Muzer Down Under: The Posts

There just CAN'T be any fog west of Katoomba!

2006-06-10T18:56:00.000-04:00

We woke up, looked outside and only found fog and cold with no signs of improvement. With the guest laundry still backed up from the crush of people who wanted to do laundry, we were faced with trying to find a public laudromat in Katoomba or Wentworth Falls, or to do something else with the day. Since we had the rental car, we decided to do something else.
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We went to downtown Katoomba to find a place where I could upload a post-or-two to our blog before heading out of town. The coffee shop downtown told us that the "Video Ezy" store right beside the "LiquorLand" store was our best bet for an Internet connection. This store was basically a "Blockbuster Video" with about eight computers for public Internet use. We walked in and I asked how much it would cost to hook up my laptop (either wirelessly or by a CAT 5 cable). Their rates were reasonable...$3 AUD for 30 minutes, but they had no wireless and I had to use their computers. No problem. I had brought along a 256 MB USB "memory stick" that I used to off-load what we had written onto it so that I could "upload" it through their computers. Then I got the next shock. Their Internet connection was about as fast as dial-up! In that 30 minutes, I had enough time to log into the blog, copy-and-paste what we had written up, save that, quickly check email about comments about the blog and then quickly check World Cup scores before my time was up. It was time to go explore the world outside of The Internet.
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Downtown Katoomba has a lot to offer for the tourist. Due to it being the home of "Echo Point" and "The Three Sisters" rock formations, it rivals it neighbor, Wentworth Falls as the most travelled-to destination in the Blue Mountains National Park. There are many souvenir shops, as well as typical businesses that you would find in any Australian or American town its size. One of the nice things about Katoomba is its ethnic diversity. Not only does it have an Indian restaurant, but it has a awesome Lebanese kabab shop as well. It was my choice for lunch, as I had a lamb kebab and two Pepsis to go. Laura wasn't too keen on the Lebanese dish, so she opted to get something a bit later on, which turned out to be a Hamburger and some chips (Australian for French Fries) at a fish-n-chips place in the small town of Blackheath...3km (2 mi.) west of Katoomba. Her order of fries came wrapped up in two layers of butcher's paper and were argueably the best fries we've ever eaten. And they gave you a TON of them! They were a meal just by themselves.
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We decided to head west on the Mid-Western Highway to see if the fog would lift on the other side of the Blue Mountains. The state of New South Wales seems to be perpetually in drought...even for the city of Sydney. Most all of the catchements (catch basins) are located in the Blue Mountains or westward. So pretty much any rain that falls on Sydney and the coastal sections of New South Wales doesn't go into any reservoir to be used later. It just runs off. The fertile farm country west of the mountains have had a hard time of it getting any useful rains. That little bit of information helped us to decide to go west and further inland. We were betting that the rain and the fog wouldn't be as bad out there.
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Sure enough, once we came down the Victoria Pass and got out of the mountains..the fog lifted, giving us our first glimpse of rural New South Wales with its grain fields, cattle farms and sheep farms. As we continued westward, the light rain became less and less. As we entered the town of Lithgow, we noticed a brand-new Best Western motel on the left. Thinking American standards, we decided to stop in and pick up an Australian Best Western directory so that we'd have an idea of where to stay the night before our flight out to Alice Springs in five days. We then stopped at the tourist information building in Lithgow to gather information to formulate our plan for tomorrow...to tour some of the wineries around Mudgee, which was 128 km (80 mi.) north-northwest of Lithgow.
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The folks at the tourist information recommended that for a remainder-of-the-day-trip, that we try to go to Pearsons Lookout. It was only about 45km (28 mi.) up the Castlereagh Highway (which is the main road to Mudgee) and gave you a panoramic view of the largest enclosed valley in Australia. Seeing that it would only take us about a half-hour to get there, we opted to head that way.
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Between Lithgow and the "exit" for the Castlereagh Highway, we spotted our first bunch of wild kangaroos grazing in a farmer's field just off of the left-hand side of the highway. There were two groups of them...one group grazing about 100 meters (110 yards) off to the side of the highway and another group grazing on a hill that overlooked the highway. Laura saw both groups...I only saw the group on the hill due to being focused on driving on the left. Shortly after transitioning onto the Castlereagh Highway, we saw two kangaroos on the right creeping up to try to cross the highway. I say "creeping" because the lead kangaroo was moving on all fours, which was quite the sight to see. Kangaroos in Australia are similar to deer in the United States. Usually, they're most active around dusk, the nighttime and around dawn. Most Aussies we came across told us that they try to avoid driving at night due to the "roo" population. And since our rental Holden Commodore did not have a "roo bar" on front of it, we thought of this as being sage advice.
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It was still overcast and drizzly...but no fog to speak of. That is until we started to climb the hill towards Pearsons Lookout. Sure enough, when we got to the top, we had stunning panoramic vistas of slate-grey fog as far as the eye could (or couldn't) see. Instead of absolutely breath-taking, it was absoultely frustrating.
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It was coming up on 4pm, so we elected to start to head back towards Katoomba. As we transitioned back onto the Mid-Western Highway towards Lithgow and Katoomba, the same two bunches of kangaroos that we had saw earlier were still grazing in that farmer's field. So we made a U-turn to go back to try to take a picture-or-two of the group that was closest to the highway.
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As we pulled off and stopped on the side of the roadway to shoot some pictures from inside of the car, they looked at us curiously. When I got out of the car and aimed the camera at them, that seemed to rattle them a bit more (possibly them thinking that I was a hunter) and they began to hop off. The neatest thing to watch was when they came across a fence that the farmer had put up. These kangaroos hopped at least 1 1/2 times their height to clear this 2 meter (6 ft.) high fence in one bound!
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As we came up to the Victoria Pass heading back towards Katoomba, we also noticed something amazing...the fog was lifting! Finally, we got to see glimpses of the escarpment that rimmed the Blue Mountains. To me, it looked as if the rims of the Grand Canyon back in the U.S. suddenly got a heckuvalot "normal" moisture and plants and trees started to grow there. What was more amazing was that when we got back to Katoomba, the fog had cleared on the Western side of town! This gave us the chance to view the escarpment and the valley below at Cahill's Look-Out, which offered us amazing views along the Megalong Valley down below. Trouble was, we couldn't see much of the valley below. We just got fog-enshrouded glimpses of the tops of the cliffs, which were amazing enough to say the least.
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Unfortunately, "Echo Point" and "The Three Sisters" were stilled mired in that foggy soup, so we headed back to the hotel. I convinced Laura for dinner to try the Arjuna Indian Restaurant that was within walking distance from the hotel, but they did not open until 6pm. So we killed time at the hotel watching another Australian Rules Footbal match on TV between the Brisbane Lions and the Adelaide Crows.
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When the time came, we donned our raincoats and umbrellas (it was raining on-and-off again) and walked over to the Arjuna Restaurant. It was a good thing that we got there early. When we walked in, the hostess asked if we had a reservation. We didn't. She then asked if we could be done eating by 8pm. Seeing that it was currently 6:20pm, we said that we should be done well before then. So we were then showed to a booth on the second floor..
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Most all Australian restaurants are "B.Y.O."...meaning bring your own alcoholic drinks. If you bring a bottle of wine, they'll charge you a $1 AUD to $2 AUD "corking" charge to open the bottle. We forgot about this and ended up drinking water with our meals. I ordered a spicy lamb kebab appetizer (which looked like really small "Jimmy-Dean" breakfast sausage patties) and Laura ordered "Lamb Saal", which is lamb in a mild tomato sauce with rice on the side...a dish that we would both share. Laura found the lamb to be very tender with lost of meaty chunks. The sauce was mild by Laura's standards (she doesn't like a whole lot of curry or chili powder in her foods) which was good...that's what I was "gunning" for! So we both had a delicious Indian meal with no leftovers in Katoomba to end our day of exploration west of the Blue Mountains.
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Goodbye Rain...Hello FOG!

2006-06-09T22:03:00.000-04:00

The day started with...you guessed it...RAIN! We were hoping that it would "slack off" a bit when we loaded up our Holden Commodore rental car, but it didn't. The nice thing was that my Australian rain coat that I had bought the other day was doing its job by keeping me dry. But it wasn't doing a good job about venting all of the heat that I was generating by lugging all of the suitcases from the cottage out back to the street out front. So just a few minutes after getting out of the shower, I'm sweaty-wet again. As I finished loading the siutcases into the trunk, I said to Laura "If the weather is like this out in The Outback, so help me I'm going to go postal!"
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We left our cottage on Johnston Street, drove up to Booth Street to make a U-turn so that we could head the other way down Johnston Street to the Parramatta Road intersection. Turn right onto Paramatta Road and you start to make you way to the Blue Mountains.
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The Blue Mountains National Park is a quick weekend getaway for those who live and work in Metropolitan Sydney. They're only 100 km (62 mi.) from downtown Sydney, so many "Sydney-siders" head here for a long weekend. And we were taking our chances by heading up there for the long "Queen's Birthday" weekend without any hotel reservations whatsoever. Our first stop was at the first tourist information pull-off we came upon just outside of Glenbrook...one of the easternmost of the chain of towns that you go through as you go drive through the Blue Mountains.
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We were fortunate to find lodging at the "Sky Rider Motor Inn" in Katoomba, where "Echo Point" and "The Three Sisters" rock formations are located. Seeing that it was a long holiday and that people were streaming towards the mountains, we decided to book two nights here. We also asked about a good place to eat for lunch that wasn't McDonald's, Subway or KFC along the way. The tourist information attendant recommended that we try a place called "The Conservation Hut" which was located just outside of Wentworth Falls. So we got directions and began to make our way there.
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As we got into the mountains, we got good news and bad news. Good news was that the rains had subsided. Bad news was that the fog had set in. And we're talking pea-soup thick fog at that! We found "The Conservation Hut" and sat down to have some sandwiches, french fries and hot tea. We were served a "heaping" portion of fries (called "chips" down there) that both Laura and I struggled to finish off. Good thing that was a small order!
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We tried to enjoy the tremendous views that one could get from dining here, but all we got was a slate-gray fog and 50 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. So back to the car we go to continue the drive to Katoomba.
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The fog wasn't that much better by the time we reached Katoomba and the hotel. Logistics-wise, the hotel was at the western end of the town...real close to the main "Mid-Western Highway", but a few blocks from the central business district of Katoomba. They have a scenic drive around the edge of the escarpment that are the Blue Mountains that's clearly marked with "Scenic Drive 5" signs...and this drive started right in front of our hotel. So we opted to drive it to see what we could see, which of course in fog...was absolutely nothing.
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One attactive mark of the "Sky Rider Motor Inn" was that it had a guest laundry. We were going to do laundry in Annandale the morning that we left, but opted to do it here. Too bad the guest laundry consisted of one washer and one dryer at $3 AUD each. And even at the hottest drying temperature, it took two cycles (at 40 minutes each) to fully dry the clothes. Plus, it closed at 8:30pm. Seeing that it was coming up on 5:30pm, we decided to only get one load fully washed and dried. The other two loads would just have to wait. The hotel didn't have any detergent, but they pointed out that there was a K-Mart in downtown Katoomba where we could buy some. Besides, we'd need the soap again later on in the trip. The K-Mart is located beside a "Coles" (an Australian supermarket chain) and just across the street from the "LiquorLand" liquor store.
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Now came the decision for dinner. There was this neat Indian place just a short walk from the hotel, but they didn't open until 6pm. Laura wasn't too crazy for Indian food and I didn't feel like trying to explore downtown Katoomba on a foggy night with me just learning how to drive on the wrong side of the road with a ton of travellers coming into this very small parking lot for the "Sky Rider Motor Inn". So we compromised. We had a "Domino's Pizza" delivered to our room! One thing Laura noted was that their "pepperoni" tasted more like "salami" than good 'ol American style pepperoni. After the pizza, it was time to relax, plan what we were going to do tomorrow and hope that the fog would go away.
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The Harbour Cruise

2006-06-08T02:25:00.000-04:00

FINALLY! We awoke to partly cloudy skies that amazingly stayed with us for the entire day. I got an early start, getting up at 5am so that I could use public transit to get the rental car I had reserved at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport.
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The bus timetable that I had picked up said that my bus (the "470") would leave it's "origin" at 5:50am and would be in Annandale sometime around 5:55. As I left the cottage, the clock on my cellphone said 5:47. So I broke into a fast-paced jog to make up time to get to the bus stop, since it usually took five minutes to walk the two blocks from the cottage to the bus stop. Plus the fact that the next bus was 20 minutes later on this cold, before-sunrise morning gave me added incentive to make this bus.
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As I got close to the bus stop at the intersections of Booth and Johnston Streets, I saw the bus pull up to the intersection. But it was five minutes early and I was on the "wrong" side of the street to catch it. Thank God for low traffic volumes, since I broke about every pedestrian traffic rule to get to the correct side of the street to catch the bus! Now that I had made this bus, it was time for me to catch my breath for five minutes as the bus made its way to "Central".
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"Central" is Sydney's main passenger railway hub. You can catch everything from long-distance passenger trains to Perth to a tram line that takes you around Darling Harbour. Here they have a metro-rail line that stops off at the Domestic Terminal and the International Terminal of Sydney's airport...as well as some suburban stops along the way. These trains are nice double-decker trains...much like "CalTrain" in northern & southern California or "GO Transit" trains in Toronto, Canada. This train line comes in at the end of the train station that is the furthest point from where the bus dropped you off. Good thing I had my walking shoes on! I was using my "SydneyPass" card, so I didn't have to come up with the $1.70 AUD bus fare AND the $12.00 AUD train fare just to get to the airport! Each "card reader" took my SydneyPass without question, let me through and spat it back out to me for later use.
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I had one "worry" as I went through the process of renting the car. In the hurry to get out of the cottage in the dark, I had left my passport back at the cottage. It was "no worries", since I just needed my Georgia dirver's license and a credit card to pick up the car. The car I had reserved is a "Holden Commodore". In essence, it's the family/business version of the Pontiac GTO that you can buy in The States and is about the size and shape of a Pontiac Grand Prix.
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When you rent a car in Europe, a "manual/standard" transmission is the norm and you "pay the piper" to get a car with automatic. Not so in Australia. Unless you're renting a very small car, rental cars down here come with "automatic" transmission standard...much like in the US. This is a HUGE benefit, since that's one less thing to worry about as you, by American standatds, drive on the WRONG side of the road! Much like in England, everybody drives on the left and all of the cars have the sterring wheels and controls in front of the right seat in the car. The only thing that was "bassackwards" was the windshield wiper contorls and the turn signal indicator. I kept signaling my intentions to other drivers by using my windshield wipers. Damn American tourists. I am going to be SO messed up when I try to drive back in The States!
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The rental agent gave me a nice highlighted map and a "toll-free" way to get back to Annandale. "Just exit at Cleveland Street" she told me. Too bad the Cleveland Street ramp was closed! And I had to go through the toll booth to go any further, which was $4.50 AUD. I will never complain about the $0.50 USD toll that I pay daily on Georgia State Route 400 ever again! So here I am, an American in Australia driving a rental car on the "wrong" side of the road having now to "freelance" my way through downtown Sydney morning rush-hour traffic to get home. Should've took out the extra insurance when they offered it to me! Fortunately, by riding the city buses and the "Sydney Explorer" buses, things started to look familiar as I got off the expressway and onto the city streets. By some Grace-of-God, I was able to navigate my way back to the cottage in Annandale...without a single traffic citation or dent in the car. We decided to park the car and take the bus for the rest of our day's journeys.
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We made our way with public transit to Circular Quay to pick up a "Sydney Explorer" bus to take us to "Mrs. Macquarie's Chair", which is located on a spit that juts out into Sydney Harbour. It's a rock formation that then-governor Macquarie had "carved out" into a chair-like place where his wife could sit and watch the ships come into Sydney Harbour. The "big view" however is on the other side, where you have a stunning combination of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a "backdrop" to your photos.
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From here, we got back on "The Explorer" to get us to our next stop...Harry's Cafe de Wheels. This is a little "hot dog and pies" cart that is located right in front of the headquarters for the Australian Naval Fleet. It is to Sydney what "The Varsity" is to Atlanta, or what "Primanti's" is to Pittsburgh...in essence the "must-have" food if you come to this town. I had the hot dog, while Laura had a hot chicken "pie". The hot dog was spicy as all get-out and great to eat. Plus, it was the first time I've ever had "mushy green peas" as "relish" on a hot dog. Quite interesting!
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After our lunch, it was time to head back to Circular Quay to "maximize" our use of the SydneyPass by taking a 2 1/2 hour afternoon harbour cruise. The cruise went from Circular Quay eastward along the southern shores of the harbour towards the "North Head" and the "South Head"...the point in between where the harbour meets the Pacific Ocean...and then back along the northern shore of the harbour to Circular Quay. They have a little cafeteria on board where you can buy snacks and drinks...non-alcohloic and alcoholic. So Laura had a few glasses of wine while I sipped on a Victoria Bitter beer and enjoyed the afternoon cruise on this beautiful, partly cloudy and cool late Fall day.
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After the cruise, we went back to the sports shop so that I could stock up on hard-to-find-in-the-US sports apparel. After finding and purchasing an Australian National Soccer jersey, a Collingwood Australian Rules Football jersey and a Geelong Australian Rules jersey, my credit card said that it was time for me to go. Just a few blocks west of the "Central" main train station in the Chinatown section of Sydney is a market bazaar for the savvy shopper...Paddy's Market. In essence, it is THE place to go if you want high-quality Asian-made clothes and "nick-nacks" sold at unbeliveably low prices. Like a warm fleece jacket with "Australia" embroidered on it for $10 AUD. We lost count of just how many t-shirts, jackets and just general souvenir "stuff" we bought here for ridiculously low prices. As I had said, if you're on a budget and want some souvenirs of you trip to Australia, this is where you need to go.
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After Paddy's Market, we decided to take the privately-run tram line from "Central" to get to Darling Harbor. You can also catch this tram right outside of Paddy's...but we were oblivious to this fact at the time. It was already dark, so we were treated to a gorgeous view of the lights of the city reflecting into the harbour. We also ate dinner here, at a plave called the "South Steyne Floating Restaurant". In essence, it's a restaurant on a boat that's docked in Darling Harbour. This is the place where we had our first taste of kangaroo...in the form of a kangaroo steak. To me, it tasted alot like the deer steak that I would occasionally have when I was growing up back in West Virginia. The other dish that was had was a monsterous ribeye steak that literally melted in your mouth. The bill was monsterous as well...$80.45 AUD for two people...but well worth it. Definitelt a great place to go for a serious steak (or kangaroo) if you're in Sydney.
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After dinner it was time to go back to the cottage and to prepare for our road trip through New South Wales.
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The Beaches Opera

2006-06-07T02:21:00.000-04:00

We woke to the morning of June 7th to...yep, you guessed it...RAIN! And the noise of some sort of "critter" that was scratching/clawing/digging between the roof of our cottage and its ceiling. The critter's noise soon got drowned out (no pun intended) by the 6am Thai Airways flight from Bangkok that was on final approach right over the cottage. We have gotten used to getting up early so that we can maximize the daylight here to go out and sightsee. Due to it being Fall approaching Winter down here, it gets pitch dark around 5pm. So, the earlier out the door, the better.
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The second day that we were in country (Monday the 5th), both of us had purchased a "SydneyPass" ticket. This ticket costs $110 AUD and allows you unlimited travel on all Sydney transit buses, all state-ran subway and regional railways, all state-ran ferries, all red "Sydney Explorer" buses and all blue "Bondi Explorer" buses for any three days over a consecutive eight day period. Seeing that it would cost $5.60 AUD/per person bus fare to get from our B&B to Circular Quay, $39 AUD for the Sydney Explorer, $39 AUD for the Bondi Explorer and $24 AUD for an afternoon Sydney Harbour cruise (all of this would have to be done on the day that these individual tickets were purchased), the SydneyPass ticket pretty much paid for itself by using it over the three day period.
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We had done the red "Sydney Explorer" on Monday, so now it was time to do the blue "Bondi Explorer". It's a tour bus that has running commentary on it as it makes a lap hugging the coastline of Sydney Harbour from Circular Quay out towards Bondi, Bronte and Coogee beaches before heading back to Circular Quay. The tour bus takes you through many of the exclusive neighborhoods that line the south shore of the harbour and the Pacific Coast. The views from this tour route are spectacular (when it's NOT raining!) and has some neat fun facts. Like the one that they tell you when you pass by Rushcutters Bay. This was Sydney's original airport...or rather sea plane port where in the 1930's, you would embark from here to take a flight from Sydney to London, England. Trouble is, it took 10 days to get there and had 29 stopovers. And here I'm complaining about a measly 15 hour non-stop flight to San Fran!
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We rode the bus to Coogee Beach and got off the bus right in front of the "Coogee Bay Hotel and Bar" for lunch. After having some fish-n-chips and a Carlton Draught beer (yum!), we took a city bus to "backtrack" to Bondi Beach so that we could do the Bondi-to-Bronte beach coastal walk. This walk takes you from the white sands of Bondi, to the cliffs above Tamarama Beach and back down to the sands of Bronte Beach. And guess what? The sun came out again...and stayed around for the rest of the day!
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After doing the walk, we caught up with the Bondi Explorer (all of these buses run about 20 minutes apart from each other) and made our way back to Circular Quay. On the way into town, I saw a sports shop that I wanted to check out for World Cup and Australian Rules Football apparel. So we made our way there...only to find that the shop closed early for the day. Oh well, something to do for tomorrow.
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We then returned to Circular Quay to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House in the fading light. That was incentive enough for us to catch an inside tour of the Opera House. The most amazing thing about the Opera House is that it contains not one, but seven venues under its arched-concrete sail-shaped roofs. We couldn't take pictures inside the Opera House (due to copyright and stagehand union "rules"), but pictures just don't do justice to the interior. It's much like looking at a picture of the Grand Canyon and then actually seeing it with your own eyes. And the acoustics inside the venues have to be heard to be believed.
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From the Opera House, we made our way back to the cottage in Annandale to try a pizza from the local pizza shop...a pizza with lamb meat and taziki sauce. Interesting! And quite tasty! Plus, according to Laura, the side salad was awesome as well.
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The Gods Smile Upon Us

2006-06-06T20:27:00.000-04:00

As a kid growing up in West Virginia, the one thing I always seem to remember is this: It always rains on my birthday. Don't get me wrong, the day of my birthday was full of presents, birthday cake and good times...but the weather outside was always soggy and damp.
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After 30 years of living up north, I moved to Georgia and lo and behold, the weather changed! I actually had great weather for two years. Then Mother Nature figured out where I had moved to. Mother Nature must've got some new technology to track me...because it didn't take long for her to find out I was in Australia for my 40th birthday.
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We awoke on the morning of June 6 to a torrential downpour. I pulled out my Qantas ticket stub to make sure I was in Sydney and not London, Seattle or Darwin during "The Wet". It still said "Sydney". So we prepared to go out and make our way to 5 Cumberland Street...the headquarters of "BridgeClimb". Laura had on her rain coat and an umbrella. I just had my raincoat. I figured that I was going to get drenched anyway, so why bog myself down by lugging an umbrella all over the place.
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As we began to leave our little cottage, an amazing thing happened...the sun came out! Complete with partly cloudy skies! As we walked to the bus stop, both of us marvelled at that strange, blue color of the sky...something we hadn't seen since San Francisco. But unfortunately on the way to Circular Quay downtown, the rains returned with a vengeance.
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Upon arriving at Circular Quay, we began to look for something to eat for lunch. We agreed on trying that time-honored Australian favorite...McDonald's. Laura went for the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, while I went for the "Mc Oz". Basically, it's a Quarter Pounder with Cheese with this huge slice of beets layered between lettuce and a tomato. Quite the interesting taste. Probably had some Vegemite slathered on there someplace as well.
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It was still "spitting" rain as we walked from Circular Quay to the base of the Harbour Bridge and the entrance to "BridgeClimb". When we got there, they asked us if we wanted to go up on an earlier climb (the 12:55 pm climb). Seeing that the rain was really beginning to let up, I said "No. We'll chance that the weather will clear up some more for the 1:15 climb".
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Remind me to stop off in Las Vegas on our way back to Atlanta!
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As we "got dressed" for the climb, blue skies and sunshine graced the Harbour Bridge area! But the BridgeClimb folks have come prepared. First, they give you your jumpsuit and a pair of...for lack of a better description..."rain" pants. Then they usher you off to a private changing room where you strip down to your t-shirt, skivvies and socks, put on the aforementioned gear and your own shoes. You take what clothes you had on you and head to your own locker to store this in. Your locker's key on a lanyard is the ONLY jewelery that you're allowed to take up onto the bridge. All watches, necklaces, lanyard passport holders, cellphones, digital cameras (damn!), video cameras (damn! damn!) and the such must remain in your locker.
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After putting you in your harness and clipping onto you gloves, a hankercheif (to use to "wave" with or for you to clear your sinuses with), a baseball cap, a tobogan, a fleece jacket and a rain jacket, you're ready for the "trial" portion of the climb. I thought to myself that this wasn't too bad...only my socks and shoes were going to be innundated by the precipitation deluge.
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The trial portion of the climb makes you climb up via a ladder to a small scaffold and walk across a narrow catwalk to the other side. From there, you climb down the ladder and you're done. They stress that when climbing ladders, the group does this one person at a time...for safety reasons. We were fitted with listen-only walkie-talkies that had headphones that looked like a pair of Elvis Presley sideburns (and you actually wore them right in front of your ears over your sideburns) and our group of eight "BridgeClimb-aneers" headed off to the bridge.
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You start by going on some catwalks underneath the approach span to the bridge. Even here, the views of the Sydney Opera House and the harbour on your right are absolutely stunning from this vantage point...and you're not even up on the bridge yet! You also have to "contort" yourself a bit to go through some narrow gaps with low headspace as you literally go "through" a support beam or two. But unless you are as big as "Jabba The Hut", or are wearing a back brace, you shouldn't have any trouble. As we were making our way to the first ladder of the climb, our climb leader was telling us that recently a 100 year-old woman had done the climb. You can see photographic proof of this on their "Climber's Wall of Fame". She's right there among Pierce Brosnan and Matt Damon on the wall.
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Now you come to the "ladder" portion of the climb. It looks NOTHING like the small ladder climb that you did during the trial climb. Basically, you have to climb up three sets of ladders. Each ladder is about 25 feet in length. Each step of this ladder has about 5 inches of clearance between each "rung" and are basically welded to a huge 90 degree vertical support beam of the bridge with handrails on both sides and grab handles strategically placed throughout. After climbing the first 25 feet of the ladder, you have to...while on the end of the first ladder...make a "S-curve" with you body to get to the next 25 feet of ladder-welded-to-a-support-beam. Then after climbing the second 25 feet of the ladder, you have to...while on the end of the second ladder...make a "S-curve" with you body to get to the third 25 feet of ladder-welded-to-a-support-beam. Get past this and then you're past the hardest portion of the climb. Oops! Almost forgot...as you are on the second set of ladders, you come up right between lanes seven & eight of the Cahill Freeway, which is the road that runs across the bridge.
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Now we're standing at the base of the portion of the climb that takes you up the long arch to the top of the bridge. The view from here is spectacular! What's even more spectacular is that there's nothing but partly cloudy skies and sunshine as far as the eye can see! Way off in the distance towards the east (about where Sydney Harbour dumps into the South Pacific), there were some showers happening, but all we see of it is the beautiful rainbow that it's creating. Thank You, Guardian Angels for giving me my birthday wish...a sunny and dry BridgeClimb!
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We then begin the ascent to the apex of the bridge. Every 100 yards-or-so, our group stopped so that we could regain our breath...not so much from the stress of the climb, but rather from the scenic views of the city and the harbour that we were taking in. Finally, our group made it to the summit of the arch. And what a group it was! Our group consisted of Laura, myself, two guys from India and four high school students that were part of a massive tour group that was from...you guessed it...Atlanta, Georgia!
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After "summiting" the bridge, it was time to cross over to the western side of the bridge to begin our descent. In essence, it's exactly what you did coming up the bridge...except backwards. You climb down the "ladders" now between the northbound and southbound railroad tracks of the "CityRail" commuter train line that also runs on the bridge. That's what I found to be the most amazing part of the tour...that back in 1932, engineers built a bridge that is structurally sound and wide enough so it could handle 8 lanes of traffic AND a set of railroad tracks. Truly Amazing!
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And as we started down "the ladders" to get back underneath the bridge, guess what came back? THE RAINS! Looks like I owe thanks to some folks BIG TIME "upstairs" for my sunny and dry birthday gift! ;)
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After getting back to BridgeClimb "headquarters", it was time to get out of your BridgeClimb apparel, get back into your street clothes and "pay the piper" for your pictures they took of you during the climb. Seven photos burnt onto a CD-ROM for $75 AUD. But hey, it was the climb (and vacation) of a lifetime and we ARE tourists!
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It's now about 4:30 in the afternoon/evening. BridgeClimb is done and we're looking for a bite to eat and something to drink. Well, why not walk just one block from BridgeClimb HQ towards Circular Quay and stop at Sydney's "Löwenbrau Bar/Keller". Walk in here and everyting is German...including the wait staff (don't worry, the wait staff is bilingual in German and English)! It was so nice to order my "Jägerpfanne mit Spätzle" and my drink (beer, of course!) all in German. Apparently, this is a chain of restaurants. My sister went to Beijing for a vacation and ran into one of these there. Sitting there eating my dinner and drinking my half-liter of beer, you'd think you were actually eating in the actual "Löwenbrauhaus Keller" in Munich, Germany. I guess this would be THE place to watch some World Cup Soccer action live from Deutschland!
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Rain, Rain Go Away!

2006-06-05T18:53:00.000-04:00

Our second day started by waking up to a heavy downpour. Shortly thereafter, we heard the roar of jet engined and turbo-prop airplanes on "final approach" to Sydney's "Kingsford Smith" International airport. Apparently, this section of Annandale is right in the line of the runways of the airport...like less than a mile!
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After eating breakfast made with the "supplies" Pamela had stocked the cottage with, we realized that the heavy rain wasn't going away anytime soon. So for the day, we took the bus to the main railway station for Sydney and caught a "Sydney Explorer" tour bus. We had purchased a ticket (for $110 AUD) that allowed us unlimited transport on all city buses, subway lines, harbour ferries and "hop on-hop off" tour bus lines (Sydney Explorer and Bondi Explorer) for any three days over an eight day period. It's quite the bargain when you add it all up...plus you don't have to mess with carrying a ton of change in your pockets just to make bus fare...all you have is one convenient magnetic-striped card to carry around.
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The Sydney Explorer bus goes on an endless loop of the city, passing by all of the main "sights" you need to see while here. You can get off of the bus at any stop to look around and explore..since the next bus to pick you up to continue the tour is only 20 minutes away...or stay on the bus and do a "drive-by" of the sights. Seeing that it was raining kangaroos and wallabees, we stayed on the bus for the entire tour. We took the digital camera along, but didn't use it (why shoot the Sydney Opera House through a rain-streaked, fogged up window during a torrential downpour?). I thought "The Wet" happened in Northern Australia...not down this far south!
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On the way back home, we stopped at the "Broadway Shopping Center" where I bought my first souvenir of the trip...a raincoat! We thought about going "out to eat", but it was so miserable that we got carryout chicken from the "Go-Go Burger" shop in Annandale and made it a TV night. They're calling for the rain to "subside" tomorrow. But tomorrow is my birthday. It ALWAYS rains on my birthday! And unless there is a thunderstorm, the BridgeClimb happens...rain or shine. Better go out and buy a wetsuit for tomorrow!
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Day One in Sydney

2006-06-04T18:51:00.000-04:00

After gathering our suitcases and clearing customs, we made our way to the taxi stand to catch a cab to take us to our home for the next few days...Aronui Bed & Breakfast in the Annandale section of Sydney.
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I am now convinced that all cab drivers worldwide are insane race-car driver "wanna-be's". Laura has ongoing battles with motion sickness, so she carries a supply of "Meclazine" with her most of the time to try to keep it in check. By the time we got to the B&B, I was raiding her medicine bottle for some. Australia reminds you alot of Great Britain...you drive on the left, roundabouts are everywhere and there is no such thing as "north-south-east-west" on their road signs...you have to have memorized a slew of towns & cities as "direction markers" so that you know where to turn along the way. No need for a spot of tea or a cup of coffee to wake you up...you were awake from sheer terror of the cab ride itself!
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Having survived the cab ride, we arrived at Aronui. Our hostess (Ms. Pamela Bond) welcomed us, made us a quick breakfast and showed us to our private cottage out back. We have a bedroom/dining room/living room plus a TV in one room, a small kitchen and a nice-sized bathroom. Ms. Bond was quite surprised at the amount of suitcases we brought along...and now I know why. Where the heck are we going to put all of this stuff? No closet or dresser drawers to speak of, but that's OK. We made it all work just fine!
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About a block-and-a half up the street is the small "village" of Annandale. It's quite neat, with its Post Office, gas station and three to four small "mom & pop" grocery stores. One could easily live here with only having to go closer to "downtown Sydney" to buy some clothes or to get some different carry-out food. Two bus lines serve this little village that allow you to go to the CBD (Central Business District) of Sydney without any problems at all. Roundtrip bus fare to "Central" (the main train station in Sydney) runs about $3.40AUD. Pamela is right...you really don't need a car in Sydney.
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After getting the keys to the cottage, we took a three hour nap, showered and then went to a Vodafone cellphone shop a few bus stops down the line to get an Australian phone number for our cellphones. Plus, we had our first true bit of food in Australia...a Subway sandwich!
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We were able to get one cellphone to work down here, but the other one was having issues connecting (good thing we brought two cellphones along!). So we have at least one cellphone to use here next week when we start to drive across the state of New South Wales. More on how to make your US cellphone work abroad later.
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The Flight to Australia

2006-06-03T18:46:00.000-04:00

We arrived at the check-in counter for Qantas right as it opened...6:45pm. Since our flight wasn't until 10:40pm, I thought I'd have tons of time to post some stuff on the blog. Boy, was I wrong! Laura and I approached the check-in conter after standing for about 30 minutes in line and began the process of checking in for the flight. The lady behind the counter finds our reservation and swipes Laura's passport. According to the computer, it's invalid...never mind that on the passport it states that the passport's expiration date is 2012! "Let me get my supervisor here to see what's wrong" she says. Supervisor comes over, does some "hocus-pocus" with her computer terminal, and all is well. She now proceeds to look for Laura's electronic Australian visa. It's not in the system."Let me get my supervisor here to see what's wrong" she says. Repeat scenario above. Now the gate agent enters Laura's frequent flyer number into the system. You guessed it..."Let me get my supervisor here to see what's wrong".
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I was luckier. The Qantas computer only had problems with my frequent flyer number. So after about an hour, we are finally checked in for the flight. Now it's time to go through security. Check off another 45 minutes. The "boarding time" that was stated on the boarding pass stated that we were to begin boarding at 9:30. So, with only having about 30 minutes or so to find a wireless signal, sign up (and pay) to access it and then compose what had just happen into the blog, I elected to just hang out, wait to board the plane and work on this either on the plane or once we got to Sydney.
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The time comes to board the plane and everybody gets on...save for one passenger. His luggage is already neatly packed into one of those airline "shipping cubes" that they use on international flights. So if he doesn't show up, as per security precautions, his luggage has to be removed. One hour later, the guy shows up and he boards the plane. What part of a 10:40pm departure time did you NOT understand?
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So were finally underway and take off at 11:40pm Pacific Time. That's 2:40am back in Atlanta. Unfortunately, our bodies are still on East Coast time.
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The flight is entirely an "night flight". Save for flying over Honolulu, Hawaii at 35,000 feet 4 1/2 hours into the flight, you see absolutely NOTHING out of your window until you're just about to land in Sydney at dawn. Shortly after "leveling off" at cruising altitude, they served "dinner". After that, the cabin lights were lowered so that you could sleep or enjoy the in-flight entertainment system.
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If it wasn't for my overpowering need to get some sleep, I would've been playing with the in-flight entertainment system all night long. Each seat on the plane had its own color LCD monitor located right above the tray table. In your armrest, you had the "remote control" for this on one side and a SkyPhone on the other. Here were our choices of things to watch/things to do with the Qantas entertainment system:
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*68 "on-demand" movies
*10 video games
*20 radio channels
*19 "cd library" channels
*12 "tv-on-demand" channels
*1 news channel
*"Flight Path"...a program where you could track your flight to see where you are at in the world and how long is left in the flight to get you there.
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Plus, the SkyPhone had free "seat-to-seat" in-plane calling. So if you knew what seat Jennifer Anniston was sitting in during the flight...
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We were probably able to get 4 hours-or-so of sleep on the flight. The flight was about 95% full, so we couldn't commondere an entire middle row of empty seats so that we could stretch out. Trying to sleep comfortably in an "economy class" seat on any carrier in the world is quite impossible to say the least. But we survived and finally made it to Australia!
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24 Hours in San Fran

2006-06-02T02:56:00.000-04:00

From an "East Coast" perspective, having your internal body clock still set on Atlanta time is great. No matter how long you "sleep in", it's still way early in the day...by West Coast standards...when you get up and get going. Our day in San Francisco started by taking our SUV rental downtown on a beautiful, sunny 65° day. We exited off the "101" onto Fourth Street and took this to The Embarcadero. A left onto The Embarcadero took us right by "Pac Bell Park" (or is it "SBC Park"? or is it "AT&T Park"?) on our way to Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf.
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Fisherman's Wharf is to San Fran what Times Square is to New York City. It is THE tourist trap of the city. From here, you can catch a ferry to Alcatraz Island as well as watch Sea Lions "honk and squabble" over dock space at Pier 39. Plus, it's a pretty nice place to eat some good seafood with a killer view of the San Fracisco Bay. Our lunch choice here was "Crab House at Pier 39"...a seafood bar & restaurant with a view.
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The San Fran area is the "home" for Dungeness Crab, so EVERYTHING revolves around this particular species of crab. After a quick lunch of "Dungeness Crab Chowder and Dungeness Crab Cakes", we strolled around the pier, taking in the myriad of souvenir stands and the innumerable "Kodak Picture Point" markers all about the pier. We found of all things a "currency exchange" booth at the pier. So we decided to change over some United States $$$ into Australian $$$ so that we had some "mad money" once landing upon Australian shores. As it turned out, they had better "rates" than when we exchanged some more currency at San Fran's airport later on!
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From Pier 39, we followed the signs for "Scenic Driving Tour 49", which took us to the San Francisco Marina. By the marina is a small park that sits right on The Bay. Sit on a park bench and look across the San Francisco Bay into Marin County. Look over your shoulder and have a picture-perfect postcard scene of Pacific Heights and Nob Hill with a huge grassy area inbetween full of people playing hackey-sack, throwing a frisbee, laying out and enjoying the day or folks playing with their dogs. Continuing onward on "Scenic Driving Tour 49", you'll eventually come to a fork in the road. The left fork takes you on the "onramp" towards the Golden Gate Bridge. The right fork takes you onto Mason Street. Take Mason Street and the turn right into the first "beach access" road you come across. Here you'll find a public beach with a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge that is also a "dog friendly" beach as well.
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We entertained ourselves watching Golden Retrievers and Black Labs dive madly into the 58° salt water to get their precious ball that their owner had chucked into The Bay. Here we also found the "ying and the yang" of living in San Fran. On this beach, there were two women with their children out on the beach enjoying the day. One was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, sweat pants and a down vest. The other woman was wearing just a bikini in this sunny but windy 65° day.
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Afterwards, we got on the "onramp" and headed across the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a layer of fog (locals call this the "marine layer") that hindered us getting a view of the entire span. We went from sun to fog to sunshine all during our drive on the span.
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Just after crossing the span (on the Marin County side) there is a "Vista Point" rest area. From here, you can park your car and walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, or just look and marvel at what you've just drove across. Due to the "marine layer", we didn't get the stunning view of San Fran from the northern shores of The Bay, but we did at least get stunning views of this fog enveloping the bridge.
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Also at this rest area is a "Lone Sailor Monument". It is a bronze statue of a single sailor with his duffel bag looking back at the city of San Francisco. If you have served in the U.S. Navy, odds are good that you have been on a ship that has passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at least once if not many times. This monument is dedicated to all of those from all branches of the military service who have passed through this point to serve and defend our country.
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From here we travelled onwards to the Muir Woods, which is about a 20 minute drive north of the bridge on the Pacific Coast Highway...also known as California State Route 1. Just follow Route 1 off of US 101 and you'll see the signs guiding you to the woods. WARNING! Route 1 (as well as the county road leading to Muir Woods) redefines the term "narrow, switchback mountainous road". If you're driving a Mazda Miata...great! If you're driving a large car or an SUV...be forewarned!
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After making the turn off of CA 1 onto the county roads leading to the park, look for a local on the side of the road that is selling macadamia nuts and cherries. Pull over here not to buy cherries, but to look off to your right at the stunning view of the San Francisco Bay that you get from being at this pull-off place on the side of the road...absolutely breath taking!
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The Muir Woods is the most southern of the remaining "virgin" redwood forests...containing mainly Coastal Redwoods and Sequoias...and is only a mere 13 miles from downtown SF. Fortunately, we latched on to the end of a Park Ranger giving a free guided tour, so we tagged along absorbing the knowledge that he offered up about the forest. Interestingly, the man who "owned" Muir Woods was a budding (no pun intended!) conservationist and was about to have the land forcibly taken from him. As luck would have it, he was "well connected" and was able to get then-president Teddy Roosevelt through a "presidential decree" to declare the woods a "National Monument", forever preserving it from development of its resources by man. Imagine how corporate America would react if some president decreed that the "Alaska Wildlife Reserve" is now a "National Monument"?
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After our walk through the Muir Woods, it was time for us to head back towards the airport and begin the journey to Australia!
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Does anybody know what time it is?

2006-05-24T08:21:00.000-04:00

Since we'll be hopping acrosss a myriad of timezones (including the bizzare Australian Central Time Zone) and the International Date Line, I've created a Personalized World Clock so that folks can figure out what time (and day) it is during various parts of our trip. Just go to this link:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/personal
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The Itinerary

2006-02-13T07:26:00.000-05:00

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

Col. John "Hannibal" Smith of "The A-Team"

My girlfriend sometimes says that I'm a plan-o-holic. I guess that can be considered to be a mild form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. But unless your last name is "Trump" or "Gates", you can't just saunter up to the airline ticket counter to go where you want to go, whenever you want to. This rationale also applies to garnering lodging in Australia's Outback. Since June is the time of year when most people go to The Outback (70 degrees Fahrenheit in June as compared to 117 degrees Fahrenheit in December...which is their summertime), you need to book well in advance...otherwise you'll be using your rental car not only as your means of transportation but using it for your lodging as well.

That being said, here is our "rough draft" of our itinerary. Out of all of this, only the "road trip through NSW" does not have lodging secured...since we won't know where we'll stop for the night until we get there!

THURSDAY, JUNE 1 -- Fly from Atlanta to San Francisco...spend 24 hours in San Fran.

FRIDAY, JUNE 2 -- Fly from San Fran to Sydney.

SATURDAY, JUNE 3 -- goes "bye-bye" somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

SUNDAY, JUNE 4 to FRIDAY, JUNE 9 --Sydney...with the "BridgeClimb" happening on Tuesday, June 6.

SATURDAY, JUNE 10 to WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14 -- road trip through New South Wales...going through the towns of:

Katoomba (Blue Mountains)

Bathurst

Cowra

Griffith (Wine Country)

Deniliquin

Albury

Wagga Wagga

Gundagai (The Dog on the Tucker Box)

Goulburn

Sydney

THURSDAY, JUNE 15 to SUNDAY, JUNE 18 -- Fly to Alice Springs, drive to Uluru and Kata Tjuta (Ayer's Rock and The Olgas), then drive back to Alice Springs.

MONDAY, JUNE 19 -- Fly back to Sydney.

TUESDAY, JUNE 20 -- In Sydney.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 -- Fly from Sydney to San Fran and then onward to Atlanta...all in one day (YIKES!).

Taking the Laptop Along

2006-02-12T11:17:00.000-05:00

CUSTOMS OFFICER: "Citizenship?"

YOU: "United States."

CUSTOMS OFFICER: "Is this your laptop computer?"

YOU: "Yes."

CUSTOMS OFFICER: "Did you purchase this computer in the U.S.?"

YOU: "Yes."

CUSTOMS OFFICER: "Prove it!"

In this "digital" age, taking a laptop on a trip makes sense. You can:

(A) surf the The Web with it.

(B) "off-load" the pictures from your digital camera's flash card onto its hard drive.

(C) "burn" said off-loaded digital pictures onto a CD so that you have MORE space for newer digital pics to off-load.

(D) watch DVD movies with it during that long Trans-Pacific flight.

Occasionally, you'll run into the quandry of having to "prove" that your laptop was purchased in the good 'ol USA...otherwise you'll have to pay a hefty duty on something that you've purchased in The States and have owned for quite some time!

Fortunately, there is a form that you can carry with you to avert just such a catastrophe. It's called a Certificate of Registration Form 4457. Basically, you print it out, fill it out, take you and your "goodies" you want registered to the nearest U.S. Customs and Border Protection office where a Customs official will verify the serial numbers on the equipment that you've listed and sign off on it. Then all you have to do is carry this form with you instead of the original sales receipts (if you still have them) for all of your electronic "goodies" that you're packing along.

This is much like getting an Australian Visa in that you'll want to get this a few weeks before you depart...and not on the day of departure!