Touring Australia's Interior and the Outback

Today we leave Sydney and the coast and head deep into Australia’s interior to see Ayer’s Rock (Uluru- pronounced oo LOO roo) via an overnight stop in Alice Springs. We met the same driver (he likes to be called coach captain) that brought us from the airport at 0720, and after picking up a few more people at other hotels, we arrived at the airport. We went to the Qantas check-in kiosks with some anxious doubt. For some reason we are generally unsuccessful in getting the passport reader to read our passports, and this time proved no exception. Trying to find a human being to help us, we were turned back to the kiosk by a firm but polite guardian of the check-in line who suggested we try to retrieve our passes by using other information (name, flight number, reservation number, etc.). We entered our surname and were prompted to enter the first. No go. Try again. Nada. Then realizing that our travel agent made the reservation using our first and middle names, we added the middle. Bingo!

An old tavern in Alice Springs

But it was still an anxious, frustrating 20 minutes to sort this out. We found our gate, boarded the plane, and took off for the heart of Australia.

Flying into the outback is an interesting experience. After crossing the Blue Mountains and into the rainy or wetter side, one can see all kinds of farms, ranches (they call them cattle stations), roads and signs of human activity.  But after about 45 minutes from takeoff there is only barren, arid land devoid of vegetation, roads, and homes until you get to Alice Springs which is roughly 1300 miles away.

We arrived in Alice Springs, exited through the rear of the plane on a portable airstair and were hit by a wall of stifling, dry, heat. What a change from cool, coastal Sydney. We met our driver Denis who would take us to our hotel. What a character! Denis was quite loquacious and talked incessantly about Alice Springs, the Aborigines, local events and activities, marriage, and the benefits of being divorced (he of 26 years)! He moved here 26 years ago (his wife wouldn’t come), a single man after being married for 26 years. However, he did provide some interesting information about Alice Springs, a city of around 28,000 with the government (Alice Springs serves as a regional center for many agencies), tourism, and mining being the largest employers. He also mentioned that there are around 1500 Americans living in the city who work at a secretive satellite tracking station the locals know nothing about (the Americans tell everyone they’re painters and gardeners). We arrived at our hotel too early for check-in and had a beer while we waited for our afternoon tour of Alice Springs to begin.

Alice Springs School of the Air

ASSOA coverage area

Our tour guide arrived at the appointed time and we headed out to our first stop, Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA). Recognizing that the outback had children living in remote conditions who lacked social contacts important for a well rounded education, ASSOA was established in 1951 using radio to provide a community aspect to the education of these children. ASSOA is a distance education organization that involves teachers, support staff, parents, home tutors, and fellow students to optimize learning outcomes for these children. Calling itself the “largest classroom in the world,” ASSOA reaches out to children over an area covering 512,000 square miles, double the size of Texas.

Quilt made by ASSOA students

Students enroll at the age of 5 and are taught until the 10^th grade, then must decide whether to go to boarding school or finish their education through correspondence studies. Home tutors (usually parents), home visits, and in-town visits and events throughout the year round out the educational experience. Radio was used as the contact medium until 2005 when the internet, which provides much greater interaction capabilities, was implemented. As for the success of the program, ASSOA ranks in the top 10% of Australian schools. We were impressed with this program and enjoyed the tours of the studios where classes are conducted.

The telegraph office

We left ASSOA and drove to the Alice Springs telegraph station which actually was responsible for the city’s start. In the 1800’s

On the telegraph office grounds

Australia was isolated from the rest of the world and communications by sea took two months to send or receive. With the invention of the telegraph, the idea that a telegraph line from Indonesia could be routed to Australia started to gain support. After the usual political wrangling, a line was laid and in 1872 the Alice Springs telegraph station was opened. This reduced Aussie isolation allowing communications to be sent and received over a few hours. Touring the grounds, we found that this very remote outpost was a very self-sufficient, but lonely community. Over time the station became home to an army detachment, served as a school for aborigines, and a weather station. Most of the buildings have been restored to their former condition and are filled with a collection of furnishings from the past. The station was closed in 1932.

A camel saddle

Next we headed to the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) headquarters. The RFDS was established in 1928 as a means of providing medical services to the isolated communities of inland Australia. Today it operates out of 21 bases and provides routine and emergency services to remote areas covering most of Australia. The RFDS is only partially funded by the government and relies on donations to continue its mission. We watched a video about the inception and growth of this service and toured the facility. This is another Australian answer to meet the needs of its isolated people.

Ghana lizard

Our final stop was at the Reptile Center (get the idea there’s not much to see in Alice Springs?). We learned that Australia has more species of snakes than any other continent. Additionally, they have about 125 species of venomous snakes which rank among the deadliest in the world and were unsettled to learn that a large proportion of these snakes inhabit the outback and the Alice Springs area. They’re everywhere we were told. We viewed various snakes and moved on to the center’s collection of lizards. Finally, we were introduced to Buster, the saltwater crocodile. Living up to a crocodile’s reputation as a killer, we watched buster attack a boat fender that was tossed into his pool. It made us glad we live with the much more docile alligator! We returned to our hotel and prepared for tomorrow’s flight to Ayer’s Rock.

An Eco Tour to Australia's Blue Mountains

A mad emu!

The next day of our tour found us arising around 0300. Obviously we were still dealing with jet lag and hadn’t adjusted to local time, but we felt good and were ready to roll.

Southern cassowary

Our tour bus arrived around 0720 and we headed out for a Blue Mountains Eco Tour.
The Blue Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage Region, lie about 60 miles west of Sydney near Katoomba, and is known for its scenery, steep cliffs, eucalyptus forests, and waterfalls. On the way to the Blue Mountain area, we stopped at the Featherdale Wildlife Park to view some native Aussie species of birds and mammals.

We even have penguins

Aaaaaahhh!

The notable bird species were the emu, Southern cassowary, pied eyed oystercatchers, a variety of pigeons, owls, kites, catbirds, and all kinds of parrots and cockatoos.
As for the marsupial mammals, we saw wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons (small wallabies), quokkas, koalas, and a whole slew of bats and flying squirrels.

Next we traveled to the village of Wentworth Falls which is a very picturesque, historic village with a good collection of Victorian buildings.

Kangaroo

Just outside the village we stopped at Wentworth Falls Lookout which provided spectacular views of the Jamison Valley.

A wombat

We descended about 300 feet on a trail that took us to a lookout providing a wonderful view of the waterfalls.

Wentworth Falls

The surrounding mountains are colorful sandstone and the scenery reminded us of a small scale Grand Canyon, only with more vegetation. Traveling on to Eaglehawk Lookout, we viewed the sandstone formation named The Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters

This formation of eroded sandstone is similar to the hoodoos found in the western U.S. Our guide provided an interesting aboriginal story as to how this formation was formed.

Govett's Leap

We stopped at Blackheath Golf Club, an old restored luxury hotel once the playground for the very rich back in the 1800’s. During lunch a nasty storm blew up which limited picture taking and Jane’s visit to the adjacent gift shop. On to Govett’s Leap (leap is a Scottish word for waterfall), one of the most famous lookouts in Australia.

Flowers at Mt. Tomah

While the volume of water at this fall is not very great by most standards, the 600 foot drop to the base of the cliff is impressive. The lookout also provides a sweeping view of the valley which ends at the Grose Wilderness. Our final stop was Mt. Tomah Botanic Gardens where our guide treated us with a champagne toast and Tim Tams- a popular chocolate covered cookie that was very delicious.

Unusual but beautiful

We toured the gardens and Capt. Larry was able to gather some more interesting pictures for his flower album. We returned to our hotel and then headed out to find an ATM and some supper. All of the climbing and walking tired us out and we turned in early for tomorrow’s early departure to Alice Springs.

Really different

Heading Off To The Downunder

We’re off again! The bucket-list item is to step on all seven continents.

Downtown Sydney

We’ve done four (North America, South America, Europe, and Antarctica) and decided that this year’s big trip would be a visit to Australia and New Zealand to bring the total to five.

Royal Botanical Garden

When we initially started to plan this trip last year, we weren’t really sure how to approach it. Australia is a huge (about the same size as the United States) and diverse (geographically and culturally) country. The likelihood that this could be our only visit “downunder” meant that, to see a lot of what these countries have to offer, it would take more time and money than usual.
Initially we started looking at renting a camper van that seemed to be very popular and driving the 9,000 plus miles around the coastal perimeter with occasional dashes into the interior when there was something interesting to see, and doing all of this over a 2-3 month period.

Beautiful Flowers

Our Ship for Next Week

This made sense after looking at wireless coverage maps showing network coverage concentrated along the entire coastline, but very little in the outback interior. After perusing several blogs of people who had done such a journey, we figured we had a plan. However, after digging into the details and talking with several people who had visited and warned that we would be disappointed with the returns for our efforts, we searched for an alternative.
Plan B fell into our laps when we found a 32-day Royal Caribbean cruise that circumnavigated the continent and included 7 ports of call in New Zealand. We would be able to see many of these countries’ highlights from the ports of call and extended shore excursions.
Our travel agent came up with a pre-cruise land tour that included Sydney and surrounding area with an interior visit to Alice Springs and Ayer’s Rock. She worked out the details and we were set.

The Sydney Opera House

The Famous Harbour Bridge

On T-day (travel day) daughter-in-law Kristin delivered us to the New Orleans airport. We were flying to Dallas to catch a 16-hour nonstop Qantas flight to Sydney. It was going to be a really long day, and the idea that we would leave on Thursday and arrive on Saturday only seemed to add to its length.

It took some explaining for Jane to understand that crossing the International Date Line would do away with Friday. Our trip to Dallas wasn’t good. First, we were about 30 minutes late leaving New Orleans. Have you ever noticed how airline pilots always tell you that “we should be underway in 10 or 15 minutes,” only to repeat that announcement in 10 or 15 minutes?

Pronounce This!

No sweat though, we had a 2½ layover in Dallas. We were nearing the end of our flight when the plane started to fly in big circles. Yep, we were in a holding pattern due to a big storm approaching the Dallas area which had things backed up, but “we should be able to approach in about 20 minutes,” announced the pilot.

Coming Into Sydney Harbour

Twenty minutes later another 10 to 20-minute announcement was made. Finally we approached and landed (HARD!) an hour late. Landing is one thing, but taxiing to the terminal at DFW always seem to take forever, and we were anxious to get to the Qantas gate, having discovered that we were sitting 3 rows apart for the flight to Sydney (our seat assignment differed from what our agent had confirmed).
We needed to get this corrected for such a long flight. Scrambling through the terminal with Jane in high heels, we hopped aboard a tram to the international terminal and our gate. It was storming violently and lightening was striking all around the area.
We were one stop away from our exit (the last stop, of course), when the tram’s tinny computer voice announced that the train was shutting down due to the bad weather, and passengers should exit and walk to their gates.

Mrs. Mcquarie's Chair

Macquarie's Point

We bolted off the tram and scurried along the concourse. Luckily our gate was located halfway down the terminal so we didn’t have to run the entire length. As for the seating issue, a young Aussie named Lance agreed to swap seats so we could sit together.
We were over an hour late leaving DFW, but we had a really nice flight. It was our first flight on a jumbo Airbus 380, and it was fine. We had upgraded to premium economy which got us bigger seats and space and a better level of service which Qantas does a great job in providing. That is, the flight was great right up until the customer service manager came and told us that our checked bags were still in Dallas.
Seems the weather shut down ground crew operations and our bags didn’t reach the plane. But Qantas handled this well with necessity bags, a $160 AU credit card, and the promise that our bags would arrive tomorrow.
We left satisfied and caught our transfer to our hotel.

At Bondi Beach

Harbour Bridge

It was only 0800 when we checked in so we thought we would walk around to exercise and sightsee. Our first stop was at Sydney’s Royal Botanical Garden. The garden was established in 1816 and has over 67,100 plants from around the world and is next to the National Herbarium with over a million species preserved, including some collected by botanist Sir Joseph Banks aboard the Endeavor, dating back to 1770. We saw many of the original government buildings that were built by New South Wales governor, Lachian Macquarie, who ruled from 1810-1821 and was responsible for introducing much new development and reforms to the colony. Winding our way down towards the Sydney Opera House, we spotted our ship, Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas, moored at the Circular Quay on which we would circumnavigate the continent. We got some late lunch, perused some shops, and headed back to our hotel for the rest of the day. We turned in early hoping to reduce the jet lag we expected to encounter the next day.

Difficult to Construct

Jet lag or too much sleep found both of us awake at 0330. No use fighting it, so we got up to in-room coffee where Capt. Larry worked on the blog and Jane read and organized the documents we would need for today’s tours. At 0800 we headed down to the lobby to meet the driver of our first tour, a tour of Sydney’s highlights. The driver arrived at the appointed time and we found that we would touring with 3 other couples, all American. We saw many of the Sydney area highlights including the Royal Botanical Garden (again), Darling Harbour, Hyde Park, Bondi Beach, the Harbor Bridge, and the Rocks, which gave us a lot of information about Sydney’s history. Our half-day tour of Sydney introduced us to many interesting areas that we realized were located relatively close to our hotel. When our tour ended, we headed back to our room, had a quick lunch, and headed out for our scheduled tour of the Sydney Opera House.

The Opera House

No first time visit to Sydney would be complete without a tour of the Sydney Opera House, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a complex that the city is obviously extremely proud of. Located on a headland adjacent to the famous Harbour Bridge and overlooking the Parramatta River, the complex is the crown jewel of a harbor walk area that is enjoyed by tourists and locals alike. But construction of the site was not without controversy. Construction began March 1, 1959 under the guidance of Danish architect Jørn Utzon who won an international design competition. Originally projected to be completed in 3 years at a cost of $3 million, the project encountered numerous delays and cost overruns due to the engineering and construction problems that had to be solved. Opening in October, 1973, at a cost of $102 million, the multi-venue opera house is host to opera, ballet, concert, and theatrical performances. Over 1.2 million people attend more than 1,500 performances each year, making it one of the busiest performance venues in the world, and additionally, the site toured by over 7 million visitors each year. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour which took us into various halls and provided us with interesting information on this distinctive structure.

Main Concert Hall

Opera House Roof Tiles

After we finished our tour of the opera house, we migrated over to the Rocks area which featured open boutiques and markets on the weekends. Jane had read where a German Oktoberfest was featured in one area of the Rocks during September and October. We followed the street boutiques and stumbled upon the Lowenbrau Restaurant which headquartered the Oktoberfest celebration. We were seated in front of a German band and ordered our supper- Pork Knuckle with Mashed Potatoes and Sauerkraut for Capt. Larry, the Sausage Sampler Platter with Sauerkraut for Jane, with beer all around. Our meals arrived and we struggled to consume it all (they don’t provide take home boxes). After we finished our meal, we roamed through more street boutiques and an open air market before heading back to the hotel for the evening. It was a great first couple of days for our Australian experience.