There's no Place Like Home

Just to let everyone know that we made it back home safely to Pittsburgh. (There is now 0 hours time difference between us and Pittsburgh time.) I hope you have enjoyed the blog. Hopefully I didn't bore you with too many details. Thanks for all the positive feedback. We look forward to re-connecting with family and friends in the next few days and weeks. But for now - G'Day, Mate!

Melbourne

Fri., Nov. 8 - We spent the day Friday exploring the city of Melbourne.

Melbourne is in the Australian state of Victoria, where we are now 16 hours ahead of Pittsburgh time.

The first place we went was Federation Square, which is a big hub of cafes, shops, a visitor center, train station, and is very near the bridge that goes over the Yarra River.

All of the large cities in Australia are on rivers or waterways: the harbour in Sydney, the Brisbane River in Brisbane, the Swan River in Perth, the Torrens River in Adelaide, and the Yarra River in Melbourne.

There are always very vibrant and dynamic happenings along the rivers.

After we walked around Federation Square and took a stroll down by the Yarra River, we boarded a sightseeing bus and took a tour around the city. The city of Melbourne has a lot of traffic and is very congested. Not my favorite Australian city. Something unique to Melbourne is their alleyways, lanes, and little streets. Every street here in the downtown area near where we are staying has the name of a "little" street in addition to the regular street. For example, there is Bourke Street and then there is Little Bourke Street. Then the next street will be Collins Street, and the next street after that is Little Collins Street. There also are narrow alleys that contain a number of shops and are a beehive of activity. We even saw a wedding taking place in one of these alleyways. There is no vehicular traffic in these alleyways. They are purely pedestrian.

There are lots of Christmas decorations up in Australia. I've been meaning to mention that. Since they don't have Thanksgiving here as a reference time frame for starting with Christmas decorations, they apparently just start with the Christmas decorations in early November.

There is a big department store downtown called Myers that had big Christmas window displays. There are familiar fast food places in Australia; we've seen McDonalds and Subway all over. Less frequently, we've seen Dominoes and Pizza Hut. There also is Burger King, although it goes by the name of Hungry Jack. It has the same logo and menu, though, as Burger King. There is something here called vegemite. It is a spread that you put on bread, like maybe toast, butter, and vegemite. It was described as a salty, less sweet marmalade. An advertisement said that you should pinch your nose when you take the first bite to lessen the intensity of the taste. Well, that just makes me want to run right out and buy some. The downtown streets of Melbourne are always full of people. Even at 11:00 last night when we arrived, there were many, many people out on the streets. The sidewalks are very wide, and some streets are shut off to vehicular traffic, and are just open to trams, streetcars, and pedestrians. There are many, many places to eat and one would not have trouble finding good food in Melbourne. Of course, if you still can't find something that suits your palate, you could always go down to the local Woolworth's grocery story (presumably no relation to the five and dime) and buy yourself a jar of vegemite. No worries, mate!

March of the Penguins

Thurs. evening - From the Great Ocean Road, we traveled through Melbourne and on to Phillip Island.

A very unusual phenomenon takes place on Phillip Island every night: penguins emerge from the water, march up onto and across the beach, and find their way to their burrows where they nestle down for the night. The reason they leave the ocean at night is that predators such as sharks invade, seeking food, and the penguins choose not to become shark snacks. There are 17 different species of penguins, we learned, and the ones on Phillip Island are called "Little Penguins", and true to their species name, they are little - no more than 35 cm (about 14 inches) in height.

We took our seats in the viewing area and shortly after, we began to watch the "Penguin Parade". They came out of the water in groups - sometimes 15 or 20, other times 75 or 100 at a time. They huddled closely together as they made their way across the beach and then climbed up a sand dune. They hesitated at the top of the sand dune, as if they were not sure how to proceed. Then they would take a tentative step or two to descend the other side of the sand dune. At that point, some of them would surrender to gravity and start running down the dune, while others were conquered by gravity, and fell and slid down the sand dune. Unbelievably cute! Then they waddled down a path, seeking out their particular burrows. We left the seated viewing area to follow them along their path. We walked on a boardwalk that was elevated 2 to 3 feet above the penguins, and walked alongside them. Some of them stopped along the way to bed down for the night, while others just kept walking and walking, or more accurately, waddling and waddling. We learned that they sometimes will go as far as 2 km (about 1.2 miles) down the path. In fact, we were told to check under our car in the parking lot before leaving, in case some penguins made it that far. Observing the migratory march of the Little Penguins was so fun and amusing; it was a great way to end a long day.

The Great Ocean Road

Thurs. Nov. 7 - Well, we've saved the best for last. We've seen some awesome sights during our time in Australia, but what we saw on Thurs. makes everything else almost pale in comparison.

On Thurs. we drove the "Great Ocean Road". There really are 2 different parts - with different types of scenery - along the Great Ocean Road. From Warrnambool to Apollo Bay is the first part we drove; from Apollo Bay to Torquay, the second part. I'm going to talk about the second part first.

The drive from Apollo Bay to Torquay was similar to the Big Sur coast in California.

The large waves of the Southern Ocean beat against the tall rocky cliffs. Sometimes there are patches of small, sandy beach areas. As we drove along the winding, curving, ocean road, we'd catch glimpses as we rounded a corner, of the rocky coast, sometimes stretching out for miles.

It was truly a gorgeous sight. But the most spectacular part of the drive, and in fact, the most spectacular thing we've seen in Australia was the scenery along the first part of the Great Ocean Road.

The coast here consists of tall limestone cliffs. The limestone cliffs tend to be eroded in parts, as the soft rock is mixed with some harder, more durable rock types.

The softer rock tends to erode faster. This coastline is along the Southern Ocean. This ocean extends all the way south to Antarctica.

There is nothing between the continents of Australia and Antarctica to break the waves as they traverse great segments of this ocean expanse. As a result, some pretty furious storms and pretty violent waves wreak havoc with this coastline, and the waves can be heard booming against the cliffs.

As the tempestuous waves batter the limestone coastal cliffs, thereby eroding the softer parts of the rock, what is left are remnants of limestone pillars standing majestically off the shore in the shallow coastal waters. The waves from the wide ocean expanse come in and break around the pillars on their way to shore. The limestone pillars tend to take different shapes, depending on the direction and velocity of the wave action, as well as the types of rock being pounded and the shape of the coastline. Most of the overlooks are named to reflect the shapes left behind. Some of the overlooks we stopped at were: Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs,

the Grotto, London Bridge (Broken), The Arch, Loch Ard Gorge, Thunder Cave, and The Twelve Apostles. At the Grotto, there was a rocky ledge along the pillar.

The power of the waves could be witnessed as they came raging in and washed up over the ledge. At the "Broken" London Bridge, the pounding, crashing surf was continuously and relentlessly breaking down the "bridge". Segments of limestone became detached from the mainland, giving the appearance of a bridge missing a span.

The Arch was a coastal version of the large, massive arches found in Arches National Park in Utah. The limestone was shaped like a huge arch with waves finding their way through the gap. At Loch Ard Gorge, there was a very narrow inlet between two massive limestone walls. The two walls extended up in to a beach area, giving the appearance of a gorge. In the back waters of the beach area, a cave had formed, with very prominent stalactites.

The most impressive, and most well-known formation was the Twelve Apostles. There were a number of pillars aligned along the coast, eroded by the constant attack of the ocean, and left standing as a series of solitary pillars. The spectacular sight of these pillars was simply breathtaking.

In between the limestone cliffs of the first part of the Great Ocean Road, and the rocky coasts of the second part, the Great Ocean Road veered away from the coastline for awhile. Here the road climbed in elevation, going up into the inland mountains, and soon we were enshrouded in fog. It almost seemed like we wandered into a different part of the world - so different was this mountain/forest drive from the ocean/beach/coast drive we had just been on. Along this part of the road, we saw a kangaroo hopping around merrily in the middle of the road. He almost was hit by an oncoming car, but at the last minute, he dodged the vehicle by hopping into our path, right in front of us. Fortunately we had spotted him awhile back and had slowed down enough to give him time to go hopping back into the woods. Again we saw many, many sheep, pretty much on every hillside, some of them climbing or resting on very steep hillsides. The trees in this forest were very tall, some of the tallest we've seen. The whole area had a very serene, pastoral feel to it. The temperatures in this ocean/mountain/ocean environment were the coolest we experienced to date, ranging from low 50's to low 60's most of the day. Along with the fierce wind coming off the Southern Ocean, it was a blustery day. Despite the cold, though, the scenery was absolutely some of the most spectacular we've seen, perhaps ever.

The Grampians

On Wed., we left Adelaide and drove southeast toward Melbourne. Along this route, things definitely look somewhat greener, at least by Australian standards. It appears that this part of the country gets a little more rain than other parts. In fact, shortly east of Adelaide, we crossed the Murray River, which is a major Australia river, and it seemed to be full, with water high on the banks. We passed lots of Eucalyptus trees. I have come to love Eucalyptus trees. There are over 500 varieties of Eucalyptus trees in Australia. Eucalyptus trees shed their bark instead of their leaves. As a result, you see trees with smooth white trunks and branches full of leaves. They really are very unique, and very pretty. The flowers of the Eucalyptus trees have no smell, so I'm not sure where the Eucalyptus scent comes from.

Our major sight-seeing venture for today was the Grampians, which is a beautiful mountain range part way between Adelaide and Melbourne.

As we entered Grampians National Park, we were driving along the valley floor, where the majestic peaks rose on either side of us. Eventually the road began to climb as we ascended into the mountains. We stopped at some designated overlooks to view the spectacular mountain ranges that stretched out before us as far as the eye could see.

The Grampians are very rugged, with rocky, steep cliffs and sharp, jagged peaks. In fact, the challenge of the steep slopes of the rock faces attracts experienced climbers to the Grampians from all over the world. As we continued driving, the road began to descend after we crossed the top of the range.

As we drove down the other side of the slopes, we saw some sheer, steep, bald faces of massive slabs of rock.

We eventually reached the valley floor and were again surrounded by the mountains. It was late in the day by this time, and the sun was beginning to set behind the ranges to the west, giving the peaks a soft, silhouetted look against the backdrop of the late evening sky. As we continued driving, we saw a couple of kangaroos alongside the road. From Grampians National Park, we drove south toward the coast. Along this drive we saw lots of pastureland, with one sheep farm after another, each one with many, many sheep - way more than we've seen before concentrated in one place. The pasturelands here are very green and rich, obviously a less arid climate in this part of Australia. We drove to Warrnambool where we are spending the night. We have a view of the Southern Ocean from our hotel room.

Adelaide and the Barossa Valley

Tues., Nov. 5 - When we arrived in Adelaide, we picked up a rental car and drove to the Barossa Valley. One thing we noticed right away is that the Adelaide region of Australia seems just a little bit greener than other parts of Australia we've visited. Adelaide is in the state of South Australia. The sun here shines every bit as much and is just as intense as everywhere else in Australia. We learned that there is a hole in the ozone layer over Australia, which explains why the sun is always so intense. As a result, Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. The Barossa Valley is a 1 hour drive northeast of Adelaide and is Australia's most famous wine region. There are 750 grape growing families here.

The landscape consists of green and brown rolling hills overlooking valleys of rows and rows of vineyards, with reserves and forests nearby to complete the picturesque setting. Dotted among the valleys and ridges are some historic towns containing churches, stone buildings, cottages, and of course, wineries.

We drove through the Barossa Valley towns of Lyndoch, Tanunda, Angaston, and Nurioopta. The drive took us up into the hills where we stopped at an overview to look down on the valley below. Along the drive, there were many wildflowers in bloom.

On one drive, there were rows and rows of beautiful, rich deep red roses that lined the road and sat on the edge of each row of the vineyards. The beauty of these roses is near impossible to describe. I read somewhere that these roses comprise the largest collection of roses in the Southern Hemisphere. One of the roads we took was Seppeltsfield Road, named for one of the most famous wineries of the Barossa Valley, and it is sometimes called Palm Ave.

This is because this road, for miles, is lined on both sides with magnificent, huge Palm trees. It is breathtaking as you drive down the road, through the center of this alley of Palms. We returned from the Barossa Valley, checked into our hotel room, and then took a 15-20 minute walk to Adelaide's "Central Market".

The Central Market is a huge collection of shops offering everything from fresh produce to sushi, cheese, nuts, baked goods, and other various goodies. The diversity is reflected in the Asian and European shops that exist side by side. We took a walk through the market and sampled some nuts, croissants, and cheese.

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at Adelaide's famous chocolate shop: Haigh's Chocolates.

No free samples here like at Margaret River, but we did make a small purchase just to sample the famous chocolatier. While walking around town, we noticed many women dressed up in very formal dresses, with many wearing fancy hats. It turns out that everyone here is celebrating the "Melbourne Cup". It is Australia's most popular horse race - I suppose comparable to our Kentucky Derby - and was run (or will be run) today. One promo describes it as an event that virtually brings the nation to a halt.

Tim Tams and Fair Dinkum

A few more odds and ends about Australia: I have a new favorite cookie. It is called a Tim Tam. It is a chocolate-coated chocolate sandwich cookie and it is delicious. Although technically, here a cookie is called a biscuit. So I asked my sister-in-law Tricia, what then do you call a Pillsbury biscuit that you pop into the oven, and she said that those are called scones. So then, the next obvious question, what do you call a scone? Well, that's still a scone, so there are different types of scones. A morning coffee break here is called "morning tea", and the term refers to the break, not necessarily the drink, but may include the drink. They have tea specifically called "breakfast tea" here and tea called "afternoon tea", with afternoon tea being the stronger of the two. I have noticed that the tea in Australia is very good; they really know how to do tea here. There is also something called Billy tea, which is tea cooked over a campfire. However, with all this tea, there apparently is no such thing as an iced tea drink, as we have not found any restaurants that serve it. The word Tucker means food, and Bush Tucker means food you get from the bush, like berries, etc. - living off the land. Garbage is called rubbish. Fanny packs are called bum bags. An Australian expression is "Fair Dinkum" which means "I'm not kidding; that's the truth." And Dinki Di means the real thing. If you go into a stationary store to buy paper, you won't find any 8 1/2 by 11 paper. That is not the standard size in Australia. I'm not sure what the standard size is, but it is a little bigger than 8 1/2 by 11. All public school kids in Australia - the whole country - are required to wear uniforms. If you go into an arcade, you will not find any games to play; an arcade is a place to shop. And that's Fair Dinkum!

The Indian Pacific

On Sun., Nov. 3, around noon, the Indian Pacific railroad train pulled away from the train station in East Perth. The Indian Pacific has a total of 28 cars, including 1 engine, at least 2 baggage cars, and 3 car-transport cars, each carrying 8 passenger vehicles. Each car of the train is about 75 feet in length. There are 3 levels of service on the Indian Pacific: Gold, Platinum, and Red. The Gold level has sleeping berths. I'm not sure what the Platinum includes. And the ghetto, I mean Red, consists of recliner seats. We traveled in the Red Recliner seat section. Most of the passengers on the train were in the Gold class. The Indian Pacific is so called because it travels from Perth, on the Indian Ocean, to Sydney on the Pacific Ocean. We boarded the Indian Pacific in Perth, but were only riding as far as Adelaide, a 40 1/2 hour ride. We left Sunday at Noon and were scheduled to arrive in Adelaide at 7 o'clock Tuesday morning. There is a 2 1/2 hour time difference between Perth and Adelaide. The "train people" told us to move our watches forward a certain amount at designated times - not all at once. They said we were not on Perth time or Adelaide time or Sydney time, but we were on "Train Time". If we didn't have our watches set to the proper train time, we ran the risk of missing the train if we got off at one of the designated stops and did not get back on in time. The train traveled an average speed of 90 km/hour, which seemed very slow. Saturday we traveled faster than that by car, when the highways we were on had speed limits of 110 frequently posted. When the train got out into the open Nullarbor Plain, it picked up to 110 km/hour. When we first left Perth, after getting through the suburbs, we climbed slightly over some rolling hills, and then descended on the other side of these wooded hillsides and then eventually the land opened up to vast wheat fields, some hay fields, and some sheep farms. (There are lots of sheep in Australia.) As we traveled east, the land got flatter and flatter. It's obvious when looking over the landscape that the drainage is not well developed, and there are shallow sandy pools here and there. There continues to be a sense that Australia is mostly a dry, barren, desert country.

The lone Red car on the Indian Pacific is not full on this trip. There is room to spread out, and people are encouraged to do so, as well as to get up and walk around. The only 2 cars we are allowed to occupy are the one we are traveling in and the car directly behind us, which is the dining car. The people in the Red car are from all over the world: Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the UK, and there is at least one lady on board from Australia. There is also one very annoying lady who is playing her IPOD so loudly that even with her earphones in use, we know all the lyrics to the song "I Want to Know What Love is", and who talks so loudly on her cell phone that the whole Red car is now aware that she is 3 months behind on her rent. There are about 48 seats in the Red car. The seats are very comfortable, and they adjust almost to a reclining position (but no footrests). We were instructed not to sleep on the floor. There is lots of leg room. We were allowed to bring food on board and so we have our bags and backpacks full of sandwiches and snacks at our feet for easy access. There are also seat tray tops that you can put across your seat for eating on, or for reading and/or writing. There is a water fountain in the rear of the Red car, and a restroom and shower up front. The first designated stop the train made was at the town of Kalgoorlie. We left the train and boarded buses for a tour of Kalgoorlie, and also to view a mining pit. This tour actually took place from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. because it just happened to be the time we pulled into Kalgoorlie. Kalgoorlie is a mining town and the biggest ore mined here is gold. In fact, because of the large amount of gold mined here, Kalgoorlie is considered to be the Gold Capital of the world - at least that's the story according to the bus driver/tour guide. Because of the abundance of gold here, the mining pit is huge. The dimensions are listed as 3.5 km by 1.6 km (roughly 2 miles by 1 mile), and it is almost 700 meters (almost half a mile) deep. It is an enormous hole in the ground. They are so creative that they've called it the "Super Pit". No kidding, that's the official name it goes by. We were told that Kalgoorlie is not actually desert, but qualifies as semi-arid. The surrounding areas, however, are considered desert. Some of the areas nearby haven't had rain in 5 years. After leaving Kalgoorlie, we soon entered the Nullarbor Plain - a hot, barren plateau of pretty much nothing. Nullarbor means without (null) trees (arbor).

While the first part of the Nullarbor Plain is not totally devoid of trees - there are only a scraggly few here and there - it is a huge flat plain with very little else. As far as the eye can see, on either side of the train, just open flat plains. Occasionally the train slows down and then just comes to a complete stop. Apparently the rails are shared by other trains - both freight and passenger - and there are only certain places on the line that trains can pass each other. So we sit and wait until another train comes along and passes us in the opposite direction, and then we continue on our way. If some trains are not running on schedule, it then apparently affects the schedule of many other trains. One of the towns we passed through on the Nullarbor Plain is called Forest, this despite the fact that by now there are no trees in sight. It turns out that the town was named after an important Australian whose name was Forest.

The Nullarbor Plain eventually becomes completely treeless, true to its name. Even the few scattered trees are gone. All that's left is the red Australian dirt and some scruffy ground cover. This section of railroad track is the longest straight stretch of track in the world - 478 km (almost 300 miles). When the railroad line was being built, small settlements were built periodically along the track to assist with maintenance of the line. One of the remaining towns is a small settlement called Cook. Cook was once a thriving community, but now there are only 5 permanent residents left. At one time, Cook boasted of the fact that it had a hospital - very unusual for a small outback town. The only problem was that it needed patients to keep it viable. So Cook used to advertise for sick people to come here. Sick people were called "crook", so the first sign you see when you exit the train is a remnant from those days that reads

"If you're crook, come to Cook" and on the other side, it says "Our hospital needs your help. Get sick." Today the 5 residents are served medically by the aforementioned Royal Flying Doctor Service.

We disembarked from the train, walked around the dusty, hot streets of Cook (it felt like the upper 90s or low 100s), saw the old abandoned buildings: jail (Gaol in Australia) cells, general store, post office, school, hospital, and a Memorial Rock.

A plaque on the Memorial Rock marks an attempt by local residents to defy the treeless nature of the Nullarbor Plain. In 2006, 1000 trees were planted in Cook; a few of these trees remain today, and are the tallest and maybe the only trees in the Nullarbor. The Indian Pacific train brings food and supplies to the 5 residents of Cook, and in return the residents provide the train with fuel and water. Upon leaving Cook, we moved our watches forward 1 1/2 hours, so combined with the end of Daylight Savings Time in Pittsburgh last weekend, we are now back to 15 1/2 hours ahead of Pittsburgh time. It's ironic that the closer we get geographically to the US as we move east across the continent of Australia, the bigger the time difference, due to the International Date Line separating Australia and the US. We pulled into Adelaide around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday. Although the Indian Pacific train ride was extremely enjoyable, we woke up pretty tired this morning after spending 2 nights trying to get comfortable enough to sleep in the recliner seats. It will be nice to be back in a regular bed tonight.