AUSTRALIA
October 23-November 8, 2000
How do I begin this story!?!? Some of you are probably wondering just how the trip to Australia came about. First of all, a visit to Australia had been in my (Lucille) dreams since I was in high school. Then life in general and family obligations ruled me.
In the early 1980's I intently watched the movie "The Thornbirds" and the dream resurfaced, but only as a dream.
My oldest grandchild, Cassie Borg, announced last spring that she was going to Australia as a 6 month exchange student!!! I waited to see if this really would happen. Cassie flew out of Rapid City, SD on July 6, arriving there on July 8th.
Before she left, she urged me to come, especially around her 'birthday' time, October 31. So, I continued to think about this and did go ahead and get my passport. Then mentioned my trip to several people, but no one seemed to have time to get away. I debated and decided that I would go by myself if I had to. In mid September, the airfares dropped dramatically for 10 days. I purchased my ticket. Then in an e-mail, I mentioned to a high school classmate what I was doing and asked her if she would like to go with me. And to my wonderment, Helen Heimbuck said, "YES I'D LOVE TO GO". The enthusiasm grew and plans were made.
October 23 (Monday) was our departure day. I flew out of Sioux Falls to Los Angeles and Helen flew out of the Phoenix area, we met at LAX and boarded the United Airline flight that flew non-stop to Melbourne. That was a long 15 hours in an airplane!!!!! We were excited and tired when we landed and it was now Wednesday AM there. The weather was about 50 F. and raining. Granddaughter Cassie and her host father, David Cook met us at the plane. Off we went to begin touring Australia with David as our guide.
Day 1: We went to the Healesville Sanctuary east of Melbourne. It was raining and a little on the cool side, but with umbrellas we trudged on. The poor animals were all wet too!! And not very active!!! It was our first introduction to many of the Australian animals. We saw kangaroos, wallaby, koala (these are not bears!), wombat, dingo, platypus and many different birds here.
Wet Roos at Healsville Sanctuary
From there we ate at a wonderful smorgasbord called "S'morgies". We then proceeded south, along the east side of Port Phillip Bay on the Mornington Peninsula. The trees and flowers were all so beautiful, even though it was wet and foggy. We did our share of 'jumping' at the intersections and etc. since we were driving on the 'wrong' side of the road and the driver was sitting on the 'wrong side' of the car!! We did finally get used to this, just in time to come home and be confused again!!! We visited David's elderly English born aunt and then proceeded on to the little town of Rosebud where we spent the night. (We were beyond being tired.....exhaustion set in!!).
Day 2: (Thursday) The weather looked like it would clear up, but was pretty foggy on the bay. We should have been able to see Melbourne from here but couldn't. As we proceeded north, we took a side trip up the hills to "Arthur's Seat". This has historic connection to Ireland and Arthur's seat there. If I remember the story right, a nobleman named Arthur, came to Australia and this is where he viewed the area from. The flowers were beautiful there!!! Then we went to Frankston and visited the cemetery where David's father is buried. The cemeteries were interesting, buried 3 deep in the older part.
A large cement slab covers each grave.
Then on into Melbourne, following the coast line. We drove on the Grand Prix (Formula 1) track at Albert Park in Melbourne. Took many pictures there of the buildings and pits where the cars are serviced. Saw our first black swans with their little flock of chicks on the greens near the raceway.
Grand Prix Track at Albert Park, Melbourne
We then went to the Fritzroy gardens. The flowers and trees were very interesting. There are so many varieties of Eucalyptus trees (known to Aussies as gum trees); it was amazing to see them. We also visited the Cook's cottage, a restored cottage from early years.
From there on to Port Melbourne, down around the west coast of Port Phillip Bay on the Bellarine Peninsula. On to the lighthouse on Point Lonsdale. This point is directly across the opening to the bay from where we were the night before. We observed two freighters leaving the Melbourne port, headed south out into the ocean. We stayed at a motel near Geelong that night.
Day 3: (Friday) The weather was improving. The 'Spirit of Tazmania' Ferry had just docked at the port. We watched it unload the semi trucks, cars, campers and etc. This huge ferry goes back and forth between Tazmania and Australia every other day, carrying supplies for the people there and tourists. It would have been fun to have gone on!!!
Spirit of Tazmania docked
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Unloading from the Spirit of Tazmania
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From there we went into Melbourne again. We went to the Shrine of Remembrance, a memorial to Australians who have died at war. It was quite impressive. Beautiful gardens, eternal flame, statues, lists of names and etc. Tried to get into the Olympic game site of the past in Melbourne but couldn't, it is now the Melbourne Cricket Club, quite exclusive.
We proceeded down town, observed some historic buildings like the Flinders
Street station, Forum Theater and went into St. Paul's Cathederal. St. Paul's was something else. Beautiful, Beautiful. There was a string ensemble with vocalists rehearsing for a performance; it was great to listen to them.
Then we spent 2 hrs. at the Victoria Market. This is an open-air market, similar to a flea market in our area, but it included fruits and vegetables. There were sellers from New Zealand and Tazmania as well as the local people. Many souvenirs were purchased here!!
Then we headed out along the Bellarine Peninsula again, to Geelong. We saw a lot of nice countryside, unusual trees and birds. We stayed at the same motel that night.
Day 4: (Saturday) We were up early and traveled south from Geelong to the 'Great Ocean Road'. The day started cloudy and dismal, but soon cleared and was beautiful. The scenery was breathe taking.....so we thought, then we arrived at the ocean spot of the 'Twelve Apostles"........WOW!!! That was something else!!! The sites there and at the Lockard Gorge near by were breathe taking. Needless to say, many many photo's were taken there!!! It was so wonderful, it was hard to leave there.
Twelve Apostles
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Lockard Gorge
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We drove on up to Port Campbell and although it was too cold to swim in the ocean, we did get our feet wet!!! (While telling the photographer to hurry up, the water was ice cold!!) We ate here, had our first 'meat pie' which was very good.
We then started our trek north, going through Colac (had tea with a friend of our driver there), then up to Ballarat which is a very old historic town. Many interesting and unusual buildings. Then continued north on the Sunraysia Hiway, through Donald and arrived in Mildura at 10:30 PM, the home of our host and Cassie. We were happy to see a bed again and quickly made use of it.
Day 5, (Sunday) We didn't do much this day, slept in, played lazy. It was catch-up time!!! We became acquainted with our surroundings and host family, particularly, Ruth, the host mother who did wonderful things with lamb for two evening meals. They live in a beautiful red brick, one story, four bedroom home. The flowers are so beautiful every where we look. Such huge roses!!!!
Home of David & Ruth Cook, Cassie's Host Parents
Day 6, (Monday) Cassie went to school and David showed us around the area. We visited "Big Lizzie" which is a huge tractor that was used to clear a lot of the outback. It was very interesting to see how they had to adapt it to move in the sand and pull a load. It even had an anvil and a shop for repairs on board. Then we went on to the Red Cliffs on the Murray River. The Murray River separates Victoria and New South Wales at this point. The water was very dirty looking, but is used for irrigation and etc. Mildura/Red Cliffs is an oasis in a very dry area. The irrigation from the Murray River changes the economy here. There are grape vines, orange orchards and lemon orchards every where we looked. It was their prime season for the citrus fruit, so it is being picked, packed and shipped. The grape vines are starting to growing well. The grapes are used for wine and for white raisins (Sultana's to them). We learned a lot about the grape industry as David works in that area.
Red Cliffs, Victoria territory on right
New South Wales on left
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Grape vines, note the rose at the end
of the row,
they will attract the aphids
away from the grapes
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After lunch that day, we shopped a bit with Ruth. I had requested going to the grocery store. The evening before we had been served 'pumpkin' as a vegetable for our meal. So I checked this out in the grocery store. Well.....we have many kinds of squash, they call them pumpkins!!! They don't have the large orange pumpkins. Their 'squash' are very small, enough for one per person when served, bright yellow or green, and not as tasty as ours. David then took us to the Mildura Botanical Gardens. There we saw a huge rose garden laid out in the shape of a wheel, each pie shaped piece between 'spokes' was a different variety and color of roses. It was beautiful!!!!!
Day 7 (Tuesday) Cassie went to school, it was her 16th birthday!!! Ruth took her day care children for a walk; Helen and I went along. We walked to the Mildura Lock/Weir system. The park around this is very pretty, we saw a lot of birds, ducks and etc. We were there when a local paddle-wheel boat went through the locks and watched this procedure. The walk to and from their house was beautiful as most all of the yards had gorgeous flowers including many roses (as did medians in center of the streets downtown.). Helen wasn't quite as impressed as I was, she comes from an area with many flowers (in the spring and fall, she says). I come from the back farming country with too short a season and too windy a climate to have many flowers. We did some sight seeing that PM, saw some huge Norfolk Island Pine trees.....the same kind as we have as house plants here!!!
Norfolk Island Pine
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Roses in the Mildura Botanical Gardens
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Then for TEA (supper) we celebrated Cassies' birthday. We prepared a lunch that evening to take with us the next day, went to bed early so we could get on the road in the cooler morning.
Day 8 (Wednesday) We left early for the 'outback' which means going north from Mildura, crossing the Murray River into New South Wales. For a short distance we traveled on 'bitumen' (asphalt to us) and then our road turned into gravel, then dirt!!! Along the road we saw a lot of ripe wheat fields, road-kill kangaroos and emus!! We also saw many live emu, including mother and chicks (we counted 20 chicks with one mother!!) that were quite large. It was fun to watch chicks following their mothers. Emu tend to be close to fences as they follow the fence looking for a place to get through. (Kangaroos just jump over!) They were soon to become very ordinary!! We were seeing flocks of sheep, some goats and cattle. Soon we come upon 'Stations' in the outback, easy to spot with the large sheep shearing sheds. (Note: for those who have seen 'The Thornbirds', we are in that type of setting!!!) So with a little persuading, we stopped at a 'Station'! I was really 'taken' by this!!! We had a tour of the homestead and the history of this place was something else. (if you are interested, go to: http://www.users.bigpond.com/tolarno/tolarno) I was in Awe.......the others weren't!!!!!! (Helen comment here: Lucille was WAY OVER THE TOP ON THIS…I would have been more impressed with Paul Hogan (or maybe Paul Newman!!!) We ate our lunch under a big tree there and went on up the road. Saw a big wild boar sleeping under the tree.
The Homestead on the Station
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The shearing area in the shearing shed
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THEN..........we got stuck in a mud bog, stuck real tight!!! Water was coming into the foot wells of the car, my passport and etc. in my purse got wet!!!!!! We could have been in a big problem situation, but to our relief.....a car came down the road after about a half hour. There were two Aboriginal couples in it. Bless their hearts, they pushed us out.
Finally Free!!!
(check this area again, we will probably change the picture after a time.)
We found out the next day that 4 cars w/people, spent the night in that bog........sure glad we weren't one of them!!!!!!
We continued up the road to Menindee where we bailed out the water and washed the car as well as we could with water from a spigot in a park and our small ice chest to carry it in. We drove on to Menindee Lake and headed toward Broken Hill. We saw a big Emu family along the road.......
Emu Family
In Broken Hill we got a motel for the night, had supper and retired early!!!!!
Day 9 (Thursday) The first thing on our agenda was to go to the 'School of the Air', the school via radio for the outback families. Cassie spoke to the children and they in turn asked her questions. There are about 80 children who receive their education in that way from the Broken Hill facility.
Cassie on the School of the Air
Then we were on the road again to White Cliffs. This is further north in the outback. (One lonely kangeroo hopped across the road here, the only one we really saw in the wild!!) It is known for the opal mines there. The opals are mined with open shafts, hand dug from the ground level down. It is such a hot area in the summer time that many homes are dug into the hillside, therefore being cool in the summer and maintaining that temp. when it does get colder outside. We didn't find any opals to buy there, but found it to be a very interesting place. Here Helen discovered what an Aussie milkshake is…Flavored milk SHAKEN well…no ice cream…UGH!!
One of the White Cliff areas
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The living room in a
White Cliff home
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We had a long journey back to Broken Hill, both Helen and I drove a few miles, so got a taste of doing things 'on the left'!!!! ( We each discovered that 40+ years of driving on the right means we have certain habits really ingrained…Yes, we both managed to briefly drive on their "wrong" side of the road!…much to David's consternation! At least traffic is VERY light in this area!) We stayed in the same motel that evening.
Day 10 (Friday) We started the day with a tour of the Royal Flying Doctors Service. This is the medical outreach to the families in the outback. They have two planes, one flies to an assigned post everyday to do check-ups and etc. The other is on emergency status. They fly at least 2 flights a day out for emergencies. A Dr. is stationed there at all times to 'talk' people through their problem until help arrives. Each station in the outback is equipped with a rather large medicine chest that has all supplies numbered as well as a chart of the human body with numbers on it. This makes communication much easier and more accurate. There are about 19 such posts throughout Australia. We then did some shopping before heading back to Mildura.
Royal Flying Doctors Service
We saw a lot of wheat fields along the way. On the way, we had to stop for this picture:
Wheat Fields along the road
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Three Chix & a roo!!!
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When we arrived back in Mildura, we drove to Cassies' school and took several pictures and walked around the yards. We were too late to go inside, school was closed for the day. We went out for supper, ate Chinese in Australia, three Americans and two Aussies!!!
Cassie's School
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School
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Day 11, (Saturday) This was our last day in Mildura and with Cassie. We scurried to do some shopping, went to Woodsie's Gem shop which had not only opals but many other gems as well and purchased some Opals for gifts and for ourselves. Went to an Aboriginal store to purchase boomerangs; then took a walk to smell the beautiful flowers one last time. The houses have either the red tile roofs or the ribbed steel roofs. They are built on a cement slap or on treated wooden stilts to prevent attacks from termites.
We boarded the bus at 6:30 PM to travel to Sydney...........nice bus......long ride, 17 hrs. long!!!!! (Helen thinks Lucille is entirely too polite here..but Lucille didn't try to use the facility on the bus after a certain point!!!)
Day 12, (Sunday) We arrived in Sydney about noon, claimed all of our luggage and headed to the street to find a taxi. We finally found one and were taken to our hotel. Our room was a welcome sight, we showered and and then found something to eat. We asked a few questions including how to 'do' the city bus system and headed for Circular Quay. On the wharf, we purchased tickets for a Harbour Cruise. It was overcast and drizzling a little, but that didn't stop us from taking pictures of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour bridge and all of the scenery along the edge of the bay. It was good to 'play like tourists' on our own!! We 'ohhhed & awed' the whole way. Bed did feel soooo good that night!!
Sydney Opera House
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Harbour Bridge
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Day 13, (Monday) We did sleep in a bit, but needed it after all of the grand rush and overnight traveling. We went back down to Circular Quay, and over to the Opera House. We walked around and around it, all levels that we were permitted on and of course, taking pictures all the time!!!!!! Then we signed up for an official tour of it. We were able to tour the two smaller theaters as there were performances in the larger two. We were really taken by this and as soon as we heard that there were empty seats for that evening's performances, we purchased tickets for the Bell Shakespeare production of Troilus and Cressida. (This is about the Trojan War and costumes were a blend of present and past, the soldiers wore armor plated breastplates over fatigues, had machine gun in one hand with shield in other. It also had some nudity…hmmm?!?! Interesting hearing Shakespeare with an Aussie accent…just kidding, the actors perform internationally so didn't have Aussie that we picked up.)
That afternoon we walked the Sydney Botanical Gardens which were next door to the Opera house. They were beautiful. I have never seen so many strange shaped trees and etc. It was amazing. The flowers were great. That evening we ate at a nice place not far from the Opera House and then went to the play. We can now boost that we have seen a Shakespeare play at the Sydney Opera House!!!!!! (Maybe even seen more than we had planned on??) We then took the bus back to our hotel.
Botanical Garden in Sydney
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Botanical Garden in Sydney
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Day 14 (Tuesday) We slept in a bit, then packed our bags, put them in storage at the hotel and took the bus back to Circular Quay. We had planned a couple different things that day, but only managed one!! We took the ferry across to the Taronga Zoo. That was a really nice zoo!!! It was built on the hillside, a forested area that pretty well hid the buildings, animals, etc. from view from across the bay. It was laid out so well, making it look like the animals were in their natural habitat. We saw a lot of interesting things there, particularly the tiny 'fairy' penguins that are native to Australia only. Also saw kangaroos up close, actually they were wallabies which are a bit smaller. We spent more time than we expected at the zoo, so that was our tour for the day.
Kangaroo at the Zoo
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Echidna, first cousin of our porcupine
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Koala's at the Zoo
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Tiny Penquins
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We caught a tram from the top of the zoo to the ferry, then went back to the hotel, claimed our luggage, called a cab and went to the train station for an 8:45 PM sleeper train to Melbourne. Well, we tried to sleep, but it was so rough, it was near impossible. It will be a long time before anyone sells Helen or me a train ticket again!!!!! We were 10 hours on the road.
Day 15 (Wednesday) We arrived in Melbourne by train, and had 4 hours to get to the airport which we did by bus. Our flight left at 11:30 AM; we were in air 14 hours (had a tail wind), arrived in LA. Had the customs bit and etc. to go through. Helen and I parted here, she headed back for the Phoenix area after a 3 hr. wait. I was out to Denver in 2 hrs., had a bit of a lay over in Denver and then on to Sioux Falls and SNOW!!!!!! A rude awakening!!!!!!
Winter had arrived ahead of me!!!
We had a great trip. Some things were as planned, some unexpected, but all in all it was great. We saw a lot of 'people' as 70% of the Australian population live in the eight major cities, two of which we were in. They are friendly people and at no time did we feel any danger. It was great!!!!
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