We're home!

Going to bed now! :) Will post some final thoughts on this amazing journey soon. :) - Connie

Good ol' USA! :)

We arrived in LA today and will spend the night here before finishing our travels home tomorrow. Our flights go from LA to Cleveland to Raleigh. It was a little strange coming back into the US after calling Australia "home" for 3 months. Getting off the plane, I could easily imagine what impressions of the US I might have if I were a traveler visiting from Australia or another country. Hustle and bustle and technology everywhere! :) - Connie

PS - Today is Anna's Birthday. She's four years old! We're telling her that her Birthday is in "a few days" because we figured she didn't want to spend 14+ hours on an airplane on her special day.

Last night in Australia...

Tonight is our last night in Australia. Wow, we can't believe our awesome adventure is coming to a close. Our flight arrived in Sydney around 5pm and we took a cab to the Sebel hotel. We went to a great seafood restaurant called The Battery. It's a brand new restaurant... only been open for 2 weeks. It had great food and great service... if we're ever back here, we'll eat there again! :) After dinner, we took the kids to the indoor pool at the hotel and let them stay up later than usual... no need to keep their regular schedules considering the fact that tomorrow we'll be going through a 14-hour time shift with the jet lag! ;) - Connie

Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Part 2

After the sun had risen, we went back to the bus for hot chocolate and on to the Cultural Center for breakfast. After breakfast we met up with our guide, Sammy. He spoke entirely in the native aboriginal language. We had a translator even thought Sammy could obviously speak english (he laughed at what we said at times).

We hiked about 2km up to the base of Ulura and stopped every few hundred meters for a talk or a demonstration. Sammy made a campfire (with a lighter), had about 10 smoke breaks, made some glue and showed us how to throw spears!

The 2-part spear chuckers they used were very well designed and could throw a spear a hundred meters easily (although my first attempt went maybe 5).

Sammy also told us the story of the blue lizard man. It was a cool moral story about respect (for each other and the land).

After the tour, Sammy went walk-about (for another smoke break).

Sammy told us that the Anangu people don't want us to climb Uluru for our safety and because climbing Uluru is reserved for a man's initiation ceremony and not for strangers. Back when Uluru was called Ayer's Rock, the aboriginal people couldn't even vote and had no ability to enforce this. Today the Anangu once again control the land around Uluru and look after it and its visitors.

What a great way to end our trip! The middle of Australia is certainly different than the coast! Tomorrow we're off to Sydney and then back home through LA! A few more posts and we'll be done!

Uluru (Ayer's Rock), Part 1

After a short and wonderful flight (they served real lunch and the girls behaved), we made it from Cairns to Uluru! We have a nice little cabin here for 2 nights before our flight out to Sydney.

The first night in we took a short hike out to see Uluru and then hit the village center for some shopping and a great meal.

The next morning, we booked an Uluru Sunrise tour run by the local Anangu aboriginal people. We drove in a bus from our cabin to a sunrise viewing area overlooking both Uluru and Kata Tjuta (another red mountain formation nearby).

The views were incredible! The sunrise was great as well!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Fun at the pool

After we returned the camper, we had one night in a hotel in Cairns before flying to central Australia (the real outback!) to see Uluru. The hotel had a pool, and the girls were delighted that it was warm enough for some water play. :) Connie

One more Great Barrier Reef photo...

I had to post this one of James about to jump into the water for his snorkeling fun. :) - Connie

The Great Barrier Reef, Part 2

After the submarine and the glass-bottomed boat, the girls played with the touch tank. They had a bunch of Sea Cucumbers, a Star Fish, some hermit crabs and coral pieces in the tank.

After that, Connie watched the girls and I got to spend about 45 minutes snorkeling. It was absolutely the best snorkeling I've ever done! The reef was everywhere without any gaps and was only about 2 feet from the surface in many places. When the tide came in and out you had to be very careful not to get stuck on the corals. The reef was fantastic with a huge variety of fish and corals. Amazing! After I finished, Connie got her turn:

The last thing we did before leaving was head down to the underwater theater so that the girls could see the fish and corals.

There be Whales!! We didn't get a chance to see any whales (it's currently whale season here) prior to today. But on the way back, one of the kids on board spotted a whale and the captain turned us around for a closer look. There were 2 of them on each side of the boat! We didn't get very close and they didn't stay long, but it was really awesome to get to see them!

Tomorrow we turn the camper in so that Saturday we can fly to the middle of Australia to see Ayer's Rock (now called Uluru). Can't wait!

The Great Barrier Reef, Part 1

It had been raining here in Cairns for almost 2 straight weeks, so we were pretty worried about the weather. The rain left, but the wind was still gusting at about 10-15 knots.

The girls were all psyched and The Great Barrier Reed was the part of Australia that was 2nd on my list of things to see (behind only Uluru). The 40km trip out to one of the outer reefs (Moore's point) was really choppy and over half of the 300 or so tourists on board were sea-sick. Connie and I were pretty green but managed to hold onto our breakfast ;) The girls were fantastic! Once we got there and things settled down (our stomachs), we got out onto a huge floating platform right in the middle of the reefs.

After lunch, the first thing we did was get on a submarine to see the reef up-close. That was the girl's favorite part of the day. They were able to pilot to within inches of the reef edges!

The water is beautiful here, there are coral reefs everywhere you look on the entire horizon.

We also went out on a glass-bottomed boat to see the reefs and fish. We had a great day!! More coming in part 2 :)

Cairns, Part 2 - The SkyRail

Anna has been looking forward to riding on a car up in the trees since we told her about it months ago :) She wasn't disappointed!

They lifted 36 support towers into place by helicopter to avoid damaging the World Heritage listed rainforest below. It was very awesome gliding through the top of the rainforest canopy.

We passed above Cycads, Elkhorns, Staghorns, Kauri Pines, Banyans, Alexandra Palms (all rare rainforest trees) and Bird's Nest Ferns. There were 2 stops in the rainforest, but we were in a hurry to catch the bus home and didn't have a lot of time to explore. Maybe next time! ;)

We crested the mountains and got a good look at the Great Barrier Reef in the distance right off the coast of Cairns.

Next up is another day of relaxing at the camp ground and then a tour out to the Great Barrier Reef!

Cairns, Part 1 - The Kuranda Scenic Railway

We made it to Cairns! It was over 2,000 kilometers from Brisbane and we were all pretty tired of the camper by the time we pulled into the Cairns Holiday Coconut Resort ;) On the plus side, this is the top-rated camper park in Australia - so we saved the best for last!

It's been rainy, but we still managed to hit the pool and playground the first couple of days while relaxing.

Our first excursion in Cairns was a trip to Kuranda onboard the Kuranda Scenic Railway (built in 1887). The train ride was great and winded right up the mountain, through 15 bridges and 34 tunnels!

It also went past some spectacular waterfalls (about 4 or 5). Once we got to Kuranda, we ate at an Irish Pub and then went to the Butterfly Farm.

A bunch of the butterflies liked Anna's bow. She was disappointed though because they wouldn't land on her fingers like they did in the Bahamas (where they dipped her fingers in Rum Punch).

A little shopping and we were off for the SkyRail (coming in the next post)!

The Big Mango

Australia has "big fruit" attractions all along the coast. We've seen the Big Banana, Big Pineapple, and now the Big Mango. It started to tip over, so I rushed to hold it up. Ha, ha. :) Connie

Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach is sort of a cross between Saint Thomas and Key West and is the central mainland port for access to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Islands are considered by many to be one of the finest sailing destinations in the world!

While it would have been nice to do the popular thing and charter a sailing ship for a 3 day, 2 night excursion to the islands, we opted instead for a trip to the playground on the beach ;)

It was an outstanding beach though! The playground was right in the middle and there was a thriving tent market right at the top in this picture (just like the one in Saint Thomas).

Whitsunday Campground

The Whitsunday campground was one of the nicest ones we've stayed at. It had nice tropical landscaping, a huge playground, jumping pillow, pool, mini-golf and nice facilities. We stayed for 2 nights, which allowed us to relax and enjoy the place. :) - Connie

Yeppoon to the Whitsunday Islands

The beach at Yeppoon was one of our favorites! The shot above is a large panorama that you can click on to see a bigger version.

I think this might be my favorite shot of the girls here in Australia! :)

Connie on a bike she rented, that thing wore both of us out!

Lots and lots and lots of sugar cane north of RockHampton.

Seriously, that's all we saw for about 1,000 kilometers! Pretty in the sunset though!

Yeppoon

We stayed for two nights in Yeppoon, which is a coastal town about 30 mins from the larger inland town of Rockhampton. There was a stunning, flat, beautiful beach nestled between two small mountains within walking distance from our campground.

On the beach there were thousands of tiny holes surrounded by little balls of sand created by crabs. It felt very strange to walk barefoot and squish the little sand balls under our soles.


We also rented a trike to ride around the campground a bit...

Next stop: Whitsunday Beach Resort campground.
:) Connie

Tea Time

Here is Australia, they drink a lot of Tea. Coffee is really just starting to catch on. In the big cities, you see a lot of cafes - but not as much out in the boonies.

In the groceries (Woolworths is the biggest chain), there is an entire isle of Tea, half an isle of instant coffee and maybe 3 or 4 kinds of actual coffee beans (ground or otherwise). Everyone has an electric kettle, every camp site we've been to has one in the camp kitchen. I've gotten used to the instant stuff - it's far better here than in the States - but it still isn't as good as Global Village on Hillsborough Street or even my good old drip coffee maker with some Starbucks beans!

Driving to Rock Hampton from Beerwah

The countryside is really changing as we drive north and it gets warmer. We imagine this is closer to how the vast interior of Australia looks.

Anna and Jamie on their first walk-about ;)

This sounds like a corporate HR session gone wrong. We're going to make it our new company slogan! ;)

We turned off the road at the last minute and drove 10 minutes for a quick site-seeing tour of a really impressive damn. We pulled into Yeppoon about an hour after this and will be here for two nights before driving to the Whitsunday Islands.