Friday, November 30 - One Long Day

The breakfast at the Holiday Inn cost $30 per person for the full buffet or $16 for continental, so we thought we'd outwit them by ordering room service for two which would be more than enough for the three of us.

 

The knock on the door at 8 AM produced an enormous tray for one with continental and a huge pile of scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage, but only one coffee and one set of cutlery. We improvised a bit and shared and all ate plenty. Hilary took off then as her flight left at 11:55. Ours didn't leave until 3 PM which wasn't quite enough time to go downtown, so we just sat and read until noon.

 

Fortunately we left plenty of time as the departure and check-in process was lengthy. First the Qantas man said that our Airbus 380 plane was full, and that he wanted to change our aisle and window seats, since that configuration would be awkward for the person in the middle as we would be talking over him/her! We argued for a bit (Qantas has had our payment for these seats for a year), but he seemed determined, so I went in the middle.

 

The USA doesn't seem to care if you leave the country, or not, but other countries do. We went into a very large room with five rows of people winding slowly back and forth in order to get the exit stamp on our passports. One and a half hours later we breezed through Security and got out to Gate 9, and shortly thereafter joined the mob to get on the plane. The lady in "my" aisle seat was up and down all night so it actually was better to be in the middle as once the seats were reclined, it was impossible for Bob or me to get up. The seats in the 380 are 1" wider than the 747, but there is No leg room for anyone tall.

Randy's Donuts - you know you're back in LA
 

 

The movie selection was excellent and we survived and landed at 9:50 AM, Friday, same day, in rainy LA. Getting all the baggage off the huge aircraft turned out to require over an hour. Seems like the 380 is an aircraft to be avoided whenever possible as there is no advantage for the traveler.

 

We drove home in a rental car, picked up Miss Maddie, who did howl at me when I walked into the Cat House Hotel, which was gratifying. She is now walking across the computer,yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy and we're all settling in after a wonderful vacation!

XXX, Katy

 

Thursday, November 29 - Driving back to Sydney

 

Sonya served us her specialty, Pan Perdu, French toast sandwich with cream cheese and marmalade in middle, sautéed, and served with maple syrup, and of course, several pieces of bacon! Yumm! Meg, the dog, ate most of my bacon as there is a limit as to how much food I can consume!

Sonya showed us photos of the house and outbuildings as they were when she and Terry bought the property about 12 years ago. The metal roof was rusted through, the floor had holes, the side boards were rotten. I don’t know how they had the nerve to buy it, but they did and restored it beautifully. The guest lounge has an ornate ceiling made of horse hair and plaster that Terry spent six months fixing up. It has been a B&B for ten years and recently they added a large tent for more profitable weddings that Sonya caters. Sounds like a lot of work, but the property is lovely. The cows come running when Sonya goes out with leftover bread to feed them!  Pretty nice.

Hil, Sonya, and Meg, the dog, feed the cows a treat

 

The sky was actually showing a little blue between the clouds so we were hopeful of better weather. Hilary drove south to the cute little village of Berry. These town are so pretty with no massive groceries or K-Marts. Berry has the Berry Butchery, the Berry Bakery, and the Berry Bottle Shop. What else does anyone need!









We headed westward inland and crossed the mountains that we had been fogged out of yesterday and into the lovely Kangaroo Valley. We didn’t see any kangaroos or wombats, but lots of healthy horses, cows and sheep and prosperous farms. We pulled into the parking lot for the Fitzroy Falls in the Morton National Park and hiked out a ways to an overlook for the falls which must fall straight down 300’. We hiked up and down the trail looking for the elusive Rockwarbler, but managed to see a Rufous Fantail.

A bizarre bridge!

We continued north through an area of large old sandstone mansions, palatial lawns, and through larger towns with very fancy grocery stores with Land Rovers parked outside.








We soon turned onto the freeway that leads to Sydney and reached the Airport Holiday Inn by 3 PM. We checked in, thanks to Miss Hamlin’s executive points, and returned the Holden to Red Spot.


Fitzroy Falls

We had dinner at the hotel which was quite good and started repacking for flying home tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 28 - Exploring Kiama

It was foggy and drizzling when we got up. After a full (we did skip the sausage) delicious Australian breakfast of eggs, bacon, mushroom, tomatoes, & beans (after yogurt and homemade stewed rhubarb and warm croissants with marmalade) we said good bye to Sonya and Terry and left for the day to discover the Kiama area.

Little Blowhole




 

We had looked at the famous Blowhole yesterday which wasn’t doing anything, so we drove to the Little Blowhole which performed much better, jetting streams of seawater into the air about 20’ high. There is a 22 km shoreline walking trail so we started from there, but found the walk, at that location, went along town streets, so we drove north to the beginning point at the village of Minnamurra which sits at the mouth of a river of the same name.



The river winds past a huge sand spit and by a large volcanic plug island. We hiked up a high bluff overlooking the river mouth in very light rain to the next bay, Jones Beach.

Mouth of the Minnamurra River

 

 

The coastline here consists of a series of beautiful beaches separated by rocky lava outcroppings and very hilly small villages. This area is a very popular retirement community & a summer beach destination for Canberra and Sydney. There is also a small double-decker train that runs up the coast to Sydney all through the day so one can actually commute to the city from here.

We drove into Kiama for a lunch at the Ice Creamery Kiama and had ginger, macadamia, honeycomb, java cake, and passion fruit ice creams - great!















Hilary then drove us up through the town of Jamberoo, up a very steep road through increasingly foggy and misty weather to 2000’ to the Barren Grounds Nature Preserve, an area of heath scrub land where the Ground Parrot and Eastern Bristlebird live. By then we had driven into dense fog and rain. The birds that live there don’t like that weather (one might ask why they live there) so there was no point in wetly walking around when we couldn‘t see much, so we returned to the coast.

We found the Spring Creek Bird Hide and Wetlands, a marvelous little park surrounding a marsh land between a housing development and the highway that was purchased, recovered and developed by the city council at the urging of local environmentalists with walking paths, bridges and a very nice bird hide. We sat there and watched pelicans, cormorants and Hard Head Ducks swimming and feeding and what we thought might be a group of five Southern Water Skinks basking on a log.

Southern Water Skinks, or a closely related species

That evening we drove into Kiama to the Seabreeze Restaurant set on the picturesque Kiama Harbor lined with Canary Island Palms. The restaurant’s front glass wall folds back so we were sitting almost on the sidewalk with a wonderful view of the water. Hilary and I had the fish of the day, Black Fish, which is very similar in texture and flavor to the Blue Fish of our youth and we both ate every scrap. Bob had chicken breast stuffed with almonds and figs. For dessert we split a deep-fried ball of vanilla ice cream stuffed with chocolate candy, rolled in hazel nuts with white and dark chocolate sauce! Wheeeew! Really good!

　

　

　

　

Tuesday, November 27 - Driving to Kiama



At the bird hide

 



Purple Swamphen

Bob, Hil, and I walked down to a neighborhood pastry shop in search of breakfast and ordered almond cream-filled croissants, a fruit salad tart and a cherry Danish and Flat Whites all around and then walked back to the Crowne Plaza in the drizzle. We checked out and Hil drove us south through various suburbs to a sewage treatment plant (always a good place to find birds!), across from which was a nature reserve with several bird hides. We saw Purple Swamphens, Black Swans, and Australian Pelicans among others, but had to leave as we had a ways to drive today. The highway took us north and then south through several tidy towns with nice old buildings.

We started descending through forests full of cycads and finally got to the ocean at Bateman’s Bay and headed north up the coast. In Australia it is very rare that the highway actually passes within sight of the ocean so we didn’t see it very often, which didn’t matter very much as the rain was intensifying. We stopped in the little town of Milton on the coastal highway and found an 1870 bakery, with a surprising eight toilets out back (?). We ordered small pizzas and sandwiches which were quite good.

We finally reached the town of Kiama which is famous for its blowhole in the lava coastal shelf. We found the blowhole but the wave action wasn’t conducive to producing a large jet of water; maybe we’ll see it tomorrow.

We checked all our paperwork for our next B&B, but none of it stated where the place was located! Luckily next to the blowhole was the local information center and we found that we had passed it some miles south of town.

toilets galore!
 

We drove back south on the speedy Highway 1 and just managed to pull into the parking lot of Bush Bank B&B, a lovely old farmhouse with a sweeping view of the ocean. Sonya greeted us and showed us our bedrooms on the ground floor along with a guest lounge with TV, coffee, etc.

We took a walk down past a large permanent tent for weddings, through a gate with an electric fence, into the cow pasture. The cows bellowed at us but did not come closer. We passed the remains of an old mill ( 1856), on a stream, of course, and returned to the house as it was getting wetter.

The old mill

We drove back into town, which meant we had to drive several miles south to be able to drive north as the road is being “improved” with a center barrier, We found a good Thai restaurant where we had prawns with noodles, mussaman beef curry with potato and chicken with chilies. It was pouring when we left with lightning blazing all around. We’re hoping the storm will rain itself out and be decent tomorrow, although the Info Center we visited did hand us a pamphlet on “Rainy Day Activities” which is a bit of a hint! Fortunately, we passed several wineries on our way here so that is a possibility!

　



　

Bush Bank B&B

Monday, November 26 - Exploring the City with Ian

Bob got up early and was able to hear the Browns vs. Steelers game live! And the Browns managed to win!!


We again drove over to the Botanic Gardens, as breakfast yesterday was so good. We ordered two eggs Benedict and one order of croissants and ate on the terrace as the White-winged Choughs and Red Wattlebirds circled around for crumbs. I hoped to see the male Gang Gang, but I think the pair Bob and Hil saw were the last ones to leave Canberra for the mountains where they breed.

Red Wattlebird

 

Helichrysum elatum

 

We walked to the rainforest section and were in the middle of the walk when the sprinklers opened up and produced a drenching shower! Just like the real rainforest.

 We dried off walking back to the café where we were to meet Ian McCauley, a classmate of Hilary’s from the Kennedy School of Gov‘t at Harvard ~25 years ago. He has lived in Canberra for since 1972, raised his family here and worked in the field of public finance.



He drove us over to the National Art Gallery, a large and very spacious museum. We saw the extensive Aboriginal collection of natural pigments on eucalyptus bark, and more modern painting with acrylic paint on boards, and a marvelous exhibit of hollow log coffins (tall decorated poles).

 

 

We also went to a hall of European Australian artists with paintings of Sydney and other places familiar to us, but 100-150 years ago. The cities look quite different, but the countryside depicted could be today.

Aboriginal hollow log coffins
 

We had sandwiches at the museum, and then set off for the Parliament Building, which is set into a hill overlooking Canberra. Ian couldn’t find any place to park but whipped his car around and we parked in a tiny “secret” lot he knew about and we hiked up a trail through woods and were suddenly in front of the Parliament. We went through various security checks and got in line for the House of Representatives, and there we were! With amazing luck, it was the afternoon Question Period and we were able to see Julia Gillard, the feisty PM, battling with the Opposition Liberal (conservative) Party. Labor kept bringing up important issues, such as taking care of the Murray-Darling River basin, and the Liberal leader would come back accusing the PM of illegal activity when she was a lawyer setting up incorporation for the AWU. Then Julia accused the Liberals of being sleazy, causing great outrage and noise from them! Great theater!!


Parliament

Ian drove us around to see various embassies and then dropped us off at the hotel. We’re driving over to his house for dinner at seven.
We arrived at his house which is quite near the Parliament Building and met Helen, his wife. Their house consists of a series of room, mostly full of books, that surround a central patio that has netting overhead to keep the pesky Aussie flies away. The temperature was perfect with a light breeze.

We had hummus and crackers and then a wonderful salad of mango and macadamia nuts. This was followed by Ian’s beef curry with all sorts of things to eat with it, including his sweet chutney. Helen had made pappadams (flat Indian bread) and we drank much wine and had a great meal. We discussed birding, eclipses, Australian life and government vs. USA until we found it was almost midnight! Hilary skillfully drove us home with a few confusing variations, but fortunately traffic was light and we arrived safely.

Sunday, November 25 - Exploring the Canberra Area



Note amazing insects!

We drove over to the Australian National Botanic Garden which is really amazing and covers all the horticultural zones of the country. The Garden café opens at 8:30 so we thought we’d get breakfast first. We split an order of eggs Benedict and two orders of croissants with Davidson plum jam and lime/orange marmalade, and sat outdoors on the deck overlooking the garden. We were looking for the Gang Gang cockatoo again, hoping to see the red headed male, and set off on the main trail. And shortly thereafter, Bob and Hilary saw a pair as they flew off! I hope we go back tomorrow so I can see them, too. This is one of the best botanic gardens I have ever seen, almost rivaling Kirstenbosch in Cape Town - rain forest, dry eucalypt forest, and more.

Galah Parrots

Water Dragon

We left when our two hour parking ticket expired and drove south and west into parkland, past Mt Stromlo Observatory, and pulled into the Namadgi National Park visitor center and took a short hike around a lake full of Pacific Black Ducks along with many very cute ducklings. We also saw some tiny brown cubes sitting on top of a row of rocks: Wombat droppings! Their scat is shaped like perfect ice cubes! Unfortunately since the temperature was close to 90, the wombat was sensibly down in his cool den!

We bought ice creams at the NP shop and continued on through eucalypt forest, rolling steep country with small rivers. We took a mile hike along one river in Orroral campground and saw many lovely flowers.

As we left the campground, three kangaroos  bolted in front of the car!  Fortuantely Hil was able to stop without hitting them, but I can see why there is so much road kill in Australia!

We started back towards the capital through neat suburbs, each surrounded by parkland. When the road turned into freeway, berms lined the road to protect the suburbs from the noise and sight of all those cars. The whole area is very well planned out and seems to be a very pleasant place in which to live.

We entered the huge traffic circle that surrounds Capital Hill where Parliament resides. It was thoroughly wooded and hard to believe that one was in the middle of a city! We crossed the bridge that connects the Federal and City government centers and returned to the hotel.

Hil and I set off on foot to see the War Memorial. A huge boulevard, the ANZAC Parade, runs from the lake that bisects the city to a hill, topped with the memorial building. It is lined with a wide swath of eucalyptus trees on either side and with lawn and red gravel running down the center. Along the Parade are individual monuments to soldiers lost in Vietnam, Korea, etc and a beautiful blue glass monument to the nurses lost in all the wars. We walked up to the building with the grave of the unknown soldier in the center. Along the walls are all the names of all the soldiers lost, starting with WW I, many festooned with red poppies from the recent Remembrance Day. The whole memorial is very moving. A piper in a kilt was preparing to play taps as we left at 5 PM.

We decided to eat simply tonight, and walked over to London Burgers & Beer, and got a pitcher of beer and three very large, delicious burgers and walked home to rest up for tomorrow.

　

Saturday, Novemnber 24 - to Canberra

We used up all our supplies with crumbled crispy fried bacon, chopped tomato in two eggs scrambled for the three of us, but with extra rolls we all had enough. We packed up and left our cozy little cabin and checked out with the parrots swirling around our heads hoping for more sunflower seed.

We headed a few miles west and then turned south for several hours. We passed miles of rolling pasture and cows with a few llamas and wild emus thrown in. We passed through several small villages, one of which decided to have cars park by backing into the angled spaces - glad I don't live there! We stopped in the historic town of Taralga and went into Melinda’s Take-away/grocery store where I ordered Chick-Corn Stick which turned out to be ground chicken, spices and corn, deep fried, and not bad! Bob ordered chips, fortunately the small size, as he received a large bowl of French fries which even he couldn't finish! Hilary got an apple/blackberry cake which was quite tasty with excellent flat white coffee. (we are finally learning the right way to order coffee....) We walked around the town admiring the stone buildings.

Melinda's Take-Away

 

The elevation remained a surprisingly high 3-4000’ until we got near Canberra where we descended to a plain at 2000’ where it was considerably warmer. We merged briefly onto the Sydney-Melbourne freeway and entered Canberra on the Federal freeway about 3;30 PM.
Canberra was chosen as the capitol of Australia in the early 1900s and designed by the American architect, Burley Griffin, after whom the lake that bisects the city is named. The north half contains the city and its government and the south half has the federal government with wide boulevards and lots of green parks and bike paths creating a very open space.
We checked into the Crowne Plaza, thanks again to Hilary’s hotel points and parked the car in the underground lot, a very cramped spot full of dangerous columns, but with Hil’s driving skills and RRZ’s directions we maneuvered the Holden into the last spot!

Our room is very modern and cleverly designed with the bed in the middle of the room and a half wall behind it serving as the headrest and behind that an office area with desk
. We walked out into the 85 degree heat and found a pedestrian shopping area and with the map tried to get to the lake. Bob gave up and returned to the hotel to rest, while Hilary and I soldiered on, crossing freeway intersections and finally getting to the lake where we were deafened by a throbbing rock concert that seemed to be attracting a huge crowd. We walked along the shore watching boats sailing by, and returned, via garden and streams surrounding the lake, to the hotel.


Black Swan


 

At 6:30 we all set out for dinner at Chairman & Yip, a beautiful Chinese restaurant where we were led upstairs and had a wonderful birthday meal for me! We split vegetarian pancakes for a starter and then shared pork chops with red dates and honey, prawns with chili and plum jam, and spicy lamb Shan-Tung style. They were all really delicious and the rice was extremely flavorful. For dessert we had green tea crème brulee and cinnamon and chili semi freddo (incredibly good) . We walked home at nine very happily satisfied!

The Chairman & Yip

Friday, November 23 - Exploring West of the Blue Mountains

King Parrot

Crimson Rosella on Hil's head!

 

 

 

The sky was overcast when we got up but looked as if it was breaking up. At 8:30 I remembered that the Lodge feeds the birds at that time so we hustled out to the nearby barbie area to find one of the employees with a large pan of sunflower seeds which he offered us to take handfuls of. As soon as we did, the sweet Crimson Rosella parrots hopped onto our hands to eat! And then a few larger Australian King Parrots arrived. The man who offered us seed said that a few days ago Gang Gang Cockatoos had come in to feed also. This is a parrot that Bob has wanted to see for many years. Other lodge guests wandered away but we stay and suddenly a beautiful female Gang Gang Cockatoo arrived! She was dark grey in color with apricot and grey barring on the breast and a wispy delicate upward curving crest. The male is similar but has a red head and crest. We were very excited to see all three lovely parrots at the same time!


female Gang Gang parrot

We took off about ten and headed further northwest from the Blue Mountains. While the east side of the Blue Mountains plateau rises gradually, the west side ends abruptly in steep vertical cliffs. We wound down into the valley below, as the weather continued to improve. We passed through tiny towns to a turn off to the Gardens of Stone National Park and the Capertee Valley. We visited here seven years ago and found it a wonderfully birdy area. Now the road has been paved for most of its length and, with its sharp asphalt edge, this makes it much more difficult to randomly pull off and park. Also the occasional cars tend to drive much faster, endangering the animal life. But we managed to find ranch driveways and some parking spots. Hilary spotted a family of four Eastern Grey Kangaroos which hopped away from us and settled in the shade of some eucalyptus. We saw Laughing Kookaburras “in an old gum tree”, and the brilliant turquoise Superb Fairy-Wren. The rolling pasture land edged with high stone escarpments was very scenic and beautiful.

Old Aussie farmhouse
 

We stopped for icecream bar at a gas station in Capertee, and the clerk, noticing our binoculars, asked if we wanted the new birding brochure! There was all sorts of information, complete with GPS waypoints and where to look for particular birds. Obviously we'll have to come back!

We returned to Blackheath and drove to the end of our road to Evans’ Lookout which has a vista of the huge valley cut into the plateau filled with endless eucalyptus forest. We had stopped there yesterday, but couldn’t see anything in the fog and rain.

We sat on our porch drinking beer and Bob saw a Superb Lyrebird with its long sweeping tail walk right by our deck, stopping to scratch the forest floor with its powerful feet!

We had a dinner of large meat pies and homemade ice cream at the lodge . Tomorrow we are off to Canberra - the last of the large Australian cities that we have yet to explore.

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Thursday, November 22 - Thanksgiving in Blackheath

Waratah Telopea speciosissima

Drumstick, Isopogon anemonifolius

Flannel Flower Actinotus helianthi






 

 We awoke to rain dripping on the roof of our cabin. I lit the fire in the little wood stove which warmed up our cabin and then rustled up some fried eggs & bacon and Hil made toast. We set off about nine, driving up the road through the town of Mt. Victoria, north and east to a turnoff to a picnic area and trail called Pierce’s Pass. We hiked down a steep dirt road about a mile. The area consisted of burned over and regenerating eucalyptus and low shrubs with exotic flowers and a great array of wildflowers. Rocky sandstone outcroppings emerged and we looked for the Rockwarbler, one of Bob’s desired birds, We saw lots of New Holland Honeyeaters and Pied Currawongs, but no Rockwarblers. The sandstone cliffs were covered with bright orange lichen which contrasted well with the grey-green foliage.


 

 

 

Banksia pod

The fog lifted and we could see across the valley to more outcroppings and high cliffs in the distance and we were hopeful that the day would clear. We drove to Mt. Tomah Botanic Garden, a branch of Sydney’s Garden, and walked around as the fog swirled back in. They had a good shop and restaurant so we spent time there, shopping and lunching on pumpkin soup and flat white coffee.

We returned to our lodge and Hilary and I did a couple of loads of laundry in the laundry room next to the “Barbie” - best deal in Australia: $2 for wash, dry, and soap!

At seven we set out for Ashcroft’s, a terrific restaurant run by two women that Bob and I had eaten at seven years ago- same restaurant, same women!

Mountain Devil    Lambertia formosa

Bob and Hil had macadamia & grapefruit salads and I had a smoked eel wrapped in filo pastry which was a little bizarre, but good. Then Bob and I had twice-cooked duck and Hil had coconut-crusted barramundi, all of which were delicious. For dessert we had the same dessert we had had years ago: vanilla caramel custard enveloped in a huge spun sugar cloud! Great!



Spun sugar cloud!!

We drove home in scary pea soup fog and rain, and went right to bed!