We have moved over to the west a bit.

Since we last wrote, we drove down through the Waterfall Way, the Hunter Valley wine country, and then down past Sydney to Kiama to see the blowhole.
That's a lot to catch up on, but I'll try to post a few pics.

A great old bridge in Kangaroo Valley. That's a little town, which we loved. Sue said she could live there.

Fitzroy Falls, after some good rain. It's 81 meters. Do the math; we did....

My view back towards the van while geocaching at the Kiama Blowhole. It was the nastiest weather I have ever cached in, except for maybe the top of Tiehacker that day, Darren.

Got the cache! It blew and rained so hard, all night, we decided the next morning to head for Adelaide, to change our luck. It took a day and a half of highway time, but it was worth it.

Stopping to make coffee in the flats on the way across.

On the beach in Adelaide. Loving it!

We spent today downtown, museums and boat rides and such, what a great city.

Tomorrow, on to Kangaroo Island...

Mt. Warning hike, and Cape Byron

After a long day touring around the "Border Ranges National Park" in the van we relaxed at the local caravan park and ate some meat pies at the local pub with Tom and Lori Swann. The next morning we made an early morning trek up Mt. Warning. It was a very fun hike, easy walking right up to the end when it was rock climbing hand over hand.

Most of the time we were within the jungle with just quick snatches of view.

As we reached the top, it was hand over hand rock climbing. Luckily they had a chain for an extra safety factor.

Just as we were reaching the top, we ran in to Dan and Erin from the Anchorage Rowing Club. We actually saw then on the road just before we started the trip, so did expect to see them somewhere along the trail.

It was as usual, fairly warm and we were glad of the early morning start. It is a 2 hour hike up and a 2 hour hike down, for some reason it isn't quicker going down.

After the hike, we relaxed with a cold beer and then the Swanns headed north and we headed for Byron Bay. We wanted to catch a geocache there and see the lighthouse which we didn't take the time for on the way up.






It was quite a beautiful site, with many many many more steps to go down and then back up again! The legs really got a work out this day.

The lighthouse is one of many that run along the coast of Australia, back more than 100 years ago they wanted the coast to be lit up like a dark street, warning ships of the rocky and dangerous coastline.

In 1995 or 1996(?) Jeanie went on a tour and she was our impetus in making this stop. She remembered that Byron Bay was particularly grand.

This is the start of the steps down, a nice gentlemen offered to take our picture.

As luck would have it, the geocache was at the very BOTTOM of the steps! I did eventually find it tucked away and we logged a find.

After this long hot day a special treat of homemade ice cream was the topper!

Harold thought Uncle Mike would apprecite this beautiful stainless steel handrail.

They have incredible trees here, these flowering purple trees have no leaves! They are everywhere and a pleasure everytime you see one.

Spooky night in Uki

Here's what we saw when we came out of a little pub near the Park.
These large fruit bats are known as Flying Foxes.  We don't know where they roost, but typically  they "hang out" in trees during the day.

Waterfall Way

Just a note before the net logs off.

In Armidale, heading south today.

Hope to find a decent connection for more pics soon.


Loved Cape Byron !

The Tweed Caldera

Blasted down the highway, south from Brisbane, and decided that maybe we could find beach camping on the "Gold Coast". Big mistake. It's developed to the max, with high rise apartments and all the beaches ringed with buildings. Had to keep rolling south, with the moon shining down with only it's bottom edge lit, just like a big bright smile.

We spent the night in a highway rest area, no cost, and with ear plugs, no noise.

In the morning, there was a table for making coffee and breakfast, and facilities...

We were hoping to meet the Swans near Mt. Warning National Park, and to our surprise, there was the mountain visible from our parking spot.

Here's some big curlews or something in a palm tree.

We got into Mt. Warning National Park, looked around, left a message at the camper park for the Swans and did some exploring.

We took a drove up and along the rim of the Tweek Caldera, the largest volcanic caldera in the southern hemisphere. This view is from the Blackbutt lookout on the north side. Mt. Warning is the high spot in the core of the caldera, visible in the left distance.

This big boy, a carpet snake, was in the road as we came back down the rim road. He was at least 7 feet long, and acted rather agressive, but we were told this species is very hard to annoy...

We met the Swans at the campground, chilled out, and will climb to the summit of Mt. Warning in the morning. It is the first spot that the sun hits this continent in the morning, but we won't be there that early. Hiking in the dark in snake country is still a bit beyond us. Later.

Hitting the Road

After all the anticipation, it was time to get our wheels and begin to explore.
We took the train to the All Seasons shop in south Sydney, paid our deposit, then tensely hit the city streets, remembering to drive on the left side and headed north. It actually went very well.

We camped for three nights and two full days at Yagon, joining Lori Landstrom, and Tom and Lori Swan. Terri Orr camped with us in our van. 

We were thrilled to be playing on the beach.

 We managed to spend two full days in the sun and not get sunburned. We swam, played bocci rock, fought off the brush turkeys and ate good food.

 Camp evenings we've been grilling up kangaroo kabobs for dinner and playing dice.

Above the beach at Yagon.

The Laughing Kookaburra.

Visiting the lighthouse at Seal Rocks.


After Yagon, we headed north again for Trial Bay Gaol and Campground. A exceptionally nice place for seeing the ocean, watching kangaroos, getting a shower and relaxing. This was actually a big prison (gaol is the same pronunciation as jail) and has quite a history.

In the campground that night, there were Eastern Gray kangaroos moving through the sites.  There were warning signs for folks to stay clear of the animals, no feeding them or approaching them.  I guess they can approach us, eh?

We made a group photo before we headed out in the morning.  We were going our own ways after this camp (although we did see the Swans again in a couple of days).

Our next stop was "Emerald Beach" for an afternoon break where the rocks were fabulous.

A Bottle Brush flower.






Off to Byron Bay, a hectic, eclectic town. The farthest east you can travel in Australia. We found another wonderful campground, the temperatures are quite a bit warmer here. A nice facility with a commune like atmosphere. This time we enjoyed kangaroo hamburgers!

We did our laundry this morning and then headed to Brisbane to get Terri off to the airport.

  

Lucky for us her hotel has wireless service (fees of course) and we are able to update this blog!

A sunset on Yagon Beach.

The races are over; we survived!

The World Masters Games rowing was ended on Wednesday here. On the last two days, the west wind came up in the mornings and created dangerous conditions on the water, so racing was suspended. Sue's womens E8+ just made it through their race Tuesday, then the water got nasty. Harold missed both of his races, including the double with Tom Swan, because races could not continue. Several dozen boats had to be temporarily abandoned on the far side of the practice lake because the rowers couldn't bring them back against the wind.

On Wednesday morning, it was OK for a bit. Harold and Tom and Lori Swan and Lori Landstrom raced their quad in the last race that was held, because the wind got serious while we were on the course. It was a survival race, and we came through OK. No medals, but definitely some pride.

After about an hour they announced that racing would not be started again; the Games were over for us. It was really something just to be involved.




Dan and Erin got bronze in the mixed quad!









Liquor cabinet made from an old rowing shell.



We traded shirts and hats for a bit, then walked away. We spent the afternoon on a trip up through the Blue Mountains to Katoomba, an old coal mining area on the rim of some great sandstone cliffs. We rode a cable train down over the rim, explored the rain forest on a boardwalk, then came back up on a cable tram.

We all had dinner at a great steak house with a Little Big Horn western theme. Fantastic menu.

The next morning it was time to go get our camper van, and begin our trip to the beaches, but that's for next time.

Terri with a great blossum!

On the jungle boardwalk, we saw lots of great plants and a superb lyrebird.  That's it's name, but I guess it was pretty fine, as well.

This is a sulfa-crested cockatoo.  He was big and beautiful.

The tram ride back up.

TheThree Sisters, at Katoomba.

A cliff-side walkway down to a lookout?  I gotta go!!


(Actually written several days ago, obviously. We are having some trouble finding decent connections. Oh well, the beaches are lovely.)

Pics from day 2

Sue and her team put a boat back on the rack after a race. There have been many, so I'm not sure which one this was.

We are renting boats w/oars from a collection that was assembled for that purpose, for the use of the teams that have travelled distance. Most of the Aussie teams have of course brought their own. It has been a major hassle finding the proper boat for each practice or race, from about 25 racks, getting the boat set-up for the specific rowers, carrying it down a congested area for several hundred feet, launching, and then repeating all in reverse afterwards. Teams sometimes take out the wrong boat, so ours is not there, but we are definitely getting better at prepping and getting set in time to race. I will try to get a video of taking a boat off the rack and out. Folks at home will see it; and maybe I'll figure out how to post to Utube and link to that.

Rhonnie, Lori, Becky (cox), Nancy, and Sue happy to be back after another race.

I'm in the bow of this quad right at the finish line buoys. This is a "blind boat", meaning that no one is looking forward (no cox). I was the navigator for getting into position through a armada of other boats, getting set at the starting platform, keeping us within our lane, and calling directions on rate, holding water, etc.
Tom Swan is in front of me in three seat, with Kevin and Richard from the Anchorage club ahead of us.
At the finish line, the tank is empty, and us old guys have to try to find some air and get our wits about us before we try to move out of the way of the finishers of the next heat coming down the course. Sometimes painful, but I think there is something strangely addictive about those four minutes of excitement. No real way to describe it fully. This world class course and venue is a part of what make this so cool.

Getting off the course, under the bridge, after another finish in a coxed 4.

We qualified for the semi-finals in this heat, which meant we had about an hour to get back to the dock, carry the boat to the rack, drink something, think positive, and get down there and line up again. We were out of the running in the semi, which seemed like enough for that day.

It did feel good to be one of the group who managed to qual for another race.

Harold, Kevin, Richard, and Roger.

Composite age for a Mens E group is 55.

We got away from the racing in time to catch a train to the Olympic park in Sydney to attend the opening ceremony for the World Masters Games.

Between our group and the Anchorage crew, we got the train car involved in a sing-along. We traded versions of the Alaska Flag song with others singing the Australian National Anthem.

And Row, row, row your boat.......

We got to the park just in time to fall into the line-up with the other rowers who were there.

Some folks rallied up for 3 hours to get started, but we just walked in. Wow.

There was about 90 minutes of moving into the stadium in this great long queue of folks having a fine time, then we entered the stadium in mass waving our flags and grinning.

The stadium is huge, and open to the sky.

This guy invited us to come up to Newcastle to barbeque and row with their crew. We might do it.

It was a blast, waving our Alaska flags and yelling along with everyone else!

After all sports had entered, there were some dancing performances (even some "original people" with digeridoos and boomarangs and smudge pots), speeches, etc., then a flag raising, more speeches, and then the music show started. A bunch of Aussie "stars", even Leo Sayer, looking a bit worn. We soon moved down off the bleachers (several beers later) and were dancing it up in the crowd. We didn't last too long, it had been quite a day.

We headed back to the train just as the fireworks started.

No caption needed.

Except, that's Kevin.....


More to come, and I'm still a day behind!