Before and After

The day after we arrived at the cabin by the lake (you saw a picture of that last post) this is what it looked like.


The day after that, when we were scheduled to leave, *this* is what it looked like...

We drove up for a while into the mountains -


And after the scariest road I've ever driven (because there was so little of it from side to side and so much of it from front to back, and a lot lees of it underneath than I was really comfortable with) we ended up here. This is the husband, feeling sick adn miserable in front of the fire.



And this is me out checking out the locals. It's a kookabura! I think. Well, he laughed, so he's probably a kookaburra.

And the day after that -

We went chasing waterfalls...


Here there be cheese! The waterfall was on a side road, and on the way in we saw this little dairy. So on the way out we stoped and had some of the BEST cheese. It was delicious. And they deliver!


Went fishing, caught a rock. (It's on the drive. Pretty cool...)

Next Day

On the way the next day, we stopped at a wilderness park. It's a mad badger! No, it's a little devil:




Then I wanted to se more water....



And here's another cutesy shot. Of us. Looking at water.....

Supper

Then we went down the hill again and hung out at another beach, then we went to yet another beach and hung out there with this fellow while we waited for a restaurant to open.... What? No! The bird wasn't supper! Although he definitely expected us to provide him with some for the pleasure of his company. Justin fed him some hot n spicy corn-nuts. It didn't seem to phase the little greedy-bill, so maybe birds don't taste spice.

Up the hill!

After the husband woke up, we went for a drive. Got some jam and wine at a place called Kate's berry farm, then got lost (NOT my fault, it looked like the road connected on the map, I swear!) then found the place we were going and parked the car and climbed up a reall big hill to see Wineglass Bay. Essentially, we climbed for a couple hours to look at.... a beach. ;)

This is what it looked like:

More pretty pretty

So we finaly got where we were going, and I then promptly dragged Justin down to yet another beach. I have mercifully not included any of the 50 pictures of water I took there. The next morning I let sleeping husbands lie and went down to the becah before dawn, got some pictures... oh, yeah. More beach, more water. But... Pretty!

Heh.

On the other hand, pics of the husband - in this case, half freezing his ass off, and half falling asleep in the sun on a cliff with some serious waves making noise on the rocks behind us - never get old. Did I mention that at the beginning of this trip we were both sick as? No, seriously - sinus infections all around. It was awful. And then I go dragging him down to the only truly cold place in Australia and make him walk all over the place so we can take pictures and go "Ooooh! Pretty!... " Somehow we managed to get better, though. Mostly.

And the reward for the stress was...

...a beach:



A weird old bridge, which you can see the stop of the side-walls here; it was all hand-built by convicts, and the spines of rock serve absolutely no useful purpose that anyone can figure:



And more beach, of course. What? I haven't seen ocean for a while! I'm being nice and leaving out the 100 other pictures of water I took. Trust me, my pictures of waves are lovely but possibly a bit repetitive after a while.

Of B&B's and Scenery

Vacation in Tasmiania! First night in Hobart. So I booked a B&B for our first night, but their web-based booking system was broken and we ended up having to find another place to stay. The other place was a nightmare of pink and green, smelled like something old and wasn't particularly clean. No pictures. Sushi that night barely ofset the misery. Here's a picture of the nice, pretty, clean place we almost stayed:



Upon leaving Hobart, I determined that the tourist map showed a scenic route, and we followed it. It was paved a little at first, so it wasn't until we were well and truly into the scary stuff, quite trapped, that we determined that dotted line on a tourist map, no matter how thick, is BAD. However, it did bring us out to a pretty overlook:




Then it was back to the scary stuff. Tassie? Here's a note: Your roads are a little alarming at times. This is not the most significant grade we faced in our little economy rental, and that stuff is sheer mud. Slip slidin' away!

Cat-Sitting

Borrowed a friend's furry monsters for a week while they moved up here. Here's the cool picture:

Alice Show, 07/07/07

Every year, early July, the Show comes to town...






...Including the flying pigs.

This is why we have bridges over dry, sandy rivers.

Because sometimes, even here, you get a rainy day.

Out Back. No, really...

Took this picture out my back window. I think he was around for a while, because I saw a roo (no way to tell if it's the same one) standing in the street out under a lamp one night. Very surreal - like one of those paintings of people in a cafe at night, or dogs playing poker.

Ghost Gum

Things that fly and cheep

I got lucky: caught a flolck of wild budgies on camera! Pretty.

Further along the drive, we saw...

some very old aboriginal paintings, symbolizing catapillar, I think. Very cool. It's ochre and clay on rock, protected and just sitting there from like forever...





And some very green scenery for a desert. It had recently rained.



And road hazards!

We went for a picnic drive

There's a popular tourist song here in Central Australia, it goes like this -

"Give me a home amoung the gum trees, with lots of plum trees
A midget or two and a kangaroo..."

Whups. Sorry - a friend sort of corrupted the song and now I can never remember the real words. I'm pretty sure it's not a midget, it's a sheep, but.... never mind. Carrying on -

"A sheep or two and a kangaroo, clothesline out the back, verandah out the front and an old - rocking - chair!"

Ther are gestures that go with every line, and you're supposed to make these semi-obscene hip-thrust motions when you do the rocking chair bit. Anyways, in case you wondered what a gum tree was, the leaves in the top of the frist picture are gum leaves. It's a river gum - there are loads of varieties of gum tree. River Gum, Blue Gum, Ghost Gum, all sorts. All very pretty. Someone joked that this place really is upside down: gum trees shed their bark but keep their leaves, swans are black instead of white, the seasons are reversed and the local boat races are canceled when the rivers have water in them.

Right - on to the pictures. We went for a picnic drive along the ridge that runs through town, stopping at some of the gaps in the ridge to take pictures.




And some pretty rocks and trees:




And a nice slice of rocks.

Settling In

So we got into our house, and got our stuff, and started trying to settle in. It's a two story housr - we have stairs! - and we have a balcony that overlooks Heavitree Gap. This was the view one morning -

First Post

Well, we got back here to the Au (meaning Australia, also the chemical symbol for gold... coincidence? Well, maybe. But fun nonethless.) a few months ago but I had trouble getting the blog to upload pictures, so no posts for a while. So I'll start at the beginning and work my way forward... Here's a shot from our day in Sydney between flying into Aus and flying in to town. This poor woman wasquietly eating her lunch when some ibis decided she ought to share...