We made it!  A Two hour flight from Adelaide put us in a landscape light years from our imaginations.  When I thought about the Outback, pictures of a barren red desert came to mind. Alice Springs was a one dirt road town lined with bars and rowdy cowboys.  Yup!  All wrong.

Alice, as the locals call it, is a thriving community of about 30,000 in a *desert* with underground rivers, many species of trees and grasses, and with mountains, buttes, and rock formations all around.

The stunning red, rocky hills are somewhat reminiscent of the deserts in the southwest and aside from snakes and other weird critters appealed to me very much.  That’s a riverbed in the front of this picture!

In the 1800’s when “free” Aussies began moving outside the southern states to explore and build a telegraph to connect all of Australia with itself and England, one fellow decided Alice Springs would be a good  place because there was a river there. Little did he know it had recently rained and runoff was in the riverbed, just where you’d think it should be.  But, here the water sinks into the ground and has made a river underneath the topsoil.  Weird, right?  Well, the guy decided to stay and built a complex here and he invented a way of stringing the wire the singing words used to transmit Morse Code around ‘Stralya’ and to England cutting communication time from six to ten months to four hours!

The dark side is this post was also used as a re-education camp for aboriginal children.  They were taken from their homes and put in dormitories and taught white man’s ways, of course to the detriment of all.  When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?

Yes, when will we ever learn?  This monument is to the ANZAC’s who have fought and died in wars right up to the current one in Afghanistan. The chorus once more, please.

This night we were in for a special treat!  Out to a nearby cattle station we went and learned to throw boomerangs!  Be afraid!  We also sat around a campfire and ate steak, potatoes, salad,  bread, and dough pie (sort of like a big biscuit made in a Dutch oven over the coals and served with treacle.  Yum!). Then we stargazed and we’re amazed at the galaxies before us!  I used to sit on my Dad’s lap and count stars.  This took me back to those days of yore.

Next up was another wildlife park featuring desert animals.  There was a bird show with a desert eagle, a barn owl, a kite, a quoll (in red light because he’s nocturnal.  Has black fur with white dots.), another dingo, a Thorney Devil, and an Emu pronounced e-myou.

We stopped by The Purple House which is a sort of Day Treatment center for aborigines needing dialysis. They can only do two treatments a day because the house is in a neighborhood and the neighbors don’t like it.  So, they have an outreach van which can come to where the need is greatest.  The aboriginal diet has been changed so much they have an 80% diabetic rate.  I hear a chorus coming on!  But at least a few people care.

And, speaking of caring, back in the early 1900’s a woman decided that there were a lot of children in the Outback too far from schools to be able to get an education.  She figured out a way of getting school materials to these kids and having circuit riding teachers and by using the telegraph, later two way radios, and then computers, to give a good education to the far flung kids out in the bush.  This is called The School of the Air, or as I heard it when our guide told us where we were going, The School of th Ear.  That one took a while!

And, so, with the sun setting over Alice Springs we get ready for the five hour bus ride tomorrow to Uluru!

Okay, I’ve lost track of which part were on but I do know we flew to Adelaide two days ago.  When we got here we went straight to Cleland Park, another wildlife park.

The koalas are really cute but if you annoy them they’ll scratch you.  The pelican was as tall as me, and here we saw a couple of dingos doing what they do.

Mark was surprised at how big they are.  I’d say German Shepard size.

We went to dinner at the house of a local, Antoinetta.  It was a very pleasant evening with good food and wine.

And speaking of wine, yesterday we went on a wine tasting at McLaren Vale.

The wine was very good with the sparkling Shiraz surprising the most. The olive trees abounded on the first property we went to and I was quite surprised at how good they were.  I have some olive tapenade to share when we get home!

We also took a stroll around Adelaide and saw quail in the botanical gardens.  How are my quail doing at PEM?

More buildings with the pretty gingerbread metalwork.

A memorial to the US  for coming to that aid of Australia when the Japanese tried to bomb it in 1939.

These big trees are all over.  They are some kind of gum tree but not the kind the kookaburra sits in. Even though that is called a gum tree it is really a eucalyptus.

And finally, all my sewing compadres, this place is called The Button Shop. What a fantastic find in one of the many arcades found around the city!  Didn’t have enough time to browse and I had this weight on my arm pulling me away, but from the outside it looked like a lot of fun!

In a few minutes we depart for the airport and the flight to Alice Springs and the Outback!  We can hardly wait!!

Last night after dinner we walked out to the end of this jetty to look at penguins. Apparently Fairy Penguins, the smallest breed of this bird, hang out here.  They go out fishing all day and come back at night to roost.  The are about 18 inches high when upright and sport a bluish color.

These little guys are pretty cute and didn’t smell as bad as the ones we had at the aquarium when we volunteered there!

Today we went on a walk-about in Melbourne. Across the street from our hotel is a huge stadium which holds more that 100,000 people who are crazy about Aussie rules football.  As far as we can figure out there are no rules and the 18 players on each team just run around the large, round field and try to knock down those on the other team.  We wandered across the street this morning and our guide, Anna, convinced the security guards we were harmless and they let us in for a “wee peak.”

Here’s what we saw, not much, but enough.

Buildings were on the menu today.  The first picture is of an old theatre built in the 1800’s. It shows avant- garde stuff nowadays but it is still architecturally unique and beautiful.

All the new buildings are interesting here.  The second picture is of ACMI which stands for Australian Center of the Moving Image.

Next up is an alley where graffiti artists have had a heyday.  Some of the art is incredible e.g. the drops of water on the close-up.

Because many of the old buildings are so unique, innovative steps have been taken to preserve them. Here is a conical shaped mall built around an old “shot tower.”  A shot tower is an old place where gun pellets were made.  We saw one somewhere else and from what I remember hot lead is dropped from the top and shapes itself into balls on the way down. This is possibly wrong so please let me know if you know better!

Today’s final pic is an attempt to show some of the fancy fretwork found on so many buildings here.  Remember it was made from the ballast in the sailing ships that brought people to Australia. I will continue to look for good examples and post them when I do.

Tomorrow is another travel day.  We’re off to Adelaide and more adventures including wine tasting!!

In the pouring rain and gale-force wind we left Launceston but not without heeding the airport sign board.

And, so, even though my bag didn’t make it when we did, it showed up eventually sporting lots of tags but no clue as to where it had gone!

Because of all the awful weather all flights to Sydney had been cancelled and the folks handling missing bags had a whole batch to send back to Sydney because there were no people accompanying them. Still can’t figure that one out!

Today we went into Melbourne and walked around the botanical gardens with our aboriginal guide.  We started with a smoke ceremony.

Various leaves are added to a small fire.  The leaves signify respect for what our elders have taught us, for the knowledge we pass on to our children, and for the lives we live in the present.  Cen’s whole lesson was that we must take care of the earth, our elders, and our children so we may receive care from them in return.

Next up was a walk through “alleys” in downtown Melbourne.  First, all the streets are named after someone. There is a street 99 feet wide named Bourne Street, for instance, and the next street is only 30 feet wide and named Little Bourne Street.  Why?  Because the wide streets had to be wide enough to turn around a horse and wagon, while the small street only had to be wide enough for goods to be delivered and customers to get to the shops.

The alleys are like the arcades or snugglewickets we saw in England. Most of these are covered and have lots of little shops lining them. The floors are fantastic ceramic inlaid floors, and the ceilings are decorated with ornate metalwork.

The thing with the metalwork made us wonder for a few days.  Many of the older houses have this lace-like adornment which rivals the houses of New Orleans. I’ll post pix later. But what we found out is that it was made from the ballast in the ships that brought these intrepid folks here!

When I get some good pictures of the gingerbread on the houses you’ll see just how beautiful it is!

To finish up with today’s activities, we went to the old Victoria Market. It spans several blocks and has anything you can think of.  Pretty cool!

After we walked through the market, Mark and I walked back to the hotel. We’re doing pretty well getting our 10,000 steps every day!!

But first a word about words!  These Aussies talk funny. Vowels are drawn out so my name, for example, is said Kay-thie.  Whereas the Brits exclude whole parts of words, think Worcestershire sauce, these Aussies add syllables.  LAUNCESTON is pronounced lawn-cess-ton.  Bear is pronounced beer,” beer pronounced bee-ya, male pronounced “mile” and mile is pronounced kilometer.  Go figure!

Another thing is the weather.  We are suffering high winds and frigid temperatures caused by an inflow of *antarctic* air from the south.  Believe me, they aren’t kidding!  Our trip to Cradle Mountain was made in the rain and wind.  Again, I cannot begin to describe how beautiful this country is.  

The air is the purest in earth and so is the water.  Tasmania is run on hydropower so there is no pollution and the countryside is just pristine.

On our way we learned about wallabys and paddy melons, and more about wombats.  Little known fact about wombats in our part of the world, but a fact abundantly clear here, is that they poop squares.  Wallabys are know as wannabes because they are smaller than kangaroos, and paddy melons are a variety of wallabys that look like they’ve swallowed a melon.

Here they are, the wombat, two wallabys, and a Rufus wallaby, or paddy melon.

We hiked a trail in the rain the following morning and noted the genius idea of tacking chicken wire down over the board walks.  It kept us from slipping, which was a good thing! We also saw the chalet hand built by the guy who founded the park.  After his wife died he moved there full time and I have to tell you that living here in the winter would have been a stretch!  Oops, guess I didn’t get a pic of the chalet, but it’s not what you imagine.  Small, rambling, one fireplace, and lots of chinks which needed filling!

On to Launceston, the third oldest town in Tasmania.  Built along the Tamar River, it is a pretty town with a lot of Victorian charm.

 

The lovely Tamar River valley, Cataract Gorge, Mark holding up the suspension bridge, the bridge itself, and a long view of the river and rocks in this “beauty” place.

Next we drove to an aquarium where we met the monotremes, the platypus, and the echinid.

The platypus is a small animal, about two feet long.  They have thick fur with an air pocket on their backs and a flattish, spiny tail.  They are bottom feeders who close their eyes when they eat.  When they have a mouth full, they let the air in their backs pop them to the surface where they chew and swallow.  Each male has a spike on his back feet that he uses to inject a venom into his enemies. If you happen to be this enemy be prepared for a long life of pain because there is no anti venom.  Each male platypus has a different venom so science hasn’t been able to concoct a generic anti venom.  Yuck!

These little guys are echinids.  The white spikes on their backs are hard defensive spikes but they cannot throw them like porcupines.  They have a purple tongue which is as long as their body!  And they can clean a dish of food faster than our cats!

Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne and pick up the rest of the folks on our tour.  Sure hope those Antarctic winds subside!!

What a beautiful island Tasmania is.  It was discovered in 1628 (maybe) by a Dutchman named Tasman.  That is all he did.  Just named it and kept on sailing.

Okay, Jeff, I know I spelled Arthur wrong.  But that’s the way it goes sometimes!  Today we drove about two hours to Port Arthur, location of the “Supermax” prison of the 1700’s.  Before we got there we saw Pirate’s Cove (next stop, Antarctica), the Tesselated Pavement (mysteriously cracked and symmetrical rocks), and Tasman’s Arch.

When we arrived in Port Arthur we were all astounded by the prison.  Built in the early 1700’s by convict labor, the buildings are massive.  Basically, the prisoners were treated as slaves who worked off their sentences by doing hard manual labor, training up for jobs when they were released, and trying to stay out of trouble so that their sentences were not extended.

The main prisoners quarters and  the church are being curated but not rebuilt.  The outer walls are still standing, but in insides are hollow.  The cell sizes are marked out on the floor inside and are tiny.  This type of tiny living was not good.  There are lots of other buildings still there and include houses of the staff, a post office, a whole bank of solitary cells, and an insane asylum.  Some of the more trusted inmates were allowed to make boats. And those who didn’t make it were buried in the Island of the Dead.  Spooky!

Tomorrow we head to Cradle Mountain where we will arrive after an all day drive.  We will go for a spotlighting tour at night looking for nocturnal animals, and we will enjoy a day and night without WiFi!  See you in a couple days,

PART ONE. Not sure about this time travel stuff, but we left El Mirage on Thursday afternoon and got to Tasmania on Saturday afternoon.  A whole bunch of that time was spent in various airports, but the entire flight was in darkness.  We arrived over Australia at dawn.

When we got to Tasmania we had time for a shower and went to a local bistro for dinner, then hit the sack.  Who knew a person could sleep so well, so long.

With the morning came our first big adventure to Bonorong Animal Preserve.  Apparently there are a lot of car/animal mishaps here and this shelter takes care of the survivors.

We met a koala, a wombat, a Tasmanian devil, kangaroos, and an emu.  All these animals except the emu are marsupials.  When the mother gets run over you are always supposed to go out and check the pouch and make sure the “Joey” is alive and if so you take it to the shelter.  Who knew.

On a walk around Hobart we learned some of the area history.  Convicts were sent here from England in the 1700’s. The usual sentence time was 20 years but they were supposed to bring their families with them and work off their time doing projects such as bridge and building construction.  Some convicts had special skills such as one man who knew how to run a printing press.  His sentence was commuted and he became the local printer and a pub owner and a man of high standing in the community.

This lax handling of prisoners came to a screeching halt in  early 1778 when a new Governor General was assigned to the colony.  This guy reversed the kindly treatment of prisoners and started a much sterner regime.  He had a gallows erected and would sometimes hang 9 at a time.  The folks of Hobart (Australia’s second city) revolted and wanted to declare independence as had the American colonies.  King George wanted no more of this so he sent a different guy to replace the one everybody hated.  This new Governor General was Lord John Franklin who reinstated the more relaxed handling of prisoners.  The colonists loved this guy who was to later go on to hunt, unsuccessfully, for the Northwest Passage.  Did any of you watch The Terror?  It’s about him. Sorta.

We also looked up into the night sky and saw the Southern Cross.

It is this formation of four stars sesembling a kite.  There are two lower stars and when a line is drawn through the two right handed stars in the cross through the two below the line points to true south.  The statue in the background is of Tasman after whom the state is named.  And above is the flag with six stars denoting the six states of Australia.  One guy in our group could name them all, but not me!  I had a pen pal once in New South Wales so I knew that one, but none of the others.

As our day wound up we went to the small town of Richmond.  It is very pretty and reminded us a little of the town of Niagara on the Lake in Canada.  There we saw this bridge built in 1823 by prisoners.  It is quite charming and we enjoyed a local lunch featuring “pie” which is a little individual quiche.  Mark had Shepard’s pie and I had cauliflower.  Very tasty!

The weather has been extremely windy and cold.  But we are carrying on!  Tomorrow we go to Port Authur to see the prison where many of the convicts lived.  Until then, g’day Mates!!

 

After Russia we jetted off on Aeroflot (scary) to London to see Kallie!  From Heathrow she’s about a 40 minute tube ride and a 10 minute walk away.  Pulling our suitcases we made it through Earl’s Court, across Cromwell Rd, and down Marloes Rd to her third floor walk-up.  Luckily, she met us and carried my bag up all those narrow, twisty stairs.  We left almost immediately to take the Eurostar to Paris!

We have never gone to the top of L’Arc de Triomphe so we climbed the twisty, never ending stairs to the top.  Great view.  Paris, always spectacular!

We met our “French son” Denis, who came to us as an exchange student at age 17 when Ariel was just a baby.  He and his wonderful parents let us stay in their flat on Rue Cler, a fun street full of restaurants and shops.  It is across from the former flat of President Macron before he moved up to the Presidential Palace. The Eiffel Tower was visible from the flat. Tres jolie!

After a wonderful lunch at Denis’ house we went to Marie Antoinette’s little farm and walked around. Such a nice day with old friends.

Back to London where we continued our touring.

We met more of my wonderful new-found family, cousins Emma, Carol, and Jeremy! Emma took us for a ramble on Hampstead Heath.  It is a beautiful place with long views of London. Carol had us to her house for a yummy dinner, and Jeremy showed us around Newcastle upon Tyne and environs.  I still am in awe of this family I’m a part of and I really must thank Mark for coming along on this adventure with me.

My father was born in Newcastle so Jeremy spent a lot of time showing us the town. He was the mayor there at one time and now represents the area in the House of Lords.  His name is inscribed on the wall in the town hall.  The town hall building itself is very impressive.  This guy hanging off the side of the building is part of Newcastle’s legend of beginning.  The town itself is charming and ancient and straddles many relics of Roman occupation, foremost among which is Hadrian’s Wall!

Since this wall has always been on our bucket lists we really enjoyed the day seeing the wonderful relics from so long ago.  Really incredible,

Returning to London we packed our bags and headed home. We have more great adventures to share with you so stay tuned!

 

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Helloo again!  Since we plan to leave on Saturday (today being Monday) I should catch you all up with the rest of our trip from last year.

 

We left North Dakota and traveled west to Montana where we were really excited to return to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole.

Hoping for nice weather, we drove straight into the teeth of a storm.  Cruising a hundred miles out of our way due to snow in the Park, we wound our way through Gallitin Canyon and arrived at last in West Yellowstone.

What all did we see in Yellowstone, our country’s first national park?  Sorry I can’t show you because I accidentally deleted all the pictures we took.  What a dummy!  But in the fog we drove through the park to old haunts of Fishing Bridge, Grand Prismatic Pool, Yellowstone Lodge,  Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Falls,  and of course Old Faithful.  The only wildlife we saw was a herd of bison and some mountain sheep.  There were no “bear jams” those days, but we did go to another place…..

The Yellowstone Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center right in West Yellowstone was a highlight of our stay there.

These bears are HUGE!  It was a lot of fun watching them forage for food and treats hidden by the Center staff.  You better believe the bears left no stone, rock, or boulder unturned while looking for their booty.

Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons have always been favorites of mine.  My family went there often when we were kids and I have many fond memories of that time, so this trip did not disappoint.

We drove all through the park and spent a couple days exploring Jackson.  Some things haven’t changed in town but some things have.  Jackson may be the only tourist trap in the whole country without a Walmart, but do not despair!  There is a K-Mart!

Note the bullet holes.  Welcome to the wild west!

One time I was flying from somewhere to somewhere else and the pilot kindly tipped us sideways so we could do a circle around Craters of the Moon National Park.  We decided to go so I could retrieve the part of my stomach that stayed there after the tricky figure 8 we made in that DC-3.  At ground level the park is even more stark and beautiful especially in pouring rain and after a visit to Arco, the first nuclear powered city(?) in the US.  I loved it when the lady at the desk of the RV park where we stayed said the whole town, including the residents, glowed.

Volcanic action created this park, and with the Fall colors and rain, if you squinted, it looked like fiery lava was still moving along.

Volcanic soil is not as barren as you might think.  Little patches of moss and lichen were all over this hill.

Yes, a river flows through it now-a-days.

Onward to Oregon.  Eastern Oregon wasn’t looking pretty for us so no pictures of it.  We did stop in Pendleton, site of the historic Pendleton Round-Up and also where my doll’s leg fell off when I was about two.  Family legend has it that we were in some bar after the rodeo and when Daughter’s leg fell off I screamed it to everyone for blocks around.  Mom morphed into nurse mode and took Daughter off to the ladies room and performed safety pin surgery saving the day and everyone’s ears.

So after that we went on to Portland.  The picture above is the day treatment center for, as we called them then, chronically mentally ill.  We barged in and the staff kindly gave us a tour of the house  which is now a counseling center.  Very cool!

We stayed a few days to help brother, Jeff, celebrate a Big 0 birthday, drove back to Hood River to visit Dawn, a dear friend from graduate school days, and her daughter, Suzi, who is now all grown up with a son of her own.  Suzy remembers us kindly because we gave her her first job of doing our laundry.  Memories were made then!  We also reconnected with Tom and Wendy.  Wendy and I worked together at Day Treatment and I introduced her to Tom, with whom I went to graduate school.  Happy memories, all!

Finally on to Salt Lake City to meet Doug and Susie so we could continue our trip to AZ.  The picture above is the house I grew up in.  900 square feet of post-war wonderfulness.  We lived in Provo until the house was finished about 1947.  Then we moved to SLC and stayed in this house until I went away to college and Mom and Dad built a new house in Mt. Olympus Cove.

Oops!  Forgot to tell you about the blowout we had in Idaho on the way from Portland to Salt Lake.  Scary!!  Mark did a heroic job of keeping us safe and we found a guy who came and fixed the tire so we could continue.  It sure wasn’t as bad as it could have been!

A stop in Mesquite and on the road and home again to

ARIZONA.  What a year we had!  10,000 miles, 22 states, 1 Canadian Province, a whole new family, a great old family, death staring us in the face, and survival and the will to head out again!  Stay tuned!  You won’t believe 2017!!