Dingley Village, Victoria

Right now I'm at Gemma's house preparing for New Year's Eve festivities.  It will be a really fun night.  There are costumes involved and a movie to be seen.  We are going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show and then go to a party.  I'm going as Riff Raff because as Gemma said I "have the hair for it."  It's quite a nice New Year's Eve here as well.  It's sunny and the temperature is around 95 degrees.  Just thought I'd rub that one in a bit. 
One thing I really liked about Melbourne was the city gardens.  There are about half a dozen gardens in Melbourne.  They are all pretty big, the biggest being the Royal Botanical Gardens.  All have a lot of green space to sit back and relax and enjoy.  It's nice having a place you can go to escape the city within the city itself.
Every four years during the Winter Olympics I really get into curling.  I don't really know what it is about curling that fascinates me, but the fascination sits inside me and gestates for four years before showing itself.  Well, I think I have found a summer equivalent to my curling fascination in cricket.  Cricket is a simple game with seemingly complicated rules.  It could just be that a leg of the Ashes Test, a match between Australia and England, was in Melbourne while I was there and the whole city was in a frenzy.  Or it could be that cricket strikes the same nerve as curling does.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Melbourne, Victoria (Part II)

Melbourne is a pretty neat city.  It is very multicultural and there's a well established art scene.  Melbourne has a certain vibe to it that I like a lot.  I must say I'm enjoying my time in Melbourne more so than my time in Sydney.  I went to the art museums in Melbourne, which were interesting (and free!).  There's a Disney exhibit at one of the museums that I am going find the time and money to visit before I leave.  I went to the Melbourne Aquarium, which was neat.  It had sea dragons and penguins and hammerhead sharks.  Speaking of penguins, I went out to St. Kilda on Gemma's advice and wandered around the beach yesterday.  Nestled amongst the rocks of a breaker there's a colony of penguins.  They come out at dawn and dusk to hunt for food and during the day they can be spotted in the rocks of the breaker.  Seeing glimpses of the penguins alone was worth the tram ride out to St. Kilda. 
My plans have changed a bit.  I was due to head out to the farm yesterday, the hosts had a few things going on and said if I wanted to wait until after New Year's I can.  So I will be spending New Years in Melbourne, which I am looking forward to. 

Melbourne, Victoria (Part I)

In Melbourne I had a mini camp reunion.  Two people I met while in Connecticut live in the suburbs of Melbourne.  I met up with Liz first and spent an afternoon in her town catching each other up on the past 3 months.  The next day I met up with Gemma and her friend Steve and we went out to Healesville Sanctuary to see some Aussie animals.  Gemma introduced me to vegemite and cheese sandwiches, which I must say I found enjoyable.  After our zooing (Gemma assured me that "zooing" is in fact a word) Gemma and I went to a comedy performance entitled "The Terminativity."  Imagine the terminator traveling back in time to stop Mary from giving birth to Jesus with the occasional song thrown in for good measure.  It was a very funny performance.  My reunion continued on Christmas Day when I went to Gemma's house for a BBQ with a few of her friends.  It was a fun way to spend Christmas, outside and in the sunshine.  Tomorrow (the 27th) I'm off to Gemma's family's Christmas lunch.  So don't fret, I'm still spending Christmas with family.

Sydney, New South Wales (Part II)

While in Sydney I went to a couple beaches.  The first one I went to was Bondi Beach, which is a well known beach.  I really enjoyed Bondi.  I spent a lot of time gazing into rock pools in awe of all the activity in there.  I saw sea urchins, anemones, starfish, sea snails, crabs, and some small fish.  The water was a beautiful blue-green and the sand was a beige color.  I did a 6 mile walk along a coastal path passing by several other beaches.  The sun was blasting down on me and left me looking like a lobster at the end of the day.  The second beach was Manly Beach, which is a surfing destination.  I however did not try my hand at surfing.  Instead I went on another coastal walk.  This walk led me up to a cliff with some pretty views of the Pacific Ocean stretching out to the horizon.  Also on the walk was an artillery base used to defend Australia during WWII. 
Having completed the beach experience to my liking, I decided to spend my last day in Sydney Museum hopping.  I visited the Sydney Observatory, which I enjoyed thoroughly.  I found it very interesting to learn about how astronomers conducted their work in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Next I visited two art galleries, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Gallery of New South Wales.  The Museum of Contemporary Art was interesting...I'll just leave it at that.  Having left that museum a bit confused as to what constituted art I was rewarded with the Gallery of New South Wales.  There were galleries dedicated to Aboriginal art, European art, and Australian art.
Next up was an 11 hour overnight train to Melbourne.

Sydney, New South Wales (Part I)

Sydney is a pretty busy city.  There is a constant stream of people on the move at all times.  When I first arrived I went for a walk to familiarize myself with the city.  Most of the sights are centered on or near the harbor.  I saw the bridge and the Opera House, both of which are impressive structures.  The bridge for its size and the Opera House for its shape and design.  The one place I keep finding myself going back to is the Royal Botanical Gardens.  It is a large area with many different gardens, from an herb garden to a southeast Asian garden to a rainforest garden.  There are statues and fountains scattered throughout the gardens as well.  Each time I walk through the gardens I find something new. It is in the gardens that the flying foxes roost during the day.  These bats are huge, about the size of a crow.  It's quite a sight seeing them leave their roosts at dusk and take to the sky. 
After seeing the Opera House and the bridge, my next stop was the Tarunga Zoo.  Just getting to the zoo was a unique experience.  I took a ferry across the harbor and then a sky rail up to the entrance of the zoo.  Tarunga is a really neat zoo; it has the Aussie animals as well as the standard zoo animals.  Their elephant exhibit featured a baby elephant born at the begining of November.  The Koala exhibit was pretty cool, the koalas were in the center of the exhibit and you spiraled up and around them. 
One of the coolest things I saw was a light show on the face of St. Mary's Cathedral.  It was a 10 - 15 minute display using the front face of the Cathedral as a backdrop, all set to music.
One of the nice things about where I'm staying is that it's about a 20 minute walk to the harbor.  The walk takes me through the gardens where I always get distracted by something new so it takes me a little bit longer.  Should I choose, I could use the train or bus services, which run all over the city.  And to get to places on the other side of the harbor there are ferry services that run regularly too.  No matter where you go in the city, you are never far from a public transportation service.

Six Foot Track

I've spent the past five days hiking the Six Foot Track from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves and back.  I had a great time hiking, the weather cooperated nicely and I saw a lot of wildlife.  I saw dozens of different bird species on the trip.  The campsites were quite nice.  They had covered picnic shelters and a large rainwater collection tank for the water source.  All and all it was a great trip.

Day 1
I stopped at Norths Lookout which has a spectacular view of the Megalong Valley, the valley that the track goes through.  It was perfect weather for hiking, not a cloud in the sky and maybe 80 degrees or so.  The track starts off with a steep descent into a rain forest, I dropped about 1800 feet in about 1/3 of a mile.  The hike was going smoothly until I took a wrong turn that added another 2 miles to my journey.  All was good because the detour offered views of the cliffs and I heard cuckaburras calling.  The track then meandered through pastureland which was pretty smooth sailing.  Then I got to Cox's River.  I tried to ford Cox's River but the water was too high and I fell in.  I saved myself before my pack and camera got wet, but I wasn't so lucky.  I then back tracked a mile to cross Bowtells Swing Bridge.  That bridge is definitely the scariest bridge I've crossed.  It is a suspension bridge and you are walking on fencing.  The highlight of the day was seeing two wallabies just after crossing the bridge.
Day 2
A day just like the last - beautiful and sunny.  Spent most of the day climbing uphill.  Almost all of the hiking was on dirt roads.  I saw several kangaroos and an echidna.  Little lizards were scurrying about at my feet all day.  When I arrived at the campsite there was a group of about 6 guys who were hiking the track in one day in preparation for climbing Kilimanjaro in a couple months.  They had a support group meeting them every so often along the way to supply them with water and food.  The campsite was a popular spot for kangaroos, I sat on the picnic table and counted 12 feeding in the grass.
Day 3
I slack-packed myself to Jenolan Caves and back.  The morning started off overcast and mist hung in the trees.  It remained cloudy until early afternoon.  Today was the coolest of the 5 days on the track.  Kangaroos were in abundance again today.  Jenolan Caves were pretty impressive.  There were several large archways hundreds of feet wide and hundreds of feet tall to walk through.  The grounds itself was pretty neat to walk around, there was a little river that flowed out of the caves and along the banks there were a couple species of lizards.  I didn't go into to the caves because in my excitement to get on the trail I left my money at the hostel. 
Day 4
It was hot today.  The kind of heat that doesn't quit once the sun goes down.  All the uphills I climbed two days back I descended today.  There were just as long and steep going down as they were going up.  The only difference was I wasn't watching my feet on the way down so I could enjoy the views the track offered me.  I was surprised by how much I missed two days ago.  When I got to the campsite I took a nice refreshing dip in the river, clothes and all.  I stood chest deep in the river for a bit cooling off.  It was so hot that I was dry in no time.  I finally had some company at night.  A french couple joined me tonight.  They were very friendly and nice people to chat with.
Day 5
It was another hot day.  I climbed out of Cox's River and looked back to see a wall of storm clouds heading my way.  When the wind picked up and the temperature started to drop I knew I was in for it.  The sound of thunder signaled the rapidity at which the storm was approaching.  As luck would have it I was hiking through pastureland when it hit me.  It didn't rain that hard and the cool rain felt great on a hot day, but the thunder was disconcerting.  I must have only caught the edge of the storm because it lasted all of 10 minutes.  After that the sun reappeared and it was hot again.  I was blessed with another light rain as I was hiking through the rain forest and ascending the 1800 feet to finish the trail.

I leave Katoomba today to spend five days in Sydney.

Katoomba, New South Wales

I arrived in Australia without too much trouble.  The flight from LA to Sydney was a long one though.  Each seat had it's own little screen to and there was a whole bunch of shows and movies available to watch.  So that made things a bit more enjoyable.
Australia is very protective over their land.  They don't allow any wood, food, animals, or soil into the country.  Customs officials checked my tent and tent stakes to see if they were dirty.  When the official dumped out my stakes a pile of dirt fell on to the table.  He took my stakes and gave them a thorough cleaning before giving them back to me. 
Katoomba seems like a pretty small town.  The trailhead to the Six Foot Track, a 26 mile trail I'm going to hike, is located there.  Also in Katoomba is a lookout point called Echo Point.  It is a bit odd to walk downhill to get to a lookout but that's what you do.  The view from the lookout is quite impressive.  It is a 450 foot vertical drop and it looks out over a valley.  I spent a bit of time walking around, enjoying the views, looking for birds, and people watching.  Anything to keep myself active and avoid jet lag. 

I leave tomorrow for the Land Down Under.  My adventure starts with a trip through airport security.  After getting body scanned and/or patted down I will begin a marathon day of travel spanning 25 hours and countless time zones.  When I arrive in Sydney it will be 8.00 am on December 11th, but according to my body clock it will be 4.00 pm on December 10th.  From there I'll travel to Katoomba where I shall spend the rest of the day preparing for my backpacking trip and fighting jet lag.  I am going to hike the Six Foot Track, which is a 45 km trail from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves.  The trail is an old bridal path that was used beginning in the 1880s to take tourists from Katoomba to the caves.  I'll be hiking the trail down and back to end up back in Katoomba.  From there, it's off to Sydney for a few days and then on the Melbourne.  I'm meeting up with a couple camp friends in Melbourne before heading out to work on an organic farm. 
I'll do my best to update my adventures and travels every week or two.