This internet cafe has no way for me to upload the journal entries I've written. So, I may be delayed a few days as I search for another. I owe you a journal entry for the 29th, on Canberra. It will be coming soon.
Today was a travel day. We left the Canberra YHA around 7:30 and arrived here at the Hervey Bay YHA at 4:30. The only interesting thing to report is the bush fire we saw in the diatnce as we drove north from Brisbane. I will hang a photo of it on the course blog (http://ecaustralia09.blogspot.com) as soon as I can.
--charlie
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sydney to Canberra
28 April
Canberra
Patches of sun and clouds, some rain, cool
We relocated from Sydney to Canberra today, via coach. Such rides are usually pretty uninteresting, but this time, the trip was unusually entertaining and informative, owing to the efforts of our coach driver, Ron.
Ron is an interesting character. He spent a good portion of his career as a tour guide for coach tours in many places: Europe, Great Britain, the USA, and Asia, and so easily fell into his old habits, becoming our tour guide for the day as well as our driver. Over his microphone, he would tell us jokes and ask questions of the students. An example of one of his jokes:
Ron: "Have you heard of a kangaroo?"
Students: "Yes."
Ron: "A wallaby?"
Students: "Yes."
Ron: "A wallaroo?"
Students: "No."
Ron: "It's a small kangaroo." [n.b.: This is true.]
Ron: "Have you heard of a wasaroo?"
Students: "No."
[some silence]
Ron: "So, ask me what's a wasaroo."
Students: "What's a wasaroo?"
Ron: "It's roadkill." [was - a - 'roo]
Typical Aussie tour guide humor. In the early years of this course, we would get a lot of that from the coach drivers.
But Ron threw in several additional little things for us, too. He took us on a detour off the Hume Highway to some backroads, on which we saw some wild kangaroos, delighting the students who thus far have only seen 'roos in the zoo. We also saw some working dairy farms, and an alpaca ranch -- I suppose it would be called an 'alpaca station' here.
We ate lunch at a McDonalds by the highway, after going through the town of Goulburn. Ron pointed out that the coaches all go on a recently constructed bypass and so miss the town center. Goulburn was the first inland city in Australia, so it's probably worth a look. In future years, maybe we'll find a cafe in the city for lunch. "Macas" is the same whether in the USA or Australia; we don't need to eat there.
When we arrived in Canberra, I have the coach driver take us to an overlook at Mt. Ainslie, a nice overlook that allows one to take in the entire city. Canberra is a planned city. When Australia confederated in 1900, there was a controversy over where the capital would be located, with the rival cities Sydney and Melbourne the chief each vying for the honor. As a compromise, the decision was made to locate the capital in a suitable location halfway between. An international competition was held to find a suitable design for the city, and the winner was Walter Burley-Griffin, an American from Chicago. The city's layout is quite geometrical: three central areas form an equilateral triangle. That triangle is bisected by a line running from the Parliament House to the ANZAC War Memorial. At right angles to that line is a reservoir lake. It is quite picturesque.
Ron knew of a nice way to end the tour. After we left Mt. Ainslie and before we got to the YHA where we would spend the evening, he took us on a side trip to a pavilion nearby Lake Burley-Griffin, where there is an extensive exhibit on the city and the surrounding area. Certainly seems like a good thing to add to the course, so I think we will do that in future years.
The YHA is much nicer this year than last, with a working elevator now -- it was broken down and being repaired last year. They also now have Global Gossip as an internet provider, so that's a good source of stability. Canberra has not changed a lot, though since we are here on Tuesday and Wednesday, there's more to do than there was on the Sunday we were here last year. Still, the town is pretty dead after 6pm. I think most of the students hung out here and socialized.
I should write a little about the swine flu, as I'm sure that anyone reading the blog might be a bit worried for us. I will not lie; we're a little nervous, too. But if we were exposed while enroute, we would have already begun exhibiting symptoms, and no one in the group is doing so. There are a few cases here and there in Australia, but they seem to be catching them early on and isolating them straight away. We'll actually have an opportunity to speak with the embassy staff tomorrow about it. So, I'd advise us all to not get too far ahead of ourselves in our worries over the students. I promise to keep you posted about it.
Canberra
Patches of sun and clouds, some rain, cool
We relocated from Sydney to Canberra today, via coach. Such rides are usually pretty uninteresting, but this time, the trip was unusually entertaining and informative, owing to the efforts of our coach driver, Ron.
Ron is an interesting character. He spent a good portion of his career as a tour guide for coach tours in many places: Europe, Great Britain, the USA, and Asia, and so easily fell into his old habits, becoming our tour guide for the day as well as our driver. Over his microphone, he would tell us jokes and ask questions of the students. An example of one of his jokes:
Ron: "Have you heard of a kangaroo?"
Students: "Yes."
Ron: "A wallaby?"
Students: "Yes."
Ron: "A wallaroo?"
Students: "No."
Ron: "It's a small kangaroo." [n.b.: This is true.]
Ron: "Have you heard of a wasaroo?"
Students: "No."
[some silence]
Ron: "So, ask me what's a wasaroo."
Students: "What's a wasaroo?"
Ron: "It's roadkill." [was - a - 'roo]
Typical Aussie tour guide humor. In the early years of this course, we would get a lot of that from the coach drivers.
But Ron threw in several additional little things for us, too. He took us on a detour off the Hume Highway to some backroads, on which we saw some wild kangaroos, delighting the students who thus far have only seen 'roos in the zoo. We also saw some working dairy farms, and an alpaca ranch -- I suppose it would be called an 'alpaca station' here.
We ate lunch at a McDonalds by the highway, after going through the town of Goulburn. Ron pointed out that the coaches all go on a recently constructed bypass and so miss the town center. Goulburn was the first inland city in Australia, so it's probably worth a look. In future years, maybe we'll find a cafe in the city for lunch. "Macas" is the same whether in the USA or Australia; we don't need to eat there.
When we arrived in Canberra, I have the coach driver take us to an overlook at Mt. Ainslie, a nice overlook that allows one to take in the entire city. Canberra is a planned city. When Australia confederated in 1900, there was a controversy over where the capital would be located, with the rival cities Sydney and Melbourne the chief each vying for the honor. As a compromise, the decision was made to locate the capital in a suitable location halfway between. An international competition was held to find a suitable design for the city, and the winner was Walter Burley-Griffin, an American from Chicago. The city's layout is quite geometrical: three central areas form an equilateral triangle. That triangle is bisected by a line running from the Parliament House to the ANZAC War Memorial. At right angles to that line is a reservoir lake. It is quite picturesque.
Ron knew of a nice way to end the tour. After we left Mt. Ainslie and before we got to the YHA where we would spend the evening, he took us on a side trip to a pavilion nearby Lake Burley-Griffin, where there is an extensive exhibit on the city and the surrounding area. Certainly seems like a good thing to add to the course, so I think we will do that in future years.
The YHA is much nicer this year than last, with a working elevator now -- it was broken down and being repaired last year. They also now have Global Gossip as an internet provider, so that's a good source of stability. Canberra has not changed a lot, though since we are here on Tuesday and Wednesday, there's more to do than there was on the Sunday we were here last year. Still, the town is pretty dead after 6pm. I think most of the students hung out here and socialized.
I should write a little about the swine flu, as I'm sure that anyone reading the blog might be a bit worried for us. I will not lie; we're a little nervous, too. But if we were exposed while enroute, we would have already begun exhibiting symptoms, and no one in the group is doing so. There are a few cases here and there in Australia, but they seem to be catching them early on and isolating them straight away. We'll actually have an opportunity to speak with the embassy staff tomorrow about it. So, I'd advise us all to not get too far ahead of ourselves in our worries over the students. I promise to keep you posted about it.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Free Day in Sydney
27 April
Sydney
Sunny, Cooler and Breezy
Today was a free day for the students. Some planned to go to Bondi Beach, but it was really too windy and cold, so most wound up visiting the wonderful Royal Botanical Gardens to the east of Circular Quay. This parkland on the south side of the harbor is one of the jewels of Sydney. Lots of people think of the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge as synonymous with Sydney; for me, it's the Gardens. Plants from all over the world, spacious lawns for picnics or games, and of course the flying fox colony.
My main goal was to capture a good photo or two of the flying foxes. (I have several shots, but I do not yet know if any turned out.) Flying foxes are not nocturnal, feeding at dusk and dawn, and resting at night and during the heat of the day. But they do fly about from tree to tree during the day, noisily squabbling over space on a branch from which to hang and cover themselves with their wings. They will also sometimes stretch their wings wide as if to catch a cooling breeze. I find them fun to watch.
The colony in Sydney is considered a nuisance by the local folks, and there have surfaced plans to force the colony to move elsewhere. The bats feed on fruits and blossoms, and so are nothing but a pest as far as orchardists or gardeners are concerned -- they do not eat insects. It would be a shame to lose them from the Gardens, though.
I took the students to dinner at the Australian Hotel, a favorite spot of my senior colleague from prior years. It's a gourmet pizza place in the Rocks, a region west of Circular Quay that at one time was a rougher part of town, a sort of Hell's Kitchen. Now, it's an upscale high-rent area for the tourists. Though the weather has been cooler and windy, we still had a pleasant sidewalk dinner, followed by gelato at Circular Quay.
IT is now early morning on the 28th. I will upload this journal entry and get some photos up, and then we leave Sydney for awhile to go to Canberra, the country's capital.
Sydney
Sunny, Cooler and Breezy
Today was a free day for the students. Some planned to go to Bondi Beach, but it was really too windy and cold, so most wound up visiting the wonderful Royal Botanical Gardens to the east of Circular Quay. This parkland on the south side of the harbor is one of the jewels of Sydney. Lots of people think of the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge as synonymous with Sydney; for me, it's the Gardens. Plants from all over the world, spacious lawns for picnics or games, and of course the flying fox colony.
My main goal was to capture a good photo or two of the flying foxes. (I have several shots, but I do not yet know if any turned out.) Flying foxes are not nocturnal, feeding at dusk and dawn, and resting at night and during the heat of the day. But they do fly about from tree to tree during the day, noisily squabbling over space on a branch from which to hang and cover themselves with their wings. They will also sometimes stretch their wings wide as if to catch a cooling breeze. I find them fun to watch.
The colony in Sydney is considered a nuisance by the local folks, and there have surfaced plans to force the colony to move elsewhere. The bats feed on fruits and blossoms, and so are nothing but a pest as far as orchardists or gardeners are concerned -- they do not eat insects. It would be a shame to lose them from the Gardens, though.
I took the students to dinner at the Australian Hotel, a favorite spot of my senior colleague from prior years. It's a gourmet pizza place in the Rocks, a region west of Circular Quay that at one time was a rougher part of town, a sort of Hell's Kitchen. Now, it's an upscale high-rent area for the tourists. Though the weather has been cooler and windy, we still had a pleasant sidewalk dinner, followed by gelato at Circular Quay.
IT is now early morning on the 28th. I will upload this journal entry and get some photos up, and then we leave Sydney for awhile to go to Canberra, the country's capital.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Blue Mountains
26 April
Blue Mountains
Partly Sunny, Cold and Windy
Sunday was our day to go to the Blue Mountain for a hike around Katoomba Falls. The Blue Mountains region is about two hours west of the city, so the first leg of our trip was a train ride to Katoomba, one of the major jumping-off points for excursions into the area.
It was a tight schedule in the morning, as we had to leave by 6:45 in order to make the proper connections. In future years, I may try to get the tour guides to move the tour an hour later so that we have a chance at breakfast before we take off. But, we have about 25 minutes at the Katoomba station before beginning our tour, so the students who didn't get up early enough to get breakfast still had a chance. (I was up at 4:30 so that I could get the tickets, so I was ready for a second breakfast by 9:30.)
The train ride took us through the western suburbs and then through tunnels and passages into the eastern portions of the Blue Mountain area. They're not actually mountains at all -- the region is a plateau with deep gorges cut by eons of water activity. Think of it as an older, wetter grand canyon. Very pretty, lots of wildlife, and of course it's covered with a huge forest.
Like most of the forests in the southern part of Australia, this one is dependent on periodic burnings in order to remain healthy. The Aborigines practiced controlled burning before whites arrived here, thus preventing the sorts of wildfires that have plagued the southeast in recent years. The reluctance of property owners to manage forest undergrowth, coupled with the incredibly dry conditions here, conspire to create a dangerous situation. The wildfires in Victoria earlier this year claimed around 200 lives, and caused massive property damage. The first responders during the fires received a special mention at the ANZAC Day ceremonies I saw on television; it will continue to be on the minds of Australians for years to come.
The Blue Mountains region is not immune to fires, though we were in little danger today. And thankfully, I have a group of non-smokers, so we were unlikely to cause damage in any case. But I have been out there at times after controlled burnings, and expected to see the effects of that in some regions today.
The only disciplinary thing that has happened in our travels so far has been an admonishment this morning from the train personnel to keep our voices down. Americans just seem to be louder than Australians, and I have a bubbly, enthusiastic group along with me. I do not want them to change their behavior, but I suppose that I'll have to ask them a little more often to quiet down. But they are constantly asking questions of me and of the people they meet, which I think is great, and would hate to see that vanish. They have already had conversations with Australians about America, our new president, New Zealand, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Aborigines, sports in Australia, and many other topics. One student has relatives in the Sydney area, and has been able to spend some time with them. They are taking to the traveling quite well.
After a couple tight connections, we made it to the Katoomba Falls Kiosk, where we were to meet our guide. A few students had not heeded my advice about dressing for chilly conditions, and so were probably a little cold at first. We all felt more comfortable waiting inside the warmth of the kiosk, though, with time for coffee and muffins.
Our guide Warren proved to be knowledgeable and friendly, and the students took to him pretty quickly. Our walk took us from the top of the gorge to the bottom, crossing the falls four times as we did so. Warren focused on geology and trees as we went along, giving us some valuable lessons about the nature of the forest.
The top of the plateau is covered with a eucalyptus forest that depends on fire and arid conditions for its health, certainly not what one thinks of when describing a rain forest. The temperate rain forest properly begins once we begin descending into the gorge, with the eucalyptus trees and the banksia giving way to the coachwoods, turpentines, and ferns. The ferns are smaller than the ones we will see up north, and there are no palms, cycads, or paperbarks that populate the more tropical rain forests.
Owing to the weather, there was little wildlife. One of the students and I spotted a pair of crimson rosellas, a type of parrot that is common to the Blue Mountains region. They were not close enough to obtain a picture. We did get a black bird to strike a very nice pose for us. I did not hear what Warren called it, but from the photo, I'd say it's some version of a magpie or currawong. The students who were closer to him will have the proper name, I'm sure.
The tour ended with a brief visit to the coal mine remnants at the bottom of the gorge, followed by a ride on the Scenic Railway, a 'vertical' trolley that takes us from the bottom of the gorge to the top in a few moments. It's an exciting ride that takes us inside the rocks of the bluff.
After the conclusion of the walk, the students were free to use the remainder of the day as they wished. Some returned to Sydney on the earlier trains, while others stayed after I left to do some additional exploring. After a lunch with some of the students, I contented myself with a walk over to the Three Sisters, an interesting geological formation. It holds some special meaning for me, as some students conspired with my wife a few years back to give me a framed panoramic photograph of the formation. The Aborigines of the region have some stories about the Three Sisters, but there is no agreement between the language groups about the stories and there are many false stories as well. But my interest is purely in the science of it and the beauty it generates.
Tomorrow is a free day for us. I have modest goals: laundry, getting a quiz ready, and arranging to take the students out to dinner at the Australian Hotel.
Blue Mountains
Partly Sunny, Cold and Windy
Sunday was our day to go to the Blue Mountain for a hike around Katoomba Falls. The Blue Mountains region is about two hours west of the city, so the first leg of our trip was a train ride to Katoomba, one of the major jumping-off points for excursions into the area.
It was a tight schedule in the morning, as we had to leave by 6:45 in order to make the proper connections. In future years, I may try to get the tour guides to move the tour an hour later so that we have a chance at breakfast before we take off. But, we have about 25 minutes at the Katoomba station before beginning our tour, so the students who didn't get up early enough to get breakfast still had a chance. (I was up at 4:30 so that I could get the tickets, so I was ready for a second breakfast by 9:30.)
The train ride took us through the western suburbs and then through tunnels and passages into the eastern portions of the Blue Mountain area. They're not actually mountains at all -- the region is a plateau with deep gorges cut by eons of water activity. Think of it as an older, wetter grand canyon. Very pretty, lots of wildlife, and of course it's covered with a huge forest.
Like most of the forests in the southern part of Australia, this one is dependent on periodic burnings in order to remain healthy. The Aborigines practiced controlled burning before whites arrived here, thus preventing the sorts of wildfires that have plagued the southeast in recent years. The reluctance of property owners to manage forest undergrowth, coupled with the incredibly dry conditions here, conspire to create a dangerous situation. The wildfires in Victoria earlier this year claimed around 200 lives, and caused massive property damage. The first responders during the fires received a special mention at the ANZAC Day ceremonies I saw on television; it will continue to be on the minds of Australians for years to come.
The Blue Mountains region is not immune to fires, though we were in little danger today. And thankfully, I have a group of non-smokers, so we were unlikely to cause damage in any case. But I have been out there at times after controlled burnings, and expected to see the effects of that in some regions today.
The only disciplinary thing that has happened in our travels so far has been an admonishment this morning from the train personnel to keep our voices down. Americans just seem to be louder than Australians, and I have a bubbly, enthusiastic group along with me. I do not want them to change their behavior, but I suppose that I'll have to ask them a little more often to quiet down. But they are constantly asking questions of me and of the people they meet, which I think is great, and would hate to see that vanish. They have already had conversations with Australians about America, our new president, New Zealand, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Aborigines, sports in Australia, and many other topics. One student has relatives in the Sydney area, and has been able to spend some time with them. They are taking to the traveling quite well.
After a couple tight connections, we made it to the Katoomba Falls Kiosk, where we were to meet our guide. A few students had not heeded my advice about dressing for chilly conditions, and so were probably a little cold at first. We all felt more comfortable waiting inside the warmth of the kiosk, though, with time for coffee and muffins.
Our guide Warren proved to be knowledgeable and friendly, and the students took to him pretty quickly. Our walk took us from the top of the gorge to the bottom, crossing the falls four times as we did so. Warren focused on geology and trees as we went along, giving us some valuable lessons about the nature of the forest.
The top of the plateau is covered with a eucalyptus forest that depends on fire and arid conditions for its health, certainly not what one thinks of when describing a rain forest. The temperate rain forest properly begins once we begin descending into the gorge, with the eucalyptus trees and the banksia giving way to the coachwoods, turpentines, and ferns. The ferns are smaller than the ones we will see up north, and there are no palms, cycads, or paperbarks that populate the more tropical rain forests.
Owing to the weather, there was little wildlife. One of the students and I spotted a pair of crimson rosellas, a type of parrot that is common to the Blue Mountains region. They were not close enough to obtain a picture. We did get a black bird to strike a very nice pose for us. I did not hear what Warren called it, but from the photo, I'd say it's some version of a magpie or currawong. The students who were closer to him will have the proper name, I'm sure.
The tour ended with a brief visit to the coal mine remnants at the bottom of the gorge, followed by a ride on the Scenic Railway, a 'vertical' trolley that takes us from the bottom of the gorge to the top in a few moments. It's an exciting ride that takes us inside the rocks of the bluff.
After the conclusion of the walk, the students were free to use the remainder of the day as they wished. Some returned to Sydney on the earlier trains, while others stayed after I left to do some additional exploring. After a lunch with some of the students, I contented myself with a walk over to the Three Sisters, an interesting geological formation. It holds some special meaning for me, as some students conspired with my wife a few years back to give me a framed panoramic photograph of the formation. The Aborigines of the region have some stories about the Three Sisters, but there is no agreement between the language groups about the stories and there are many false stories as well. But my interest is purely in the science of it and the beauty it generates.
Tomorrow is a free day for us. I have modest goals: laundry, getting a quiz ready, and arranging to take the students out to dinner at the Australian Hotel.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)