Retirement Trip

Thursday October 6th

2011-10-06T12:50:00.001-07:00

Today dawned bright and sunny. Not to be fooled though it was quite chilly. It started out at 8° and only got to 13°. It probably would not have been so bad but for the wind.

After dropping off the laundry we went to see the Dunbrody Famine Ship. There was lots of information about the ship and the way people were transported to America. Again there was lots about Canada. The ship had been built in Quebec. This ship was very well handled by the captain and few people died on the crossing. There were two women that told us about their lives and how they came to be on this ship. The first was Annie White. She, her husband and 4 children had a berth in steerage. Their fare was paid by the landowner they worked the land for. Unfortunately, neither she nor her husband made the crossing. The 4 children did survive and made a life in America. Steerage passengers where only allowed up on deck once a day for ½ hour to do their cooking. However, that was only if the weather was good.

The other lady was in the 1^st class area. She, her husband and 2 children had a room with two berths in it. They had their meals cooked for them and ate with the captain. There were only 2 first class cabins. First class passengers were allowed up on deck at anytime. This family was on their way to NYC where her brother had a business. He was looking to expand to Buffalo and wanted this family to look after the interests there.

We decided to do the Hook Point circle route. We took in the Dunbrody Abbey, the Duncannon Fort then went on to Hook Point. Don't know why when we get out to the sea shore the winds are so hard. It was hard to take pictures as the wind buffeted us. It was very beautiful out at the light house. On the way back we tried to see another abbey but it was closed for the season.

We head on to south Dublin tomorrow as our trip comes to a close. We are looking forward to getting home.

Wednesday October 5th

2011-10-06T12:49:00.001-07:00

We have a nice day to travel. We saw an Augustan Priory. It was in Kells. There is some restoration work going on. We think most of it is to ensure the walls remain standing. All the buildings in the priory were interconnected when it was in use. A walled section was added in the 15^th century. It is thought that during this lawless time the monks wanted to keep their livestock inside the compound. The Augustan monks went out and helped the community. They also held Mass. There would only be about 9 monks in this priory.

Jerpoint Abbey was a Cistercian order abbey. It was a cloistered abbey. The monks stayed inside and prayed. Cistercians was supposed to be a simple order so that the abbey was to be simply decorated to not distract the monk from their prayers. The abbey was not simply decorated. It was quite ornate in the sculptures on the columns on the cloister arcade. As well the architecture was full of carvings and different styles. In its hay day there would have been up to 37 monks in this abbey.

We have noticed that all abbeys have a cloister area. Abbeys in which the monks stayed inside the walls all the time had a much bigger cloister areas. Also there were entry ways into the area. Friaries or priories where the monks went into the community and held mass the cloister area were smaller and had no entryway.

We decided to go the Cheek Point in Co. Waterford where Charles cousins live. As we did not have a phone number we just took a chance that someone would be home. We were not exactly sure which house was theirs. We were able to ask the neighbours. Anthony was home. We had a nice visit with him. The last time we were in Ireland we took Mom to visit her Cousin Elli here. Elli had passed away this July. It was a misty rain when we arrived but soon it cleared. We were so lucky that someone was home.

We settled in for the night in the town of New Ross. This was another port where many famine ships left from.

Tuesday October 4th

2011-10-04T12:41:00.003-07:00

Today we started out by visiting Kilkenny Castle. It was the home for the Butler family for over 800 years. They did not build it but purchased it. There were some defensive features of the castle but really it is a very large manor house. The last Marques sold it to the government of Ireland for £50. He was living in Chicago at the time. Again we were not able to take photos in side. We only saw a small portion of the castle but it was very impressive. The Art room was just amazing. It held just a portion of the art work owned by the Butler Family. The new roof that was put on in the 1800's was a work of art in itself. The ceiling was one big piece of art work. The peak was made of glass to let natural light in.

We decided to see the Dunsmore cave. When we got there, we found out there were about 300 steps. I knew I could not get back up so I stayed at the top while Charles went below. He really enjoyed what he saw.

We went on to another town to get something for lunch. I was not well at all so that we headed back to the B&B. Later in the afternoon we went downtown to see the Black Abbey. It is one of the few in Ireland that is still running today. It was reroofed in 1778 after being left in ruins after being sacked in 1650. In 1816 it reopened to public service. We tried to see St Canices Cathedral which is with the Church of Ireland. It was not open by the time we got there. We did go into the St. Canices RC Church which was close by.

After seeing enough churches for the day we walked around downtown. We went into one mall area to find only 1 store in use. We had an early supper as we never got lunch.

We had a nice relaxing evening back at the B&B.

Monday October 3rd

2011-10-04T12:41:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful day. The sun was shining. It was still cool however. The four things we wanted to see were open. Sadly we were unable to take photos inside the Swiss Cottage. It would have been nice. The cottage was quite interesting. It only had 4 rooms. None of the Butler Family ever stayed overnight. It was day entertaining only. In order to not obstruct the view 9 tenant cottages were taken down. The tenants were given accommodation elsewhere on the estate. I thought I would rather live here than in Kilkenny.

The Rock of Cashel turned out to be a cathedral and not a castle. Cathedral or castle it could be seen for miles all around the valley. The cathedral is in ruins however restoration is taking place. They are trying save as much of the wall paintings that had been covered up with plaster over the years. Now they have to be preserved from the elements.

Soon we found our next lodging in Kilkenny. When we were leaving to go out for supper we met some people checking in. After we returned from supper, a young man that had checked in earlier entered our room by mistake. After yelling "Oh God!!!" he closed the door and headed to his own room. Later we went back out to the bar where we had supper for the live music entertainment. Low and behold the young man was also in the bar with the people he was travelling with. He came over to apologize for earlier. We had a good laugh about it all.

We really enjoyed the entertainment at the bar. There was a group of older women from Dublin enjoying an evening out. They did a lot of dancing at the back of the bar. Three of them sang when the musicians asked if anyone wished to sing. They were very good. Also a man from Nashville and a woman from Iowa each sang two songs. Both of these people were wonderful to listen to. We called it a night just before 11.

Sunday October 2nd

2011-10-02T12:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was so wet and rainy that all we did was take a drive into the country. The two sights we wish to see were closed for the season. On the way back we stopped again at Blarney Woollen Mills shops. We came back to read and play cards. In the evening we went for a walk when it had stopped raining. However,on the way back to the B&B it started again.

Today as we left Cork, we saw a crowd of runners. It seems there was a marathon going on. Luckily they had not started yet. We headed for the coastal town of Cobh pronounced Cove. This was the last Port of Call for the Titanic. The Lusitania was sunk of the Head to Kinsale in 1915. Many of the dead were buried in Cobh. The heritage Centre was not open. We are not sure if it opened later in the day.

While walking along the harbour front we saw a statue of Annie Moore and her two brothers She emigrated from Ireland to NYC at the age of 15. She was the first person to be processed at the new centre at Ellis Island in NYC on 1 January 1892. I have been listening to a song called Ellis Island sung by The Irish Tenors. This song is about her. You had to grow up fast back then.

We left the town soon before the marathoners got close. We did not want to be part of the group. Struggling through a bike race was bad enough. At Youghal town we saw the town clock and some of the old buildings dating back to the 1600's. Again it was to foggy and rainy to enjoy anything.

Further east along the coast, we came to the town of Ardmore. It is the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland. There we found a Round Tower, Ardmore Cathedral and St. Declan's Oratory. We had no idea that these were here. The cathedral had some beautiful carvings outside on the wall of the church. You could still make out a number of the carvings. It was quite a sight.

Heading inland now we crossed a pass called The Vee. As we climbed up the coastal side it got very foggy. Charles had to watch out for sheep on the road. As we crested and started down the fog left and we could see the valley below. It was overcast now but not raining. We stopped in the town of Lismore to see the Castle however it was closed for the season.

We decided to see if we could see the Michelstown Caves today. We thought we would have better luck seeing them on a Sunday. We found out that they are open every day except for Christmas. Getting to the caves from Lismore meant a trip across country and you guessed it more one lane roads. It was well worth the trip. The caves were fantastic. I was so happy as they are better lit than the last caves we were in. When we left the caves our GPS took use over more one lane roads. One road we went on, we thought was a farm lane. It turned out to be okay though.

The sun was shining by supper time in Cashel. We were not sure what to do with the bright light and blue skies. Sure hope it holds for tomorrow. There is much to see and do tomorrow before we head to Kilkenny.

Friday September 30th

2011-09-30T12:15:00.001-07:00

It is hard to believe that September is done. We only have a short time left. It was a very rainy today.

When the rain let up a little we walked down town. We went on the hop-on Hop-off bus to tour the city. Found out that the city is built on 14 islands. The estuaries have been culverted over So that a lot of the city is built on water. Two estuaries have been left open one to the north and one to the south creating an island for the city centre. There are lots of bridges. Cork is a very busy sea port. At one point on the tour the streets were very congested so the bus driver backed up the narrow lane way so she could take a different route. She did a great job.

We hopped off at the City Goal. The tour took about an hour to do. It was interesting. It was raining quite hard when we were done the tour. We stood out in the rain for 20 min waiting for the bus. It was the same bus driver we had earlier. She let us off at the end of the street we had to walk up to get back to our B&B. We were just about at the corner. Charles was a little bit ahead of me. A car came along and splashed me. Auggh!! My shoe and pant leg were soaked. This evening it got nice so we went for a walk.

Thursday September 29th

2011-09-30T12:12:00.001-07:00

We went to see Charles Fort today. It reminded us of the citadels in Quebec City and Halifax in a smaller scale. The fort only lasted 8 years as a defence before it was taken over. It could defend itself from the sea but it was in a low spot on land. James fort across the river was an older and smaller fort which had its powder magazine blown up very early. Then the enemy used it to shell Charles Fort from across the river. The English used the fort for barracks so their soldiers would be kept out of the towns and taverns. Barracks were then built. During WWI soldiers where billeted here as well.

It startled to mist over again so we headed to Blarney. We went to the castle. At this point the weather was not too bad. Unfortunately, it was a long walk for me to the castle. I could not climb up the stairs. Charles did. He kissed the Blarney stone at the top of the castle. He actually kissed it twice, once for himself and once for Mom. I would have liked to walk in the gardens but could not do it.

We check out the Blarney Woollen Mill before heading back to the B&B. It was raining by the time we headed back.

Wednesday September 28th

2011-09-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

The fog and mist are still here today. It seems a bit heavier than yesterday.

Our first stop was the Drombeg Stone Circle. It was quite that sight in the mist. I am reading the second book in a series about a woman Clair who travels back in time to the late 1700's through a stone circle. This gave us pause as the mist covered the area. Along with the circle are the remains of 2 huts beside each other. The smaller of the huts had an oven area. There was also a well and cooking trough close by. They think all of this area was built at the same time. The hut area for cooking and the circle for ceremony. This was the first time we had seen anything with a stone circle. We found out that the circles in this area are 5-9 stones large. When we thought that the other smaller circle might have had an outer ring, we were incorrect.

We had to stop at the West Cork Model Railway Village at Clonakilty just for the boys. Aidan and Soren's interest in trains is catching. There were a number of trains that made their way through the model villages, castles and towns. They go through tunnels and over bridges. It was very interesting. We thought the boys would have enjoyed it.

Our last stop was at the Timoleague Friary. It was a Franciscan Friary which meant the architecture was very plain. One nice thing that they did in this ruin was to put label stones in the ground so you knew what each part was. This way you did not have to remember the map of the Friary.

We had lunch outside the friary and beside the river. It was nice as the mist had lifted. We watched some birds with long beaks poking around in the sand while the tide was out. One bird pulled out a worm which it took to the water edge to wash it before eating. Soon it was off to Cork and our next B&B.

Tuesday September 26th

2011-09-27T13:42:00.001-07:00

Today we woke up to a foggy morning. We were hoping to take cruise out among the islands and then see if we could see some whales. None of the cruises were going out. The weather was one reason and the lack of numbers was the other. We could have taken the ferry out to any of the islands but decided the weather was not in our favour.

We had an interesting problem with the shower this morning. We could only get hot water. When you turned it to cold the shower shut off. This befuddled our host. When we came back from see the village, we were told we would have to change rooms. The plumber could not come out for a couple of days.

In the afternoon we went to see the Dún na Séad Castle. Translated it means Fort of Gems. It was a Norman fort built in 1201. It was not really a fort but a place for the ruler of the area to live and due business. He wanted to be able to see the port so he could collect his port taxes. He could also do smuggling as well.

We went to the pool. It was wonderful to swim and get in the hot tub. We have been taking it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

We went to Skibbereen a town up the road for supper. On the way home we got caught in a funeral procession. We had an average speed of 20km/h. There was a long line of cars as well. They did turn off before town though.

Monday September 25th

2011-09-27T13:41:00.001-07:00

Today we say goodbye to the West of Ireland. By the end of the day we will be at the most southerly point on the Irish mainland.

As we headed south we decided to see a little bit of the Beara Peninsula. We discovered that there was a stone circle in the area. Off we went to find it. At the beginning of our tour of Ireland we were told "If there is a wide patch of grass down the middle of the road you are probably on a farmer's laneway". Well today we made it. You travel up the road into the hills toward the Gleninchaquin park. This road is the typical narrow road which winds its way over the country side. The road also follows beside a number of lakes. Like everything else we have run into, the signage is very sparse. After travelling 3km we found a sign telling us to go right to the stone circle. The road now was gravel and there was a wide strip of grass down the centre. A farmer's lane at last!!

The farmer asked you to pay €2 each for the upkeep of the pathway to the stones. Off we set. It was along path with some very steep climbs – well steep for me. The area was so beautiful once we arrived. It was a very small stone circle but the size of the stones was impressive. We could see why it was built here. It was on a knoll where you could see the waterfalls to the south and the beautiful lakes to the north. Again we were all alone to observe and wonder. We got the impression that there might have been another ring of stones outside the remaining one. So many of these stone rings have had stones taken away to be used elsewhere. Once we returned to the car an elderly gentleman pulled up and asked if we would like to buy some postcards of the area. It turned out he was the farmer's father.

On this same farm there was a boulder tomb which we tried to walk into. The way there was not an easy walk so we turned back. I sure did not want to turn an ankle or break a leg and ruin the rest of our trip.

As we travelled down the coast of the Kenmare River we saw some beautiful scenery. We went inland to cross the Healy Pass. The arch pass was built during the famine. As the road twisted and turned down the hill side we headed for Adrigole. On the way we were flagged down by a farmer herding his sheep. He talked to us for a while. We finally got away when another car was approaching. Charles saw him flag down that driver as well. I was sure hoping to find a bathroom in the town. Not an easy thing to do. Finally we stopped to ask an old man. He let me use the one in his house. He must have been a cobbler as he had all the equipment. He must have sold shoes as well as he had lots of shoes in boxes. I was so very thankful.

In the town of Glengarriff, we went in search of a bank. None could be found. I had fun looking in the shops. We did see the town gas pump outside a store at the edge of the street. Heading out we went through Bantry, where we found a bank. Now it is off to Mizen Head.

Mizen Head is not the most southerly point on the main land of Ireland but it sure is close. Close by is Bow Head which is. We were thinking that the weather would not be good. It had been so bad at the most northern point. We hoped it would not be a repeat of that. Although the mountains were misty it was very nice once we got to the end of the road. Inside the tourist info centre we read about how the area was formed. Once we started walking to the end of the point we could really see all the rocks that had been folded. One of the folds looked like part of a sine curve, for those who remember trig.

It was a long steep walk down to the foot bridge. There were three hairpin turns along the path. Going down was not too bad but I was worried about getting back up. I am so glad I went down the whole way as it was great to see. Charles climbed up the stairs and pathway to the top of the hill. If I was to get back up I couldn't do this as well. We didn't realise we could go into the Irish Lights Signal Station. I did make my way up. There were 99 steps to climb to get back up. You can climb up the ramps as well. I don't know which was better. We did the steps.

We stopped to eat before heading into Baltimore. We have a beautiful view from our room window. A beautiful way to end the day.

Sunday September 25th

2011-09-25T12:30:00.001-07:00

Today is out easy day. I wanted to find the Ogham Stones in Dunloe. We missed them yesterday I was very interested after googling them. We did find them. It had been pouring just before we arrived but stopped for us to look at the stones and take pictures.

We toured Ross Castle and Muckross House. In both places we were unable to take photos. Ross castle was a 15^th century tower house. At one point the owners did not want to pay a roof tax so they burnt it. They left it to ruin. We heard what it would have been like to live in it in the 15^th century. Not a good way to live.

Muckross House was built over 4 years from 1839-1843. It was much bigger than Ross Castle. Muckross is the word for pigs head in Gaelic. The house was a beautiful inside. Two nice things for me were the chairs in each room that I could sit on and an elevator to take between floors. Our tour guide was funny as she was quite abrupt. When she was finished a room we all moved on. Part of the first floor was like it was when Queen Victoria visited in 1861. They were very proud of this visit. A month before she arrived she sent a letter stating "Please to not go to any extra effort for my visit." The town of Killarney had spent 6 months preparing for her visit.

Lastly we went to see Torc Waterfalls. These are in the National Park. It was very busy. The day had turned out to be very nice. I was a little worried as children were playing around on the rocks at the base of the falls. One miss step and you could be going down the rapids. No one fell however. The falls were impressive.

Saturday September 24th

2011-09-25T12:28:00.001-07:00

We decided to have a quieter day today. We set out to drive the Gap of the Dunloe. When we got to the start we were told that the only way to see the Gap was by Pony and Trap. We decided to do this. I was so glad that my hip was better. The driver also had steps to help me get into the trap.

Charles asked the driver "Is the other end of the road was closed".

"No"

"So one could drive in from the other side"

"No. The end of the road is not good for driving. It will stop you."

This was like waving a red flag in front of Charles. I knew that before the day was out we would have tried driving the road.

Since the day was so nice we decided to continue down the middle of the peninsula in a beautiful valley. We went over the Ballaghisheen Pass. One side was agricultural and the other was more forested.

We stopped for lunch in Waterville at the beach park. We ate lunch looking out at the ocean and hearing the waves roar into shore. There were even Public Toilets as well. What more could we have asked for.

We found the circle fort Charles had seen the day before. We almost missed the turn off again. One nice thing was there were no tour busses at the site. The closer we got the more narrow the road got. There was a good parking area which was nice. This fort was different as there were rock remains of two buildings inside the fort. Again I thought if you just remained quiet you could almost hear the people carrying on their daily activities. Maybe even hear the children running around.

Our last stop was at Staigue Fort. Another circular stone fort. This one did not have any evidence of buildings inside of it. It was also bigger and the walls higher than the one we saw earlier. It was amazing to see the size of rocks used to build the walls.

Now it was time to head for the trip through Dunloe Gap. There are no signs from this side about the gap. We headed down the one lane road slowly. There was a fair bit of traffic coming out. We did not know if we would have to turn around or not. Along the way there were a few junctions with other roads. We had to decide which way we went. There were a couple of rough areas and a few very narrow parts but otherwise the road was not that bad. Soon we were in the Gap. It was very nice to see again.

We saw one rock formation and I asked Charles to go back for pictures. We thought we would see it again after the bend but alas we did not see it again. We wondered where it had gone. Luckily we had pictures.

The last part of the road was spent dodging pony and karts and oncoming cars. Charles was very happy to have driven the road.

Friday September 23rd

2011-09-25T12:25:00.001-07:00

Moving on today we really only had 32km to drive to Killarney. That is if you went the direct route. We decided to take the Ring of Kerry Route. Two Hundred km later we were in Killarney.

We stopped at the bog village. The cottages there had been actually lived in. They were moved to this site. One interesting thing was that peat was put first before the thatching. This helped keep the cottages warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Most of the day was spent enjoying the view. We went out to see cliffs they were beautiful. After lunch we realised that there was just too much to see in one day so that we headed straight to Killarney with only a couple of stops. At one stop a the top of Coomakesta Pass, Charles spied a circle fort in the country side we had just been through. This was something we put on our list to see another day.

The road had been very bumpy today. My hip had been awful since lunch. Both of us were happy to get to the B&B. We both were very tired.

Thursday September 22nd

2011-09-24T12:45:00.001-07:00

Today Aidan and Soren turn 4. We thought about them throughout the day.

This was the day we went out to the Dingle Peninsula. Our first stop was at the Blennerville Windmill. The interesting thing was the info centre. Inside there was lot of information about the immigration to Canada of the Irish during the famine. We have heard lots about the immigration to the USA but very little about immigration to Canada. Sadly Canada lost the most immigrates due to cholera of all the countries. We had heard about this on our trip to Quebec City. A number of ships left from Blennerville for the Americas

The windmill was restored with the help of young people learning about the trades. A wonderful job has been done. Charles climbed to the top and saw the inner workings. They are able to use the mill to demonstrate how it worked. This is done on special occasions.

We did a side trip that turned out to be uninteresting. We took the road to Connor Pass. As we started up the road there were warning signs about size, weight and length requirements. The road is to be only used by cars. On the last stop before the pass, there was a sign saying "If you are in an overweight or over length vehicle TURN BACK NOW". We weren't really sure what the road would be like. This was the last chance to turn back. The road became quite narrow with steep cliffs down on one side and up on the other side of the car. The road still went both ways so passing was interesting. The views made it all worthwhile.

The pass leads to the town of Dingle. Now we wished we had not done the side trip earlier. We would have liked to spend time looking around this quaint town. Instead we continued on toward Slea Head. We stopped at Dunberg Fort. Then went on to the Beehive Huts. There are some 50 beehive hut communities in this area. These hut are ancient living area. They seem to be enclosed in a ring fort. Most of these sites are not open to the public due to vandalism.

Soon it was time to head back to Tralee and pick up the laundry.

Wednesday September 21st

2011-09-24T12:19:00.001-07:00

Off to Tralee today. Adare was our first stop. It was a town with a number of churches(not in ruins), thatched cottages, and a castle. We saw the inside of Adare Church which is the Church of Ireland and the R.C. Trinitarian Abbey.

The Adare Church is the old Augustinian Priory. There are many reminders of the old catholic priory. There was a cloister area that is completely enclosed. There are no doors into the centre which is a grassy area with trees and plants. We wondered how this was tended. The old refectory is now a school and parish hall. The inside was very nice in its simplicity. There were many antiques inside as well.

The R.C. Holy Trinity Abbey was two churches in one. The new church was built right beside the old one. The connecting wall was taken out. Inside it looks like a main church with a large chapel beside it. There are still lots of renovating going on. We were not able to see the entire abbey because of this. The inside was more ornate than the Adare Church.

Moving on to Askeaton. The castle there was closed due to all the renovations that are being done. When talking to a worker with the OPW we found out that the castle had been undermined during an attack. It was then set a fire. The castle then collapsed under its own weight. They are trying to save what is left.

We stopped at the Askeaton Abbey before leaving town. The tower had been destroyed by cannon fire. Most of the abbey had been destroyed. There were still some things of interest. This is where we talked with the OPW worker. On the wall of the abbey was a sign "No burials inside this abbey". The man said people still sneak in and bury their loved ones.

Our last stop was the Carrigafoylis Castle. So much had been closed over the last couple of days so that as we approached this castle with its side missing I said "We are open for your viewing pleasure". This castle was built in a different way than others we have seen. It was built with slabs of sandstone instead of rocks. It was thought to be impregnable in the 16^th century. However it fell after 3 days when attacked by cannon fire. People are able to climb up to the top of the back part of the castle.

Tuesday September 20th

2011-09-24T12:18:00.001-07:00

We set out today to see two castles and gardens. When we arrived at the first one and realized they were both closed for the season. What to do??

Heading across country with our trusty GPS we headed for Killaloe on the Shannon River. When travelling there we saw some "Travellers". There were about 6 travel trailers parked on the side of the road. One of the trailers even had weights outside of it. Killaloe was a quaint town that is a summer holiday destination. Across the Shannon is the town of Ballina. After we crossed the bridge we were in Tipperary. We thought "It is not a long way from Tipperary in Killaloe"

When in Killaloe we found a corner store that had info about the Lough Dreg cruise. We reserved two seats then went walking around town. We went into the Cathedral Church of St. Flannan (Church of Ireland.). In comparison to the R.C. churches we have seen this one was quite simple in decor. Later when we were on the cruise we found out some other passengers had been in the church while the organist was practicing. Would have loved to hear the pipe organ being played.

We ate lunch at a park bench beside the river and in front of the Cathedral. When we crossed the river to catch the cruise we realised that there were picnic tables along the water front on this side. We had some time to pass so we went for a walk around the waterfront in Ballina.

The cruise took us under the bridge and into the reservoir for the hydro plant down river. I noticed that the Tipperary side of the Shannon had all the water front property. Then I realized that there was an old canal running up the Killaloe side. In the 18^th Century the river was used as a link between Dublin and Limerick. A canal had to be built with a number of locks to raise the barges up the Shannon. This turned Killaloe into a centre of commercial activity.

The cruise turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing time. The shores around Lough Derg was full of power boats parked out in front of the properties. We did not think we could afford to live in this area.

What a relaxing day we had.

Monday September 19th

2011-09-19T13:41:00.001-07:00

What a change in weather. It was a overcast misty day the whole day. We had decided to go look at the Blarney Woollen Mill shop in the morning. They had some beautiful woollen things. Too bad I can't handle wool at all. There were lots of other goods as well.

The afternoon we spent at the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. It rained a little at the start of the afternoon but then it stopped. The clouds did not disappear though. The Folk part of the depicted 19^th century thatched homes and cottages from the rural areas. The richest house had wallpaper .

There was a school house with separate sides for boys and girls and a doctors house. Then came the village street. Each of the shops had goods to sell. There were manor houses from the early and late 1800's and a church. There were two mills one with a vertical waterwheel and another with a horizontal waterwheel.

The most outstanding building was the castle it's self. It was built in 1425. It was purchased in 1954 and restored by Lord and Lady Gore. There are at least 4 sets of spiral staircases. One in each tower. Climbing up and down put my poor legs in worse shape. However, seeing some of the levels and rooms was worth it. It is furnished with mainly 15 and 16^th century furnishings.

When we were half way through the folk park Charles got me a wheel chair. He really had to work after that. I was so grateful to be able to see the rest of the park.

In the evening we returned to the castle for a Medieval Banquet. There was good food and drink. The butler groomsmen and ladies of the castle served us and provided the entertainment for the evening. There were a lot of people in a small area which made things cramped and loud. It was an enjoyable evening all anyway

Sunday September 18th

2011-09-19T13:38:00.001-07:00

We woke up today to a beautiful day. We had decided to go to Limerick.

King John's Castle was our first stop. It is named for King John although he had never been to the castle. This is the best preserved castle we have seen so far. The new visitors centre had lots of info about the castle and what life would have been like over the various centuries.

One of the most interesting things was the archaeological discoveries when the site was being prepared for the new visitors centre. Discovered were 3 hidden houses they think were Viking in origin. Also were found the mine passages that were built in the great siege of 1642. The remains of a medieval garrison and soldiers quarters
was recently discovered close to the sallyport area of the castle and can be viewed from the courtyard. Another siege 1690-1691 lead to the signing of the Treaty of Limerick.

In the 1930's row houses were built in the court yard of the castle. This was housing for the poor.

We went to another part of town to see the Milk Market. It was to have a Sunday Market. It turned out not to be much of a market. Then we went in search of the Tait Clock. The clock was built in 1867.

We returned to King's Island to see St. Mary's Cathedral. It was built in 1168. It was a beautiful cathedral in its simplicity. How it made it through the terrible 17^th century we are not sure. We were told there has been a Christian service here every day since the cathedral was built. It changed between catholic and protestant sects at the will of the kings. The cathedral has been added to over the centuries. The inside walls are very rough. There were beautiful stain glass windows, antique chandeliers and some antique furniture. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

Saturday September 17th

2011-09-17T13:37:00.001-07:00

We decided to go back and see some things again from the bus trip on Wednesday. We were able to do this during our trip to Bunratty.

We did not see the Coromroe Abbey on the bus trip. This became our first stop. There is not much left of the abbey site except the church. Roofs have been put up to protect some of the area in the church. The Cistercian Order, that built this abbey like to be in remote unpopulated areas.

Aillwee Cave was the next stop for us. We did not stop here on the bus tour. As we started the tour of the cave I realized that this would be very hard for me. It was quite dark with only a few lights every so often. This made walking for me quite difficult. I had to go slow. By the time we caught up to the rest the guide had already started his talk. The cave was different than most of the ones we have seen before. It was a channel carved out by water. There were two stunning waterfalls that did not flow into rivers but disappeared into the rocks below. Probably creating more channels below.

Bear bones were found in the cave. There were also rounded indentations where the bears would sleep. There have not been bears in Ireland for a long time. There is no indication that humans have been in the cave before it was discovered.

After revisiting three stops that we had done on the bus tour we headed for Bunratty. It was nice for me to see two of these stops as I was not able to see them on Wednesday.

Again it rained on and off all day. It seem our luck is holding with the rain coming when we are out of the car.

Friday September 16th

2011-09-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

Woke to a rainy start of the day. It has been variable today weather wise, some sun, some clouds and some rain. So glad we went to Inis Mór yesterday.

We decided last night to have a down day. So just took the laundry to be done and had a walk on the promenade. Last but not least caught up on that last few day for pictures and blog.

Thursday September 15th

2011-09-16T11:55:00.001-07:00

On the advice of our host we decided to go to the Aran Island Inis Mór today. It was a 40 min drive to the ferry terminal and another 40 min ferry ride. The day was nice and sunny and the seas were calm. The island is 9 miles long and 3 miles wide.

Upon arriving at Kilronan Village we decided to take the "green" tourist route – a horse and cart. Sean was our driver and Bob Marley was the horse. Bob is 13 years old and has been taking tourist around the island for a lot of years. Once I got up the step (not an easy task for me) I settled in for the ride. The other green way to see the island is by bike. Many people were out biking. There were at least three places to rent bikes from. There were also tourist busses as well.

The horse and cart way is nice and slow but not so much work as biking. On such a beautiful day it was nice to be outside. We got a good look at the landscape and the houses scattered around. There were stone walls everywhere. All of them free standing meaning there is no cement to help hold them up. Just rocks piled on top of each other. Holes are left to let the wind through. Many of these walls have been up for years. There are only a few sheep now on the island. Mostly there are cattle and goats. The women who still knit the Aran sweaters buy their wool. Most of the sweaters now are machine made.

We slowly made our way to the circular fort about 2/3 of the way up the island. What we did not know was that there was a ¾ km walk slowly uphill to the fort. Most of the walk consisted of flat walking with some inclines every so often. Not too Bad!! The last part was like goat country. You made your way steeply uphill over natural limestone steps. Not even by any means. You had to look ahead to plan your route to the next level. Now I had made it this far I was determined to make it to the top. I thought to myself "We paid for this!!!" More penance I guess.

Once up there it was well worth the climb. You could see the whole island. Since it was such a nice day you could see the mainland as well. One of the first things to notice was the lack of barriers at the cliff edge or signs warning you of the sudden drop down to the sea. People here figure if you fall off it is your own fault.

You can see why the fort was built here. It would be very easy to defend. Attacks from the sea are impossible at that time. You could see any attempt to attack from the land. The fort was built by the Celts in about 2000 BC. One could easily get rid of an enemy by just tossing them over the cliff. You would not want to get drunk on night and stagger into the dark. You just may never be seen again.

Soon it was time for our beautiful day on the island to end. Back at the B&B we rested up for the evening. We are going to see "Trad on the Prom" starring Máirín Fahy and Band. We had dinner first as part of our ticket. We had our choice of meals so that we both had beef and Yorkshire pudding with a starter of seafood medley in a puff pastry cup. For dessert Charles chose the black forest cake and I had the brownie with chocolate sauce. Everything was delicious.

The show started at 9pm. Máirín played the fiddle. Her sister Veronica played percussion, accordion and bass. Her husband played guitar and was the announcer for the evening. There was a guest musician who played the Irish bagpipes and the flute. The Irish flute is usually made of wood and played like a recorder. To complete the band there was a keyboardist. There were 4 female and 3 male Irish dancers and a vocalist. Another highlight of the evening was a young female dancer who dances old style Irish dancing. Not really sure what that means. I wish I knew everyone's names but sadly I do not. We enjoyed our evening very much. It was a very different show to the one we saw in Donegal. This was more a stage show.

At the end when all the dancers were tapping it created quite a sound. All the shows we have seen so far the dancers were on stages that are hollow which enhances the snap of the taps.

We came home tired but happy, having seen the sun, felt the wind, and experienced lots of music.

Wednesday September 14th

2011-09-16T03:15:00.001-07:00

Today is the day we are taking the bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher & Burren Tour.

We were picked up at our B&B and taken to a central bus stop. Here we got the bus for the tour. There were about 50 people on our bus. There were 2 buses with this tour company. Off we set. We passed through the country side along the Galway Bay. The first stop is at the Dunguaire Castle. It is a very well restored castle of this type. It is now open to the public during the summer. Also Medieval Banquets are held each night here. I thought it was privately owned. However it is owned by the Shannon Development Department. One thing about bus tours you have very little time to view something. Especially when it takes about 5 min. for people to exit the bus.

We stopped next at the Ballyalbane Earthen Ring Fort. You can see the dirt mounds but they are over grown with grasses and tress. We were told the mounds were three feet higher in the past. It was a safe place for people to live and bring their animals in for the night. It would be like the rock ring fort we saw north in Donegal. Later down the road there is a rock circle fort which we didn't stop at.

The Poulnabrone Dolmen is a wonderful portal tomb or wedge tomb. It was built by Neolithic people about 2500 BC. When excavated it was found to hold the bones of 16-22 adults and 7 children. Most of the adults died in the 30's. It was an impressive piece of stone work.

Before lunch we stopped at Kilfenora to see some ancient crosses. They are being protected from the elements in an old church. A glass roof has been extracted to protect them. The crosses were beautiful.

We stopped in Doolin for lunch. We were all hungry as in was after 1 when we stopped. Doolin is a cute village. It has a pier where daily a ferry goes to Aran Islands. We had a wonderful lunch at a pub there. It was hectic though as both buses on the tour plus a few smaller tours were all there for lunch. We had 45 min. here but did not have much time after lunch to look around the town.

The Cliffs of Moher was our last stop. This is a well organized tourist area. They had a beautiful information centre built into the hill side. There were beautiful lookouts and path to walk along. In the main area there were areas there were wall to keep people from getting to close to the cliffs. Soon the paths go along the edge of the cliffs. We were able to see the Aran Islands today.

Our trip home followed along the coast line. The French were making a movie along this route. We were stopped to wait for a shot to take place. All of a sudden a boom camera came up and 2 men came off the cliff edge. It was fun to see.

The Burren area is full limestone. This makes a very unique landscape. It covers a 320 square km in size. We had a wonderful day.

Tuesday September 13th

2011-09-13T13:32:00.001-07:00

We woke up to sunshine. However that did not mean it was warm. We are heading to Galway today. We headed inland via a town called Tuam.

We saw the remains of St. Jarlath's Wheel Monastery. It was started by St Jarlath when his chariot wheel broke at the site of the future monastery. There was not much left of the old building. The carved heads that were over the windows were interesting as was the architecture around the windows. While in town we tried to see the Mill Museum but it was not open.

Further down the road we found the Knockmoy Abbey. In order to see it we had to climb over 3 rock stiles and dodge more cow pies. We met three people leaving the abbey and one lady said "This was our penance." It was nice to see an Abbey instead of a Friary. We could even recognize the difference. The Abbey dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and founded for the Cistercians from Boyle in 1189-90 by Cathal Crovdearg O'Connor, King of Connacht. The church has a nave, chancel and a transept with two chapels. The nave is simple and austere, with little ornament except at the top of the pillars. In contrast, the rib-vaulted chancel has beautifully carved stonework with fine capitals and east windows. It has a 13th century tomb niche.

On the north wall of the chancel is a unique Irish medieval line-painting. The bottom of the picture shows an angel with scales (now almost invisible), Christ with his hand raised in blessing, and the martyrdom of St. Sebastian. Above is a scene from the medieval morality legend of the Three Dead Kings and the Three Live Kings. Under the Dead Kings was the inscription 'We have been as you are, you shall be as we are', while the Live Kings seem to be part of a hawking scene..It was commissioned probably around 1400 by Malachie O'Nollan and Conaire O'Eddichan.

Our last stop of the day was the Medieval Heritage town of Athenry. Athenry is one of the most notable medieval walled towns surviving in Ireland, owing its foundation to Meiler de Bermingham who built his Castle there c.1250.

Bermingham did not want Irish inside his town. He offered free land to anyone from Europe that wished to settle there. This came at a price however you were taxed heavily and never allowed to leave. This town was build at a cross road between Dublin and Galway and the north and south of Ireland. Bermingham made lots of money charging people to enter and exit his town as they passed through.

In the Medieval Heritage Museum we learned about life in the town and at the time in history. Charles got to wear some chainmail and various helmets. We learned about weapons of the time. How heavy some of them were. We saw a replica of a dungeon and heard of all the ways to torture someone. Lots more history to learn.

We have now settled in at Galway. It was a great day with little rain but strong winds.

Last Friday when we were leaving the Moyen Friary Charles started to pull out from where he was parked. Upon seeing a transport truck coming down the one lane road he quickly pulled back in. He thought the truck should have the right of way. Might is Right.

Monday September 12th

2011-09-12T13:14:00.001-07:00

After a very windy night, we awoke to bad weather. What does one do on a windy rainy day? We went to Glengowla Mines. The mine was abandoned in 1865 after 14 years of working.

During that short 14 year period, 545 square metres was stopped to produce 390 tonnes of lead containing 28 kilograms of silver. It closed because of a legal fight with the owners. When the legal matters were cleared up the mine was full of water. It remained that way until the present owners decided in the 1990's to pump out the water to see what was down there. By opening up a new entrance to the mine and doing extensive renos the mine has opened to the public.

Our tour guide today just loves the mine. He has worked here for a few years by doing tours and also helping to open up new areas of the mine. We were the only ones on the tour. The guide's enthusiasm made the tour very exciting. The miners used brute strength to hammer the drills into the rock. The mine opened just after the famine ended so that men were willing to do anything to make some money. The working conditions were not that bad. There were no gases to worry about. The rock was hard enough that the ceilings and walls did not have to be shored up. There is always water running in the mine to keep dust to a minimum.

After we finished the tour we walked around the grounds to see buildings and mine shafts with the remains of ore extraction techniques. We also found out that highway N59 to Galway was closed due to high winds. They were very worried about trees blowing over on the road. We decided to not head out to the Connemara headlands as the winds were just too strong. We headed back to the B&B.

On the way back we were able to see the actual bridge that was used in the filming of "The Quiet Man". We spent the afternoon watching the movie "The Quiet Man". We could recognize many of the spots in Cong that were used in the making of the film.

The weather is supposed to improve over the next few days. We sure hope so.

Sunday September 11th

2011-09-11T12:15:00.001-07:00

Ten years ago we were in Southampton England getting Jennifer settle in at Uni. We remember being in a store when Jennifer said "we had to come and watch the TV". Our trip was changed. TV covered the 9/11 event for days. Air travel had changed. We wanted to make changes in our travel plans as I had an infection in my leg. It is hard to believe 10 years has passed.

We did not have far to travel today. Charles had researched a number of sites for us to see. So we set off to find the Belcarra Eviction Cottage. After driving around rural roads we finally decided to consult the GPS. At one T intersection, if we had turned right we would have found the town of Belcarra. The GPS helped us find our way.

When we found the cottage it said "to see call Jacquie". Without a cell phone or a phone handy we could not contact Jacquie. We just looked in the windows and around the cottage. We found something interesting - a battering ram to knock cottages down so families could not return. Also there was a much smaller cottage close by that the community had built to house the family evicted.

Off we set to find the Mayo Abbey and then the Ballintubber Abbey. We did not really find the Mayo Abbey. The Ballintubber Abbey is still in use today. People were arriving for Mass at 11:30. So although we did not see much, we had loads of fun following the GPS through all the rural roads.

We arrived in Cong by 1pm. After eating lunch in our room we headed into Cong. When we were here a few years ago, it was a bustling little village full of tourists. Today it was quiet. I wonder if young people are no longer interested in a village where the movie "The Quiet Man" starring John Wayne was made. It was a little disappointing.

With the weather windy and rainy walking around is not very pleasant. There is beautiful place called Ashford Castle close by. It is now a very upscale hotel. You can view the gardens and the grounds but not inside. After checking out the prices, I figure we will never see in the castle.

We returned to Cong from the B&B for another walk around as it had stopped raining. We also had supper. Now settled in for the night.

Saturday September 10th

2011-09-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

On the move today. It is an overcast day. We are getting the effect from ex-tropical storm Katia today and for the rest of the weekend.

We did not see much today just travelled around. We decided to take the scenic route over the Corraun Peninsula and on to Achill Island. It was very windy but no rain to speak of.

Turns out that there was a big bicycle race on Achill Island. There was an expert loop and a recreational loop. So that on these roads some narrow ones there where bicyclist going the same direction as us, or toward us, or both. Charles had to dodge riders, cars and walkers. It was crazy. To add to the confusion all the signs were in Gaelic.

We stopped at a square castle. It was blowing so hard Charles and I had a hard time staying on the rock path. We needed to stay on the path as it was so muddy off the path. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. Was not going to take pictures but the inside was different than what we had seen before.

We stopped at look outs to see the rugged sea coast. One area where we stopped the bike riders had to dismount and walk. It was so windy we don't think they could have remained on their bikes anyway. We felt sorry for the racers as they battled hills and awful winds. Sometimes we saw bikers almost loss their bikes by the cross winds.

We stopped at a picnic area to eat lunch. We tried to have make and eat our lunch outside. Silly us!! It was just too windy. Eating in the car again.

We arrived in Westport at our B&B by 3pm. Charles asked about a local sightseeing site. We decided not to go as it was a hill with a 3-4 hour climb. It turns out that our decision not to go was a very good one. While I had a little nap Charles noticed that there was an increased presence of police and civil defence personal.

We decided we could walk downtown to have a look around and have supper. Again a very good decision. As we got closer to town parking spots were being closed off. Downtown parking was being closed as cars left. Barracades were being erected. Turns out that Cannonball Run has arrived in Westport for the night. There are no vacancy sign up all over the place. Thank goodness we had a reservation . There are 150 super cars involved. This is to raise money for Barretstown that helps children suffering from cancer.

Although, it was raining we enjoyed our walk and supper. We were very thankful, we did not drive anywhere. We probably would not have found a parking spot back at the B&B if we had taken the car.

Charles took a walk down to see what was going on. He said it was crazy. I could see the traffic congestion from the window. The whole downtown area is closed off.

Friday September 9th

2011-09-10T12:50:00.001-07:00

It is another beautiful day. We headed off northwest of Ballina.

Our first stop was Moyen Friary. We could see it across the farmers field but there was very little parking. It is a little hard to just park on a single lane road. Charles found an area where he could just pull off the road. The first sign we encountered was BEWARE OF THE BULL. Makes one a little leery to venture across the fields. Up over the rock stile over the fence to start our journey. There are a number of cows in the field but no BULL. The sign should have said "WATCH OUT FOR FRESH COW DUNG". Took lots of dexterity to avoid this. There was another stile to climb before we arrived at the Friary. Since we had a lot of info from the Sligo Friary, we were able to figure out a lot of the area in this Friary. This was a much bigger one. As one of the floors was stone we were able to go upstairs. In one area upstairs there were 4 holes in the floor with outlets to the outside. We think these may have been toilet areas giving drainage to the stream that runs through the Friary and out to the sea. No sure but it makes sense. This friary was very much intact. All the wooden parts have been lost to fire but the rock parts are there. Since this friary is out in the country side, maybe no one used the stones to build other buildings.

Stop 2 was called Céide Fields. This was an amazing archaeology site. The first evidence of rock walls was found by Patrick Caulfield in the 1930's. No one took his find seriously. His son Seamas became an archaeologist and started to expand the search for rock walls under the peat in the 1970's. Using a metal pole to probe through the peat they were able to find evidence of a well laid out plan of rock walls. The walls ran parallel up from the coast to the crest of the hill. There were cross walls as well to make up field or animal pen areas. There was also found evidence of where wooden houses would have stood. One court tomb was found in the vicinity. The area of these walls incorporates about 1000 hectares. Although we could not see much, the significance of this find is the unique insight into a highly organized farming system about 5000 years ago. This appears to be a very friendly community as no weapons were found. Do to climate change and the fact that the people of the time cleared all the trees, peat bogs slowly took over and covered up this piece of the past.

We thought we would get a down pour of rain while we were on the tour but it blow away from us. It was very windy and hard to hear the tour guide. One thing she told us about was that 2 plants in the bog eat insects.

Third stop was at the Foxford Woollen Mills. These mills were founded in 1892 by Mother Agnes Morrogh Bernard. Mother Agnes was a woman on a mission to improve the economic conditions of this area. She was a force to reckon with. First she started a school. When only a few students showed up she told the people that each child would receive food and cloths. It did not take long for the school to be full. Borrowing money and knowhow she started the first woollen mill. She used the river Moy that runs through the town to power the looms. It only stopped using water power in the 60's. It is still producing world famous Foxford tweeds, rugs and blankets.

This area was also known for the start the land revolt. This was a peaceful revolt that changes Irish history for the better. It let the people own the land they worked. It started as a result of many evictions during the famine.

We learned lot of history today.

Thursday September 8th

2011-09-08T13:20:00.001-07:00

It was raining again when we woke up. However, by the time we were ready to leave it was clearing up.

We set off for Sligo town to the north. It takes about 1 hour to get there. We visited the Sligo Abbey ruins. It is really a Friary. The difference is that friars commune with people and monks in abbeys do not. It was found in 1252 or 53. It is a Dominican Friary. This is one of the best preserved abbeys in Ireland. Sir Donagh O'Connor influenced Queen Elizabeth to save Sligo friary from dissolution. So many of the Irish catholic religious houses suffered the fate of dissolution in the 16^th century. It was not just religious houses that suffered this fate but many of the manor homes did as well. The early 16^th century was a terrible time in Ireland. We are so glad we went back to Sligo to see the abbey.

We went out to Knocknarea to try and see the cairns there. Unfortunately it was about a ¾ hour walk up a steep hill to see the cairns on top. You can see the cairn for miles around. It makes the mountain look like a pot top with a knob on top. We were disappointed but after all it is a pile of rocks.

On the way back to Ballina we went in search of Cabragh Wedge Tomb. There were no signs around to show us the way. In the town of Coolaney we stopped and asked directions. Following these excellent directions we thought we would not find the tomb. Giving up we decided to stop so I could take pictures of the landscape. Charles spotted a fenced off area that looked like a wedge tomb. Eureka, we found it. We did not get close as we would have had to ask permission from the farmer. This was a different example of a Neolithic burial site. So many of these sites were buried under peat that preserved them from people taking away the stones.

We continued our overland trip on a one lane road. This one even had grass growing down the middle. To think you can do 80 km/h on these roads.

Our last stop was at the Kilcullen's Seaweed Baths in Inishcrone. It was a very interesting experience. We had a double room which meant that Charles and I each had a bathtub with very hot water sea water and seaweed in it. We started out in a steam box. There was only one of these. I have seen them in movies but never had experienced one. It helped your pores to open up. What a relaxing time we had. I stayed in too long and felt very dizzy after getting out. It soothed our skin.

I needed a nap when getting back to the B&B.

It did not start raining until this evening. It was a gentle misty rain.

Wednesday September 7th

2011-09-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

A moving day for us. It was raining when we left and rained off and on most of the day. However each time we stopped to see something it was not raining. We did not have long to look around before the rain started again.

Our first stopped fooled us. It was right on the main road heading south. We almost missed it. The Creekykeel Court Tomb was much bigger than the tomb we had seen up north. The shape was much the same but there were more burial chambers. They found a number of objects that were buried with the ashes at this site.

Soon we were heading overland to see the Glencar waterfalls. We were back on the usual narrow roads. Before we got to the waterfalls we saw two big falls cascading over the cliffs. We thought we would be seeing the largest of these, but no. There was only a short walk up to the falls once we arrived. There was a great amount of water over the falls. The river was swollen.

Park's Castle was the next thing we tried to find. Again this required an overland trip. When we passed though a gap, there was a marvellous view of the landscape toward the ocean. The castle has had a great amount of restoration done. While doing this they found the foundation for the 16^th century house. The stones from this house were used to build the new manor house.

This ended the sightseeing for the day. It rained all the way to Ballina our next stop.

Some things about the roads in Ireland. If the roads are wide and have a line the speed limit is 100km/h. If they are 1 ½ lanes wide or narrower the speed limit is 80 km/h. Many of the roads we have been on we did not do 80km/h. Town speed are the same as home. The reflectors in the pavement look like two beady eyes looking out as us. They remind me of the little UFOs from the movie "Batteries Not Included" or the eyes on the sand people from Star Wars.

Tuesday September 6th

2011-09-07T12:50:00.001-07:00

Today started out sunny again but very windy. We headed out east of Donegal into Northern Ireland.

Tully Castle was our first stop. It is a ruin of a 17^th century manor house. We could not see inside. Later we saw Monea Castle also a 17^th century manor house but a larger one. We were able to see inside. Not many of the castles built during this era survived the raids by the English. Now it costs too much money to restore them.

It is now raining so we decided to go to the Marble Arch Caves. There are 150 steps down to the cave, so that I decided not to go. Charles went but it was a shortened tour as there has been too much rain. The lower levels are flooded. Charles was lucky as he was in the cave for the worst of the rain.

Soon we were heading back to Donegal. On the way we stopped at Belleek China. They had some beautiful and unique china. My favourites were the woven baskets. They were delicate and expensive.

We wanted to be back to the B&B to rest up for the evening dinner show we were going to. For €20 each we had a wonderful traditional lamb stew and bread pudding for dessert and the show later. The Slice of Ireland show started at 8:30. There was a sell out crowd. What a wonderful show. The band was great. We knew a lot of the songs so were able to sing along. There was a lot of hand clapping and foot stomping. It was to be over around 10:30 but went on till after 11. I don't think many people wanted it to be over. We learned about the Uilleann Pipes which are Irish bag pipes. The difference is that the player has a bellows around his waist which he operates with his arm rather than blowing into the pipes. This makes a different sound than the Scottish pipes. We first saw these pipes used in the River Dance production but did not know how they worked. The manager of the hotel also sang 3 ballads throughout the evening. Just an amazing evening.

Monday September 5th

2011-09-06T11:01:00.001-07:00

Over the last two days we have been exploring the area around Donegal. Today started out beautiful and sunny. We went into Donegal Town and saw the Abbey Ruins and Donegal Castle. The Abbey ruins are now a cemetery. I wondered about where the walls had gone from the Abbey. It turns out that some of the stones and door architecture where taken from the Abbey just a short distance away to be used in the Manor House part of Donegal Castle. They have done a very good job of restoring the tower part of the Castle.

We headed west out of Donegal to see what this area was like. We saw the Slieve League cliffs. We were glad to find out we could drive closer to the cliffs. We would not have seen them if we had to walk from the first parking lot. This was a very nice site to see. As we left Charles thought we were going the wrong way so that he turned into a driveway to turn around. Next thing we knew a car wanted to turn into the same drive. We had a laugh about this.

We found a beautiful place to have lunch. Again it was very windy but it was not raining. Quite a number of people arrived at this lookout to see the sites while we had lunch

Onward we went to Glencolmbkille to see the Folk Village Museum. It was started by Father James Mc Dyer. He came to the area in 1951. He was very influential in trying to improve the poverty ridden area. He campaigned to let the government and church know about the terrible conditions. He started the Folk Village to increase tourism and create jobs. There were examples of cottages form the 18^th 19^th and 20^th centuries. It was a very interesting place to see how things changes over time. We also learned about rope thatching for the roofing. We had not seen this type of thatching before.

Now it is raining quite hard so we headed for home. This different route took us across more peat bog country. When we came to the Glengesh Pass the rain had stopped and we were able to see the valley below. The bowl shaped valley made us think it was formed by glaciers. The rest of the trip home was in rain.

Sunday September 4th

2011-09-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

In the morning on Tory Island we went in search for the Tau Cross. We had not been able to find it yesterday. As we stepped out of the hotel, I saw the top of it just off to the right. How could we have missed it I don't know? We should have seen it as we came up from the ferry. Better late than never.

We had a very good trip back to the main land. It was smoother and faster that the trip out. This was a nice respite from the hectic travel we had done so far. Our skipper said we were in for bad weather later in the day. He was right.

As we made our way to Donegal we saw Tory Island a few times from shore. We followed the shore, and then cut inland. By now it is raining quite hard. Basically al we saw was hills and peat bogs.

As we came close to Letterkenny, we stopped at a corn and flax mills. The corn mill is still in working order. Although no grain was milled today we saw all the working parts of the mill. One man could operate the mill by himself. The flax mill did not work but we were able to see how the flax was processed. Both mills could be very dangerous. The mills were owned by the Gallagher family. They also owned a store and a pub. The flax mill stopped working just after WW2 when great amounts of linen were no longer needed. The corn mill continued to operate well into the 20^th century. A nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.

When we got to Donegal town it was bright and sunny. We were so hot sitting by the window of the restaurant for supper. By the time we got to the B&B a big black cloud had appeared. It was raining shortly after we checked in.

Saturday September 3rd

2011-09-05T13:28:00.001-07:00

This morning we awoke to a nice looking day. On the road by 8 am to get to the ferry terminal at Magheroarty. We took the ferry at 11am to Tory Island. It was a very choppy trip at the beginning. There were 5 ladies on the boat along with 6 other passengers. Four of the 5 ladies had never made the trip before. They were on a ladies trip to the island. The 4 first timers were quite worried about the trip. In the end one of the women got sick. She was the only one.

Tory Island is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. There are about 150 people on the island. After checking in we headed out to the east end of the Island to see the cliffs and climb up the headland. I was very happy as I made it almost all the way to the top. Charles continued to climb to the top and then out to the unusual rock formation at this end of the island. Charles said it was the best thing on the island. One can walk out to the end of the formation.

We ate lunch at the Cafe. We ordered hamburgers. Charles a cheese burger and I ordered a plain one. That is exactly what we got. Nothing else on the burger. We had a chuckle about this. We ended up putting catsup on it.

After lunch Charles walked out to the light house while I went back to the room. We had a very relaxing afternoon. Before supper we went for a walk around town. We were passed at least 6 times by a red car with 3 young men in it. They drove out to the lighthouse in the west end of the island to the cliffs in the east. Round and round they went. At one point they lost one of the passengers. I guess this was "cruising" on Troy Island. For such a small island there was lots of traffic.

At supper in the hotel bar we met up with the 5 ladies from the boat. We had a great time talking to them while eating. They had spent most of the day in the bar. Two of the ladies went out to Mass. They were surprised as mass was in Gaelic. They told us they talked with one of the Secondary teachers. Apparently they are 5 teachers for this level and 5 students. What a wonderful way to spend the evening!

Friday September 2nd

2011-09-02T13:23:00.001-07:00

Today we headed west out of Northern Ireland into County Donegal.

Our first stop was to be ancient circular fort called Grianan of Aileach. No one knows much about its origin. Again it was on top of a hill. You get a wonderful 360° view of the surrounding landscape. We were very lucky as Charles spied a small sign directing us to this site. When we got there, we met up with 5 young people from the area that had camped at the fort over night. They were quite funny. They had arrived after dark and had to set up in the rain as well. When awoken this morning at 8 am by tourist they decided to pack up. One of the fellows had lost his shoes. Charles climbed to the top inside the fort. The view must have been even better from there.

Now it was on to the Inishowen Peninsula. At an info centre we got a detailed map of the area. This was very helpful as we took the scenic route around the peninsula. The route is called Inishowen 100 because the route is about100 miles in length. The roads on the route were basically 1 lane wide with traffic going both ways. It could get very interesting when meeting large vehicles. Once we rounded a corner only to meet an oncoming county bus. Luckily we were able to pull over enough to let it by.

Our first stop was at Dunree Head Military Museum. The fort here was built by the English along with 5 others on Lough Swilly in case Napoleon invaded. There is a similar fort across the Lough. Again not a shot was fired in anger from this fort. It was only used as a training fort. The guns were fired once a year until 1961. It was a good museum. We were able to eat a picnic lunch before the rain moved in.

Heading north we went through the Gap of Mamore. The views were amazing from the top of the gap. There is a holy well and religious shrines at the gap. There have been pilgrimages to this spot for centuries. The rain started as we continued along the Inishowen 100. It was hard to take pictures with the pouring rain but we did manage. After finding and checking in to our B&B we headed north to Malin Head. This is the most northerly point in all of Ireland. The wind was blowing and the rain was coming down while we were there. We did not spend long here before heading back to our lodgings.

We have settled in for the night. We think it has stopped raining. Hoping the weather improves for tomorrow as we are going to Tory Island. We don't take the car. It will be more enjoyable if it is not raining.

Thursday September 1st

2011-09-01T12:07:00.001-07:00

We decided to have an easy day today and headed west from Coleraine in search of the Mussenden Temple. It was not hard to find.

This was a wonderful site but required lots of walking. The Mussenden Temple was in very good shape. It was built to be a library. The windows look North, East & West and the door looks South. When it was originally built you could take a carriage ride around it however the land has been eroded away by the North Atlantic. The Dove Cove was also in great shape. Dove down was used in pillows and mattresses. The doves were also eaten in the winter when meat was scarce. Inside there were many nooks for the doves to perch or nest.

It is too bad that the house was left to ruin in 1944. There are pictures of the house in the 1920's. The interior was beautiful. Now there is excavation being done on the living section of the old part of the house. The gardens have been recovered. One of the lions on top of the Lion's Gate has been fixed while to other one had to

be totally redone. This must have been an impressive residence in its hay day.

After lunch on site we went to see the Hezlett House. It is a Thatched Roof Cottage built in 1691. It was originally built as a rectory. It was bought by the Hezlett family in 1776 and remained in the family for 200 years. It was a six bedroom cottage. Issac Hezlett added an extension for his widowed Mother. It was a unique cottage as it has a cruck frame. The frame was built first them the walls were filled in. It is like an upside down boat.

We continued west to Magilligan Point. There is a gunnery range there as well a prison. At the Point there is a ferry to Donegal across Lough Foyle. We walked up to see the tower then came back along the beach. This is an 8 km beach running from Downhill to the Point.

On the way back we found a scenic route across the Binevnagh Mountain. The road is called the Bishop's Road as it was the favourite way for the Bishop to travel from Downhill House to Derry. There was a look out at an elevation of 853ft. We could see all the way to Magilligan Point and to Derry. Soon we were back. Our last day in this area.

Wednesday August 31st

2011-09-01T01:52:00.001-07:00

We did not do much yesterday. I had my hair cut and we got laundry done. It was nice to have a day off from travelling.

Today we did the Causeway Scenic Drive to the east of Coleraine. We started the drive by passing through 2 fishing villages Portstewart and Portrush. Our first stop was a Dunluce Castle. It is a ruins of a castle built between the 15^th – 17^th centuries. It was built on the 30 foot high black basalt stack. This made it very easy to defend. We got the audio visual aid for the castle. Some people went to a lot of work describing what the castle would have been like. At the end of the talk we were shown a short video of what it might have looked like. This gave the ruins a much different look. Unfortunately the castle is built on a softer type of basalt. Some of the castle has already collapsed with the rock. It would have been an impressive castle in its day.

Travelling to the east we came to the Giants Causeway. It is a very impressive site of many basalt columns. Over the centuries many people used the blocks for building structures. You can see why as the blocks are already formed. Very little cutting would need to be done. The story goes that at 54 foot tall giant Finn McCool was building a causeway to Scotland. Meanwhile a bigger giant Benandonner was building one from Scotland. When McCool saw how much bigger Benandonner was he ran back home. His wife Oonagh dressed him like a baby so that when Benandonner showed up she told him that her husband was away but this was their son. Benandonner thought that if this was how big the baby was then how big would the father be. He left in a hurry destroying the bridge. There is a similar outcropping of basalt columns in Scotland.

Our last stop was at the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. Charles walked out to, and over the bridge. It was a 1km walk to the bridge. Charles said there were lots of stairs. I knew I could not walk across the bridge so I did not go. I would not have been able to get back if I went. The bridge was built so fishermen could get out to a small island where they could put out their nets to catch salmon. It was a precarious bridge that the fisherman built. Not like today's bridge. There were some beautiful views from the islands. Charles enjoyed his journey Carrick Island. I had a cup of tea while he was gone. There were so many different languages spoken around me it was like a league of nations.

A great way to spend the day.

Monday August 29th

2011-08-30T05:56:00.001-07:00

We said goodbye to Monaghan this morning. We had a wonderful stay at the B&B. We were very spoiled. Charles got an Irish coffee every evening along with wine or beer. I got a coke or juice. There were snacks as well each afternoon. Will miss all this tonight.

Our first stop was at St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh. The outside was wonderful to look at. The inside took your breath away. The floors, walls and ceiling were all tiled making designs and pictures. We wish we had been able to get better pictures. Unfortunately there was a mass about to take place so we felt we could not take the time. We felt in awe after we left. The architecture, tile work and stain glass windows all made up this amazing place to worship.

On our way to Cookstown we tried to find Creggandeveskyn Court Tomb. It was not that easy to find. We found a map that showed a picture of it but did not indicate where it was. At an information centre we found out how to find the tomb. Only to find out the road to it was closed for repair. Thinking we would not be able to see it we went in search of Beaghmore Stone Circles. This we found without trouble. These were very different henges than stone henge. They were hidden under peat for many years.

While eating lunch in the car due to rain, we decided to try and find the Court Tomb . We were able to find another road to it. There are two of the tombs in this area but we only went to the Creggandeveskyn Court Tomb. It was about a 1Km walk to the tomb. It was a very interesting site. There was evidence of 21 burials at this tomb. The tomb was on a high point. We could see all around the area. For both of these historical sites we were the only ones at them. Also we knew we were on the right paths as the roads were very narrow.

The last thing Charles had for us to possible see was a Beetling Mill. Beetling Mills were used in the last stage of linen making. It was run by water wheel which operated hammers that pounded the bleached linen to produce a sheen or closer weave. This Beetling Mill was used from 1764 until 1962. There was too long a wait for us to take the tour so we just walked along the Ballinderry River that provided the water for the watermill.

Tonight we are in Coleraine.

Here we are in the pub as we get free internet. One thing you would never see in Canada is children in the pub. Here it is common occurrence. Tonight even though it is 9:50pm there are still children here.

Sunday August 28th

2011-08-30T05:55:00.001-07:00

Today we headed out to take a scenic drive along the east coast south of Belfast. We had lots to see but decided to play it by ear depending on the time. It took about 2 hours to get to the start of the drive. It was a bit disappointing as the hedge rows are so high it was hard to see anything. There were some bright spots. We stopped at a rest area and saw the Mourne Mts. which are volcanic. Some people were fishing off the rocks as well. A rain storm came up off the mountains here. Going into Newcastle was very nice to see. There was a lovely beach area in town. On a nice day it would be crowded.

As it was a Sunday every hamlet we went through was full of church parking so that two way roads were now 1 ½ lanes. In some towns parking was on both sides so it was down to one lane. You drove down the road with the white line in the middle of the car. When we first started out people were going to church. After an hour things got interesting as church got out.

We stopped for lunch at a beautiful sea side area in Kilclief. Luckily there was a picnic table for us to use. We had lunch first before visiting Kilclief Castle which was just across the road. Once we had finished we went for a walk on the beach. There was a lady in swimming. She said it was invigorating. We thought getting out with the wind wouldn't be too nice. The castle was now open for viewing.

Kilclief Castle is not really a castle but a home called a tower house. It was built in 1429. There are quite a number of these all around Ireland. In the eastern part of Ireland, they are much the same as this one. This one was in very good condition. There is a spiral staircase up one side with four floors off of it. Storage on the ground floor, a living floor next, then kitchen floor and finally a sleeping floor. Charles climbed all the way to the top. I only got to the second floor. The stairs were very uneven. It was very interesting to see inside one of these towers.

We decided to head inland after this to make our way back to Monaghan. We stopped to see Castle Ward which again is not really a castle but a Manor house. We were able to do a self tour inside and were able to take pictures. On the ground floor the ceilings in each room were amazing. Each one was different. This was the second house built by the Ward family. Some of the wood work was re-used in this house from the first one. The Manor house was built in the mid 1700's and was lived in until 1973. The grounds have a number of trails for walking, cycling and horseback riding. We did not do any of the trails. We did see the sunken garden which was beautiful. There was a vintage car display going on and we thought of our friend Dave. His wife Joan may not have got him away from the cars.

The trip home was overland. It was a beautiful trip. We could see much of the country side as the hedge rows were not so high. We also saw the back of the Mourne Mts.

We ate supper at a nice Italian restaurant in Monaghan. When we went in there was only a father and son inside by the time we left there were 17 people.

What a great day.

Saturday August 27th

2011-08-30T05:53:00.001-07:00

We decided not to do the scenic tour today. We were both tired. So we set off for Dungannon where we thought there was lots to see. On the way Moy historical village turned out to be just an ordinary village. In Dungannon the Moygashel Linen Green was just a shopping mall. And Tryon Crystal had closed a year ago.

We tried to find Castle Caulfield an ancient ruin but found the town instead. We did hear about a government forest called Parkanaur Forest. We thought we would be able to have a picnic lunch there. The picnic area was gone but there were some walks to take. We took the blue one. It was beautiful amongst the trees. We followed the meandering creek along the way. There was a Manor house that was closed due to a wedding.

We headed back to Dungannon to find some lunch. Not an easy proposition. The pubs were no longer doing food. We did find restaurant and arrived there just in time. We were their last customers. The lunch was very nice.

We headed back to our B&B to relax. We stopped at a local shopping centre. There was a dance school putting on a display. The little ones were so cute. Every Saturday during the summer there is something put on by the children of the community.

Friday August 26th

2011-08-30T05:51:00.001-07:00

Time to say goodbye to Dublin. We did not have a long journey to Monaghan but had lots to see on the way. After we got the GPS figured out and I learned my left from my right we were underway. Our first stop was Hill of Tara. Hills were considered sacred by the druids and Celts. There is a burial mound built by the druids there. Inside were many pictures carved in stone as well as the cremated remains of the departed. There were also dirt henges from a later date. There is much know about this area from the carvings and later written data.

We went on to see Newgrange which has more of the burial mounds. We only went into the visitors centre as it was a long way to the monuments.

After lunch we went on to see the Old Mellifont Abby and the Manasterboice crosses and what is left of the monastery. One thing we did learn on our travels today was that the historical sites were not on nice wide roads. If you were on a proper two lane road you knew you were not near the site. One has to get on roads that get progressively narrower until you are really afraid to meet oncoming traffic. Then when you arrive at your destination there is a tour bus!!!

While having supper in Monaghan we started talking to a couple from Quebec. Small world!!

Thursday August 25th

2011-08-29T13:15:00.001-07:00

We went on a bus trip this morning around part of Dublin Bay. Our first stop was in the little fishing village of Howth. We had some rain there so were not able to look around much. It remained me of village in Newfoundland.

Our trip continued on the Malahide Castle. It had been in the Talbot family for many many years. The only time it was not in their hands was them Oliver Cromwell was in Ireland. The castle was given to Ireland by the last Talbot as she was not able to pay all the taxes after her brother died. It was beautiful inside filled with many antiques of great value. You can see the original part of the castle and all the additions made in the future. Many of the rooms were decorated for different eras. The plaster work on the ceiling was beautiful. We had a private tour conducted by our bus driver.

Arriving back in Dublin by 1:30 and had to pass time to 7:30. We wanted to see River dance. So we filled in time by riding the Hop on Hop off bus once around the city. We should have done the yellow route as we had not done that one before. We were never able to do it. We walked in St James Park. It was a beautiful afternoon and many people were out enjoying the park. Ate supper in the St James Mall then walked around the mall. Finally it was time for the show. Through music and dance it told the story of Ireland's history. From the beginning to the famine and the exodus of Irish to America. It was a wonderful show.

2010-05-01T15:11:00.003-07:00

To Sum Up

To sum up we stayed in 32 different places. Each kitchen was a little different. We had small kitchens that were only one person could work and other kitchen that were easy to work in. Every place had different cooking facilities; gas or electric stoves, 4 burners or two, and ovens or none. We always had a microwave. There were only 2 places with ovens that had oven mitts. There were also different cooking utensils at each place. It was always an adventure to look around upon arrival to see what we had to work with for cooking.

Beds were another adventure. Some were very hard and some were soft. The amount of room around the bed could add challenges if it was narrow. You had to remember each night just where the bathroom was. Thank goodness there was usually enough light to see at night.

After 19000 km on the road, we are glad to be home but had a wonderful time. We are really glad we were able to have this adventure.

2010-05-01T15:11:00.001-07:00

Saturday April 24, 2010 – Going Home

We were up at 5:30am to get ready for our day. It was about 2 hours to the Sydney airport. It was not a difficult drive.

We asked for a wheelchair at check in. I was brought one right at check in. After that I was treated very well. We were able to go through a special area at customs and at security. It was so nice. Charles was able to push me so that we did not need airport personnel with us. We were able to get around in the international terminal on our own. For the rest of the trip a wheel chair was waiting for me at the airplane door. In NZ we had a 4 hour layover and we were able to keep the wheel chair. However in San Francisco we were not able to keep the chair as we had a 7 hour layover. Here you need airport personnel with you and the chair the whole time. It was more difficult. I did not want to sit around for the 7 hours as we had already sat for 11 hours. However if we walked anywhere we had to walk back to our security area. It would have been nice to have the chair to make our way back with. My foot by the end was not very happy. We also did not have the chair for making our way through security. I was really glad we had a chair and golf cart for us at Vancouver. Again it made it so much easier going through customs and getting our bags. Unfortunately, I had to walk out of the international arrival area and on to the outside of the airport.

We were very glad to get to the hotel. I tried to read a little but kept falling asleep after the first page was finished. The first time I saw was 6:30am. Next it was almost 9am. We had to get up and get ready to leave. The hotel had a free continental breakfast which we had to get to before 10am. We had the shuttle booked for 11am.

I did not get a wheelchair at check in. After walking through security there was a golf cart waiting to take us to our gate. My foot was still not over the day before. We were dropped off at the elevator to take us down to the gate. Charles found a wheelchair there which I rode in while we waited for the flight. There was even a chair waiting in Kamloops. It did make getting around a lot easier.

Our ride was waiting for us in the airport. Soon we were home. It was so nice to be with our own things again.

2010-05-01T15:09:00.001-07:00

Friday April 23, 2010 – Katoomba

Yesterday we just took it easy. Charles did the laundry and all the cooking as I sat around. My foot was really sore. In the evening we drove down to the Three Sisters Lookout. I was somewhat upset as it was only about a 3 min walk and we had to drive. It was well worth it. We stayed until the sun set.

Today is our last day in Australia and I did not want to sit around all day. We went to the cable railway for a ride down to the old coal mines. This railway had a 52° slope. When you get in the seats you are sloping back into the seat. I did not know that I should put my feet on the metal rung at the bottom. When we started down the slope I started slipping off the seat and my flip flops were coming off my feet. I could just see one of them flying down to the front of train and flying off. I don't think it would have fallen off the train. I am sure the front is not open. However when you are struggling to stay seated and not lose your shoes all sort of thoughts fly through your mind. The floor of the train was very slippery as well so getting my feet up on the bar was not easy. Sadly the ride was over too soon and I did not get to enjoy it very much. This railway was the way men go to the mine and the coal got out.

Once at the bottom, I took an easy walk through the forest. It was fun as there were plenty of signs telling you about the trees and wildlife. Charles broke off and took a longer walk down around the old mining buildings. We met up at the cable car to ride back up. We waited for three turns to go up because of the amount of tourist groups. The ride up was not as eventful as the one down. Being slower we got to see the surroundings. It was beautiful.

We took a ride over the gorge on another cable car. It had a see through bottom. We got to see the Katoomba Falls. There was not much water going over as they have not had rain for a couple of weeks. It was fun to look at the gorge from above. Again we saw some beautiful scenery.

Now it was time for lunch so we returned home. I rested my foot. After lunch and a rest we went to see the Leura Cascades. Leura is the aboriginal word for lava. It was not a long drive to get there. There were a number of steps down to the cascades. I am glad I went as far as I did. It was beautiful and serene. Charles continued further down the path as I made my way slowly back up the stairs. Through this area are lots of walking paths. You can walk back to the Three Sisters from here and then on to the cable car or the train to go back up the cliff. This was a wonderful way to end our trip.

We went down to the Three Sisters Lookout again to watch the sunset. It was a nice way to say goodbye.

2010-05-01T15:07:00.001-07:00

Wednesday April 21, 2010 – to Katoomba

Today is our last time packing up all the little bits and pieces. When we leave on Saturday we will just have our suitcases and golf bag. It is hard to believe our trip is just about over. We had an easy trip over to Katoomba.

As we entered the area known as the Blue Mountains we stopped at Mitchells lookout. We could see back to the plains to the west of the range and into the valley to the east. It was breath taking. There were three different area to the look out so that Charles asked it I was going over to another area. I thought we were going back to the car. It would have been much better if I had just gone to the car. As I was stepping up on a boulder, I pushed off with my left foot. A searing pain shot through my arch. I could barely put any weight on this foot. Charles took a few more pictures before we made our way back to the car. After we got settle into our accommodation we headed to the hospital. I did not think I had broken anything but we wanted to be on the safe side. The doctor thinks I over stretched a ligament through the arch of my foot. I am to take it easy for the next few days. It will take quite a while to heal. I am not too happy as there are a number of things to see and do around here. I think my foot has been telling me to take some time off since Ayres Rock. Now it is taking revenge.

2010-05-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

Tuesday April 20, 2010 – Around Dubbo

We had lots to see and do so we were ready to go by 9 am. We were going to go to the Homestead first then pay Mini golf then head for the caves. The first two items were in town and the caves were about 50 km south of town, As the first two did not open until 10, we reversed our order. We got to the caves in time for the 10 am tour of the Cathedral cave. We followed that by the Phosphate mine tour.

The Wellington caves are dissolution caves. The water seeps down from the top and dissolves the softer rock. The sided of the cave are very smooth from water action over the last 4 million years. There are caves on top of each other. Ones at the bottom have water in them as they are below the water table. There have been many floods of the caves over the years. One fellow was telling of a time in the 50's when the cave was flooded that people paid to just barely enter the cave to see it full of water. The gentleman was 11 at that time. Over this past Christmas there was lots of rain so the cave became wet inside. The altar formation in the cathedral cave had water running down it and catching in small troughs along the way. There was more rain in January but cave never flooded. The flows forming the altar glisten in the light. It looks like thousand of diamonds. As we continued on out tour we saw a column that had been broken and an area close by where the walls appeared to be wrenched apart. This are contained the remains of a roof from a cave. It is thought to have happen as a result of an earthquake.

The next chamber we saw was the Thunder cave. At one time it was called the woman's cave as it has the name Min in the ceiling. There is quite a bit of graffiti in the caves from when people used candles to light their way into the cave. There is an area in this cave where you can stand, beat you chest and hear how hollow you sound. Charles did this. I stood at the base of this are and sang our national anthem. The reverb was great. We then saw the well. It is part of the underwater caves below the water table. There is a depth and temperature gauge in the water. On the top of the water is a scum building up. This scum is crystals forming from evaporation. When this gets too heavy it will sink to the bottom and add to or form a new crystal layer. Sometime in the future mud will come in a cover this crystal layer, then a new layer will start. We left the tour a little early as there were 149 steps to climb to get out of the cave. It was a nice tour and there were only 4 of us doing it. The aboriginal peoples of the area knew of the caves but there is no evidence that they entered them. It is believed that they thought the caves were haunted by the big bats.

We then did the phosphate mine tour. The mine opened in 1914 and closed in 1918. There was not enough phosphate to make the mine worthwhile. The miners used picks and shovels for most of the mining. We saw examples of the crystal and mud layers in the rock in the mine. It is quite interesting to see how the layers were formed so very many years ago. Phosphate glows when blue light is applied to them. The crystal layer above it retains some light which continues to glow for a short time after the lights are turned off. There are lots of fossils in the mine. However these are only bits and pieces of skeletons or sea shells. This area is frequently flooded with red dirt, so that the fossils are washed in with these flows. You can clearly see teeth from a number of animals. Around the area whole skeletons of various animals have been found.

We ate lunch here at the site. There was a great picnic area.

After we ate we headed back to Dubbo to see the homestead. The building that remains as the homestead was started in 1836. It is a structure known as a slab hut. It is rough outside but the walls inside are plastered. The stables were finished by 1852. Over the years there have been two kitchen extensions, one on either side. The first burnt down so that a second was built off the other end. This one was lost in a flood. In 1871 Thomas Baird purchases the property and his family and descendents continued to live here until the 1950's In 1986 it was giving by Baird's descendants to the National Trust of Australia. It took two years to restore it to its 1850 grandeur. One of the things I notices was how cool it was inside even with the sun beating down on it. We had a nice visit here.

There is a small observatory on the way back to town. They had an Astro Mini Golf. We decided to play. It was different as there was no carpet down on the runs. They were just rough concrete. Your ball could bounce in any direction. It was lots of fun. We were given a pamphlet with interesting facts about what each hole represented. The course sated with the sun and end with the black hole. I did beat Charles so that was an added benefit.

Charles went for a swim after returned to our accommodation. He went out to get fries to have with our hamburgers for supper. He asked for enough for 2 adults. I am not sure how much they thought 2 adults could eat but we got enough to feed at least 6 adults. When Charles brought in the package I though he had purchased something extra but no just fries.

2010-05-01T15:04:00.001-07:00

Monday April 19, 2010 – Dubbo

We did very little yesterday. Being Sunday not much is open. Charles tried to golf but there was a tournament on. We did go in the hot pools 3 times.

This morning we had a slow start. We did not have far to go so it didn't matter. There were lots of semis on the road today. Some had oversize loads. We had to follow one with a mining truck on it. It took up most of the road. It finally turned off to Gunnedah. We went straight through.

As we neared Coonbarabran we started to notice signs with planets on them. The first was Uranus and the second Saturn. We did not think to stop and take pictures of the signs. When we stopped for lunch at Gilgandra there was a sign there with Neptune. It turns out that the observatory outside Coonabarabran is the sun. On the road out from there are mercury, venus, earth, mars and jupiter. Then along the roads leading out from Coonabarabran there are signs with the other planets on them. If we had only stopped to see what the signs were all about. This is quite a novel idea. There are a number of observatories in this general area. Dubbo and Gilgandra also have ones. When we got to Dubbo there was a sign for pluto.

After checking in we headed downtown to do some shopping and see the old Goal. The goal opened in 1887 and closed in 1966. Like so many other attractions this was interactive. One of the exhibits was about a hangman. It was a hologram. What an amazing show. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

2010-05-01T15:03:00.001-07:00

Saturday April 17, 2010 – To Moree

Just as we finished up packing the car it started to pour rain. We waited a short while to get in the car but the rain did not let up. We made a wild dash to the car. It poured rain for most of the trip by the sunshine coast. Once Charles turned the wipers on faster and it rained harder.

Thank goodness the rain stopped before Brisbane. Our GPS unit had a hissy fit. It would not stay on the map. It wanted to help us find police station. It was very frustrating. There was lots of colourful language going on in the car. At least she kept talking to us so we could make out way through the Brisbane suburbs and on to Toowamba.

We stopped for lunch at Millmerrran. It was a quiet little place. Most everything was closed up for the afternoon. Just the pub and liquor store were open. They had a beautiful painting on the side of the town water tank.

As we traveled further south we started to see cacti. There were tall and had red flowers on them. This was the most cacti we had seen on our trip. There was a lot of traffic on the road especially trucks. It was a pleasant trip.

Moree is known for its hot pools. The campground where we are staying has some very nice ones. It was so relaxing to get in them after the long day.

2010-04-15T21:59:00.001-07:00

Thursday April 15, 2010 – Noosa Everglades Tour

It was nice and bright this morning. How long this will last we are not sure. At least the morning looks great for the cruise up the Noosa River. We left shortly after 9. This was a very relaxing trip up the river. Our skipper took time to show us birds and stop to hear some of their calls. There have been changes in the river since Mom and I went only a few years ago. The river entrance at the far end of Lake Cootharaba became silted up after a number of big rain storms in April 09. A number of people tried to dig it out by hand while the government departments tried to get together and make a decision on dredging. Finally, it was decided to dredge the channel again.

The visitor's centre we once stopped at to use the washrooms has been abandoned by the forestry department. We stopped at fig point for morning tea. We took a walk there that showed how close the fire a few months ago came this picnic area. Up the river we could see signs of the fire along the river. There were places where the fire jumped the river. Our skipper said that it seems like a fire gets started about every 5 years. It is surprising how fast the forest is recovering. New tree growth has started. Trees that were burnt have new growth on them. Unfortunately this new fire was from careless campers.

As we went further up the river a channel has been closed by debris. Another channel that was hard to pass through before was dredged out by the river flow. Now the tour takes this channel. We arrived at Harry's Hut in time to go for a swim in the river before lunch. I was the only woman that went in. Charles and two others came in. It was a beautiful swim. Very refreshing.

A wonderful BBQ lunch was prepared for us by our skipper. During our lunch a wild turkey entered the bus we would be taking after lunch. Charles had put our two plastic bags on the bus after our swim. My bag was already ripping. However, Charles bag was pecked to death. Very little of it was left. A guana came to visit us as well. Not sure if it had just caught something big and had eaten it or it had eggs inside of it. Either way it was fat. Its belly dragged on the ground.

After lunch we got on the bus to head for the 40 mile beach. Of the 7 people on the bus 5 of us were from Canada. The other 2 were from NZ. It was a long and sometimes bumpy trip to get to the beach. It took about 1 ¾ hours to get to the beach. Mostly we saw trees during this trip. The trip had to be changed because of cyclone a few weeks ago. There in a rocky place just north of where we entered the beach. The bad weather exposed them and now it is not safe to travel over them. They will gradually fill in again so vehicles can make it through. We stopped at the Red Canyon which is along the dunes. The red sand is from the iron in the sand that is rusting. All along the way there were different coloured sands. Many people were camping up above the high tide line, some in tents and some in trailers. You really have to know the tides to camp along this beach. There were a number of people out fishing.

We took the cable ferry back to the south side of the Noosa River. Our tour was over. It had been a good day. Like all our days this week the rain came in the afternoon. We were lucky that it wasn`t raining when we wanted to stop.

We had already decided to have pizza for supper so stopped to order it from the restaurant just outside the resort gate. It was delicious pizza. Sadly our week here is just about up.

2010-04-15T21:56:00.001-07:00

Wednesday April 14, 2010 – Sunshine Coast.

Well it has not lived up to its name here on the Sunshine Coast. We did wake up to sunshine but that only lasted till about 10am. After a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast we headed out to Eumundi for the Wednesday market. Charles' Mom and I went there when we were here 4 years ago. We slowly took in the whole market. There are many stalls with lots of goods. If we were from around here we would buy the fresh fruits and vegetables on sale. There were delicious smells of food cooking, and popcorn popping. Wonderful colours from paintings, pottery and clothing. There were so many little girl cloths, we just don't have anyone to buy for. We did pick up a couple of things. We talked to a gentleman that worked on the Mica Dam in BC. He learned to ski while there. I found a stall that Mom and I had purchased some things from before. It was nice to see them still there. It was nice to talk to this gentleman again. It had clouded over while we walked amongst the stalls.

We then went on the Mapleton to see the falls. There was a 1.3km loop walk in an eucalyptus rain forest. We did the walk before we ate. What a wonderful walk. Even though I had not done such a strenuous walk in a while I was able to do it with little trouble. I was so glad. We learned about the flora and fauna of this type of forest. One of the most interesting is the strangling fig. This is a tree that starts at the top of a tree high in the canopy. It sends down roots along the tree truck of the host tree. It then proceeds to strangle the host tree. It also robs the host tree of nutrients. It was amazing to see how intertwined the roots become with the host. There were palm trees there that were so tall and skinny in contrast to the big based eucalyptus. Hard to believe these palms stand up to wind storms. Toward the end of our walk we saw lots of vines, some wrapped around trees, some sending out runners to find new trees to curl around. You could see marks in the trees where vines had been before. Unlike the strangling fig these vines do not take from their host trees. They just live together in harmony. That is until the trunck on the host gets too big and snaps the vine.

We were going to eat here at the picnic tables. Well that was until Charles went to the car to get our lunch and I got bitten by 4 mossies. That put an end to that. Charles would be spend his whole lunch time swatting mossies. He had already fed this wildlife enough on our walk. Eating in the car again. When we headed back we took a country road instead of the highway. It was very nice. We were heading for Noosa Heads to check on our boat cruise for tomorrow. After we knew the cruise was still on for tomorrow we went to the shopping area. I was looking for a bathing suit. Even if there was one in my size I was not about to pay over $200, on sale or $400 for ones at regular price. I think if I paid these prices the suit would never be in water. They most annoying thing is Charles was able to get a suit for under $20. I had an ice-cream cone which I managed to spill all over myself.

For the second time this week we got to see a special on TV. On Monday we saw the special about the baby elephant that everyone thought would be still born at the Sydney Zoo but lived. Tonight's was about the plane landing on the Hudson River in NY. Both specials were so interesting.

Should be off to bed as we have to leave here by 8am to get to Noosa Heads for our cruise tomorrow.

2010-04-12T22:01:00.001-07:00

Tuesday April 13, 2010 – Sunshine Coast

Not much is plan today. So much for getting better, woke up to rain. They say it should clear by the afternoon. A good day to relax.

Monday April 12, 2010 – Sunshine Coast

We have not done much over the last two days. Saturday we drove from Rockhampton to Mudjimba where we are staying a week. Yesterday we just relaxed and drove around the area.

On our return to the accommodation on Sunday there was a big black cloud over head. I rushed in and got our bathing suits and towels off the line in the back. Just in time, before the downpour started. It did not rain all that long but it was hard.

This morning we decided to go to the Australian Zoo. This is the Steve Irwin Zoo. We had a great time. We rented an electric scooter for me. I have been having a terrible time walking because of my heel. It made the zoo so much nicer for me. We arrived just in time to see the elephants being fed. People had a chance to feed them fruit. They sure knew what was coming. One hardly had time to get on the mat before the trunk was there looking for the food. These were Asian elephants. There were 2 larger once and one smaller.

After the elephant feeding we went off to see the Wildlife Warriors Show. It started with the elephants again, followed by snakes. A python was put into the water. We watched it spread out to its full length and swim very well. Just something else to worry about in the rivers of the north. There were a number of free flight birds let loose to fly over our heads. They were very noisy. Soon the star of the show came out, the crocodile. His name is Murray. We learned how fast they can come out of the water after food. They are not that fast on land because of their short legs. In the water in another matter altogether. They are quite fast and stealth. In muddy water you can hardly see them. They swim without making a ripple. Sometimes you can see their eyes above the water. Even things on low branches are not safe as the crocs can raise up on their tails to snatch food from above them. There were plenty of kangaroos, koalas, and wombats. The wombats were sleeping. We could see them through clear glass. There were tigers, crocs and snakes galore. There were lots of lizards running around the grounds. The area was very clean and there were lots of staff all around. The animals are well looked after. There had been a gentle rain off and on all afternoon. We were very glad that it was cloudy as it wasn't so hot.

After leaving the zoo we proceeded to see the Glass House Mountains. We went to the lookout. As it was cloudy the mountains took on an eerie look. It was beautiful. These mountains are ancient volcanic plugs.

The weather is scheduled to change tomorrow. It should get nicer again and maybe not so hot. We shall just have to wait and see.

2010-04-09T03:23:00.003-07:00

Friday April 9, 2010 - Capricorn Caves

We headed north of Rockhampton to the Capricorn Caves. These are limestone caves that are above ground. At one time lots of water flowed through them but now they are dry. Just before we went inside we saw a green ant nest high in the tree. The ants secrete juices that help the leaves to stick together. These nests are waterproof and if they were to fall from the tree they would not break apart.. They are very strong.

On our tour was a family from the area that had 5 children, another family of 4 from Sri Lanka but now living in Brisbane, three ladies from Sydney, and another family from Montreal. It was fun having all the children as they added their own views on what we saw. The most impressive chamber was the Cathedral. There have been many weddings here. The acoustics in the chamber are very good. Later in April 3 opera singers are going to perform in this chamber. It should be an amazing concert. While we were in this chamber the guide played a tape of some music and turned the lights off and on to highlight some of the chambers properties. Finally all the lights were turned out. It was very dark. Before the guide did all this she told us what to expect. All the children went to be close to their parents.

After the tour was done Charles went to get our lunch from the car. He had to give a blood offering to the mosquito gods before we could eat. We were driven under the shelter to eat as the mozzies were not so bad in the shade. We were really looking forward to having a swim after lunch as it is hot and humid. The pool was very nice. The top layer of water was warm and the bottom was cold. By the time we finished swimming the layers had been stirred up to make a nice water temperature. When we got in, there were 3 dead frogs in the water. Charles got them out.

On our way home we went to the Mt Archer Lookout. We could see Rockhampton, the mountains to the north and east, and the river that runs through town. After returning to our accommodations we rested and then went for a swim. Thank goodness for swimming pools and AC.

2010-04-09T03:23:00.001-07:00

Thursday April 8, 2010 – On to Rockhampton

We did not have that far to travel today. Only about 300km. The first thing we noticed was the pickup in the amount of traffic. It is no longer that easy to pass someone. On the way to Blackwater a semi with a huge dump box on it. It was as wide as the road. It pulled out in front of us. We followed it for awhile. I forgot to take a picture of it. Everyone had to get off the road for it. It was a little scary to see it rock back and forth on the uneven road. When we got to the next town, it pulled over to let us all by. Further down the road we saw the rest of the dump truck on the side of the road. It was stopped at the time. I took a picture of this one. These however was not the only wide load we were to see today. Further down the road we had to pull over to let a semi with another mining truck on it go by. It must have been mining equipment moving day. We did pass two other wide loads that were parts of buildings but we did not have to pull off the road for them. There were also a number of trucks hauling new tires for the mining trucks. In some ways it reminded us of home.

We stopped at Blackwater to see the International Coal Museum. Like so many other museums we have seen on this trip this one was full of videos. We learned about the two ways of underground mining and open pit mining. Things have sure changed since the pick and shovel days. There are a number of coal mines in this area. We saw many full coal trains going east to the coast and empty ones coming back west.

Continuing down the road we saw lots of transports going inland. There were soon trucks that said wide load but after what we had seen they were not really all that wide at all. There are still lots of empty cattle trucks going west. Soon they will be full and heading east again.

At Stanwell we saw a coal burning electrical power plant. We had read about it at the Coal Museum earlier. We heard about all they have done to make sure it does not pollute the atmosphere. This is also where we ate lunch.

Soon we were in Rockhampton at our next accommodation. It is so much more humid here and tropical. Each time we go north to town we cross the Tropic of Capricorn again. It is getting tiring travelling now. It will be so nice to get to the sunshine coast for a week.

Wednesday April 7, 2010 – Lake Maraboon

Charles went off to play golf this morning. Two of the holes are closed while they are being cleaned up after the flood. I did the laundry. One good thing is how fast everything dries outside. It only takes about 4 hours or less.

After lunch and Charles' return we went for a swim in the pool. It was so nice are refreshing. It was great to sit by the pool and read after the swim. I met another lady with a little girl. Like so many other young families they sold up everything and are touring Australia.

We went for a drive around the area. We saw the dam that made the lake and its spillway. On our way back we went to see the boat launch and day use area. It was very well looked after. Some families were down enjoying and afternoon at the lake. There must have been loads of boats on the lake as there were so many boat trailers around. There is nowhere to tie up boats so you must remove them each evening. We saw people put water skiing and fishing. A very relaxing day.

2010-04-09T03:22:00.003-07:00

Tuesday April 6, 2010 – On to Emerald.

Another day in the outback. The road was straight for the most part. There were hills and valleys. Each dip came with the same flood warnings. It was not all that long ago that there was heavy flooding in this area. We saw another live kangaroo. It hopped across the road in front of us. Sadly there were many more dead ones.

We did see some more ant hills. They were small and not too plentiful. It was hard to see the taller ones as the grass has grown so tall. As we got close to Emerald we started to see cultivated fields. This is new as so far we had just seen cattle ranches. Cotton is grown here. We also passed through the Drummond Range. It is the first of the three ranges before the ocean.

The caravan park we are staying at is about a 15 min drive from Emerald. It is on Lake Maraboon.

2010-04-09T03:22:00.001-07:00

Monday April 5, 2010 – Longreach

More shops were open than we thought on this Easter Monday. We were up and out by 9:15 to go to the Visitors Centre. We found out how to book for the sunset cruise on the paddle wheeler. When we got to book the cruise there were only 4 spaces left. The cruise had just started back up again after the summer. They do not operate in the summer when it is too hot.

We took in the local craft fair. I got a couple of books and a book mark made by a young girl around 12. I also had a scone with jam and cream.

After doing some grocery shopping, we returned back to the cabin. We then went over to the Qantas Founders Museum. We started with a tour of a retired 747. Qantas donated it in 2002. It was great to see it up close and personal. We had our picture taken in one of the engines. We saw the outside and found out what all the bits and pieces were for on the outside. Inside we heard about the black boxes, the slides, the cockpit and the upstairs in the front. As this was a domestic aircraft the upstairs was economy class and not first class. It was interesting to see other parts of the plane one does not normally see. In the same area is a 707 that is being restored and an old DC3. It was hot and we were hungry so we went back to the cabin and had a swim and something to eat. Longreach is having a locus invasion. They are big and everywhere. When we got to the pool there was a lady skimming locus out of the water. There must have been 50 in the pool. Charles took over the job and soon the pool was locus free for at least a few minutes. They are very good swimmers. Seem to do the breast stroke. As we swam we also got more loci out. It was a very refreshing swim.

One nice thing with the Qantas Museum was you could come and go. So after lunch we went back to see the rest of the museum. It was fun to find out how the airline got started, by whom and when. We also found out what Qantas means. It stands for Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Service. It was started by two men who learned how to fly in WWI. They saw a need in Outback for an air service. They got a backer and finally started up by 1921. The first board meeting was held in Winton but they thought Longreach would be a better place to set up as it was the rail head. They started with a small two seater plane. For quite a while when you boarded a plane you go a leather flying cap and goggles as you were in an open plane. One of the original men dropped out just after the first flight. The other man went on to give the outback its first airline. He was very forward thinking as he thought someday this airline would fly worldwide. One thing that really sent them on their way was winning the contract to fly mail to Cloncurry. The first planes only flew at about 140km/hr which today does not seem like much but then as fast. Here were men who saw something that was needed and set about making it happen.

A number of years later the original founder met up with Rev. John Flynn who wanted to use the aircraft for transporting sick patients. Together they talked about what would be involved. Eventually John Flynn started the Flying Doctor Service.

One thing that made outback seem more accessible was the short wave radio. With no power at the stations the pedal driven radios fit the bill. The stations staff could pedal and make enough power to run the radio as needed.

We got back to relax and get ready for the cruise this evening. Unfortunately, the sky had clouded over and we did not see the sunset. The hour cruise on the Thomson River was very relaxing. We were given crackers with some vegetables, cheese, grapes and dried fruit to snack on. To young people, a girl and a boy served us these goodies. The captain kept us entertained with jokes and facts about the river. After the cruise was finished, we went ashore to have supper. The captain then picked up a guitar and entertained us with more jokes and songs. Soon a delicious stew was served with bread. This was followed by an apple tart with a custard sauce. Tea was made over the open fire in a billy. The way it was made by the bushmen of the past. We also had damper which is a bread made with flour, water and salt served with golden syrup. After we had finished eating we were entertained by the barefoot poet. He did not write the poetry he recited. He was very expressive. We laughed at some of the poetry he recited. Other poems were thought provoking. The only thing missing was the singing of Waltzing Matilda. Soon it was back on the bus and back home. When the bus started down the road the locus took to the air. Some smashing against the windshield. It was magical in the dark seeing all these locus in the lights of the bus. What a wonderful way to end this day.

We realize that we could have had another day here to see everything.

2010-04-09T03:21:00.001-07:00

Sunday April 4, 2010 - to Longreach

As we left Mt Isa the road was windy as we made our way through the hills that surround the town. There were even passing lanes as we went up the hills. Had not seen passing lanes since entering the outback. Soon the road straightened out and the speed went up to 110km/hr. We still saw lots of ant hills in places.

After we started heading south east toward Longreach the ant hills disappeared. The land became very flat with pastureland for cattle and sheep. It seemed like miles and miles of nothing then on the horizon you would see some flat top hills. Some would have sharp edges and others were rounded more. They broke up the monotony of the drive.

We went through the town of Winton where we stopped for gas. This the town know for the home of Waltzing Matilda and the birthplace of Qantas. This is also a region known for its dinosaur fossils. For a small town it sure had great claims to fame. Lots of the shops were open on this Easter Sunday. We did not know all this when we stopped for gas. That was too bad.

On our trip today we saw one live kangaroo on the road. There were lots of dead ones. I think I passed over a brown snake as it wiggled its way across the road. Later we saw 2 Emus as well. There were los of birds playing chicken on the road. They would wait until the last second to take off as the car approached. It was very annoying. We had washed a lot of the insects off the front of the car during the rain but today we picked up many more. One grasshopper got caught under the edge of the hood. Its leg waved in the wind for the whole trip.

Arriving in Longreach, we found everything closed up for Easter Sunday.

2010-04-09T03:20:00.001-07:00

Saturday April 3, 2010 – Mt Isa

There was not much to do on Easter Saturday. I spent the morning going though photos to post. We then went to the Top 10 park and used more of our Top 10 internet time. It was very nice of them to let us use their kitchen to do our internet work as we were not staying there.

On the way back into town we stopped at the Visitors Centre and found out that the Underground Hospital was only open until 2pm. So we went there instead of having lunch. We sadly found it closed. It was the one thing I was really interested in. It was built after the Japanese bombed Darwin in WWII. Mt Isa thought they might be next because of the mining there. An underground hospital was built by the miners to help the wounded from Darwin and a safe place for patients if the Japanese bombed here.

We went back and had lunch. We went to the lookout to see the area. We met a man from Oregon. He was doing a 2 month stint as a student doctor here at the hospital. It was nice to talk to him. We found out that they are mining lead, zinc, gold and copper. There are a number of mines in the area. The mine right in town had a smelter with it. We went downtown afterwards. It is a strange downtown because it is spread out and disjointed. We got a few groceries then went back to relax. Charles went for a swim and I just got in to cool off. We then sat by the pool and read.

The day had been overcast and there were a few misty showers. However it stayed warm and muggy all day.

2010-04-02T19:22:00.001-07:00

Friday April 2, 2010 – Off to Mt Isa Queensland

We were on the road by 7:30. We were going 685km today. It went by very quickly. We decided when you don't have to slow down very often and can drive on the flat the kilometres go by very fast. There is very few things hold you up. Passing is quite easy. Just before Queensland the speed limit drops from 130 to 110. There was a police car just sitting waiting for someone not to slow down. Charles had been doing 110 anyway to get better gas mileage.

The landscape was as varied as before. Some areas had lots of trees others just had scrub. There was an area the reminded us very much of Alberta with its lush cattle paddocks. The trees were all gone from this area. Some areas were plentiful with ant hills and others had none. The ant hills also changed from tall one to boulder like ones. We missed them when they were not there. Then we would come across area with so many. Like a city full of high rises. At one of our stops it said that explorers, in the 1800's, of this region had to dodge ant hills all the way.

It started to rain just after we entered Queensland and has kept up ever since. We stopped for gas at Camooweal for gas and to eat lunch. We thought to eat under a shelter but the wind was so bad we decided to eat in the car. Over the last few weeks we have eaten in the car because of the bugs. This was the first time because of the weather. The rain is from cyclone Paul that hit the north coast last weekend. Charles had to fight cross winds all the way from Tennant Creek.

We were prepared to have all the stored closed as it was Good Friday. We were surprised to find the IGA was open so we picked up a few things. We plan to relax this evening.

2010-04-02T19:21:00.005-07:00

Thursday April 1, 2010 – Tennant Creek.

We planned an easy day today. We went out to Mary Ann Recreational Area. It is a manmade lake with a dam. You can walk there from down town if you like. It is a beautiful spot and very well maintained. Hopefully it will be well used this holiday weekend.

On up the road we stopped at the Overland Telegraph Station. It was built in 1872.This is one of the repeater stations between Darwin and Adelaide. Now they could get news from the UK in 8 hours instead of months. They never talked about women at the station so we were not sure if it was just men there. The station worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There were the telegraph operators and line men living there. They really enjoyed getting visitors as the new people started to arrive. It remained in operation at this site until 1935 when it was moved into Tennant Creek. After a linesman found gold in 1925 Tennant Creek became a gold rush town.

We then went to see the Pebbles. After the Devils Marbles the pebbles were no so exciting. What was interesting however, was that this place was for aboriginal women only. Men had to ask permission to go through there or they had to go the long way around. After seeing so many places that were just for men it was nice to see a woman's place.

When we got back to our unit we were not able to get the door open. Then once we got it open with help from the staff we could not get it closed. Someone came to help us get the door back on track. After that we opened and closed the door very carefully.

After lunch and a time of relaxation we went back up to the Visitors Centre to see if the underground tour was running. We waited around for the others to show up but they didn't. The guide took us anyway. We were told they need 4 people to go on the tour. Out guide had worked in the local mines when he was young. This was not an actual mine but a place where men learned about explosives and practiced using them. There were three pieces of equipment that worked. The first was the drill that made the holes for the explosives. The second was the scoop that scoped up the dirt and put it in the car behind it. It was a very dangerous piece of equipment. You could lose body parts very easily. They are no longer in use after a man was killed operating one. The last was a diamond core driller. It was used to take samples of the rock for assay purposes. Many mining museums would like to get their hands on this last piece of equipment as it is the only one left in good working order. The wife of the owner will not let it be moved. It was a very interesting tour.

2010-04-02T19:21:00.003-07:00

Wednesday March 31, 2010 – Off to Tennant Creek.

After leaving the MacDonnell Range behind us we thought we were in for the same desert landscape. We did not expect to see the ant or termite hills. They were everywhere. Each one is different in shape and height. Some placed there were only a few and other places there were too many to count. Some were short and broad others tall and narrow. They are really fascinating. They lady at the Visitors Centre here in Tennant Creek said, "These ones here are small ones. Further north they get over 2m tall." People collect them and grind them up to make floor tiles or bricks with it. We held the top of one at the centre and it was very heavy considering how porous it is.

About 100km south of Tennant Creek we stopped to see something called The Devils Marbles or Karlu Karlu. These are granite boulders left after erosion. The boulders are precariously balanced on top of one another in a seemingly impossible arrangement. We stopped for lunch here. It was a serene and peaceful place. The wind was up as a result of the cyclone around the north coast. It kept the flies at bay. It was an incredible place. Some of the boulder were scattered around the valley like giants had been playing with them. There are a number of stories by the aboriginal people tell of how the boulders got there. One story is the rocks were eggs laid by a giant lizard. Charles said it reminded him of the rock monster part in Galaxy Quest. It was so true.

We arrived at our accommodation by mid afternoon. After a swim we went downtown to get some mushroom soup and tin foil for supper. We are having pork chops with cabbage and zapped potatoes. Little did we know that this would turn out to be a difficult proportion? Charles turned on the oven to heat up and turned on the big burner on the top of the unit and set the pork chops to brown. After a while I wondered why I could not hear any sizzling. I remembered from NZ that you cannot use the big burner and the oven at the same time. However, you can use the small burner with the oven. So after browning the meat and getting it ready for the oven, we popped it in the oven. Next came how to use the microwave. With no user manual it was not an easy task. Finally we just cooked the potatoes in two minutes increments. The pot with the cabbage in it took a long time to heat up. Eventually the cabbage cooked. It was delicious meal when we finally got to eat it. We were trying to eat earlier tonight but that was not to be.

2010-04-02T19:21:00.001-07:00

Tuesday March 30, 2010 – West MacDonnell Ranges

We decided to take a short side trip west of Alice Springs. Originally we were only going to do the Standley Chasm. On the side road to the chasm there was a sign with curves on it and under it is said 8.7km. It turned out there was curves about every few kilometres. I guess if you are use to driving straight roads a few more curves should be announced. There was still wash out damage along the way from the rain a short time ago. We arrived at the chasm just after opening at 8 am. It is much easier to do walks when it is a little cooler. There was a 1.5km walk up the creek bed to the chasm. We did not see the fire red chasm walls as we were so early. However we could see the red tops of the gorge leading to the chasm. It was a very interesting walk along the creek bed. It was very rocky. We had to climb over some large rocks. There were steps along the way to help us. When we got to the chasm it was very tranquil and quiet. We were the only ones there. At the other end were very large boulders which marked the end of our walk. There were pools of water around and some of them had tadpoles in them. It took us about an hour to do the walk. It was so much fun.

Since it was only 9:15ish by the time we got back to the car, we decided to drive further west to see what else we could see. Our next stop was Ellery Creek Big Hole. This is popular spot for tourist and locals to go for a swim. Apparently the water is very cold. We did not really try it out to see. There was a 3km walk around the area but I did not feel up to walking it.

Back on the road we went to see the Ochre Pits. Ochre is a mineral that comes in while, yellow and red. It grinds down to a fine powder. The aboriginal people mix it with water and fat then use it for ceremonial body paint or art paint. Only men are allowed to mine the ochre but women are allowed to use it. It was an interesting spot as you walked along below the cliffs. You could see the three colours plus a few more as the colours mixed together. Again we were the only ones here which made it very nice.

It is now about 11:30 and Charles said "Let's go on to see what is at Glen Helen and get some lunch." As we drove up to the road house at Glen Helen we saw a helicopter. After talking to the pilot we decide on a flight over the Glen Helen Gorge, Ormiston Gorge and Pound, and Mt Sonder. Upon arriving at the helicopter we realised that there were no doors on it. Up we went and it was wonderful. As I was having so much trouble walking, it was nice to see all these things from the air. Not having the doors made the flight nice and cool. We never felt any danger without the doors. Charles said, "this is an expensive lunch." We had a great lunch after the flight. Charles had a camel burger. He enjoyed it.

After returning back to AS we went in search of the internet where we could use our own computer. Finally we ended up at MacDonalds. Wireless internet is available here for free. It was so slow. Thank goodness it was for free. We tried looking at the pictures of the boys and the baby shower. It was painful slow and we finally gave up. We were able to upload our pictures and bring up to date the blog. After shopping we returned to make supper. We had camel sausages. I really did not like them all that much.

2010-03-29T23:29:00.003-07:00

Sunday March 28, 2010 –On to Alice Springs.

Once we were back on Stuart Highway heading north, we saw new landscape. There was a ridge of flat to hills that ran east to west. Some of the hills had lost their hard tops and were eroding quite quickly leaving piles of rubble. Then there were very flat areas again. Alice Springs is in the MacDonnell Range.

We are staying a beautiful new building. We could have put our whole cabin from yesterday in ½ of the space we have here. It is such a nice accommodation. No tripping off to the bathroom at night. I will miss the stars.

After settling in we did some shopping. Swimming eased the heat.

2010-03-29T23:29:00.001-07:00

Saturday March 27, 2010 – Yulara

After breakfast we headed for the National Park again. This time we went to Kata Tjuta. On our way to the west side we stopped at the Kata Tjuta dune viewing area. There was a short walk up to the viewing area. It was nice to see this area from the ground and up close. We continued around to the west side and did the Walpa Gorge walk. It was 1.3 km walk into the gorge. Most of the path was over bare conglomerate. It was very uneven to walk on. Reminded me of walking on old cobble stone streets. There were big bolder of conglomerate all over the place. You could see many holes in the side of the gorge walls. Some of the holes had vegetation growing in them. It was nice to do the walk before it got too hot. Some of the walks are closed when it is too hot. Just less than half of the walk was in the shade. There was some fresh water in the gorge, again because of the rain. There was lots of beautiful green vegetation in the gorge. After the problem with my hip the day before, I was glad to be able to do this walk. There were not many people doing the walk at this time either. That added to the sense of spirituality to the area.

We headed back toward Uluru. I remembered a short walk on the south side of the rock. It was the Kuniya walk which was gentle and easy. There was a waterhole further along the path. Water was running into it. It was so nice to stand quietly and just listen to the gentle sound of nature. There was lots of lush vegetation around this area. After all the walking my hip was saying enough, so we headed back to our accommodation. It was so nice to have a swim in the pool.

We had paid for a tour out to the park which started at 2:35 so we only had a short time to eat and get ready. We realized we should not have signed up for this tour as it was doing what we did in the morning. It was so hot I did not do any of the walks. Charles did them hoping to see if different light might make things look differently. He said it made a difference. While everyone went of the Walpa Gorge walk I sat in a shaded area to wait. Another tour started with a description with dirt drawings, on how all this formed geologically. It was very informative. Two school groups arrived with much the same explanations. What a wonderful learning experience.

We then headed back to Uluru to watch the sunset. We were served wine or lemonade with dried fruit or peanuts. There were so many people to watch the sunset and its effect on the colour of the rock. Uluru turned from red to a purple shade as the sun set. We got back just after 7pm. We are really glad we came to see these geological phenomenons.

2010-03-29T23:28:00.003-07:00

Friday March 26, 2010 – Yulara

We booked a helicopter flight for 10:30 this morning. It was nice to not have to rush around in the morning. Since we gained an hour yesterday we were up in time to see the sun rise over the desert and see the change in colours of Uluru. It was a very nice experience. I forgot my fly net which made it bothersome. A very nice way to start a day.

It was a great day for a flight. Not a cloud in the sky. We flew around and over Uluru. We noticed that we did not fly over the aborigine's village or the south side of the rock as they consider it to be sacred. When you see Uluru from afar you think it is a smooth red rock. It is red but not smooth at all. There are many ridges and holes where erosion has taken place. From the air you can see just how flat the land is and how sparse is the vegetation. Since there has been rain off and on since January everything is very green. The locals cannot stop talking about it. We learned about the vegetation in the area. There are mainly 2 types of trees and lots of bushes and grasses. We got some idea of how the rock came to be. It is mainly just one massive piece of sandstone full of feldspar, formed millions and millions of years ago.

Our next site to see was Kata Tjuta. There are 36 dome shaped rock outcroppings. These domes are made up of conglomerate of gravel pieces, granite and basalt. They are eroding more easily then Uluru leaving beautiful gorges behind. It was beautiful to see from above. This rock formation is higher than Uluru. It is also a sacred site for the native people. There is more vegetation growth on the tops of Kata Tjuta. Both of these formations started to be formed 550 million years ago.

Our last flight destination was Lake Amadeus, the largest salt lake in NT. Again because of the rain there was water in the lake. It is slowly evaporating. It was amazing to see the various coloured markings left by water flows of the past. We also saw wild camels. There are so many wild camels that they are becoming pests. Everyone is trying to figure out what to do. Soon our flight was over. Just as we were landing a private Leer Jet was taxiing getting ready for takeoff. While we were flying a 737 Qantas flight landed. It is a bigger airplane than one that land sin Kamloops.

After lunch we went out to the National Park where the 2 stone structures are. We went to Cultural Centre. The local aboriginal tribe is Anangu. They did a wonderful job explaining what these 2 structures mean to their people. It was very enlightening. Unfortunately, my hip decided I had done enough. I was hard pressed to get even close to the car. Charles was able to pick me up at the bus parking area which was closer than the car. I spent the rest of the day resting. Going in the pool helped.

2010-03-29T23:28:00.001-07:00

Thursday March 25, 2010 – To Uluru (Ayers Rock)

It is hard to believe that in a month we will be home. Today was out longest day for travel – 750km. We were on the road before 8am. We could have left earlier but I wanted pictures of the sunrise. One good thing today was the fact that we gained an hour when we passed into the Northern Territory (NT).

The landscape again went from light scrub plants to treed areas. Again since there has been rain lately everything is green. After we turned to head west there was a change in landscape. There were now some rolling hills. Not to high but you couldn't see for miles ahead of you. There were some curves as well. I was driving for the second time of the day when Charles spotted a large flat top hill. It turned out to be Mt. Conner. It is quite a surprise to see after everything being so flat.

After our spacious accommodations in Coober Pedy, we have arrived at our small one here at Uluru (Ayers Rock). There is one room with a double bed in it. The kitchen is in the middle and there is a 2 bunk bed room at the other end. We can't imagine 6 people in here. We have to use the communal washroom close by for showers and toilets. There is a very nice pool.

2010-03-24T00:09:00.001-07:00

Wednesday March 24, 2010 – Coober Pedy.

Today we decided to take it easy. We got up later and leisurely got breakfast. We went down town and looked around the many Opal Shops. There are a lot of them.

We did a tour of the Old Timers Mine. It was very interesting. You need to wear a hard hat as the tunnels are low. They wound in and out as the miners searched for opals. It is hard to believe what was done with picks and shovels. Things have improved today but not by much. They do have some mechanical diggers now and better ways to get the opal rich rock up to the surface. The mine here was discovered when someone was increasing the size of their underground home and found the mine. It was a very interesting tour.

One nice thing is that mining here is still a one person job. There are not big mining companies here. Anyone can get a licence to dig. They need to find a place where no one else is. Then start mining.

We have had a very interesting time in Coober Pedy.

2010-03-24T00:08:00.003-07:00

Tuesday March 23, 2010 – Painted Desert Tour.

We set off from Coober Pedy just after 9 am for the 160km trip to the Painted Desert. Our guides were Ken and Wayne. Ken is learning the route. All of it was on gravel outback roads. Just a week ago some of the roads were washed out by the rains. They only opened again on Saturday. There is a stiff penalty if you drive on the wet roads as it destroys them.

We passed through the Dog Fence – the longest man made structure in the world. It is to keep the wild dingo north in cattle country and out of sheep country to the south. It has worked very well. The biggest problem is wild camels that knock the fence down. After the fence, came an ancient sea bed now known as the Moon Plain. It is a flat plain full of rocks with very little vegetation. A number of films have been shot here or at least parts of them have. Mad Max 3, Ground Zero and Pricilla, Queen of the Desert just to name a few. We kidded our guides about the fact that the lunar landing were actually made here instead of on the moon. One could see why it is a nice scene for films. There are no overhead wires and just barren rock.

Along the way we saw many flat top hills. They are all about the same height. They are formed through wind and water erosion over millions of years. The hard rock on top does not erode as fast as the soft rock around it or under it. We noticed many such hills on our way up from Port Augusta.

We travel through the edge of one cattle station, then onto another one. The Archaringa Cattle Station is the largest in Australia is the one we cross to get to the Painted Desert. We stopped at the homestead for a bathroom break. They have accommodations for the drovers when they come for round up. Tourist can also rent these accommodations at other times to see the outback sky at night. Our guides stopped in to talk to the manager of this portion of the station only to find out he is in hospital in Adelaide after a motorcycle accident on Saturday. The Flying Doctor Service was called and he was flown out Saturday evening. Wayne was quite surprised as he had just talked to his wife on Saturday while doing a tour.

We then proceeded to the Painted Desert. It was quite an amazing site. The hills are made up of many colours. It is so hard to describe. We got out and walked for about an hour. We climbed up to the top of the flat top hills, which as a fairly easy climb. We could see out across the vast desert. It is hard to believe that the cattle find food to eat out here. We saw some cattle and they were quite fat. They obviously find plenty to eat. There are watering holes around for them to drink from. The water is pumped up by either a windmill or a solar run pump from below the ground. The stations are up to date on the technology. The solar panels are controlled from the homestead. They have towers to aid with communication.

It was a hot walk up and around the hills. The sun beats down and there is no shade. I thought I might have trouble but did not do too bad. I am glad I went on the walk as the scenery was spectacular. It is so hard to put into words. We saw two spiders and their webs. They are poisonous but they can't penetrate human skin. Nice to know! Their webs are remarkable. Their webbing is very strong which takes on different colours depending where you look at them from. We did not see any other wild life. Our guides thought that was because the desert was so green. We did see a fantailed eagle soaring over the desert. It hovered on a thermal for awhile. This eagle is native to Australia. One of the most prolific thing was flies. If you looked at the pictures you can see what I am talking about. We were so glad we had invested $10 each in nets.

We stopped for lunch before returning home. We ate with the flies. I kept my net down and ate up through the bottom. The guys just ate. Charles is not sure if he ate any flies or not. He did spit out one though.

On our way back we stopped to see some exposed petrified tree stumps. Since this was became uncovered due to erosion, we know that at one time this land was forested before it was cover by the sea. Now the layers of sandstone laid over millions of years down at the bottom of the sea are eroding enough to expose the forest. Petrified wood is fascinating as it looks just like wood but it rock.

After we returned we had a drink with our host Ken. Ken and his wife run a B&B as well. Some of their guests joined us. Ken also has an Opal Mine and polishes stones and has them made into jewellery.

We came home and went for a swim before supper.

2010-03-24T00:08:00.001-07:00

Monday March 22, 2010 – to Coober Pedy.

It was not hard to get out of Port Augusta. We left the park turned right onto the highway then stayed to the right and we were on our way. It did not take long for the landscape to change. I finally drove 3 months of not. It took about ½ hour to get feeling comfortable. There can be any number of animals on the road; cattle, sheep, kangaroos, or camels. Most of the kangaroos come out at dawn and dusk. I was most nervous of them as they can hop out of the bush at any time. Luckily we did not see any live animals actually on the road. We did see a few dead cows and kangaroos. We saw a number of emus in the wild in the fields alongside the road. Through the day we went from bush with trees and scrub grass to just scrub grass. There were flat top hill in the distance. It was very fascinating to see the changes in the landscape. May be after the next few weeks we will not think it is so interesting.

The road is well maintained and easy to drive. There was not very much traffic on it. Just enough to realize that it you got in trouble someone would be along soon. They have road trains which are transport trucks with more than 1 trailer. As we started along the road we saw transports with 2 trailers. As we got further north the trucks had 3 and some with 4. We were told at the tourist info centre in Port Augusta that some even have 5. They were amazing to see.

There is an area that is prohibited. The road goes 292 km through is area. It said on one map that the area was a defence area, maybe for army training. There are a couple of sheep or cattle stations along the way through this area. As this area was coming to an end mound of dirt started appearing. Some big, some small. All opal mines. We are warned about the dangers of walking in the fields as there are many mine shafts one could fall into. Cooper Pedy along with Andamooka and Mintabie produce about 85% of the world's opals.

We arrived at our accommodation at 2:30. We are staying just outside of Coober Pedy in an underground B&B. It is very nice. It is cooler than being outside but not by much. There is a fan over the bed and one in the living area. There is also a small 1m deep pool outside. It was very refreshing. I had a very difficult time getting in but finally was able to.

2010-03-24T00:07:00.001-07:00

Sunday March 21, 2010 – Port Augusta.

We have done very little over the past 3 days. We did play mini golf again and swam in the pool. Today we drove to Port Augusta. The landscape is much like Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was not a long day of travel. One of the shortest to come over the next few weeks.

Charles decided to take a bubble bath in the spa tub tonight. He had so many bubbles it was funny. It was relaxing. He was also having a beer.

March 19, 2010

2010-03-19T02:18:00.000-07:00

Not much is happening right now. We are in Adelaide SA. We are just recharging the betteries.
Charles tried to play gold today but found the tee times were full for the next 2 days. He tried 5 courses.

2010-03-19T02:16:00.001-07:00

Wednesday March 17, 2010 – Halls Gap

We took a slow start to the day. It has been so busy lately it was nice to relax. We went to Reids Outlook and did the 1km walk to the Balconies. The Grampians are interesting hills. Pictures just don't do them justice. Our next stop was Boroka Lookout. From this place you can see up the valley that Halls Gap is in. We could see where we are staying. We could also see the country side beyond the Grampians. We wondered what it must have been like when the hills were pushed up and why just in this area. We tried to do another walk but I was not feeling well at all so that we headed back to the cabin. I rested for a couple of hours.

After I was feeling better we went and played Mini Golf. It was a challenging course to play as well as getting around. Each hole had themes from around the area. We had lots of fun. Neither of us did all that well. We were very hot by the time we finished so we went to the town pool. It was much warmer than the pool here. It was so refreshing. We had ice cream before returning to the cabin.

We had a nice evening. Saw some more kangaroos. The birds were very noisy.

2010-03-19T02:15:00.001-07:00

Tuesday March 16, 2010 - Going to Halls Gap.

After looking at the maps last night we decided we could go to Mt Gambier in South Australia (SA) to see the blue pool. It was 110km west of Portland. It was very foggy when we woke up. I was hoping see a nice sunrise but the fog obliterated it. As were drove toward Mt Gambier we hoped the fog would burn off. Not so! It just got thicker. We were really worried that the fog would disrupt our view of the lake. When we passed into SA the fog went away. We were not to see it the rest of the day. The blue pool was not that well marked but we did find it. It is a beautiful volcanic crater lake. It is also the town water supply. The height of the water is the height of the water table. The water gets to the lake by an underground system of limestone caves and rivers. It was amazing to see. There is a walking path all around the lake as well as a number of lookouts. There is another smaller lake a short distance away called Valley Lake. Between them there is a dry crater. We were so glad a lady in Tassie told us about the Blue Lake and it was not too far out of our way for a side trip. It was well worth it.

We were able to take another way back to Hamilton through Casterton. We had lunch there under the trees by the river. It was quite nice. It was so different just this short way inland. It was a lot drier. Not so humid. It is running about 33° over the next few days. People say it should begin to get cooler as fall approaches.

The trip to Halls Gap went without much ado. We did a 1km walk up to see the Silverband Falls. They are very interesting as there is not pool at the bottom. The water makes its way down stream underground only to surface further downstream. The falls were discovered in 1929 when people set out to have a picnic by the pool at the bottom of the falls. They were surprised by the fact that there was not pool. They had a nice picnic all the same.

We went to the town of Halls Gap after settling in. After returning we tried out the swimming pool. Oh my, was it cold! It was about the same as Bridge Lake. Charles finally got in. I never got above my knees. My ankles were freezing. It did cool us off.

We saw some kangaroos on the site just before supper. It was great.

2010-03-19T02:13:00.001-07:00

Monday March 15, 2010. – Road to Portland.

We started the day by going to the Otway Lighthouse. After seeing it we could say we saw it from land, sea and air. Each way gave us different way to see it. From sea we could see how steep the cliff was in front of it. From the air we could see how well kept the site was as well as how open it was. From land we were able to climb it and hear about its history. This lighthouse is the oldest on the main island of Australia. Tasmania has the oldest one.

We drove down the road to the site of the Arch. The Arch is wide enough and deep enough for a helicopter to fly through it. However, our pilot said he would not be proving that. Our next stop was called London Bridge (broken). Both of these stops were close to the road. Our last stop was the Grotto. We were able to go down the stairs to the beach at the bottom. When Mom and I were here 4 years ago we did not go down the stairs. It was really remarkable at the bottom. It was starting to get very hot with the sun beating down. The path way to the Grotto was longer than the other 2 put together.

We ate lunch in Peterborough. We could not find a table in the shade so we ate a BBQ stand, standing up. At least we were out of the sun.

The rest of the day was spent travelling the next 150km to Portland. After checking in we went to see the Cape Nelson Lighthouse. It was closed but we were able to see the rugged coastline. On the way back we was at least 4 wallabies and 2 echidnas.

We had a quiet evening and a walk on the beach.

2010-03-19T02:10:00.001-07:00

Sunday March 14, 2010 – Great Ocean Road

Helicopter Flight

We were up and on the road by 8:15am. We are going to drive to the 12 Apostles first to arrange a helicopter flight. I wanted to do the low level flight this time. The place was very busy. We got some info from them then went up the road to where I had taken the flight before. It was closed and sent us back to the 12 Apostles visitor centre. It turns out that the two companies joined a year ago. We were able to get a flight within 25 min. This time we were going all the way to Otway Lighthouse a 45 min. flight.

We donned on our life preservers and headed for the helicopter. We thought we were to only ones going on the flight. However, a man joined us at the last minute. If I had know he was coming I would have asked to sit on the behind the pilot instead of behind Charles. The other man would have been able to get nicer pictures that way. It was too late. We left just after he boarded. It was a gorgeous day for the flight. The skies were clear and sunny.

What a wonderful flight. It was nice to do the low flying. You could see so much better. We went down as far as Port Campbell and saw all the highlights, like Bakers Oven, London Bridge, the Arch and the 12 Apostles. Charles got some good pictures of the area. You could really see how rugged the land was, as well as the coast line. There was a distinct change in the shore line as we go closer to Cape Otway. This area is not eroding as quickly as the shores to the west of it. The shore line to the west is eroding at a rate of 12-15 cm a year. At one time after the last ice age all of this area was cover by water. You can see some of the arches and caves left up high by the water then. What a fine start to a day.

Loch Ard Gorge.

This was our next stop after the flight. Loch Ard was the name of a ship that went down off the coast at this spot. The gorge has a small opening to the sea that expands into the sight we see. You can climb down the stairs to the beach below. A number of people went swimming. Because of the narrow opening the water inside is quite calm. We walked out to the lookout at the opening and then went on another walk to the east to see Razorback Island. Everything was beautiful to look at. Also it was so different to see from the air earlier. These comments apply to the rest of the time in this area.

Part of this area also had The Blow Hole and Thunder Cave. We drove the 1km to see these. We still had 950m to walk to see them both. It was getting so hot. There is little shade as the vegetation was kept short by the wind. The Blow Hole was not that active as the tide was not in full and the seas were quite calm. The Thunder Cave was making noise but maybe not as much as when the seas were more active. Charles went and got the car from the other car park when we got back. It was so hot and I was slowing down a lot.

12 Apostles

We sat in the parking lot here and ate, lunch in the car with the AC on. One thing that was sadly missing was picnic tables. We find out that there are no picnic tables from Apollo Bay to Port Campbell. Not really sure why. After lunch we went and looked at the 12 Apostles viewing platforms. I felt a lot better after lunch. Since it was so hot, we decided to go to the Otway Lighthouse tomorrow. We decided then to go to the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk. It was a back road on our way home.

Otway Fly Tree Top Walk

This was like the other tree walk we did In Tasmania just higher. I found it harder to do this time. I wondered if my ears were having a problem after the helicopter. In the middle of this one is a 47m high lookout. There was no way I was climbing it. In fact I hardly moved away from the large center pole holding it up. The heights were once thing but there were 113 stairs up. Charles said ``It was beautiful from the top``. However, he still was not above some of the trees. The trees here grow so tall and straight. It was a good experience and cooler amongst the trees. Along the way back down, from the lookout in the middle, you could repel down. Not likely!! At the end there were lots of steps down to the forest floor. I decided that I could do the trail back to the beginning of the fly walk. From there we could get a lift back up on a cart. We set off and it was a beautiful walk on the forest floor.

As I can trip over the smallest of things I tend to look down when I walk. I was taking a step when the twig below my foot fall was wiggling. I stumbled and yelled out ``OH``! Charles wondered what was wrong. I had almost stepped on a small snake. It quickly slinked off across the path and into the forest. It was a black snake which is harmless. Harmless or not I don`t think it would like to be stepped on.

One more thing that happened was I lost my clip on sunglasses. This could have been terrible as my eyes are so sensitive to the sun light. I went to check in the washroom to see if I had left them there. A lady we had met while waiting for the cart to bring us back said she remembered seeing them on the bench back at the cart stop. Charles rode the cart back down and retrieved them. I was so thankful. They were not easy to get in NZ and we would probably not get a chance to get another pair until Adelaide.

Trip Back to Apollo Bay

I found a back way back to the coast from the fly walk. So instead of doubling back and returning on the Great Ocean Road, we took the back road. I should have known something was up when the road drawn on the map was squiggly. We have been on roads that look straight on the map and were not. The first part of the road was okay All of a sudden it said ``Curvy road for the next 12km and a speed of 20km/hr``. The road also got very narrow. It was quite the ride. Charles had to concentrate so hard. It was crazy. We laughed. Charles is not sure he can trust my shortcuts anymore. The rest of the road down to the coast was wider but just as windy.

We arrived back at the park by 5:20pm. I took the laundry down while Charles asked at the desk about the sunset cruise we had booked for. We found out there was a message on our cabin door. So down to the cabin, read the message, back up to make a phone call to confirm we were going. We went back to pick up our jackets which turned out to be a good idea. So with no supper we went on the sunset cruise out of Apollo Bay.

Sunset Cruise.

The cruise turned out to be a family affair. There were 3 other people that paid as well as us. The rest of the people were related to or friends of the owners. It turns out we were going up past the Otway Lighthouse. Along the way we saw a seal colony. Some of the seals were in the water. They were fun to watch as they dipped and dived. We saw the beach where the boats brought in the parts for the Otway Lighthouse. They were brought by ship from the UK, and then loaded onto row boats to be taken to shore. From there they were taken overland by ox cart to be assembled at the lighthouse. We saw an old limestone cave that had been uncovered by the sea. You could still see the stalagmites. We were taken to see rainbow falls.

Soon we were out of Bass Strait and into the Southern Ocean. We stopped while we watched the sunset. The guests brought out food. They had supper while the sun was setting. They shared a bit with us which was very nice. When the sun had just about set we headed back. It was so beautiful. A great night to see the sunset. By the time we got back it was dark. The captain got us back without a hitch. We were able to pick up take away for supper at 9 pm.

What a full day but we had so much fun.

2010-03-19T02:04:00.001-07:00

Saturday March 13, 2010 – Great Ocean Road

We were so glad to be out of Melbourne today. We had a pretty easy time getting out of the city.

We headed south west to Torquay. This is a surfing Mecca. We took a side road to Bells Beach and watched the surfers. There was going to by a surfing competition there this weekend. They were getting ready for it. It was so nice to see Bass Strait. The day was bright and sunny.

We wound our way along the Great Ocean Road. The road was built by service men returning from WWII. Our next stop was the Split Point Light House. There were 19 ship wrecks between Torquay and the light house. We did not take a tour of the lighthouse as it was tall and had lots of steps. There is a rock piece that had separated from the main land giving the name Split Point.

At Eastern View we stopped for a look at the rugged coast line. Lunch stop was at Lorne. It was a picnic area just outside of town. It was so nice to hear the ocean waves in the background. Lots of people were out using the beach on this beautiful Saturday. We had a very nice map of the area to Lorne. We stopped at the info centre to see if we could get a map like it for the trip onward to Peterborough. While there we found out about Erskine Falls. It was only 10k inland from Lorne. We headed up there. One can drive close to the falls. There were a number of steps down to the top lookout. There were 233 steps from the first lookout to the bottom of the falls, needless to say I did not make it to the bottom. However, Charles did. It was nice to see the pictures he took.

Our last stop for the day was a Kenneth River. We saw some Koalas in the wild. There are not that easy to see in the trees. One was by its self. There was another one with a little one. None of them was doing much. Since they sleep so much it is no wonder they were not that active.

We arrived at Apollo Bay and check in to our new accommodations. Although we are not in the first set of cabins we still have a nice view of the ocean between the cabins in front of us.

2010-03-13T01:05:00.001-08:00

Friday March 12, 2010 – Melbourne

We made plans to meet up with Barry and Marion at their home. After a few mistakes on our part and the GPS's part we made it to their place in an hour. We had decided to head up to the Dandenong Hills east of the city for a picnic. It was a very nice drive.

We had lunch at the Silvan Reservoir. We were not beside the lake but below the dam. This reservoir is water for Melbourne. After lunch we went to Lilydale Lake. We walked all around it. Just over 3 km. It was a nice flat walk which was nice. It was also great to have someone different to talk to. It was a great quiet day which we liked.

Thursday March 11, 2010 - Melbourne

We decided to go down town today. Before we left we called Charles Mom and my friend Patty. It was nice to talk to them both.

We were able to catch the bus close to the park. It took us to the tram. It took us to the market. The market was huge. Where we entered was at the meat and fish part. Everything looked good. We wished we had the cooler with us so we could have bought something for supper tomorrow night. We did pick up some fruit and vegetables. There is a free tourist shuttle bus that goes around downtown Melbourne. While we were waiting for it I found a shirt for Charles. Our back pack was full now.

We caught the free bus and road it to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were mainly trees and ferns. It was very nice. Some of the trees are very old. The main gift shop and visitor centre were closed due to damage from the storm on Saturday. Many of the buildings and plants were affected by the storm. There was lots of cleanup going on. Finding a phone we called Trevor and Julie. It was so nice to talk to them. We slowly made our way through the gardens and back to downtown. There were many old buildings in amongst the new ones.

We got back to pick up the tram just in time to get it going back. With the help of a number of people today we found our way to the market and later back to the park. It was a fun day but we are so tired tonight.

Wednesday March 10, 2010 Melbourne

We had a slow start to the day. Friends (Barry & Marion) we met over the years at Canadian Dam Association meeting came over to the camp ground. We had a very nice afternoon chatting with them.

2010-03-13T01:04:00.001-08:00

Tuesday March 9, 2010 – Good Bye Tassie

As our flight was not until 3pm, we did a few thing after we left Greens Beach. We stopped at the Post Office to send another package home and some cards. Exeter's internet place was out next stop. We had a brief chat with Trevor and Julie.

We then left for the airport. We went by the airport to the next town where we had lunch. Being efficient travelers we were at the airport 2 hours before our flight. The check in did not open until 1 ½ hours before the flight. We decided to do the check in at the machine. Charles brought out the binder with the ticket info on it, the next thing we knew our names appeared on the screen. We had scanned the bar code without knowing it.

When the check in desks opened we were again prepared with our ID which they never looked at. You can't get on a flight in Canada without proving who you are at least 3 times. Our flight was a little late.

Good bye Tasmania we had a great time.

Greetings from Melbourne

We arrived about 4:30. By the time we picked up luggage and got the car we hit the traffic at rush hour. We found our way to these new accommodations. Checked in, and then went shopping. We had fish and chips take away for supper.

2010-03-08T15:36:00.001-08:00

Monday March 8, 2010 – Greens Beach

Woke up to rain being blown against the house. It rained most of the morning. As it started to clear up we decided to go the Exeter for the market. It was a small market but nice. I bought a book and some fudge. Charles got a book. It was raining when we left.

We continued down the road to something called Swiss Village. It was just off the main road. There was a hotel and some shops. We decided to play Mini Gold even thought the course was very wet. There were some big puddles. We had a lot of fun anyway. One hole we did not play because of all the puddles. Puddles sure slow down your ball. It started to rain again but only for a brief shower. We were under a big tree when the wind picked up and we got rained on. Oh it was cold running down our backs. I have not improved in my playing. My score would be better if I didn't rim the cup so much.

After lunch we headed back. It was bright and sunny when we go back to Greens Beach. We both spent the rest of the afternoon reading. It has clouded over again now. We hope all is well in Melbourne after their terrible day on Saturday.

2010-03-08T15:35:00.001-08:00

Sunday March 7, 2010 – East of Greens Beach

We got a late start however we did go back to the Low Head Lighthouse. We got there just in time to hear the fog horn. It went off regularly for 15 minutes. It was an amazing sound. You could hear the reverb after each sounding. It had a higher pitch tone then a deep one. Volunteers have fixed up the fog horn and sound it at noon on most Sundays. It was another piece of history we happened upon.

After lunch we headed south east to a place called Lilydale. It was so much fun to get there. We took some back roads. We were heading for the Lilydale Falls. It was a nice walk up to the falls. There were two separate falls. This was an after lunch walk which I find a challenge. This was no different. I am really glad I was able to make it to both falls.

We headed back after seeing the falls. On the way on one of our back roads we saw an echidna. It did what they said it would, buried its head and rolled into a ball so its quills faced out. We were able to get one picture of it that turned out. Once home it was nice to find out laundry dry on the line. The day has gotten cloudy. They are calling for rain tomorrow. We could get thundershowers as well. As long as they are not like the ones Melbourne got yesterday.

2010-03-08T15:34:00.001-08:00

Saturday March 6, 2010 – Launceston

Today we went down to Launceston. We were going to do a harbour cruise but decided to see the Cataract Gorge on foot. As I navigated Charles to the gorge, it turned out that I picked the best way to get there. There were signs all along way.

The gorge was a beautiful place. We walked around the basin. There was a suspension bridge to cross. We were upset as we did not bring our bathing suits to swim in the pool. It would have been nice as it was quite hot and humid. We ate lunch at the park. It was such a nice way to spend the morning.

We went downtown to shop in the afternoon. I have found out just how much I hate shopping in an area I don't know. Downtowns tend to be high end places anyway. My purse had broken in the morning so I wanted to replace it. We finally found a place that had what I wanted. I should have bought it and be done with it. However, we went and looked in another store only to go back to the place where we first saw the purse. I said to Charles "Let's just get out of here and head back". We did stop at a camera store to look at new cameras. Then a souvenir shop for some post cards. It was so hot and sticky.

We had one last stop at the Woolworths Grocery store. After arriving back Charles went down to the beach. I had a little rest. Charles came back for me as the water was quite warm. I just got in to my waist with the waves. The water was quite warm but wavy. I didn't really like that. It was very refreshing.

2010-03-04T19:38:00.001-08:00

Thursday March 4, 2010 – Beaconsfield

We decided not to go too far today. I had a sore throat and was not feeling too well. Beaconsfield was about 19km from where we were staying. It had a number of activities. After a quick stop at the post office we went to the Mine & Heritage Centre. Little did we know it would take us 2 hours to enjoy the museum and tribute centre? It was a hands on museum. You didn't just look at the stuff but actually turned knobs and handles. It was fun to watch the machines working. It was also enlighten to know how hard it was to move the mine trams by hand.

The tribute section was to three miners who were caught in a rock slide underground on April 25, 2006. Two of the three miners survived for 14 days in a 1.5 cubic meter space. The slide was caused by a mild earthquake. The miner who died was discovered 2 days into the rescue. There were written thoughts by the miners who were caught and by the rescuers and managers of the mine. Not only did this turn the community upside down but put it on the front page around the world. We did not remember hearing about the mine slide. It happened just after Mom and I had returned from our trip to Australia. The mine is still operating as an underground gold mine.

After lunch we walked around town looking at the old buildings in town. It was fun to read about the town's history as went along.

We drove up the road to Beauty Point to see Platypus House and Sea Horse World. We were just in time for the tour in the platypus house. We watched 3 platypuses (Dusk, Porky and Piccolo) swimming around. They were fun to watch. One of them was just floating around having been disturbed from sleep. Piccolo was very active and having playful fun. She was showing off for us. You never want to pick up a platypus as the males have a barb behind each hind leg that is full of poison. When pierced by this barb the pain is terrible. Nothing can ease the pain. One man who had an encounter with a male said that the pain lasted for months and he suffered nerve damage in his arm. Some platypus males fight to the death to protect their territory. Platypuses do not breed well in captivity. They are hoping that now they have a couple of females that have reached breeding age that something will happen. They also only breed every two years.

After learning about the platypus we went into the echidnas garden. There were three echidnas in the enclosure. We were able to walk among them and watch them eat. They are ant eaters with spines like a porcupine. They were fun to watch especially their tongues with the food.

We had enough time to walk next door and do the tour in the Sea Horse World. We had a great guide who kept us entertained with the sex life of the sea horse. We saw a number of different sea horses. Unlike the platypus the sea horse breeds like crazy. Every morning they can take a lot of newborn seahorses out of the breeding tanks to other tanks. Originally, this breeding was done to help save the sea horse from over fishing for Chinese medicine. However, this failed. The sea horses never got big enough. Now they are just studied so that we can learn how to preserve them at sea. When the young are around 3 months old they go to a bigger tank the staff calls primary school. Here they get to know each other. After they change colour from black to beige at about 6 months they go to the "high school" tank. Here they act just like teenagers. Even some of the males come out pregnant from this tank. About 1/3 of the seahorses die between in primary school tank and another 1/3 are lost in the high school tank. This is a natural phenomenon. In the wild this would happen with them being eaten.

When they become sexually active the male takes water into his pouch. He tries to make it as big as possible to attract a female. He also changes colour to add to the attraction. A bigger pouch means a better place to lay her eggs. When a females picks a male she get very close to him and tickles his pouch to open it up so she can deposit her eggs. This is not easy especially if the male is showing off to his mates that she had picked him. She hog ties him with her tail and drags him away to the weed where she can hopefully get him to be still enough to lay her eggs. If this does not happen she will go out looking for a new male. She will also lay her eggs in a number of different males. It was a very interesting tour. The tour ended with fish tanks with a number of different fish from the area. There were also hermit crabs, spider crabs, star fish and other see animals.

We came home with our brains full of new information which we had fun learning.

2010-03-04T19:37:00.003-08:00

Wednesday March 3, 2010 - Day Trip to Riverside

Both of us had a hard time getting going this morning. We headed south to Beaconsfield where we sent a parcel home from the post office. We also checked out the other food store in town. It is not just a food store but a general store as well. We also checked out the on line access facilities. Found out we could not use out own computer.

Onward, down the road to Exeter we stopped at the bakery and picked up buns for lunch. We found out where the internet access centre was. After checking it out we found we could use our own computer here. Neither centre is open on the weekend. We are finding it hard to get internet access in Tasmania. The lady at Exeter said "It is hard to keep the centre open as so many people have their own computer with internet access". Exeter is about 30km from where we are.

Our next stop was the Tasmanian Zoo. We were just in time for the devil feeding. We watched as the handler entered the pen of 3 older females. Rosie is the more active one. She was looking forward to being feed. One of the others was enticed out with food. They are older than their peers in the wild. After feeding them the handler went to a different pen for two young females. One of them didn't mind being handled or shown off to people. He picked her up and brought her out so we could pet her. Even the youngest of the audience got to pet her. She was so cute. She was 7 months and 3 days old. She had a nice personality unlike her sister that is quite nasty. We looked around the rest of the park. It was so sunny and hot at the park. I was hoping to see the little blue penguins but they would not come out. Feeding of them was not until 4pm.

Our last major stop for the day was the Tamar Island Wetlands Reserve. There was a good breeze blowing so we decided to do the 1.5 km walk out to Tamar Island. When we were in the reeds there was not much breeze. I found myself getting over heated. Thank goodness there were 3 bridges over parts of the river. There I was able to cool down. I did not go all the way to the island. I was getting tired. Charles went on and I slowly made my way back to the visitors centre. The reed got progressively taller as we went. Between the second and third bridge the reed were about 2m tall. They were blowing in the breeze but the breeze did not reach the path. In 1920 in order to improve navigation on the river old river barges were scuttles and sunk to block the channel on the western side of the channel. This did not work. The first flood messed up the scheme. You can now see the old wrecks at low tide and at high tide you can see the grassy tops of them. It was something different to see. The Tamar is over 70km in length making it the longest estuary in Australia. It is tidal throughout its length. Launceston is at the head of the estuary.

Our last stop was close to Greens Beach. It was where the town of Yorktown was located. There is nothing left of the town that started in 1806. It was built on a swamp but had good water. The Tamar River could be seen from town. The town did not last long as it was in a terrible spot to get any ships to. The people in town were often near starvation as they waited for supplies to arrive by boat. Later apple trees were on the site. The apple industry continued into 1970's.

2010-03-04T19:37:00.001-08:00

Tuesday March 2, 2010 – On to Greens Beach

Last night the computer had a fit. Puff and the screen went black. It would not turn off. Finally I undid the battery and unplugged the power, counted to ten then put everything back. However, it would not turn on. I was a little upset. In the morning, I tried again to start the computer but no luck. Charles tried it just before I took a shower and it worked. I guess it didn't like me.

We both felt better when we set off for our last Tasmanian stop. It was not that far so we did a tourist route. First stop was the Anvers Chocolate Factory at Latrobe. It was wonderful. We saw them making truffles today. They make all sorts of chocolates. In the cafe I got a fresh fruit pavlova. It was delicious. I also bought dark chocolate covered raisins. They are very good as well.

We continued into the town of Latrobe to see if we could take a Platypus tour. Found out that these tours only go early in the morning or late in the day. Platypuses are shy creatures that usually don't come out during the day. We were told where to go and possibly see them, so that with the time available we went to see what we could see. We did not see any platypus but the lake was so still the reflections were great. I got lots of nice pictures of the reflections. It was also a very nice peaceful walk around the small lake.

Leaving Latrobe we went on to Railton. Railton is the Town of Topiary. At first we did not see the sculptured animals made from shrubs. Soon we were seeing them all over the place. Some where all finished and just needed trimming now and then. Others were just being started. Railton is close to Sheffield the town of murals. Again the topiaries are all around town taking people by all the businesses. These little towns have thought of different ways to attract tourists. We ate lunch in one of the parks.

After Railton we headed to our destination for the next week. It was not a hard drive. Some of the time we were on the highway and other times we were on back roads. Green Beach seemed like it was at the top of Tasmania. As we went along the road got narrower and narrower. Soon there was no centre line. Green Beach is a small beach town. The beach is beautiful. Probably the nicest one we have seen since Strahan. If the weather stays good we might swim in the Bass Strait.

Monday March 1, 2010

2010-03-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

Not much happening today.
Started the day on a happy note as we watched the Gold Medal Hockey game. The 3rd period and overtime were broadcast here. Just when I was ready to go for a walk because of tension was too great, Canada scored.
Charles played a round of golf.

2010-03-01T01:34:00.001-08:00

Sunday Feb 28, 2010 – Trip to Sheffield.

We decided to head out and see how much I could do. Our first stop was a Sunday market in Penguin. It was an indoor market so weather does not play a part. It was fun to see but not much there for us. It was very different from the market at Hobart.

Having decided to go via Devonport to get to Sterling we found a mini putt course. We stopped to play. It was lots of fun. I still have trouble getting the ball up multiple levels. We were able to eat lunch at a picnic table there. It was a nice spot beside the river. It was again very windy as we tried to eat. It was bright and sunny but not too hot because of the wind.

Sheffield is a small town that has put its self on the map with murals. There were lots of murals painted on the sides of buildings. To see them took one all over town. Even though it was Sunday many of the businesses were open. The murals depicted life in the past around the town. They were wonderful to look at and very well done considering all the different types of walls they were done on. What a great way to bring people into your town.

Off we went again to one more stop before heading home. We started out on the wrong road but I found a cross road that joined to the correct road. As always it was a much narrower road full of bents and twists. One good thing was it ended at the next road. We stopped at Lower Crackpot. It is an attraction with a whimsical small village and 4 mazes. The man who built this attraction had a good sense of humour. We did two of mazes. The first one we did not do correctly as we never go to the middle. It was the Hampton Court Maze. We did not know what the goal of this one was. The second one we did was the Confusion Maze. Here we had to reach the tree in the centre which we did. Charles did the Yellow Brick Road Maze alone as it was a lavender maze which upset my asthma. It started to rain just as we finished up. If it had not been raining we would have gone back and done the first maze again. It was great experience. People here seem to take part of their property and turn it into a tourist attraction out in the middle of nowhere.

We took the back roads back to the highway. On the way we saw a large hydro dam through the trees. Charles would have liked to see it up close. Above the dam we saw the Wilmot Power Station. At the lookout we saw Lake Cethana the dam created. We worked our way down into valleys and then out again, over hills then down to the seaside.

What a wonderful day. I am so glad to be able to have accomplished so much. I felt so much better as the day wore on.

2010-03-01T01:32:00.001-08:00

Saturday Feb 27, 2010 – Day Trip to Stanley

We went west again today. When we went yesterday we missed Stanley so we went back to see it. We thought there was quite a bit to do and see. We were a little disappointed to find out most of the stuff to see and do was around Stanley and we had already most of it.

We did take an alternate route into town which gave us a different look at the area. Stanley is a lovely historic town. It is built at the foot of The Nut. The whole area is an isthmus jutting out into the Bass Strait. The Nut is an ancient volcanic plug standing 143 meters high with a flat top. You can walk up a track up its steep sides or ride the chairlift. We opted for the chair lift. It was a good ride up. I am not sure how all the skiers ride a chairlift with all their gear.

It was lovely on top. You could see for miles. The beaches on either side of The Nut were beautiful. There is a walk all around the top. We saw the burrows for the shearwater birds. They come to nest and have their young in the southern hemisphere then return to the Bering Strait for the summer. We met up with some wallabies as we went further along the track. The ride back down the chairlift was a little harder for me. It was nice to look out over the town but I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Soon we were on our way back to Wynyard to swim in the pool. I suddenly got achy and it went on for the whole evening. It was a terrible time. The weather was really changing. Soon the rains started. It poured all evening and into the night. It had a hard night of it. By morning I was a little better.

2010-03-01T01:27:00.001-08:00

Friday Feb 26, 2010 – Wynyard

We decided to do a day trip to the northwest part of the island. We went as far as the Tarkine Forest Adventure. It is only part of the Dismal Swamp. The Dismal Swamp is one big sink hole. It is 2km by 3km and the sides are very steep and a flat bottom. At the visitors centre there is a cantilever overlooking the forest in the sink hole. It is quite impressive to know the trees in the sink hole are about 50m tall. There is a slide one can take to get to the bottom of the hole. Neither Charles nor I tried it out. Others did and said it was a good experience. It takes about 13 sec to complete. One lady said she thought about the bob sled and luge runs at the Olympics. We walked down then took the guided tour of the forest. It was much the same as we had seen to date here on Tassie but amazing to think it was in one big hole. We were able to get a ride back up to the top.

After lunch we headed for the Allendale Gardens. These are privately owned garden hosted by Loraine and Max Cross. They started to plant the garden in 1980 from scratch on a grassed field. It was a very enjoyable walk through the tranquil gardens. I think the summer is coming to an end and so are the summer flowers so the gardens were looking a little shabby. The grounds were getting a little over grown. We could see that some of the beds were being cleaned up and worked on. It is a labour of love for these two.

Having time we decided to go to Dip Falls and the big tree. These two sites were 27 km off the road. The big tree was something else. It was not the tallest of the Brown top stringy bark eucalyptus at 62m high however it is 16m around the base. It is believed to be over 400 years old. There were other big trees in the area. They made us think of "Lord of the Rings".

Dip Falls were different because of the basalt outcropping. Charles walked down the steps to the bottom. There were 160 steps. I stayed at the top and went to the viewing area. We both got very different pictures and saw the falls and rock formations from different vantage points. The basalt came up in hexagonal shaped pillars. When I looked down at the base of the falls it looked like a brick layer had been busy at work. This was all natural. Even though we have seen lots of falls each one is unique in their own way.

When I looked at the map I saw an unsealed road that would take us about 28km closer to Wynyard. It was a very good gravel road. Like so many back roads once you are on them you never see the name of the town at the end again. I was on pins and needles as were neared the 15km mark. I was sure glad when we got to pavement. I had not lead us on a wild goose chase.

We did one more side trip to Table Cape and lighthouse which is about 11km from Wynyard. Table Cape is another volcanic formation. It is a lava flow that has had the softer rock worn away around it by the waves. It is flat on top with steep sides. The lighthouse has been here since 1888. This is one of many lighthouses at the north side of the island.

Thursday Feb 25, 2010 Wynyard

2010-03-01T01:12:00.000-08:00

Today is an exciting day. We are getting out hair done. I am getting a perm and Charles a trim.
After that Charles will play gold and I'll update the pictures and blog.

2010-02-24T21:03:00.001-08:00

Wednesday Feb 24, 2010 Strahan to Wynyard

Not much to say about the trip today. Not much to see. Just trees.

We did a side trip to Waratah. It was a prosperous mining town. It has a small waterfall which in the past operated 8 different waterwheels. The water falls are small now. Not sure if this is because water is diverted from the river to a power station not far away.

We stopped at the Hellyer Gorge but it wasn't much. We did the 15 min walk most of it beside the river. Another Australian couple wondered what there was to see as well. It was a letdown.

2010-02-24T21:00:00.001-08:00

Tuesday Feb 23, 2010 - Strahan

It was a much nicer day today. Did not get very warm though. We took a trip to Zeehan. There was a wonderful West Coast Pioneers' Museum there. The main building was once a very prestigious mining school which closed in 1963. They have done renovations to the Police Station and Court House, and the Gaiety Theatre. There was a black smith shop, marine shed, train yard, miners hut, power house and underground mine exhibit. It was a wonderful walk through the history of the area. Zeehan was a mining town that once looked barren. It has made a good recovery. The vegetation is lush and green. We ate lunch in a park before returning to Strahan.

After I had a nap we went for a walk to see Hogarth falls. It is 1.25km walk one way. Most of which was easy. There was a climb at the end then 25 steps down to see the falls. I
felt good with the walk.

We went to see the play "The Ship that Never Was". In January 1834: the last ship to be built at the convict settlement shipyard at Sarah Island is about to sail for the new prison at Port Arthur. Ten convict shipwrights have other ideas. They steal the ship called the Fredrick and sail it to Chile. They sink the boat off the coast of Chile. A year later 4 of the convicts are caught and brought back to face charges, for piracy, mutiny and escaping the penal colony. They got off on a technicality. There were only two actors involved in the production. The audience provide the other parts. It was hilarious. It was amazing the way the stage changed to represent a ship deck sails and all. At one point we re-enact a storm at sea using spray bottles and feet stomping. It might have been a little more realistic last night with the wind and rain. The play is done in an amphitheatre and under an awning, so that keeping the rain out last night might have been a problem. It was a nice night to see the play tonight.

2010-02-24T20:55:00.001-08:00

Monday Feb 22, 2010 - Strahan

Not much planned for today. Tried to see if I could get my hair permed. The hairdresser is not open on Mondays. Sought out a new hair dresser in the area but he did not have any perm solution. Will try in Wynyard. We sent a parcel out from the post office. Did some shopping then came back to the cottage. Charles decided to play some golf so off he went.

Around noon the weather started to change drastically. Black clouds moved in and the wind picked up. Soon it was raining very hard. I hoped Charles did not get too wet. As quickly as it started the rain stopped, and the skies brightened a little. Soon Charles arrived back and not too wet. The rest of the day went like that. Black clouds move in, the wind picks up and the rain starts. You could do some things between the squalls but you had to be careful not to wait too long or it was pouring again. They got 3 cm of rain over the afternoon and evening. It was crazy. Have not seen weather like it. We spent the day watching DVDs. Charles did manage to BBQ steaks during all of this.

2010-02-24T20:49:00.001-08:00

Sunday Feb 21, 2010 – West Coast Wilderness Train Trip

We took a historical train trip today from Strahan to Queenstown. Although it was not what it was made out to be, it was steeped in history of the area. There are two ways to make this trip either start from Queenstown to Strahan and meet to change trains in the middle or the other way around. You are bussed back or you can take the bus to were you want to start and take the train back.

The train stopped running in 1963 after opening in 1897. The train was the life line for Queenstown as there were no roads into it. It was built to bring out gold and copper from the mines. By 1963 roads had been built and it was easier to truck ore to Burnie in the north and ship from there. This is a railway no one said could be built. It took 3 ½ years to build it.

One of the major difficulties was steep grade from Dubbil Barril to Rinadeena Saddle and back down to Halls Creek. A post card sent to someone from Germany showed a new invention, the cog railway. It had never been used in Australia before but they went ahead and put it in and it worked. When the new diesel engine became available they thought it would be the end of the old steam engine. Not so. It seems that the steam engines can pull more up these steep grades than the diesel.

The first part of the trip from Strahan to Dubbil Barril is done with the diesel engine. You change trains there to the steam engine for the rest of the trip to Queenstown. The trip follows the King River then overland to further follow the Queen River. Both rivers are dead rivers do to the amount of mine waste that was dumped into the Queen River from the copper mine in Queenstown. The other problem is the acidic nature of the soil and rock in the Queenstown area. Although it is better today that 20 years ago, it will take many many years to get them back alive.

We had a lovely box lunch at Dubbil Barril while the train engines were turned around. This is still done by hand on a train turntable. In 1999 restoration began on the old railway. By the end of 2002 the line was open from Strahan to Queenstown. Three of the five original steam engines were restored as well and are now in service. You mostly see bush and cuts made into raises to keep the track as flat as possible.

The copper mine in Queenstown is still operating. Most of the residence work for the mine. The new owners are very ecologically minded and are try to clean up what was left by the previous owners. The Queenstown area is now coming back as well. All the trees were cut down over the years by the settlers to build homes, feed fires and power the train. Twenty years ago there was no vegetation on the hills, not even a blade of grass. This will also take many years to reclaim but inroads are being made.

It was hard to sleep last night because of the warmth and humidity. Thank goodness for the breeze.

2010-02-24T20:42:00.001-08:00

Saturday Feb 20, 2010 – Gordon River Cruise

I did not sleep very well last night so that getting up early for the cruise was difficult. Being on a gently rocking boat did not help. The cruise started out by heading out to the Hells Gate. This is the small opening to the Macquarie Harbour. It is 90m wide and 20m deep. It was not explorers who named this opening, but the convicts coming to Sarah Island named it. They thought these were "the Gates to Hell". In order to be able to make the bay available for larger ships a wall was built to change the wave action so the opening would not silt up. A hundred years later it is still there and doing its job. Today large ships cannot come into the harbour. We were told a story of a ship wreck in which the bow was on one side of the gates and the stern on the other.

Since the seas were so calm this morning we were able to go out to Cape Sorell. The first light house you would see from the ocean is the one on Cape Sorell. There are 2 more on each side of Hells Gate. If you were back in the past trying to sail through the gates it would have been a very difficult job.

On the way back into the harbour and Sarah Island we passed by a number of fish farms. Salmon and ocean trout farming has been going on here for 25 years. This is closely watched by coastal fisheries. Because the bay has such a small opening, seals don't come in. They are the major enemy of the fish farm as they can chew open the nets. Fish farming is big industry here now.

Sarah Island was a small island in the harbour that became a penal colony in Jan. 1822 and closed in 1833. Over the years vandalism took its toll on the structures. Most people stole the bricks for their own use. Any wooded structures have rotted or been removed Not much remains here now. People know what the area looked like because of paintings. Over the 10 years 1200 men and women were sentenced to Sarah Island. It was a brutal existence. The early work of the settlement was timber cutting and hauling. This did not take skilled labour. The trees cut were the Huon Pine. This is a very valuable wood especially for ship building in the day. So that like Port Arthur ship building became big business.

After leaving the island we went up the Gordon River. A buffet lunch was served which was delicious. With a good lunch and a slow moving boat, I was hard pressed to stay awake. The Gordon River is now in a National Park which is also a World Heritage Site. Logging of the Huon Pine was abandoned after World War II. The pine trees are no longer logged but logs washing up on shore or salvaged from the bottom of the river are still used. Since the wood does not rot very easily it is just as good today as when it was logged.

We stopped at Heritage Landing for a 400m walk through the Rain Forest. On the trip back to port I gave in to my tiredness and slept.

2010-02-24T20:35:00.001-08:00

Friday Feb 19, 2010 Hobart to Strahan

When we left from our accommodations we used the GPS to get us so far. Once we were under way I turned it off. I am not sure where we went wrong but the next thing we knew we were in Bagdad. I made a joke about taking a wrong turn somewhere. On we went as I tried to locate where we were on the map. I finally located us at Kempton on the way to Launceston. We were heading north instead of west. I guess we should have left the GPS on. We sure laughed a lot about getting on the wrong road. Instead of going back we made our way to Bothwell then took a secondary road to Hamilton. We thought we might make a couple of side trips but this one was unplanned.

We stopped at some power generation areas just by the road. The tarraleah and tungatinah generating plants. By the time the water gets to Hobart it will have passed through 8 different generation plants. The water is clean when it starts and still is by the end of its work.

Lake St. Clair is where we stopped for lunch. It is in a National Park. It was a nice spot to stop for lunch. Our next stop was to see Nelson Falls. It was a 20 min. walk through the bush alongside the creek. A very nice cool and refreshing walk. Even though there has not been a lot of rain lately, the falls were great to see.

There has not been a lot to see on the trip, mainly trees and mountains. Most of the trip was through the National Parks. The road down into Queenstown was full of bends, twists and hair pin turns. You drop quite a way in a short time. Reminds us the trip from Wanaka to Queenstown in NZ. There is a working copper mine at Queenstown. We could see the waste piles as we drove down into the town. You climb back up to make your way to Strahan (pronounced Strawn). It is a lovely coastal town. There are only about 500 permanent residents in the town with about 1000 tourists. When I walked into the only grocery store, I met up with the 2 couples from our Bruny Island Cruise. They are only here two days. I am sure we will meet again during our stay.

We went out to Ocean Beach to watch the sun set. One of the few sun sets we have gotten over the ocean. It was beautiful but chilly.

2010-02-24T20:21:00.001-08:00

Thursday Feb 18, 2010

Thursday was bright and sunny. We tried calling Mom again and it worked. It was nice to talk to her. We stopped at the mall to check the banking at an internet kiosk then headed down towards Port Arthur.

We had about an hour and 15 min before the cruise so we stopped at the Tasmania Devil Conservation Park. We were just in time to see the Tasmania Devil feeding. We saw some devils walking around. We saw a pair in a den. It turned out that it is mating season and these two had made a match. At the feeding we found out some interesting facts about the devil. They are basically scavengers. They usually only eat things that are dead. Occasionally they will kill an animal that is injured. They do not have the stamina to hunt down an animal or bird that is well.

When a male finds a mate he bites her at the back of her head and drags her back to his den. He will not let her leave for up to 72 hours. If she leaves for any reason he will drag her back again. About 11 babies are born. They are about the size of a piece of rice. The mom only has 4 teats so only the strongest survive. Most of the time only 2 or 3 babies survive. After nine months with mom they are on their one. The devil is now endangered by a type of facial cancer that kills them within 5 months. It is a transmitted cancer through biting. There were two quolls that are cousins of the devil. We ate lunch in the park and talked to the gentleman who started the park. We ran out of time to see much more of the park which was too bad.

When we got to the office for the cruise we found out we had to go back to Adventure Bay by bus to catch the boat. We were given a choice of hat as well as a pair of gloves for doing both the Bruny Island and this cruise. The seas were rougher today and the boat was not full. I was the only one in the back. We saw the Tasman Arch from the sea this time. We could see people looking at it from the shore. Also there was another arch we did not walk down to see on Sunday. As we travelled down the coast we saw the geology change from layers of sand stone to dolerite columns. In the sandstone area there were lots of caves and arches that all changes in the dolerite area. There were two sea columns, one is the candle stick and the other is the totem pole. Many climbers have climbed the thin totem pole. At the top there are 3 wires that climbers make their way across to the mainland. Once the crew saw a climber tight rope walking across the wire.

We went around the Tasman Island. There were many male seals there. On the island was a light house. There was a system to get the lighthouse keeper and family to the light house with all the supplies. The light house is still working but now it has solar panels and a backup generator. Domestic cats were left on the island by past keepers. Now they run wild. They are trying to capture them all as they are killing the birds.

During our trip we saw a feeding frenzy by seals and birds. The seals corralled schools of fish, and then fed on them. Many of the sea birds got into the action, cormorants, seagulls, terns, and albatrosses. You can sure tell how big the albatrosses are compared to the rest of the birds. Birds and seals thrashing around coming up with fish to eat. It was an amazing sight. The morning group saw lots of dolphins. Unfortunately we did not see any. The feeding frenzy made up for it.

Frustrating Wednesday!

2010-02-24T20:13:00.001-08:00

Wednesday Feb 17, 2010

One thing I forgot about on Tuesday. On our way down to the air walk there was a fruit stand that said "Early Apples". We did not stop on the way down and hoped it would be open on the way back. Sure enough the outside doors to the fridges were open so we stopped. A bag of apple was $3 and you just took a bag and put your money in a can. We had an apple right away and they were delicious; tart and crisp.

Wednesday we did nothing. We tried to use the phone card we bought to call Charles Mom. We got very frustrated as it would not work. Found we needed to pay $.50 for a local call. Did that and still no success. Went back to where we bought it and got a new pin. Still nothing. At the reception desk where we were staying we got help with the customer service phone call. Now we had our third pin number and a new number to call for Hobart. Now it is too late to call anyone in Canada. Charles tried to play golf but the tee times were full. He did not know there was two other courses close by.

2010-02-16T23:41:00.001-08:00

Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 – Day Trip South of Hobart.

We got an early start to the day. Mount Wellington was our first stop. It is 1270m high, the highest peak in the area. We passed through a cloud layer as we went up, so that it was no surprise when we could not see Hobart below. The mountain top is unique all on its own. In 1967 there was a terrible wild fire around Hobart. The mountain was left bare of vegetation as was much of the area. The vegetation on the mountain is slow in coming back. So in amongst the large rocks are small alpine plants. The rock outcroppings were great. We were surprised to meet two couples that had been on our bus yesterday.

We stopped in Geeveston to get tickets for the Tahune Air Walk. It was 29 km to the air walk. We found a picnic place to stop for lunch. It was a beautiful spot beside a creek. There was a 15 month old boy there who was not sure of us at first so he stuck close to his dad and kept a close eye on us. After we settled down to lunch and were no threat to him he started moving around. The mosquitoes were about but seemed to leave us alone, surprise surprise.

The Tahune Air Walk was lots of fun. They had a free shuttle service for those with mobility issues to take them to the start of the walk. We missed climbing a lot of stairs. The walk averages 20 m above the ground. It takes you on a journey amongst the tops of the pristine, wet eucalypt forest. The walk culminates with a stunning cantilever suspended 48m above the ground. There are breathtaking views of the Picton and Huon Rivers and surrounding forest. It was a wonderful walk. Since the trees are still taller than the walkway you don't feel out in the open while on the walk. You feel quite enclosed. Charles went out on the cantilever but I did not. We walked back on the floor of the forest. It was quite a different view from there. It was fun to see the walkway high above us. When we go back to the Visitor Centre low and behold there was the two couple we met earlier.

We had just enough time to drive the 79 km down to the Hastings Cave and Thermal Pool site. The last tour of the caves was 4pm. Upon arrival we found out there were about 500 stairs in the cave tour. I did not think I could do that many stairs. Charles decided to do the caves while I took advantage of the Thermal Springs. The thermal pool was about 28°C which was not to warm but it was nice to swim. When I got in there were 2 other ladies but soon I was alone. After ½ hour I got out and dressed. I went on the springs loop walk by the pool. It was a good walk but a little creepy as I was all by myself. The forest was full on scurrying noises and fluttering birds. At the end of the walk there is a bridge over the creek. I saw a platypus swimming in the creek. It was very fast so would not have gotten a picture even if I had the camera.

The cave tour was unique as it was one of the few dolomite caves around. It was very deep leading to the many stairs. It had the usual stalagmite and stalactites. It takes a very long time for them to grow. There were cave spiders that have to go outside every 12 days to eat. One was pregnant and ate the leg off another spider when she could not get out to eat. There was another species of spider that makes a horizontal web. The female of this species is very hard on the males. If he does anything she doesn't like she stings him then devours him. Other insects that never go out have been found in the cave.

Charles enjoyed the tour very much. Like everything soon the cave tour was over and we were on our way back to Hobart.

2010-02-16T23:34:00.001-08:00

Monday Feb 15, 2010 – Bruny Island Wilderness Coast Tour

After an early morning we left for Hobart downtown to find a parking spot for the day. We had to be at the Information Centre for 7:50am. We tried lost of parking lots. However, they were for permit holders only, or for only up to 3 hours. We had over ½ hour to find a spot. I saw a parking lot but we were by it too fast. We asked a lady if she knew of one. She told us of one on Argyle St. It turned out to not open until 8 am. We did find our way back to the one I saw previously. It was open and had lots of spots available. We got to the meeting spot just in time. We were able to relax after that.

We took a bus from Hobart to the ferry terminal at Kettering. It was nice to get out of the bus even for a short while. The crossing took 15 minutes. Back on the bus we travelled through the north part of the island. It is very dry here. The vegetation is sparse. There is a narrow Isthmus joining the two parts of the island. The South part of the island is totally different. It gets much more rain so that the vegetation is thick and lush. When we arrived at Adventure Bay our bus trip was over.

It was time for our morning tea or coffee and blueberry muffin. The muffin was delicious. After we were done, we walked to the jetty to get on the boats for the next part of our journey. They needed one single person for the first boat. After some consultation, Charles decided to take that seat. They said he could have a bottle of wine for doing this. He was in one of the front seats. We were told that if you had back or hip problems not to sit in the front seats. I was on the second boat at the back.

We were given red hooded ponchos to wear. They kept us dry as well as cut the wind while we were boating. Over the course of the next 3 hours, we saw many fantastic sights. We saw The Monument, Nature's Cathedral - stark 300 m high Jurassic dolerite cliffs Breathing Rock – a spectacle of an explosive blow hole Pristine untouched rainforest and beaches Triassic sandstone cliffs Stunning sea caves and rock formations Friar Rocks – home to 1000+ Australia Fur Seals mostly males Most of which you cannot see from land. We sped from site to site. There was lots of time to take pictures at each area. The time passed very quickly. I could hardly wait to see the pictures that Charles took.

Soon the boat tour was over. We went ashore for a delicious lunch. Starting with pumpkin soup followed by a ham sandwich, salad and a small piece of fudge. Back on the bus for the return trip to Hobart.

The pictures Charles took were good. It was fun to relive the day.

Happy Valentine’s Day

2010-02-16T23:29:00.001-08:00

Sunday Feb 14, 2010 – Port Arthur Day Trip

Charles was going to make pancakes for breakfast. At the last minute, he realized we did not have any syrup. Cereal it is then. We got an early start on the day trip to Port Arthur. There were lots of rock formations to see at Eaglehawk Neck. Our first stop was a lookout over the neck. Eaglehawk Neck is the second of the narrowings along the peninsula. It was like many sandstone coastline we had already seen.

We stopped at the Tessellated Pavement. It looks like it was laid by bricklayers. However, it is all done by the sea. Either there are pans or loaves. Pans are caused by the salt water eroding out the center of the rocks leaving the edges higher than the middle. The loaves are eroded in the opposite way with the edges eroding and not the middle. We were able to walk on the rocks. It was like a paved patio.

After going through the neck, we took a side trip to the next formations. First we saw the blowhole. Here the sea has just started the wearing away of the softer rock. The cave ceiling and archway have not collapsed. When the tide is rising, the water rushes through the blowhole making lots of noise and mist. The cave further in land is being worn away. When we walked over to another section of walkway we saw that you can see right through to the Tasman Sea through an opening. It is thought that in the future, this area will form 2 or 3 islands as the softer rock is eroded.

Next came the Tasman Arch. Here most of the cave ceilings have fallen but not all, leaving this beautiful arch joining two cliffs. Again this is all caused by wave action. The last formation was the Devil`s Kitchen. Here all the ceilings have fallen, leaving a deep chasm. The waves roar in hundreds of feet below. It was so interesting to see these formations in this order, newest to the oldest. You can see what the future will unfold as the wave action continues.

Soon we were back on the main road to Port Arthur. We got there in time for lunch. That is when Charles realized all that he had forgotten to pack in the small cooler pack. No tomato, no onion, and no margarine. Just meat and water in the cooler. We had some bland sandwiches and a good laugh. Hopefully we will do better on Tuesday's day trip.

Port Arthur is a historical penal colony site. It was established in 1830 and closed in 1877. After it was closed many of the buildings were torn down or gutted by fire. Some of the buildings became hotels, guest houses and museums. By 1840`s there was over 2000 convicts, soldiers, and civil staff. It had become a major industrial settlement producing ships and shoes, clothing and bells, furniture and word stone, brooms and bricks. It was a penal colony that tied to better the convict through education and work skills. Some of the convicts did make a new life for themselves but many were just repeat offenders.

We ended up spending 3+ hours at the site. The conservation authority is doing its best to preserve what is left. Many of the brick walls are being supported by steal braces until repairs can be made. A couple of building did survive and are being renovated so people can see what it was like in the past. It was a very fascinating experience. When you pay, you get a playing card each. When you entered you matched your card to find out about a convict. Then you followed your convict through their day. It was lots of fun.

The weather was perfect for the day. It was nice and sunny where we were. It had been raining off and on over our trip to Port Arthur. When we returned, it was overcast in Hobart. We stopped to pick up food in a town call Sorell. One thing we found there was kangaroo steaks. We decided to have them for supper. Kangaroo meat is delicious. We did pick up syrup.

Wonderful day all round.

Hello From Tasmania

2010-02-16T23:23:00.001-08:00

Saturday Feb 13, 2010 – Hobart.

Off to the Saturday Market downtown Hobart. We used the GPS to find our way. The only problem was she did not know that Salamanca Street is closed for the market. With the map we were able to find our way to parking. It was downhill all the way to the market.

The market was huge. There were stalls for everything from fruits and vegetables to clothing. There were many artisans selling their wares. We could find many different things. It was wonderful way to spend the morning. Before we knew it, it was lunch time. There were a few places selling BBQ sausages. We had bratwurst on a bun. It was good. I had a berry crepe for desert. We worked off lunch by walking back to the car.

While eating lunch we talked with a couple from Indonesia. The husband was studying Fisheries at the Hobart University. She was expecting their first child. It was nice to talk to them. Another couple from Queensland joined in on the lively discussion.

We decided to go to the mall after leaving the market. We looked into getting wireless internet, but decided against it. It made more sense economically to just keep buying wireless time where ever we went. I don't know how many times we walked up and down the mall. We kept deciding to look for something that is at the other end of the mall.

After we returned to our accommodation I went to sleep and Charles organized all the tourist info we had into possible day trips. We are going to be quite busy over the next week.