G'day Canada

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Day 2 - Darling River in Kinchega National Park - NSW

Day 2 – We started to head towards NSW. First off we stopped at Red Cliffs and took a look at Big Lizzie. Big Lizzie Old steam tractor used to transport goods across the desert. We then came to Menindee, NSW and decided to camp beside the Lake Menindee, however the lake has long dried up so we camped instead on the Darling River in Kinchega National Park. Visited the site of the worst accident on the Darling involving a steamboat called, P.S. Providence. In 1872 it seems the crew forgot to fill the boiler after a night of drinking in Menindee. The result was a massive explosion killing for crewman

Lake Menindee with water.

Lake Menindee dried up.

One of our first looks at the big red kangaroos.

Crikey!

Isn't she gorgeous! Mick with a Shingleback Lizard.

What a beauty!

Day 1 - Hattah-Kulkyne National Park - Victoria

Day 1 - We left home at roughly 6:30am from Moe and travelled through Melbourne, Bendigo and Swan Hill until we reached Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, right beside the Murray River. The Murray River is part of the Murray-Darling River System, the largest system in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The river is also the border of Victoria and New South Wales.

Camp set up.

Just on the other side is New South Wales.

Kookaburra. From the Kingfisher family this "funny" bird wakes you up in the morning with its call. That's not the funny part. Their call sounds much like a laughing monkey.

We sat and watched the not so graceful pelican lift off and land in the river.

An Outback Adventure: Priceless - Aug 2007

18 days
16 slabs of beer
12 unique outback animals in the wild
7,000 kilometres
5 states (VIC, NSW, SA, QLD and NT)
5 historic outback pubs
5 casks of port
4 bottles of wine
3 deserts
2 bottles of Jack Daniels
$1.85 per litre. Highest price paid for petrol
An outback adventure: priceless

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

General Update as of September

Bonjour everyone!

We are back from our second major trip. Larry and Mick took us to the outback to visit Uluṟu (or Ayers Rock) along with three weeks worth of adventure.

The trek used 4WD to get across the Sturt Stoney Desert and the Simpson Desert in addition to many other places. Pictures of this trip will be up in the next couple of days. It was good times!

We are now at the point where we must find some work to suppliment our trip so we will for the next little bit going on small trips at best.

We are going to a Nick Cave/Grinderman concert in October wtih Chelsea which should be heaps of fun.

War Memorial - Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (A.C.T.)

Last but not least we visited the capital of Australia, Canberra in Australian Capital Territory. A beautiful city, we started off by visiting the War Memorial. Exceptionally laid out with its many sculptures and dioramas. For us, to really learn about a country you need to dive into their history, and what better way to learn about a nation then to see the sacrifices that its people made to build that nation.

We caught a wonderful guided tour, which gave us an overview of the history of Australia in wartimes. In particular it was very interesting to see what Australia did during WWI and WWII, to learn about the different countries that they fought in, and even the fact that the Japanese attacked both Sydney and Darwin during WWII.

We checked out the Canberra Centre which is a 3 level, multi building shopping centre and went to lunch before getting back into the car for the next nine hours back to Moe.

War Memorial

Eternal Flame.

Ceiling of the unknown solider's grave.

Lone Pine diorama.

They have this wonderful interactive area where kids (and big kids) can interact with actual war artifacts.

This is an actual boat that landed on the beach. In 1915 the Aussies and Kiwis landed at Gallipoli, Turkey during WWI. The battle was a huge miscalculation for the allies and resulted in heavy casulties. To this day, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is commemorated in Australia and New Zealand, the battle often considered to mark the birth of the national consciousness of each nation, replacing their formerly collective identity under the British Empire.

A view of the Australian Parliament building. The large trees are planted in memory of the Aussie troops while the bushes down the middle are for the New Zealand troops lost in the war.

Surfer's Paradise - Surfer's Paradise, Queensland

From Australia Zoo we visited Trish’s brother Peter and his partner Leslie. Peter and Leslie we wonderful, as they took us in, fed us dinner and we had a great evening. The next morning they took us to Surfer’s Paradise. Both of us appreciated everything.

Welcome to Surfer's Paradise.

Surfer's Beach.

The many high rises in Surfers. They sort of took away from the views.

A view of Surfers from the beach.

The view at night.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The Austraila Zoo - Beerwah, Queensland

The long awaited Australia Zoo was next up on our trip. The Irwin family should be very proud of this zoo. Steve’s message of conservation is loud and clear and a wonderful message for everyone. His love for his animals is quite apparent and although it may not be the largest zoo in the world the animal enclosures are impeccable and you could tell the animals where content. Highlights include: feeding an Asian Elephant, the Asian Elephant keeper talk, The Sumatran and Bengal Tigers and for Greg, seeing his first Tasmanian Devil.
Crikey!For all of you in Canada go to the Toronto Zoo. We have now visited several zoos and sanctuaries in Australia but it makes you realize just how lucky we are to have a world-class zoo in your back yard.