Recently in Australia Category
We made it to Sydney on Wednesday and met up with Henni yesterday. Today we enjoyed a day of walking (and sitting and eating) around Darling Harbor, Sydney Cove with nice views of the Opera House and the Harbor bridge, the Rocks, and the city center. Here's what else we've been up to since Darwin:
We stayed one night in Brisbane at a great hostel--our dorm room was up in the tower of an old building originally built as a hotel with "1st class service and 3rd class prices". We liked Brisbane a lot, it reminded us a bit of Toronto and it was great to see so many people outdoors--walking, biking, barbequing or just hanging out. We also enjoyed the West End a lot, especially the 3 Monkeys Cafe. Of course we also had to go check out the "Birdee Num Num" bar, just because of the name (anyone else know the movie?, besides Lex and Papa of course).
We then took the local train up to Sandgate to stay with our Servas hosts Anishka, Tony and Sophie. Anishka is a yoga teacher so we got to join her for one of her classes, which was wonderful! We also got to enjoy yummy veggie food and laid-back conversation about life, travel and crazy Americans.
Our next stop was Mullumbimby, near Byron Bay, with our hosts Karin and Manfred, who are originally from Germany. Until recently they were living on an organic farm nearby, where they had hosted over one hundred WWOOFers. It was great to hear their WWOOFing stories and read in the guestbook how inspirational they have been in many people's lives. Karen drove us around to see some of the beautiful views of the area, including the amazing Byron Bay light house. They also introduced us to Dandelion coffee and dowsing (finding energy lines--interesting stuff!).
Sophie had convinced us to spend some time in Byron Bay itself, a beach town with a cool vibe. The first night we went to see Crash at the funky Lounge Cinema--intense movie! The next day was our anniversary, which we celebrated by relaxing on the beach, browsing in bookstores, getting a little drunk on two bottles of wine, and fending off a crazy German woman at dinner who was trying to steal Michael and our bread!
Monday we rode the bus 10 hours down to Buladehlah, where we met our next Servas hosts Ian, Kate and their 10 month old daughter Sage. Their house runs completely on solar power and rain water--it was great to learn more about that. Ian and Kate have also travelled a lot, so it was fun to exchange travel stories. And again we got to eat wonderful, healthy meals. We followed their suggestion and checked out Manly (a 30 minute ferry ride from the center of Sydney) for one night. We went through a bit of an ordeal at Circular Quay (changing from ferry to ferry and listening to the one boat guy warn "we don't want another Titanic"), but the gorgeous harbor views on the way to Manly more than made up for the wait.
We've really come to appreciate what a wonderful organization Servas is. It's amazing to experience the generosity, trust, open-mindedness, and feelings of connectedness that we have with all of our Servas hosts. When else do you just get to drop into other people's lives and interact almost like family with people you've just met? We've really met some great people, learned lots, and made connections that we hope will last a lifetime. Thank you to all of our hosts and we hope to return the hospitality one day!
We're back in Darwin now, after enjoying a week in Kakadu National Park. We had a great time, and a big part of that was because we had Chris and Tilde there to point out and identify lots of animals and plants that we probably wouldn't have even noticed. We saw several Agile Wallabies (kind of like kangaroos) right on our campsite (okay, we probably would have noticed those, but we wouldn't have known what they were, or noticed the uniqueness of a certain part of their anatomy), lots of big fruit bats (for David) and the glittery green eyes of night-time wolf spiders (for Zuzana). We also saw dozens of different bird species and were excited to spot a few crocodiles in the river without even having to attract them by going for a swim as Chris suggested.
We were guaranteed lovely accomodation every night in our rented campervan (Danke Omi!). It was really comfy and easy--everything we needed without having to set up or pack up everything all the time. It got us thinking about possible future trips with a similar van through parts of Europe that we haven't seen yet.
But before we do that, we ARE coming back to the States. We bought our last series of tickets yesterday when we got back to Darwin. We'll be flying to Auckland, New Zealand on August 16th, spend 3 weeks there, then 2 weeks in Hawaii. We'll arrive in San Francisco on September 20th. In about half an hour we're headed to the airport for our flight to Brisbane on the east coast. We hope to get some pictures of Kakadu up soon!
For the past two nights we've been staying at the home of our Servas hosts - Margi and John. They're originally from the southern city of Adelaide but moved to Darwin with the intention of staying for only 6 months. They liked the town and area so much that they've lived here ever since.
Our first night together John cooked a popular local fish dish of barramundi. It was very delicious. We sat out on their balcony overlooking the nearby marina and enjoyed our dinner with a sweet South Australian white wine.
Yesterday afternoon, Megan and I went to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery. They had lots of interesting things on display - aboriginal artwork, an exhibit on the effects of Cyclone Tracy that completely leveled the city of Darwin on Christmas Eve back in 1974 and a (stuffed) 17 foot saltwater crocodile named "Sweetheart." The mueseum was well organized and the exhibits seemed quite modern.
Last night Megan and I were in charge of preparing dinner and decided we'd treat them (and ourselves) to a Tex-Mex dinner. We served nachos with refried beans, fresh spinach, guacamole, sour cream and homemade salsa as an appetizer. For the main course we had vegetable and chicken fajitas. The local liquor store recommended Taylor's Shiraz, another South Australian wine that went nicely with the spicy Mexican food. After dinner we sat out on their balcony enjoying the warm evening air and talking about Australia's past, present and future.
This morning we said goodbye to Margi and John just before they left for work. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with them and hope they'll come to the U.S. someday so we can return the hospitality.
Megan's aunt and uncle - Chris and Tilde - arrive in Darwin today. Henni flies in tomorrow and then we're off to Kakadu national park for a week. We should have lots of great photos when we get back.
Our flight from Bangkok took us to Singapore and then Bali. Megan slept for a few hours during our layover in Indonesia but I didn't get more than 1 hour's sleep all night. My legs were feeling cramped and restless which kept me awake and I was engrossed in the book I'm reading about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia called "Surviving the Killing Fields". Our plane touched down at Darwin International Airport this morning at 7:30AM and we rubbed our tired eyes and gathered our carry-on luggage.
We deplaned and made our way through the Immigration and Customs procedures. Australia is very, very strict in its restrictions on food, plants and organic items entering their country. We had some wooden chopsticks with us from Thailand which they pulled out of our backpacks but thankfully they weren't confiscated. We caught the shuttle bus outside the airport and headed for downtown Darwin.
We're staying at the Gecko Lodge which is about a 10 minute walk from the center of Darwin. We'll be here for 2 nights and then we're hoping to spend 2 days with Servas hosts. The only time we've stayed with a Servas family was on the island of Mauritius and we enjoyed the experience.
Megan's aunt Tilde and uncle Chris arrive in Darwin on the 21st and Henni flies in from Austria the next day. We're spending about a week exploring Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory by camper. Chris and Tilde are nature photographers and videographers and also write books on wildlife. We're very excited to be meeting up with all three of them (for me, it'll be the first time meeting Tilde and Chris).
The folks at our guesthouse informed us that the annual Beer Can Regatta festival was taking place down on the beach. We spent a few hours walking around looking at these big boats made almost entirely from beer cans. It was an interesting bit of Australian culture to witness. Tomorrow we're going to organize the rest of our travels through Australia. We have to decide how we're going to make our way down to Sydney - bus or airplane?
