An interlude: to the Jenolan Caves

 

Christmas Day kite flying!

Ready for lunch?

Getting ready to make the pavlova

It's ready!

Eel in the botanical gardens

It's hard to keep up with this blog.  On Christmas Day we had a massive, traditional Christmas lunch.  This included turkey and even brussel spouts (but Sha's dad only let me boil them for about 20 minutes).  Sha also made lots of cupcakes, a pavlova and we had a Christmas pudding.  It was a massive feast.   I spent a lot of the day trying to get X-Plane10 installed, but then was disappointed to find that Sydney airport is in the wrong place :(  Sha's dad had also found me a bonsai tree.   My New Year resolution will have to be that I don't kill the tree!

The waves were a little big for swimming

My Chinese is getting worse.  On Boxing Day, I kept asking Sha's dad whether he wanted to go back home on a "princess" (instead of a "bus").  That led to some confusion.  And, I've just told him that I don't want any more breakfast because I'm drunk (I meant to say "enough"). 

Arrival at the Jenolan Caves

Look at the colour of the water

On Boxing Day we tried to see the start of the Sydney-Hobart boat race, but we didn't go far enough around the harbour to see the start.  Instead we watched the eels in the botanic gardens and then Sha''s dad and I went on the ferry to Manly.  We walked around for half-an-hour and then took the boat back again.  There were some large waves!!

Yesterday we went to the Jenolan Caves.  It's a long way.  It took about 3 hours each way and the last 20km or so is on a rather dramatic, windy road.  Everything is fine until a crazy 4wd comes from the opposite direction.  At the end the carpark was full and we had to drive up another windy, dirt road to find another carpark.  We went on the "diamond" tour that took us through some spectacular caves and then down to an underground river. 

A troll that we found in the caves

Day 1 in Tasmania: around the Peninsula

The beach somewhere near Doo Town

After a lunch of Fish 'n' chips and being unable to convince Sha to go on a boat ride, we decided to drive around the Peninsula and find a place to have a hike.  We first had a quick look at a beach where we thought the penguins might sleep before deciding to do a walk to the Devil's Kitchen and then on to Waterfall Bay.  Sha thought that she might be able to get something more to eat at the Devil's Kitchen, but unfortunately was disappointed. 

The walk was great.  Lots of cliff edges on one side and forests on the other. On the way back, Sha's dad found a "furry triangle" that turned out to be a small wallaby.    After the walk, we continued our drive and spotted three echidnas in a garden.  We then got lost, but found a very white beach (called "white beach").

Walking to the Waterfall Bay

We drove back through Port Arthur looking for somewhere to eat.  I'd expected Port Arthur to be a little town, with ice cream shops, a supermarket and some small restaurants.  Unfortunately, it wasn't. It is a convict prison and has lots of hotels.  So we kept driving and had a very fun, but slow, dinner at our hotel.  The ladies sitting next to us had cycled from Hobart, but were going to take the bus back! 

Waterfall bay

In the evening, we drove back out to look for the penguins.  Whilst waiting for it to get dark (it didn't get dark until about 9pm), we won breakfast by winning the three-legged race and then we went searching for the penguins.  Instead we found a water rat and were feeling a bit upset, but then we found a penguin sitting on the path next to our car!

White Beach

A very long and enjoyable day! :)

Day 1 in Tasmania: morning

On board the JetStar flight

We have just had the largest Christmas lunch ever! It was huge. 

Our first day in Tasmania seems a long time ago now and was very long!  We woke up before 5am to get to the airport for the 7am flight.  It was just as well that we got up so early as the queue to deposit the bags was already half way around the airport.  The plan for the holiday was to explore the Tasman peninsula. This is the bit that sticks down on the East Coast.  I'd heard that it was always raining and cloudy.

Our first view of the Ocean

We arrived in Hobart on time (it's a great landing between the hills and the coast) and picked up our incredibly small rental car (I liked the car by the end of the trip - our little Suzuki Swift didn't need refuelling for the entire trip) and somehow fitted our luggage into the boot. Then off we went to Eaglehawk neck.  The weather was perfect.

It didn't take long to arrive at Eaglehawk neck and so we went straight off for a walk down to the Tessellated Pavement - "a rare erosional feature formed in flat sedimentary rock formations lying on some ocean shores".  We also kept a good look out for animals and birds and ended up spotting a huge number of different birds (but no dolphins).

After walking around on the beach, we checked-in at our hotel (which had a view over the ocean) and then continued onto the Tasman Peninsula.  We went past Doo Town which, with all the Du's in the car, was very apt (all the houses have "Doo" in their name) and went to see the blow hole (which wasn't blowing) and the spectacular cliffs. 

Sha was starting to demand lunch by this point and didn't approve of the out-door Fish 'n' chips and so we drove off to find a nice fish restaurant!

Lots of flowers everywhere! Not so good for hayfever

 

Walking to the Tessellated Pavement

The Tessellated Pavement

A Fairy Wren

Lunch!

A blog update!!

With a huge Bunya pine cone

I've finally got around to updating my blog!!  We're getting ready for a traditional English Christmas here.  Sha and her parents are expecting a large turkey, cranberry sauce, setting the pudding on fire and all the trimmings.

The bunya and hoop pines

Since the last blog update, we came back from Canada. went to Parkes, won the NSW Tall Poppy prize(!), Sha's parents arrived in Australia, played again in the Beecroft orchestra, went to Melbourne to be Mike's Best Man at his wedding, went to Tasmania for a spectacular holiday and then back to Parkes again.  Today we went to see the large Bunya pine cones at the Cumberland State Forest.  Sha is getting all excited at the moment and cooking some cup cakes.

The Bunya pine cones really were very impressive.  They weigh about 15kg and drop from a height of 30-40m.  Actually, the path was closed due to the danger of one falling on your head, but we ignored that.   Then we found a pine cone and wished we hadn't ignored the advice.

Sha with a strange fruit

Ottawa!

We're in Ottawa. Sha is worried about the chipmunk population of Ottawa and has spent the last few days trying to make the local chipmunks as fat as possible. She's now moving on to fattening up the black squirrels. She also spotted a family of racoons. But she hasn't spotted a ground hog (di jou) yet. I found one, but Sha was on a boat with lots of ladies at the time.

They have lots of pumpkins in Canada.

Today we went flying. Sha took control. We didn't crash.

Sha photographed a sign that explained what to do in the presence of "a bear, coyote, wolf or cougar". The final instruction is "In case of an attack, you must be aggressive and counterattack."

I bought a new camera. I wanted a new Sony, but Sha told me that I wouldn't look professional. So I'm now the proud owner of a nikon.

Oh, Dad also showed us the new flight simulator at Rockcliffe. I flew a twin-engined plane through the clouds to Ottawa international. We didn't crash!

What else? Sha has spotted three beavers (or one beaver three times). We went to a concert where a 13 year old boy played incredibly difficult 'cello pieces with his sister accompanying him on the piano (Bryan and Silvie Cheng). Mum also drove us up into the forest to see the lakes and the colourful trees. Oh, and we went to the Museum of Civilisation to see the exhibitions and to watch the Imax show about elephants and orang-utangs.