Right before we left for Africa, OAT was offering a last minute deal for a tour of Australia. So we jumped on that offer. 3 weeks after getting back from Africa we flew to Sydney Australia. As we did in Africa we went over a few days ahead of the organized tour. We hopped a train for the Hunter valley, a wine country area north of Sydney. There we used the hop on hop off bus to visit a number of "cellar doors", their name for tasting rooms.
Next we had to get to Melbourne to join the tour. We could have flown, but what do you see at 30,000 feet? Not much, so we took the 10 hour train ride (yes Australia is a big place). The train went through a number of mountainous areas and then into a huge plain of winter wheat and cattle grazing. We spotted a number of kangaroos hanging out in the shade during the day. Also spotted a fox which I later learned is one of the problem introduced species.
In Melbourne we stayed in the CBD, not that CBD but the Central Business District. Melbourne is a foodie and sports capital of Australia. The next picture is famous on Instagram as an alley filled with graffiti.
Melbourne is the foodie and sports capital of Australia. Lots of nooks and crannies to explore. That is our tour guide in the lower left of the picture.
No picture, but one of our stops was Mercato Centrale Firenze, a food court filled with some great Italian food tucked away. If you visit Melbourne find your way to it. Trip Advisor found a couple great places to eat, when we were on our own.
From Melbourne the group took a tour of the south coast and the "12 Apostles", a number of rock towers eroded by the Southern Ocean.
Back from the Apostles we stopped at one of the many native animal sanctuary. These are not a zoo, but a large area surrounded by an anti-predator fenced in area that is safe for many Australian native species. The Kangaroos, Wallabies and Koalas could easily leave, but choose to stay.
We also stopped at the Melbourne Moonlit Sanctuary, which is a sanctuary in a relative urban setting, with a number of native Australian species.
I guess part of a tour checklist is Alice Springs which was historically important to opening up the Outback. Then onto Uluru which is very important to the Aboriginal community. We were there for both a sunset and sunrise view, which made the colors of the iron rich sandstone stand out. I took one of the optional helicopter fly around Uluru tours, luckily I got the co-pilot seat.
Near Uluru is another rocky outcrop Kata Tjuṯa, and there on a hike we met one of the local inhabitants.
We went to the Great Barrier Reef, near Cairn and took one of the boats out to the reef. Where we snorkeled, swam and road a glass bottom boat. While we saw a bunch of things including giant clams, a couple days before we got there, the corals had their annual orgy releasing eggs and sperm into the water making it a bit murky.
An unexpected highlight was a walk in the Daintree Rain Forrest. This World Heritage site is an ancient forest with plants that have been there for 180 million years making it the oldest rain forest in the world. Here is a picture of one of its dragons. Though we didn't see a Cassowary there, they are one of the few animals that can eat some of the fruit there. One of the dangers to that rain forest are feral pigs which dig for worms, about all that they can eat there.
Another stop was Harley's Crocodile Adventure. Which in addition to crocodiles had many Australian natives. Here Nancy makes some new friends.
Then back to Sydney which has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is also extraordinarily easy to get around, hop on any tram, bus or train swipe your credit card and swipe when you get off. We hit some of the main sites, toured the Opera House, Bondi beach, and a ferry across the harbor. We really did not spend enough time there, but eating was definately part of the tour. If you are there make sure you get to Spice Alley. which is a concentration small street stalls serving great Asian cuisine.
Here is the group after the Sydney Opera House tour.
We had a great group of mostly total strangers that gelled into a set of friends. Here we were in front of Uluru at dawn
