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Published: August 22nd 2005
First of all: as promised, here are pictures of somebody's kids snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and some family of perma-grinners sailing through the Whitsunday Islands.
Left Airlie Beach and made the trek up to Cairns ("Cans" - apparently the i and r are silent to Aussies). Turns out we spent a lot of our time in Australia driving. I must say the driving habits of Aussies are amazingly good. There is no tailgating to speak of and almost everybody does the speed limit. Drivers regularly stop for pedestrians standing at crosswalks. Most drivers seem not to realize that their car comes equipped with a horn. Anyway, the problems driving in Australia have nothing to do with who you're sharing the road with. This would appear to have to do with enforcement. They have signs that constantly remind you about the existence of "speed cameras" (photo radar) and "red-light cameras". Unlike New Zealand where there are only two speed limits for the entire country: 100 km/h for rural areas and 50 km/h for urban, drivers in Australia have to be constantly watching the speed limit. Speed limits are from 40 km/h to 110 km/h and they change unpredictably and
jump back and forth. Not uncommon to be driving through a town and for the speed limit to change 16 times in the few minutes it takes to get through. In the rural areas there are signs every 5 km or so, which state things like, in the typically blunt and coarse Aussie manner (and I'm quoting verbatim here) "Just a little over the limit? You Bloody Idiot" and "Take a rest, or Rest In Peace." There is a real big campaign to get drivers to rest - they say a minimum of 15 minutes every 2 hours. There are a number of establishments which will give you a free coffee, tea or cold drink on the major highways in exchange for getting an official sign advertising their establishment 5 km away. They also have many places on the side of their roads just big enough for a "truckie" or two to pull off and go to sleep. There was a sign at one of these which said "maximum stay: 20 hours " which struck us as rather humourous.
The real problem with Aussie highways are the roads themselves. They are for the most part, unevenly paved and shoulderless.
In some places they are needlessly windy (curvy not blowy - although sometimes both simultaneously come to think of it). In these places there is usually a sign that says "High driver fatigue area for the next 15 km" trying to blame the fact that many accidents have occured on that particular stretch because something in the air magically makes drivers sleepier there. No kidding. Of course if the authorities admitted the real problem it would cost them money to fix it - so it's easier to blame sleepy drivers. In Aussie language, the signs should actually say "Pointlessly bloody curvy roads for the next 15 km - use at your own risk because we refuse to take any responsibility for not maintaining them since the 1950s."
Anyway, we are all in one piece and unscathed. But if there is a country crying out for an interstate highway system with consistent divided, controlled access highways (not just the few kms around the 3 largest cities where they exist right now), it's Australia. End of rant.
A few Aussies greeted us with "G'dy Myte" as expected. But the common greeting these days is "How ya goin'?" Never "How's it goin" (like Canadians) or "How ya doin"(like Yankees). But it was really easy to understand them and vice versa it seemed. Their accents aren't as different as we thought they'd be. They seem to understand all American, Canadian and British words and slang. They have "trucks" like Americans but they understand if you call them "lorries". They have "lifts" like Limeys, but they don't miss a beat if you call them "elevators". And they don't snicker at Canucks saying "Goin' out and about, eh?" as we are wont to do. This acceptance of everything seems to extend to vehicles as well. There are definitely more different types of vehicles on the road here than anywhere I have been on the planet, including the USA. They have all the little makes of cars rampant in Europe (including Renaults, Peugeots, and Austins that most Americans have never seen except in James Bond movies) as well as all types of vehicles that are rampant in the States, like SUVs, which they call Utes, presumably short for Utility Vehicle. Then they have the typical Aussie rancher vehicle, the little pickup with the wooden backsides and the kangaroo "catcher" on the front. And then they have road trains. These are articulated trucks with up to three containers. Keith counted as many as 42 wheels on one of them. And food. You can get a hamburger almost anywhere but the British sausage rolls and single serving meat pies are everywhere as well. As a result of course, the Brits will tell you Australia is too much like the US, and Yanks will say condescendingly how quaintly British Australians "still" are. They really are just seemingly able to embrace almost everything without worrying about it. This is typified I think with their usual response to almost any question - "No worries." This seemingly innocuous phrase is actually quite refreshing when you are, as travellers often are, a little bit worried about doing the "right" thing, or offending someone inadvertantly. Aussies seem to be constantly reassuring everyone including themselves that they will be accepted and understood and there is no need to be tense or panicked. And it seems to work. Aussies are definitely not tense or panicked! Laid back and having fun I'd say for the most part.
Cairns was great. We took the gondola 8 km across the rainforested mountains to the little mostly aboriginal town of Kuranda, then did a rainforest walk. We stopped at a fruitbat rehabilitaion station on the edge of town which seemed to be a one-woman operation. She took one of the "Spectacled" fruitbats out and showed it to us up close and answered the kids' myriad questions. She called Canadian bats "microbats", which I guess they are when you are used to these "flying foxes" which can have 2 metre wingspans. Took the train back to Cairns, which takes a circuitous 25 km route back as of course the grade of the track can never be more than 2%. Passed through 15 tunnels and had some spectacular views.
Next day we drove up to the furthest north point we got to in Australia - Daintree National Park. Took an electric boat cruise ("Quietest Eco-tour of the Daintree River")and saw an Amethyst Python coiled up in a tree, Orange-footed Jungle Fowl marching along the bank and a number of other things - but no crocodiles - much to the relief of the kids. Went on to the lookout where you can see the Daintree empty into the ocean from 4 km away and the surrounding jungle. Then into the elevated boardwalk through the rainforest where cassowaries and a number of not so nice reptiles and spiders live. There is a wooden tower that allows you to get up 23 metres from the ground and into the canopy. Also an multi-media interpretation centre where the kids did their schooling for the day, and then some.
Final day in Cairns was spent at the aboriginal centre where we were shown how to, and got to try, boomerang and spear throwing, and sample a number of "bush foods". We learned about bush medicines and watched live dancers and singers. Also saw an aboriginal art gallery and multimedia presentation about their creation myth. Everybody was sad that we had to leave. But we had three days to drive 2000 km, so we had to go.
Stopped at Townsville, Roma and Scone on the way back to Sydney, doing as much as 11 hours in the car in one day. At Roma the little pool at the place we stopped at had two little snakes in it, which we eventually managed to scoop out. The owner assured us that they were "harmless tree snakes". Renee was not convinced.
Arrived back to Sydney in time to rid ourselves of the rental car, and catch a ferry to the Sydney Aquarium. Now we all love aquaria, and we have now been to 8 on our trip, but this we almost unanimously agree, was the best. The platypuses were great. They are monotremes which are the most primitive form of mammal. They lay eggs, but females suckle the young, and they have only one excretory/reproductive orifice. They also have a bill and feet like a duck, fur and a tail like a beaver, and the males have a spur behind each back leg which is connected to a poison sac. They don't stop until they've injected it all and people have died from it. Craziest beast we've ever seen. Anyway, the rest of the aquarium had more wonderful displays including the two underwater tubes which you walk through the enormous shark and ray tank in. The tank is actually right out in the harbour, as is the seal tank. A good way to end our tour of the continent of Australasia, as they seem to prefer to call Oceania down here.
Flew to South Korea on Thursday. Did not see much of that country as it was just a stopover. Just 7 km actually, to and from our lodgings. Lots of construction as they are reclaiming more land from the sea around the airport. Our flight to Osaka left at 10:00 Friday morning. We arrived and found our way to our hotel via 50 minutes on the train and a few minutes walk. Actually a few minutes more than it should have been, because we got turned around coming out of the train station and had to ask a passerby, by pointing at our map, where we were. Many signs are bilingual English/Japanese － not all but most - so it's easier to get around than we thought. We met up with Kazuhiro Mikami on Friday evening. It was great to see him again. He lived with us for 5 months in 2003. He hasn't changed much except his English is even better than it was. He has started University in Tokyo, where he takes all his courses in English. He took us out with him to a great Japanese buffet where we all tried lots of new foods and ate too much.
On Saturday morning he brought his mother to the hotel to meet us. We all practiced saying Konichiwa, hajimay matshi (roughly, "Hello, pleased to meet you.)， bowing all the while. Mrs. Mikami knows less English than we know Japanese, so Kazuhiro translated after that. We went off to... where else? ... the Osaka Aquarium where we saw a whale shark (largest type of shark) and enormous spider crabs, which we had not seen before. An excellent aquarium, and I think we are able to judge that now, don't you? In the afternoon we went to Osaka Castle which we explored diligently as it is basically a museum of Osaka's history. The 8th floor has magnificent views (because it is way up on a hill to begin with) of most of Osaka. I say most, because Osaka is a huge sprawling megalopolis of about 10 million people. We walked around covered narrow pedestrian streets absolutely packed with shops that constitute much of downtown Osaka. Decided to see a film, for the first time since we left home, which was a hollywood movie, so it was in English with Japanese subtitles. Poor film, so it shall remain nameless.
We had to say goodbye to Kazuhiro as he had to get back to Tokyo early Sunday morning to study for his first midterm exams. It's only 2.5 hours on the bullet train, but we appreciated the effort to see us. Thanks Kaz! Good luck on those exams.
Well I've gone on far too long. More pictures will have to wait.
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PIctures
The pictures were worth the wait. We can see you're not missing us at all. No complaints, you are making life-long memories there. Glad you got to see Kaz. He must have been thrilled too! Waiting impatiently for the next report and seeing new pictures! - Les Leclerc-Racine