January 31, 2008- Whitsunday Islands

It's hard for me to believe that a week ago today we were flying north from Sydney to a teeny little airport called Proserpine- on our way to the Whitsunday Islands, the reefs, and an old sailboat called Enid. Our adventure on the Enid started with our arrival at Proserpine Airport- truly the smallest airport I have ever been in. The airport basically takes jets flying tourists in, on Virgin Blue or Jetstar, and it has one gate for each, for a grand total of 2 gates. That's right- 2. When your flight lands they just pull the plane up right behind the building and unload you onto the tarmac, and as you walk into the airport you can see a ton of people sitting in those airport style seats, but outside in an enclosed area about 30 feet square. Those folks are waiting in the "waiting area" to fly out on the plane you just came in on. It isn't even covered- nothing to protect you from wind, sun, rain, or Mosquitoes (which are affectionately called Mozzies). The crew unloads your luggage onto a flatbed trailer and pulls it around the side of the airport where you root through and find your bags, and then it's on to a taxi or shuttle to take you into Airlie Beach.

We stayed at a YHA hostel in Airlie Beach, a small tourist town right on the water, and the closest access to the Whitsunday Islands. The shuttle ride in from Proserpine was a Cambodia flashback for me- the scenery was eerily like the Cambodian countryside. But Airlie Beach is definitely an Aussie town- plenty of pubs, bars, and a few places for tourists to get stuff they need like basic groceries and medicine. Most of the shops were places to book tours out to the Whitsundays, or places to buy beach towels and tacky souveneir shirts and the like. We found the office for Oz Adventure Sailing and checked in, and spent some time walking around the town (village I should say really) looking at the various places where one could purchase an underwater camera. Naturally things are expensive and way overpriced in a place like that. The marina where we had to board our ship the next day was quite a hike from the YHA and we had to be there early so we hit the hay early.

Early Thursday morning we made it to the marina after some issues finding it and issues storing our luggage (there's no space to bring anything but a small bag on board) and were promptly issued stinger suits, which you need to wear to snorkel this time of the year due to all the jellyfish. The main problem is the toxic ones that can kill you in 3 minutes. The suits protect you from being stung, and have the added attraction of making you look like a blue Power Ranger. After that we walked down a long dock past a lot of boats before we came to the Enid.

The Enid is a beautiful old former racing sailboat- she completed the Sydney to Hobart (Tasmania) race several times back in the 60s, and at full sail she can travel 9 knots, which may not seem like much, unless you're on the boat yourself with all 3 sails up, soaring along the water. Being a former racing yacht she wasn't really built for passengers, but was retro fitted somewhere along the way and now she can theoretically sleep 21- if you don't mind being very cozy with your neighbors. We had 9, and could comfortably have taken about 3 more. There being only 9 of us made it easy to get to know each other over the span of the 3 days we were out.

Being over 50 years old now, Enid has some quirks, as you may imagine. The toilet facilities are very very small, and the cabin space was frequently stuffy and a bit musty in our case since we got a private room. The room was so small and stuffy, and I might add hot at night that we would have been better off without it. But we got by. The toilets have a mascerator, which is basically a garbage disposal for your toilet. You have to run it for 30 seconds to be sure everything is properly disposed of. The ship has a limited fresh water supply, so we were able to take 1 shower a day no matter how salty our skin got, and it had to be less than 2 minutes. I'm all for roughing it, but it would have been nicer to have a heads up before we got there. :)

The islands were beautiful, tropical islands, and the sun was blazing hot- even with sunscreen I managed to get sunburned on my legs, though I wasn't sunbathing (or sunbaking I should say) like most of the other girls. We enjoyed snorkelling and having the fish swim right up to you- we saw reef sharks, jellyfish, lots of interesting coral, and tons of fish. But one of the highlights of our journey was our skipper, Johny.

Johny is about 50, and is a native to the Whitsunday area. He's been taking people out to the Whitsundays for over 20 years, and was one of the first 6 skippers to take people out on tours. They used to join up the 6 boats in the evenings and hangout all together back then. Now there are 75 boats in the Whitsundays, and something like 6000 people a day go out on tours between all the boats. Johny said he stopped counting how many people he personally had taken out at 30,000, about 5 years ago. He figured he'd taken out 6000 more since then.

Johny is a colorful man- an accomplished sailor, and passionately in love with sailing and the Whitsundays. He is a fountain of knowledge- full of fascinating and interesting facts about the area, about the wildlife, about sailing, and about each of the ships he's skippered. He even knows individual animals at the various sites and has names for them- massive fish come up to him when he calls them, and sea eagles fly down from their perches when he whistles.

The thing that struck me the most about Johny is that despite all the people he's taken out, he is still interested in individuals. He and G had a good talk about marriage and about life- his wife was anti sailing, and for a variety of reasons he just couldn't take living torn between her disapproval of sailing and his love of it. So they separated. He comes from a Cathlc background and at heart is more conservative than he seems, but even though it's been a few years it's obvious that he's still dealing with the issues from his divorce and in seeing his children. His kids are 17, 13, and 18 months- the last one was what he called an oops, because in his words "old habits die hard." His oldest is off to university soon. He isn't a skipper all year round- it doesn't pay well enough for him to support his kids, so he works construction (which is booming in Australia and pays very well) part of the year, and skippers the other part.

We enjoyed the Islands, and making 7 new friends on board the Enid, but Johny will forever stand in my mind as a representation of the real Whitsundays. As various powerboats would go flying past us, on day trips out to the reef, or planes would fly overhead on short trips to the beach, he would tell us about what they were missing, and how the Whitsundays had become such a tourist destination that locals didn't even live in Airlie Beach anymore. He was so willing to share his life and his knowledge with us, even though we were 9 among 30,000.

G and I spent some time trying to get to know Johny- we wanted to know the real him, what his experience was like, and to show a true interest in him beyond what most of the people coming through wanted. He plays guitar, and he and G talked about his music, and how that relates to life. I asked him about his family, his kids, did they enjoy sailing- how far was the farthest he'd sailed (Thailand). I really felt like we got to know him, and I hope that he felt cared about by at least we 2 out of those 36,000.

Our whole group was sad when the Enid started for her home port, but Johny put up the mailsail and as we sailed along quietly over the water he went out to the prow and hung over the edge with his cell phone camera taking pictures of the water and the ship as she zoomed along in all her glory. I snuck some pictures of him to send back to him, and to remind me of his true sailor spirit. We were all a bit sad when Enid pulled into her berth at Airlie Beach again, and Johny gave us each a parting hug as we departed.

As I sat on the plane at Proserpine, preparing to take off, I pulled out one of the magazines in the seat pocket- it was about the Whitsundays, and the author had written a bit article on his 7 day trip. He'd taken plane rides, speedy boat rides, he'd sat in jacuzzis and scuba'd the reefs and snorkelled and who knows what else. He had experienced all that there was to do in the Whitsundays and was suggesting all those activities to newcomers. But as I read his article I was overwhelmed with the sense that he missed the most important thing of all- he missed out on relationships with the people who love the Whitsundays, hearing about the history, the details, watching a local pet a 3 foot long fish that came by to say hello, seeing big sea eagles swoop down for some food when they were called....he missed evenings with a salty sea dog playing his guitar and singing, sharing his life....there is so much that he missed as he whizzed here and there. I thought of what Johny said about the people so busy to see everything, and I just knew that he was right.

We'll never forget our trip to the Whitsundays and all the things we saw and experienced there, but most of all we'll never forget Johny. Here in 12F Michigan it's hard to believe that halfway around the world there's a sailor sailing the Whitsundays, sharing his life and his loves with the tourists who stream through. Whenever I see the sea I'll think of Johny out there, and say a pr for him that someday he'll know the one who created everything. If you think of him, say a pr for him too.

January 29, 2008

You may have been wondering where we disappeared to since I haven't posted a blog in a few days. We were not bitten by a poisonous snake or spider, or something like that. We decided to take a trip to the Whitsunday Islands and take a 3 day "cruise" out to see the reefs there. So I haven't had internet access. The details on the Whitsunday trip will be coming in a few days along with pictures. For the past 3 days we've been in Melbourne enjoying our time with Leslie and Noella and scampering around the Melbourne area seeing a number of amazing and incredible things. (Does this sound like a bad travel guide? More on bad travel guides later as well. :D)

Mostly I just wanted to let people know that we're flying back to Detroit, land of the cold weather and eternal grey skies, tomorrow! We're arriving at midnight Wednesday. We're heading on to London Tuesday night, putting us back home in Swavesey next Wednesday morning. I can hardly believe that it's the end of January, and our trip to the land of Oz (that's what they call it here) is ending. As with any trip end, it's time to debrief our trip and think about how we've changed and what we've learned on our journey. I'm still thinking a lot of those things through, but I'd like to share a few things.

I have traveled to something like 10 or 15 countries in my relatively short lifetime, but I never seem to lose the wonder of visiting a new place. On this trip I saw some amazing creatures living in incredible situations, and was reminded that our Gd is incredible in his diversity and creativity. I made friends with some folks who are on 1 month, 2 month, 3 month, and 4 month travel trips all over Australia. I got to know an amazing Aussie man who was our boat skipper, and see what his life is like. And I was blessed to visit with old friends and catch up again. All of those things always make me think more deeply about life and it's meaning to me, and makes me look at my life and my routine with new eyes.

I think I will always have the travel bug, and I can't avoid feeling that restless "it's time to visit a new place" feeling after a few months. But I am so thankful to be grounded by friends and family who love me no matter where in the world I am. Thanks for your prs and we're looking forward to catching up in Michigan and in Cambridge when we get there.

January 22, 2008

On Saturday we took a trip to the Blue Mountains- they're about an hour west of Sydney. Absolutely beautiful- it was like some of the images I've seen of the hills in New Zealand. (Which we didn't get to visit although I really wanted to.) We were heading specifically for Jenolan (gen-O-lan) caves, some really awesome caves with limestone deposits and things. We stopped in some of the small towns there, and we also made a stop at Wentworth Falls. One thing that I failed to mention so far is that it started raining on our way...and rained the entire time. :) We had one umbrella, so we hiked with one umbrella and generally got very wet. Fortunately we have special quick drying tech pants (G has shirts too) so we dried out fast.

Beautiful Wentworth Falls in the mist

The falls is to the left of this image.

To the right of the image above- such a beautiful valley.


There were some awesome trails to hike on to reach a lower vista of the valley and the waterfalls, so we went for it. The trails were more like a river bed because it was raining, but the walk was beautiful- so many beautiful flowers and even with the rain it was awesome. I couldn't take a picture without G holding the umbrella over me, so I didn't get as many as I wanted, especially the flowers.





After we stopped at the falls we continued on our way to Jenolan Caves. The countryside is amazingly beautiful, and very English actually. :)

The road to the caves was very curvy and very narrow....but beautiful views out over the valley.

On the road side

In the caves, a big hole formed by a sinkhole

A beautiful tree in the caves

Limestone formations!

This one is called The Willow


G with a formation called a Crayback, which is formed by the combination of algae and limestone.

A crayback up close.

Interesting patterns on the cave walls.


This type of formation is called a shroud. They had this one back lit. So awesome looking!


The first European discoverers called this Cathedral City



The limestone looks like water.



An underground river!

January 21, 2008- American moments

We've been keeping busy in Sydney, and I have some pictures and things to upload, but I just couldn't avoid writing about an interesting thing on TV right now. When you live in another country, you appreciate little moments from home. I bet you'll never guess what this reminder of home is. :) It's 10:21am here in Sydney, which puts it at about 7pm in Detroit, 6pm in Green Bay... That's right- if you're a football fan you know where I'm going with this! It's 0F right now in Green Bay, and the low is expected to be -6F there. -33F with the windchill. How do I know all of this? Because Fox Sports is broadcast here in Australia! Woohoo! Fox Sports Australia in addition to having tennis and cricket on right now is broadcasting NFL Monday Morning (aka Sunday night football). Awesome. :)

I love football- I always have, although college is my personal favorite. But games in harsh weather are always interesting, and I have a very healthy respect for these guys out playing in that weather, of course boosted by being a Michigan native, and although it is hard for me to believe right now with it being so warm here, just 2 weeks ago I was enjoying that same 0F weather myself. :) This is the championship game too, with the winner going to the Superbowl (which is in Arizona.)

My only wish now is that we could get NFL in the UK. There have been a few pro games in London (unfortunately I think they didn't anticipate the damage American football does to a grass field, and they complained about the horrible state of the field after the game) but we just can't seem to get football. Alas.

Well these crazy commentators (I love the Fox commentators) are outside in Green Bay looking like they are about to freeze solid. In fact they poured a glass of water to see how long it would take to freeze, and 30 minutes later it was frozen solid. It's -1F now (10 minutes after I started this). If any of you are watching the game, I hope you enjoy Ice Bowl II. :)

January 18, 2008

Sydney's Central Station

A bilevel train

I spent a lot of time on public transit today. :) This morning we researched which bus would take me to the Chatswood train station (the closest one to where we are, here in North Ryde) and there is a bus pick up at the MacQuarie Center. So I thought I'd just drive there and park the car (they advertise that they have 4200 free parking spots) and catch the bus- sounds good right? My troubles began with trying to get to the bus stops, which are on the outside of the building in a very obvious spot, right out front. The issue is that you have to park somewhere deep in the bowels of their parking structure, which is ridiculously tortuous and twisty. So I couldn't just walk out the way I came in- I wasn't even sure where I was exactly in the structure. I decided to go into the center (which is a 6 story mall basically) and I had a difficult time figuring out how to get out the right doors. As you can imagine, getting back to the car later was a problem as well. :) Add to all this that the spot I had to park in was under the ramp for the level above me....I took a picture of how close the roof was to this ramp. :)

There was less than 6 inches. :)

I caught the bus, which doubles back on itself several times during it's route to Chatswood, so that took about 30 minutes. Coming back from Sydney it took over an hour due to the rush hour traffic. To top it all off I found out on the way to the train station that the bus stops just in front of our hotel! Argh. Well it was good for me to practice patience anyway.

The train ride into Sydney took a little longer than usual because the train kept stopping for some unknown reason. They had to turn all the electricity off at some point, so a helpful voice came on warning us that they were turning off the stuff to try to reset the train. After that off we went. There had been problems on this route all day. When I finally get to Sydney it is now pouring down rain- buckets, like almost a torrential downpour. I had picked up an umbrella, which was a good move. :) I've noticed different opinions in different parts of the work in regards to getting wet. In Michigan people didn't seem to mind getting wet enough to actually carry an umbrella- especially on campus, we all just, well, got wet. No biggie. In the UK I bought my first umbrella in about 20 years because people stared at me and I was obviously not a local walking around getting wet. When in Rome you know? :)

The benches on the train can be reversed- if you pull on them they move in an ark to face the opposite way. Pretty cool.

A view on the train.

Sydney is just as interesting in the rain, but I was heading for Paddy's Market to get souveneirs and such things as people travelling to far away and exotic places generally want to buy and bring back. No problems there- the market is cool and it wasn't too busy because it was early enough in the day. I got a discount because I kept buying stuff from the same lady- that's usually how it works. :) I had an interesting lunch- Paddy's Market is in Chinatown, and I decided to eat at this Taiwainese place called Mother Gui's something or other. The place was packed full of Asian faces, so it seemed like a good bet.

A very Asian looking market- except the walkways are very wide, there are no beggars, and no deep fried tarantulas.

Another aisle of the same market

Many of you know that I like to try new foods, exotic foods, and even potentially bad tasting foods just for the experience. I find lots of new favorites that way. Let's just say that what I had for lunch was not a new favorite. In fact, I think it was one of the hardest things for me to eat since I first ate a century egg in 1999 at Focus. (By the way I've learned to like century eggs.) I ordered bean curd with preserved egg (aka century egg). I like bean curd, and I like century eggs, so no problem right? Well, the problem is that this bean curd was extremely strong and had a very strong fermented flavor...and a squishy pasty clumpy slimy texture. Believe it or not the century egg was the best part of the dish. Anyway the sauce that was on it was very strong tasting of fermentation as well, and for the first time in about 8 years I actually had to repress a gag reflex when the bean curd hit my tongue. Fortunately for me, I like these kind of situations- I'm forever encouraging others to try new foods and to test themselves to not make bad faces while they eat something bad tasting. I'm happy to practice what I preach, and I'm also happy to say that the American family who came in after me and ordered kung pao beef thought I was out of my mind that I seemed to be enjoying this dish that looked so nasty. :)

My tasty lunch experience. Those dark brown blobs are century eggs- they're preserved in this very strange way, so that the yolk turns dark greenish and is slimy and mushy, and the white is a translucenty green/grey/brownish. It's an acquired taste. :)

The restaurant.

Anyway after all these adventures I made my way back to the train, got on it, and had an eerie sort of experience where a guy in the train in front of me clearly stared at me, got up from his seat, and came into my car and sat right across from me and stared at me some more. Of course at that moment the train is in a dark tunnel and almost stopped due to these line problems. I had just made up my mind that if the train didn't start moving I would go and sit next to some people I'd seen who were sitting on the upper deck when the train started moving, and this guy got off at the very next stop. Ladies who travel let me take this opportunity to remind you all to have a game plan in case something like this happens, and a plan for what to do if a guy approaches you in a situation like that. I am very careful when travelling alone, even when I'm with G, and I hope you ladies are careful and alert as well.

G and I heard that there was a night market in Chinatown on Friday nights so we went back in....and couldn't find any night market. :) But we did have a decent Chinese-ish meal (turns out the restaurant was for tourists) and very tasty bubble tea. We also found a place that has Durien gelatto (like ice cream.) In case you are unaware, durien is a loved or loathed fruit from SE Asia which smells/stinks like a rotting carcass. It can be awful, but some people like the flavor of the fruit. We were too full to take on durien flavored anything but since G's never had it we're going back next week sometime to try it. I had it in Cambodia and I think I could learn to like it if I hold my breath while I eat it. :)

An Aussie $50- an ATM surprisingly gave me one today.

We'll let you know the results of the durien taste test when it happens. :)

January 16, 2008

Things have been quiet here the past few days. G has been working to get something done before a deadline on Friday, and we've been looking into what to do with our vacation time here in Australia. There are so many options that it's hard to narrow down. That said, we're not just goofing off and not thinking of you all- we think of all our friends and family back home very frequently and pr for you all as well.

Speaking of pr- I have a relative, A, who has been having a lot of health problems lately. If you go to any sort of chch you may have seen lists and lists of people's relatives with health problems. A has survived breast cancer twice, and all sorts of other things. But recently her son was in a horrible accident and almost lost his arm, and her daughter abandoned her teenage kids to go live in Ohio with some guy that she met, and A has been taking care of the kids and her husband and for awhile her son as well. Would you pr especially for their family (my extended fam) that they would know G's peace and truth?

As I've been out of the UK I haven't heard from E- she should be in Poland right now, and as such may have some very difficult decisions to make regarding either staying there and getting some support there for her depression, or coming back and trying to keep working in the UK on her own. She has a degree but she said there are no jobs for young people in Poland, and she feels that if she stays there it will be the end of any sort of work for her. Being able to work in the UK is really important for her and her family. Thanks all of you who are pring for her- I'm trying to track down her email address, but she doesn't email frequently because she has to go to an Internet cafe and with her depression she rarely feels motivated to do that.

The time here is going by fast- we've been in Sydney for exactly a week now. It doesn't seem possible that it's only been a week- we've adjusted well and are thoroughly enjoying our time here, remembering that icy cold blizzards await us in Detroit, and temps in the low 50s F await us in Cambridge when we finally get back. At least the days will be longer. :) Not only are we missing you all, but I am really missing Nelly- I miss her friendly cat companionship just about everyday. I'll be happy to see her little cat face when we get back to Cambridge in February. :)

January 13, 2008- Sydney Opera House

Talk about a packed weekend- since G has to work during the week we have been running all over trying to fit in everything that we can. We had intended to go to a North Ryde chch (similar to the one we go to in Cambridge) but got their srvice time mixed up. We bought a Day Tripper pass for the trains, which includes all the train services to and from the suburbs as well as the Sydney Public Ferries. So we drove to the closest station, which actually just opened- and we weren't even sure it was really open, so we had to stop and ask someone. We pulled over near a taxi stand, and a very helpful taxi driver knew that it was open, and also told us that street parking on Sundays was free. So we managed to find a parking spot amidst the construction on some streets. It was a wee bit stressful but we got on the train. :)

I wish I'd taken some pictures of the train- they are actually bi-level, so twice as many people fit on them. They were in general newer looking and in better shape than the London Underground trains. But we did see that putting one's feet on the seats is almost a capital offense. :)

An entrance to a Chinatown street

Our first stop was Chinatown. If you've been to Chinatown in either Toronto or Chicago, you might not recognize this as a Chinatown except for one street where there were a lot of Chinese restaurants. We had lunch at a place there, where an American woman happened to be sitting next to us and struck up a conversation. She had just arrived that day, and was staying nearby. Unfortunately she mostly wanted to know if we'd had an of the local beers, or wines, and since our answer to that was no, we had to chat about other things. :) Across the way from Chinatown is this place called Paddy's Markets, which for any of you who have been to a big Asian market, it's nothing new. It's generally cried up here as a very cool place to go- I certainly enjoyed it if nothing else for bringing back fond memories of the central market in Phnom Penh. There were a lot of repeat sellers, a high proportion of tourist clothing shops and sellers of boomerangs (which is cool because they are all painted by Aborigonals) and of the 300 shops, 5 were wig shops. :) There was also a big section for food buying. The market seems to control the pricing, so all the shops have the same costs. In any case I think we'll do our touristy shopping there.

The restaurant where we had lunch

From there we walked through the Harborside area, put our feet into a fountain, and walked on toward the Sydney Aquarium. It's an interesting area down there- all the streets are brick. I guess 100 years ago it was all slums down there, but it looks nice now.

The harborside. Across from there is the National Maritime Museum.

A 1959 destroyer that the museum has. There's a submarine in the foreground if you can spot it, and behind the destroyer is a tall ship replica of Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavor, the first European ship to land in Australia. We didn't make it to the museum so I didn't find out the name of the other ships- I just knew Captain Cook's already. :) BTW Captain Cook went to our chch STAG back in the 1700s. They call the people on that ship the First Fleeters. Their graves are specially marked.

We decided not to stop at the aquarium, and instead took a public ferry over to Circular Quay where the Opera house is. The ferrys are neat- if you buy a DayTripper pass you can ride all the ferries, the trains, and the buses, for $16. We didn't know where the ferry was going when we got on it though- we just figured if we didn't like where it ended up, we'd just take it all the way back. It turns out we got a nice tour of the harbor out of it.

The ferry stop where we got on.

Luna Park- the scariest entrance I've ever seen. :) It's like an amusement park. It didn't look impressive from the ferry.

It's us with the Opera House! We had a hard time getting it and us in holding the camera out. :)

This is what the call one of the "sails" up close. It's not smooth like it looks, and it's not all one color either. It's made up of 1.5 million or so tiles, and some are a sort of yellow, some are white. It's meant to make the sails look different shades in different types of lighting.

The design was done by a Danish guy- if you're interested in the history you should check online. The architect won a contest that was suggested to the Sydney gov't by the head of the Sydney symphony back in the late 1950's. He died before it was done, and the architect (who is 90 now) had some issues with the gov't and left, never to come back again. So he's never seen it in real life either, although the building he designed is now a World Heritage Site, the youngest building on the list.

The tiles have different types of glazing, but apparently they are self cleaning to keep off the moss. :)

There's G next to one end of the sails.

This is the view out of the lobby of both the concert halls.

There are actually 2 concert halls in the structure. I highly recommend the tour if you can take it. They have a backstage tour but we didn't know about that- you show up at 7:30am and they have breakfast and then take you back behind the scenes.

The lobby windows, which are sort of under the pointy part of the sails, are supported by all this metal.

I didn't know this, but the sails, basically the entire white part you see from the outside, is completely separate from the concert halls built inside. The wood part here is the 1950s era concert halls, which were designed by an entirely different guy.

G started coming down with something in the evening and had a really high fever that night- fortunately he was fine the next day.

Wow- that was a lot of writing and a lot of uploading. I hope you got some sort of feel for the Opera House and for a bit of Sydney from all of it. :) We're laying low the next 2 days to recouperate from all of that crazyness. :) We're hoping to go out to the Blue Mountains one evening this week, and also to the Aquarium one evening.