Tom & Marjie - Our First Visitors!

To see more of our pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/TomMarjieSVisitToSouthAustralia

We had a fantastic time touring southern Australia with Billy's parents, Tom & Marjie! They made the long trip from Florida for a two-week visit, and it was so great to see family again. After filling us in on all the happenings on the Peter Compound, we took them to a footy game at the MCG, with our generous personal tour Byron Wicks giving us the inside tour. Thanks Byron! We also visited one of our favorite dinner haunts, the Met, were we proved to them that we had made some friends in Australia. After showing them around Melbourne for a couple days we flew out to Adelaide.

Adelaide is a beautiful city... more of a large rural town that is the capital of South Australia. It has some beautiful architecture and it's full of nice people. The Torrens river runs right along the edge of downtown, and the city has done an excellent job in setting the buildings back from the river and putting in a nice park area directly next to it. After going for a nice walk along the river, we toured some of the interesting architecture as well as a cricket/Bradford museum and the wide-ranging South Australian Museum. We also visited the house of Mr. Ayer, who was the governor of South Australia during the time Uluru (the giant rock in the center of Australia) was discovered. He basically made his wealth through mining, and was far from altruistic. I think Uluru is a much better name for the rock to be honest...

We then headed up to Barossa Valley for some wine tasting, something that seems to be a common theme when Billy's parents visit! It reminded all of us of Sonoma and Napa, without the crowds! We tasted some excellent wines, the valley is famous for its Shirazes in particular, our favorite being Grant Birge.

We then made our way southeast along the coast on our way back to Melbourne. We stayed at several fantastic B&Bs, including one centered in a beautiful orchard. We first stopped in Victor Harbor, my personal favorite part of the trip. Staying at a hotel overlooking the harbor, we went on a night tour to watch the blue penguins come into tour. Since the tour was small, we were able to get close up to the penguins, which were quite talkative. We didn't spot any whales though..

We then drove along the Limestone Coast, stopping off at a secluded beach with shells a foot thick. After escaping the dangerous Emus, we then headed to Mount Gambier to check out the volcanic (extinct) craters and the blue lake within.

Just outside of Mount Gambier, we visited Tower Hill, which I highly recommend to anyone wishing to see Australian wildlife. Besides the koalas chilling out in the tress in the parking lot and throughout the park, wild Emus walked through the camping area. Emus (below) are similar to ostriches, and make a bass drum-like sound in their throats.


Finally, we headed along the scenic Great Ocean Road and saw the famous Twelve Apostles, London Bridge, and other rock structures.


Upon our return to Melbourne, we then headed to the informative Melbourne goal and my parents made a trip to the Melbourne museum. And of course, we also caught the latest Harry Potter movie.

That's all I can think of for now, but it was an exciting and full trip. I think we were all a bit exhausted afterwards, but it was well worth it!

So now that Tom and Marjie have taken honors as first visitors, who will be next??

Darwin - Kakadu, Katherine Gorge & Litchfield Parks

To view pictures of the our trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/DarwinAndTheTopEnd

Our trip to the Top End of Australia turned out to be a great one. We traveled with Sophie, Elizabeth and Richard and it was a wonderful adventure!

We saw amazing things.... like saltwater crocodiles, dingos, magnetic termite mounds, rock paintings, tons of birds, beautiful billabongs and some really rustic countryside. We managed to not be run off the road by road trains, though there were some close calls, and we also managed to not damage the campervan in any way! Wahoo! Here is a run-down of the trip...


Kakadu National Park
After taking the red-eye from Melbourne to Darwin, and arriving at 3am to find our reservations had been ignored by the hostel, we finally fell asleep in let us say, sub par accommodations. The next morning we picked up the campervan and loaded it up with groceries. I think we had 2 or 3 carts and we somehow managed to cram into all the nooks and crannies in the campervan! Then we headed east towards our first destination, Kakadu National Park.

In Kakadu we went on numerous hikes... one to see aboriginal rock wall paintings, a few up to the tops of rocks to gain incredible views, and a few more around small lakes/water ways (billabongs!) We also went on a river tour at dusk and had spectacular views of birds and crocs.


Katherine Gorge
We drove south out of Kakadu and went to Katherine Gorge. On the way we stayed the night in a very secluded cattle station / RV/campervan park, though we were the only campervan. We really felt like we were out in the woop-woop (outback!). Katherine Gorge is really a series of 13 or so gorges separated by waterfalls. We kayaked up the first gorge and turned around at the waterfall. It was really beautiful... though a bit tiring to kayak all that way. They gave us the impression that we could stop anywhere along the way, just not at crocodile nesting areas. It turned out, all the beaches and areas to actually stop kayaking were ALL crocodile nesting areas... so that made it a bit tricky. No sitings, though. I can't say I was upset about not seeing female crocs protecting their eggs.


Litchfield National Park
Litchfield was fantastic because the waterways are crocodile free, and therefore swimming is possible! We swam beneath two fantastic waterfalls... Billy and Richard of course attempted to climb up the waterfalls, and then slide down. No major injuries occurred. It was here that a whistling kite bird attacked me from behind and stole my sandwich right out of my hands! They said not to feed the wildlife, but I assure you it was not voluntary! I hope the peanut butter didn't kill him.

Back to Darwin...

Darwin and Scuba Diving
Richard, Billy and I went scuba diving to explore a wreck sitting at the bottom of the bay outside Darwin. It is a US transport ship from WWII that sank during the bombings (by Japan) in early 1942. The visibility was pretty poor, but I saw a sting ray and some very interesting corals... and we also saw old motorbikes, tires, a stack of ammunition. At most times, it was hard to know what you were looking at. The wreckage is covered in silt and it was hard to identify any structures. I had imagined it would look like a ship, sitting on the ocean floor, but I was very wrong! It was still exciting to see and we really enjoyed getting to cruise on the dive boat in the bay. It was a very different perspective of Darwin than we had seen... from the water it looked like the Caribbean, or Florida... it was really beautiful. You don't get that sense at all when you're in the town center.

And then after 3 great days in Darwin, we boarded the 2am flight back to Melbourne! Luckily we got to sleep a bit in baggage claim before boarding the plane. The airport was packed! Flights only seem to arrive and depart Darwin during the middle of the night!

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip and we're so glad to have spent all that wonderful time with Sophie, Liz & Richard. Campervan life was such an adventure and we had lots of laughs along the way!