Notes from Sydney

I stepped off the plane in Sydney to a cool, dry, refreshing breeze - what a change from Darwin! Ok, let's back up. Dinner Tuesday night was indeed crocodile - it was prepared like chicken fingers and tasted a lot like chicken with a little fishy taste to it, and a little tougher, but good. I enjoyed the second half of the trip a lot, especially once the group shrank and gelled. We were one night in Katherine, where we took a river cruise through the Katherine gorges (saw a live crocodile!), and two nights in Kakadu National Park, where we took another cruise, a hike in the rain to see Aboriginal art, and generally took it easy. Some nights Nicky and I hung out with the girls, some nights we hosted poker night for the boys - it was nice to have a girl friend who would play with the boys with me! Also she is my age, where the other girls are younger and the boys are older.

Anyway, then we were in Darwin for a night, and used it as a base on Wednesday, the final day, for our day trip to Litchfield National Park, which was great. Our first stop was the termite mounds, which frankly gross me out so I'm not going to talk about them. Then we got to do the fun stuff, which was swimming and hiking in waterfalls! We took about an hour and all jumped in the pool. There was actually a really strong current so we had to aim for a rock and grip onto it carefully! But the water was cold and clear and felt great. Then we took a 1km hike around the upper part of the river that feeds the waterfall, then back to the bus. We also stopped at another waterfall but couldn't go in because the water levels were so high that crocodiles had been seen there, though we didn't see any. Then lunch, then back on the bus and to Darwin for the official end of the tour.

Luke and Michelle dropped of Jonas, Jens, Phil and me at the hotel we stayed at the night before and where Jonas, Phil and I were storing our bags until our flights out that night and Jens had booked another night. We puttered around a bit, fiddling with our hastily-packed luggage from the morning and gathering things for the afternoon/evening, then headed out to the internet cafes. I finally wandered back to the hotel around 6:30pm, where Jens let us each use his shower before our final group dinner, which was really nice. The girls begged off early and the rest of us killed time at the club until it was time to leave for the airport. Jonas, Phil and I ordered a cab (ah, small-town Darwin) and made tracks. Jonas' flight was right away but Phil and I were both flying through Brisbane about ten minutes apart, on our way to separate destinations, and we were able to keep each other awake until boarding shortly after 1am.

I arrived in Brisbane with precisely five minutes to kill (waiting in the restroom line) before my connecting flight. The good thing about these tiny airports is that it's very easy to have a connecting flight! The second gate was right after the first, and in Adelaide it was the very same gate and plane. Love it. I also got to watch the sunrise during the landing in Brisbane, which made up for being SO completely out of it after 3 hours' sleep! The flight to Sydney was more turbulent but I really couldn't manage to stay awake long enough to get worked up about most of it! I easily found my pal/hostess, the lovely Miss Adina of Miss Adina's Amateur Chauffeur Service, and we made tracks to her house where we laid out a plan for the day. We tackled some of my errands, with varying degrees of success, and took a ferry ride from Watson's Bay to Circular Quay. Now I am SO ready for bed! Fingers crossed that we'll see my camera tomorrow...! It was a lovely day of exploring and I am looking forward to being up for more tomorrow :)

Boosh Tukkey

(In honor of Mia's return from her trip to Japan...)

I had lived in the house for maybe a day or two when suddenly Mia turned to me and said (imagine Japanese accent), "Have you seen boosh tukkey?" I gave her the look of blankness, and she got up and gestured for me to follow her. She led me down the back stairs and into the yard, and pointed at the big mound in the corner, and its king, the bush turkey who has taken up seemingly permanent residence. Apparently the male of the species makes a mound in preparation for the eggs, buries them inside, and watches over them until they hatch. So far we haven't seen any eggs, but the mound just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I'm pretty sure one of my t-shirts is in there, and more than one sock, either nicked from the clothesline or snatched up when the wind blew them off. In any case, I definitely do not want them back! I did see him crossing the street one day on my way home, so I think he goes out to steal things from other people's yards too. He's been gone for a few days, who knows what he's up to. Bush turkeys are actually everywhere, on the University of Queensland campus, at our campsite a few weeks ago, in the park. Sort of like squirrels... who steal your stuff! Anyway, here are some photos of him and his pile:

Koalas and Kangaroos and Cassowaries... oh my

All right, for all those who have been badgering (kangarooing?) me for photos of native Australian animals, here you go! Kay (the girl from Nebraska that I had Thanksgiving pizza with) and I made it to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on Sunday. It was great! They have the day organized into informational talks all over the little park about every half hour on the different animals. First we went to the koala talk. Afterwards the ranger brought out a koala so we could pet it - it was softer than I thought it would be. His name was Monacle because he was blind in one eye (from birth). Then we went to the kangaroo talk. The most notable thing about the kangaroo talk was that an emu wandered up and just sort of stuck his beak into the gazebo that we were sitting in. There are some pretty funny photos of that - emus are hilarious-looking to begin with, and this guy had his beak parted and he looked really excited and curious and almost like he was laughing! It was great. All of the talks also addressed the issue of the impact of humans and the danger that the environment is in, and what we can do to help preserve the habitats (like planting eucalyptus trees) and ways to avoid accidentally killing the animals in the wild (ie by being more alert when driving, especially in the bush and especially around dusk and dawn - like deer). Then, since Kay is really into birds (she was a fisheries and wildlife major in college, I think, and went on to work at a zoo for 6 years), we went to the Birds of Prey flight show. There are some photos of a couple of the birds in there. Finally, we went to the Lorikeet feeding, where the ranger put out a bunch of different bowls and you could hold one and have these beautiful birds flock to you - that was cool. In between the talks, we wandered around, petting what you could pet and taking photos and reading about the rest. You can go right into the kangaroo area and even feed them, so there are a million photos of them - they are so cute. These ones are really docile, I'm sure because they're used to it. I wouldn't go up to a completely wild one and try to pet it! There are also photos of other animals - tree frog, wombat, cassowary... All in all, a good day trip (about an hour from the center of the city, where we met up).

Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/amy.horning/LonePineKoalaSanctuary
Enjoy!

Snorkeling

Many moons ago, my grandparents gave my cousin Kate a book called Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answers. It got passed down to me and my sister, and I saw it recently on the bookshelf of Kate's daughter. In it, among descriptions of many plants and animals, and the Peanuts characters and their little speech bubbles, is a whole little section on sea cucumbers. So when Jay picked up what looked like a huge slug (about a foot long, several inches in diameter, and black - the bottom photo on that page looks most like the one we saw) while we were snorkeling, that page flashed in my mind, although I don't remember the picture in the book (if there was one). Jay also pointed out many other things, mostly fish (unicorn fish, trigger fish, and a sea turtle - almost). A diver in the Navy and an avid surfer and snorkeler, he is a wealth of knowledge. Despite banging my knee on some coral (which really hurts, in case you were wondering), it was a delightful afternoon at the beach, and a nice way to wrap up the week. Thanks Jay!