Deliciousness of food and drink in Melbourne

I got into Melbourne yesterday afternoon and it was a quick check-in and then off to the other part of the CBD (what Aussies call their downtown - guess what it stands for correctly and I'll give you a lolly!) to find the start point for the Colonial Tram car dinner.  It rolls around the city while you eat an incredible meal.  And I'm not gonna lie - it was delicious.  Like SO delicious.  Like HUGELY delish!

I'm talking a white chocolate parfait with a raspberry and praline sauce that had the texture of silk.  Yuh-me!  I was almost prepared to marry my new friend Dean so I could get my hands on the recipe.

Anyhoo....after I slept off that meal it was time to go for a tour of the Yarra Valley wineries.  Can I just say as a general piece of advice that any wine tour that starts with a 9:30 am pick up is probably gonna end up being a total gong show!  I was loop-de-loop by 11:45 in the morning! 

 Lunch was a big help and I was able to maintain some composure after that.  The most rustic of the wineries was this one....

The most posh/lush was this one.....

The lush one served bubbly.  Yummy.  Good way to end the day!  Cheers to all of you! 

Tomorrow is the 12 Apostles and shipwrecks along the Great Ocean Road!

I survived "The Alice!"

Back from the frontier!  Holy smokes - I did NOT think it was possible for something to seem like a frontier town in this day and age anymore but WOW!  If there is a frontier town left anywhere...its Alice Springs!  I took this cool picture of a 2nd-hand store logo cuz it was SOOOOO funny.  Look:

Anyhoo, I went camping in the outback for a three days.  In that time, we drove more than 1500 km and walked over 20.   We did a base walk around Uluru...

...then drove to a point further away to watch the sunset over the rock...

...the next morning we were up at 5am (yuck) to do a sunrise walk around Kata Tjuta which was AMAZING!  I took over 300 pictures on this trip so you are lucky you're just getting a glimpse and a smattering. 

The final day we scaled Kings Canyon and did a 6km walk along the ridge. 

This is me...at the top of a cliff face about smack in the middle of the hike.

This whole things was intensely amazing. One of my favourites is that out of PURE necessity, the trees grow out of the rocks.  Thats called wantin' it!

In my humble opinion, the rainforest holds nothing to the outback.   I mean....check out the desert sunsets!

Anyhoo....if I picture tells a thousand words....I just wrote a russian novel.  *yawn*   Time for bed.  See you soon!

Out of commission for a few....

Heading to Alice Springs in the morning and then the following morning, out to my camping trip to Uluru. 

Internet is likely to be dodgy during this part of the voyage so I won't be able to update for a few days or so...you know....just in case you were worried.   :)

Promise to put up a super-MEGA-post as soon as I can and definitely by the time I hit Melbourne. 

P.S.  I miss my Moosh.....so here he is in all his squishy-faced glory to hold you over until I return.....

Traditional railway? Or sky railway? How 'bout BOTH!

Last full day in "Tropical Northern Queensland" today - I'm so OVER this rainforest!  Ha!  I've gotten to walk in it, drive through it, river-boat through it, and ARMY DUCK through it!  The one thing I haven't experienced with this damn rain forest is any RAIN!  Maybe next time, I shouldn't come during the dry season!

Started out the day going up the longest sky rail in the world (7.5 km) via one of these funky mint green dealies and saw the rainforest canopy from above. 

Look at me Nan!  No hands!  See?  I'm okay!

Good vista.  A bit of a switch.  From up there - it looks like this:

There is a village at the top of the skyrail called Kuranda - its a bit of a hippie haven from an earlier age.  Its got a ton of cotter's markets from which I bought an Aboriginal painting of a platypus - did I mention its getting to the point where I'm having to ditch crap from my luggage to make room for the new crap that I have accumulated?

Anyhoo....from there I spent the afternoon at a place called Rainforestation.  Kinda hokey except for the fact that they have one of these and its SOOOOOO cute!  I want one.  Moosh needs a brother!

More koalas...yawn once.  More kangaroos....yawn twice.  More wallabys...yawn three times.  Then....FINALLY!!!!  I get to say it and I get to mean it!  The DINGO ATE MY BABY!



Looks kinda like Dakota. 

Anyhoo....on the way back down out of the rainforest we passed this waterfall and I have to admit, its one of the prettiest things I have seen yet.

So...thats what I did today.  What'd YOU do?

Port Douglas

This is a town that began as the main port town in the area.  It competed with Cairns (the major city up here) unsuccessfully until it eventually shrunk to become a small fishing village.  Revived by tourism, its now a resort town full of vacationers from every corner of the globe.  Today I had no tours planned so I decided to walk from my end of Four-Mile Beach to town.  I wanted to take a look at all the little shops and galleries (even though I have been warned that everything here is overpriced - why must the shopping gods punish the tourists).

I set out just before 10 am and walked with my CRiPod in my ears and my toes in the water all the way into town.  What a great beach!

The town actually sits on a peninsula so I walked up one beach, down the main street in town and ended up at the beach on the other side.  This is the more historic of the two as the old wharf and church are right on the water.

After sampling the coffee at a couple of cafes I headed back along the beach back to the resort.  By now, it was approaching low tide and the beach was a lot wider than it had been in the morning.  These really tiny crabs burrow up from beneath the sand, pushing perfectly formed little sand balls out of their burrows as they go.  It makes a really cool dotted effect all along the beach thats about 2 metres wide.  Close up, it looks like this (the little holes are where the crabs live):

 Boring day relatively speaking but I'm gearing up for tomorrow.  Back into the rainforest.  Plus, I have to save up my energy - I'm leaving for Alice Springs in a couple of days! Sweet!

Played in the Rainforest today!

Asad, you would be SO proud of me - I took over 200 pictures today!

Today was a whirlwind tour of the Daintree rainforest.  Met a bus at 8:30 am and headed for a wildlife park where the Wallabys are SO used to getting hand fed that they come right up to you and stand up and give you puppy-dog eyes in hopes of getting some grub.  Uh...needless to say, I petted one on the head and scratched behind his ears and I no longer think I could eat kangaroo meat.  Once you pet something, it becomes off limits.  Remind me never to touch a cow.  Or a chicken.

From there we went into the forest itself.   The government has spent a lot of time and money constructing boardwalks for visitors in an effort to stop the degradation of the forest.  They allow you to get right into the forest without damaging the forest floor and causing erosion and a loss of habitat.   Not a lot of species were about as there were a couple kids charging around like a herd of elephants.  But, it was still pretty. 

At that point, we went down to Cape Tribulation.  This is the spot where Captain James Cook (credited with the "discovery" of Australia) ran smack into the Great Barrier Reef and had to come ashore to make significant repairs to his boat.  He named the Cape as it was the site of his greatest trials and tribulations.  Although treacherous...also very pretty.  :)  We got to walk along the beach and I took some great pics of the Cape.  At this point, after being told by the guide that mounds of sand excreted by sea cucumbers was likely the most pristine sand on the beach, the American kids took to stomping on every mound of sea cucumber poop they could find.  I still wonder if the guide made that up just to get those little effers to stomp on as much poop as they could.  Ha!

We then got to jump in a boat and cruise up the Daintree river - a tidal river that empties into the ocean.  I took about eight million pictures of crocs.  There was Nelson - a 70 year old big guy and then a lesser male named Scarface and a smaller female named Fang.  My theory is that Nelson, by virtue of his age, size, and preferential living space 50 metres from the town's public boat launch doesn't need a ferocious name but the smaller guys, being insecure, need to jazz it up a little. 

We then headed up the mountains (so amazing) and got to take in the view of what we had just seen and done.  What an incredible view.  Anyhoo, after a day outside wandering around a tropical rainforest, I think I deserve to sleep in tomorrow. 

Yay!  The pics uploaded! 

Reef Day!!!! Bucket list you are getting smaller!!!!!!!!!

What an awesome, awesome, awesome place!  Met the bus to go to the marina at 9 am.  By 10 am we were headed out to the reef.  Waters were a bit choppy as there was a wind warning today.  Lucky for me I don't get seasick....but I can't say the same thing for a bunch of other poor souls out there today.  We arrived at the outer reef at about 11:30 on this lovely vessel.  It lands at a pontoon that lives out at the reef.

At that juncture, it was time to go for a snorkel!  Here's where you get in the water (and no, I am not in this picture):

When I got out of the water, I went for a reef tour in a semi-submersible vessel where we got to look at some deeper parts of the reef.  Its really affected by sunlight so when you are in direct light, its brilliant with a lot of cool colours.  Deeper out though, or when the sun goes behind the clouds, it looks more like this:

After some hard earned lunch it was back into the water for a final snorkel before we had to leave to get back to the marina.  It was low tide at that point so more and more of the reef was exposed to the air.  Its really cool since this part of the reef is right at the continental shelf - just beyond it, the water drops off to over 500m deep!  Yikes.  Kinda makes me glad the current was going in the other direction!

Anyhoo, even though its 5:30 am your time, its supper time here....14 hours in the future!  Gotta run, I'm hungry!  Tomorrow, I'm off the the Daintree Rain forest, Cape Tribulation, and the Mossman Gorge!  Stay tuned!