The Great Australian Roadtrip

After a quiet month of May, June came in with a roar with the beginning of the Great Aussie Roadtrip.  Lauren, a friend from home, came over to visit, and we set about our mission to see as much of Australia as we could in two weeks.  And I must say, it was a great success.

We flew from Brisbane to Melbourne, which is on the south-east coast of Australia.  From there we drove to Sydney, and then from Sydney to Brisbane, before flying up to Cairns in far North Queensland to see the rainforests and the reef.  In between the vast nothingness that makes up this country, we did manage to find quite a few amazing spots, and have lots of fun along the way!  And, most importantly, managed to make it back to Brisbane in our massive campervan (surely a tribute to my Barry heritage), without dumping each other along the way.

Over the next few days and weeks I'll blog about some of our best adventures, starting down in Melbourne and working up to Cairns.  Stay posted - it will be great!

All 2,000 kilometers of our road trip, and Cairns way up at the top.

Happy Easter!

Happy Australia Easter, everyone!  Granted, Australian Easter is very similar to American Easter, down to eating lots of Chocolate.  In Australia, Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays, so everyone has a four day weekend.  Because of this, Easter is a huge travel holiday for Australians, and people often spend the Easter Weekend Camping or visiting family. 

One uniquely Aussie tradition I did spot was the Easter Bilby.  Rabbits are a destructive introduced species in Australia, and having one can result in a fine of thousands of dollars.  Bilbies, on the other hand, are an adorable, endangered Aussie native.  Despite all this, the idea of celebrating the holiday with bilbies instead of bunnies never took off, although there are still a few chocolate bilbies to be found.  I hear they taste just as good as the bunnies!

Byron Bay

I was lucky enough recently to spend a weekend at Bryon Bay, the most easterly point in mainland Australia, and a place that has had a spiritual pull over Australians since before white explorers  knew the continent existed.  From ancient aboriginals to new-age hippies, Bryon has always attracted people looking to get something back from the crystal clear waters.

Visiting, you can understand why.  Byron now has all the markings of a touristy beach town, down to cheap sunglasses and overpriced fish and chips.  But taking a walk along the cape and up to the lighthouse will put your right back in your spiritual centre.  You can't help but think about your place in the world when you're surrounded by ocean on all sides, watching it stretch endlessly.  There is nothing out there - that body of water that you're looking at stretches for over 7,000 miles.  When you start thinking that big you wonder if the curve of the horizon is really the curve of the earth itself.

Of course, standing on the more easterly point of Australia I was also thinking "hmmm... if I could just swim 7,000 miles that way...."  Whales can do it, turtles do is all the time, but I was only able to gaze into the horizon and think that somewhere, in that direction, is home.

That being said, the longer I stay in Australia, the more it feels like my second home, and let me say, I love the country.  The physical beauty is stunning, for sure, but there's also something special about the place.  Recently, I've been finding my inner Aussie coming to the surface.  I now sit in the front seat of cabs without thinking that it's the most terribly awkward thing ever.  When I'm the one doing the driving, I can stay to the left without thinking about it constantly.  At babysitting I can put the babies in their cots, and change their nappies, and I even asked one little girl how her tomahto plant was growing.  I no longer winge every week when there is no reduced fat ice cream in the grocery store, and this morning I actually asked for vegemite on toast.  Although, when Mark slathered it on, I did need to explain that I wasn't quite that Australian yet - I'll take my vegemite barely there, thank-you.

So yes, I will take the Land of the Long Weekend as my second home, to complement The Land Of Those Who Never Stop Working.  After all, I think America could benefit from having a four day Easter Weekend, to go with the two other long weekends in April.  Who needs a five day work week anyway, when there is so much to see?

Autumn

Just as it's getting warmer at home, the temperatures in Australia are starting to dip, which can only mean the beginning of Autumn.  Not fall, Autumn.  And I suppose since the temperature change isn't drastic enough to make any leaves fall from the trees, using the proper name of the season is appropriate for Australians.

It's still hot out during the day, but for the first time this season we were able to sleep without the air con last night, and actually needed to bundle up for the game last night.  It felt very refreshing to uncover my long sleeves and be able to bundle up in a scarf.  Even after a Boston summer we welcome sweater weather, so you can imagine how nice it is after a tropical summer.  Although the summer is by no means over - yesterday I made the mistake of sitting on the beach without sunblock, and am nursing a severe sunburn now.

One frustrating thing about the change of seasons is that the days are beginning to get much shorter.  Even on the longest day of the year, the sun sets at 6:40, since Brisbane is fairly close to the equator and doesn't have day light saving's time.  Now, it is getting dark at about six o'clock.  There's hardly any twilight here - again because we're close to the equator - so it only takes about ten minutes difference between the sun starting to set, and darkness. 

One group that doesn't mind the earlier evenings are the flying foxes.  Every night when the sun begins to set, these bats emerge from the trees and set out for their night flights.  Along the river there are literally hundreds of them, swooping and screeching to welcome in the night.

All Bundled Up

Flying Foxes

Aussie Rules Football

Last night was the season opener for the Lions, Brisbane's Australian Rules Football team, and I was right there to see the start of the season.

Aussie Rules is a pretty intense game, but luckily I was able to grasp the basics enough to follow the game.  Walking into the stadium the first thing you notice is the shape of the field, or pitch.  Unlike most sports, the field isn't a rectangle, but an elliptical.  That keeps things interesting, because instead of just worrying about the opponents in front of them, players have to consider  being tackled from all sides.  Add to that the fact that the players don't wear any safety equipment besides a mouth guard, and it makes for a very physical, fast-paced game.

Aussie rules players have been been scouted by the NFL as kickers, and watching a game there's no question why.  To move the ball, players almost exclusively kick - while running, watching their opponents on all sides, and trying not to be tackled.  It makes kicking field goals look like little league.

Have a look at the Aussie Rules Action here.

Enjoying the Game

Surfers Paradise

Looking at the beaches in this city south of Brisbane, you'd think that God himself named it Surfers Paradise.  Not so.  However, I'm sure the man who renamed the city Surfers Paradise from Elston in 1933 thought he had been struck by a bit of divine intervention.  Surfer's Paradise - who could resist a visit?

Instead of supporting the outrageously expensive and otherwise sub-par Australian dining scene (but that's another post) to celebrate our engagement, Mark and I got an apartment on the coast with his family for a night.  It was great - the beach really is where Australia shines!

It's such a change to go to a beach where you can actually stay in the water!  Even at the best of times, the ocean around Boston is cold.  Here, the water was like bathwater.  We were able to splash and surf all day.  But first, Mark needed to educate me on some Aussie Beach etiquette, which I'm glad to pass on to you.

When hitting the beach here, the first thing you've got to do is slip, slop, and slap.  Slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, and slap on a hat, as the public service campaign goes.  There is no shame in applying sunscreen on an Australian beach.  The higher the SPF the better, since the Queensland sun really has bite.  Although there were plenty of speedos, full-body sun-protection swim suits were quite fashionable on the beach.

Once you're sun safe, you've got to find a place to swim, and in Australia, that means between the flags.  Beautiful Aussie beaches can stretch for miles, but those refreshing waters are actually harboring a world of dangers like sharks, jellyfish, and rip tides.  Luckily a group of volunteer life guards, or Surf Life Savers, patrol the beach each day, and evaluate where it's safe to swim.  Australians have a very healthy respect for the water, especially the ocean, so nearly everyone sticks between the red and yellow flags that denote a safe swimming area, where you can splash under the watch of some of the best life guards in the world. 

If you're still feeling a bit unsure about venturing into Jaws territory, have no fear - you're covered from the land, the water, and now, the air.  You already met the Surf Life Savers, and seen the orange buoys that hold the shark net bobbing in the surf.  Next, you hear a familiar whir and look up to see the shark patrol helicopter - the one that spends days flying along the Gold Coast, looking for any unwanted predators in the clear blue waters.   

But nevermind all that.  Just take a breath, dunk into that clear water, and be thankful to be in Paradise.

Shark Patrol Chopper

The Ocean Horizon

Surfer's Paradise

Turtles

Look at that beautiful blue eye.  As this turtle was laying 118 eggs, I was looking right into that eye.

On Saturday, Mark and I decided on a whim to drive to Bundaberg, about four hours north of Brisbane.  Just outside the city is Mon Repos, a rookery that hosts the largest number of nesting Loggerhead sea turtles in the world.  Each year, between November and February, 400 turtles make their way to Mon Repos, laying eggs in over 1,000 nests.  We were blessed to see two of those turtles up close.

Each night, visitors to the rookery are divided into large groups.  While volunteers and researchers patrol the each for turtles, visitors wait at the information center.  Mark and I sat in an outdoor ampitheatre, alternating between watching films on turtles, and watching the stars in the clear, dark, southern sky.

 Finally, a turtle was spotted on the beach.  Before they begin laying eggs, turtles are easily disturbed, especially by light.  Because of that, we followed a walkway down to the beach in the pitch dark - I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. 

As we walked along the beach, we noticed a strip of sand darker than the rest - a turtle track, leading toward the dunes.  Because of the recent cyclone, the beach was washed out, and just above the high tide mark the dunes formed a sharp drop, about two feet high.  Somehow, our turtle had managed to make her way over this cliff and into the dunes, just where she was supposed to be laying her eggs.

Because she had already begun digging, our guides were able to shine a light behind her, at an angle that she couldn't see.  We gathered behind and watched her digging the nest - reach down, scoop, and dump.  It was amazing.  I always thought that turtles just sort of pushed the sand away with their flippers, but nest digging is a precision job.  She reached in, one flipper at a time, and cupped the end of the flipped, scooping the sand.  When she came up, she rotated her flipper just like a wrist, to dump the sand out of her way.  

When she was finished digging the nest and laying eggs, she began filling in.  First, she used her back flippers to fill in the deepest part of the nest, which went down about two feet in a pear shape.  Then, she used all four flippers to turn her body and cover the hole her body had made in the sand.  And once that turtle decided she was ready to get back into the water, it was instant.  I thought that turtles were slow and clumsy on land, but I was wrong.  Every movement was streamlined and precise.

Once the turtle had returned to the sea, we returned to the visitor's center.  We were told we could wait around to see if any nests hatched, but nothing was guaranteed.  Of course, we opted to wait around, and after a bit we were told there was another nesting turtle on the beach.  Most people decided to wait for hatchlings, and only six of us went down to the beach.

The second turtle was just beginning to dig her nest, so we had a bit of waiting to do.  She had picked a spot below the steep dunes that I mentioned earlier, which meant that we would need to relocate the nest so it would be safe from high tides.  As one of the volunteers was searching the dunes for a good place to relocate the nest, he found two hatchings!

These little guys were amazing!  They were smaller than the palm of my hand, but so strong.  As the ranger held them, their flippers just didn't stop moving - even as they were held by these strange giants, the hatchlings were completely consumed by their instinct to get to the water.  The ranger held them out, and I was able to feel the flippers of minutes-old turtles running across my hand with surprising strength.  After we had all had a look, the hatchings were put back in the sand, and we watched while the tiny little creatures were swept into the Pacific.  

By then, the mother turtle was laying her eggs - all 118 of them.  We were able to move around, watching eggs drop into the nest, and then coming face to face with the turtle.  I was able to get down on my belly, right on her, and look into her eye.

After the mother had returned the the water, we needed to move the nest.  The ranger dug up all 118 eggs, and placed them, still warm, into our hands.  How the massive animals we had just seen came from these soft eggs that looked just like ping pong balls is a wonder.  We moved the eggs, four at a time, to the new nest, safely above the high water mark.  In nine weeks, over 100 little hatchings will poke out of the sand in that spot, and begin their frantic run to the ocean, starting the whole thrilling cycle over again.

Holding Hatchlings

Mommy #2

See Facebook for all the pictures.