Australia: Flying Foxes

We love foxes, and we love bats.  When we realized that Cairns had a colony of flying fox bats, we sought them out.  It wasn’t hard—you can hear them from a few blocks away.  And while we thought they were pretty visibly obvious—you know, Chihuahua sized animals with yard/meter wingspans swooping over head—we were consistently amazed by how many people only glanced up at them after wondering what we were taking pictures of.  In one case, a woman who’d been walking along, perfectly safe, looked at David panning his zoom lens along with a bat, looked where he was pointing, and shrieked and cowered on the ground for nearly 5 minutes before scurrying off in a crouch like she was in a war zone.  Most people were delighted by their chance glance up, however.

The Great Barrier Reef

We were looking forward to seeing the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but we were also a little worried that we'd be jaded after having had such fantastic snorkeling in the Galapagos.  Our concern was unfounded--the reef was amazing, and very different from what we'd seen anywhere else.

Pinnacles Desert, Western Australia

While we were on the west coast of Australia, we took a day trip from Perth up to The Pinnacles, in Nambung National Park.  It was a long, but peaceful drive, with beautiful scenery along the way.  It fell in line with much of our adventures in Western Australia, in that it was not nearby but close enough to reach as a day trip.  And when you’re that far away from everything else, you might as well see what there is to see. After all, you may never make it back this way.  We had read about how interesting and beautiful it was to photograph, and decided to plan it for maximum photo opportunity by planning to arrive for the afternoon “golden hour.”  On our way out we swung by the Aquarium of Western Australia (known as AQWA, that’s another post) and then ambled up through a pretty barren landscape for a couple of hours.  At first they don’t look like much, just a few rocks sticking up out of sandy desert.

But then the light began to get really pretty, and the rocks began to cast some interesting shadows, and well, we took a lot of photos.  We had to restrain ourselves a bit in the ones we actually ended up posting, but here is the cream of the crop.

Postcard: Great Barrier Reef

Black-tipped reef shark and friends, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

111 Meals in New Zealand and Australia

Here's the next installment of "The Bumps Travel On Their Stomachs."  The first installment, 180 meals in South America, is here.  For reference, we flew to Australia on January 9th--there is no specific cue in the pictures to that change.

Food was very expensive, especially in Australia.  And, kitchen facilities were much more common, so you will see a lot more meals that we made; especially breakfasts and lunches.  We're still struggling with consistently taking pictures of our meals, but we were really bad at remembering to take pictures of lunches we made.  So when you see just two meals for a day, the third was almost certainly a lunch of PB & J, eaten on the road somewhere.

Bon appetit!

If you prefer, this is a direct link to the album of pictures:

Meals in NZ and Oz

Western Australia Photo Potpourri

We took some pictures in Western Australia that we liked, but didn’t fit together in a cohesive post.  So here are snapshots of the west coast:

Postcard: Pinnacles Desert, Australia

Pinnacles dessert, south-western Australia.

Postcard: Kangaroo Island

Cape Willoughby Lighthouse, Kangaroo Island, Australia.

Postcard: Sydney, Australia

Queen Victoria Building interior, Sydney, Australia.

Postcard: Great Ocean Road

Twelve Apostles formation on the Great Ocean Road, Australia.

Postcard: Elephant Rocks, Australia

Elephant rocks, south-western Australia.

Bunbury Birds

We spent a night in Bunbury, on our way from the Valley of the Giants to Perth.  It was a practical stop for us and we didn’t have specific plans, but while there we found a bird sanctuary and had fun wandering and taking pictures.

Postcard: Australian Savanah

Roadside, east of Adelaide, Australia

Postcard: Melbourne

Under the clocks in Flinders Station, Melbourne, Australia.

Postcard: Valley of the Giants, Australia

Valley of the Giants, south-western Australia

Treetops, Southwest Australia

Once we made the decision to go to Perth and southwest Australia, instead of Tasmania (which had widespread fires at the time), there was one place that was near the top of our list: the Tree Top walk at Valley of the Giants.

Postcard: Glenelg, Australia

Sunset on the boardwalk, Glenelg, Australia.

Glenelg, Australia tandem ride

After staying in Adelaide for a couple of nights, we thought we’d de-camp out closer to the beach in the suburb of Glenelg after meeting some folks on our Kangaroo Island tour who said it was a lovely place to stay. We found Glenelg to be a quiet, pretty beach town; we loved it.  The place we stayed had tandem bikes for rent, enticingly parked out in front. It had been a while since we’d been on bikes, and things had gone pretty well on our recent tandem kayak experience, so decided to test the strength of our marriage by renting one of their tandem beach cruisers.

Based on Lana’s smile, you can see that it was a successful gamble.  We got the hang of getting started quickly, and also improvised a system for communicating when David was going to shift gears or change speed. It was definitely a lesson in communication, mostly with learning to ask for the cues necessary to accomplish the task together. All that bonding aside, it was just a lovely bike ride. We didn’t want it to end so when the beach path ended we took one that ran along the river. We didn’t make it all the way in to Adelaide, but we came pretty close. We also saw a lot of beautiful nature and birds along the way, including this guy.

One thing about it, if you want people to notice you, a tandem bicycle is the way to go. We got a lot of “Look at that!” and pointing from kids and adults.  But it was all fun, and even added to our own enjoyment—bringing grins to our own faces.

The weather was perfect for a ride—cool and cloudy, but without any wind or rain. We wanted to spend all day out there, but since our seats were getting sore and our tummies were beginning to rumble, we pointed our chariot back to the beach and our hotel for a shower.

Lana isn’t a big fan of giving up control, but she also isn’t a confident cyclist. For her, this ended up being the best of both worlds. She got to spend time with her favorite person, got in a little fun exercise, and all she had to do was pedal.  David was happy to feel the breeze in his face again, despite the horrible, wide saddles on that tandem.

Here’s a little video from the back of the bike:

Postcard: Perth

Perth skyline and moon rise from King’s Park.

Sunrise Takeoff

After some debate, we decided to fly to Perth instead of fire-blighted Tasmania.  It was an early morning, and the sun peeked above the horizon just as the nose of the plain lifted.  Adelaide was wonderful, and we we’re sad to skip Tasmania, but also excited to see Perth and the remote west coast.  This was definitely a case where it was wonderful to have the flexibility of choosing where we want to go based on local conditions, and what we’re feeling like doing, instead of being locked in to a pre-planned itinerary.