bus tour, but wound up by the harbour front and walked along from behind the bridge in this photo past the ship in the next photo all the way around to the Opera House.  Here are some bridge stats, opened 1932 someone was planning ahead eight traffic lanes, two tram lines, a large sidewalk each side one for bikes, one for walkers.  You can walk up to the top of the bridge with a harness on. It's very popular at $150 a pop.  We counted four groups at a time, 14 per group. What a stunning waterfront.  I'll have to try and pull myself away from if but it won't be easy-be easyThThis afterno
on this big bugger is sailing at 4pm.  We're going down to have a drink on the terrace of the Opera House which is where this pic was taken from and watch the departure.  Our ship is about the same length but beamier and departs from here.  We can walk to it from the hotel.  Note the fuel barge beside the ship filling her up.  It's a fair sized ship in it's own right.  After that it's home for ham and whatever dinner on the balcony.  It's not easy but someone has to support the tourist trade but we're surviving.  We'll try the bus trip tomorrow.  There are ships departing Saturday and Sunday around dinner time, we'll watch from the center of the bridge and send pics.   Larry

The big noisy city

Arrived in Sydney yesterday afternoon,  super hotel and location about three blocks for the approaches to the harba bridge.  Out to dinner last night, so gal was handing out flyers about a new restaurant, steak dinner two for one.  So we went, was excellent.  One thing about here, taxes are built in, and no tipping unless service is outstanding, so dinner was $21.90 for two plus two glasses of wine at $5, pretty hard to beat. After dinner we went for a walk on the big bridge.  Will be cooking in tonight, probably roast pork.  One thing we country bumpkins forget is that the city doesn't get terribly quiet at night even on the tenth floor, so tonight it's patio closed and air on.   Off on the hop on hop off bus tour today and will send pics of the bridge etc.  Here's a pic of a typical tourist, or terrorist as I call them, check out the new Aussie lid.    Larry

Crickey, it's cold

Larry here, flew down to Sydney today,  when we left it was 34c, down here it's 21 and breezy and I'm cold.  We're in a beautiful apartment hotel right downtown.  Tomorrow we'll walk across the harbour bridge and send pics.  Talk about organized, train right from the airport terminal downtown, runs every ten minutes or so, seventeen dollars right to two blocks for our hotel.  Here are some pics from yesterday's reef adventure.   Forgot to mention that the crew also fed the sharks at lunchtime so they would know which boat to follow.  Larry

 Can't keep her out of the pool

 On the way to,the reef 

Sharks smarks

As Beth just told you we were on the reef today.  After we got there we had a bit of a slide show about what we could expect to see and safety proceedures etc.  Of course number one question was what about sharks.  The skipper said "no problem mate, you're more likely to be hit on the head by a coconut falling from a tree"  also there hasn't been a shark attack in the area for twenty five years, do you think maybe we're due for one this year!!!!.. Anyway we boarded the glass bottom boat for the ride to the beach, and what swims underneath, three sharks about five feet long, equiped with sharp teeth.  Nerver the less we had two great tours of the reef of about an hour plus each.  Water temp 29c.  After that it was back to the shack for a naked cooling soak in our private spa.  Wouldn't want a picture of that now would you?  Off to Sydney tomorrow on the big bird where it's cooler, only plus 25...L   Pics in a couple of days.  PS Karen your comment never arrived on the blog, an e-mail might be better

Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef

Beth here.


We had quite a day to-day.  Hot and full sunshine.  We managed to get on a 62 foot catamaran.  They have up to 23 people on board, but only 1 other couple signed up so we ended up having a private charter for a fraction of the price. The other couple were from Germany and the woman had not snorkled before.  Skipper and 1st mate were very attentive to her;. Larry was a little anxious at first because of the sharks in the area.  We were told that they don't bother with people and will swim away. The biggest were about a meter long. We did see them but not when we were swimming. The biggest danger is  the "stingers" or jelly fish. Apparantly, this is the worst time of year for them. There are little ones you can't see and big ones as well. We wore lycra suits covering our head and hands, snorkels covering feet. It doesn't bother you at all.  Apparantly if you get stung, you have to be air-lifted to a hospital tout de suite.  They had one woman who wanted to wear her bikini (after many surgeries) and was not young.  When told that when she gets stung, it would ruin everybody else's holliday, she acquiessed
I was very proud of Larry who is not a big swimmer and is nervous of things he is not accustumed to. He got over his nervousness and enjoyed the snorkelling. We had a lovely lunch,lots of drinks and treats.  Not much wind, but at least their were no swells.  The sails were up anyways.
Our skipper was very funny and regaled us with lots of stories.  The 1st mate, Jo  was petite and pretty and I am sure the boys couldn't take their eyes of her..


The corral and fish are spectacular.  It was so worth it. All the boats are careful about the reef because of the decline of the corral, so they instruct you not to touch the corral with your fins.. We went  to 2 different areas that were very different.


I am so glad I have seen this.  It was probably my  favourite so far. And our apartment is incredible here. We have not eaten out as it is expensive.  But last night we had steak on the barbie with potatoes and roast veggies. The night before we cooked prawns (shrimp) with A spicey tomato sauce. I don't think we are going to loose any weight this trip


Tomorrow we fly to Sidney  where we will be for 5 day;s. I am hoping to run in to Olivia Newton John.


love to all xxoo

Pics

The gang cooking at Rick's house, Pete, Nancy's hub,, Jim his wife, Christine Andrew's wife and the drummer, Jordan I think or Jackson.

Nancy, Jim's two girls, his wife sister and hubby in the back visiting from Indonesia

Dinner at Rick and Christine's

Relaxing on the train

Bird lover

Nancy, Rick and Andrew

Ford, V8 powered, six speed

Our digs

Self explanatory

Quiet day down undah

Larry here, having a quiet day before going swimming with the big fish tomorrow.  Cooked scrambled eggs for us this am after Beth's first swim of the day.  Went to the  beach after lunch.  Water temp 29c, ankle deep water warmer than bath water.  Small area for swimming as poisonous (what else is new) jelly fish are a problem. Great efficiency here, full cooking facilities and laundry so we can avoid the restaurants for a bit.  Lots of reading, Beth's nose is buried in a Grisham book that I couldn't put down.  I'm reading Australian war and living stories.  Finally found wifiand uploaded some pics of the last few days so they will follow.   Thunderstorm brewing outside right now maybe the temp will drop below 30 but not likely.  Enjoy the pics, it's almost cocktail time.  Steak on the barbie tonight...Larry
PS Pics aren't co-operating will try tomorrow

The Bird Wisperer

Beth here
Well, I found my niche. We went to the bird sanctuary after the train  trip. I have some amazing pictures of this. They have birds from the rainforest in an enclosed area where you can feed them.  I had one bird eating off my shoulder and then another  joined him. I had so much fun. the interesting thing is that we have seen some of these birds in the wild.  The sounds are amazing. We tried to capture some of the sounds on video. We saw  a huge beautiful McCaw  very colourful who  talked backed to us. We have all of this on video. Australia is so diverse.  There are so many things to see and do. I must admit for those who can't stand the  heat they would have a hard time. It reminds me of Africa but there we did not have A//C. Thank heavens our little car and apartment are well conditioned.  It must be at least 35 or 37 degree. As Larry's father used to say, "it's 35 in the shade and there ain't no shade". This is not the tourist time here. It is too hot.  Also the rain season is about to start. 


Larry is feeling nostalgic. 45 years ago to day he started ATC. He still misses it  but not the crazy hours.  Allan:  when Bev retires you will have to visit the Langs.


Am looking forward to our day off, doing laundry, swimming at the beach, etc.


Can hardly wait to swim on the Great Barrier Reef. We are going on a catamarin that only takes 23 people. Larry and I are not terribly tanned yet because we wear strong sunscreen and hats we are getting accustomed to it. You should see my new hat. Very Aussie


Beth 

I found a train trip

Larry here,,We went on a train trip today much to Beth's delight.  It's the Karunda railway which climbs up into the mountains and rain forest. It climbs 1000 feet inabout 30 k.  All built by hand  in the1920's, 15 or so tunnels,they moved 2.8 million cubic meters of stuff by hand.  Once at Karunda we visited the village, very nice and also bird world, much to Beth's delight.  The trip back was by glass floored aerial tramway.  Impressive it was three legs totalling 7.5k over the rainforest canopy.  Beth even saw a great big snake way up in a tree.  Still very warm here, even the cheese melts outside.  Record for  heat waves was in the 1920's some town was 160 consecutive with highs over 100 degrees f,  even Bev might have find that a bit much.  Our sliding door is single glaze glass and is always coverd in condensation on the outside. Tomorrow we're going swimming in the ocean (there's a big net around the beach) and the day after it's off to swim with the sharks.  Great one bedroom apartment here, we do all our own cooking, we'll dine out more in Sydney.  Other than that
"la vie est belle en Australie"  What a great country.  The tourist infrastructure is superb. PS  No pics until we find free wifi, there's no way I'm paying for Wifi..  Larry

Crikey it's hot

Temp.35-36degrees. it's bloody hot. W e have wonderful place to stay. I am in my glory with a pool outside of our room and a private jacuzzi.  it is an efficiency with oven, washer,dryer and the works.  Patty - the pool is salt so I can swim to my heart's content. We are experiencing a thunderstorm right now so are stuck  in our humble abode for while. The deal here in Australia  is the efficiency enables you  to save money by cooking for yourself  if you feel like it. We are here for  4 nights so we will go out for one nice seafood dinner. Tomorrow we will do the rainforest by sky rail  and barbecue steak  and prawns  for dinner.  Food is comparable to home and alcholol as well.


Cheers  and as the Aussies say  "No worries"..


love Beth and Larry

Family

Saturday we went to vist my mother's first cousin Joan.  Her family left Quebec in 1957 to escape the cold. After 5 or so years in Jamaica they moved to Melbourne, Australia, where they have lived ever since.  Joan is 97 and has six children, four of whom live in the area.  After visiting Joan we went to son Rick's house where the whole famdamily gathered to celebrate our visit including Jim's relatives from Indonesia.  Of  thesixteen people there we had only met one before, but the family ties are remarkable.  After a wonderful Indonesian, Australian dinner we stayed at Nancy's prior to flying to Cairns, Port Douglas on Sunday am to visit the Great Barrier Reef and the salt water crocs.  Due to lack of free wifi there will be sporadic pics the next few days......L

More animals

How cute?

Haven't you got anything better than that for me too eat?  Hey, Kangaroo.  I came from a long ways away to feed you.  You could at least. E a little grateful.

Gold. And Animals

We,re in Ballarat about one hour north west of Melbourne.  Big gold rush here around 1850, they didn't find it all, Beth found some.  Sort of like the Upper Canada Village of gold mining village with steam powered equipment, mine tour etc.  After that we visited an animal park, tons of Roos koalas snakes, and an absolutely salt water croc. I had to fight one off in the park.

 We're going up north Sunday am to there habitat.  Apparently they're absolutely fearless (not like me).  Saturday we are going to visit my mothers cousin and her family and then Sunday am we fly to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.  If the crocs don't get us there's always the sharks or any number of poisonous snakes or insects.

Hiking in the Grampian Mountains

Beth here.  We hiked 3 different places today in the mountains.  Not too ambitious but enough for us. Temp. From 35-37 degrees.  You need to carry lots of water.  We felt very righteous with the amount of exercise we did today.  We saw a couple of families rock climbing when we went into the McKenzie Falls.  Little girl 7 years old climbing.  Freaked out near the top and Dad went up to talk her down.  It was really interesting watching these  families do this.  I get the impression that sports are really important here
Here is a note for Janice.  Came across a couple that we had met at the

 12 Opostles.  I wish I had taken a picture of them.  He was a replicate of Hugh Jackson.  Gorgeous.  He hiked without a shirt on and had the pecs of an Adonis.  You would have loved this Janice.  He was so cute and very personable.  But, who noticed that when you were looking  at his chest.

Had an amazing meal tonite, the best we have had here.  We are in Ballarat, which boasts of  Sovereign Hill which is an old gold mine town.  We are going to investigate tomorrow.

Mark - you would have loved the meal we had.  Porterhouse steak with perfectly cooked vegetables.  The chef cooked sweet potatoe deep fried curly cues and topped the steak with it.  What a great combination .

Had a really nice motel room where we are relaxing tonite.

Larry here the descent to the falls was quite steep and hot.  There was a brush fire through last year, all that's left of the main building at the falls is the chimney, all the trees are blackened with shoots coming out.  Very interesting.  Very hot today 37c but it cools off rapidly without the pollution

,low20s by late evening, low humidity, 29%.

1st hot day. 1st sighting of a kangaroo. Blimey

Beth here.  Drove along the coast to see the 12 Apostles which is a bunch of rock formations in the ocean.  We will send a picture if possible.  Still trying to figure out how to put pictures on the blog.  Just a little bit technology challenged.  We left the coast to go inland to the Grampian Mountains where we will go bush-wacking tomorrow.  It is 32 degrees now.  Thank Heavens there is a little pool to get wet in at our motel. The animals are all over the place. I am worried about Larry going into the bush as he is not fond of big animals.  Also I haven't prepped him on how to box with a kangaroo.  The guy below was looking in the dining room window.  There are huge birds here.  I think they might be emus but am not sure.  Shall look it up on google.
I must say, that I love it here.  I think I already said it in a earlier blog but I becoming more and more captured by the essence if Australia.  It attacks all 5 senses which my grand-daughter would be interested in as she is just learning about those.

We are having the loveliest time.  What I like more than anything is that there is no hurry about anything.  We have places booked to stay but Larry allotted a lot of time to everything.  We are going to a place called Ballarat, the old Gold mining district here in the Mtns.  Apparently, there is an old town that depicts the gold rush. Something like an old western town.  Then we leave to go back to Melbourne to stay with the Australian cousins, only for 1 night as we will be flying to the Great Barrier Reef after that.

I feel so fortunate to be able to do this.  Believe me, we don't take this for granted.  I wish all who reads this blog could one day be able to do a trip like this.  My cup runneth over .
 My love to all.

Twelve Apostles

Stopped to see the Twelve Apostles, which is a sandstone formation along the coast.  Headed in land after that toward the Grampian Mountains. Not sure which came first the sailboat or the mountains.  Miles and miles of pasture and range land, sparsely populated.  Saw our first kangaroo, dead in the middle of the road.  We're at Halls Gap in the middle of the mountains, going hiking tomorrow.  Check the following pic, when these guys go camping they're equipped for everything.  Notice 4 wheel drive, high clearance trailer with everything you need, truck has a snorkel for crossing flooding creeks, some sort of radio antenna, winches etc.  I even saw a Tahoe sized truck with a snorkel.

Koala bears

Larry here, after we went to the rain forest we tried to find some Koala bears in the wild.  We found them but we only had the I Pad so the photos didn't work out as they blend into the trees very well.  However it was easy to see where they had been as all the trees over a large area have been stripped of their leaves.  Big debate here whether to leave the little buggers alone to eat all the eucalyptus trees or put them on the menu.    

L

Rain Forest

Beth here.  We went into the ancient rain forest on a bush-wracking hike in the southern most part of Australia.  Here is a picture of Larry in front of a 300 year old mountain ash tree.  These are absolutely huge and make Larry look like a dwarf.  It is very humbling.  It was a wonderful walk.  The smell of the forest is lovely.  It is so different from anywhere else I have been.  It reminds me of Africa a little but the smell is sweeter.  I took a video of the sounds of the birds . Could not catch them as they flew around.  Tried to catch 2  beautiful red parrots in the bush.  The buggers flew over my head too fast for me.  So far we are having an amazing and very awe-inspiring time.  I have fallen In Love with Australia and their people.

End of week one

Here we are the end of week one, left Melbourne this am after 5 nights.  Great city, fantastic public transport, very terrorist oops tourist orientated.  Went to the beach by tram.  They were racing in the bay mainly 35footers, pretty breezy.   It's a ten minute brisk walk to the docks, or a two minute bike ride.  Today was our first day on the Great Ocean Road.  We're in Apollo Bay for two nights. Hoping to see Koala bear tomorrow and maybe a roo.  Lots of ways to kill yourself over here.  The past weekends tally was a 17 yr old bitten on the hand by a shark he was trying to pat while spear fishing on a surfboard.  A 43 year old woman was found by two bushwalkers (hikers).  After two days she was disorientated, dehydrated and shoeless! no idea how shoe got lost but they think she wandered away from a campsite.  Not well enough to talk.  It was a major effort for the rescue squad to drag and winch her up the hill in a litter.  Two other guys died in the outback after their truck broke down, and there are five teenagers stranded after the creeks all rose to flood level so,they can't cross them. At least they have water.   This coming weekend is Australia Day so I'm sure there will be a bumper crop to report on next week.  It's not too hard to come to grief over here, lots to do neat country, very friendly folks.  I'll try and put a pic of this but no grantee.  

How to Kill yourself in Australia:    Driving on the wrong side of the road with a 6-speed transmission.  You can recognize the tourists by when they turn, the windshield wipers are on
2 the Gold Coast Road that we just drove for 75 kms is worse than the Cabot Trail

3. Go swimming in Newcastle  and pat a shark.  Kid was bitten by a shark as big as a car while he was patting it. They closed the beach for 10 days.  Other sharks were around as well.

4.  Some woman in Perth woke up with a snake in her bed.   More news later, cocktail hour is upon us.  

Trip over

Montreal to Paris flight was 6 hours on a 777.  Went up to the cockpit before takeoff to speak top pilot who knew Harvey Reid and discovered he flew co with my brother, Greg.  Nice nice guy.

Paris to Singapore 11 1/2 hours on the 380 .  Ginormous aircraft.  No sleep, very crowded.

Singapore. To Melbourne was 7 hours,  now we are really exhausted.  No time between flights to decompress.  Get to our hotel, have a drink and pass out.

Next day was a write-off.

This is our first post.  We will send pictures eventually.  We just want to see if it works.