Chef Shari and the Spooky Tree People

One night, we camped out a really nice state park. I have no idea what it is called. The forest was beautiful.

Someone had tied little stuff people to the trees.

At first it seemed rather spooky. Apparently, they were a project designed to ask people to save the forest. So, not so spooky ... ok, still a little spooky.

As you can imagine, a lot of people want to log the old growth forests in Tasmania and a lot of people want to save them. A few weeks before we arrived, thousands protested construction of a pulp mill in Tasmania. So, while the tree people were spooky, we understood their cause.

To offset the spookiness ... or perhaps to make it more spooky. Chef Shari conducted a dinner experiment.

And, when we left, we left a gift for the tree people.

Wombat Scat

While in Australia ... only Shari saw a wombat in the wild ... so she says. But, we did see plenty of wombat scat. This is notable because it's rectangular and the wombats place it on rocks and logs ... in stacks. Unfortunately, we only got photos where the wombat scat was apparently stepped on.



There is a great article "What Scat is That." It has more info on wombat scat. Unfortunately, the webpage is down right now. Hopefully it will be available when you read this.

Our Tasmania Group

It's time to meet the group of people that we traveled with.

Jenny - from Tasmania, our guide. She has led 35-day treks in Nepal. She recently purchased TASafari and knows an amazing amount about the flora and fauna of Tasmania.


Camille - from France, is in Australia on a 5 month work visa. She is required to pick fruit (apples) for 3 months. In return, she gets to travel for two months. Here she is looking at water from a rain collection system that Jenny claims is safe to drink!


Travis - from South Africa, moved to Australia when he was 19. Travis is 6'7". He worked lighting in the film industry - and worked on the lighting team for all three of the Matrix movies.


John & Tasiko - John is originally from England, Tasiko is from Japan. They live in Japan now and are in Australia for John's daughter's wedding. They traveled with us the first day and a half.

Wineglass Bay

We camped out on some private land. Shari tried to sleep in a swag - which left her exposed to the elements ... and the wandering bushtail possum (see the borrowed photo below). When we woke up in the morning, she was in the van ... claiming that the mosquitoes were swarming her. However, she also said that she woke up and the possum was staring at her.


We did a walk at Freycinet National Park ... which took us to an overlook of Wineglass Bay.


The rest of the tour group hung back while Ranger S and the Fly Girls continued on to Wineglass bay. The water was quite cold.


But, the sand was warm.


Upon our return from Wineglass Bay, Shari met a wallaby.

Ranger S and the Fly Girls go Bushwalking

We started off our bushwalking adventure at Cape Raoul on the Tasman Peninsula. We are told the Cape Raoul trail is one of the most spectacular cliff top walks in all Tasmania. The bush was wild. The "walk" was a 14 km (~9 mi) "walk."

Ranger S

and the Fly Girls
did indeed enjoy commanding views of the coastline on their way to the Cape Raoul plateau.


The Cape Raoul plateau can be seen in this photo. We hiked (walked if you are Australian) up to the cliffs and then down to the plateau, where we had lunch.


Here is the view of the spectacular dolomite pillar cape at the end of the plateau. Seals were hanging out at the bottom of the pillar.

While the wildness of the bush and the views on this walk were the big highlights, we also stood within 10 feet of a tiger snake and an echidna. Tiger snake = timid snake with highly toxic venom produced in large amounts. The venom is mainly neurotoxic, affecting the central nervous system, but also causes muscle damage and affects blood clotting. The breakdown of muscle tissue can lead to kidney failure. While Jenny, our guide, was a bit concerned by this non-timid tiger snake, we didn't let it hinder our curiosity.

Off to Tasmania

Ticket mix-ups, missed flights, and Australian airline policies

Monday evening, Shari announced we were scheduled for 6:00 AM flight, and K announced we were scheduled to leave at 1:30 PM. Turns out we were both right. After mild death threats and staying on hold with Virgin Blue for 2 hours, it was decided that Shari would go ahead on her own to Tasmania. Except...she missed the flight, and rather than being able to stand by for the next flight, or pay a change fee...she was charged for an entire new trip there.

Moral of the story - don't miss flights in Australia.

We ended up on the same flights there (and back) and had time to view Hobart, which is a surprisingly big and vibrant city.
(stolen picture from http://www.hwidc.tas.gov.au)

We walked around, tried to get a drink at Australia's oldest pub

Instead got one hereAnd ate at Mure's

Preparation for Tasmania ... Hats

K and Shari bought hats in preparation for our trip to Tasmania. We leave in a few hours.

Granite Island & the Little Penguins

Ae stopped at Victor Harbor on our way back to Adelaide from Kangaroo Island. We had one mission .... to see the Little Penguins (a.k.a. Fairy Penguins) at Granite Island!

The Little Penguins are the smallest penguins. They come ashore at dusk every day to feed their chicks and sleep in their burrows. Light (including camera flash) temporarily blinds them. So, I stole the following photos from somebody else's website .

As one can imagine, we were overjoyed by the chance to observe the Little Penguins!

Kangaroo Island ... Day 5

Leaving Day. We packed up and did a bit of hiking at Lathami Conservation Park (which butted up against the land where our cabin was). On our way out, we did see three yellow tailed black cockatoos - which was very exciting!

Kangaroo Island ... Day 4

This was the odd morning - instead of touring nature, we toured local businesses, including the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery and Clifford's Honey Farm. We tried to visit Paul's Place Wildlife Park ... but it was only open from noon - 2:oo PM. We also tried to visit Island Pure Sheep Dairy ... but it was open from 1 PM - 4 PM. We also tried to visit Jumbuck Shearing ... but they were closed due to the big shearing competition. One thing we have learned about Australians is that they are not all about profit.

We spent the rest of the day bird watching at Murray Lagoon (see the black swans below)


and hanging out on the rocks at Stokes Bay (near our cabin).

Kangaroo Island ... Day 3

We spent the morning at seal bay, where we watched Australian sea lions for hours. It was amazing.


Then, it was on to Kelly Hill Conservation Park where we toured a cave (the view from above ground in Kangaroo Island is much better than the one from below ground).


We spent the early afternoon at Vivonne Bay - this is notable because a professor at Sydney University evaluated 10,000 beaches across Australia, rating them on things like clarity of water, privacy and cleanliness. Vivonne Bay came out on top. The locals are quick to point out that Vivonne Bay is the best beach in Australia.


We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Little Sahara Geologic Monument. It reminded me of the time that my aunt Debbie and I took my cousin Kendra to the Oregon Sand Dunes ... she started running down one of the dunes, lost her balance and went end over end until she came to a sudden stop at the bottom. Amazing she is still with us. As a result, K and I were quite careful at the Little Sahara sand dune system. You can't tell by the photo, but it was really windy on top of the dunes.

Kangaroo Island ... Day 2

We spent our second day at Flinders Chase National Park. We hiked a bit ... and saw kangaroos, and echidnas ....

... and a platypus (not really - they are apparantly very difficult to spot) ...

and koalas ...


and Remarkable Rocks (that's what they are called) ...



and new zealand fur seals.


Absolutely unbelievable.

Kangaroo Island ... Day 1

Kangaroo Island is amazing. Day 1. We took the ferry to the island and drove to our cabin. Along the way, we saw signs of Kangaroos.


And, when we arrived to Stokes Bay (where are cabin was), we found a beautiful view...

And Kangaroos! About a hundred of them would come and graze every evening. It was unbelievable.


Wallabies came to visit us too. But only in the dark and they were fast. No photos.

Okinawa

Another retrospective on my Japan trip.

I spent the second week in Okinawa. The Okinawans are warm and friendly ... and they like their drink, especially Awamori.

I spent an extra day there (in Naha) and visited Shuri Castle, which was the palace of the Ryuku Kingdom, which ruled the Ryukuan Islands from the 15th to the 19th centuries - the Okinawans that I talked to considered themselves Ryukuans or Okinawans, rather than Japanese.


I also visited Filisji-En Park. OK ... back to Australia.

Wine tasting

Fast on the heels of the previous post - our Australian experiences the past two days entailed:

Getting a sunburn within two minutes ... and applying suntan lotion!


Wine tasting in Barossa Valley at Penfolds (oldest vinyard in Australia), Two Hands, and Torbreck.


Viewing vines


Hanging out at wineries and being silly with Shari!!!