August 26 Wednesday I stayed close to the hostel to rest after the marathon walking session yesterday and I got in touch with Scott, so I could begin backing up my pictures and video to his server. It will take me days to get it all uploaded to him, but it is good to get a start on that. I'll probably have a chance to upload some from Adelaide and then again the last couple days in Sydney when I am stationary and have a good pipeline.

August 27 Thursday I intended to go and see the other half of the National Gallery of Victoria, but I never made it to that part of the city. I did walk around some more and saw some more interesting bits of the city. Mainly it was a day to get ready to leave, so that included some grocery shopping and repacking my bag.

August 28 Friday Jon and I checked out of the hostel and left Melbourne behind. We quickly went through Geelong on our way to the coast and the Great Ocean Road. The first town on the Great Ocean Road is Torquay and we stopped for a couple pictures at Bell's Beach. A little further down the road is Point Addis where the first of the impressive cliffs are. This whole stretch of coastline is known as the Surf Coast and the windy weather from the past few days has the surfers out in droves. Next stop was at Aireys Inlet and Split Point. There is a nice lighthouse and several viewpoints overlooking Eagle Rock and Table Rock. At the town of Lorne we went slightly inland and hiked to Erskine Falls. Right above the town we found Teddy's Lookout, and just southeast of town we made another hike to Sheoak Falls and the Swallow Cave. Each stop was wonderful. We were starting to run out of daylight and had been told that Kennet River was probably the most likely place to see koalas. We tried to get there before it was too dark, but did not make it. The decision was made to check in Apollo Bay if there were other koala sites ahead of us and if not we could backtrack to Kennet River in the morning. So we continued on to Apollo Bay and checked into the Surfside Backpackers. A side note: for the second half of the day each time we stopped the car it would not start again, but since it is a manual I could give Jon a push start as long as we parked in appropriate locations. That worked for the whole afternoon.

While preparing our respective dinners Jon and I met an Irish girl named Orla. She was trying to get to Adelaide and had to be there to leave with a tour group at 6:30am on Monday morning. She had left Melbourne with a local bus and once she was already on the Great Ocean Road, she discovered that bus service did not continue to Adelaide on the weekends, so she was stuck and risked losing her large deposit on the tour. One option she was considering was going back to Melbourne and getting a direct Greyhound to Adelaide. I could just see Jon's eyes lighting up. He was immediately smitten with her and so he set about looking at how we could speed up our trip and help her out. This could be fun. I have become navigator and picker of places to stop and do things, so I looked at the maps. We had planned on seeing the second half of the Great Ocean Road on Sabbath, staying in Warrnambool or Port Fairy that night before heading up to the Grampians/Hall's Gap area, and then depending on what we found between the Grampians and Adelaide we would get there when we got there. Jon, like most of the travelers I have met who have their own cars, does not like to drive at night unnecessarily. This is because of the kangaroos and other wildlife that present a great road hazard (much like deer in the US). But now the circumstances had changed. He was a knight in shining armor and if we needed to drive at night we could do it. Together we mapped out a list of spots we wanted to see and figured out that we could do them all and still make it to Hall's Gap in one day. Then we could see the highlights of the Grampians and still make it to Adelaide late in the evening. Orla was still weighing her options, but let us know before we all went to bed that she would come with us. This turned out to be a real blessing for a couple reasons.

August 29 Sabbath Now with three of us and a foreboding gray sky, we set out to see what the day had in store for us. The car started right up (and never had a starting problem all day, which I appreciated) and we went further up the road that our hostel was on to the hills behind Apollo Bay to find Marriners Falls. It began drizzling as we started our hike, but we were not to be deterred. We had to make seven creek crossings and because of the recent rains the stepping stones were all under water, so we had to remove our shoes and make the crossings that way. Lots of fun in the 50 degree weather. By the time we got back to the car my shoes and socks were soaked and my overcoat and lower pant legs were similarly drenched. BUT it was worth it

We drove out towards the Cape Otway lighthouse, but only went as far as Bimbi Park. The lighthouse has a $15/person fee to get to the house and viewpoints and we knew the spectacular spots were still further up the road. The reason we were there was to see koalas and almost immediately upon hitting Bimbi park we started spotting them. I think they are rather lethargic on a normal basis anyway and with the rainy weather most were hunched in crooks of trees riding it out, but a few were engaged in eating leaves. We could not get too close to them because of fences, but I was happy to see them in the wild and in person. Far more rewarding to me than seeing them in a zoo.

Next, we headed inland at Lavers Hill to go up and see Triplet Falls in the Beech Forest part of Great Otway National Park. It was another set of lovely falls and a very pleasant, real rainforest walk. After that we headed on down the coast to the big rock formations. First were the Gibson Steps, an amazing view, but we could only go halfway down the cliff face because of repair work due to landslides. Next were the Twelve Apostles, huge freestanding stone structures. There are only eight apostles left with the others being reclaimed by the sea, most recently in 2006 one collapsed. Because of the rain we got the added bonus of waterfalls coming off the cliffs into the ocean. And our timing was impeccable because the clouds broke and the sun made itself known for the time we were at the Twelve Apostles and then the rain came. We journeyed further and spend nearly an hour at Loch Ard Gorge, which has a number of interesting arches, razorbacks, and other stone structures. We also made a short stop at The Arch, but skipped the London Bridge. This was a more famous arch that collapsed in June of this year. We also stopped briefly to see the Bay of Martyrs, which has many smaller rock formations out in it. Then it was getting dark and we made the push up to Hall's Gap through Dunkeld. By doing this at night we did miss two waterfalls I would have liked to have seen: Wannon and Nigretta Falls east of Hamilton, but we have seen so many waterfalls, I will not complain. At Hall's Gap we checked into the YHA Eco Backpackers and I got a hand drawn map and walking info from the guy at reception to help prepare for tomorrow.

I had mentioned that having Orla along was a blessing. When we first hit the rain along the coast, the wind was so strong that it broke the windshield wiper on the drivers side. So we rigged the wiper with fishing line and with Orla manning one side and me watching the other side we could keep the windshield clean for Jon. Great teamwork.


August 30 Sunday Orla, Jon, and I left the comfortable confines of the Grampians YHA at 9:20, drove into the Hall's Gap town center (where I grabbed a park map to aid us in finding the spots on the hand drawn map from the hostel and Orla picked up some food for herself at the towns only grocery store) and then headed towards the signature point of the Grampians: The Pinnacle. There is about a three mile trail out to the Pinnacle that goes through a section called the Grand Canyon. Very interesting and made more so with the flowing water down in it. Nothing like our Grand Canyon, but I liked it. The Pinnacle is just as impressive as they say it is, a single rock finger sticking out of the cliff face with a expansive view of the valley and town below. Our next stop was the road side Boroka Lookout which takes in view on the other side of the Grampian range, looking towards the Little Desert area. Our second walk of the day was from Reeds/Reids Lookout to the Balconies. I write Reeds/Reids because the parks own interal signage uses both at various times, so they are confused themselves. The Balconies are two staggered rock shelves jutting out from the cliff. Definitely not for those afraid of heights. The person at the hostel had told us this was a 90 minute hike, but it was a mostly flat walk of only 1 km. It would have been worth walking 90 minutes to regardless. Before leaving I got a nearly 360 degree video shot from the Reed Lookout Fire Tower.

Next was a stop at Mackenzie Falls, the other stop on almost every tour out in the Grampians. Again the signage is somewhat confusing, but we made the correct choice. 1.75 km to the Falls lookout or 1.15 km to the Falls base. The tours go to the lookout, so we obviously went to the base. Our path took us past two other waterfalls and I can confidently say that our views of the main falls were far superior to the tour lookout. This is a tremendous waterfall. One of the best I have seen in Australia.

We made a final stop at the Gulgurn Manja Shelter before making a beeline for Adelaide. The Shelter is one of the Aboriginal sites with cave paintings. The guidebooks say that 75% of the known paintings in the Victoria territory are located in the Grampians. Most are not marked on maps to keep them safe from tourists, but this site is easily accessible and was a very nice example for me. Jon said he has see far better in the Macdonnell Ranges north of Uluru, but since these are my first and possibly only cave painting, I was happy. We still had four hours of driving to do when we left the Shelter, a couple with the remaining daylight and a couple after dark. The drive went smoothly with a refueling stop in Bordertown, just inside South Australia territory. Orla and I had to be the manual windshield wipers on several occasions as individual clouds dumped their excess water. The three of us make quite a good team and the two days traveling together have been fun despite the less than ideal weather. It will be interesting to be on my own again in Adelaide.

August 31 Monday I spent a lot of time online, trying to back up more of my files to Scott's computer, but the hostel here only has a 50 Mb connection and back in Melbourne it was a 100, so everything is slower. In the afternoon I walked around the city some near the hostel, found the city center, a number of churches, two free museums that I explored, and lots of places to eat. I posted again looking for a ride up to Alice and checked the bulletin boards at the hostel. There are several people heading out west to Perth (like Jon, who I've been traveling with is), but no one heading north. I got a response from a German guy who will be doing the same thing as me in about three weeks, but that doesn't help either of us now. Jon and I finished settling our money for the trip (an excellent deal in my book) and then talked about the possibility of going to the Flinders Ranges and Coober Pedy together before he goes west. It would help me out quite a bit, but would be slightly out of the way for him. Coober Pedy is intriguing though because most of the citizens live underground (it gets that hot in the summer) and staying in an underground hostel would be an experience. We will have to make up our minds in the next couple days.

August 21 Friday Leaving Foster, we decided we would drive through the Mornington Penninsula on our way to Melbourne. Cape Schanck ended up being the only place of note, with a nice lighthouse and some pretty coastal views. The whole peninsula is a wine growing region, but coming from wine country this did not really excite me. Once we made it to Melbourne we had the surprise of the first four hostels we checked with being full. This is winter and we had been told by many that most people head north to warmer weather, so we did not expect rooms to be a problem. Well we found three places in a two block radius that had rooms and after checking with all three chose the Melbourne International Backpackers. We checked in for a week and Jon found a place where he can park his car without getting a pile of tickets. We walked down Elizabeth St to Federation Square and then back up along Standon St. to get a quick view of the city just before sunset. I got some computer time to find the nearest SDA church and was at first surprised that I was at least 4 km from each of the nearest three. But when I checked the individual websites for those three, one was having their meetings for the next three weeks at the University of Melbourne (as part of an outreach program) and that was only 5 minutes walk from my hostel. I went and walked around some more in the evening and while it is much colder than the other parts of Australia I have been in, it seems to be a much livelier city than any other place. And just driving in, the architectural specimens here blow Canberra away.

August 22 Sabbath: I had my free hostel breakfast (it is called brekky here) of cereal and bread with jam. I also finally ate a sample of vegemite and I can say that to me it is vile. I finished the slice of bread I had it on, but had another bowl of cereal and a piece of bread with orange jam to get rid of the taste. I walked up to where my directions said the Gateway church group was meeting and it took a few minutes to locate the correct building. Then there was no one there. I went all the way to the third floor and finally ran into a lecturer just getting ready for an engineering class. He did not know anything about it, but said that most likely they would be using one of the two lecture halls on the first floor. I went back down, picked a seat where I could watch the door and read my Bible while waiting. About 20 minutes later a group of Asian young people came in in suits and began setting up two folding tables. I went over and confirmed I was in the right place (just really early). I spoke with a number of them, including a Thai, who will be in Thailand about the time Gabe and I will be. He is a literature evangelist and said he could help us with connections in Thailand. They were all curious about how I found about the meetings on the University campus. For the next three weeks one of the young doctors from the group is presenting a series of lectures produced by Mark Finley's ministry. Last night was the first meeting, there will be two today and another on Sunday, then they resume next weekend. I joined into a small adult sabbath school class and then the presentation for the main service came. He spoke on why if there is a good God, we have so much pain and suffering in the world. Afterwards there was a potluck with simple sandwiches and soup. This is a really friendly group of people and most of them are quite young. They invited me back for the evening meeting (and more free food) so I went home for a short nap. The evening meeting was on the topic of how history confirms His story. The presentations are simple, but I think they are necessarily so, since it is aimed at people who probably have little or no Christian background. There is a strong Chinese presence here and they offer a Mandarin translation through personal radios to anyone attending. The food after the meeting was light snacks and good fresh fruit. I met a lot of people again this evening.

About 9:30 I headed down to a place called the Roxanne where Protoculture from South Africa was the live performer. I really like his music. Josh gave me his second album as a gift and seeing him live was a treat. Very smooth music.

August 23 Sunday Since I only got back to the hostel at 6am, I slept until noon. When Jon came back to the room he told me he had gone to see the streets where the prime time 'soap' Neighbors' is filmed. It apparently has a huge following in the UK and Australia and so it was something special for him. We went for a walk across the Yarra river to where the inside sets and main studios were. We talked to the receptionist, but only people on the official paying tour can visit any of the sets and it has to be a non filming day. So we returned circuitously through the Botanical Gardens and along the river, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and several other places until we got back to Federation Square. Jon returned to the hostel and I went to the Australian Center for Contemporary Art. It was an interesting museum and I enjoyed it. They have a special exhibition of all of Salvador Dali's work, but I did not want to pay the hefty entrance fee for that part of the museum.

August 24 Monday was a quiet day

August 25 Tuesday Today I determined to explore the city on foot outside the CBD and it turned into a very interesting day. It was cold and there were threatening clouds, but it did not rain until just before I returned to the hostel and the sun actually came out on several occasions to my great approval. It felt wonderful when it was out. I started by going slightly north and west and exploring the gargantuan Victoria Markets, which is a maze of stalls and shops selling everything imaginable. The prices were higher than I have gotten used to at farmers markets here and that probably has to do with the cold weather meaning most of the produce is coming from other parts of the country. There are many vendors selling Aboriginal style art, but most of it is really a product of China. That leaves me somewhat torn. If you like a piece of art for its own sake it is probably worth getting and I have seen several pieces I really like, but know are not 'authentic'. All the pieces that are authentic are horrendously expensive. It is kind of a moot point because I do not have money budgeted for buying artwork on this trip and I already have a few souvenirs anyway. After the markets, I walked down King St. to where there is an Aboriginal gallery and museum. The museum was rather small, but it was interesting to talk to a couple of the people there about the aforementioned art issue. I meandered through the Docklands neighborhood and found a rather interesting art piece that I took a video of the wind interacting with. Then it was across one of the many pedestrian bridges over the Yarra river and a zigzagging path to the beach on the Port Phillip section of the city. I also had a short stop in the Gas Works Park which is a community art space with ceramics/painting/theatre/etc. Kind of like Nimbus Arts in the Napa Valley. It being winter the beach was deserted, save a few brave souls with their dogs. I walked all the way down to St. Kilda along the water front. The large ferries which go to Tasmania were docked at the piers. In St Kilda is Luna Park, a small amusement park with a couple rollercoasters, merry go rounds, and carnival type games, which I am certain is a popular spot in the summer. The signs outside said they are open on some winter days, but it is weather dependent and the weather had not looked good enough for today to be one of them. I then followed the aptly named Chapel Street, which turns into Church Street on the other side of the Yarra. They are aptly named because at one point there were five churches side by side on a single block. I spent a lot of time throughout the day backtracking and zigzagging down alleyways and train tracks photographing graffiti, murals, and other interesting things. I walked through trendy East Melbourne and the Fitzroy Gardens which hold the home of Captain Cook's parents, brought over stone by stone from England and a similar home of the care taker of the gardens for nearly fifty years. Just before I made it back to the hostel a light rain began to fall. Googlemaps put my walk at 25km by its quickest route, but with all my extra back and forth, I am sure I did several more kms than that. Later in the evening I had some good Pad Thai for dinner.

Lookout above the town of Toora

Walkway at Frenches Narrows

Australian War Memorial

Me at Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls

August 16 Sunday Jon and I agreed we would leave tomorrow and plan on spending a week in Melbourne once we arrive there. So I got what I could ready, bought some food supplies for the travel time and relaxed the rest of the day.

August 17 Monday Happy Happy Happy Yay for the Blue Mountains! We checked out of Asylum, I left one bag in storage until I get back in September, and we headed west of Sydney into the mountains. The guidebooks we have and advice from other travelers told us the best bet was to go straight to Katoomba and check in at one of the info centers or with locals on the good things to see. The tours that go up there from Sydney really only go to two outlooks (3 Sisters at Echo Point and Wentworth Falls), have a lunch and 'professional' commentary for $120 and up. We checked into the Blue Mountains YHA, got a basic area map and headed for the cliffs. Jon and I found a place to join the Prince Edward Cliff Trail and walked south until we met with the Three Sisters viewing station at Echo Point. We went down to the Sisters themselves on the upper part of the Giant Staircase (which goes all the way to the valley floor for longer hikes) There were many many viewing stations on the way, each of them tremendously spectacular. We continued south to the next town, Leura and the Cascades that bear the towns name. One beautiful sight after another. Slowly we returned to Katoomba and got in the car armed with the names of a few viewpoints further west that 'surpassed' Echo Point. First was Evan's Lookout and the second was Govett's Leap Lookout, which we watched sunset from. Wow and more wow. The only down side to the whole day was how difficult it was to get good pictures. The contrast between the ranges in the distance and the mountains/cliffs in the foreground caused constant issues. Added to that is the issue that gives the mountains their name: a slate colored haze comes from a fine mist of oil exuded by the eucalyptus trees. Whatever the cause the pictures just do not do the scenery any justice.

August 18 Tuesday Happy Happy Happy We checked out of the hostel and returned slightly north to see a few more places near the overlooks we saw yesterday afternoon. First was Hargreaves Outlook, and like the previous ones it takes your breath away. We also went to Mount Blackheath Outlook, which is similar and looks down the Megalong Valley. Then we started our journey out of the Blue Mountains toward Canberra. That meant a stop at Sublime Point, which is just that looking over the Jamison Valley. Then I thought we would stop for 15 minutes and see what Wentworth Falls was all about. Two and a half hours later we returned to the car VERY satisfied with a tremendous waterfall and wonderful hike (the Undercliff Path) under our belts. If I was on one of the tours I would feel really cheated with only a half hour here. Anne Lamott talks about there being basically two types of prayer: Help me-Help me-Help me, and Thank you-Thank you-Thank you. These past two days have been filled with Thank you's for the absolute beauty of nature.

We drove pretty much straight to Canberra after that, passing through long stretches of forest alternating with large sheep farms (stations). We got into Canberra just before sunset and the first thing we really noticed is that for a capital city there is very little traffic. That was proven true during the rest of our stay. After 6pm the streets were nearly deserted of both motor vehicles and pedestrians. I went with Jon to find a supermarket and very few people were out. We cooked our dinners in the hostel kitchen and then went to our room. We are in a ten bed dorm and one if the other people there had met Jon in Perth many months ago. He was in Canberra trying to get a replacement passport. I still wanted to do some exploring so I marked out the Lonely Planet walking tour of the city on a map they gave us at reception and set out. Canberra means meeting place in aboriginal and was selected (and created from scratch) as the capital when the two contenders at the time (Melbourne and Sydney) could not reach any peaceable compromise. More empty streets greeted me, so it seems peace was achieved through a boring location. I did like the way the Australian War Memorial looked at night. The National Carillon on Aspen Island was beautiful with its reflections on Lake Burley Griffin and the water feature outside the High Court building was quite nice, but the rest of the much touted architectural marvels of the city were yawn inducing. The Parliament Building in particular is unimpressive. I walked around the city for almost four hours and saw very little I would want to see again during the day.

It could be that the natural marvels we had seen in the Blue Mountains tainted my views. They certainly were enough to make me happy despite the poor showing of the capital.

August 19 Wednesday Happy Happy Happy, this is not a repeat from the previous two days.....After a bland and rather disappointing night walk through Canberra, I was ready to get out of the Australian Capital Territory as soon as possible. I told Jon I would like to visit the Australian War Memorial during daylight and see the city from one of the outlook mountains, either Black Mountain or Mt. Ainsley. Other than that let's hit the road. I am glad we went back to the War Memorial. It is an impressive building and beautiful in its own way inside. The names of all Australian soldiers to have lost their lives in any conflict are listed and flowers and an eternal flame add to the solemn feeling inside. Mt. Ainsley is slightly taller (not counting the touristy tower on Black Mountain) and it was on our way out of the city so that was our outlook mountain for the morning. And I'm glad we did do that. As boring as the city had seemed it was much more interesting to see from above like that. And it has the placement to give an unobstructed view from the War Memorial straight down the ANZAC parade, across the lake and up to the Parliament Building. There must be a rivalry between the people that maintain the Mt Ainsley lookout and the one on Black Mountain, because atop Mt Ainsley a lone stand of trees remained to obscure Black Mountain from the viewing stations.

We decided to skip a trip over to Tinbinbilla Nature Preserve, which sounded quite interesting, but was 140 km out of our way round trip. We pressed on and made it into Victoria territory in the early afternoon. We stopped at Coopracambra Nat. Park, but we could have skipped it. The Beehive Falls had no water flowing over it, so it was anticlimactic. We had a similar reaction to a stop at the intriguingly named Cabbage Leaf Palms Park, which I still have no idea where the name comes from. There were a few palms in the park, but nothing unusual. It was a pleasant 10 minute walk that we took and it would not surprise me if there were platypus in the area, but nothing special. We continued on the scenic route from Cape Conran to Marlo and did find several great things which explains the opening line for today. First we found a small group of wild kangaroos and got some nice pictures. Then on whim we stopped at a sign for Frenches Narrows. It doesn't show up in the guidebooks or on our maps, but it was beautiful. Sets of long sand dunes that flood with the high tides that just were lit fantastically in the afternoon sunlight. We continued and made our stopping point for the night shortly after sunset: Lakes Entrance. We are in a small hostel called the Riviera Backpackers. The YHA membership is already helping out with discounts at each of the last three places.

August 20 Thursday I woke up to greet the day in Lakes Entrance with high expectations. The last few days have brought all sorts of wonderful sights and surprises. I ate and loaded my bags into the car, turned in my room key and headed out to the Lakes Entrance entrance, while Jon stayed sleeping. He would meet me a while later. This is really another delta area and the years of material coming to the sea has created a 90 km earth and sand bar. A multitude of lakes exist behind this bar and the only outlet back to the ocean is at Lakes Entrance. There is a pedestrian bridge out to the sand bar and this area is supposedly the highlight of Lakes Entrance. From the footbridge there is about a 5 km walking circuit that I intended to take. The beach was nice, but as I have come to learn walking in sand is slow and the beach is endlessly long and straight so the view really does not change. The return on the circuit follows the inland side of the sand bar and has views of the Lakes Entrance marina, which did nothing to inspire me. It was also in sand. So it was long and slow and would not have been worth the time if it had not been for a group of seals at the boat channel to the ocean. They were trying to warm themselves in the morning sun with flippers and tails raised out of the water. Another thing that had irked me was that we stopped in Lakes Entrance because it was about the only place between Canberra and Wilson's Promonade that had a hostel according to our guidebooks (and we have more than one). At the hostel we stayed in there were flyers for two other hostels much closer to Wilson's Prom (one 10 kms outside the park entrance) and I really wish we had known that in hindsight.

Wilson's Promontory was our goal for the day with the plan to make it to Melbourne in the evening, but because of the distance from Lakes Entrance to the Prom everything took longer than we had planned. We made only one stop in Toora where there is a wind turbine farm on a hill with some good vantage points. No matter, it was 2 pm when we reached the Wilson's Promonade park entrance. We paid our park fee for day use and would see what we could before it got too dark. I was starting to see the time running out as we drove as far south as we possibly could. We skipped all the turn outs and turn offs on the way down so we could get as far into the park and then slowly make our way back out. That seemed logical at the start, but I kept watching the heavy overcast sky and gauging the suns position and thinking we are going to miss everything. It will be too dark when we get to the end and then all the stops on the way back will be too dark as well. BUT I should not have worried. This is now one of my most favorite natural places. We got to the end where there is a parking lot in the Telegraph Saddle, from which you can do a multitude of long hikes throughout the park. We focused on climbing Mt Oberon as it was one of the shortest options and offered the commanding views from the summit (if the light held). Shortly after starting the two mile uphill climb it began raining. Not hard, but enough to get you wet. We soldiered on. I'm a much faster walker than Jon, so I left him behind and made a beeline for the top. I passed four other hikers coming back down. It was quite cool, I was getting wet, and it was darker than I liked already in the forest. But I got to the top and hallelujah!: the rain stopped, there was still plenty of daylight, and the view was incredible. I took a lot of pictures and was jumping up and down with happiness when Jon made it to the top. We spent a while at the peak then returned down the mountain to make the most of our remaining daylight. That included a stop at Norman Beach which we had seen from the top of Mt Oberon. In the parking lot as we prepared to leave the beach a wombat waddled out of the shrubbery. It seemed completely oblivious to us as we took pictures and it let us get within a few feet of it. We stopped at a few more viewpoints, took pictures of wild emus and kangaroos along the roadside, and found that the path to the Whiskey Bay lookout (which the guidebooks say is where photographers camp out for sunsets) was blocked off. I was satisfied with what we had seen even if that last bit was a disappointment. We decided to make one more stop at a place called Cooper Lake before leaving the park. We followed a dirt road to a parking area, but no lake. We walked along a trail towards the beach and encountered many wombats, kangaroos, and wallabies. We were able to walk to within four feet of many of them and they largely ignored us. It was an incredible way to finish off our day in the park. By the time we left the park it was very late and we drove to Foster where we now knew there was a hostel, instead of pushing on to Melbourne. The hostel turned out to be a house with three bedrooms and we were the only people there.

August 11 Tuesday I got up long enough to have the free breakfast, then went back to bed for a while longer. At 2 in the afternoon, I got in touch with Julie and we agreed to head down to the Opera House together at 5pm. Just before 5 I made my way to her hostel a few streets up the road from where I am and we meandered down through the Botanical Gardens as the sun was setting behind the city. We set out too late to really get any good views of the sunset, but it was a nice evening anyway. Neither of us has 'the right clothes' for a night at the opera, but I really do not care about that. Julie worries about it some and says she almost went shopping during the day to get a more appropriate costume. We did not find anywhere to eat while walking down to the harbor side and once there everything gets very expensive in a hurry. We were both somewhat hungry and the prospect of going into a 2 ½ hour performance without eating seemed daunting. The restaurant at the Opera House has selections ranging from $55 to $125 for entrees. Luckily inside the Opera House there is also a small bistro and we each got something to eat for $15 (she had a baked vegetable plate and I had a vegetable quiche and salad). There were programs for purchase for $15, but later when I had a chance to look through one, it barely had more information than the free sheet with basic details on it. We sat in the very middle, three rows from the back, which turned out to be very good seats. Julie had thought that since the price jumps up the next row in front of us it might be empty and actually two rows were empty. The orchestral music was great, the sets were one of my favorite parts of the production, and the performances were about what I expected. What I did not expect and what I thought felt out of place was the casting of a female in the role of Romeo. Maybe that is what counts as edgy and daring, but in the scenes where they were singing to each other it was somewhat confusing, since their voices were fairly similar. All the costuming was 40's and 50's gangster and that actually worked okay for me.

August 12 Wednesday: A do nothing day. I stayed at the hostel almost all day, read a lot, cooked a couple ears of corn for lunch, took a nap, watched a movie (a screener copy of The Taking of Pelham 123), etc. I did take the time to get directions for the nearest SDA church in the Woollahra district so I'll be ready on Sabbath. The district we are staying in is just below King's Cross and is called Woolloomooloo. There is an official sign when you enter the neighborhood that has a sheep (Wool) and toilet (loo) a cow (moo) and another toilet (loo) so the people here do have a sense of humor. Jon and I went out for dinner at both places we had vouchers for: the Old Fitzroy and the Gaff.

August 13 Thursday: Jon and I drove out to Bondi Beach around noon. It is a famous beach and was quite busy (this is winter after all). All the guidebooks point out that there are much better surfing beaches both north and south of Bondi, but its reputation keeps it on top. It is one of the first beaches to have surfing lifeguards and the surf boards were stationed every 50 meters or so. We walked the beach and out to a point on the north side. When we got back to the car it would not start. Jon said that it happens occasionally when the car overheats, but we had not driven the care more than 10 km and it had been sitting for a couple hours while we explored, so I really did not think that was the problem. So I started wondering if I'm riding in another lemon vehicle. I said a quick prayer to myself and we opened up the hood. We checked levels on fluids, for any loose wires, etc and found nothing. We went to the hotel across the street to look for a mechanic and they told us there was one a block and a half up the next street. And there was. He said he would look at the car if we got it towed there and gave us the number for a towing company. Jon called them and they said half an hour. The mechanic said he would close at 5pm. By 4:30 the tow-ers still had not shown up and Jon called them again. They said they were on their way. Well wouldn't you know it, as soon as he got off the phone he tried the ignition one more time and it started right up. We drove to a repair shop and stopped, but they did not have time to look at it then and so we drove back into the city. Jon will attempt to find a repair shop closer to where we are staying.

August 14 Friday. Another lazy day. I had breakfast of Weet Bix, Rice Krispies,and Corn Flakes with some toast and peanut butter. I did some laundry and talked to my mom for a bit in the middle of the day. The laundry was lucky because as soon as I had my load in a queue formed with three other people, so I did not have to wait and could dry most of my things in the sun. I watched most of Bruno with a group at the hostel and posted some notes on my blog. I had barley soup and an ear of corn for lunch. The most recent book I finished reading is The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert and it put me over the 9000 page mark so far on my trip. The book is a triptych of stories from Nazi Germany and its aftermath, but the stories are not what we are used to when you think of that as the subject matter. First we have a boy with a physical defect that keeps him out of the German military, much to his dismay. It tells his perspective of watching the city of Berlin slowly empty and the change (or lack thereof) in his attitude as he realizes some of the horrors of war. The second story follows a 12 year old girl whose party member parents know they are going to be arrested and who send her on a cross country journey with her younger brothers and sisters to their grandmothers home. This is a perilous journey in war time and they do not all survive. The third story follows a young man who becomes obsessed with finding out what his grandfather, who was in the Waffen SS, really did during the war, to the detriment of his relationships with family, wife, and others he involves in the search. The writing is in a rather simple, unemotional style, but with the material it makes a powerful impression.

August 15 Sabbath. I was the first one in the kitchen this morning, had the last of my banana yoghurt with a mix of corn flakes, rice krispies, and Weet Bix and a couple slices of toast. Then armed with my Bible and water bottle I headed in the general direction of Woollarha district. I had tried to memorize the major streets on my path, but that was soon by the wayside. I knew I wanted to end up about two miles away on a southeastly heading. Anyway, I knew I was in the right area because the street signs were declaring I was in Woollarha. So I asked an older lady sitting on a bench outside the Post Office and she confirmed my heading and another five minutes and I was at the church. It is a smallish brick building in the middle of a neighborhood of small brick houses. (A few members told me this is one of the more affluent neighborhoods in Sydney, but I would have never guessed that). I'm still not used to seeing so many brick buildings. California building codes have invaded my brain through all the years working with my dad on house projects. I sat in on a small discussion group for the lesson and then the assistant pastor from one of the other Sydney churches gave a very good sermon on “Finishing the Race”. He is a Samoan, but by no means large in the way so many Samoans are. He included a funny story about himself in the sermon. In the Samoan culture being chubby indicates wealth and health and happiness. So he was telling how he was 'very happy' in elementary school and was resigned to finishing last on all running events until another boy who was even 'happier' than he was came to the school and he was able to run faster than the new boy. Of course there was also the serious point to the sermon: that we need to persevere in the race to heaven by keeping the communication with God open through Bible reading and daily prayer. It was a good sermon. And the potluck afterwards was also very good. I spoke with the guest pastor and several church members about my trip and had a good time.

August 3 Monday We left the Fraser Island Backpackers with the goal of making it to Eurong where some mechanics for a resort are stationed. It started off badly because we died six times in the first couple kilometers. But the fifth car that we stopped came up with a partial solution: cranking up the idle so it would not die. That worked and we went straight to the ferry point on the south end of the island. I think both of us would have liked to stay another day and explore, but with the problem still a mystery, we went to get that solved first. At the ferry point was a lone dingo, probably hoping for scraps of food., but he left once several other vehicles showed up. So another nice ferry ride over to Inskip Point and a short drive had us in Rainbow Beach. There we found a mechanic station (there are many because quite a few companies rent four wheel drives for use on the island and I'm sure they get lots of mechanic work from having inexperienced drivers going over some of the trails we saw.. We wandered the city for a couple hours while they diagnosed and when they found the problem we returned. It was a small part that they did not have in stock and could only get on order from Japan. No other mechanic in Australia had the part they told Christine. It was not an expensive piece, but would take close to a week to get. So, rather than wait a week in Rainbow Beach, where the mechanic would be more expensive anyway, Christina put the idle back on high and we headed for Brisbane. First we attempted to do the beach run from Rainbow to Noosa, but we had used up too much of the low tide time with the mechanics and eventually had to turn back, which was the smart decision. On the highway we made a straight beeline to Brisbane, so we did not get to see anything in between, which was disappointing to me. We signed in at the YHA Brisbane on Upper Roma St., which is a fancy hostel. Very clean and more like a hotel than any of the other places I have been. It had a huge kitchen, a pool, expensive internet, and much less opportunity to meet people than at Asylum. We made spaghetti and then I went to my room to read.

August 4 Tuesday I set out to walk around the city while Christina attended to the car. She would let me know when she had news on that situation. So I walked along the river to the City Botanical Gardens, which are right next to the Queensland University campus in Brissy. There were many people lounging in the sun throughout the park and it really is more of a park than a botanical garden per se. It was also disappointing in that like much of this city things are under construction or remodeling. Many sections of the park were blocked off or fenced to keep people out. I did walk through the Mangrove Boardwalk along the riverbank. Taking the footbridge over to the South Bank neighborhood, I walked along the river with its park, restaurants, art installations and swimming lagoon (under repair). I went through the Queensland Museum, which was rather small with sections on Queensland history, a collection of animals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc from this part of Australia, some historically significant planes and automobiles, and a small aboriginal artwork section. After that I was planning to go through another section of the city, but Christina called and said we needed to get all our things out of the vehicle so she could leave it at the mechanics. They also had to order the part and had come to the same problem/solution so at least that was consistent. And it would also still take a week to get the part. So, I checked on line back at the hostel and contacted a person offering a ride to Sydney to tentatively arrange to go with him. And I looked around for a cheaper hostel as well. In the evening I went to a information session for the YHA membership and signed up for two years at the one year price. They are a world wide Hosteling organization in over 80 countries with over 5000 hostels. The membership gives discounts at any of those hostels and to many other things as well. I discovered an SDA church only a block away from the YHA during my walk earlier in the day.

August 5 Wednesday I checked out of the YHA at 9 am and brought one bag down to X Base to put in their storage until I can really check in at 2pm. I explored more of the city, about as much as I could without a vehicle. In the afternoon, I settled up with Christina and met Jon, who is from Scotland and has been in Australia since last November. He has nearly made a full loop around the country and will by the time he leaves in November. He wants to leave in the morning, since he has already been in Brisbane for a week and I've seen most of the significant sites in just a couple days, so I can understand his motivation. If I had another day I would walk out to Mt. Cooltha, but that will have to be on another trip. Julie called and said she would be arriving in Brisbane tomorrow, so we will miss each other, but I warned her which hostel Christina was staying in so they don't have to run into each other.

August 6 Thursday Jon arrived to pick me up from Xbase shortly after ten when I had checked out and we headed out of the city. I kind of wish I had had one more day in Brisbane, because there were a few other things I would have gone to see, plus Julie had wanted to hang out, but I was also grateful to have another ride so soon. This actually turned out to be a great day and Jon reminds me in many ways of Roger Dickinson, who I always enjoyed spending time around. He has many of the same mannerisms of Roger and even a similar voice, although he looks a lot more like Napoleon Dynamite.

The drive to Byron Bay is not a long one, so we checked into a hostel in the early afternoon. The Lonely Planet recommends the Lighthouse loop walk and it is wonderful. Amazing views, incredible beaches (Main, Tallow, Clarke, Wategos and Little Wategos), and we happened to be coming through at the right time to even see a few whales on their migration north. They were far enough out that it was not really worth taking pictures, but we could see them blowing water through their blowholes and the occasional flipper. We also came across a small bright green snake, which we left alone. I went back out to the beach to watch the sunset, something apparently many other people do as well because the beach was fairly crowded. Once the sun actually set it was very clear why we all waited at the beach for it. Simply incredible. I took a lot of pictures.


August ;7 ;Friday We checked out of Aquarius and headed on south out of Byron Bay. Our goal was to make it half way to Sydney today and that would put us at Port Macquarie. On the way we stopped in the town of Maclean, which was originally a Scottish settlement after an aborted attempt to settle in Papua New Guinea. The telephone poles are each decorated with a different Scottish clan pattern. Ther is also a lookout point with broad views of the surrounding land. We passed the SDA church (right beside the highway) in Coffs Harbor. The early afternoon found us on a stop at Nambucca Heads, a spectacular delta region. We had enough time to make one other detour to the top of Mt Yarrahpinni for a tremendous view that reminded me of God's Eye in South Africa. The view goes on forever. We made it to Port Macquarie just before dark and got settled into our hostel. Jon and I took a quick walk in a park in the middle of the city where the hostel manager said they often see koalas. It was too dark and the section we walked through was completely overwhelmed with flying foxes anyway, so I doubt koalas were anywhere near all that racket.

August 8 Sabbath After breakfast we walked the full loop through the park again, but never saw any koalas. Then we slowly made our way out of town stopping at view points and beaches all the way. Then it was pretty much a straight drive to Sydney.

We arrived in Sydney just after sunset and here the benefits and deficiencies of GPS showed themselves. Sydney is a sprawling city of more than 4 million people, it has several toll roads as you get nearer the center, and has many one way streets. The GPS guided us on a route that was only about 3 km longer, but circumvented the toll roads: Benefit. It also could not refresh fast enough in amongst the tall buildings and did not accurately indicate all the one way roads: Deficiency. Once we got close enough we just had to abandon the GPS and use our map and visual cues. Coming into the city we passed the SDA Hospital. We are staying at the Asylum sister property from Cairns, but this one is much smaller and as the desk people tell us, much more subdued than the Cairns one. It is in better physical shape for sure, but the kitchen is small and there is no pool, although I do not think it would be used even if there was one. The temperature is really not that cold and there has not been any rain for the past couple weeks, which makes it nicer for me at least. And like in Cairns it only took a couple minutes to meet some new people.

Jon and I walked down to where the Sydney Tower is because it is open until 9pm. It costs $30 to go on the tower. The alternative told to me by other backpackers up in Cairns is to go to the bar, which is one level down from the observation deck and get a drink there while the bar/restaurant rotates and gives you much the same view. Well, our first roadblock was that they have a strict dress code. Both of us were in shorts – no-no number one, and Jon was in sandals – no-no number two, and neither of us was wearing a collared shirt – no-no number three. Other than that we were golden. No reservations were needed and the girls at the reception desk were friendly enough and made it sound like it would not be a problem to come back. With that shot down for the time being we walked down to the Opera House and experimented with our cameras in getting night shots. Both of us need to work on this some more. Back at the hostel we got meal vouchers for two places and had a nice dinner less than five minutes from the hostel. Much bigger portions than the places in Cairns. I was full after the first place, but we walked to where the second place is just for reference.

August 9 Sunday Happy Birthday Adrian (and Audrey Tautou). I hope your family is doing well. This morning some major thoroughfares were blocked off for the City to Surf race, a 15km footrace a little like Bay to Breakers. There were around 15,000 runners and some were in costume, but they were the minority. It was fun to watch for a while, and I got to cheer a small contingent with an ADRA banner. I set out early and arranged to meet Jon at noon near the tower. I went through Hyde Park, saw the (closed for refurbishment) ANZAC memorial, a cathedral, the Botanical Gardens, Mrs. Macquaries Chair (with nice views of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge), and more. At the tower we ran into stumbling block two: the bar does not open until 5:30pm. We will have to come back again. Jon and I went down to the Opera House for daylight pictures and then he headed for the Harbor Bridge, while I went into the Contemporary Art Museum (free). After coming out of the museum, I also went up to the Pylon Tower on the Harbor Bridge, where you can pay $10 and climb an additional 7 stories up for an improved view. And for a mere $190 you can climb the entire bridge for what is I'm sure a great view. I skipped both. I went back down through town seeing the old Hospital, going through Chinatown and it's 'famous' Paddy's Market, which is almost like a flea market, lots of cheap stuff. I passed a Lindt chocolatier shop (one of four in the city). Julie called to say she would be arriving in the morning and would like to see some of the city. Jon and I had dinner together again and made a third trip down to the tower. The same girl who had been there the night before was there again and she recognized us. She had us on our way up quite quickly and once up there the view was tremendous. It is a much large city than it appears, but from 270 meters up you can see most of it. I had a smoothie made of passionfruit, kiwi, and mango and we split a portion of potato wedges seasoned with rosemary. Very good on both counts and cost less than just going to the observation deck alone.

August 10 Monday After breakfast and some phone tag, I met with Julie to walk around the city some. Right around the corner from my hostel is a boomerang shop and we spent an hour hearing stories from the shop lady and looking at boomerangs. The shop lady is the daughter of the owner, who is in his 70's and has been selling authentic boomerangs for more than fifty years in partnership with two different aboriginal tribes. There is a huge range in prices based on size, wood, decorations, shape, etc. .Julie bought five to take home, plus a didgeridoo. I got one for myself. As for walking, she has a sore left knee so we took it very slow and she only wanted to see a few things anyway, primarily the Opera House. We walked through Hyde Park and the Botanical Gardens, part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, out to Mrs. Macquarie Point for views of the Opera house from the right, then the Opera House itself. She wanted to see what was playing and we both made guesses about what it would cost. They had a premiere performance of Bellini's The Capulets and the Mongetues scheduled for the next night and after talking it over we got tickets. We continued our walk and made it back to the Boomerang School shop around 3:30 and met the elderly owner who had wrapped Julie's items for transport. I'll have to figure mine out before I leave, but want to wait to see if I end up with any other items first

The Wungul Sandblow on Fraser Island

Horseshoe Bay at Bowen QLD

A random scenic overlook in Queensland.

The intricate patterns of beach creatures cleaning out their homes during the low tide.

A shot from the back of Kangaroo Explorer on the Great Barrier Reef.

August 1 Sabbath Happy Birthday Richard, Becky, and Scott! Happy Independence day Switzerland! We all got up, broke down the tents, repacked the car, and had a quick breakfast. Then it was back on the road to make the last leg to get to Fraser Island. We left the campground ahead of two other vehicles with French people also heading south. It took just over two hours to reach Hervey Bay. Christina picked up her pass to take the 4WD on the ferry and we drove down to the ferry staging area south of town. Then while waiting things between Julie and Christina blew up. When that was over they had come to an agreement where Julie would be gone as soon as we got off the island and over to Rainbow Beach. Wow, I have rarely seen such diametrical opposite personalities and it was an explosion waiting to happen. I did not think it would be this quick although it did not come as much of a surprise given the past few days. Well, on the 45 minute ferry ride Julie talked to a woman traveling with two small children and arranged to ride with her. It was a good solution for Julie, since the woman needed to be in Sydney for a flight on August 12, just like Julie. She gave me her email addresses and will give me some info on places she went while in India and that could be helpful for Gabe and I. When we arrived at Kingfisher Bay, Christina and Julie got into it again trying to work out how much Julie owed for the expenses to that point.

Not a very restful Sabbath all in all.

August 2 Sunday We checked out and got on 'the road' at 9 and the day looked good. It had rained some in the night and for that I could feel fortunate we stayed in the hostel, without fighting out way to the Dundubara campsite last night. High tide had been at 6 am so we were running up the beach at a great time. From Happy Valley we made our first stop at Eli Creek, walked the boardwalk up the canyon and walked back down in the creek itself. I had too many things in my pockets, otherwise it would have made for a nice swim in several spots. Instead, I kept close to the shallower sides and only got wet up to my knees. Still a lot of fun. Next was the Maheno wreck, a large cruise ship that ran aground and has become a feature of the island. It is heavily decayed and you are supposed to stay clear of it, but at the tide level when we reached it, we could walk right up to it and I got a lot of pictures. Christina and I were taking turns driving up the beach. Our third stop was 'The Pinnacles', a small stretch of beach front and a side canyon that is slightly reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah. Another thing that really stands out is how many people are on the island simply to fish in the ocean. Camp after camp is setup with groups of fisherman, although those we talked to said the fishing was not good (which they attributed to the wind). We continued up the beach, passing the Dundubara campsite and going up to Red Canyon, another section of beach facing cliff of a rich red material. We returned to the Dundubara campsite to see where we would have been staying had things gone smoother the day before. It is actually a very nice campground and I would have liked to have stayed there. I spotted a goanna in the bushes, but only got a picture of his back end. It was a little over three feet long, very dark with orange speckling. Crikey.We did go out on the walking path to the Wungul Sandblow, an immense sand dune almost a mile in from the beach. I hiked up to where I could get a good view and take pictures (the dune continued up, I do not know how far) and then ran back down. I got high enough that I no longer saw any other human footprints, but there were dingo tracks and various birds, lizards, and snakes tracks. Coming back down the beach we headed inland just past the Pinnacles at K'gari to take in the Northern Forests scenic drive. A short drive brought us to a viewing walkway for the Knifeblade Sandblow. This was similar to the Wungul one, but we could not get directly on it like we could at Wungul. Still a beautiful view. Another 9 km of bumpy four wheeling and we took a short break to see Lake Allom. Not a whole lot to see at this acidic lake, so we did not do the walk around the lake, but from a small dock we witnessed the hordes of turtles that inhabit the lake. There were at least fifty that came right away when they saw us and by the time we left we could still see more swimming our direction. The signs all say not to feed them, but obviously people are feeding them because SO many were coming to greet us. Our next planned stop was going to be the two Boomerang Lakes, but we had car trouble instead. The engine simply died while we were driving. It started right away again, but died a minute later. First we thought it was the fuel and put in the gas from both gerry cans, but that did not solve the problem for long. We made it a couple km before it died again. There were no leaks under the vehicle, the oil was plenty full, water was full, air filter was clean, battery terminals clean and well connected, so it was a mystery. After the fifth time it died, I set out walking towards Happy Valley the short way (17 km) hoping to run into another vehicle, something that had not happened the entire time we were on the Northern Forest scenic route. Christina continued to experiment with the Nissan. I walked for two hours and twenty minutes when Christina came driving up and we slowly made it the rest of the way back to Happy Valley. In the mean time I had walked almost 9km in sand (mostly barefoot), had a blister on my left big toe, found a screwdriver and an antennae (which came in useful), gotten rained on, passed the Boomerang lakes (which looked very nice from my obscured view on the road), and encountered three dingos. I startled them as much as they startled me; one took off right away, one trotted about 40 meters up the road and off to the left and the third moved about 15 ft off the road to the right and laid down. I got a picture of that one, said a quick prayer, then carefully continued walked along the road, with the antennae and a stick in hand. .As far as I could tell they did not attempt to follow me. I did not realize there were so many types of Eucalyptus. The one I like best is the Bloodwood that appears to be bleeding. Some of them are incredibly beautiful. I also came upon a Strangler Fig that had completely outlived its host tree and was now an intricate web with a hollowed out center. There are also some trees that have bark much like a Redwood. I do not know what they are yet.

July 25 Sabbath: Shower, breakfast and my papaya while walking to church started the day. I forgot to mention that earlier in the week a car accident had claimed the life of a five year old girl and her mother as they walked to the SDA school. It was in the papers and this morning there was a small insert in the bulletin telling a little more about the family. They were mentioned several times throughout the service. Charissa Fong was speaking again and made the need for more men and women like Caleb the primary focus of her sermon. It was another powerful sermon. Last week they had tentatively planned to have a potluck down on the esplanade, but the weather was heavy overcast this morning (and it actually had a couple showers during church), so we had the potluck at the church. The other reason it was changed to stay close to the church was that a 14 year old girl wanted to be baptized and they do baptisms outside and not during the service. So at 3pm after potluck we had a very nice baptism service. The girl is of Samoan ancestry and the family had fully decorated the baptistry with flowers and palm branches. I had eaten so much at the potluck that I skipped dinner completely and even though some people invited me to go out with them in the evening I stayed at the hostel and went to bed early.

July 26 Sunday I talked to Christina this morning and she is feeling much better, but will have to abandon the diving class. She wants to leave Tuesday or Wednesday, which is fine with me. We will meet tomorrow afternoon to do a bit more planning. I went by the Ken Duncan gallery again and picked up a couple postcards and a DVD that I'll have to send home before I leave the country. I got in touch with one guy in Sydney as a possible couchsurfing opportunity and another guy that was offering a ride from Sydney to Melbourne around the time I will be wanting one.

July 27 Monday is Monday

July 28 Tuesday Julie, Christina and I met for a while to plan a few details for our trip south and things seem to be falling into place. There had been a potential fourth person, but he apparently dropped out of contention earlier today, so it will be the three of us.

July 29 Wednesday Checked out of Asylum, got my key deposit back and said my goodbyes to some of the people I've gotten to know over the past month.

We made stops at Mission Beach, which was lovely and would have been nice to stay at longer, Jourama Falls, which were “closed”, and at Julie's brother's wife's sister's in Townsville. The last stop was unplanned, but worked out for a couple reasons. Julie got to visit a distant relation and the lady's husband was able to fix the wiring on the cigarette lighter connection to the refrigerator. I drove for a while at night and we saw several kangaroos and wallabies, including a couple crossing the road.

July 30 Thursday Beautiful stop at Horseshoe Bay in Airlie Beach. Most of the people on the beach were 'elderly', but the beach itself was breathtaking and I would happily have stayed there among the oldies to savor it a while longer. The girls are butting heads over every little thing. One wants to actually cook a lunch/one says it is a waste of time. One opens a second loaf of bread when the first is not completely done and the other gets mad. This could become a problem. We purchased a new stove in Bowen. Night drive to Eungella NP, which is supposed to be a platypus spotting oasis. We stayed in Crediton Hall park about 9 km from a prime platypus viewing section of the river..

July 31 Friday. Well the tensions between Julie and Christina are becoming very apparent. Christina wanted to sleep in and since she is in the locked car, we could not get access to any of our belongings that we had not already pulled out the night before. It also meant that we were not getting to the viewing station at the dawn/dusk time and risked missing our chance to see a platty. When she did get up she wanted to cook tea, but Julie put her foot down. We made it to the park and Julie and I did see a platypus shortly after getting to the river. It was just the two of us for nearly 20 minutes and then just before a group of other people came, the platty left. There were a couple of locals who said they had not seen a platty in the forty years they had lived in the area, so we felt privileged. The really surprising thing to me was how small it was. It was a full grown male and he was only about 15 inches long. Since seeing it we learned that that is completely normal. We missed a cave tour by about half an hour at another park just before sunset and camped at a rest stop outside the town of Gin Gin. My tent has been working out wonderfully and I'm really happy about that. We had a dinner of eggplant, rice, and curry.

On to August.....

July 17 Friday. Today was a provincial holiday, so when I went to the Swiss bakery they were closed. But the farmers market was open and I got some bananas and a papaya. Then I made a loop to several of the travel shops checking the postings for cars for sale/ride shares/etc. Friday also means all you can eat BBQ at Asylum and they do a good job taking care of us vegetarians too. I was at a table with five Dutch people, an English guy, a German guy, and a girl from the Netherlands. Canadian Adam was also at the table briefly, but moved over to another table where two British girls he likes were eating.

July 18 Sabbath I got up, showered, had breakfast (including my papaya purchase from yesterday, yum), then walked the two miles to church. There is a guest speaker this week, Charissa Fong, a 21 year old from Sydney that has been preaching since she was 16. Actually she was preaching long before that, playing church at home with her younger sister. The practice/playing has certainly paid off, because she is a polished speaker now. It was impressive to hear her presentation on blind Bartemaeus and his meeting with Jesus. She is presenting a series each night this week, but I will only get to hear a couple of them because I will be diving for several days. There was another very nice potluck after church and I met a number of different people than from last week. I walked home around 2:30 and had a brief nap. In the evening a group of us went to have dinner at The Heritage and then also at Woolshed. That was enough to fill me. I returned to Asylum and finished packing for my diving trip, since I am leaving my large backpack at the hostel and only taking the smaller carry-on.

July 19 Sunday An early breakfast of cornflakes and a couple bananas, then a wait for the shuttle to collect me. They arrived 20 minutes late, but I was the next to last pickup so it was not too bad. We were quickly taken to the Cairns Dive Center and filled out paperwork while getting a briefing on how things would go for the rest of the morning. After our paperwork was done 9 of us doing live aboard options were shuttled down to the piers where we joined the daytrippers on the Sunkist taxi boat. A rather choppy two hours later we met up with the Kangaroo Explorer on the reef. We moved aboard the KE, got settled in our rooms (I am sharing a berth with two Germans) and had lunch. Immediately after lunch we got suited up and into the water. There are only two others taking the Advanced Diver course, an English girl named Christey and a German girl named Katrin. We were joined on the first dive by Goro from Japan, who is already an advanced diver, and our dive master was Leticia from France. The sky was mostly clear and that first dive was beautiful because of it. Light filtering down makes everything more vivid, the colors, textures, patterns, everything. The best thing I saw was a large brown cuttlefish hovering on the backside of a rock outcropping. Everyone else went right by it, but I got a good look at her (it turns out she is known in the area somewhat). She was about two feet long and I got to about 12 feet from her before I turned and left her alone. She remained in place the whole time. On this first dive Leticia pointed out things we could touch and things we should avoid, which was helpful. We handled a couple anemone and a sea cucumber and touched a few types of corals to get the sensations.

The second dive was at a site called the Fish Bowl. The four of us that dove together before went out on our own this time. A nice reef site, but I did not see anything spectacular. I know, I'm getting spoiled if it has to be spectacular to make it worth mentioning. There were many fish and they are beautiful, but after a few times they do start to become 'commonplace'. After a long surface interval that included dinner we got in the water one more time for a night dive. I'm glad I am getting the chance to do the night dives here, where it is nice and warm. I was not overly impressed with night diving. We did see crayfish and many other fish. We were told that if you spot small fish and light them up with your 'torch' you can often get larger fish to strike, but we did not see that. One lesson, red eyes are turtles and most fish. Green eyes mean SHARK. After our night dive which was led by Peter the dive instructor, we had a session to go over our dive for first thing in the morning: our deep dive. Both of the other girls have already done deeper dives than we are qualified for. I am somewhat apprehensive about a deep dive because it does take me longer to get the pressure equalized in my ears and I do not know how the deep dive with work with that. I think we all got a good night sleep.

July 20 Monday. I had set my alarm for 5:30am, since the schedule shows us doing a 6:30 dive. By 6 most people were in the lounge and we had a briefing on our location, a different portion of Briggs Reef.. We could watch the sun rising and it was just poking itself out of the ocean's horizon when we got in the water. The low level of light does make things less colorful, but no less busy in the water. The depth was really not a problem for me. All the issues are in the first 10 meters and then it seems to be much easier. It also worked much better to descend head first instead of sinking vertically. Immediately, we encountered a Napolean Wrasse, about 7 feet long and massive in its other dimensions as well. We also quickly came across a couple sharks resting on the sandy bed of the reef. They moved off and we did a few experiments to see the affects of the additional gravitational pressure. First, Peter had brought a raw egg which we peeled and it retained its shape (until a hungry opportunistic fish darted in and snatched it). We also had brought down a ripe tomato to see the color change as the pressure bruised the fruit. We ate the tomato at 30 meters; a little tricky but kind of fun. That out of the way we made a long slow ascent following the reef up to shallower water.

Our next dive was one in which we had to practice navigation skills with a compass. I get the principles, but still need more practice to feel comfortable doing this. I get easily distracted by pretty fish and plants and get off course. We had a long break between this dive and the next and in that time I took a nap, read some, and picked up an underwater camera for three future dives. Part of the break was taken up by moving to Milln Reef to a site called Club 10. On this dive I got 100 pictures and the light was decent, so I hope I have some good ones. It is quickly apparent that underwater photography is a challenge, because the subjects are often moving and the current means the camera operator is too. And you are not supposed to steady yourself by holding onto anything. That just makes the good shots that much more rewarding.

We did another night dive, but it was short and disappointing. The three of us in the course joined up with Marlin an older french woman who is an experienced diver, but that seemed to work against us. She descended immediately to the bottom, which is not where we had planned on going. The three of us made sure she saw the direction we were headed and she did follow us for a while below us, then disappeared. In a situation like this we have to spend a minute looking around then if you do not find the missing person, you have to come to the surface and let the boat know someone is missing if you do not see them at the surface. So we returned to the boat and they said she had come back and already gone out again with another diver. We just stayed at the boat. I do not think this helped my mediocre feeling about night diving.

I do need to mention that the food is really good on board and there is PLENTY to eat.

July 21 Tue. Woke up at 5:30am with Johannes to get ready for the morning dive. I ate a banana and an orange while we waited for the others to be roused. Again we watched the sun come up as the boat was moved to another site on Milln Reef. This one is called 3 Sisters for the three towering bommies that make up its principle features. I had the camera for the first two dives of the morning, so it was good that the sun was just coming up when we got ready to hit the water. It was Christey, Katrin, Marlin and I who buddied up again. We went to the 3rd Sister, the furthest one out and stayed there for the majority of our dive, starting at the bottom about 28 meters down and spiraling upward around it. It was still dark enough that most of my pictures are not sharp, but Katrin and I did get pictures of a turtle in the open water. After about half an hour we returned to the boat and breakfast.

Our second dive took us to the 1st and 2nd Sisters and light was better this time. Amazing corals, plants, and fish all around. I got decent pictures of a small skate/ray, a lion fish, a couple good ones of pair of nemos, and more. After turning in my camera, relaxing a bit and having some lunch we had our third dive. The light was fantastic again at this time and I really needed to have a camera on this dive because of that. Oh well. I slept half of the way back on the taxi boat, satisfied with my trip.

Back at Asylum I am now in room 17 (upstairs) and only have two room mates. This is a nicer room. My roommates are an Italian and a German named Beno. Beno has been traveling for almost nine months in Australia and is here with a Dutch guy and a French guy that he met along the way and partnered up with. They have each traveled nearly 25,000 km (although not all together) around the nation. Another guy at the hostel has been a storyboard editor for the Family Guy and wrote an episode that has not yet aired. He is a funny New Yorker and in love with my beard.

July 22 Wednesday I had a chance to talk with Scott and Josh/Lisa today on Skype. That was good. I sent them some of my underwater pictures. I went by the Swiss bakery again: two almond croissants and a chocolate one left with me.

July 23 Thursday Spent more time today tracking down a ride. I have not heard back from too many people, but that may not matter. This evening I met with Christina, a German girl with a 4WD. She is planning on heading south next week. She had been planning on leaving on Monday, but she has gotten a cold and had to put a dive course she was in on hold. If she feels better soon, she will continue the course, if not, she will abandon the course and head south anyway. She already has one passenger, Julie from Canada and is trying to get one more before we leave. So I think I am set for making the journey down at least as far as Sydney with them. Julie needs to be in Sydney by August 11, which is a little faster than I would like to make the trip, but I am in no position to complain. This should save me a couple hundred dollars over the next cheapest option.

July 24 Friday After a lazy morning, I went to the farmers market and got another papaya (pawpaw), a sack of apples, and a bunch of bananas. The damage: A$7.10 or $5.68. The papaya itself would have run A$6 at the supermarket. The Friday BBQ at Asylum was fun again with a lot of new faces since last week. Earlier in the day I got my plane ticket from Alice Springs to Sydney (via Adelaide). This was the cheapest option. I could have taken a train to Adelaide and then plane/or bus from there, but any possible combination would have been at least a $150 more. Even doing a car relocation with a rental agency would have cost more and put me under a real pressure deadline to drive from Alice Springs to Sydney in a little over four days; possible but risky. The train does sound interesting, but I will get to see more by driving up and then getting back to Sydney as fast as possible. I'm satisfied with how it is turning out. I also booked my hostel in Alice Springs for the one night I'll need it between finishing my volunteering project and my flight.