Darwin to Adelaide – The Ghan – and Catching Up

26 May 2013

 We had a quiet day or two after my billabong cruise, then caught The Ghan back south.  We’re familiar with train travel across Australia by now, so we stocked up on food for the train (rolls work better than bread; individually wrapped cheese is good; small cans of tuna are okay; apples are better than bananas, obviously; cookies are essential).  And we were good to go.

I recognized a few people from the billabong trip, some in our Red Seat section, others in the posh cabins.  We got comfortable, and enjoyed the relaxation of train travel – lots of time to enjoy the views out the windows, read our kindles, and nap.  We stopped in both Katherine (where it was hot) and Alice Springs (where it was cold), but having spent time in both places previously we chose to stay on the train.  We’re also both nursing Singaporean colds, so staying warm and dry seemed like the smartest choice.

No wallaby or camel sightings on this tour, but we did see three dingoes – one dingo was walking in the Finke River bed – this is supposedly the oldest river on the planet (we don’t know how that determination was made) – but it’s a dry river bed in the middle of the continent, with a few waterholes, and this dingo walking through looking for a meal.  The other two dingoes were actually hanging out together a few hours south of the Finke, in cattle country – again, probably looking for a meal, maybe even thinking about taking down a cow.  

And a vast amount of flat scrubby desert.

It was interesting, because when we headed out to Perth or north to Darwin, it was hot hot hot – and the heat makes those shimmery heat lines and creates reflections of the sky, making the mirage of water in the desert.  Those mirages were obvious as we traveled in hot weather.  But now that it’s late autumn in the southern hemisphere, mid-Australia is cold, and the heat mirages are gone.  Just an interesting thing I noticed.

We arrived back in Adelaide on Friday, and have been enjoying our familiar places – we’re staying at the same motel/backpacker hostel, and have eaten at some of the same familiar cafés.  In fact, some of the waitstaff recognized us, so it sort of is like coming “home.”  I think the Koala Mint pokie machine recognized me, because he treated me fairly well.  (Although this weekend the Pirate Queen machines have been my best friend, paying rather well and giving me multiple free games.  And then there was the Venetian Nights, which paid out after my investment of $2.  We watch people pour hundreds of dollars into the machines, and walk away with several hundred dollars.  I’m happy to begin with $20 and double or triple my money.  But, as I said, this weekend has gone well, and we have some “found” money to play with.)

 

Today started out foggy and grey, but the fog burned off and we had a gorgeous sunny day.  So we hopped onto the tram and rode out to Glen Elg, the sea port and beach town.  It’s a very pretty town, with a beautiful beach and lovely Victorian buildings, and a pier out into the Tasman from which people were fishing.  There were a few crazy people swimming in the water – the day was maybe 65 degrees at the hottest point, I have no idea how cold that water might have been.  I just know that we kept our sweaters and jackets on, and there was no way we’d even dip a toe into that water – so swimming or playing in the sea just seemed insane!

Instead, we took some pokie money and had high tea at a posh hotel right off the beach.  It was so British, straight out of Jane Austen or Noel Streatfield!  We were served finger sandwiches, tartlets and other pastries, and scones (with cream and jam) on a tiered plate – I had pots of Earl Grey, Richard enjoyed the drip coffee – and we munched the little goodies to our hearts content.  We weren’t able to polish off the scones (they were small, but more than two apiece was just overkill, no matter how delightful they might be!).  It was just a very fun trip out to the beach on a sunny but chilly day.

We hopped back on the tram and are enjoying our warm and cozy room back at the motel/hostel.  And we’ll venture out for some dinner and maybe another pokie or two later on tonight.

We’ve booked a room at an artists’ loft in a suburb just south of Sydney – we head out on Tuesday morning, and have a 24 hour trip.  We’re both excited about Sydney, but for different reasons – Richard loves cities, and I’m looking forward to holding a koala at the zoo!  (New South Wales is koala country.)

We manage to have fun, wherever we go, so we’ll report in when we get to Sydney, or if anything exciting happens before then! 

Cruising on the Corroborree Billabong

21 May 2013

We attended the Italian Festival on Saturday – it was a huge crowd watching cooking demonstrations, sampling all kinds of Italian goodies, and listening to Italian music.  The Italian Club performed the tarantella a few times – but my favorite were the teenage boys who demonstrated flag throwing, doing all kinds of fancy moves twirling and waving and juggling Italian flags back and forth.  And of course, recorded music with old favorites like Volare, so we sang along with the crowd.  We had a chance to look at a Ferrari and a Mazeratti, but didn’t get to drive them around.



I went out on a wetlands cruise yesterday – Richard wasn’t interested, but this was one of the things I really wanted to do, so I booked the trip.

When we had our tent car, we stopped near the Corroborree Billabong, and had lunch at the famous Corroborree Tavern.  (Pronounced cor-RAH-bore-ee – does NOT rhyme with Tipperary, which is how we kept saying it.)  This is sort of southeast of Darwin, and takes maybe 90 minutes or so to drive out there.  Our driver was a wealth of information on the history and development of the Northern Territory, the environment (especially bird life), and Aboriginal practices.  (He does volunteer work with some of the local Aboriginal groups, helping to explain “white man” practices, to assist with the transition from traditional living to modern western life.)

Anyway, a billabong – it’s kind of difficult to explain a billabong, because it’s more than just a pond or lake – more of a shallow lake that connects to waterways and rivers and marshlands, and forms part of a wetlands area.  Billabongs usually have waterlilies, for some reason.  And all the wetlands in the Top End are huge areas with their own ecosystem, each slightly different from the next.

We were in the Mary River Wetlands, which is the only non-brackish wetlands in the NT.  The other rivers feed into the ocean and are considered tidal rivers, so that some salt water gets back into the river and the wetland system.  Mary River has developed bars of sediment that prevent the sea water from washing back into the river, so the whole wetland system here is fresh water – and this creates an environment for different plant and animal life. 

We cruised out into the billabong, and through various channels into the actual river – except there are arms and necks and other little branches connecting the river to other parts of billabongs and mini-billabongs – it’s all one huge waterway.  The water was quite high, with very little bank showing – it had rained over the weekend, and just three inches of rain was enough to refill the entire wetland system here, confusing the migrating birds who were expecting more bank for their seasonal nesting.

The pink lotus blossoms and lavender or white waterlilies were everywhere, with huge leaves floating and making little sheltered environments for fish.  Trees were standing in water, grass islands were floating on water, and our flat-bottomed boat was able to drive into places that looked like solid ground but were actually just floating masses of plants.  It was so deceptive – these “islands” looked like you could walk across them, but you’d just fall in and get tangled in the weeds and probably eaten by the crocodiles.

So, the crocs – we were able to spot two fresh- water crocs, and four salt- water crocs.  And yes, saltwater crocs can live in sea water, brackish water, or totally freshwater.  They’re the top of the food chain around here, and they know it.  So they didn’t seem to mind if we drove the boat right up against the bank and all of us took photos – although most of the male crocs would open their mouths to show their teeth, which might be to frighten us off but more probably was so they could cool off, just like panting dogs.  Does make them look fierce though, doesn’t it?

But you can see why we only found six or so crocs, since most of them we on the banks behind trees.  

Then there were the birds – eagles nesting (two or three pairs in giant nests on top of the few tall trees); various kites and other raptors; all kinds of egrets and herons, in bright shiny white and rich deep blue and dusty grey green; jabiru, which are white and blue-black; several kinds of ibis; a few crested spoonbills; flycatchers who knock the stingers off bees and wasps before eating them; and a little brown and white shore bird with a bright red cap on his head.  Birds everywhere!  It was a birder’s paradise, there were so many flying and swimming and walking around or sitting in trees.  There’s some kind of water bird who isn’t waterproof, so their bodies sink underwater and only their head and neck stick out of the water – when on land or on trees, they spread their wings to dry out.  And various ducks, some of whom flock together despite the fact that they’re different kinds of ducks.  As I said, birds everywhere!

When we finally returned to the car park to pile into the van, it was late afternoon and the wallabies were waking up and starting to bounce around.  They stayed away from the water’s edge, though, because they know better than to tempt crocodiles.  (They seem to be smarter than humans at that.)

It was a great day out on the billabong, and I had a wonderful time!  If anyone ever gets to Darwin, definitely check out www.wetlandcruises.com.au - they do a great trip!

Night Zoo

15 May 2013

I don't know how long I have on the internet, we're heading back to Australia tonight so we're running down our Singapore internet accounts.

So - we went to the Night Zoo or Night Safari last night.  It was AMAZING!  The nocturnal animals were wide awake and eating, playing, hunting, grazing, and watching us watching them!  Animals that are fairly safe around people, like deer, tapirs, water buffalo were wandering loose and free.  Others like tigers, lions, clouded leopard, elephants, etc. were in their cage-free enclosures, but most were very visible.  We watched fishing cats jumping in the water trying to catch fish (and missing) - and they look just like large striped domestic cats, just so cute and cuddly!  We saw both Indian and African lions, and two kinds of Asian rhinos from India - who knew India had lions and rhinos????  A huge Malaysian tiger, Nile hippos, and bats flying back and forth overhead.  Flamingo flocks.  Giraffes hanging out with their buddies the zebras and antelope.  Hyenas skulking around by themselves, because no one likes hyenas.  It was incredible!  We took the tram once around the park, then walked a little (which isn't as easy as it sounds, this is hot and humid and the paths are slippery and there's minimal lighting) - and so we took the tram again. Imagine riding through a herd of deer or tapirs or water buffalo who just walk past the tram and don't notice there are people there!!!!!

It's a wonderful evening - if you're ever in Singapore, buy the two park pass so you can go to both the day and night zoos! 

And sorry, no photos - way too dark, and the flash hurts the animals' eyes.  

Singapore Zoo

14 May 2013

It was a loooong schlep, but we went out to the Singapore Zoo.  This zoo is known in international zoo circles as being very innovative – one of the first (maybe THE first) to get rid of cages and have natural enclosures (moats and such) around each animals appropriate environment.  

 They also allow certain animals to run or fly freely through the zoo!  Really, as we walked in and crossed over the river of freshwater crocodiles, a black siamang ran across the bridge, right in front of us!  (They’re a kind of primate, very much like capuchin monkeys but with a big luxuriously furry tail.)

The orangutans also roam freely – except they have a network of vines and ropes connecting trees and platforms, and the orangutans just stay up over everyone’s heads.  They have a few islands where they come down to the ground and rest, play, fight, and where the class clown gets to show off for the visitors.  (Really, he was posing and making faces and blowing kisses – he was quite funny.)  Other, less friendly primates have separate environments and don’t have the chance to move around the zoo – like chimpanzees and baboons, the baboons actually being quite vicious.
 
This zoo is also known for their breeding programs, and they’ve successfully raised a bunch of animals that rarely breed in captivity.  So they have a nice little herd of five white rhinoceros, who actually aren’t white but kind of mud colored.  Two different kinds of very regal giraffes – and did you know that giraffes sleep standing up, for about 1 minute at a time, and only sleep for a total of maybe 4 hours a day???  (I’m glad I’m not a giraffe!) 

The zoo is divided into sections by both animal and area of origin – so the zebras, rhinos, giraffes, etc. are in the Africa section, which segues into the Big Cats (cheetahs, leopards, and lions) – and that includes pumas or mountain lions – which of course aren’t African at all, but live in North, South, and Central America.  (And the poor male puma was panting in the Singaporean heat – I guess he didn’t come from Florida or Costa Rica.)  But I said hello to all the big cats, who are always so gorgeous and stately.  And just big kitties at heart.  (Or maybe kitties are all lions and tigers and panthers at heart.)

We took the tram around first, to get a sense of where things were, and just because it was fun to ride a tram painted with tiger or zebra stripes, or giraffe spots.  To match the animals.  As well as the trash cans.  Because this is a color-coordinated zoo, you realize.

 

The penguins are from South 
 Africa, and a few were standing watch over their eggs – this is a penguin rescue project, and they are trying to keep the little guys from extinction.  One more adventurous penguin came over to check out his visitors.

The Australian Outback had a few snakes and lizards behind glass, and then a path through a field of wallabies and wallaroos – I’m not sure of the difference, but there were two differently sized and colored animals, the bigger ones being grey and the smaller ones kind of a fawn color.

Over by the Children’s Zoo I found the carousel – the young lady who sold me the ticket offered to take my photo with the carousel, but I had fun taking photos and riding the orange tiger.  (Not the white tiger, he was closer to the center and it gets a little dizzying to ride there.)  But this was an incredible carousel that was made especially for this zoo – the young lady thought it came from the US.  There was a panda, dugong (like a manatee), otter, seal, eagle, hummingbird, the two tigers, a leopard, camel, lion, giraffe (those last three didn’t go up and down), a zebra (which a little girl nabbed first), a wolf baying at the moon, even a triceratops.  No, they don’t have a triceratops at the zoo, except on the carousel.  No one knows why he’s there, except that no animal is duplicated on this carousel, so maybe they just ran out of animals.  And there aren’t any horses!  So it really is a fabulous little carousel!

Oh, there were also hippos (including pygmy hippos from Liberia, the only place they’re found), otters, Crested Grey cranes in the Africa area who were free to fly around and seemed to all roost in the same tree – on and on!!! 

Anyway, we had a fun time at the zoo, it really is a very special place and the animals seemed very well maintained.

And tonight we’re going to the Night Zoo, which features nocturnal animals!  I’m not sure what to expect, it’s an entirely different setting and features (obviously) animals who will be up and about at night.  I’ll report back.

Just a last note – we both caught colds, mine starting turning into bronchitis, and so we had a brief visit to the Raffles Medical Center.  My doctor looked about 14 years old, but he prescribed antibiotics and such, and I’m doing better.  One of the things I’ve noticed about overseas medical care is that they don’t take your blood pressure each time – that seems to be a US thing.  But that’s why I missed a day of posting, just spent a day taking meds and drinking fluids and staying away from catching/spreading germs.  (All the Raffles stuff is named for the British governor who designed Singapore – he really was assigned to Indonesia or Malaysia, but realized that Singapore was at the cross-roads or cross-routes of India and China, and so he claimed the area for Britain and designed the city-state.  So there are Raffles Park, Raffles Hotel, Raffles Centers, and the Raffles Medical Center.)

And I found a Buddhist Temple with bells out by the street – well, they aren’t bells, really, they’re those spinning things.  Prayer wheels, maybe.  I’m not sure what they’re called exactly – but it was so beautiful and ethereal, the white building with gold ornamentation, and the lovely wheels which a passer-by set spinning as I took the photos.