Critters Down Under

One of the highlights of this trip has been Australia's exotic and unusual wildlife. Here's what we saw!

Kangaroos!
There are a few types, red (larger) and gray and also their smaller cousin the wallabee. All are marsupials that carry their young in a pouch until they are ready...about 6 months for a kangaroo. The kangees also have a rare cousin the Tree Kangaroo, which lives in the rainforest area and you guessed it, lives in trees. Bizarre, they hop from branch to branch. We didn't see any of these, but our guide spotted their poop on our trail in the Daintree Forest.






Sadly the first kangaroo we saw was a dead one on the side of the road back from Warnambool to Melbourne. In some ways kangaroos are like our deer, there are places where they are out grazing in the wild and not just in bush areas. Another major bummer was seeing kangaroo meat on several restaurant menus! C'mon Mates! (Much more common than seeing deer on the menu in the U.S.)

(above right.)Blue Mountains - mom feeding her Joey near a picnic area. They are very docile and didn't seem to mind us standing near by.

We got to feed a few kangaroos in captivity, Jack, Max and their wallabee buddy in a visitor area in near the Daintree Rainforest. They let you pet them everywhere, but their ears. It freaks them out as they can rotate their ears 180 % like radar. 

      Hey! Move that paw buddy!                     

 

                                                                 

  Jack is gettling a bit too eager for that food!

 
Their cousin, Mr. Wallabee...

Koalas!
We had heard about places where you could "cuddle" the Koalas and actually hold them. We ended up for timesake going to the Tarango Zoo in Sydney, which will not let you you hold them, but would let you come and stand by them and get a picture. Apparently holding is illegal in some states in Australia and not others.

Did you know these cuties sleep 20 hours a day? Something in the Eucalyptus leaves they eat makes them very sleepy.  
 Couch potatoes of the wild kingdom




Birds!
Imagine looking up into a tree and seeing rainbow colored parrots! The most unusual things are flying around "down there". We were walking back from breakfast in Cairns on our last morning and I looked up and saw several rainbow lorikeets in a tree. Look at how this guy poked his head out! I want one now!



Of course there are some not so pretty creatures flying around down there.
I always thought bats lived in caves....not in Australia...how about trees and flying everywhere! Eeek...We saw some in Sydney hanging out in the Royal Botanical Gardens..and then farther up the coast in Cairns. Good old noisy fruit bats! A lot!

Another very strange bird is the Cassowary. They're big, cousins to the Emu and Ostrich. They are supposed to be very rare. We were told there were only about 1000 in Australia, but this website seems to indicate more, though not a whole lot. Our Daintree rainforest guide told us that only about 15% of his tours see one, so it was fun to have spotted one. They have a strange symbiotic relationship with one of the trees in the rainforest. The Cassowary eats its bright blue/purple seed and then when it passes the seed it actually fertilizes it and the tree can then grow. Without this bird this tree is at risk. Probably vice versa too. We saw him on our way to get some ice-cream actually somewhere around there...

Here's an emu we saw at the Taranga Zoo. (My friends Marcus and Dinah have a small emu ranch in NJ.)




Our first day in Sydney we went for a walk in the Royal Botanical Gardens, huge place located near the Opera House and along the harbor. Imagine our surprise when we spy tons of Cockatoos! The white one's are called Sulfur Crested Cockatoos, they have some yellow markings o their crest. Anyone remember the TV show Baretta? Ok you are definitely middle-aged if you do. He had pet cockatiels which are smaller versions of them. They are too cute!!
We saw a pet one up in the Daintree Rainforest area in Queensland where we had lunch. He was hanging out on the top of his cage.

This little white blob in the tree is the same one in the upper right that we saw at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney.



There are also Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos. We saw a few in the Blue Mountains area outside of Sydney.

Here's what they call the Noisy Miner Bird. This guy came and hopped on our picnic table while were having a morning tea break in the Blue Mountains. Mel, our guide kept trying to shoo him away, but he wouldn't leave. However, I don't remember him being noisy at all..pretty quiet I think.



Meet the magpie with it's black and white markings. We heard some tales about them actually attacking people during their breeding season and how school children would have to wear helmets on the way to school.




Another well-known Australian bird
is the Laughing Kookaburra, known for it's bizarre laughing call it makes. They are believed to mate for life. They can also become quite tame around people.



I think these two are in the Sandpiper family, but gave up trying to look them up. There's a bunch of different kinds. 

Here's  another one we don't know, but it cracked us up...We saw these ducks standing on one leg in the zoo.

Check out the Crimson Rosella.  Mel also pointed this out on the side of the road as we were driving in the Blue Mountains.

Someone asked me if we saw crocodiles, unfortunately or fortunately? we only saw one small baby one on a boat ride through the Daintree area.  You can barely seem him in this picture.  He's sitting there on the log about to slink into the water.  I think this was not the right season to see them (it was  summer down there).  

Here's another native Australian animal, the wombat.  We only saw him in the zoo and he decided to flop over for us. I think he wanted a belly rub. 

 Meet Boyd's Forest Dragon, they only live in rainforest areas in eastern Queensland.  We saw him during our trip to Daintree.   They grow to 15cm.  Not sure how long that is in inches, but they didn't seem that big. Maybe 10 inches?  Saw a few there. 

 Matthew, our Rainforest guide, pulled the bus over on the way back and said, "This stop isn't on the brochure, but I really wanted to show you something."  He walked to a bush near the beach and pointed out this critter out.  It's a peppermint stick bug.  About 4 inches long, this thing emits a peppermint odor when threatened.  He poked a little twig at it and passed it around.  Yep, peppermint.    Only in Australia.

 

I had to put this cutie in here at the end. Although he doesn't have anything to do with Australia, he was at the zoo and we fell in love with him! A little baby Asian elephant.  They had a nice show with several elephants doing some tricks and this little guy was running around with his soccer ball.

Whoops, almost forgot. The Harbor Bridge bunnies!  We walked underneath the bridge and saw a bunch of cute bunnies.  They look like big domestic bunnies, probably someone turned them loose.
             

                     

Blizzard Bonus

Unexpectedly, we find ourselves with two days to chill in Los Angeles. (We can't get a flight out till Friday) Could be a lot worse!  Our hardships include blue skies and temps in the 60s while we watch the blizzard descend on Phila.  As our friend Mark notes, like Sarah Palin, he can see Russia from his house, too. This is my lame imitation of the mermaid in case you're wondering...

Here we sleep, blessed sleep! after many long days and short nights on the road and in the skies. Caroline here- to give you an idea, on Tuesday, Feb 9 we left Cairns at around 12:30pm, landed in Sydney around 4:30pm (time moves up one hour) and then left Sydney at 9pm and landed in LA after a 13 hour flight at 4pm, STILL Tuesday Feb 9.  Although this morning I am up before 7am for a conference call meeting for work, after another couple hours of email sifting, i head back to bed for some extra zzzzz's.

In keeping with our vacationing-as-opportunity-to-exercise, today we walk along marinas past hundreds of boats at dock, to Venice Beach.....about two miles each way, plus a walk over to a California mall for dinner.  And take the time in between to clear out the backlog of emails, both work and personal.  Plus, of course, updating The Blog.




Tomorrow--back to Phila and home to what our neighbors have described as an overwhelming amount of snow, enough to bend and break the limbs of our tree that arches over their driveway.  Deb's advice: stay in LA as long as possible!  Not a bad idea.....

See you all soon!
(A nearly extinct species, a telephone booth, adorns the marina!)

Sydney's Blue Mountains

Being grounded here in LA now till Friday with plenty of free internet gives us a great opportunity to catch up on this blog. I've been behind in posting, more than John. We found out that the internet was not free in our hotels, a big bummer and we just got so busy it was hard to catch up. Boy are we spoiled here in the US with the free wireless everywhere!

We took 3 guided tours in all, to the Blue Mountains in Sydney, the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. John's written about our Reef trip though I have some things to add. So I'll take some time now to talk about the Blue Mountains. This was our first guided trip and we were excited.

We're greeted at our hotel on a drizzly Wednesday Feb 3 at 7:05am by Melanie or "Mel" our guide driving a small SUV from Mount n Beach Safaris for a trip to the Blue Mountains(area near the bush) Hey where are the other people I wonder? Turns out, we're it! No one else signed up so we head out for our very own private tour. Turns out to be great with just the four of us. Mel is quite the character and extremely knowledgeable about all things Down Under. The timing for this trip is perfect too. We've been walking constantly since we got to Australia, so a chance to get off our feet for a couple of hours till we get there is a gift! And I've been hungry for more history and information about Oz so Mel fits the bill perfectly.

Mel is a trip,(no pun intended) I really get that Aussie vibe. She's tough, smart, funny and extremely knowledgeable, maybe a bit of a rebel around the edges, and I think a passionate activist Aussie liberal spirit. Grew up on a farm, hates working in an office. Lives in Parrametta with her husband/partner and 3 dogs: a kelpie( true Aussie breed), a blue keeler (never heard of before, probably another Aussie dog) which is a border collie and kelpie mix and one other which I can't remember. She LOVES her dogs! Show us their pictures so we definitely bond over the dog love.

Anyways, now for the trip. She takes us over the Harbor or "coat hanger" bridge and then on past the Olympic Park stadium (from 2000). Quite a place. Huge huge huge and lots of green type technology put into play. After the Olympics they gave Aussies the chance to buy or bid on living spaces, and have turned the housing area into a nice residential community.

We drive on noticing the rain and clouds. Hmmm will it be there when we arrive? We're supposed to take a 2 hour walk down the canyon when we get there. We are going to play this one by ear.

Our first stop is for some tea at a picnic area right near the Blue Mountains. Tons of Eucalpytus trees abound and hey what's that?A couple of kangaroos hanging out right near our picnic table and a momma kanga with a Joey in her pouch! We can see her tending to her pouch, but can't see inside. The Joey is probably still quite tiny. There's 3 more over by the stream. They are all quite small, which surprised me and quite docile. They don't bound away like deer. We have tea and AnZac cookies (a popular treat, these oatmeal-style cookies were first made for Aussie and New Zealand soldiers during World War I? and now they are a big staple here. ) A minor (myna) bird lands on our table. Mel tries to shoo it away, a pest for her, but its a novelty for us with its yellow markings...

The weather continues to get worse, rain increases and the fog keeps closing in around us everywhere, limiting visibility. A hike down to the valley below is not going to make such sense since you can't see too far in front of you! Mel is not to be deterred though. We decide to play the beat the fog and clouds game. She drives ahead of the clouds and takes us on tons of different back roads all across the Blue Mountain range to different outlooks.



We get some spectacular views with blue sky peaking out enough to see down into valleys and across the cliffs. We see waterfalls sprouting out of the cliffs, trees, rocks, beauty, fog. It lasts all of about 7 minutes and the fog then rolls in which actually gets us some pretty cool photos before we jump in the van and take off for the next site. We never could have done this on our own! Happily near the end of our beat the fog game, we are able to see the famed Three Sister rock formations, one of the biggest sites in the area. Yea! I had really been intending that we'd somehow get to see this.

Mel talks to us a lot about the many different types of trees, it's primarily a eucalyptus forest, but also a bush area. People that live in this area have to be on the watch for bushfires. One type of tree stands out with its weird stringy bark. I wish I had taken some notes on everything she talked about. Part of the range is listed on the World Heritage site, it's beautiful. She points out the tree that has a large spiky growth that indigenous tribes used as hair brushes, the devilhead flowering bushes that look like devils with their spiky horns and then we spot the train on the other side of the canyon...then there's the interesting markings in tree bark carved in by insects......she shows us how the aborigines used different colored stones to make their earth toned paint and demonstrates four colors mixed with water on a large bolder.


We see more Australian birds, the Laughing Kookaburras, Crimson Rosella parrots and Black Cockatoos. This is the norm, these are their "robins and sparrows and starlings...."

Mel tells us about some of the tragic bush fires in the area and the Black Saturday fires that happened in Victoria last year. I notice many articles in the papers about this as the first anniversary of the fires happens while we are there.




Mel tells us there are 20-30 little towns in the Mountains here that people like to visit to get away from the city. She stops in one, Leura, where we have lunch and then wonder about the little shops for about an hour and a half. We see a couple of fantastic galleries, one Michael White and the other Papyrus. Michael White does large color abstract landscapes of the bush area. Gorgeous! Papyrus has some great prints. Zach sneaks a photo of one artist he really likes. (have to get their name) A pricey, but nice area to walk around.

When we tell Mel how much we love Aboriginal art (I think the politically correct term over there is "Indigenous") she asks if we want to see some original indigenous artist hand-painted boomerangs. She says she knows the artists, and likes to help them out. She buys them at cost and doesn't make anything on them. We're a bit skeptical, but what the heck. We end up buying one. They're signed on the back and use just the true earth colors...she explains how many of these artists are being ripped off like us? :) and how there are also a lot of inauthentic pieces being passed off. It has the kangaroo painted at the top, which represents happiness. She also gives us a guide to their symbols. Nice simple piece, $25. I do notice when we look in stores the boomerangs are priced higher and never signed, just put out there really like tourist chachkas saying Made in Australia..hah! and coated with shellac...anyways. It's been a wonderful rich day and I've really enjoyed this tour.

We get home before dinner. We take the subway and walk (yes back to our walking) down to Darling Harbor, its hot and sticky, but the sky has cleared. We eat at Nick's, a seafood restaurant recommended by Mel right outside on the harborside. Gorgeous views of everything. We have another overpriced dinner, OUCH! Food here is insanely expensive, but we figure we are also paying for the view. I have Barramundi ; really delicious fish. Great salads... Service is a bit spotty. They bring Zach the wrong order, forget my dressing and bring John two salads.. John vents about the hilariously awful meal we had in Chinatown and we get it on video..then we stop for gelato for John, which is pretty popular here. Tomorrow (Feb 4) we're off to Manly Beach.