We are in Sydney via Blue Mountains and Canberra

Love All The Birds in Australia

Saturday, December 29, 2012 - Last Week in December and Countdown to New Year

Sunday, December 23, Russ and I rolled into Sydney with Awaltzing Matilda and installed ourselves in Lane Cove River Tourist Park.  Immediately we navigated our way via the outstanding train system just a few blocks from the campground (for $50.00 each, we bought a week pass that gives us unlimited rides on buses, trains, and ferries) to the central business district and met sailing friends Ed and Cornelia on SV Acapella at the Sydney Westfield Tower for a holiday lunch in the revolving restaurant. 

It was a beautiful day in Sydney and the views from the tower were spectacular.  After lunch we introduced Ed and Cornelia to Geocaching which took us through some of the historic areas of old Sydney and the Circular Quay.

We bade them farewell as they were boarding a plane for their son's wedding in China.  We will most likely see them in again in California.

Monday, December 24, Christmas Eve morning, we visited a local Flight Centre in Australia to just ask some questions and book our flight from Melbourne to Brisbane after we drop off Matilda with her new owner.  We wound up booking flights and tours to South East Asia, India, Nepal, and Bhutan.  We leave Australia on January 30 for travel to these countries before flying back to USA for visit in April.

Tuesday, December 25, Christmas day.  Lightening, thunder, and rain kept most of the campers here in the park confined to their tents, campers, and caravans.  We had planned a BBQ as most Aussies do for holidays, but wound up cooking a pot of chili, covered with cheese, and drinking red wine in the camper.  It was low key and we missed being with family, but it was cozy and relaxing reviewing our travel plans for 2013.

Wednesday, December 26, Boxing Day.  Both NZ and Australia celebrate Boxing Day as an official holiday.  Boxing Day is also the traditional start of the Sydney-Hobart, Tasmania Race.  The clouds were still in the sky, but it was no longer raining.  We got ourselves together by 9:00 a.m. after making our Christmas calls to the US, and worked our way to Watson's Bay on the South Head of the Bay to Ocean.

With our handy-dandy pass, we got on to a train then ferry and walked up to the lighthouse area of the head which gave  us an excellent vantage to watch both the start and exit of the race from the bay into the ocean.  Wild Oats was the first boat out of the bay and has subsequently won the race, in 44 hours breaking the race record and their own record by 16 minutes.

It was quite exciting to watch the racers take off.  There were an estimated 500-700,000 spectators on land and crazily racing along the margins of the race course in sailboats, power boats and kayaks.  That was a spectacle unto itself.  This year there were apparently no incidents, but in years past people have had terrible accidents ramming into each other.  It definitely looked like accidents in the making.  The other spectacle was our walk past the nude beach on our way to the head.  There were no ladies on the beach, but lots of well endowed men either with implants or an overdose of viagra strutting back and forth strutting their stuff.

And the Sydney to Hobart Race is On!

Wild Oats Leads the Way and Breaks Record by 16 Minutes

Thursday, December 27. - The day after Boxing Day, we went into Sydney and met up with friends Oscar and Graciela from SV Zenitude.  We first met Oscar and Graciela in the South Pacific at the Taravana Yacht Club and caught up with them again in Suwarrow and Samoa.  They are hoping to help friends crew their boat from Tahiti to Suwarrow and on to Tonga.  Of all the places we would like to return, Suwarrow would be at the top of our list too.

Friday, December 28 - Today we spent most of the day finishing up our travel plans and traveling downtown to the Vietnamese and Indian Consulates to get our our visas.  Turns out we will need to wait for our Indian Visa and turn it in when we return to Brisbane, as we cannot apply before 90 days before entering the country, but we did drop off the Vietnamese application and should be able to pick up the Visas on Monday, New Year's Eve Day.

That brings us to today.  We received an offer on Worrall Wind this morning.  Happy and sad.  We'll see how the negotiations work out.

Tomorrow, we are going sailing with Aussie sailing friend Maggie whom we met in Mexico,  and her friends who are delivering a racing boat up the coast from Sydney.  It will be an all day adventure.    I imagine the ride might be fast and wet.  We are looking forward to it.  We will also be spending New Year's Eve with Maggie and her friends close to the harbor bridge in downtown Sydney.

Next week, I imagine we will get busy doing the touristy things that one does in Sydney and cap off the week on January 5 by seeing an La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House.  We met a young woman who sings with the opera in Brisbane in October.  She has invited us to a backstage tour before the performance.  Very exciting.

Of all the things we have enjoyed about cruising and traveling are all the wonderful and generous people we have met along the way and through posting our blog.  It has truly been a remarkable adventure, and not ending, just taking on a different direction.

UNDER DOWN UNDER - THE BLUE MOUNTAINS - CANBERRA

We have been so busy, I have been remiss about the preceding weeks arriving in Sydney.  The Blue Mountains, hikes and caves we explored were beautiful.

Three Sisters

Jenolan Caves
We visited two sets of caves.  The Jenolan caves are more commercialized and in a grand setting.

 We drove through a cave to the Hotel and Ticketing Area.

Looking down into the clear, green lit waters of the river

Beautiful Reflections

Giant Hanging Shawls

Horizontal Helictites

We took the Rivers Tour which was a 2.5 hour hike into the subterranean river areas of the cave system.
















































Wombeyan Caves

The second cave was the Wombeyan National Parks caves.  These caves were not limestone but marble.  Absolutely grand.

Stalactites

Lot's Wife and the Cockatoo

Crystal Glaciers of Marble

Colorful Hanging Shaws

One of the bonuses of the Wombeyan caves was the campground.  It was remote and beautiful.  The wild life was abundant.  One evening we counted almost 4 dozen kangaroo hopping around our camper van.

The birds were everywhere, singing, squawking, tweeting, honking, whistling, twittering, and cawing.  Bell birds, cockatoos, turkeys, minahs, ravens, crows, cat birds, lyre birds, and kookaburras woke us in the morning and sang into the night.

Five Foot Goanna Blends in with Tree and Hopes the Momma Magpie Can't See Him

Magpie Momma Guards Her Nest and Dive Bombs the Goanna.  Magpie 1, Goanna 0

This Little Minah Cozied up to My Feet and Nodded Off For A Nap!  What a Kick!

The Red Headed Gang Gang Cockatoo Came For A Visit

We also enjoyed three days in Australia's capitol of Canberra

visiting Parliament House, the Mint, High Court, War Memorial, and Museums of Science and Art.  Many of the photos for that leg of our trip are in the slideshow at the top of the blog page.

Old Parliament House in Upper Middle, New Parliament House Top

Looking Down From New Parliament House Across Old Parliament House to War Memorial on the Hill

War Memorial

Gallery of Treasures

New Parliament House

Senate Chambers

House Chambers

Grand Hall-Back Wall is A Huge Tapestry of a Gum Forest

Up Close View of Tapestry Weave.  It took 2 years to make.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's on Waltzing Matilda.

Russ's Ross River Virus Article Published In January 2013 Issue

You may recall that last year Russ developed an onset of painful joints.  

These mysterious symptoms led our daughter Abby, who is an ER doctor 

with an interest in wilderness medicine, to diagnose Russ's ailments as a mosquito

born virus.  Their collaborative article is in the January 2013 issue of Blue

Water Sailing, along with fellow Puddle Jumper Katie Thomsen's article

on New Zealand's Fiordland.

These magazines should be on racks at West Marine now.

Cheers from the Worrall Travel R's

Where were you 12/12/12 12:12:12?

Perfect, Last In A Lifetime, Repetitive Numbers

One of the towns we passed through on our zigzag east, west, and south in New South Wales was the little town of Armidale.  This is the home of the New England University, several private schools, and numerous churches.  The architecture looks very New Englandish.  To enhance this New England beauty, deciduous trees with fall colors (April) have been planted throughout the town.

New England University

The city council offers a free 2 hour bus tour of Armidale which we thoroughly enjoyed and saw sights we may have not seen otherwise such as the insides of churches, and administration (chancellors mansion) of NEU, and railroad buildings.  Truly, this town was lovely in so many ways.

Our guide told us of a progressive pipe organ concert.  There are six churches with large pipe organs within 2 1/2 blocks of one another.  A couple of years ago, a progressive concert was given, 20 minutes at each venue.  That would have been something we would have enjoyed hearing.

Many buildings are decorated with iron lace with rounded tin roofs.  English gardens, cottages, and vine covered buildings lend charm to the town.

The shopping area of the town has been refurbished with arcades, bricked zig zag, one way streets, and no car mall.  Very attractive.

Plazas where the street used to be

Zig Zag - narrow one way streets with gardens and nested parking

Shopping Arcades built in Old Buildings

We even had the opportunity to go to a horse race while we were here.

Once we left Armidale, we went to Apsley Falls where we took a few walks following the rim of the steep slate gorges.

Campsite on the Edge of the Cliff

Lions Club Overlook

Gouged Shale Gorges

Happily we were also able to see some kangaroos 

and an echidna in the wild.  He or she was quite large and wobbled along with her broad body swaying from side to side as she walked.

See her nose in the lower left corner?  Echidnas have long sticky pink tongues.

Upon leaving Apsley Falls on 12/12/12, we headed up to Carson Memorial Overlook, but decided to take a few minutes to top off with gas.  We didn't really need it, but decided to get some anyway.  Took us only a few minutes of our time......Lucky, lucky.  That short stop may have saved our lives.

As we climbed the grade to the lookout, a large gum had just fallen across the highway.

We were the second car to arrive after the crash.  The first car had just passed us a mile or so behind.  So maybe 12 is our lucky number.  Had we been sooner, who knows.  Fortunately, a road crew nearby was summoned and with no time they bulldozed the tree to the side of the road so that we could pass.

Laughing Kookabura

When we reached the top of the grade at Carson's Memorial Lookout, we had a magnificent view as we ate lunch and memorialized the day at 12/12/12 at 12:12:12.  Where were you at this time on this day? We will never see numbers again like this in our lifetime.

We are now on the edge of the Blue Mountains and within hours of Sydney.  Cheers!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's in Waltzing Matilda.