Brisbane


We arrived in Brisbane at 6 a.m. after our red eye flight from Darwin. We took a cab to Piers's place in Paddington which is a nice suburb west of the city. Piers is a Deathstar player who played at World's and was also the Australian Junior's Coach for the past World's in the U.S. After some breakfast at a nearby cafe we took a nap until noon. Somewhat more refreshed we were ready to adventure into the city.

Piers recommended a great jog (left) for us to do in the city through South Bank which lead us along the river and gave us a great view of the skyline. After the run we swam Street's Beach pool (below), which is a man-made white sand beach in the city. An awesome idea since you can't swim in the river. We visited the library and then headed home to meet up with Piers for a kangaroo BBQ dinner.

Piers made a gourmet dinner with roasted garlic, potatoes, yams, onions, BBQ'ed kangaroo with a cranberry sauce, and super fruit plate for dessert. Fantastic!

After dinner they took us to a nearby mountain which gives a great lookout over the city and also a great view of the stars since you are above the street lights. This was our first time to locate the Southern Cross star constellation which is depicted on the Australian flag. We then headed into "The Valley", the extremely popular bar strip, for a coffee and to people watch.

We were up early the next day to pick up our tour bus to start our 11 day Adventure Tour up the upper east coast to Cairns.

We're headed back to Brisbane for another day after the tour since that's where we fly out to Auckland, New Zealand. It's a really awesome city, so we're excited to spend some more time there!

Darwin is Reptile-tastic!
**Check the next post for updated pictures of our time in Darwin!!

When we arrived in Darwin on The Ghan we expected to find a huge thunderstorm waiting for us because everyone has told us that in the "Wet" season it is really wet. It was cloudy but no rain, we thought maybe we had lucked out. Not for long. For the three days and four nights we spent in Darwin it rained off and on every few hours. It wasn't terrible because it actually cooled it down for a second. With humidity near 90% and temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius it's pretty much a sweat box.

We stayed at the Gecko Lodge because it serves fresh pancakes for free every morning. They were huge and delicious and worth it. We met some nice people from Montreal (French Canadian), Germany, Holland, and of course Australia.

Our first full day in Darwin, Cara and I went to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It was a great museum that had an 18 foot taxidermied crocodile named Sweetheart, an exhibit on the poisonous/venomous animals of Australia, and an art exhibit showing aboriginal basket weaving...my favorite aboriginal art so far. For dinner we walked into town, which is about 2 km away from the Gecko, to The Vic for their $3.50 dinner special. A salad and meal for about $3 Australian is by far the best dinner deal we've found while traveling. The food was good enough to not complain about after spending so little. We headed home after dinner because we were waking up early for a one-day tour to Litchfield National Park.

Our tour to Litchfield was great. Our first stop was a crocodile jumping tour. After holding a water python we all loaded into a boat to head out onto the croc infested Adelaide River. In less than 5 minutes we saw our first jumping croc. From the second balcony of the boat they hang a piece of raw meat over the water to entice the crocodile. We only saw the biggest ones in the area because they are very territorial and even cannibalistic and won't let a smaller crocodile hang out in their hunting grounds. These crocs were huge! Some were over 4 meters and had monstrous heads and jaws. After our awesome croc jumping tour we headed for Litchfield NP.

Our first stop in Litchfield was to check out termite mounds. We saw two types; cathedral and magnetic. The magnetic termite mounds are only known to exist in this small section of the park. They rise vertically from the ground about 2 meters and are thin resembling head stones in a cemetery. They are called magnetic because they all face north/south. Pretty amazing.

Our next stop in Litchfield was a beautiful waterfall where we ate lunch, but we could not swim here because of the possibility of saltwater crocodiles. Our next stop was another waterfall with a great plunge pool we were allowed to swim in because we had climbed onto a plateau where crocs would have a hard time getting to. Still, it was easy to spook yourself after the mornings events to think a crocodile could be swimming with you.

Our last stop was at a set of natural pools were we swam with a water monitor lizard. It was not shy and came very close to Cara and I as we were trying to take it's picture.

The next day we awoke early and went for a run on the beach. We checked out of our room and were allowed to hang out with our bags at the hostel all day because our flight to Brisbane wasn't until 1:50 am that night. We went into town for another great Vic dinner and met up with Nelo and George our Portuguese friends we met the day before on our Litchfield tour. They both are military police from Portugal who are currently working in East Timor. They had some very interesting stories and were great to talk to. The first people I've met from Portugal on any of my travels. It was a great end to our travels through the middle of the country.

Darwin and Litchfield National Park...Pictures

"Sweetheart" the crocodile, a local legend standing in at a mere 5.7 meters.

*He was notorious for trying to eat the boats, and contents, of local fishermen on the Darling River, so the parks deptartment captured him to take him to captivity and he died in the process.

Yugir Falls, Litchfield National Park.

During "The Dry" you can swim in the pool, but not during "The Wet" because of crocs.

Darwin beach at low tide. Can't swim this time of year because of the stingers (a.k.a. deadly jellyfish).

A water monitor lizard in Litchfield NP. There were two in the stream pools we swam at.

Magnetic termite mounds, Litchfield NP. This was pretty incredible. There's fields of hundreds of these termite mounds and they all face north to south. It has the look of a perfectly N-S aligned cemetary.

* Scientists aren't exactly sure why, but the main theory is to regulate temperature. In the morning, when it's cooler, the broad east side has the full light on it to warm it up. At dead noon and in the hottest parts of the day with the sun directly overhead, the mound is only receiving partial sunlight to keep it cooler. And again in the evening, the west side receives full light to keep it warm. Sweet, eh?

Cathedral Termite Mound, Litchfield NP

*3 meters of of grass, termite lugees/spit, and feces. Yum! The termites that make these eat only grass. The other type of termites that eat wood are responsible for didgeridoos! They hollow out entire tree trunks and branches and people hunt down the completely hollow ones to make the oh-so popular Australian instrument.

Estuarine Crocodile, a.k.a. a "salty"

*One of the crocs we saw on our one day Litchfield NP tour. Mike got this great picture.

Swimming hole in Litchfield.

*We got to swim three times in tropical pools and waterfalls on our one day tour to Litchfield NP. It was amazing, and at one with a 7 meter waterfall, it was pouring rain...a true wet season experience.

Mike holding a water python.

*Like other pythons, they aren't poisonous, they simply hug their prey to death...isn't that cute?

The Red Centre: On the Road in Outback Australia

Mike and I have now found the ultimate method of travel. So, you know how people will rent cars or camper vans one way from one city to another? Well, it turns out that the rental company then needs someone to drive that said car/camper van back to the original city of rental origin. Since they need it done quickly, they let travelers in the know "relocate" it for them for a small fee of $5 a day plus a $100 fuel allowance. Sounds too good to be true, no? I almost lost it when I saw our sweet ride to Alice Springs from Adelaide.

"The Wombie", so named for it's resemblance to the native wombat (low to the ground and stout) and it's similarity to "Combi" which is what Aussies call VW camper vans, is a fully equipped 5 star resort on wheels. Complete with a bed, fridge, stove, toilet, and shower, we didn't leave the Wombie for 3 days. I don't know if I can ever go back to a tent again now that I've had a taste of the Wombie life. Mike and I vowed to purchase one of these as soon as we have disposable income and take all our friends to tournaments in it. Get ready, Texas ultimate...we're riding in style from now on!

So off we drove into the outback with the goal of reaching Coober Pedy by nightfall. On the way, we stumbled across Port Germaine, a tiny town that used to be a huge center for grain shipping and it's present claim to fame...Australia's longest wooden jetty. Now, I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it was totally amazing. The jetty juts out into the ocean 1600 meters, a mile from the shore. The most incredible part was that for most of those 1600 meters, the water was about a foot and a half deep...it was the longest continental shelf I've ever seen or heard of. You could walk for half a mile, and then take a set of stairs down to the ocean and just walk around. Because it was so shallow, the water was a beautiful sky blue and tepid...it was essentially the largest bath tub ever. We ran into a few families crabbing at the end of the jetty and very nearly took a blue swimmer crab back with us to cook up in the Wombie to get a taste of local culture, but I didn't want to break my NY resolution.































We made it to Coober Pedy late after a long day of driving. Coober Pedy is the self proclaimed "Opal Capital of the World". It's also one of the hottest places on earth, and because of that more than half the town lives underground in old mines they've converted to houses. We took a tour of a defunct opal mine, underground house, and museum. On top the city looks like a colony on Mars...it's totally crazy. The mines surround the town proper, so whatever direction you look, there are these hills of mined sandstone and thirty meter holes in the ground. It looks like miniature mountain ranges surround the city in all directions.


We got out of town after the tour in an effort to reach Alice Springs, the geographic central city of Australia, before dark. We booked a tour to Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) and the Olgas the next day since it was the most cost efficient way to get there and back in one day.

We awoke early and caught our tour bus right outside of the Wombie. Our enthusiastic tour guide, Malcom, was the epitome of the cliché Aussie male...straight out of Crocodile Dundee folks. He filled us in on loads of geology, geography, aboriginal history and traditions, and other interesting facts about central Australia. I was totally dorking out when he started talking about the ages and layers of rock that formed Uluru and such. We also made a quick stopover to see Dinky, the piano playing and singing Dingo (creeeeepy).

Our next stop was the Uluru-Kata Djuta Cultural Centre; we had lunch and saw some displays on local Aborignal (Anangu) culture and why Uluru and the surrounding land is so sacred to their community. We walked around a good part of the bottom (they ask you not to climb it since it is a sacred sight and it was closed anyways due to high temp. and winds) and saw a lot of cool sites, ranging from waterfalls/pools to rock art. The thing that I was most impressed with was just the sheer size of it, which was only amplified by the fact that all the land surrounding it was so incredibly flat.

We went to the Olgas next which were very similar to Uluru, but a group of 4 humps instead of one large one. The composition of the sandstone was also different, making for some pretty sweet patterns in the rock. You were allowed to hike in between some of the mounds so we did just that. Then it was off the Uluru again to have a sunset dinner complete with "bubbly" (sparkling wine). It was a dreary day and overcast, so we didn't get to see the crazy sunset colors, but it was still beautiful. We watched "the sunset" over the rock, but in time forgot about it all together because our whole tour was tipsy on bubbly and chatting away. It was Mike and I, and about 8 other much older people, sitting there having our own little outback party. It was splendid, and when we did remember to look over at Uluru, it was pretty moving. Those were the moments we came here for.

Adelaide Continued...


K, Roby, Joel, and Kaz all made Adelaide a great stay for us. We were able to train with the local players, play beach pick-up, go for a swim, see the sunset at Glenelg Beach, ate great organic pizza, sleep in beds in our own "granny flat", and ride our bikes to the city for a wine tasting. Here are some pictures.

Piggy at the walking mall on Rundle St. The main strip for shopping in the city
















Roby and Mika the happy mut
















Wine! Riesling blah, Chardonney good

















We made the perfect Chardonney - Gold!

Adelaide

Cara and I arrived in Adelaide this morning after an early flight from Sydney. K, a frisbee friend whom I played with at the Melbourne Hat Tournament picked us up from the airport and arranged a great place to stay at his girlfriend Roby's house just outside of the city. We've got a little bungalow out back. After a nap we headed into the city to walk around. We are both going to training tonight and plan on playing some beach pick-up tomorrow night.

It is hot and dry here, a lot like Phoenix. It's forecasted at 39 degrees celsius tomorrow. We are back to the drought and water shortages section of the country after many days of light rain in Sydney. Pictures to come soon.

- M & C

Coogee Beach


After a traditional Australian breakfast of bacon, 2 eggs, a fried tomatoe, toast, and barbacue sauce I got my things ready to head to Coogee Beach. Although it was overcast I had a new book to read so I knew the trip would be worthwhile.

I hopped on the #370 bus just a block from The Wedge, paid the $3.90 faire, and in 30 minutes I was transported to an awesome beach. Coogee is south of the city like Bondi, but is not as crowded. I grabbed a sandwhich for lunch and after watching an over in the cricket match I went to the beach. For those that have no idea, an over is every 6 bowls (pitches), these are the kinds of things you learn when the Ashes are being played during your trip.













The waves were massive! Look at the size of the people about to be swallowed by this wave. This picture was taken right in front of the lifeguard station where about 10 guards were watching and waiting to pull out the next victim of the Pacific Ocean. As I arrived, not kidding, they had just got someone settled into an ambulance. I don't know what happened to him/her but i'm sure some salt water was swallowed. In the picture the two guys with red and yellow swim caps are lifeguards in for a swim.


I decided to swim in a slightly calmer part of the surf, still between the yellow and red flags. The water was numbingly chilly. After a quick dip and while I could still feel my toes I was out of the water for a beach stroll. There was an ocean pool just off to the right side of the beach for those who prefer non-waving crashing swims and a nice covered area at the rear of the sand to still enjoy watching the surf out of the sun.

After about three hours at the beach, it started to rain so I took the bus back to Newtown and after some dinner I'm here typing up a post while enjoying a Cooper's Stout Ale. I expect Cara, Claire, and Whit will get home tonight around ten with some good stories from their Hat Tourney weekend.

I'lll end this post with a few more pictures of Coogee Beach. - Mike

Royal National Park - The Coast Track

Cara, Claire, and Whit hitched a ride to Canberra this weekend to play in a Hat Tournament. At the last second I decided to stay back in Sydney because the weather just turned nice after 4 rainy days and I wanted to go to the beach.

Instead of the beach, I called Aussie Dave, Adrian's college buddy from Rice, and asked him for the details on the Coast Track, a 26 km trail south of Sydney. The trail begins in a coastal rain forest and ends along arid cliff-tops along the coast. It was amazing! I was on the trail by 8 am and was boarding my train back to Sydney by 6 pm. Along the way I saw a quaint beach town, wonderful beaches (North Era, Garie, Wattamolla, and Little and Big Marlie), amazing cliff-sides being bashed by the Pacific Ocean, and a lizard and echidna.

My first swimming break was at Garie Beach. The southern side of the beach had nasty looking waves and the middle of the cove was filled with fisherman fishing from the beach. The northern part of the cove was gentle so after a reading a bit of my book, fittingly a Dirk Pitt novel, I jumped in the water to cool off. It was much colder than the water we swam in at Manly Beach.

I put my shoes on and began to hike again. Just over the hill from Garie Beach the land turns into desert that resembles what you see in the Southwest. There was however a glimmering stream I hiked over on my way to my next swim break at CurraCurra, a very small private cove. After eating lunch and watching some skittish crabs I headed towards Wattamolla.

Wattamolla was paradise. There was a white sand beach, a gently ocean to swim in, and a separate shallow cove to swim and play in with a rope swim and an 8 meter cliff perfect for a jumping platform. It was packed because it is accessible by car, but the hordes of people did not take away from beauty. After exploring the beach and the cove I climbed the cliff for my jump. I watched severely people complete their jumps successfully so I assumed it was safe enough. I didn't check how deep it was under the cliff nor did I ask anyone...mistake. As my pencil-like body entered the water both my feet slammed straight into the bottom. Luckily the sandy bottom cushioned the blow so I came away injury free and ready to continue the hike.

It was about 2 pm when I began the last section of the hike. From Watamolla it was 12 km to Bundeena, the end of the trail. On the way I walked along 100 meter cliffs and Little and Big Marley Beach. There was one point along the cliffs where an edge was pure white. It looked like stacks of tofu. The last part of the hike was tough as I was getting tired and thirsty. I passed a lot of people along the way so I was never in trouble if I really needed water.

After I got to Bundeena it was a short ferry ride to Coronvilla where I picked up the train back to the city. After a dinner, beer, and shower I started to upload the 40 plus photos I took today. Here is the only down-part of my whole day. Somewhere in the process of saving them to Whit's computer I messed up and they didn't stick. Before I checked to see if they were there, I erased them from my camera. And just like that, the memories of the amazing day I had are going to be more difficult to remember. I'm a little heart-broken. I wish I had something to show you from my coastal adventure, but this post will have to do.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to take it easy and start on a new book at the beach.

love,
Mike

Sydney cont...

The last few days since New Year's Day have been quite eventful. We finally got of our bums and played tourists for a few days. It rained almost everyday this week however, which gave us a good excuse to sit around and read at The Wedge. Since I haven't introduced the characters/residence of The Wedge yet, they are: Nadine, Emily, Marcus, and Greg (and sometimes Ken)...4 (and sometimes 5) ultimate players who live in a three story triangle and have more than graciously allowed 4 more of us (Whit, Claire, Mike, and I) to take over their very triangular living room. I've had a hard time not overeating here, and I am blaming that on the fact that I'm always subliminally reminded of some kind of delicious triangular food (pie, pizza, cheese, gelato cone, croissants, etc.) while staying here. Can you blame me, really?

So anyway, The Wedge and its inhabitants have been good to us, and are pretty much the reason that we are able to stay in Sydney and explore, or just sit around and read, since we don't have to pay the outrageous hostel fees. We love The Wedge! I've been running around the city to stay in shape and have gotten to explore some pretty cool areas. I convinced Whit and Mike to run with me on Tuesday to the Harbor Bridge and Sydney's oldest neighborhood, The Rocks. We met up with Claire (who doesn't have running shoes) and walked around The Rocks before walking across the Harbor Bridge. It's very high, quite long, and the views are superb. We then walked around Circular Quay and the Opera House since Claire and Whit hadn't seen it up close yet. We hit up Chinatown and immediately lamented the fact that we had just eaten lunch, so vowed to come back another day to do nothing but eat.

Mike and I spent Thursday in the beach side suburb of Manly. My brother Andy's girlfriend Nadine has friends in Manly, and she was kind enough to give us their contact info and introduce us via email. Natalie and Daniel both work for Dell International and lived in Austin for 5 years...it was so nice to be able to talk about Austin with people who know it since we miss a lot of things there. They were amazing hosts. They allowed us to use their mountain bikes during the day and Natalie suggested a really beautiful bike ride that took us to a cliff side vista, Northhead Point. From there you could see the entrance to the Harbor, hundreds of sailboats, the city, Manly and other northern beaches, and the cliffs of the Pacific to the south. It was an incredible view, and a nice bike ride as well. The weather was perfect, so we spent the rest of the day sitting on the beach reading, throwing, and trying avoid man eating sharks in the crystal clear water. We then went back to Natalie and Daniel's house, an amazing condo right on the Harbor side beach. We showered, sat out on their balcony, and played cards until they got home. They made us a delicious dinner and filled our belly's with amazing wines and desserts. Their roommate Frederick is from Sweden, and Mike enjoyed talking with him about the possibility of getting a visa and living in this amazing city forever. They then walked us to the Ferry and showed us their local wildlife, a family of penguins that hang out in the wharf area! It was an incredible day and night...thanks to Natalie, Daniel, and Frederick for having us over and being so accommodating and fun!

The view from their deck in Manly...ridiculous!

The local wildlife...two baby penguins off the Manly Wharf.













The view from Northhead Point facing west towards the Harbor and city.









On a different note: Mike and I have been conducting a self funded study on whether a person can live healthily eating solely Thai and Indian food. While our mental state is good because delicious and spicy foods release dopamine and generally make us happy, the results on our intestinal tracks have been devastating. Today we searched far and wide to find some Mexican food, as we have both been going through some very nasty withdrawl. It wasn't Trudy's, but it did the job.



Yumm...queso!








We finally fulfilled our vow and went to Chinatown for lunch, and dessert, and another dessert today. =) Tomorrow morning, I head back to Canberra to play in the Discos Kalientes Hat Tournament with some local Sydney players. I'm meeting Claire and Whit there. Mike is planning on staying here in Sydney for the weekend and walking the 26 km. beach trail tomorrow that follows the east coast and being a beach bum.

We've planned out the next month until we leave for New Zealand and it's going to be an exciting 4 weeks! More details later.

Hope 2oo7 is treating you all well,
Cara