The Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island, and the Sunshine Coast

You know you’re really on vacation when you find a 4-day-old moulding avocado in your day-pack.

So backing up, we were about to leave Cairns, some of us sun burned, some of us coughing (remember the colds) to head south, but Aviva felt this weird pressure in her ears, so off she and Rob headed to the 24-hour walk-through clinic (yes, "walk through" – not sure how they examine ears that way). Anyway, Aviva had limited confidence in the MD who examined her. She wasn’t so sure how good his English was and he only spent about 30 seconds examining her when he gave her a prescription for an outer ear infection. The pharmacist wasn’t much better. Rather than telling Aviva how she should use the medication, she kept asking her what the doctor had said and then would say, “Yeah, ok, that sounds good, do that.”

So with Noah’s eye infection still being treated, and Aviva’s ear infection, we headed off down the coast. Back in a rental vehicle we found on-line, you know us – enviro-friendly geeks – we found ourselves in a massive “maxi-van” which seats eight, with tons of extra room. None of us were too happy with the size, and while parking was already a challenge in the last van, this one topped it. As an aside, Diane has now been promoted back to the front seat and only occasionally gasps or yelps.

We spent the night before our boat tour in Airlie Beach, a definite can-MISS, beach party town with drive through liquor stores again.

Our hotel was in the quieter part of town, but right next to our rooms was an 18 year-old's all-weekend birthday party (drinking age here is 18). As it turned out, the 18 year-olds weren’t the problem....it was their loud and perhaps drunk parents! The front desk assured us they would be quiet by 8:00 pm. When 9:00 pm rolled around and they were still raising a ruckus, we went to the front desk to complain, only to learn that the front desk closes at 8:00 pm and the staff go home for the night. Thankfully, the rowdy bunch settled down by 10:30 pm and we all got a good night’s sleep.

The next day we headed down to the boat. The parking lot was $22 for the two days, but the machine only accepted coins. Fortunately we found another place to park that accepted credit cards, given that we don’t tend to walk around with that kind of change in our pockets!

At the dock, we were greeted by Woody, the scuba instructor from North Hampton, UK. We soon met our skipper, Pete, from New Zealand, and Harriet, the cook and sometimes guide from Australia. There were 27 of us in total on Wings III, a catamaran sail boat that goes around the Whitsunday Islands stopping in choice spots for scuba and/or snorkeling, as well as a beach or two. There was one minor snag for all on the boat, and an additional snag for our family: it was cold and rainy, and some in our family had colds, eye infections and ear infections. The cold weather didn’t stop us from getting in the water, but the colds in our heads did stop us from being able to scuba dive. Aaron made two attempts at it, but was not able to equalize the pressure in his ears :( To be honest, a couple of us (i.e. Rob and Diane) were a bit skittish about the whole scuba diving idea to begin with! So we all snorkeled instead – and that was pretty amazing.

So how did we get into that 19 degree water??? Each of us wore 3, yes THREE, wet suits! If you go up one size each time, the space in between heats up with your body and can keep you pretty warm. (We only did this on the 2nd snorkel. The first time we were all chattering away). All bundled up like the Michelin man, we saw amazing fish and coral. On their second time out, Rob and Aaron saw a turtle swimming in the water. On a later snorkel, Aviva and Diane saw another turtle and swam with it for a few minutes. And by turtle, we mean huge things – we’re guessing they were each over a meter in diameter. As for Noah, well he saw a Moray Eel. All told, it was pretty awesome.

We also went to an amazing beach, Whitehaven, with the softest sand you can imagine – something between brown sugar and flour. During a hike on that island, Rob wanted to change into his bathing suit, so he and Diane let the others go ahead, while she kept a lookout and he changed. Once ready to rejoin the group, the others were no longer in site and so Rob and Diane were on their own on the trail, trying to figure out where the group (including Aviva, Aaron and Noah) had gone. They stumbled upon the other two academics on the tour, who were also lost! The four fumbled around on the trails and eventually met up with the rest of the group.

On the first night on the boat, we opened our hatch to let some fresh air in-you can do that when the boat is moored... operative word here being "moored". Unfortunately during the night, it rained.... And near to that open hatch lay a bunch of our stuff, including Aaron's book and all of our passports. Thankfully we had a fan in our room, and they dried, but they were all curled up and oddly contorted. We were a bit worried about getting in trouble on our return to Canada for damaging them, but low and behold, because they are made out of some weird newfangled plastic material, they straightened out within a couple of days squished between two books. Good to know if you are a Canadian out there with a wet passport!

The crew and our fellow passengers added to the fun of the tour. Aaron and Noah spent hours with our skipper, Pete, and learned a ton from him about sailing, navigation, New Zealand, etc. Aviva got to hang out with a bunch of people her age, since aside from the two other academics, most of the passengers were under 25. It was a very international crowd, and we all enjoyed the camaraderie.

After the boat tour, we headed further south to Fraser Island in our maxi-van. Fraser Island is a 120 km-long island made completely from sand. It has several fresh water lakes on it, which are really rain basins as they are not actually fed by any rivers or springs. There are also fresh water streams on the island also made from rain water, that takes 70 years to seep down through the sand, hit bed rock, and then form a stream that flows out to the ocean. We visited one of the lakes and did a creek hike in one of the rivers, upstream against the current.

But the coolest thing about Fraser Island was probably the “roads” there. In order to preserve it in its natural state, none of the roads are paved; they are all sand. The only way to travel here is in a 4X4 vehicle, and even then you can easily get stuck. If the sand doesn’t get you, you can also end up out somewhere on the island and then the tide comes in cutting you off from the other part of the island, and you're stranded till the tide goes out again! So we went on a tour bus, and the ride alone was entertainment enough. Sometimes the bouncing was like being on a ride in an amusement park. At other times we got stuck in soft sand moving along at a snail’s pace and wondering if we would have to get out and push (remarkably, Aviva actually fell asleep for part of this crazy bouncy ride). Then, the east coast of the island is this incredibly long beach, which they use as a highway, with an 80 km/h speed limit. They didn’t used to have a limit, but there were too many deaths, with people driving like maniacs on the beach. Our driver also drove straight over rocks – it felt more like riding on an elephant than in a bus at times!

Near the end of the day we were on one of the roads crossing the island when another vehicle was heading right for us. The other vehicle stopped and backed up to a spot where we could get around each other (the sand roads are all one-lane by the way). Unfortunately, in the process, they got trapped in the sand. Their vehicle was a pick-up truck used by the local Aboriginal people, but was rear wheel drive only – insane! So we were suddenly all stuck. Folks from our bus spilled out, and several including Aaron, tried to push them out of the sand, but they just ended up digging in deeper. Eventually our driver skilfully backed up our bus between two trees, barely missing one of them. He then tied the front bumper of the stuck pick-up to our bus and pulled the trapped vehicle out of the sand. As we all piled back on the bus, we could hear the other driver backing up his truck and then a loud crunching noise. He had hit the tree we had just missed!

The other cool thing on the island is the wild dingoes. Dingoes are everywhere in Australia, but the ones on Fraser Island are the purest breed. They are thought to have been introduced to Australia about 4000 years ago – after the Aboriginals arrived and before the Europeans came. They’re actually from Asia – Malasia/India/Indonesia and may have come over with fisherman trading with the Aboriginals. Oh how the Europeans love to think they were the first to “discover” a place, eh! Anyway, there were warning signs all over the place about the dingoes as they love to steal food – and have been known to attack people, especially small children in their search for food (remember “A Cry in the Night”? The woman was only very recently exonerated on June 11).

Let’s take a moment to review some of the new vocabulary we’ve picked up in our travels here.

• Cuppa = cup of coffee or tea, as in “Let’s have a cuppa.”
• Doona = comforter
• Dunny= outhouse
• G’day mate = Hi buddy... yes, they really do say this.
• How ya goin’ = How’s it going
• Tasty cheese = cheddar cheese (we think – at least that’s what it tasted like to us).

Now we come to the section we call Australians make everything sound cute:

• Sunnies = sun glasses
• Paw paw = papaya
• Strawbs = strawberries
• Avos = avocadoes (as in, “hey, I just found a mouldy avo in my day-pack!”)
• Pokies = Slot Machines

After Fraser Island we headed further south still, to The Sunshine Coast. During the drive Aviva read to us our second book, “The Kite Runner.” It seemed fitting to read about Afghanistan while we were in Australia, cuz they both start with A. Throughout these last drives we have passed through tons and tons and tons of cane fields. They even have “cane trains” here. They are these mini-trains that sit on a very narrow track. The farmers load the cars up with the harvest and then move the train along. As with all holidays, we’ve also had a couple of theme songs that have nothing to do with the place we’re visiting and only to do with what we wanted to listen to at the time. So the theme songs for this year have been: Roundabout (by Yes) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (by U2).

The last three nights of our holiday were spent in a little beach town called Caloundra. We relaxed at the beach, read, ate very well, and just hung out. Rob and Diane had their anniversary here, and so the kids had dinner in one restaurant, leaving the parents to go out for a romantic 21st anniversary dinner. Left to their own devices, the kids tried Oysters on the half shell and reported back, “I didn’t totally hate them” (Aaron) and “They tasted like blood” (Noah).

There was one really odd and upsetting thing that did happen while we were in Caloundra. On the first day, as we strolled along the beach, we noticed four police officers standing around what looked like a parachute and a helmet. We weren’t sure what to make of it at the time, but the next day we read in the local paper that a skydiver had actually fallen to his death there a couple of hours before we arrived on the beach, in front of tons of witnesses as it was a Saturday, late morning.

On a lighter note, for our last night in Australia we got dressed up and went out to a very nice restaurant overlooking the water. We returned to the hotel for a late night swim in our warm pool – although still not warm enough for Aviva and Diane, but the guys did swim. We’ve written this, our last entry for this summer, somewhere over the Pacific.



Till next time.....Love,

RANAD
P.S. Comments always appreciated.

Uluru and Cairns

When you’re thinking Alice Springs, don’t think Palm Springs. It’s more like Yellowknife with palm trees.

We stayed in Alice Springs the nights before and after our camping trip to the Outback, so we got to spend a chunk of time there. After hearing a number of white Australians tell us about how Australia has abolished their Reserves and handed back land to the Aboriginal people since the mid-1980s, we saw things here that made us think the situation hasn’t progressed quite so much between the whites and the Aboriginals. There seemed to be a lot of unemployment, homelessness and general poverty amongst the Aboriginals. This was in stark contrast with the droves of young Brits and other Europeans snatching up tons of jobs in this city where work seems to be abundant. It wasn’t clear to us though whether this was also because of a reluctance on the part of the Aboriginals to assimilate to the European ways, given the richness of their own culture and history. All in all their situation does not seem that different from the North American one; with a people who have lost their way of life, but the alternatives are not necessarily the right choice for them either.

OK, now about our camping trip to the Outback.

We woke up dark and early at 5:30 am, which unbeknownst to us would be the same time we would be waking up for the next few days. We loaded up our small packs into the bus, picked up a few more people and headed to the Outback. Along the way we stopped to “gather” fire wood, which seemed conspicuously easy to find – almost as if it had been laid out for us ahead of time in large quantities (we wondered....). Our travel companions were absolutely lovely. We were the only native English speakers on the trip; the rest were French, German and Spanish. OK, there was this one weird French guy from Lyon, who seemed to behave like a rebellious 12 year-old, despite being in his late 30s. He needed to be faster than everyone on every hike, would talk to his friend when the guide was explaining things, had his ear buds in at all times (perhaps to drown out everyone else), went too close to cliff edges – to the point of being reprimanded by the guide,....and on the last day took off his shirt and was swinging it around, showing off his skinny, mediocre body and giggling with his friend.

On the first day of the trip we went to Uluru (formerly known as Ayer’s Rock) – a 348 metre tall flat top rock (monolith) that is 9.4 km in circumference sitting in the middle of a very flat desert. It is the result of millions of years of sand accumulated from inland seas and compressed, followed by erosion. We started with a visit to the cultural centre and read up on all of the religious significance of this site, along with the art gallery where we could see local Aboriginal art work, most of which was in the pointillism style. Next we did a hike around the base of Uluru. The Aboriginals encourage visitors to see it in this way; and they discourage climbing Uluru itself. The Australian authorities, however, give a mixed message about climbing it. They have this precarious old chain from the 1950s that you can hold on to as you climb up the rock with no safety fencing (atypical for Aus where safety is always evident). At the same time, they have signs and guides telling people of the dangers of climbing it (many have died) and that it’s disrespectful to the Aboriginals. Needless to say, 100s were climbing up and down Uluru....We did not.

That evening we watched the sun set behind Uluru, colours changing as the light faded. We sipped champagne with our European traveling companions. Olivier, a suave young French guy from Marseille, gladly popped the corks for us, with a cigarette hanging from his mouth – fulfilling any stereotype one might have about French guys.

Did you know that it gets cold in the desert at night? Really cold. As in freezing cold. The first night we stayed in pre-fab tents each with two single beds inside, an electric lamp, and a wooden floor. And we froze our asses off. The second night we slept under the stars, on the ground around the campfire in these Australian sleeping bags called “swags”. And we were toasty warm. The swag is like a cocoon with a canvas outer shell that zips you inside. It contains a mattress, and full bedding- and it warms you simply by trapping your own body heat inside.

When they originally asked us who wanted to sleep in the swag, Rob was hesitant, afraid of the wildlife at night – you know, snakes and dingos and the like. When Diane, Aviva, Aaron, and Noah raised their hands, along with a 9-year old girl called Laura, 12 more of the 22 people on the tour followed suit...and finally, succumbing to peer pressure, Rob did too. The next morning, Rob said “This was the best sleep I’ve had in my life”. The bonus to sleeping outside was that we slept under the mid-August Meteor Shower, and got to wish upon shooting stars- although most of us fell asleep after only a few, simply exhausted from our action-packed days. Our other expeditions included seeing the sun rise at Uluru, and hiking Kata Tjuta (A.K.A. The Olgas), as well as hiking the King’s Canyon.

Our tour guide, Jess was outstanding. She possessed a wealth of knowledge about history, geology, plants, culture, politics, you name it!

If we hadn’t already had enough of Alice Springs, the next day after our camping trip, our flight was delayed by 4 hours, and we got to spend another day there. This allowed us to take care of a number of errands, including taking Noah to the hospital to deal with a minor eye infection. After, at the airport, we reunited with half of our tour group, and with Qantas giving us each $25 food vouchers as compensation for the delay, it was a party!

Next stop Cans – Oh! You didn’t know? They pronounce Cairns “Cans” over here. So from the desert centre, we moved into the tropics, and the next day we did a hike in the Daintree Rainforest. We learned a ton about this, the oldest rainforest in the world. Majestic trees, with vines spiraling around them, buttress themselves by spanning out huge root systems to stabilize themselves in the moist soil, and to increase the oxygen to their roots.

True to its name, the rain forest rained on us throughout the hike. Everybody remembered to bring a rain shell...except for Rob, who sheltered himself with one of our towels and his Aussie Outback hat.

The next day a cold, which had started with Rob back on Kangaroo Island, had now caught up with a few more of us. So we opted for a quiet day on the beach. With frequent clouds breaking up the sunshine, we were perhaps a bit negligent with our sunscreen. But clouds or no clouds, this is the tropics man and UV gets through, so guess what? We all got burns!!!

While here we’ve learned a lot about, and seen several examples of controlled fires. The Aboriginal peoples did this for tens of thousands of years. The controlled fire was a form of early agriculture: the Aboriginals would burn a section of land, yielding new growth to be harvested as well as bringing animals to the area, making it easier for the hunters to catch them. With the Europeans managing the lands, the controlled fires ceased, causing uncontrolled bush fires. In recent years the old ways of controlled firers have been reinstated in this area. In Queensland (near Carins), they also use fire to manage the crops and we have driven through a few smoke filled patches of highway when passing the sugar cane plantations.

We are now en route to the Whitsundays for a boat trip. Our drive has been long with a few stops along the way for hikes in more rain forests and a couple of interesting eateries. At one café in particular a roadside sign advertised home-made scones with cream and jam along with an art gallery with works by the owner/baker. Said owner/baker turned out to be an eccentric, curmudgeony older British lady, who served us our scones and cream admonishing us to not put our used spoons or knives back into the tub of cream (like we actually would have?!?). She had signs explaining how to use the toilet “flushing is compulsory” “closing lid after use is compulsory”, etc. To top it all off, when she learned we were from Toronto, she replied, “My least favourite city,” then added, “in Canada”.

We’ve got to catch a boat for the next coupla days, so we’ll talk soon!
Love,
RANAD

Great Ocean Road and Kangaroo Island

So after we got stopped by the police, we had a lovely breakfast on funky Brunswick St. Oh wait- did we forget to mention that we got stopped by the police? Well, as Rob was just getting the hang of this novel left-side-of-the-road-driving thing, we heard sirens, and immediately started thinking of all the potential road rules we might have broken. Two police officers emerged and surrounded the car. Without skipping a beat, Rob pulled out the Canada card, explaining how he was just learning how to drive on the left side of the road. The police officer replied, “Ya, I can tell.” He made us pull over onto a side street, but we still didn’t know what we did wrong. After inquiring, the officer explained “nothing specific, you just looked like you didn’t know what you were doing.” Rob exclaimed, “I don’t!” They were rather sweet and a bit apologetic, giving us travel tips, and chatting with us about our future vacation plans. What’s a RANAD vacation without at least one encounter with the authorities?

Now for the Great Ocean Road. Think Route 1 California crossed with Cabot Trail Nova Scotia with a twist of Amalfi Italy (see our previous blogs).

Everyone has made it abundantly clear that one should never drive the great ocean road after dark...but we did. Nonetheless we had the majority of the day in light to appreciate the spectacular vista, and feel spectacularly jealous of those that live so near. With ocean on one side, and cliffs and sea-facing villas on the other, it’s not hard to be impressed. Continuing with the theme of past RANAD road trips, Aviva read us a novel: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. The book is about a teenager living with terminal cancer, and while certainly tragic, it’s not overly sentimental and chock full of satire and wit.

That night after dinner (which included kangaroo steak for the guys), we stayed on a farm, and our host, Sue, had a little surprise for us: A baby koala that she had rescued after its mother was killed by a car. Words cannot express the cuteness of this furry creature, and we all took turns petting him. In addition, the next morning there was a herd of wild kangaroos grazing on the property, just outside our windows. We felt like we had VIP passes for some nature show. Just as quickly as they appeared at our windows, off they hopped (or rather leaped), agile and swift.
We got an early start that day so that we could get in a couple of hikes before continuing on our drive. Our hike was along the cliffs edge, and down to the beach in Port Campbell National Park. Though not the most physically demanding of all hikes, it was certainly one of the most beautiful. Next, we went to see the 12 Apostles. Not a religious site, but a natural one; 12 giant rocks protruding from the ocean that have been carved out from the mainland by the relentless waves. During our drive that day, we stopped in a town called Warnambool, a small, non-descript town, but surprisingly we had a lovely lunch in a hip cafe because in Australia you can spit and find a good cafe.

That night, however, we had a uniquely different experience. We had no reservations, so pulling into a town called Naracoorte, Aviva suggested we stop at the best lit hotel for the night. Now, the tip-off should have been that attached to the hotel was a “drive-thru bar.” Seriously. But we decided to give it a go because after all, it was well lit. Rob went in to scope it out and the next tip-off should have been the sign saying “No Minors Allowed;” the receptionist was reluctant to give a room to a family because of the no minors rule, but acquiesced when he learned that the eldest was an 18-year old girl. The price seemed good, so Rob continued to check it out. He noted the casino, shared-bathroom and finally, the real deal-breaker: Four barefooted guys sitting in the hallway, drying their socks on chairs. So we nixed that hotel. The next hotel was no better, so we took a break to buy some groceries, but even the grocery store was a bit sketchy, with posters of bikini-clad girls advertising firewood, and ads for discounts on alcohol and tobacco on pension cheque day. Finally the woman at cash recommended we try Carolynne’s Cottages. Aviva was sceptical, as it was completely un-lit and almost impossible to find, as though Carolynne was challenging us to find her business. Aviva was certain that we were going to be murdered in this remote forested location at the outskirts of town, and pointed at the stone statues in the yard, claiming they were Carolynne’s past guests...Hmm. Carolynne turned out to be an elderly woman who should have been more scared of us than we were of her, and showed us to our cozy cottage with a fully-stocked fridge.

The next day, we drove inland through South Australia wine country, passing several wineries along the way. We drove to our ferry that took us to Kangaroo Island. Due to Diane’s unruly behaviour -shrieking with fear as Rob was driving along the cliff- Diane was demoted to the very back of the minivan where her inability to accurately see the road drastically improved her behaviour! Kangaroo Island is sort of like the P.E.I. of Australia, but it’s almost completely uninhabited by people (loads of wildlife though). Our first night there, we went for a nature walk looking for wallabies, kangaroos, and possums. Key word is “looking”-we never actually saw any that night. We did see a pitch-black night sky strewn with stars; no clouds, no light pollution just us and the galaxy.

We despaired that we were only going to see wildlife in the form of road kill (sadly, the highways are dotted with dead wallabies, possums, and some kangaroos), but we did get to see tons of live animals the next day. First we went to the Remarkable Rocks,

which is a dome formed by rising molten lava that cooled, and then was exposed to erosion by wind and sea. They are basically giant boulders in kooky shapes that you can climb; we didn’t climb though. Then we went on to the Admiral’s Arch, where we were feet away from New Zealand fur seals sunning themselves on the rocks.

We saw sleeping pups, a few territorial scuffles, and some were swimming in the crashing deathly waves, totally nonplussed. We watched them for at least an hour. We then went on a nature walk in Flinders Chase National Park where we got to see the Australian wildlife we were looking for: Kangaroos and wallabies grazing in the planes, exotic birds (emus?), and amazing plant life. There was a platypus viewing site where you have a 98% chance of not viewing a platypus. And guess what? We didn’t see one.

On our last day in Kangaroo Island, we toured the local farms. First we visited a bee farm where they produce honey using a Ligurian (from Italy) bee. This bee only exists in its purest strain on Kangaroo Island because the island has been so successfully quarantined for the past 150 years. We also visited a eucalyptus distillery where they make eucalyptus oil. We wondered what eucalyptus oil can’t do since it seems to be a cure for anything and everything. Finally we went to a sheep dairy, and got some amazing cheeses. The owner let us feed the sheep, which included one very bossy (i.e., territorial) ewe who kept butting the others out of the way when we’d try to feed them. The advantage of coming to Australia during the winter, their off-season, was that we got a lot of appreciative proprietors, who gave us little free tours.

After taking the ferry back to the mainland, we drove to Adelaide to spend the night prior to a flight to Alice Springs. What to say about Adelaide? After seeing the culture and sophistication of Sydney and Melbourne, the gritty feel of Adelaide was particularly striking. Lots of sex shops, gaming rooms (casinos), massage parlours, etc... It’s a raunchy city with a reputation for being so.
Currently we are in the airport waiting for our delayed flight to Alice Springs.

More soon.

Love,
RANAD

RANAD in Australia: Sydney and Melbourne

You know you’re in Australia when the homeless people are wearing UGGs.....

Australia is far. Very far. This is why we decided to send Rob on a reconnaissance mission two weeks ahead of us just to test the waters... and he threw in a few workshops along the way. On the day of his departure, there was an electrical fire at Pearson airport, and so Rob was re-routed to a different flight. In the mayhem of the electrical fire and airport staff being unclear on how to proceed, Rob was told to do one thing by the police, only to be told the exact opposite by airport security. After several back and forths between security and police, which included Rob asking the security guard if he was going to taser him, Rob was kicked out and told to return to the airline desk (as was everyone else). Ironically, while waiting to be re-routed back at the Delta desk, Rob and the others noticed a huge sign that read, “Pearson, voted Canada’s most improved airport!” Hmmm.....

Two weeks later, with Rob half a globe away, the rest of RANAD embarked on the journey to Oz. Due to an electrical fire in Detroit, the plane never arrived (okay, we don’t actually know about the electrical fire, but either way our plane was held up). So... the rest of us were also rerouted. Now, just to preface, every mildly annoying thing that can go wrong in air travel did go wrong. First the flight was delayed, then the flight was re-routed, then the re-routed flight was delayed, then one bag didn’t make it onto the rerouted flight, then we almost missed the connection in L.A., and finally, the rest of the bags were lost (clearly they just couldn’t keep up).

So our first day in Sydney we went shopping for underwear. Really really really expensive underwear. Why? Because the bags were still lost, and everything in Australia is a tad expensive....even the underwear. FYI, minimum wage is about $18/hour here, so they can afford $20 gotchies.

Fresh underwear in hand, we enjoyed strolling the city, watching some talented buskers (Everything After – if you wanna check them out on Youtube), and then headed out for a yummy dinner in Chinatown, where one of the most authentic places to eat is called, “Eating World,” basically a food court with absolutely no ambiance. One of the differences in this Chinatown compared to ours was the ubiquitous dessert cafés, serving Taiwanese and Hong Kong style desserts; stuff like mango on shaved ice with coconut milk, flavourless red beans on shaved ice with molasses jello, sesame pancakes, etc. The descriptions here say it all, some of it tasted good, some of it not so much.

On the following day we took a boat tour of the Sydney Harbour.

It was a great opportunity to get a feel for the greater Sydney area.
Our septuagenarian guide was a bit atypical for his age, continually checking his iphone whilst giving a tour of the harbour. Needless to say, it was not the most compelling tour, but it was somewhat informative (both about both Sydney, and the modern day grandpa).

Later that night, we went home and watched the Olympics. We couldn’t believe that all this time we’d never realized that the Australians are the true stars of the entire Olympic games- or at least that’s what the coverage here would lead you to believe. Really, it’s remarkable how little they cover of any country other than their own. In one rowing event they placed second, and the coverage cut away from the event before we could see who got the bronze. As for swimming, was Michael Phelps even in this Olympics?

On the topic of sports, anyone a Footie fan? The Aussies are obsessed with it here, packing stadiums with 70,000 fans at $18 a ticket: Australian rules football. It’s sort of a cross between soccer and rugby, though it would appear to not have any consistent rules whatsoever. We’ve decided that Footie is a game created by a bunch of 10 year old sore losers who couldn’t win a real match of rugby, so they just kept changing the rules as they went along: sometimes you have to throw the ball, sometimes you can’t throw the ball, sometimes you run with the ball, sometimes you dribble the ball, sometimes you kick the ball through your opponents post, sometimes you kick the ball through your own posts. Really. We can’t seem to make heads or tails of the game. But it does seem to be highly aerobic, apparently they run upwards of 20 km. a game.

The next day we went on a bike tour with Matt, an aspiring actor and sometimes tour guide.

Matt was long on entertainment, short on factual accuracy, claiming for example that the American Revolution occurred in 1786...hmm... We think we learned some interesting information about Sidney, although it’s hard to know for sure. Apparently the Matrix was filmed in Sidney...? Apparently Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s Sydney condo sold for 12 million...? What we do know for sure is that we biked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the view was spectacular. We tried lemon-lime bitters and some local beer. And we cycled to all the major sites of Sidney, including the Sydney Opera house. Apparently the architect, fired from the project for overspending, left the country, and never returned to see his project completed...?

The next day we took the ferry to Cockatoo Island, a now defunct shipyard. There was an exhibit of installation art all over the island from various artists. We found ourselves feeling a bit torn between wanting to be more open minded to this esoteric art, wishing we were more open minded, and finding ourselves not so open minded. Much of the art often appeared to be a conglomeration of seemingly random objects placed in a room attached to “deep” artist statements that were quite a stretch (“These two pieces of hanging cloth represent the divide between the East and West of this world,” and the like).

There were, however, a couple of really cool pieces, like a room filled with thousands of paper guns that opened up like a fan into colourful paper flowers. There was also an Uruguayan artist whose sketches, reminiscent of Dali, filled the walls of a room with distorted grotesque figures and political messages.

That night we saw the first night of Sydney's Improv festival at the New Theatre in Newtown. This very talented bunch came from all over the English speaking world, and we definitely had a lot of fun at this show. The next day we rented a car, and drove to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney where we did a hike and saw some really massive trees. We discovered a new bird call: The Whistle and Bell. It's two birds that call to each other, and one sounds like a whistle, the other like a bell, although honestly, it sounded more like a whip to us. As we were losing daylight at the end of our hike, Aviva was straggling behind and to encourage her, Diane suggested she imagine she was late for an audition that was being held back at the car. It worked. We should add that this day trip involved Rob learning how to drive on the left side of the road (recall that we said we had rented a car). As if learning how to drive on the left side of the road wasn’t difficult enough, Rob had the additional challenge of dealing with the occasional terrified shrieks and gasps coming from Diane.

Let’s talk a bit about the weather in Australia. As we were preparing to leave Toronto, Diane kept reminding us that it was winter in Australia. But did we believe her? Not really. Even Diane didn’t fully believe her. Every day that we’ve been here, we’ve had to add a piece of clothing: hats, gloves, scarves, thermal undershirts, thermal underwear, and Aviva even bought a winter coat. There is this denial of winter that even the Australians seem to indulge in as well. There is totally inadequate heating in the hotels, so you’ve got to really go under the covers at nights. They seem to have these space heaters that they use in restaurants, which are something like huge toaster ovens, and appear to be fire hazards not unlike real toaster ovens.

Next we flew to Melbourne, a much less eventful flight than any of our journeys over here. The first night in Melbourne, we had a real Aussie barbecue with Rob’s new colleagues, Brendan and Di whose beef and lamb were raised on their own farm. Interestingly, in order to maintain their small herd, they periodically rent a male to get the job done from a business called “Rent-a-Bull.” Seriously. At Di and Brendan's the plan had been to put on our togs (bathing suits), and get in the spa (Jacuzzi) before dinner. Rob, Noah, and Aaron did so, but the gals? Well.... remember it is winter in Australia. After dinner, the kids jammed with Brendan and Di’s younger son, Rob, whose rendition of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” was spot on.

Our hotel in Melbourne was right next to the Queen Victoria market, this fabulous foodie heaven. Each morning we went there to buy fresh baked goods, cheeses, Tazmanian salmon, home-made yogurt, you name it, for our breakfasts and lunches. YUM!!

On day two, while Diane did a workshop in Melbourne, Rob and the kids did a free hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. Melbourne like Sydney is gorgeous in its own way. Sydney has the spectacular harbour, bridge, opera house and hills. Melbourne has the architecture, the arts, the fashion, and the river.

On our last day in Melbourne, we did another bike tour.

Our guide, Brian, a 62-year old graphic artist who lived here all his life, was very knowledgeable. In fact, he is 7th generation Australian. His great great great great grandparents were BOTH convicts brought to Australia on the first fleet. Because they were a couple, they were given some land to work along the Paramatta River and two labourers (also convicts). The story goes that they served goat at their wedding, and not unsurprisingly, shortly after the nuptials,one of the General's goats was found to be missing. The newlyweds were arrested for stealing the goat, but claimed that the goat was already dead when they "found" it, so they were subsequently let off. In addition to hearing about Brian's ancestors, along with seeing the sites and history of Melbourne, it was a bit of a foodie tour as well. We went to an fabulous Italian bakery where we had pastries and coffee, returning to the market for lunch: bourekas like we’ve never had before. But more about the amazing food and coffee here next time...

Next stop? The Great Ocean Road....

Talk to you soon.

Love,
RANAD!!