Me, She and Him, Over There

Starting at The Lakes Resort @ Edge Hill, Australia

2007-12-04T20:55:47.000Z

The key thing about Real Estate is Location, followed by Location and not forgetting about Location. The Lakes has nice buildings, good rooms, nice staff, all that stuff -- but it's sitting next to the airport and an $11 cab ride from the Cairns CBD. Thus the food which is rather expensive is comparably affordable if you rack on the going and coming from the location which is pounded by jets taking off from the airport rather frequently. It was good -- except for their internet access strategy and food prices -- but the greatness of the building architecture and room layouts (looked great, laid out great) was really mitigated by it just not being a very good place to be.

I'd say "so we'll likely stay at the Hilton again next time," except that Cairns has lost some of the wild-abandon charm that it had 3 years ago. More style-over-substance restaurants have cropped up, more lodgings, more dangerous drivers, more dodgy kitsch shops -- it's more of everything it was except for the wild abandon of interesting ways to be an insurance liability to an adventure tour guide, so now the ratios are off. Still a great point of departure for the Great Barrier Reef, though.

Fetta's Greek restaurant looks like a dive but the food -- or at least the meat portions, which is what I was caring about -- is fantastic and the service is wonderful, just like it was 3 years ago. It's a great way to start of a vacation in Cairns. Mango Jam that served us our first serious food 3 years ago moved to Port Douglas, so we'll be catching up with them in a few days. The Hog's Breath Cafe was pretty good with decent atmosphere if you like marbled steak -- good all around, I might go there again. Conversely, the Rattle & Hum was all atmosphere with unimpressive food and I don't think I'd try eating there again.

En Route to the Reef @ Moore Reef, Australia

2007-12-08T10:09:52.000Z

So our diving course was booked through ProDive and I have to say that I ended up being quite satisfied with the experience even though I caught a cold and couldn't complete the open water portion of the diving. The staff tended to be rough-shod in a personable sort of way, the sort of way that reminded you that there's a lot of room to move within the boundaries of getting a bunch of tightly-packed tourists out into unnatural situations in a hazardous environment with a goal of getting them all safely back to land again.

Anyway, most of the places that ProDive goes are also great for snorkeling with shallow areas that people bogged down in scuba gear just won't be able to get to. So that turned out to be fabulous for me.

That said, I'd strongly suggest that anybody wanting to do a diving course do their theory and pool diving well in advance of the course, pick up their own snorkeling gear and get used to skin-diving and mouth breathing and the whole like of things -- and give any diseases that you pick up in your own pool or from your hired/borrowed regulators and tanks a chance to clear out of your system before you go scuba diving on the reef. Scuba diving is a very unnatural experience and if you're not used to how your body tries to float or how your face contorts under pressure, there's a reasonable chance that you're not going to get nearly as much out of the whole experience of being in a wholly unnatural and hazardous situation as you probably should.

What follows next is a long sequence of photographs from above and below the water of what we were able to see (and click!) on this trip.

Pellowe Reef, Australia @ Pellowe Reef, Australia

2007-12-08T15:49:41.000Z

Flynn Reef, Australia @ Flynn Reef, Australia

2007-12-08T19:57:19.000Z

Flynn Reef, Australia @ Flynn Reef, Australia

2007-12-09T13:23:27.000Z

Coffee Farm Survey -- Tichum Creek @ Tichum Creek Coffee Farm, Australia

2007-12-11T19:08:29.000Z

Having finished our diving course, we've moved up to Trinity Beach and are making occasional excursions amidst much relaxation. Our first excursion was to three coffee growing establishments, starting with Tichum Creek. Tichum Creek had the least to see -- two trees, a rough shop and a roaster -- but was notably free with a friendly proprietor that was happy to tour what little was on display chatting up about how coffee could be held for up to two years in its green state and a couple of weeks after roasting before going stale. (Remember those numbers, they'll be amusing in a moment.) He also had a German coffee roasting machine that he'd bought and had rebuilt in Oklahoma City.

Mareeba, Australia @ Mareeba, Australia

2007-12-12T04:21:16.000Z

Coffee Farm Survey -- Jaques Coffee Plantation @ Jaques Coffee Plantation, Australia

2007-12-12T05:22:44.000Z

Jaques Coffee Plantation was the second coffee growing location we visited. They charged $12 for their tour, but included liquor samples and a basic espresso drink in that cost. The story of the current plantation sounds distinctly Australian, or maybe like something out of Monty Python: the current plantation is actually the third plantation in a series with the first being lost to government policies exacerbating economic downturn in the '80s and the second being lost to over-zealous government pesticide sprayers. They added 10 years to the expected lifespans of coffee trees, doubled the time that green coffee can be held in storage and added a week to the amount of post-roast time before it starts going stale. The real claim to fame of this plantation is the creation of the coffee harvesting machine which almost infinitely reduces the coffee harvesting labot by rolling around a tree and shaking it down, catching anything that falls off -- the design is easiest to think about in terms of "mobile car wash, but for trees."

Coffee Works, Australia @ Coffee Works, Australia

2007-12-12T05:56:43.000Z

Coffee Works, Australia @ Coffee Works, Australia

2007-12-12T08:22:54.000Z

Coffee Works has a veritable buffet of coffees, but in order to enjoy sampling them I really recommend that you go early in the morning when they are freshly brewed.

Trinity Beach, Australia @ Trinity Beach, Australia

2007-12-13T13:22:05.000Z

Kates Sugarloaf, Australia @ Kates Sugarloaf, Australia

2007-12-15T11:34:32.000Z

The mango orchard at Golden Drop Winery -- they make mango wine. Their medium and sweet mango wines are quite nice as white-wine substitutes. They've also got some Cellos; the Lime is very impressive.

Davies Creek, Australia @ Davies Creek, Australia

2007-12-15T12:24:21.000Z

The Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve was a bit expensive for the slight selection of (mostly African) animals, though I do have to admit that they had more lions collected than I've ever seen before -- and these were actual lions, too, not just random big cats of obscure varieties which you've never heard of before.

Shoteel Creek, Australia @ Shoteel Creek, Australia

2007-12-15T14:29:23.000Z

Some 6 kilometers off the road was a rain forest resort that we stopped at for lunch -- it wasn't a good idea. But we did get to see this nifty monitor lizard, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Four Mile Ridge, Australia @ Four Mile Ridge, Australia

2007-12-15T14:59:10.000Z

There's a food and fruit stand called "The Termite" that makes us happy.

Red Peak, Australia @ Red Peak, Australia

2007-12-15T15:26:58.000Z

Trinity Beach, Australia @ Trinity Beach, Australia

2007-12-15T15:42:40.000Z

Edge Hill, Australia @ Edge Hill, Australia

2007-12-15T16:32:14.000Z

Plants from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cairns. They also had some very strange spiders in there...

Edge Hill, Australia @ Edge Hill, Australia

2007-12-15T17:25:47.000Z

Earl Hill, Australia @ Earl Hill, Australia

2007-12-16T05:34:45.000Z

Port Douglas, Australia @ Port Douglas, Australia

2007-12-16T14:42:59.000Z

Trinity Beach, Australia @ Trinity Beach, Australia

2007-12-16T18:07:17.000Z

These rocks are on the beach just south (about half a block) of our apartment. There are small black crabs that hide under the exceptionally porous rocks and can scuttle really quickly when fleeing flash photography.

Kilkeary Hill, Australia @ Kilkeary Hill, Australia

2007-12-19T08:33:45.000Z

Daintree exploration with this leg featuring the river full of crocodiles and flanked by huge (1 meter wingspan) bats.

Flat Peak, Australia @ Flat Peak, Australia

2007-12-19T09:59:20.000Z

Flat Peak, Australia @ Flat Peak, Australia

2007-12-19T10:36:51.000Z

Daintree rain forest, complete with palm-sized spiders.

Struck Island, Australia @ Struck Island, Australia

2007-12-19T11:52:42.000Z

This isn't on an island; it's on the coast. This is a protected beach as it has a lot of interesting things going on -- especially the crab-compressed sand pellets that are reputed to have been the design inspiration for the point-styled paintings that they do. Some of the volcanic rocks can bounce, and the paint brushes are dried seed pods with the paints also being locally available.

Mount Hutchinson, Australia @ Mount Hutchinson, Australia

2007-12-19T12:46:24.000Z

Mount Hutchinson, Australia @ Mount Hutchinson, Australia

2007-12-19T13:59:51.000Z

The canopy of the cathedral. Wild pigs live in the area. I think there's an allegory there, but...

Flat Peak, Australia @ Flat Peak, Australia

2007-12-19T15:04:17.000Z

Daintree river flowing to the ocean.

Malanda, Australia @ Malanda, Australia

2007-12-22T10:16:18.000Z

Malanda Falls was the first of six waterfalls we visited today. It's wide and rather short and comparably unimpressive, but it's easy to get to and you can swim under it if you'd like. We also saw a few of this red-headed bird which is evidently common enough that it needs no identification posters.

Moregatta, Australia @ Moregatta, Australia

2007-12-22T10:57:54.000Z

The next three waterfalls were on a little loop outside of Millaa Millaa, starting with Millaa Millaa falls and then moving on to Zillie falls and Ellingaa falls after that. These are all very nice waterfalls with plenty of surrounding stuff like interesting ferns and fungus, lizards and dragonflies, and even the occasional tourist-munching spider (that was even bigger than the one we saw up in Daintree). I'm not sure if the detail is still visible after recompression, but my camera did catch that the spider has little hairs all over its legs this time... ick!

Moregatta, Australia @ Moregatta, Australia

2007-12-22T12:52:27.000Z

This is a small fraction of the 200 or so degrees worth of visibility that you can get from the Millaa Millaa lookout just west of town. It's jaw-droppingly beautiful for those of us that like lush green hills textured by the soft shadows of gently passing clouds.

Hugh Nelson Range, Australia @ Hugh Nelson Range, Australia

2007-12-22T13:32:05.000Z

These are from Mount Hypipamee which, in addition to the usual wilderness kinds of things, features the rambling Dinner Falls (that's #5 of 6) and, far more impressively, an old volcanic crater -- which is that rock photo that I need to replace with some panoramics after I get a photo-stitcher. So now I've stood in -- at the top of, on a platform -- a volcanic crater. Another life experience. Anyway, interesting tree and a bird that went about its moth-munching business without any regard to us. What these images don't show is how mind-bogglingly noisy the rain forest gets with all of the bugs and birds screaming away at each other. I took a couple videos to sample it up and they sound utterly hideous -- but exactly as loud as the jungle was.

Barron Falls, Australia @ Barron Falls, Australia

2007-12-22T17:13:15.000Z

In case you're wondering why the Kuranda Skyrail or train matter at all, I present Barron Falls, our sixth waterfall of the day (just before the wet season really kicks in). This thing is so big that it simply defies panoramics -- and this is what the train and the Skyrail give you particularly close views of, possibly amoung other things although I find it impossible to imagine that there's that much more beyond this. I'm not sure how I'd react to seeing it from a machine, frankly, since I felt as if I'd had the wind knocked out of me when I got my first good view of the area. I can't imagine trying to deal with it as an unfeeling transporter buzzed me on past it in a people-moving fashion. Anyway, it's completely stunning and qualifies as a must-see in my opinion. Kuranda itself is a nice little tourist-intense town (with very strong hippie vibes, in contrast to Cairns' backpackers or Port Douglas' yuppies) that inexplicably shuts down at 4pm. But they've got a Venom Zoo which would count for a lot if I had more time an inclination to pursue it now that I know that it's there.

Milln Reef, Australia @ Milln Reef, Australia

2007-12-24T10:10:41.000Z

Me and She went back out on the reef with the Tusa 5 boat. Beautiful day, nice boat, good folks -- misbehaving camera. Our first snorkeling site was decent, but the current was a bit strong and they had positioned the boat up-current from where we were supposed to be swimming, a notable error for divers since you don't want to be trying to swim against the current when you're tired enough to be wanting to return to the boat. Anyway, most of the photos turned out shockingly blue and usually with a wandering smudge through them as if I might not have gotten all of the defogger liquid back out of the lens. But I did get to see an interesting shellfish (not shown), a kind of yellow pipefish (I guess, it's pictured), and an impressive school of blackfish. Oh, and a non-stinging jellyfish bounced off my lips and darned near gave me a heart attack.

Thetford Reef, Australia @ Thetford Reef, Australia

2007-12-24T13:28:03.000Z

The second site for Tusa 5 was much better for snorkeling. She saw a turtle, a couple of sharks and we got to see cuttlefish as well -- but the camera was having fits and managed to not take any pictures of the cuttlefish. The other two aren't the camera's fault -- I missed the turtle as I was gawking at big fish under the boats and don't know how I missed the sharks other than "they're fast. Anyway, Thetford has some astoundingly -- dangerously -- shallow coral combined with sheer dropoffs, so it's perfect for snorkeling in since you can hover on the edge and see the conversion between the shallow and the deeper systems -- hence sharks, turtles and cuttlefish. There were also younger giant clams in the area, still surprisingly bright and colorful and occasionally twitching and surprisingly big parrotfish and all manner of other things. Thetford is a good place for snorkeling.

Green Visitor @ Trinity Beach, Australia

2007-12-25T13:11:12.000Z

I've always, always wanted to get this close to a mantis, if only to balance out never, never wanting to get this close to a spider. This was on our balcony at Sea Change (we've got the 2-bedroom with roof deck and private BBQ and it's fabulous even though there's no espresso machine as was pictured) and Me and She are outside chatting and playing cards and I look up and there's this strange wobble shape on the railing, about 3 meters away. So I get up and take a close look and lo and behold, here's a mantis stalking along in the wild -- a sight I've never seen. So, a flurry of photos later, we've got our mantis stalking down -- yes, it was holding on to the plaster that way -- after whatever it was that it was hoping to find. This was a particularly photogenic little guy who was only mildly intimidated rather than actually scared of the big human with the camera.

O'Reilly's Rainforest Sanctuary @ Hunters Lookout, Australia

2007-12-27T15:24:48.000Z

Had we known that it would be cold before being extremely rainy and a 2:10 drive from Brisbane up the worst road ever "paved," I would've taken a pass on this -- probably done Frasier Island again instead. That said, they've got some lovely hikes and a whole lot of delightful birds (Grandpa -- we recorded some bird songs for you!) inclusive of all of the parrots you're about to see all over us. That said, the room (#69, top floor) was pretty fabulous and the two-thirds of the staff that weren't new, confused, and/or delighting in chaos and despair were utterly fabulous -- like our waiter, Kim, a great guy who was able to remember all of our names for the duration of our stay. I was amazed by that talent because it's something I just couldn't do. At all. Ever.

Brisbane @ Spring Hill, Australia

2007-12-29T14:27:47.000Z

Welcome to Brisbane; it's a city. But it does have a 24-hour pancake house (with a bar in the basement) that has repurposed one of the city's many old massive brick churches. Him has more pictures which I'm going to try to snag as She didn't think we'd want our camera for dessert and admitted she was wrong about that after we were already inside. The Chiefly at Lennon's hotel is a bit spartan, but it does have fabulous location with its front door being right on the pedestrian mall -- so it served our purpose well enough.

Sydney, Observatory Hill @ Observatory Hill, Australia

2007-12-30T16:32:58.000Z

No comment at this time. I've said before that Sydney takes two tries to get anything right, but it may simply be that Sydney only rewards the folks who are somewhere between undaunted and impervious in getting through the initial response it gives to me every time I come here.

Taronga Zoo @ Sydney Cove, Australia

2007-12-31T10:25:05.000Z

So I used over 2gb worth of memory all in one go, making me feel exceptionally justified in picking up a 4gb card for this trip. Here's just a tiny sampling of the critters.

New Year's Eve 2007 @ Sydney Opera House, Australia

2007-12-31T13:48:48.000Z

New Year's Eve in Sydney as seen from the Sydney Opera House, where there was a delightful opera gala. Both the gala and the pyrotechnics were infinitely improved from their 2004 incarnation (Gershwin via Austria? Ach, nein!) and the evening was perfect since we wouldn't see the bill for staying at the Westin until several days later.

Sydney, Australia @ Sydney, Australia

2008-01-01T12:20:58.000Z

Bondi Beach @ Ben Buckler, Australia

2008-01-03T14:48:06.000Z

We went surfing out at Bondi Beach, mostly just to say we did. And we did. And we did not significantly injure ourselves (at least Me and She didn't), so that counts as a resounding success for us. Worth noting about Bondi Beach is that this photo full of people was taken in the middle of a working Thursday -- and that's still how many people are on the beach. Also worth noting is that there's a New Zealand Natural ice cream and yogurt shop up about mid-way in the beach and a yogurt Fruit-Flo is so very fabulous and tasty when you come up from toasting on the beach. The other photo in this set is of Me and She on the subway, because the Sydney subway system is kind of nifty in that it's generally safe for tourists.

Melbourne, Australia @ Melbourne, Australia

2008-01-05T10:36:03.000Z

Melbourne has a lot of very pretty buildings, some of which are still what they started as. The first statue is Joan of Arc, second statue is Saint George fighting a dragon, and the image just after that is the State Library of Victoria -- very breathtaking in a "Read or Die" kind of way. The dinosaur skeleton is from the Museum -- they've got a few other permanent dinos, but the one in the lobby has the best lighting. Also worth noting is that the Cafe Rush, just south of the Metro Apartments on Bank Place (quite adequate, I'd stay there again) has the most unassumingly fantastic coffee I might have had during my entire stay in Australia. The Curry Vault -- right under the Apartments -- is adequate Indian food (which is probably an understatement considering my exposure to good Indian food) and I approve of them, too. But none of that quite compares to the bakeries and dessert shops of Acland street down near St Kilda's beach -- just steer to the right as you're heading back inland from Luna Park -- which utterly boggle the mind and the taste buds without horrifying the wallet.

Torquay, Australia @ Torquay, Australia

2008-01-08T12:13:37.000Z

Aireys Inlet, Australia @ Aireys Inlet, Australia

2008-01-08T13:08:59.000Z

The Great Ocean Road isn't really that great and there's long stretches of it that tend to be a bit short on ocean, too. I'd like to invite any Aussies that take issue with that to drive Highway 101 down the west side of North America for a while, particularly in Oregon. That said, there are some occasional vantage points on the Great Ocean Road that offer stunning views of beautiful water intricately working over amazingly eroded rocks -- and for all of the water-visibility it has, 101 doesn't have the occasional quality that the Great Ocean Road does.

Crowes, Australia @ Crowes, Australia

2008-01-08T15:40:18.000Z

The 12 Apostles are impressive, but not nearly as impressive as religious folks would probably hope that they'd be given their collective name. The only thing they really have going for them is their clustering relative to each other; there's plenty of other parts of the coast that can offer rather more interesting interactions of stone and water. That said, if you can bear the tour buses and the flies that like to munch on the sweat and oil and such that the tourists carry with them, you might as well stop for these -- there's only the one road and these are right off of it.

Princetown, Australia @ Princetown, Australia

2008-01-08T16:17:04.000Z

Down the road from the 12 Apostles a short ways -- just far enough to ensure that the tour buses don't bother -- and a rather longer-than-usual walk away from the parking area is a lovely bit of rock formation called, with unblinking unoriginality, The Grotto. That said, it really is a lovely little spot, particularly when it's not overrun by bikers and tourists.

Port Fairy, Australia @ Port Fairy, Australia

2008-01-09T09:21:24.000Z

Port Fairy is something of a small town laden with tourist trapping hotels and restaurants. That said, for purposes of comforts, I tend to prefer slightly more tourist trappings as opposed to slightly less and thus while I consider it overkill to have a full kitchen in a hotel room where I'll only be staying one night in a tiny community that I'm not even sure has its own supermarket, I really do think that a bit of overkill is better than underkill as we would encounter down the road just a few hundred kilometers. Anyway, worth noting that they've got wind farms that they're setting up for power generation. I think that anybody that complains about the aesthetics of a wind farm hasn't really stopped to look at one -- they're very hypnotic, turning in the breeze, much the same way watching the tide move in response to ebb and flow and lunar gravity can be hypnotic and relaxing.

Rendelsham, Australia @ Rendelsham, Australia

2008-01-09T13:14:34.000Z

Cape Dombey, Australia @ Cape Dombey, Australia

2008-01-09T16:49:55.000Z

These pictures were actually from Robe -- I'm not sure what, exactly, Cape Dombey is -- which had a slow-but-satisfactory pizzaria and a nice ice cream shop in addition to very interesting rocky beaches with signs I didn't see until I'd already done what they told me I'd die (and horribly) if I did, but was on the whole not a particularly good stop for a vacation while metropolis-hopping on the far side of the world. The red and white structure is the Obelisk -- not actually a lighthouse, but far more photogenic than their actual, apparently unnamed in an apersonal post-modern kind of way, lighthouse.

Adelaide, Australia @ Adelaide, Australia

2008-01-10T19:13:45.000Z

Adelaide isn't so much of a city as a whole lot of little communities that grew together. South Australia was settled by boatloads of non-convict people that effectively formed their communities during the 6ish-month boat ride to their New World, such that the first thing they'd do upon arrival was to build their own little community chapel, which is how Adelaide has a reputation for being full of churches even though many of them have been de-conscecrated due to their gross over-abundance. Also worth noting is that the food market is fabulous and Cafe Vagabondo (go north on King William Street about two blocks past the bend) is pretty darned solid on their coffee -- no matter how their ice cubes can be arranged to amuse me.

North Adelaide, Australia @ North Adelaide, Australia

2008-01-11T18:15:49.000Z

Out for a stroll after a long afternoon of solid cafe sitting -- jotting down foodie-obsessive notes, observing a bit of design in an anthill, and just plain wondering what a baby chicken might be doing in a line of ducks.

Barossa Wine Tour @ Altona, Australia

2008-01-12T11:31:14.000Z

Part of the reason we had to go to Adelaide was to tour the Barossa (which isn't a valley anymore since half of it is running up a hill). We learned an awful lot and got to meet up with 100+ year old Shiraz vines (and the product thereof) and sample some 100 year old tawny (port) which may not sound like a lot until you realize how much the world has changed in the past 100 years as science, economics and wars seem to be speeding everything up.

Medina Grand Treasury @ Adelaide, Australia

2008-01-12T21:57:07.000Z

The treasury building got converted into a wholly adequate hotel which has the good fortune of being in an interesting building. These photographs were taken in the cellar.

Glenelg, Australia @ Glenelg, Australia

2008-01-13T11:31:24.000Z

We spent our last day of leisure in Australia at least partially on the beach out at Glenelg, a pretty simple train ride out of the CBD. The water was clear and the beach was replete with larger scallop shells, though it was neither particularly large nor warm -- but the water was certainly pleasant. It is worth noting that there are dolpin watching/swimming cruises (one even sports a 100% success rate and money-back guarantee) that run out here early in the morning, so plan ahead and book ahead if you want to do that sort of thing.

Brown Creek, Australia @ Brown Creek, Australia

2008-01-13T15:47:52.000Z

Proof that our GPS-to-camera was a bit off: this was actually in Adelaide's central park. Look closely and you can see the GPS coordinates and the official surveyed position.