The Reef

Well I should have saved harder, as sailing is such a nice pastime. Especially when the seas are calm and the crew treats you first class. We went out on a new 62 foot catamaran, the Aquarius, for a two hour sunset cruise. The cost was right, a bonus cruise for booking two other tours through the company. Sitting on the top deck, drinking chilled Sauvignon Blanc and eating canapes, the sail snapping over your head and a sea breeze to break the heat, what luxury.



What a life!


The boat was a Lagoon, made in France and cost $90,000 Australian to have shipped here, they could have sailed her for $60,000 but wanted to be able to advertise her as a new boat. It had five ensuite cabins, and a galley for up to 10 overnight guests. While we enjoyed the sunset cruise a charter overnight would have broke the piggy bank.

Aqurius

Port Douglas is a beautiful town, with palm trees throughout, little restaurants and shops. It is very clean, with no garbage or debris on either the beaches or the streets, but then Australia is probably the cleanest country I have travelled in. No where did we see any garbage or debris around. The most we seen was the odd bottle and a couple of car wrecks along the tracks between Adelaide and Alice Springs.

Port Douglas is different than most beach resort towns as they have protected the beach by leaving a strip of land between the beach edge and development, not even the two golf courses are allowed to build out to the beach. Other than the area at the stinger net the beach is not busy at this time, on a two mile walk we meet about ten other people and no one in the water, although there were a bunch of young guys, in neoprene, windsurfing yesterday. That looks like a lot of fun.

Stinger net and beach

We went out to the Great Barrier Reef on a sister ship, the Calypso, a combination dive and snorkel boat for a day of snorkeling. As I got some kind of sinus infection diving in Bali that was not cleared up I could not dive here but was content snorkeling on the reef.

Snorkeling queen

Contrary to what I thought, the Great Barrier Reef is not one great reef, but a series of interconnected smaller reefs that runs for 3500kms along the eastern coast line. Each reef, although part of the GBR, has its own name and each tour boat of course has the very best reef in the chain! We went out to three different sites at Opal reef which is comprised of a number of interconnected areas.

The reef itself is like an underwater garden, with coral in brilliant hues of green, blue, purple, reds and orange. All different shapes and sizes, and scattered throughout, plants that move with the currents like fields in the wind. It was all spectacular.

We wore full neoprene stinger suits, so the only part of your body not covered were your hands. Stingers were in the water as I saw two at the last site, but neither were the dangerous types.

Fish were plentiful and colorful, just about any color on the rainbow could be found. I was looking for mermaids while Loreen was looking for Nemo, (clown fish) neither of us saw what we were looking for, although I did think I saw a clown fish, but maybe was mistaken. Loreen was fortunate enough to see a white tip reef shark at the one site, I was still trying to make a graceful entry into the water and the splash probably spooked it away.

We had one guided reef tour but, with all the snorkelers trying to be as close to the guide as possible, after getting the third or fourth fin in the face we struck out on our own, didn't learn any thing, but were unbruised. We had 27 snorkelers and divers on board and I was sure glad we went out on this boat rather than one of the competitors who has two boats that hold 440 people each and go to the same reef where they have a reef platform set up. You would be too busy dodging other snorkelers to ever see the reef.

Our only incident was at the last reef where we decided to not follow the crowd but go to the other end of the reef. So with Loreen in the lead we set off. Once she got turned in the direction of China and we got shouted at by the boat crew, we immediately turned for Europe and got redirected by the crew again. We were swimming against the current and it took a long time to get to the far side of the reef, but it was quick coming back.

Our last day in Oz tomorrow then off to new horizons.

Diversity

Australia is much more than the stereotype of surfers, beaches, cattle and sheep stations, the drover and the Great Barrier Reef. We have found so much more.

From Bondi Beach and the Opera House in Sydney to the wheat fields and vine yards of Adelaide to the desert and wild camels of Uluru to the coconut palm and sugar cane fields north of Cairns - Australia is a country that is defined by contrasting climates and vegetation.



We travelled from Uluru to Port Douglas, which is about 85 kms north of Cairns, on the north east coast. Port Douglas is pure tourist town and sits on the edge of the north Australian rain forest, which is the oldest rain forest in the world.



Strangler Fig, after it has killed the host tree




Umbrella Palm, one leaf

Now a world heritage site, it is the only place where two world heritage sites are adjacent to each other, the rain forest and the great barrier reef. We took a rain forest and mangrove swamp walk. The rain forest is much the same as any other rain forest we have been in, but this was the first opportunity to walk through a mangrove swamp on an elevated board walk.

Mangrove swamp

Mangroves are an amazing ecosystem, they are the buffer zone between rain forest and the ocean, and as such, support an incredible amount of life. These saltwater tolerant species prevent the erosion of the rain forest and coast line from the tides and act as a filter system to keep the salt water out of the forest. The mangroves of Australia are home to about 75% of the sea food and salt water fish through their juvenile period.

About an hour and half north of Port Douglas the heritage forest is uninhabited, but does have a number of folks that live along its edges. Some are resort or tour owners and workers, some just like the lifestyle. And what a lifestyle, as one resort worker woke up in the morning with something cold in bed with her only to discover a 3 meter python had moved in to keep warm. As there is no electricity, hence no air conditioning, and the temperatures are in the mid 30s year around I guess it is common for slithery creatures to move into the homes at night. Not for me, I will stay in Port Douglas where the only things I have to worry about are mosquitoes, sand flies and the odd crocodile.

As Port Douglas and the rain forest are close to the great divide of Australia there are lots of fresh water creeks and estuaries along the coastline. These creeks and water ways are home to Australia's salt water crocodiles, which are the largest crocs in the world. These "beasties" inhabit murky water and can lay submerged watching the victims habits for some time. They feed mainly on wallabies, feral pigs, calves and foals. Now protected, they do raise heck with some of the cattle farms along the creeks and once in awhile a farmer will go on a shoot and bury mission. There are a number of tour operators that will take you on a river boat trip looking for crocs, but again the warmer months from October to April make it harder to find them as they can lay submerged in the warm waters and do not need to come out on the banks to sun themselves as much. We were lucky to find one female out sunning.




Watching us for prey


They will attack humans, and one tragic story is of a young couple that ran a crocodile tour boat who lost their five year old son to a croc during a flood that raised a creek behind the house too high. The young lad and his older brother, unknown to the parents, were wake boarding into the creek from the back steps of the house.
This north east corner of Oz below the rain forest is amazing in the crops that grow here. Sugarcane (one of the top ten sugarcane producers in the world), banana, coconut, macadamia nuts, tropical fruits, and tea. This all in a two thousand kilometer band along the coast from Brisbane north to the jungle. Port Douglas was once jungle also but completely cleared for sugarcane farms. Elsewhere in Australia they also grow citrus fruits, rice, tree fruits, coffee, and the list goes on.



Banana



Tea

Port Douglas sits on four miles of pristine hard white sand beach along the Coral Sea. It is a beautiful beach and water, except you cannot swim in the ocean here during the summer months. The water from October to April warms up and in come the jelly fish (locally called stingers), two of which, the large box and the very tiny irukandji jellyfish can be lethal to humans if stung. So they establish nets in the water to keep the stingers out and allow some water sport. The stinger net in Port Douglas is about the size of six swimming pools. We have not yet went in. A couple of life guards in neoprene suits go out daily with a large net and walk the perimeter around the outside of the stinger net to see if there are any stingers in the area. If found they will shut down the netted area until things clear up.
Yesterday while walking the beach adjacent to a golf course, this sign was posted. "Use caution, crocodile sighting here yesterday, if you see any activity please report to the authorities". We never saw any activity, but I did try and get Loreen to cross the creek first!

Uluru

We started our tour to Uluru by stopping at a camel farm to have breakfast and a camel ride. Although there were camel burgers I stuck to a toasted bacon and egg sandwich. The camel ride was fun, not too long, just a walk around the paddock. Now, perhaps like I, you ask what do you do with a camel farm. Well you give rides, some raise them for meat but most are raised for export of live animals to the middle east.

Central Australia, during development, imported camels to use as pack animals as the climate and land was to harsh for horses. So the camels packed the supplies to build the railroad from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the north. When the railroad was completed the camel owners were out of work, so several thousand camels were turned loose. These feral camels have boomed in Australia and now total some 1.1 million animals in the outback. Australia is the only country in the world that has a wild camel population, and as such they are in great demand in other countries in the middle east to enable them to keep their animals from being inbred.

Uluru (Ayers Rock), one of the natural wonders of the world, is the largest single monolith in the world. Uluru is made up of a large sandstone formation that during upheaval was turned side ways so that the layers of rock stand vertical not horizontal. It stands 348 meters high and is 9.4 kilometers around the base. It is estimated that 17 times the visible part of Uluru is subsurface.

Uluru is of high spiritual significance to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and the area was given back to the local group and made a national park in 1985. It sees about 400,000 visitors per year at a fee of $25 per person, of which the land owners receive a portion.

Uluru is well protected with marked out trails and viewing places for the tourists to hike and look. Any significant Aboriginal spiritual or cultural area has been restricted from non-aboriginal entry and any type of photo taking.

Uluru sits within a vast area of central Australia that qualifies as a desert. It is too dry to support any type of cactus because cactus needs a consistent moisture supply and this area may go up to 7 years with out rain.

They have had three times the moisture in 2010 as the annual average so it looks a bit green, but with temperatures in the 40s (the UV readings are extreme at 15+) and a dry hot breeze for the last two days, moisture does not last long. You can evaporate standing in the shade, but as the shade tree provides habitat for any number of nasty critters, shade is not that much of an option.

We have taken a sunset tour and a sunrise tour and the Rock changes colors from red to pink to purple and brown depending on how the sun hits it.

We also went to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) another monolith of aggregate rock that was thrust up and has since eroded into 36 domes shoulder to shoulder forming deep valleys and steep-sided gorges. It is also part of the National Park and has hiking trails developed that allow you to walk through various desert terrain with wonderful views of the surreal boulders.

Kata Tjuta is off limits to non-aboriginal people except within the roped off areas. It must have been a very interesting place prior to being restricted. The cultural centre showed us some of the Aboriginal life.

Although the park rangers keep the camels away from Uluru, not so at Kata Tjuta and we seen several large herds on our tour and yes they do capture wild camels to export. What a hoot that would be.

Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta were formed about 500 million years ago, there is a third monolith in Australia that is even older and bigger. Mt. Conner is a U-shaped tabletop mountain that is about three times the size of Uluru, but it is treed and has no cultural or spiritual significance to the Aboriginal, hence just a mountain.

There is no town at Uluru just a resort that consists of six hotels, from backpacker hostels to five star accommodation, campgrounds, and it's own shopping center, complete with an IGA, fire department and police. The resort itself is owned by one company, but each business has it's own management team. The resort was built only with the permission of the local aboriginal group and Australian government and has the sole purpose of servicing the tourists that come to see Uluru.

It kind of amazes me, we have an untapped supply of natural gas in Canada and still run on diesel, here many of the city buses are running on natural gas and this whole resort area, which has 6,000 beds complete with restaurants and other facilities to support, gets all its power from natural gas generators, and believe me the air con runs 24/7.

We spent our last night at Ayers Rock at the "Sounds of Silence" dinner beneath the twinkling southern sky in the middle of the Uluru National Park. Acclaimed as one of the finest dining experiences in Australia, it consists of a leisurely stroll through the desert to an area where you have views of both Uluru and The Olgas as the sun sets. You are plied with champagne and canapes consisting of smoked salmon, crocodile quiche and kangaroo on a cracker.

Then as the sun sets you move down the sand dune to the main dining area set out under the stars where we were entertained by an Aboriginal playing the Didgeridoo. It was white table clothes and full formal setting for a three course buffet meal. We sat at a table for ten with two couples from Holland, a couple from Manchester, England and a couple from Las Vegas. All were very nice and we had travelled and visited with the British and one Dutch couple during our various tours here.

The buffet consisted of numerous salads, including a delectable crocodile caesar, veggies and four meat dishes, including kangaroo filet with a chutney sauce, barramundi, all the wine you wanted to drink, several desserts and fruit plates and a nice Australian port to finish it all off.

It was a memorable evening with good food, good wine, and good people to enjoy it with.

Trains

A lot of firsts on this trip. Our first overnight train ride with a sleeping berth from Adelaide to Alice Springs. The room is six feet long and at the widest point about four and half feet. They have managed to fit two seats, a fold down table, a sink with hot and cold water that pops out of the wall, and two sleeping berths. One bed folds out of the wall and the other comes down from the ceiling. They are about six feet long and twenty inches wide, with your head between the outside wall and the closet. Oh, did I not mention the two closets, 10w x 18d x 30h, all inches. It works, we are comfortable and both had good sleeps, although I did have visions of rolling off the top berth as the train went around a leaning corner. We were in good shape - I feel for the folks that spent the night in the economy cars, just a seat that lays back. 

The hallway between the rooms is wide enough for one person and curves back and forth to make room for the berths on each side.

I am sitting in the lounge as I type this looking out at the 1100th kilometer (only 500 more to go) of red sand, shrub brush, stunted trees and yellow grass of the Australian Outback. Not that the scenery is all the same, every 75 kilometers or so you see a new hill, or a bush road crossing the tracks. 

Then out of nowhere there will be a water well or a set of livestock pens or off on the horizon a car or transport with absolutely not another thing in sight. So far I have seen four sheep, two cows and five horses along the side of the tracks. Actually I exaggerate as the first 200 kilometers were wheat fields of the Adelaide Plains, from horizon to horizon, with the odd farm stead and village, then through a little hill cut and into the Outback. 

The trip is 26 hours and we have 5 hours to go so I will update with my next live sighting. We just crossed the border from the state of South Australia into the Northern Territory. The conductor announced the border crossing and informed us we could see snakes, lizards, eagles and possibly the odd feral camel. Whoo!, Whoo! 
Although we did jus pass a herd of about 30 cows and calves. The cattle in the south were mostly hereford and angus while up here they are a Brahma cross.

Oh my gosh, I just seen a lone dingo snooping around a water hole on the side of the tracks. There is a dingo fence built across Northern Australia to keep the dingos out of the big sheep and cattle stations, the fence is just under 6000kms long. It works most of the time, but once in a while the feral camels break it down and the dingos come south. Dingos don't just kill to eat, they kill to kill and one station has lost up to 11,000 sheep to the dingos. 

We just crossed the Finke River, which is the oldest river in the world, parts of this river are 350 million years old and it is in the same location. It is mostly dry, but it has pockets of water year round, these water pockets support fish only found in the Finke River.

Finke River

As we get closer to Alice Springs the country side changes a bit, it is hillier and seems more lush. There are more cattle along the tracks and more water holes holding water. 

Alice Springs is a rugged little town of 26,000 set 1500kms north of Adelaide and the same distance south of Darwin. It is 36 degrees here today and our taxi driver said "it's a bit mild here today mate, January is usually in the forties" and the girl at the hotel said it would be a "nice walk to town, only 25 minutes and the heat today was not too oppressive". I guess that would be like me in Calgary telling some one from here that "Oh, it's not too bad out today, minus 20 isn't that cold". Like I say things are different. 

The main industries here are mining, with the closest mine 600kms away, cattle and tourism. I cannot fathom how settlers managed to walk or ride 1500kms from the closest port town to establish mines and cattle stations in the early 1800s. The people that live here now have to be a rugged hardy folk and those that came before I can only guess at. Although maybe they are not as rugged as I think as I noticed no one on the golf course until the temperature dropped to 34! It boggles my mind even further to try and contemplate how the Aboriginals survived in this land for thousands of years before the white man came and changed their way of life. 

Tomorrow we take a coach for a five hundred kilometer drive to Ayers Rock now called Uluru and Kings Canyon. We will be traveling in the "red area" around Alice Springs which is the size of Europe. Uluru is the largest standing monolith in the world, at 348meters above ground and like an iceberg the majority of it sub surface. We will spend three days and two nights at Ayer's Rock. Then we catch a flight to Cairns...

Wine Country

One of the reasons for me to come to Australia was to explore the wine country around Adelaide. The Barossa Valley's Shiraz and Cabernet are well known in Canada. We find out at tourist information that there are about five wine valleys around Adelaide. Oh what to do? Skip the city and go to them all, you bet! So we rented a car and journeyed out into the country side. I got my mind wrapped around driving on the left hand side of the road and away we went. I had watched a lady from Europe turn the wipers on and off and then wash her windshield on a bright sunny day in the parking lot and wondered why, then when we get to the first intersection on went my wipers as I thought I was turning on the signal lights. After four days of driving I still reach for the signal lights on the left hand side. Then came the first traffic circle of three in 500 meters, with roads going off like the spokes on a wagon wheel and the traffic all going around at what seemed like extreme speed, but navigator Loreen got us through them all and on the right road to the Barossa. I just clenched the wheel and followed the car in front of me. I thought about putting a Canadian flag on the car in hopes folks would feel sorry for me. Actually the driving went well, only got honked at once in five days!

The country side around Adelaide is stunningly beautiful with lots of rolling hills, big broad valleys and little towns scattered around. The country towns remind us of some where between European and North American, the churches have the best locations and the busiest and most prosperous businesses are the hotel and pub, or so I was told. The towns all seem to have a good butcher shop and bakery, three to four churches and two to three hotels and pubs (and other unique historic, geological and cultural features). They maybe also like a little beer with their scripture! There is a vibrant foodie culture in the valleys.

Typical road between villages

We spent a few days day tripping out of the Barossa Valley and absolutely loved the area. This is a place I could move to if I was going to move out of Canada, the people are friendly, the Mediterranean climate is great, and vineyards as far as you can see, also almond and olive groves and great produce. What else could a guy want - it seemed like a pretty easy lifestyle! We visited a number of wineries, "open cellars" is the term they use here, where you can go in and taste any number of expressions in the wine shop. There are about two hundred open cellar doors within an hour of Adelaide, after the second day we determined that we could not get to them all in four days so we had to get more selective. We had to operate a little different here than we do in the Okanagan, as we cannot bring a couple of cases home with us, so just a couple of bottles. 

Barossa Valley

Most of the wineries here were started in the mid-1800's, one we visited was started by a Jesuit Missionary in 1837. This particular winery, Seven Hills, has some of the oldest vines in the world as disease wiped out a lot of the European vines. The church at Seven Hills is the only Church in Australia that has an under ground crypt. We managed to get to some of the wineries here that are popular in Canada, Wolf Blass, Penfolds and Peter Lehmann. We tasted some wines at all these places that we do not see in Canada, they may keep the best at home!

Church at Seven Hills

Then into the Adelaide Hills, which I liked even better than the Barossa as it was more trees, more mixed farms, with lots of cattle and horses and kangaroos out in the treed areas. There are nice little German style tourist towns and lots of bakeries and shops. Immigrants from Germany, Italy and Greece seem to shape the communities.

Out of the hills and into McLaren Vale which is another huge valley that is dedicated to growing grapes with a maritime influence. It is large and green and close to the Southern Ocean. About a 10 kilometer drive, so off we went to see the Southern Ocean. We found a white sand beach, five kilometers long and probably 300 meters wide with maybe thirty people on it. There was a nude area, off in the distance, that I thought looked a bit busier, but Loreen wouldn't let me check it out! 

I have no idea why it was so deserted, as the temperature was +28 with clear blue skies, and it is summer school break here. 

We moved into a sea-side suburb of Adelaide for the next day and two nights. We found a motel a couple of blocks from the marina and beach, which again did not have a lot people on the beaches. Temperature was above thirty so we spent a bit of time at the marina, looking at zillion dollar boats and then went to sit at the pool to drink a bottle of nice Aussie Cabernet. Priceless. 

Oz

We started our tour of Oz with one day in Sydney, population- 4.3million, so Danny, that would be me, said " just another big city, they just drive on the other side of the road, let's not spend any time there". What a beautiful city, we could have spent several days there. So, having one day, we tried to crowd in a week!

First we took a hop on-hop off city bus tour, first stop the Sydney fish market, second only to Tokyo Japan in size, where we pigged out on the fish platter for two. Baby octopus, squid, battered fish, oysters (raw and cooked), crab legs, fries all washed down with a bottle of very good Australian Sauvignon Blanc. Scrumptious. Then we waddled back to the street and resumed the tour.


We stopped and viewed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, Loreen declined to hop off and climb to the top of the bridge. I pretended to be really upset, thank god she stood her ground.

Then on to the Sydney Opera House, what an amazing piece of architecture.

We then caught the bus out to Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Australia. Great beach, acres of white sand, big surf for the surfers along with some great swimming areas. The scenery was lovely, I am talking about the buildings and surrounding hills! Although the beach was nice also!

Melbourne- what a city, again a population of 4 million and growing. Population count may be a bit different here as they seem to include outlying communities, like if it was Calgary we would include places like Okotoks.

It is big and modern with sports arenas all over. The Melbourne Cricket Club arena holds 100 thousand, the new soccer arena 60 thousand, this on top of football and rugby fields and world class tennis courts. It has an amazing amount of green space through out and broad well maintained streets.

Australia is not cheap, a lot of things are more expensive than in Canada. Traveling is maybe similar to costs in Europe. We have established a new hobby during our three days in Melbourne, we go into stores, including a trip to the Costco, to compare prices to home. Meat is cheaper here, restaurants are more expensive and so on! Convenience stores charge more here, although navel oranges from the US are about the same price, while good Aussie wine is cheaper. Guess what I buy! The Australian dollar is also on par with or higher than Canadian urrency right now.

Southern Australia, although not right now, is in a drought, has been for the last seven years. This has wrecked havoc with the agricultural industry. Yesterday we drove through miles of really productive farm land sitting fallow, because the water reserves are too low to irrigate. Most of the farms were vegetable farms. There are some massive dairy farms here, milking 900 to 1,000 head of cows. Lots of hay being put up for the dairies, as the sheep and beef cattle can graze year around. They do fatten the cattle on a 100 day program of grain and dry feed.

At present the state of Victoria is building a $40 billion plant to take salt out of ocean water and convert it to potable water for drinking and irrigation. Seems to be quite a hot political topic as some say the rains will return and others are saying they need it in case the drought continues.

We spent a day visiting some wildlife areas. First we stopped at a sheep and cattle ranch that also has a pen of wombat, kangaroo, wallaby, emu, peacocks and tame ducks and geese for the tourist to have an up close encounter with.

Wombats are a little creature that seem a bit lazy, they do like carrots and have teeth top and bottom similar to our beaver.

Kangaroos and wallabies - the two are different but even a ranger at the Koala park could not really explain to us how. It is all about foot length compared to body length, or some thing like that. Not simple like deer and moose! So we found a couple that liked us, or maybe it was the cup of Alfalfa pellets we bought for them. I think these were "Roos" but I did take some pictures of wallabies in the wild.

Emus are a big flightless bird, Loreen said they look prehistoric, but they liked us too and ran up and down the fence in their compound grunting happily to get a few pellets.

Then back on the bus to beat the other 15 tour buses to the Koala Conservation area. Koalas are cute little duffers that live entirely on a diet of Eucalyptus leaves. They have special enzymes in their systems to break these leaves down and it can take up to 10 days to digest. So they hang around sleeping and resting 20 hours a day. These guys are in their natural habitat an kept in family groups by fibre fencing. Only problem is now with the drought the trees are not growing enough food to sustain the population so the rangers go out and cut some feed for them every day.



Mommy and the Joey hanging down



Then there was the penguin parade. I did not know there were penguins in Australia, but there are quite a few places in Australia that have penguins. We went to Phillips Island where the smallest penguins in the world live. These little guys are about 12 Inches tall and weigh about 2.25 pounds. They live up to 800 meters from the sea shore in burrows in the sand dunes.

They spend two to three days at sea fishing for food for their young which they swallow and then regurgitate like most birds do. During their time out fishing they can double their weight in undigested fish. They can stay under water for up to a minute and can dive up to 30 feet. They come ashore at dusk when the eagles and big gulls can no longer see them from the air. This is called the Penguin Parade and it is quite amazing to watch 20 to 50 at a time of these little wee blue and white birds waddle across the beach, climb up through the rocks and start up the cliffs and hill to feed the young in the burrows. About 1,400 came home that night.

No pictures are allowed as the flashes from the cameras scare them and they may go back into the ocean for another three to four days, sometimes causing both their own death and that of their young.

First World/Third World

You know you have moved back to a first world country when:

First world- two lamb burgers (although delicious), a shared salad and two beer- $47.50
Third world- three course meal and drinks for three- $24.00

First world- laundry: handkerchiefs- $3, shirts- $9.50, underwear- $4, shorts- $9
Third world- handkerchiefs- 10cents, shirts- 25 cents, underwear- 15 cents, shorts- 25 cents

First world- shuttle bus from Melbourne Airport, 45 minutes- $75 return, (for two)
Third world- private air conditioned van, (for two) Northern Bali to South Bali, 4.5 hours one way - $37.50

First world- you pay what ever the price is
Third world- you negotiate every thing and worry you might pay an extra $.25 and then spend 30 minutes trying to bargain down the shop owner (go figure!)

First world- always hot water to shower
Third world- sometimes you have hot water, sometimes the rain coming through the open air bathroom is warmer than the shower

First world- you can always drink the tap water
Third world- you could drink tap water if you wanted a severe case of "Bali Belly". Although the folks that live there don't seem to have a problem

First world- flush toilettes complete with paper!
Third world- combination of flush and open hole toilettes complete with a water hose or water bucket for cleansing

First world- a lot of nuclear families, where they live miles and miles apart from parents and siblings
Third world- close knit families and communities where every one pitches in. Also a very strong belief in their culture and religion

We in the so called First World are pretty spoiled by our standard of living but we pay a price for it both in economic costs and social costs.

I am not saying either is right or wrong, they are just different and that's okay.

The ability to see both sides- PRICELESS (well maybe a bit pricey)!

Parting

Today, January 6, we went our separate ways. Keenan to Java, Borneo and possibly Thailand, to hike mountains, climb volcanos, see the Orangutans and do other things that young people do, just because they can.

She caught the bus to the ferry terminal between Bali and Java at 9AM this morning. Her and her Mom had every thing all scoped out last night, there are three different types of buses here. Tourist bus, costs more money and is modern, and two types of local bus, a large one and a medium one.

The large one has luxuries like an opening and closing passenger door, floors without rust holes, more seats, etc. But because of all these luxuries it is slower as more passengers take it. Loreen had this one all lined up, in her mind, as the one for Keenan to take.

Off to the tourist info booth, where they would help Kee flag down her bus on the street. The first bus along was a medium bus, like a 1954 ford econoline, oh! that's right they didn't make the econoline until the 70's. Oh well, it was still like a 1954 ford econoline modified for the bus trade. The side door had been removed and framed in with a wooden sill for ease of entry and exit, the rust holes in the floor by the doorway were not that big, small enough to step across, and seat belts, well they were like the closure on my life jacket, if you had enough string you could tie yourself in possibly to the springs sticking out of the seat cushions.

We were on the wrong side of the street, so it made a five point turn in traffic and back it came to pick Keenan up.

So while Mom's tears flowed freely, I hid mine behind a stoic stiff upper lip, as the Brits say, at least until my back was turned and she was on her way.

Poor Loreen, after the dive boat, and then seeing her daughter riding off into the unknown in this, it was just about more than she could take. On the way back to our room to catch our air conditioned van to the airport, here came the bus again, and Keenan happy as a lark waving at us out the window.

I guess no matter how old your kids get you still worry and have times where both pride and sadness kick in!

New Years

Ladies moving dirt to a construction site (this picture should have been in the last post)

We have left Ubud and moved to the small village of Kalibukbuk located on the north coast of Bali. The road between Ubud and Kalibukbuk winds up through mountains and is probably has the most curves of any road I have ever been on. Loreen and Keenan both got a little car sick by the time we got through it. It was built by the Dutch and I think it was probably laid out by a drunk following a broken backed serpent through the hills. Kalibukbuk is quite small, a main street and two side streets to the Indian Ocean. There are some good dive sites here and the dolphins come every morning just off shore, so these were the draws.

New Years Eve Day we went for a bike ride to a local waterfall and to some hot springs. Unlike the bike ride in Ubud, this one was not mostly downhill and we got a good workout going on the way to both the waterfall and the hot springs. We missed the waterfall as we seemed to be having trouble convincing the local village "Mafia" that we did not needs guides to walk up a set of stairs to the top of the mountain. They were persistent, for as soon as we had convinced one of them we did not need a guide, suddenly his buddy would be on the trail in front of us selling his services. We just turned around and went back to the bike park to pay the donation for parking, where one fellow asked for 50,000 rupiah. There was a young fellow, sitting on his motorbike, that shook his head and said "no $50,000, you pay what you want to donate". It is different here in that some folks will try to see how dumb you are by asking for more money and others are so honest.

So back down the mountain to the main road and on to the next mountain trail up to the hot springs. There were three pools of varying heat degrees all with spouts under which the locals stand for the massage effect. We tried them all and the one where the water drops about 15 feet gives you quite a massage. Although you are not allowed to use soap in the pools themselves the locals all bring soap and bathe in the out door showers. Adults with their clothes or bathing suits on and the little ones stark naked. These are quite different than sitting in the hot pools in Banff in December, looking out through the steam at the snow covered spruce trees and every one with frost on their hair. Here you look out at coconut palm and banana trees.

New Years Eve night we went to a beach restaurant and then moved out onto the beach for some quiet drinks. There was quite a thunder and lightning show taking place, with no rain. It was a unique experience watching the waves break on the shore through the flashes of lightning.

I think every man and boy child in Bali had fireworks for New Years Eve. The fireworks are loud and do not give much of a color show, just noise. They started setting them off about 9PM and it went on until about 1AM, first on one side then the other, sounded like we were in gun fight in a war zone. Every one wore ear plugs to bed that night.

Did not do much on New Years Day but wander around town and do e-mail and stuff at an internet shop. It had started raining in the middle of the night and never let up all day. So out with the umbrellas and did the quieter things.

Keenan and I went diving on the second of January much to Loreen's angst. She went snorkeling and they split us up with Kee and I in one boat and Loreen in the other. Loreen was also a bit worried about the dive boats, wooden hulled, no life jackets and some with part of the aft structure damaged. Her group waited on the beach for us at lunch time for about half an hour and she had both our funerals planned by the time we got there.

(You cannot even imagine my horror when we pulled into the national park where the dive site is located and I saw these decrepit, falling apart, old wooden fishing boats that they were using to transport us out to Menjangan Island... It was beyond my belief - but I was still hopeful that there would be a fancy dive boat tied up at the island that would be taking my family to the depths of the ocean. But that hope was soon squashed when Danny and Keenan carried on around the island in the fishing boat to their first dive site. I honestly did believe I would be coming home alone!! It was a stark contrast to the $1million, new, state of the art dive boat that Keenan received her diving certificate on in Belize. Anyway, it all ended well and I was for sure thankful to the Balinese Hindu Gods! Loreen)

Loreen's Boat Leaving Us!

 It was my first time diving, Keenan has her open water diving certificate, so it was quite an experience. I just did an introductory dive to see whether I would like it enough to get my certificate. It was pretty cool and I enjoyed it a lot. I had to do four skill tests at about 9 feet deep:

1- take out and replace your air regulator, and clean the water out before breathing- no problem
2- fill your mask with water and then drain it under water- big problem, I think I left my instructor on the bottom about four times while I panicked and just pushed the inflate button on my dive jacket. That'll teach him for trying to slow me down when I pointed my finger at the surface! He gave up on that one and took me for a 20 minute under water swim at about 18 feet deep to let me relax. And then we broke for lunch and I kind of got my head back together. After lunch went under about 12 feet and kept my act together, flooded my mask and blew it out about three times.
3- pretend to lose your regulator, recover it, replace it in your mouth and blow the water out- no problem
4- do cut throat sign to say you are out of air, get rid of your regulator and have your buddy give you his spare, clear the water, breath and buddy up to surface- no problem, just that damn mask!

My dive instructor and I (decrepit dive boat in background)

Then we went for an awesome under water tour along a coral wall. We were down for 35 minutes at around 35 feet deep. Saw some amazing and colorful fish and amazing coral formations. I never knew it could be so alive and pretty. The instructor kept moving me into the wall and I kept moving away as I felt I was going to touch the coral with my legs or fins. Depth perception's really distorted as the instructor informed me we are always at least 5 feet away from the coral.

We also got to see a big sea turtle at this depth, pretty amazing, and run into Keenan and her guide following along. Keenan told me she knew that it was me coming through the water because of my flailing and this little bit of white hair surrounding this bright shiny head. BRAT!

I was not totally in my comfort zone so I was not as relaxed as I needed to be, but acceptable. The instructor gave me a recommendation to allow me to complete certification, but advised I would need a doctors exam to make sure my lungs are okay. Will see when we get to the land of Oz.

Loreen did go snorkeling twice on the edge of the coral wall and reports that she saw some awesome fish. We have snorkeled in a lot of countries and I think Loreen was totally impressed by the clarity of the water, the number of species and the overall color and diversity here.

We were up at 5:30AM this morning to go out to see the dolphins. We went out in a "spider boat" named because they look like a spider on the water. Now these are quite a little boat, 20 feet long, 24 inches wide and about 30 inches deep. A pretty tippy little devil, so to stabilize they put these 12 feet long cross arms at the bow and stern, and then have these curved drop arms down to wooden pole stabilizers on each side. They make the boats amazingly stable, even though Loreen ensured we all had life jackets this morning, mine was a ladies small, so we just tied a couple of cords around it.

Spider Boat

 Although the tour books, like Lonely Planet and Frommers, say that the dolphins can be seen by the hundreds, we hit a day when they did not show up. We saw a few, two and three at a time, and thirty spider boats would descend on the spot, the dolphins of course disappeared. Then a couple would surface in the distance and away we would go again, to the same results. I told Keenan it was probably two or three divers with dolphins suits jumping around to keep us tourists excited and maybe come back for tomorrow.

Keenan was so enthused she fell asleep

 Three more days in Bali and then Keenan leaves for Java and Loreen and I for Australia. That will be a bit of a sad day splitting up. Will not likely blog again from Bali.