The Journey Begins in Australia

Well, after a month of traveling, it's long past time to start putting some trip updates online, so here goes...

AUSTRALIA

Our international trip began in mid-May in Australia. We focused most of our efforts on two Australian destinations - the northeast coast near Cairns and then Sydney.

Although we initially had a goal of seeing more of the country, we scaled back our efforts for a couple of reasons. One, Australia was getting ready for winter when we arrived and so we'd earlier decided to stick to the warmer regions of the country, which ruled out such southern cities as Melbourne and Adelaide. Second, and most importantly, we were pretty tired after some long days and short nights spent packing up our house in Boston, then driving cross-country, and finally getting little sleep during the few days that we were in Tucson. So it seemed sensible to not overdue it at the start of our journey, especially with some harder travel ahead of us in Asia.

But the Australian experience that we did have was interesting and enjoyable. After a 31-hour trip from Tucson to Cairns, including an unexpected 7-hour layover in the Sydney airport due to a mechanical issue with the plane, we based ourselves in the small town of Palm Cove, one of the jumping-off points for trips to the Great Barrier Reef. We gave ourselves a week to rest and recharge. It’s funny, though, how our minds and bodies work – after being so busy for so long, it was difficult to relax at first. We found ourselves waking up at 6 a.m., tired but unable to shut down our minds.

Of course, maybe we were waking up early each morning just thinking about all the things that could kill us on those Australian beaches. I’ve never before been on a beach that warned people to beware of sharks, crocodiles AND deadly jellyfish. It was near the end of ‘stinger’ season in northeast Australia – for several months of each year the waters are inhabited by dangerous jellyfish, some of which merely inflict painful stings and others that can cause death fairly quickly. The first aid instructions posted along the shore reminded rescuers to ‘restrain’ the victim (because the pain is so bad) and then to ‘assess consciousness.’ Interestingly, halfway through our week there we were told that stinger season was over and that it was safe to go back in the water – but be sure to notify a lifeguard if you were stung by a stray jellyfish that still happened to be around. Hmmm. You know, suddenly the cold waters of the north Atlantic didn’t seem so uninviting.

Seriously, though, it wasn’t all that bad. The beach was gorgeous, and how often do we really swim in the ocean, after all? We were in the end able to spend some time relaxing and reading, and went for some walks on the beach. The down time was good for our bodies.

The thing to do in this part of Australia, as you might guess, is to explore the Great Barrier Reef, which we did. What I never realized before is that this marine park is actually numerous reefs that stretch over an area of water the size of the United Kingdom. We booked boat trips to the outer reefs, which are more than an hour offshore and on the edge of the continental shelf. Lisa got in some dives and I did some snorkeling (we were assured there were no jellyfish in this area!). The reefs and the fish were truly amazing. So many different colors and shapes and textures. It’s astounding to experience this entire other universe below the surface of the oceans.

From Cairns, we flew down to Sydney, which we found to be a great city. It’s similar to Boston in some ways, but with a much bigger and nicer waterfront. We stayed in the suburb of Glebe, just a 10-minute walk from Darling Harbour near the city center. It was a sort of bohemian place, with lots of ethnic restaurants, new age bookstores and the like.

We spent a day exploring the area around the Sydney Opera House, which is a truly unique building that sits on a small peninsula of land by the harbor. Shadowing the Opera House is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where we climbed up the pylon lookout for quite a nice view over Sydney and the bay area. We also explored various city neighborhoods and spent an afternoon at the Aquarium, which has to be one of the best in the world. On another day, we took the ferry to Manly, a northern suburb of Sydney that offers a wonderful view of Sydney and its harbour area.

Here is the obligatory Kodak photo moment from Sydney ...

Bob and Lisa in front of the Sydney Opera House



There is certainly a lot more that we’d like to explore in Australia, so I suppose we’ll have to just plan another trip there some day in order to catch some of the cities and sights that we missed this time. We are glad that we got a taste of the country, though (and now we can also say we’ve been to six continents), but this trip was even more about experiencing other, more different parts of the world. And that began in our next stop – Vietnam.