The End

Tues 4/28 If you are reading this we are probably already on our way home. The last week has been an all day every day marathon. We flew to Uluru and took a walk around part of the base of the rock with a 90 year old aboriginal woman who told the myths and legends of her tribe and stories of what life was like when she was a child. It was great. I wished we had several more days there. Next was Kakadu National Park, one of the main places we wanted to see. We did a scenic flight over it and Arnem Land - all aboriginal country and bigger that you can imagine. Then we went on a boat trip in the Yellow Water Billabong and had a close encounter with a salt water crocodile and hundreds of beautiful birds. Very exciting. Then it was off to Cairns on the beautiful tropical north east coast. Yesterday we snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. I couldn't believe we were actually there. Today we took a train up into the mountains to a small village and a rainforest preserve then rode back down the mountain on a cable car just barely skimming the top of the rainforest canopy. Tomorrow we go to a rainforest that is older than the Amazon and swim in the Coral Sea. And then it is over. The trip has been everything we hoped for and more. But we are tired and probably couldn't keep going at this pace much longer. We do miss everyone and will be glad to be back with you again. See you soon.

Great Ocean Road

Mon. 4/20 We are off on a two day road trip along The Great Ocean Road west of Melbourne. It was built as a tribute to those who died in WWI and the views are magnificent with beautiful little resort villages along the way . Today we saw the coast along Bass Strait that runs between Tasmania and the mainland and tomorrow we will follow along the coast of the Southern Ocean that is between here and Antarctica. The road is a narrow little strip cut into the sides of the mountains that run down to the sea. We are glad we are on a bus and not driving it ourselves. We leave for the outback and the tropical Northern Territories on Wed. It has been in the 90's up there so it should help prepare us for returning to Texas. You can stop worrying, Nanny. There have only been 3 dingo attacks since we have been here and they have all been on children. Apparently they don't care for fat old ladies. One sixty-seven year old woman was attacked by a kangaroo last week but she thought she had probably startled him when she woke him up from his nap. And only one person has been eaten by a crocodile in the last month. He was swimming in the river where they live which isn't something I am likely to do.

Koalas and Penguins

Sun. 4/19 We toured Melbourne this morning. It is a city of contrasts - beautiful 18th century Victorian buildings and the most bizarre contemporary architecture ever. In the afternoon we went down to Phillips Island to see the Penguin Parade. On the way we saw 10 or 12 koalas. Most were sleeping - they do that 18 hours a day. One little guy climbed down and entertained us for 10 minutes or so then climbed up and went back to sleep. Koalas are very appealing animals. At sundown we saw the little penguins come back across the beach to return to their burrows. They are only about 12 inches tall, the world's smallest. They gather together in a group to get up the nerve to cross the beach. Very cute. Tom continues to work on his goal of trying every beer made in New Zealand and Australia. He says he may have to extend his stay if he runs out of days before he runs out of beers.

Goodbye to Tasmania

Fri. 4/17 We have fallen in love with Tasmania and don't want to leave. Our last day was wonderful. The hosts at our B&B recommended a jet boat trip around the bottom of the Tasman Peninsula so we decided to go for it. The coastline was rugged & beautiful with stone cliffs rising 900 feet straight up out of the water. We saw lots of wildlife and I discovered that I really like fast boats and big waves.

Magical Forest

Mon. 4/13 Another perfectly wonderful day in Tasmania. We took several walks in different areas of the park and learned so much about the plants and animals and how they have adapted to life in this environment. Our favorite place was a forest about halfway up the mountain. There is an old chalet up there that was built as a guesthouse in the last century by the man who pushed to have this area declared a national park. The forest was filled with King Billy Pines which are as tall and big in diameter as redwoods and are many hundreds of years old. The other predominant trees are pencil pines which have clumps of long thin evergreen foliage. Then everything is covered in moss that is the greenest green I have ever seen. I wish my pictures could do it justice but they don't. I'm pretty sure the elves and fairies live here even if I didn't see them. We love the mama and baby wombat who live down the road from us.

Cradle Mountain National Park

Happy Easter all. We drove from the coast up into the highest mountains in Tasmania. It is alpine country with plants found nowhere else in the world. We are staying at Cradle Mountain Lodge which is like one of the old national park lodges in the US with cozy lounges where people sit around in front of the fireplaces reading or playing games. We drove up to Dove Lake at the end of the road in the park hoping to see the mountain. We got glimpses of it as the clouds moved over but never saw the whole thing. We are the look for wildlife and have managed to see wallaby and wombat. Probably won't see the Tasmanian Devil as they are nocturnal and shy in spite of their reputation. We took several short hikes through the rainforest to waterfalls. It is very beautiful here.

Tasmania

Sat. 4/11 We flew to Hobart on the east coast of Tasmania yesterday. We have a wonderful hotel in an old mansion on a hill above the harbor. This morning we went to the Salmanaca Market, a big local street market with everything you can imagine. We were short on time but I could have spent all day. We bought local fruit & bread & cheese for our lunches. We have been quite happy picnicking everyday. We found Tom's Australian hat at the market. We had looked all over Sydney but couldn't find exactly the right one. That's because it was waiting for us in Tasmania. It's made of kangaroo and ostrich & made by an old German man who has lived here for 20 years. As some of you know we collect national parks so Tasmania is going to be a bonanza for us. We drove through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers NP today. We took several short hikes on the Franklin River and drove up and over a big mountain range. The last 30K were very scary. The roads were narrow with constant hair-pin curves and very steep grades. We were both glad to arrive in the little fishing village of Strahan. Our hotel is an the old mansion built for the harbormaster in the last century and is quite lovely. We "had a bit of a wander" around town then drove out to Ocean Beach to see the sunset. It is a long wide sandy beach with big sand dunes and big waves rolling in from Antarctica across the Great Southern Ocean. Lots of people came out with their wine and beer and sat up on the bluff to watch the sunset. It was gobsmacking!