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Published: December 27th 2010
One of the Best Kodak Moments
This Koala on Cape Otway in Victoria was just as interested in me and looking directly into the camera at the right moment.It has been a long while since Jane, one of our blog readers asked us for our top 5 and I kept promising that I would do it, but life just got so busy with the W thing and I never really got around to it, so I am doing my level best to give you the top 5, but as I draft this blog entry, the top 5 is looking more like the top 18!
I promise to try and whittle it down, so lets see what results we have come up with, of course both Andy and I have different opinions and there are so many great places in this huge diverse country and all of these places are great for so many different reasons:
Best Kodak Moment There are many of these moments, sometimes you have a camera and sometimes you don’t it always will be the best moment when you don’t have a camera and if only we could have shown you a picture of how our best Kodak moment would have looked.
1) Heading from Undarra on Blog Day 287, we drive into Mount Garnet, in the distance we see a guy
It Wasn't Me!
Runner up in our best kodak moment.... was this the kangaroo that dropped my camera? struggle to put a dead kangaroo in the back of his car, it was one of those moments that if a camera was handy we would have used it, but of course it was packed away in my camera bag behind the seat and could not get to it in time, the moment had passed. They funny bit was that every time he pushed the head in the boot, the tail flopped out and then he would push the tail in and the head would flop out!
The runners up: 2) Caroline telling the kangaroo off in Warrumbungle National Park, after the kangaroo took her camera from the table and dropped it on the floor “Oops!” then looked up at her as if to say “It wasn’t me!”
3) Caroline’s picture of the M42 Nebulla from our Blog Day 70 Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You could travel around the whole of Australia and not actually see that Nebulla in such fine detail, we wanted to get a photograph of it when we were in England, but the evening with Peter Starr presented such a fantastic photo opportunity with just the right telescope.
4) For
Caroline Telling off a Kangaroo...
... after it dropped her camera on the ground! the second time of seeing Koala in the wilderness, we were in Cape Otway, Victoria and spotted a Koala in the tree, the best moment was when the Koala looked directly at me just in time for me to take one of my best ever wildlife photos (which incidentally since then has been published in a brochure for a popular cruise company!)
5) Andy was having a nanna nap in the tent, when a Koala (we called him Dennis) had come down from the tree and was walking through our camp, he sat and paused behind my chair briefly before moving on again.
6) When we were sitting at lake Tineroo quietly reading, a Tiapan moved in front of Caroline about, no more than a few inches away from her feet sadly no Camera was handy to capture this moment as Caroline froze while the snake paused in front of here, before heading on it’s journey back into the undergrowth.
Best National Park This one is a tough one, there are so many National Parks around Australia and many of them are so unique with the terrain and the wildlife that they have to offer,
Kermits Pool, Karijini National Park
Icy cold waters, but this was site was worth every effort of this hike into the gorge. 1) Karijini National Park, apart from its natural beauty and the time that we shared there with Andrew and Kirsty during blog days 191 – 194 and of course an opportunity to catch up with the Travelin’ Trueys, for me though it made me realise that sometimes things that stand in your way are only obstacles that can be overcome.
We did a gorge hike one afternoon in Hancock’s Gorge and every now and again there was a tricky obstacle to combat before being able to proceed, but with the four of us and words of encouragement I achieved something that I had long since forgotten that I was more than capable of doing, including the amazing spider walk to get to the cherry on the cake on the other side.
The runners up: 2) Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair National Park, outstanding beauty, the wildlife, the walks, the abundant Wombats, seeing a Tasmanian Devil in the wild along with spotted Quolls, I will forget about chewing the boardwalk and the very very cold damp nights!
3) Warrumbungle National Park, we first met Bill and Janet who told us about the benefits of
the “Travellers Bible” – Camps 5. The night sky, so dark and crystal clear the stars were abundant and of course where we also met Janet and Ted, Glen and Bonnie. How could we forget the Bread Knife, that amazing walk? Following Glen’s suggestion, we got up at first light to do while it was still cool. Of course with the kangaroo’s that frequented our camp spot, this ties in with one of our best Kodak moments.
p.s. oh how could I forget that the Daintree should be amongst these, what a beautiful part of Australia it is, it truly has a unique atmosphere about it and somewhat felt special to be in the Daintree, sadly for us we did not see a Cassowary here there but everything about the Daintree was beautiful.
Best Beach Choices, choices?
1) Cable Beach, one of the worlds top 10 beaches, its stunning sunsets that change on a daily basis, one of the worst cloudy days that we had and yet it gave me one of the best sunsets that I have ever seen, we were here from day 198 - 204. We swam in the sea it
Sunset on Cable Beach
Best Sunset I have ever seen was quite warm too, there were no crocodiles or jellyfish to worry about, although rumour has it that the occasional crocodile has been swimming past, we hear that with the increase in population and changes in climate they are travelling further south.
The runners up: 2) Cape Kimberely, Daintree, just a beautiful deserted pristine beach where the turquoise water meets white sand and the coconuts just drop off the trees, there was barely a soul around and how great to think that this is where Captain Cook would have sailed into and what a sight it must have been for him and his crew this piece of perfect paradise!
3) Middle lagoon on the way up to Cape Leveque, a beautiful place and again great sunsets, we had a great time here with the Truman’s enjoying again such a beautiful secluded place on this vast continent, we swam in the warm sea, again no crocodiles or jelly fish to worry about, the beaches were laden with interesting shells, the sands were a beautiful white.
Best Kept Secret 1) Now if I told you that it wouldn’t be a secret would
The Daintree
Captain Cook was here first though! it? However lets just say that there are places that the “Wicked Campers” and your usual backpacker do not frequent which offers a little bit more in terms of your unspoilt and the very real Australia, that is to say they don’t cater for the tourist en mass.
2) When we first started our trip we found that McDonalds did Free WiFi, we were only one of very few people that seemed aware and often we were the only ones sat on the internet in MacDonalds, but now McDonalds everywhere are inundated with people on laptops! Credit to MacDonalds for finding such a need in this country it was the most helpful, !
3) Peter Starr at Coonabarabran, if you are ever in the area, drop in for an evening with the “Starrs”, this man is so knowledgeable and can impart so much information to you, on the best of terms for those of us without the science background.
4) Cape York, Australia’s final frontier! No Captain Kirk has not been here, Captain Billy has though, still quite underdeveloped but that is the beauty of its tranquillity, we were speaking to a woman who has been
Cape York Peninsula
Not your usual tourist trail. going up there for years, she says that they don’t want too many tourists up here, but on the other hand if they want the tourist dollar, then they will may need to develop things a little!
The road is inaccessible in the wet season and until recent years, unless you had 4wd then it was pretty much inaccessible all year round, but the Peninsula By Pass road is a pretty good road when they have been working on it (otherwise the corrugations can get pretty bad), one day given the money this whole road may be put down to bitumen, who knows when but it will open up the Cape to a lot more.
Best Town Where do I start on this one, so many great towns and cities, each and every one of them has something unique and of course its own charm, but just to mention a few.
1) Darwin a city that has some kind of charm about it, it is growing all the time and there are very modern aspects to this place, we were fortunate to spend a month here, but we would love to be here to see what
the wet season is like for ourselves. In some way you feel quite isolated, it is so far away from anywhere else, but everything you need seems to be here. We were here for just over a month in June/July 2009, we had a terrific time in Darwin, it was very hot and yet it was in theory still winter.
2) Cairns, for me (Andy) I absolutely loved Cairns and would recommend it tp anyone, what a place, its such a serene place that has so much, the walks were fabulous and everything about Cairns was great, not to mention being in the tropics is just amazing.
3) Canberra was an early visit on our trip and didn’t leave much of an impression on us, but a year later, it seems a different place and it’s definitely up there in our top five and of course for moment this is where we are calling home, the Wendy House is folded and in storage until a day that we need it again (actually we may sell this one and invest in a new one, if you know anyone that wants a camper trailer only one owner and used on
Our Faithful Truck and Trailer
Went everywhere that we went and was our home for over 12 months! one trip only then let us know!).
We are exploring Canberra as much as we can in between the work thing, this city does have a certain something and we under estimated it on our first visit!
I must tell you though that overall this has been the most amazing journey, every day is still an adventure, even the hard bits, we fortunately did not have too many bad days, but those bad days also make good blog days!
We met the most amazing people, many of whom we have kept in our lives and hope to for many years to come no matter where we will be living, some we have seen since stopping our journey, others we hope to be able to catch sometime in the near future.
Australia is a huge country, there is so much to see and really explore, fortunately both of us have jobs that take us all over Australia and for that we are truly lucky to still have these adventures to explore Australia for different reasons, we have not seen it all, but then we do have to save something for next time!!
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Johnny speaks
Johnny
haha agreed, perfect kodak moment! great photo