The Beginning of our Australian Adventures...

To all of you who asked me to keep you updated during my travels, I am writing this blog for you. This seems to be a much simpler method as opposed to sending out mass e-mails.

My travels kinda began on the 17th of January when I departed Edmonton, but I was only heading to Vancouver, so not really. There I spent my last few days in Canada for a long while with Allie (Eve when she joined us later on). Naturally, before leaving to the sunny and hot Australia, I had to get one last ski day in, so that’s what we did. Allie, a couple of our friends, and I headed up to Whistler to ski. Most importantly, Allie and I began our attempts to master the backwards telemarking. Now I wont say it was pretty and I definitely didn’t walk out of there without bruises, but it was great fun and by the end we could both tie together a couple of shaky turns. This is a skill that I will have to master next year as my ski season is up. It was January 21st, time for Eve and I to being our epic journey.

So at the ungodly hour of 2am, we boarded our plane and lo and behold, we are sitting in the middle isle and right next to a toddler. This of course is the very child I saw running around the terminal that I prayed would be at the opposite end of the plane. But we must have had some great karma because I didn’t even notice him the entire 9 hour flight. Amazingly the 9 hours passed by fairly unnoticed and we found ourselves in Hong Hong before long. After walking across the terminal to our new gate and treating ourselves to some coffee, our layover was over and it was time to board a second flight. This one was a bit more painful at 13.5 hours long, but it too passed without incidence. We were fortunate enough to have the two seats of the window isle to ourselves. Other than being sick of plane food, we arrived in Sydney at 9 pm with smiles on our faces and 24 hours of tedious travel behind us.

Customs was no problem and we soon found our way to our hostel. However, the number of people who were caught with food that was not allowed into the country astounded me. One would think that the number of warnings people were given and the steep fines would make people think twice about sneaking food into the country, but apparently not.

Our first day in Sydney was gorgeously sunny and thus naturally evolved into a beach day. It felt weird to be on a beach after having just gone skiing a couple of days beforehand. Our pale bodies soaked up the sun as we eased into travel mode.

It was not until the next day that we ventured into town. We saw the famous Sydney Opera House and bridge. Walking through the adjacent Botanical Gardens gave us a glimpse into the different habitat over here. Amongst the foreign vegetation were the frightening (and large) orb spiders, various new birds, and a colony of flying foxes fruit bats hanging in the trees. By the end of the afternoon, we dragged our weary feet back to our hostel on Bondi beach where suddenly the jet lag hit us and we were out before 9.

Our next day was spent at the Blue Mountains National Park. We took the slow train to Katoomba and then walked through the town to the cliffs. Following the Prince Henry Cliff trail, we saw the Katoomba falls and ended up at the Echo point where we joined the masses that clearly skipped the hike and took the bus to the major view points. Echo point allowed a great view of the Three Sisters and of the valley below. The Blue Mountains are aptly named as such because of the blue haze resulting from the ultrafine oily mist given off by the eucalyptus trees. Consequently, the valley that stretched out before us had a hazy blue tint to it. After another hour of walking though the forest we headed back into town and back to Sydney.

January 26th was Australia Day and we joined in the festivities by heading into the city. We weaved slowly through the Rocks, a historic neighborhood by the harbor, where a large concert with 5 stages was occurring. We walked across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to North Sydney and in doing so gained a great view of the boats parading up and down the waterway prior to the tall ships race later that afternoon. Back on the south side we wandered through the markets and ate our corn on the cob on a stick. That night we continued the celebration with a free concert on Bondi beach.

Naturally, the day after the festivities became a beach day. However, that night we went to dinner and a movie, but not any dinner and a movie. All dressed up we headed out to Govindas where we stuffed ourselves full of the delicious vegetarian Indian buffet and then made our way upstairs to the movie room. The movie room is full of luxurious cushions that you sink into. And so, this is how we watched our movie, with our shoes off, reclined, stretched out, supremely full, and with smiles painted on our faces.

Our remaining days in Sydney were spent relaxing at the beach, taking the ferry to Manly, and attempting to plan our next move. Naively, we assumed that Australia would be like Europe and that we could easily access any small town that we wanted to. So, here we were all excited to go to the Lakes Entrance for a move away from the big city. We had our own room. We were right on the 90 mile beach… and then we came to the realization that the only way to get there is by bus and the only bus that goes there gets there at 3am. Upon phoning the hostel, we were told that if we arrive at 3am, we would have to sit in the park across the street until reception opened at 8am and then we still couldn’t access our room until 2pm. Needless to say, we ditched that plan and now find ourselves heading straight to Melbourne. Excitingly, flying proved the most inexpensive method to get there and so we didn’t have to waste a day traveling.

That’s about it for now. I hope all of you back in Edmonton are enjoying the bitter cold, I know that it made my beach days considerably more enjoyable knowing I escaped just in time.

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