Cairns, diving the GBR, and hugging a koala!

The Great Barrier Reef (or at least a little part of it)

Diving the Great Barrier Reef is part bucket list, part "not like it used to be" (no place is - you hear this everywhere you go), and is mostly wonderful and "is-what-it-is".  Going to the outer reef and further north helps to get into less visited waters and corals that are in better shape. I'll save all of the fishy pictures for the end, but here are a few highlights.

Sharks!  Who doesn't love to see something as sleek and top-of-the-food-chain.  We had a couple of dives centered around sharks, but they could be seen on most dives.  

Shark feeding

Jumbo cod!  Mostly really big potato cod, but the biggest one I saw was a Queensland Cod that looked to be the size of a small car.

potato cod

And mostly, beautiful and diverse corals and multitudes of fish of all sorts.  To be honest, neither were as good as I've seen in other places, like the coral diversity or fish density in Palau, or the sea life diversity in Bali and Indonesia - but still an awesome place to dive where I got to see many things I'd never seen before - and many others that I never get tired of seeing.

Staghorn coral

Octopus

Leaf scorpion fish

This was never meant to be a diving trip so much as a discover Australia trip, tand diving was definitely a big part of that - though if I'd come here only to dive and skipped the other chapters, I would have felt short-changed for sure.  

Mike Ball Dive Expedition's boat SpoilSport

One of the best parts of any liveaboard trip is meeting other divers from around the world.  One of the best parts of traveling solo is that you tend to connect with other solo travelers who are less focused on their partners or groups.  Below is Lisa from Ohio who was my dive buddy for most of the 20+ dives, Sam from Atlanta (by way of Utah), and Sophia from Paris.  

dive buddies

The Outback - Alice Springs, RVing, & Uluru

The biggest advantage of traveling solo is that you actually get to go on trips.  Back home, it seems impossible to align calendars, let alone priorities and expenses to do something like this.  In most circumstances, I don't mind - I'm pretty good at entertaining myself and finding people to talk to.  Picking up my camper van/RV in Alice Springs, it was clear that having a co-pilot around would have been preferable.

Home for 5 days

The Northern Territory (NT) is vast and vastly different from Sydney and New South Wales (NSW).  Alice Springs is small, mostly poor, and mostly populated by indigenousness Australians - formerly called Aborigines.   The pace here is really slow, and I found it best not to be in a hurry for anything.

After picking up my camper van, I stopped at the local grocer to pick up supplies, then went next door to the "bottle shop" to stock up on cold beer to help with the 95 degree days.  To buy beer or a bottle of wine in the NT, you first have to get passed the guards.  Even small gas stations that want to sell any alcohol have to have 2 guards to check IDs and extensively question the buyer on what they planned to do with it.  I had to get a lesson on the alcohol laws of NT before they would let me in.  Any indigenous folks trying just get a big hassle.  Then when paying, I had to again produce my ID (my passport) which they scanned into their system and tied to my purchase.  Easier to buy a gun in Seattle than a beer in NT!

The drive from Alice Springs to Uluru is about 300 miles, and takes about 5 hours with speed limits up to 130kph (>80mph).  There were places marked on the map that I thought would be towns, but in most cases were just a single structure - usually a roadhouse selling gas, coffee, and maybe some food.  You could even drive for 50 or 60 miles without seeing so much as a road sign telling you what road you were on or where you were going.  If it weren't for the occasional car that would pass me, or the occasional slowpoke that I passed (drive on the left, pass on the right), it would have felt extremely isolated.

Uluru - still 150km away

Uluru sunset

There's a reason why Mad Max was conceived to be in the Australian Outback.  Most of the vehicles on the road look like they could be in the movie.  Every one has 4 distinct features beyond 4wd;  a roo-bar to keep kangaroos from wrecking your front end, big lights up front to see the kangaroos before you hit them, a big thick antenna that I assume is for a CB radio to call for help if needed, and a snorkel to get through the flood channels when it rains.

Milky Way on a starry night

I thought it would be fairly quiet as far as the local tourists go, but I guess I didn't check to see that it was actually Australian spring break and all the kids were off of school.  So, the caravan parks were full and the best I could do was to park in the overflow area down at the Uluru National Park.  Not really a problem, except that without a plug in, my AC doesn't work unless the engine is running - so had to find relief elsewhere during the afternoons.  Fortunately, it cooled down to the 60s at night, so sleeping wasn't a problem.

Uluru was formally turned over back to the original occupants of the region, the Mala tribe.  For the past few decades, one of the big draws to Uluru was to climb to the top, but the Mala view that as disrespectful, and it will no longer be allowed starting next year.  As of now, there's a big push not to climb, but some people still ignore the wishes of the locals and do it anyway.

I'm glad that I came here and glad that I saw and experienced the Red Centre, but to be honest, I wish I had condensed things into one or two less days.  For a quick pass through, the sights here are really Uluru/Ayers Rock along with it's lumpier brother, Kata Tjuta, and some of the wildlife parks and farms.  I'm sure with more time would come more appreciation for the subtle beauty.  Putting 1200km on the camper with diesel at as much as $2.20ASD/liter or about $6USD/gallon meant spending about $300US on fuel for the round trip on top of the ~$200/day for the camper and $30/night to park - so not really any cheaper than staying in the Marriott in Sydney.  Still - a good experience and one I'm glad to have had.

Kata Tjuta

I'll wrap this up with some pictures of the wildlife - both wild and captive.  On the wild side, there are amazing bird everywhere.  Even the local version of pigeons look and sound exotic.  There are various forms of doves, mockingbirds, and parrots that make a huge but pleasant racket in the mornings.  Vultures, eagles, and hawks are seen riding thermals, circling prey, and picking at dead kangaroos on the side of the road.  I visited an Emu farm at one of the roadhouses along the way, saw camels wandering in the brush from a camel farm, and visited the Alice Springs Desert Park that had an incredible open air bird show, with birds from sparrows to owls to eagles trained to enter and exit on queue, swooping low and fast inches over the heads of the audience.  They also had an enclosed area that you could enter and go face to face with giant red kangaroos - the males being about 5-6 feet tall.  If you hit one of those driving down the highway at 130kph, you'll certainly want your roo-bars installed!

just-my-size kangaroo

dingos colluding to eat a baby

Bondi Beach - surf's up!

Bondi Beach is one of those mythical places that I've heard about for years, but never really had a picture in my head of what it looked like.  It's just a 45 minute ride on public transit from central Sydney, and I can imagine that in the height of summer, the place gets packed.

Bondi Beach

It took me a while to figure out that if you click on these small pictures, you get the full size version.  You can even skip all of this commentary by just clicking on the big picture to move to the next one.

Anyhow, being just a few days into spring here, and with rain yesterday and a forecast in the mid-60's F, the beach wasn't too busy, but there were plenty of surfers out in the water, and the waves were in good form.  Facing the water, it's newbies and soft boards to the left, and experienced with fiberglass boards to the right.

There were some really talented surfers out there.  I imagine that the weather is good for surfing year round, so plenty of opportunity to practice.

There's also an excellent skate park at Bondi, along with a fairly lame version of Venice's Muscle Beach.  Lots of well behaved dogs walking off leash, and plenty of little kids that I was sure were going to get washed out to sea, but never did.  Also some cool art on the walls along the walkway.

Back to the city for my last hurrah before heading up to Alice Spings and my caravan (RV) in the bush tomorrow.  I took a lap up and around the end of the Harbour Bridge, and stopped in at a small brew pub called the Tap Room for their Aussie IPA and a plate of "kangaroo croquettes".  Never had kangaroo before, so when presented with the chance, how could I say no?

Roo balls

Just a tiny bit gamey with the texture of pot roast, when you add some spices and a few more ingredients that I can't identify and then deep fry them, they make for the perfect pub fare to go with a cold beer.

Here are a few final photos from my Sydney walkabout.  Signing off for now and I expect for a while.  No idea what to expect up in Alice Spings and around Uluru and the Kings Canyon National Park.  Hoping to take a lot of great photos and get my drone up in the air.

Manly, Harleys & Beer

Sydney's Iconic View

I met an Aussie on the flight over who said that a ferry ride up to the suburb of Manly was a very good way to spend an afternoon.  The ferry runs right from Circular Quay and leaves every 30 minutes for the ~20 minute journey.  Some time spent poking around the Internet before I went found one of Australia's oldest craft breweries right at the Manly warf, and North Beaches Harley-Davidson a short Uber ride to the north.  Sounds like a Manly kind of day!

Departing Circular Quay

The ferry ride itself is amazing with views of the city, the Opera House, and the Harbor Bridge - along with great views of the many coves and beachfront homes that make up I'm sure some of the most expensive houses in Sydney.

Sydney Opera House

The Opera House is an amazing structure from all angles.  I wonder if Pearl Jam ever played there?

Manly living

Manly would be to Sydney what Bainbridge Island is to Seattle.  Close enough for a commute if necessary, but a world away in terms of pace.

From the inner protected warf, it's a 5 minute walk across a pedestrian plaza lined with bikini and surfboard shops to the ocean beach.  As I arrived, a stage was being set up for Manly's Evening Jazz program which unfortunately doesn't start until the weekend when I'll be long gone.

Manly Beach

From Manly Beach, I grabbed an Uber for a 10 minute ride up to North Beaches Harley-Davidson with the idea of checking out the inventory and costs relative to the US, and of course, to buy a t-shirt.  In the end, it turned out to be pretty much same-same but with heavy emphasis on Sportsters and other smaller bare bones models  Not so much of the big baggers that are pushed in my local shop.  Owner of the shop says the roads in Australia are not as good as in the US - no freeways, mostly rural 2 lane roads, so I guess less of the 80mph, 500 mile days that are typical of cross  country rides in the States.

After beaches and bikes, you of course need beer - so Uber back to the warf and to the 4 Pines brewpub sitting up on the 2nd floor just across from the ferry landing.  Enjoyed a nice pint of New Zealand Pale Strong ale along with some bread and hummus and some tasty calamari & finished with a short time in the brewhouse with the head brewer who shared tastes of a couple of experimental beers - one brewed with hemp seed and one with seaweed.  Both were excellent!

Micro Beers on the balcony

I was really impressed by this brewpub and the brewer.  They seem to be really into the craft and trying new things, brewing over 60 different styles each year I'm told.  The great thing about brewpubs is that it really allows for that kind of experimentation.  These guys also can their beers for the outside market, and seem to have a good balance to should provide for good income while still being "craft".

4 Pines Brewhouse

Heading back to Sydney, I get the reverse view of things which is no less wonderful.

It's been a good day!

15 hours to the other side of the world

My 15 hour flight from LAX to SYD was really not so bad.  I think its sort of a memory muscle that builds up over time doing long trips.  I actually appreciate that it's so hard to get here - otherwise it would lose some of it's specialness.  I watched a movie on the plane that dealt with worm holes and ways to skip across the universe. I guess that would be cool, but something would definitely be lost if someone could get to the other side of the planet without some effort and a bit of suffering.


Sydney Harbour daytime timelapse from Paul Taylor on Vimeo.

I'm too tired to write, but don't want to make the mistake of sleeping during the Australian day.  Many things to see and do, so staying upright for now.  Well, maybe just a little nap...

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Darling Harbour

15 hours later, I meandered through the central business district of Sydney to Darling Harbour - another jumping off point for ferries, a place to catch a party boat, or visit museums, the city aquarium, and other tourist attractions.  If Circular Quay is similar to the Seattle ferry terminal area, Darling Harbour is the equivalent of the Seattle waterfront to the north, less Ye Old Curiosity Shop.

In my now more than 24 hours in the city, I can say from my extensive experience that Seattle and Sydney seem to be twins separated at birth and sent to opposite sides of the planet.  The biggest differences I see are:

• There are few to no people who appear to be of African, Middle Eastern or Indian origin.  Mainly European and Asian.  Given the geographies, I suppose that makes some sense.
• No insane people on the street, no one begging passers by for change, no one camping in public places.  It's very clean here, with no obvious reason why (i.e no heavy presence of police or other authority).  I'm thinking Seattle's mayor might want to pay a visit and see what she can learn.

Darling Harbour Aquarium

Other than those things, I think you'd find yourself hard pressed to tell a significant difference - on the surface anyway.  I suspect that the differences that are easy to see have some deeper underlying roots in the culture.  We'll see if my perceptions or understanding change over the next few days.