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tbutler

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  1. tbutler
    Day six was a late start as we planned a late night activity. Mt. William National Park in the northeast is known for its abundant wildlife. Most marsupials are active at night and the information on this national park suggested spending time after sunset observing the wildlife. Many of these animals we had seen along the roadside, killed by automobiles. Now we wanted to see them live. We hiked to the top of Mt. William in the late afternoon and returned to the car as the sun was setting. Along the trail we had seen much evidence of wombats but never saw a single one on this beautiful hike through the forest. Wombats are burrowing animals, the largest burrowing animal, they are the size of a small pig.
    As we left the parking lot for a twilight/night drive I noticed a snake on the road. I stopped the car, grabbed the camera and went to get a photograph. As I approached the snake rose up and spread its head like a cobra. It wasn’t a cobra, I later learned it was a tiger snake. This is one of three snakes on Tasmania and all are poisonous. I was aware of this so didn’t approach any closer. Before I could get the camera focused in the dim light, the snake was off into the forest so I didn’t get a picture. We continued our drive and were not disappointed.
    We saw numerous forester kangaroos, found only in this part of Tasmania. These were the first kangaroos we had seen up to that time. We caught a wombat in the open and got a quick look before it hurried off into the dark. We saw wallabies, possums and a Tasmanian devil or two. A real surprise was a bandicoot, a small rat-like animal, stopped right in the middle of the road in front of us. We got a real good look at it before it fled into the dark.
    As we were leaving the park, a truck passed us and roared off into the night. Just a few kilometers down the road we came upon a possum standing over its dead mate. The truck had apparently struck one of the pair and the second was staying with its mate. We approached with the car and the live possum didn’t move. Finally as we started to maneuver around the pair the living one fled into the woods. It was a most distressing sight and it stayed with us during the ride back to the hotel. Faced with a 130 km drive home in the dark and not wanting to be responsible for killing another animal, I kept our speed around 60 km per hour (under 40 MPH). Despite this, only one car passed us until we were almost in Launceston. The area was so remote that there simply wasn’t much traffic out late at night.
    Day seven was our day to return to Mainland Australia. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 6:00 p.m. and boarding would start at 4:30. We started to the ferry about 10:00 a.m. and decided to stop in Beaconsfield at the mining museum. Beaconsfield has been a gold mining site for many years. As the mines developed, they went deeper and deeper underground. Periodically one mining company after another would fail only to be replaced by a company which thought they could do better. The old mine was finally closed in the early 1900’s. Eventually the shaft started to collapse and with it part of the equipment building also collapsed. The remaining building would become the museum and the collapsed ruins can now be toured as part of the museum.
    Inside the museum are many artifacts from the early days of mining. In the 1940’s a new shaft was opened into the mine and mining resumed. In 2008 the ceiling of one shaft collapsed on some workers. One was killed and two were trapped in a small work cage which was smashed when it was buried under many tons of rock. The two miners stayed alive for 14 days while rescuers did everything they could to get to them. They were rescued and the entire event is documented in an excellent and moving exhibit in the museum. That mine has now joined the fate of many others and is closed.
    We had lunch after visiting the museum and then drove north to the ferry stopping at one last national park, Narawntapu National Park. This was the first park to adopt a native name. We drove into the park, visited with the ranger on duty and then continued on our way. The one hike we had considered would take too long to complete. Time was now short enough that we headed for the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry. Our trip this time would be an overnight trip and we planned to start the night with a nice dinner in their premier restaurant before retiring for the night. On both our trips we reserved a room in part so we could leave luggage to roam the decks of the ferry and in part to provide sleeping quarters for this overnight voyage. We both got a good night of sleep before the ferry arrived in port at Melbourne in time for the 6:30 a.m. disembarking. We had a cab called and were on our way to Britz to pick up our campervan for most of our remaining stay in Australia.
  2. tbutler

    Broome

    By tbutler,

    Broome is a small town on the northwest shore of Australia. The pearling industry has been a strength of the area along with tourism. Broome isn’t the only place where pearl farms are found here, it is the center of a large region that extends from Darwin in the north to Port Hedland to the southwest. The largest pearl oysters are found here and the pearls we saw in shops are enormous. The downtown of Broome has a dozen jewelry shops specializing in pearls. We browsed our way through all of them! There are a few other shops and stores and we spent Tuesday afternoon drifting through downtown Broome.
    Adjacent to the downtown area is an old jetty which was at one time the place where the pearling boats docked. We walked the jetty, over 100 years old, to the end. At low tide we could see hundreds of red fiddler crabs on the mud below the jetty. Tides around Broome are very large with variations during spring tides up to 30 feet. Spring doesn’t refer to the season, spring tides the tides change very rapidly from low to high tides. This occurs each new moon and each full moon. At the first quarter and last quarter phases of the moon the tides are called neap tides. Neap tides change very slowly. You can imagine a spring tide going from low to high tide with a 30 foot change in water level in about six hours, the water would seem to spring up quite quickly.
    The downtown area is known as Chinatown though we saw nothing of China in the shops and stores. The Japanese were primary developers of the pearl farming in this area and much of that history is recounted in the historic plaques and signage. There is a statue to the three Japanese men who started the industry there. It was a very warm afternoon so we stopped at an ice cream shop and enjoyed an ice cream cone while sitting in the shade on the porch outside the shop. School was out and kids were stopping to get an ice cream treat on the way home. Several mothers with young children stopped by the shop. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things before heading back to the campground for the evening.
  3. tbutler

    Waipoua State Forest

    By tbutler,

    We left the park at Russell headed west to cross the island to the west coast. We wanted to spend some time hiking in the Waipoua State Forest, site of the largest Kauri trees in the world. Kauri trees are a source of gum and an important economic export from the islands until World War II. Much of the forest is gone but several very large Kauri trees can be seen in this forest.
    The road to Waipoua State Forest was quite serpentine, travel was slow and we encountered frequent one lane bridges. These bridges are common throughout New Zealand. With a population of 4 million people, traffic is not heavy and the cost of a one lane bridge is about half the cost of a two lane bridge. I am certain that some of these bridges date back to the first World War. There are signs to indicate which direction has right of way and everyone is patient about crossing, it is just a way of life here. We reached the west coast shortly after lunch time and stopped at a roadside table overlooking the harbor at Pakanae. Across the harbor from us was a huge sand dune, a most impressive sight.
    After lunch it was about half an hour on more serpentine roads to Waipoua State Forest. The parking lot was small and there was a bus taking up much of the parking lot. We found a spot to park and hiked to the largest Kauri tree. It was about a five minute walk from the highway. There were two viewing spots, one up close and another further back. From the most distant spot I could get most of the tree in the photograph. Can you find Louise in the picture? Look carefully, she is there. This amazing tree reminded me of the Home Tree in Avatar. There are numerous epiphytic and symbiotic plants living on the branches of these trees. There were even other trees sprouting on those branches.
    This was also our first opportunity to walk in the New Zealand forest. Every plant is different. There are fern trees that stand 20 feet tall. Later we would see even taller ones. We saw a vine with no leaves and no tendrils, slick stems that rose from the ground ten feet before curling around another vine or tree. The forest is a multi-story forest, a rain forest. We were 50 feet from another large Kauri tree but couldn’t see the trunk for the thick vegetation. From the road we could see its crown.
    Driving a little further south we came to the trail for the second largest Kauri tree. This was a longer hike and there were other groupings of Kauri trees, the four sisters standing within a 30 foot circle of each other. The second largest Kauri tree had the most monstrous trunk but wasn’t as tall. We marveled at the bulk of this tree. These weren’t redwoods or sequoia trees, we’ve seen them but these trees had their own kind of special beauty and a certain hearty nature to them. Their ages were estimated to be 1500 to 2000 years old.
    Our drive that night was slow and tense. We had been watching the fuel level go down and were under a quarter tank of diesel at this point. The first town we came to had one service station and it was closed. It was after 6:00 p.m. Did this mean all stations were going to be closed? I wanted to fill up before we made camp but maybe we would have to camp and then get fuel in the morning. The next town had a station open, a CalTex station. We filled up, just over 62 liters, 16.4 gallons cost $89.50 NZ, $73.24 US. That is about $4.47 per gallon. The important thing is that we were getting 18.8 miles to a gallon. I was impressed. We’ve fueled several times since and our mileage is running 20.9 and 21.0 MPG! It’s cheaper than paying $3 per gallon and getting 8 miles per gallon. This is cheaper than using our motor home in the US. Yeah, I taught science for years and I can convert liters to gallons and kilometers to miles and even NZ$ to US$. Makes for some good math fun!
    We finally arrived back at NZ Highway 1 and as the light drained from the sky found a campground at Sheep World! The sign said, “Tired drivers stay here.” Boy were they right. Ian met us as we drove in and ushered us to our site right next to our private shower and toilet. They had little restroom casitas so we could literally step out of the campervan and up the stairs to the restroom! He showed the rest of the facilities and then checked us in. Then he was off to take care of the next tired driver. We slept very well that night.
  4. tbutler

    Sheep World

    By tbutler,

    After our long drive from the Waipoua State Forest we pulled up for the night at Sheep World. We had seen this place on the way north, it is right on NZ Hwy 1. It looks for all the world like a real tourist trap but we were tired and it was late so there we’ll stay. The owner is a real character, elderly and quick with his mind.
    We had breakfast at their restaurant the next morning then stayed for the dog and sheep show at 11:00. We visited the many animals they had in pens and cages, everything from rabbits and opossums to pigs and deer. There was a nice nature trail and then the show.
    John described the two kinds of dogs, eye dogs and away dogs. An eye dog works the sheep by looking at them and running around near the sheep. The sheep react and the dog then reacts to their every move. If they start to go back where they were the dog moves quickly back in that direction and the sheep will immediately turn around and go the other way. The eye dog never barks, only stalks and pursues the sheep in a way that makes them move. He never gets really close to the sheep, always a distance of 20 feet or more away. The dogs instinct is to keep the sheep in a single group and to bring them to John. Not just near him, the dog tries to put the sheep at his feet. John communicated with the dog with a series of commands and whistles. It took five minutes or so to bring the group of sheep into the corral. The job of the away dog is to bark and get the sheep moving. The away dog is used to flush sheep out of remote areas of the pasture. With a big bark he will rouse sheep from ravines and in the bush. Once the sheep are moving his job is finished. Both dogs answer to commands so the herder can stand in one place and round up the sheep. Doing this job for a single person would be almost impossible without the dogs.
    Once the sheep were in the corral, John showed how they sort the sheep. Sheep are run through a chute in single file. Standing at the end of the chute a person manipulates two gates to direct each sheep left, center or right into three chutes leading into three different holding pens. If done by a professional, they can do the sorting almost as fast as the sheep can come through the chute. A member of the audience was brought up to sort a group of about 30 sheep. Each of the sheep had a color marking on their head, red, blue or no marking. After a bit of training, she was able to sort the sheep making only one mistake.
    John described sheep shearing including job opportunities and pay. It is a high paying profession for really good shearers and they can travel worldwide to work. Then he demonstrated shearing making some of the initial passes. Then he brought up members of the audience. Louise was one of three selected to get their hands on the shears. She got a handful of wool for her efforts. I got to hold a bottle to feed the little lambs which came charging up to get their bottle of milk. It was quite a show and one of the things on Louise’s list that she wanted to see and do on this trip. This will remain a special stop in our memories, kind of like finding a diamond in a coal bin.
    Leaving there in the afternoon we began our drive back to Auckland where we would get the water heater repaired. We haven’t had hot water in the campervan since we picked it up five days ago. A quick stop in Auckland and our water heater is working. It took just 15 minutes for the repair at the rental shop. Then we began the drive south out of Auckland. Our destination was a small town, Thames, in the southern part of the Coromandel Peninsula. We were delighted to find the first straight roads for any significant distance. We were able to get up to 90 km/hr (about 56 MPH) most of the way. This turned a long drive into quick work. There is a little yellow sticker at the top of the windshield informing us that we are a “heavy vehicle” and our maximum speed is 90 km/hr. The highest speed limits we have seen here are 100 km/hr. There have been precious few roads that I would feel safe driving the campervan at 90 km/hr.
  5. tbutler

    Chasing Waterfalls

    By tbutler,

    Monday, April 7, 2014. Looking over the information we picked up from the ladies in Ayr the day before, we decided to pursue a scenic drive into the Dividing Range to see some waterfalls. I love a good waterfall and the ones in the brochure looked inviting including one which we were told we could swim under the cascading water. We had about 70 kilometers to cover before leaving the Bruce Highway for the highlands. I put the town with the same name as the waterfall we wanted to visit, Millaa Millaa, into the GPS and it guided us through a dizzying set of turns on small roads to our desired destination. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, purchasing the GPS maps for New Zealand and Australia, a set on a chip and bringing our own GPS was one of the best decisions I made on this trip. By the way, my second best choice was to bring my Leatherman!
    There were three waterfalls, each beautiful. The first we viewed about 50 feet from the plunge pool. On the hike down into the stream bed, we were met by an Australian Brush Turkey. It crossed our path and disappeared into the woods so fast that I didn’t even think to try for a picture. We both got to see it and there was no doubt it was a turkey. On the return to the parking lot, we found what looked like the same turkey sitting next to the trail near the parking lot. I got a number of pictures. It lingered as if it was completely comfortable in this environment even as a tour bus unloaded 30 or so passengers who tromped by on the trail barely taking notice of the turkey I was photographing. This turkey has a red head and a yellow collar which makes it pretty easy to identify.
    The second was inaccessible from that distance. I tried an old trail that had steps but there were so many large trees that had fallen across the trail it became more than I could do to get to the bottom. Tracks on the trail indicated that younger people were undaunted by the challenge but I gave up and settled for the view from the top of the falls. We saw several of the same people who were at the first waterfall and said hello. As we were leaving, the tour bus pulled in.
    We drove to the third falls and it was now almost 1:00 p.m. so we decided to eat lunch then go see the waterfall. I figured the tour bus would come and go in that time and we would be able to enjoy the falls without the crowd. Wrong! We got to the falls and the bus had a picnic set up for the tour group. They were scattered all over the lawn that faced the waterfall. A few of the group were in the water, shivering and cheering on a half dozen of the group that had swum to the fall and were cavorting behind the falling water. We dropped our shoes off and entered the water. It was cold but not too cold for swimming, just cold enough to make you pause to adjust to the temperature as you waded into the pool. We both swam across and enjoyed the view of the falls from behind and under the falling water. By the time we were there, the tour group was packing up but there were plenty of casual visitors and a number of them joined us under the and behind the curtain of water.
    Returning to the campervan, we dried off and dressed for the drive into Cairns. The road to come was described by the ladies at the visitor’s information station in Ayr as, “a road with 100 turns” and I don’t think she was wrong. We were going to descend from high in the mountains of the Dividing Range to sea level. The turns were near constant from the time we started our descent until we reached the valley. We took our time and let other traffic pass and safely made it to the bottom. Louise gets car sick so she has to concentrate on watching the road. If she looks around she gets dizzy and becomes ill quickly. She didn’t have much to say about this part of the drive.
    Checking in at our campground which is walking distance from downtown Cairns, we booked in for four nights. This is one of the premier destinations on our trip. On the news tonight a cyclone (Pacific hurricane) which has been sitting off the northeast coast of Australia for several days and was initially projected to just brush the northern peninsula is now possibly going to make landfall somewhere north of us along the coast. We’ll be watching this carefully and may leave here early if necessary. We wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef and spend some time snorkeling or diving there. With a storm approaching and high seas expected in the area, we may miss this opportunity completely. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
  6. tbutler
    The next leg of our trip begins with an early wake-up. I was checking weather when it started to rain. It was a light rain but I had to unhook the utilities so I quickly went outdoors to unhook the water and sewer. The car had to be run before towing and I took care of that. I came in with a wet head and damp shirt. I dried my hair and hung the shirt to dry. Louise woke and I ate breakfast while she got ready to travel. Louise doesn't like to eat early in the morning but she does want her coffee. She had set the coffeemaker and coffee was already brewed and waiting. Once she was ready, we brought in the slides and I unhooked the electric. We were on the road at 8:00 a.m.
    We had stayed at the KOA at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, which is right on US 75/69 and we would stay on highway 69 all the way to I-44 at Big Cabin. We have traveled this route many times, it is one of the shortest routes from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area to the St. Louis area. Highway 69 is very rough in spots but the traffic is usually free flowing and it is two lane all the way. There are small towns along the way which have low speed limits and the smart driver watches those speed limits very closely.
    As we pulled out of the campground the rain was increasing. It rained all the way to I-44. The amazing thing was that it would change almost constantly. One of my major tasks driving was to adjust the windshield wipers to the varying rate of rainfall. The rain was mostly light but the road was always wet. Passing trucks meant a heavy shower of water. We made good time, we were at Big Cabin by 1:00 and made that our lunch stop. We pulled into the fuel stop there and parked in the trucking area. I had to adjust one of the windshield wipers while Louise fixed sandwiches for us.
    Leaving Big Cabin we passed through the entry toll booth to the Will Rogers Turnpike. Passing through the payment booth the clerk didn't even look at the ticket and rang up the charge for the full length of the turnpike. I asked her to look at the ticket and she corrected her mistake. I thought the tickets were programmed to ring up the proper charge but I guess not. I'll have to watch these more carefully from now on.
    At Joplin I pulled into the Flying J to fuel up. The rain was on again, not heavy but enough that I was wet once more. It always takes longer to fuel at the RV pumps. I put in 80 gallons to take care of the drive from San Antonio where we last filled the tank. We got 8.3 miles per gallon on this leg of the trip, right on our long term average MPG. Leaving Joplin the rain stopped and the remainder of the trip was dry. The really amazing thing was that the temperature stayed in the 70's all day long. We had been driving in searing heat in Texas and the trip in Oklahoma and Missouri didn't even require that we run the air conditioners.
    We made one more rest stop in Sullivan, Missouri to get dinner before the final few miles of the trip. We knew that there was a Wal-Mart near some restaurants and we were going to park there while eating at the nearby KFC. When we got to Wal-Mart they had barriers for tall vehicles at all the entrances so we drove on down the access road to another shopping area and parked there, walking a few blocks to the KFC.
    From Sullivan it is less than an hours drive to my daughters family home in Foristell. We helped fund a parking pad for us in the rear of their home. I helped plan the utilities and we have full hookups here. They have hosted us for stays in the area ever since. Arriving just before sunset, we parked, leveled, hooked up water and electric and put out slides. I surveyed the motor home and was pleased to find that the exterior didn't look too bad. It will need a wash but not nearly as dirty as I expected. The toad was another story.
    After a short visit we were in for the night. We needed a good nights rest in preparation for our grandsons first marching band performance of the year the next day. The performance was the closing event of a two week band camp which helped prepare the marching band for their fall performances. Our grandson is a freshman and this was his first performance with the band. We were impressed with all that he had learned in two weeks. It rained during the picnic before the performance but the rain stopped for the marching performance. I washed it the next morning.
  7. tbutler
    Our second day in Broome starts with laundry. The park laundry facilities here are generally quite good. Here in Broome there are 10 washers and just 4 dryers. All the parks have clothes lines set up for laundry right next to the laundry room. Our campervan came with a set of clothes pins and a small clothes line. Washers here are $4.00 per load so she has been economizing by hanging the laundry to dry rather than using the dryers. It is always an adventure to do the laundry. Some machines take $1 coins and others take $2 coins. Most park facilities have one or the other. Last week the laundry in Darwin had some machines that used $1 coins and others that used $2 coins. There is no paper money in denominations less than $5 in Australia and there are no pennies. I’ve not heard the $1 and $2 coins referred to as Loonies and Twonies!
    The tropics have increased our laundry considerably. Clothes worn for several hours are quickly exchanged for dry clothes when we return home. The combination of humidity, bright sunny days and low latitudes with very warm temperatures make for quite a lot of perspiration with very little effort! Louise has quickly adjusted to doing laundry in the park laundry facilities. I try to do the running for Louise when she is doing laundry. So I make the trip to the office to get the needed coinage. I try to assist her also when hanging the laundry to dry and taking clothes off the line. It makes things go faster if someone is carrying things back and forth while another pins the clothes on the line or folding as they come off the line. She takes care of all the technical work, running the machines, arranging the clothes on the line, folding clothes. I’m the unskilled labor!
    We spent the afternoon at the Broome Bird Observatory. Most of our birding has been done on our own. I’m a casual birder. I don’t go hunting for specific birds. When we are hiking we’ll stop and try to identify any bird we see. Once we learn to identify specific birds we simply name them and go on, sometimes taking a little time to observe their actions and view them through binoculars. When we find a bird we don’t know we’ll first try to make a mental note of any field markings that might be helpful in identifying the bird. There is an extensive list beginning with the size and shape of the bird, the size and shape of the bill, color(s), length of legs and tail, etc. Then we get out our bird book and try to find the bird in the book. This all takes time and sometimes we don’t have enough information about the bird to be able to identify it before it flies away. So up to this time we’ve identified 92 birds here in Australia. At the Broome Bird Observatory we would have a guided tour with an experienced birder who can identify birds quickly and knows where to look for specific birds. This speeds up the process of seeing and identifying new birds. It also means that we don’t imprint those birds in memory quite as well as those we have identified ourselves. That will come later if or when we see these birds again.
    We had the option of driving ourselves to the observatory or being picked up at our park for the tour. We chose to be picked up for the trip. We knew that part of the trip was on dirt road and we’ve tried one of these and found the campervan to be very poorly suited for travel on these roads. So we got the experience of traveling in a four wheel drive vehicle on dirt roads in Australia. Having done that, we were glad we didn’t try to take the campervan on this road. There were spots where deep sand had been blown onto the road. Most of the road was well below ground level with dirt pushed up on the sides by graders. Washboarding was common and taking alternate sides of the road helped avoid some of them but others were impossible to avoid. There was little traffic on this road but when you did meet another vehicle you had to move far to the side. It was only 7 kilometers but it seemed like a very long drive at 30 to 40 kilometers per hour.
    Located on Roebuck Bay south of Broome, the Bird Observatory is one of the prime locations for shore birds in the world. The large tides make for ideal conditions for shore birds with miles of mud exposed at low tide, millions of shore birds find plenty to eat. Birds from all over eastern Asia migrate to this area during the northern hemisphere winter. Many of those are gone now but plenty remain. Our guide was able to pick out significant birds from a large flock along the shore. Using a large scope we were able to get good looks at birds without disturbing them.
    Shore birds are a weakness of mine. Living in Missouri most of my life I saw few birds that were shore birds. There are many species and their markings are sometimes not very distinctive. The mostly have long legs and long bills so identifying them is difficult and time consuming for me. They also occur in mixed flocks, groups with many different species all mixing together. This makes identification more difficult as they move about constantly and it is hard to keep track of a single bird.
    An occasional Black Kite or Whistling Kite would circle overhead and the whole flock would take to the air in a great flurry (see photo with this posting) only to settle back to their same location and return to their regular activities once more. Once the flock finally moved on further south we took a tour of the grass plains on a nearby cattle station. Traveling in the four wheel drive vehicle through the pastures we observed a great variety of birds as well as a few wallabies. We added 16 new birds to the list of 92 that we had seen before. It was a very productive day.
  8. tbutler

    Adelaide

    By tbutler,

    Adelaide is the largest city in the state of South Australia. It is the smallest of the five cities in Australia with a population over one million. It is located on the southern coast of Australia in the State of South Australia. The Murray River is the largest river in Australia and its mouth is just east of Adelaide. It was the Murray River that we crossed on a Ferry on our way into Adelaide.
    We have arranged to have some repair work done on the caravan at the Britz office in Adelaide on Monday morning. Somehow that has a familiar ring to it, where have I heard (or written) that before? Since we were arriving on Sunday, we needed to find a place to stay for the night. Louise set the GPS for the Big 4 Holiday Park in Adelaide. This time it didn’t work. There were two choices and neither was exactly correct so she picked the closest. When we couldn’t find the park, we drove on a bit further then pulled over and Louise called Big 4. They told us to put the address in the GPS as 6 Military Highway instead of the 1 Military Highway that is their actual address. Seems this was a common problem as they gave us the solution without hesitation. We were about 10 kilometers away!
    Sometimes mistakes turn out to be good events and this was the case here. Looking for a place to turn around I came upon a shopping center with a K-Mart. I had a list of things I wanted to get for the caravan that would make life a little better.
    The heat pump in the camper is working for a source of heat but it runs constantly and then kicks in and out making a bit of noise and vibration each time. It isn’t helping my sleep. Britz rents an electric heater, small floor model, for $7 per week which would be $70 in our case. I found one in K-Mart for $19 so that was a deal. It works great for the small space in the caravan and is not so noisy.
    Britz also rents bag chairs, for sitting outside. I picked up a pair for much less than they charge. I got some cleaning supplies so I can keep the windows clean and a container to store the gray water hose which they had lying on the floor in a storage compartment with the fresh water hose, a broom and bucket. That compartment is also where we store our duffel suitcases so I wanted to keep it clean and not have gray water leaking out onto all those other things.
    I couldn’t find a lens cap for my main camera lens. The one I’ve used for years finally broke. A small spring retains the lens cap in place holding it against the threaded inside surface and the plastic support pin that anchors the spring broke. I’ve checked several photo shops, everything is digital, most cameras they sell are compact digital cameras. I’m going to have to find a real camera store that sells to professionals. Personnel in the stores I checked gave me several suggestions, all in downtown Adelaide and I’m not taking the caravan there.
    The Big 4 Holiday Park in Adelaide is located right by the beach. We were separated from the beach by a row of dunes but could hear the surf in the park. Beach parks are always sandy and there is no way to keep the sand out of the caravan. We sweep several times a day when we are in these parks. I have a small rug for use outside the camper but even that doesn’t do the job to get rid of all the sand on our shoes or feet.
    It was windy at the park when we pulled in and overnight it rained. This wasn’t just a light rain, it rained and blew hard. There were puddles in the roadways when we left in the morning. I had watched a group of four young people set up a tent in the evening. I wondered how they slept during the night. Their tent was still up and there was no sign of them stirring in the morning so I guess they were finally getting some sleep.
  9. tbutler

    For the Birds

    By tbutler,

    Monday, April 28, we departed Jabiru at 6:00 a.m. on the way to the Nourlangle site in Kakadu National Park. This site has two things we want to see, Aborigine rock art or petroglyphs and a scenic viewpoint overlooking that part of the park. Our early departure is an attempt to cope with the extreme humidity and very warm temperatures that are common in this part of Australia. We are just 13 degrees from the equator so every day is a warm day and there is plenty of moisture.
    We got to the Mourlangle area just after 7:00 a.m. The area doesn’t officially open until 8:00 a.m. according to the sign at the entrance road but the gate was open so we continued to the site. The trail we chose took us to the viewpoint and then it continued to the petroglyphs and finally back to the parking lot. The trail to the viewpoint started level and paved but quickly turned into a steep rocky trail. Once at the viewpoint, we had spectacular views of the rugged dissected plateau that forms the southern part of the park. We spent time there enjoying the view as the sunrise lit the rocks that towered over us.
    Continuing on the trail we descended into the rainforest along the base of a cliff. Water dripped from the top of the cliffs, the result of rain the night before. We stopped to sit on a bench for a while to listen to the water dripping from the cliffs and the babbling of the brook that resulted. While sitting there, Louise saw a bird and directed my attention to its perch. I quickly found the bird and described it to Louise. She found it in our Birds of Australia book and we then confirmed its identification. We were looking at an Emerald Dove, found only along the tropic coast of Australia. It was a beautiful dove and a lucky find. That bird made our day!
    We left the bench and continued on the trail to the artwork we also wanted to see. The sites were along the base of the cliff protected from the weather by a large overhang. The first site was a startling array of artwork, a couple of dozen figures in varying degrees of sophistication from early primitive art to very elaborate drawings with good detail. The site had been occupied for 20,000 years and the artwork had accumulated over that time.
    We continued on the trail and saw an amazing series of petroglyphs with interpretative information explaining the meanings of various figures in the drawings. We spent an hour going from one set of drawings to the next. By the time we returned to the parking lot it was 9:30 a.m. We planned to visit two other sites before the weather became too warm so we were off to the next site.
    On the road we flushed a flock of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. We had seen them fleetingly several days before when we flushed another flock but this time we went back to get a good look at them and snap a few pictures. When they take off they look like they could be a flock of big Ravens but their red tails catch your attention immediately. When they are sitting, their helmet-like crest and huge bills make them a really distinctive bird.
    Our next stop was at Mamukala, a large wetlands area with a bird blind for observing the birds around the wetlands. When we arrived there was one other couple there. We immediately identified several pairs of ducks as not ducks but Green Pygmy-geese. They were the size of ducks but had the long necks of a goose. Another couple from Britain came in and mentioned several birds they had noticed outside the blind on the walkway to the blind. They helped identify several birds we were working to identify. We continued viewing the area from the blind. Several buses arrived and groups of people came through the blind in droves. We visited with several and shared views through my spotting scope with a few.
    I won’t list all the birds we saw but we added at least half a dozen birds to our list of Australian birds we have seen on this trip. We also had some great chances to see other birds we had seen only once and not under the best observing conditions. A pair of Whistling Kites sat in a tree above the observing blind and whistled and squawked then flew circles overhead so we really got to see them well. We watched a pair of Rufous-banded Honeyeaters building their nest right outside the bird blind.
    By this time we had spent so much time at the first two sites we had to cancel our plans to visit the third site. We debated staying for another day at Kakadu National Park to see the third site but instead chose to continue on to Darwin to keep our trip on its planned schedule.
  10. tbutler

    Touring Sydney

    By tbutler,

    Our second day in Sydney we took a bus tour through the city. The bus was a double decker with an open upper deck so that is where we sat. I took photos as we drove along. We had earphones with commentary on the areas of the city as we rode along. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. At stops I had a chance to stand up and get better pictures. My philosophy on taking pictures when moving is that you shoot lots of pictures knowing some will be blurred or will not be well framed. If I take enough pictures there is a better chance that one will be satisfactory. Often the rate of travel gives just a single moment when a good photograph is possible in which I am quick on the shutter button, timing is key, hesitate and the shot is gone.
    Our tour took us downtown and to the waterfront. The waterfront in Sydney is like a glove. The tour visited one bay after another. I photographed a mixture of new modern buildings and skyscrapers along with heritage buildings over 100 years old. Each is interesting it its own way. Some old buildings are well maintained and look quite beautiful while others have been neglected and will someday soon become unusable. Sydney presents a nice mixture of old and new. We are enjoying the difference in architecture between buildings of different ages but also different from the architecture we knew from the US. There are a wide variety of cultural heritages which influence buildings here in Sydney.
    We rode most of the route before getting off near the Royal Botanical Garden. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Botanical Garden before starting our walk home. The botanical garden is free and has wonderful old and very large trees. There is a fernery with an amazing variety of ferns. Louise said she expected to see a dinosaur stick its head out from behind one. There were tree ferns, giant ferns and a whole group of ferns that didn’t look like ferns at all.
    We found an herb garden which was very aromatic. Every step brought a new scent. Then we spotted an armillary sphere, a special form of sundial. This one was a recent addition to the garden. It commemorated the work of a volunteer who worked at the garden for many years. Around the horizon circle were sculptures of herbs with their names. With a diameter of 2 meters, there were quite a few herbs illustrated on the horizon circle.
    We left the garden about 4:30 in the afternoon. We waited at the bus stop for the next bus that would take us back toward our hotel. It took about 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. We rode for several kilometers getting off at the north end of Hyde Park where we had seen a restaurant/bar we wanted to try. The bar, the Three Wise Monkeys had a large statue of three monkeys in the classical hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil pose. We thought it would be worth a try just for the fun of it. We found seats at the windows which are open and right on the sidewalk looking out on a major street. Our table was the window sill and people are walking by on the sidewalk outside the window, just a few feet away. So we had a wonderful seat for people watching. Sydney is a very busy city. The sidewalks are filled with people all day long and far into the evening. It was a fine night of people watching.
  11. tbutler

    New Caledonia

    By tbutler,

    By evening on Wednesday the seas had calmed somewhat and the ride to our next stop is much gentler than the previous days ride. Our route took us further west and south. The day was cool with light winds. The captain informed us that we were cruising at a relaxed 7 knots, down from the 12 knots of previous days. We had plenty of time to reach our next island paradise, Lifou, part of the Loyalty Island group.
    On Lifou, we toured a botanical garden and vanilla farm. The botanical garden tour was interesting with many plants we had never seen before. Some looked similar to those we know from the US but many others were completely new. There were flowers of many colors and a few interesting birds as well. The vanilla farming was new to us. Vanilla plants were introduced here in the late 1800’s. Unfortunately, the island has no insects which are capable of fertilizing the flowers. Wisely, the farmers have declined to introduce any new insects to the island to fertilize the flowers. Farmers here have to do the fertilization by hand, one flower at a time. This limits the size of a crop to the quantity that can be hand fertilized by the workers on any particular farm. The total production of vanilla beans from Lifou are consumed within New Caledonia. Sugar cane farming is important in the islands and it is used for rum which consumes much of the vanilla production.
    Following the visit to the botanical garden and vanilla farm we were taken to the Cliffs of Jokin, a scenic area along the northern shore of the island. The road to this area was single lane. We never met another vehicle but had that happened, one vehicle would have to pull aside into the brush for the other vehicle to pass. The cliffs themselves provided a high overlook on the lagoon below. The waters were a beautiful blue green with a clarity that allows looking at the bottom of the lagoon. The island is an uplifted coral atoll and the cliffs are ancient coral reef. We walked down 200 to the lagoon which gave us a good view of the cliff face. It is quite a beautiful area with the dark cliffs, some shallow caves and a small island near the base of the cliffs. We lingered here before returning to our bus.
    Once we returned to the dock area we spent some time browsing the market area set up for tourists. There was a dancing group performing at the market. With bamboo columns pounding on ground for drums and ankle bracelets of shells they danced and sang. The group consisted of two young girls, the older was the song leader. Her role was to start each song with the others chiming in after a note or two. There was on adult woman and three young men. The young men sang and danced. Their faces were painted and unlike the smiling girls, they were serious, striking a variety of threatening poses. Two older women worked out front of the dancers, quickly weaving palm leaves into baskets.
    We picked out a sundress for Louise and a shirt for me. We wore them to dinner that evening. Since retiring I have adopted tropical wear for my formal attire and the shirt certainly fits the bill. Louise in her sundress becomes a bird of paradise, everyone noticed how beautiful she was wearing the bright dress covered with hibiscus.
  12. tbutler
    Mt. Tambourine National Park is a collection of smaller national parks on the slopes of Mt. Tambourine, an extinct weathered volcano. There is a town at the summit which features a variety of shops for those who enjoy quaint towns and browsing curio and antique shops. We went to take a walk in the rainforest. This was not to be an ordinary walk. The walkway was elevated. We walked out of the building that housed a café, a small museum with information about the rainforest into the upper level of the rainforest. As the slope dropped away from the under us, we were looking over most trees and into the largest trees. The walkway was sturdily constructed of metal with a metal grid on the floor. We could see below around and above us as we walked through the trees.
    Signs on the railing of the walkway identified trees and plants along the way. We were looking down on palms with a few of the tallest being at eye level. The palms were flowering and insects swarmed the flowers. Major trees in the Australian rainforest are the eucalyptus tree and the strangler fig. The rainforest covered most of Australia in the past but as the environment and population changed, the rainforest has shrunk to about 10% of the continent.
    In the rainforest, the eucalyptus trees and the strangler figs struggle for dominance.
    Eucalyptus trees fight the strangler fig by shedding their tendrils. Their bark easily peels from the tree so the strangler fig can’t attach to them. The figs are very effective at taking over other trees. Figs start when bird drop their seeds in their droppings on a tree branch. These seeds will sprout and live in the branches of the tree while they grow vines down to the ground which will become roots. Eventually the fig grows to surround the entire host tree and covers it shading it, starving it of sunshine. The fig then becomes a free standing tree. As the host tree rots away, the fig fills in missing tree with more of its vines. The figs were covered with fruit which was ripening. These provide a rich source of food for the birds of the rainforest. The rainforest is a tangle of vines of the figs, they are everywhere.
    One of the birds we saw was the Wompoo Fruit-Dove, a large dove almost 20 inches from head to tail. It is a beautiful bird with a white head, green wings, plum purple breast and yellow abdomen. The dove is an ally of the strangler fig. It feeds on the figs and drops the seeds which sprout to form more fig plants. These in turn feed the doves.
    An animal which we didn’t see but which lives in this rainforest is the Koala. They feed on the eucalyptus leaves and sleep during the day high in the trees. They are difficult to spot as they cling to the trunk of a tree resting on a branch they become just another bump on the tree. We were told where they are sometimes seen and looked for them but our untrained eyes were unsuccessful. We hope that we will be able to find one as our exploration of the Australian rainforest continues.
  13. tbutler

    Bad to the Bone

    By tbutler,

    Our travels after Denver were easy to plan. We drove about three miles from Golden Terraces RV Park to I-70, headed east and stopped when we got to Foristell, Missouri. Another three miles south of I-70 and we were at our daughters' home where we are parked for an extended period of time.
    Our activities since arriving here have included a dance recital by our granddaughter, a barbeque on Memorial Day weekend which included several killer games of croquet, and now a brand new knee for me! We've visited with my mother, both of our children and their families including our four grandchildren in the St. Louis area.
    Our granddaughter loves to dance and it shows. The dance school has a huge performance about this time each year. The participants range from 2 and three year old dancers up through high school and beyond. The really young ones are cute beyond description. The older dancers have amazing ability. Our granddaughter is somewhere in the middle. She does love to dance and it shows in her performance. The show starts at 1:30 and runs until 4:30 for a full afternoon of dancing. We treated everyone to ice cream at Fritz's, the local ice cream shop.
    The next week included hitting the doctor's offices including getting surgery for my knee scheduled. Louise has had a persistent cough, ear congestion and swollen glands. The doctor diagnosed a sinus infection and bronchitis. She is now on the mend. My orthopedist scheduled my knee surgery for June 2. This set off a series of visits for tests and exams at the GP and a pre-surgery visit at the hospital.
    As part of my pre-surgery routine, I set about getting everything top shape on the motor home. I had no idea how long it would be until I was able to work on fix-its after my surgery. One of my projects was to install the day/night shades from MCD Innovations which we ordered on our way out of Texas. The shades arrived on Friday after our arrival in Foristell. I had them installed by the following Monday. So now we have first class shades in the motor home. Louise loves how dark the night shades are. She has been sleeping late trying to shake off her bronchitis and sinus infection.
    At 5:30 a.m. on June 2, I reported to the surgery unit at St. Anthony's Hospital. Two hours later I was in the operating room and two hours after that I was waking up in the recovery room. It is now the 4th of June and I'm resting comfortably at home in the motor home. My orthopedist prescribed a rigorous pre-surgery exercise and conditioning program and it has paid off by getting me home quickly. Now I'll continue with the follow-up therapy. Once this knee heals, I'll have the other replaced. I thought perhaps I didn't need to have the replacements but a week off the pain medication I've been taking for the last several years settled that issue. Once both knees are replaced and healed completely, we'll break camp and head down the road for more motor home adventures. In the meantime I'm really ddddddddddddddddrowsy. Those hospital beds aren't all that comfortable. I only got about six hours of sleep the last two days. It turns out I'll be enjoying those MCD Innovations shades also!
  14. tbutler

    The Cruise Begins

    By tbutler,

    This is the cruise that started the whole trip to New Zealand and Australia. We signed on for the cruise and later decided to make it part of a longer trip. Now with our exploration of New Zealand and Australia behind us we are exploring another part of the world. Our cruise started in Fiji on Saturday, May 31 in Lautoka, Fiji. Leaving Lautoka at sunset we sail for a day and a half to the island nation of Vanuatu. Once known as the New Hebrides Islands, this group of many islands is sparsely inhabited with many small villages on each island. We visited three islands starting in the north at the island of Ambrym and traveling south to Efate and then Tanna. At Ambrym we were stationed offshore near a small village. Known as the Black Island for its practice of black magic and its black sandy beaches, Ambrym has a population of 8000 on an island about 20 miles in length. There are two volcanoes on the island and we were planning to visit one of those volcanoes in a driving tour and hike to the volcano rim. That tour was canceled so we missed our chance to visit the island. There was one tour that did go ashore for a welcoming ceremony which included a native dance which features custom made masks. Those who were on the tour said it was quite an impressive ceremony.
    At the island group known as Efate, we put in at Port Vila, the capital of these islands. These islands are like a state in Vanuatu. This is a commercial center for the islands and has shops and stores that you would expect in a poor nation. We signed up for a tour that included a visit to the Hawksbill Turtle Sanctuary on Tranquility Island. We were driven in vans through the city to a small harbor and transported by small boat to a larger sailboat. From there we were transported across Havana Harbor to Tranquility Island. On the way across Havana Harbor we are told that the harbor hosted many Allied warships during WW II, serving as a servicing and replenishment base for those ships. The harbor was named for the British warship, of the same name. During our visit to the Hawksbill Turtle Sanctuary we learn about their mission to prevent the extinction of these beautiful turtles from this part of the Pacific Ocean. We were served a barbeque featuring local fruits, vegetables, breads and meat. Following lunch those who wanted could snorkel the reef just offshore of the island. We took the boat ride to the reef and spent a half hour snorkeling an amazing reef. It wasn’t huge but it sported an amazing array of coral and a wide variety of reef fish.
    Tanna was our third and last island in the Vanuatu islands. As we continue south the weather gets cooler. This is after all the southern hemisphere and we are weeks away from the beginning of winter. The voyage from Port Vila to Tanna had been a rough ride with the ship rolling constantly. At Tanna we were not in port but were stationed off shore with service to the shore on tenders. We had signed on for a beach day with tender transportation to the beach. That tour was canceled due to rough seas. Operation of the tenders for the remaining tours was very slow due to the high swell. Even with two tenders running it took until noon to get everyone who had a scheduled tour to the shore. Shortly after noon one of the tenders broke down so the entire effort was shifted to getting everyone on board. We spent the day relaxing on board the ship.
  15. tbutler

    Uluru and Kata Tjuta

    By tbutler,

    The big red rock in the center of Australia is the source of much interest and is of great significance to the native Aborigine culture. When I speak of the Aborigine culture, it is not as a single culture for the entire nation. The Aborigine tribes were just that, local tribes. There were four tribes that inhabited the area around Uluru, AKA Ayers Rock. Of those one tribe was the primary tribe that interacted with Uluru, the Anangu. They operate the National Park at Uluru in conjunction with the government of Northern Territories. Most of the land around Uluru and it sister rock formation Kata Tjuta, AKA the Olgas, belong to the Anangu tribe. There are sites in both locations which are sacred and are prohibited to be visited or photographed. Climbing Uluru is an activity that the Anangu ask that tourists forgo as this too is a sacred activity done only by their adult men in a special ceremony.
    Visiting the park is a lesson in cultural sensitivity. Respecting the wishes of another culture is a sign of respect for the culture. It isn’t a culture that appeals to me nor is it a culture which is highly advanced. It is a remnant of an earlier age, largely based on superstition and tradition, it is not to be dismissed. These are the people who will survive when no other humans on earth will survive. Name your disaster, I’ll put my money on people who can live in the desert for centuries.
    We visited Uluru and hiked the 12 kilometers all the way around the base of the rock. We did not climb Uluru out of respect for the wishes of the Anangu. It is an amazing piece of sandstone standing above the surrounding desert. It is not alone, some 40 kilometers away is it companion, Kata Tjuta. We also hiked the canyons of Kata Tjuta. Both these formations are alluvial fans from previous mountain ranges. One is sandstone, the other is conglomerate. To the geologist that means that one is formed from the fine particles, sand, that washed out of the much older mountains. The other is formed of large particles, boulders, pebbles and rocks held together by a fine mass of rock. The boulders, pebbles and rocks were washed out of a mountain range also but settled in a different kind of place. The sand formed in quiet waters and the layers can be seen in Uluru while the boulders and gravel settled out of fast moving water that carried the sand on to quieter locations. Both were buried for long periods of time and were cemented by waters containing iron and other minerals that glued everything together. The iron is evident in the red color that stains everything in this part of Australia.
    To the Anangu, these spectacular formations were home. They moved from one to another as food supplies and water sources fluctuated. They made their homes here, living off the land and finding shelter and inspiration at each location. We saw caves where they lived, rested and taught their young. We saw from a distance sites that they considered sacred and we read of their stories passed down from generation to generation. They were stories that passed on lessons for living, much as Greek mythology contained lessons for life. Their gods weren’t Zeus, Jupiter or Neptune but were lizards and snakes, those creatures they knew from their experience. Just as in Greek mythology, some were good and some were evil and they battled each other. Out of the battles came lessons for life and these they passed on from generation to generation.
    We enjoyed all aspects of this visit. We reveled in the geology, learned much about the life of the Anangu and marveled at the changing appearance of Uluru at sunrise and sunset and the strange domes of Kata Tjuta. I read an article recently that was written about the things you don’t take home from a trip in a suitcase. Things that add to your understanding of life from the viewpoint of other people and other cultures and we will take home many such memories to share with our friends and family.
  16. tbutler

    The Lazy Lizzard

    By tbutler,

    Saturday, April 26 is another moving day. We left Katherine on the way to Kakadu National Park near Jabiru, NT. Kakadu National Park is a world heritage site. It encompasses a large area of land with several large rivers and lakes. It is known for its fishing, birding and crocodiles. There are no swimming areas in the park other than swimming pools. Crocodiles are found in the waters throughout the park. One person laughingly described this as Crocodile Dundee territory! We’re going for the birds, the scenery and the rain forest. The park is on Aborigine land and the Warradjan Tribe has a cultural center here that we’ll visit tomorrow.
    The road from Katherine to Pine Creek is the same road we will take on returning from Darwin next week. At Pine Creek we stopped to fill up with diesel as the prices there have to be better than in the remote areas of the national park. We stopped at the Lazy Lizard Caravan Park/Bar/CalTex Petrol Station. Inside I was greeted by an old gentleman who was as friendly as anyone we have met on the road. We conducted the transaction for the fuel and he began telling me about the establishment. Louise returned from the restroom which was in the bar and said that I needed to see the bar. He talked about the bar and some of the unique features.
    We walked next door and Louise was right, this was one of the nicest bars we had seen. The building was a block building which was made with blocks from termite mounds. Apparently the termites make some pretty good building blocks. The bar was typical for tropical buildings, it had no doors, the walls were mostly open to the outdoors, there were gaps in the walls with wagon wheels of various sizes, saddles set on top of several walls, there were tables inside and outside and in between, under cover but no walls. There were bar stools drawn up to the walls so you could sit and talk across a wall. There were a variety of fans stirring the air and much more. Louise insists that we will have to stop for the night on our return trip from Darwin. We’ll try to do so. It was just a fuel stop that turned into so much more.
    Leaving the Lazy Lizard and Pine Creek we turned onto the road that goes into Kakadu National Park. It is about 60 kilometers to the park entrance and a total of over 200 kilometers to the far eastern side of the park where we will pick up a different road that will take us into Darwin after we have seen what we want in the park. We were planning to stay at the campground at Cooinda Lodge and take an early morning cruise on the lake that is part of the park. We pulled in at 3:00 p.m. and went to check in. We were pleased to find space available in the campground and space also available for the first cruise in the morning. We will stay one night and leave in the morning following our cruise. Then we’ll head further into the park.
    An evening walk to the boat dock ended with a spectacular sunset over the water. We didn’t see many new birds but we did meet a couple who visited with us for half an hour. They were from Darwin and had suggestions for our time there. He was in the lumber sales business and she was a librarian and teacher. Now retired, they were camping here with her parents. He spotted my binoculars and said he had just purchased the same kind of binoculars. I have a harness which holds the binoculars without the strap around the neck. He tried mine out, had his wife photograph them, front and back and was talking about making or buying something like that. She and Louise were sharing poetry and talking books while all this was going on. It was just a bird walk that turned into so much more.
  17. tbutler

    Touring the Catlins

    By tbutler,

    We called our support number for our campervan to get some repair work done. We had two cabinets which had latches that seized. One was under the sink and the built-in garbage pail was there, partially full of garbage. Sooner or later we were going to have to open that door. So they scheduled us for a stop at an auto salvage company first thing in the morning.
    When we arrived we were quite surprised to find a nicely appointed office. The owner of the company made us welcome, offered us coffee from his fine coffee machine and a biscuit (cookie). He took a look at the problem and worked with the latch for a while until it began to work again. We had a second latch which had also become difficult to release so he did the same with that. Then he tackled a cabinet door which had lost a hinge and when I started to disconnect on end of the gas piston that helped support the door, both ends of the piston came loose, screws everywhere. We recovered all the screws and he put it all back together for us. That done, we were on our way again, leaving Invercargo about 11:00 a.m.
    About an hour east of Invercargo the scenic route divides. The inland route continues on while a seaside route takes us further south into an area known as The Catlins. Named for ship captain, Edward Cattlin who plied the seas carrying cargo to and from New Zealand and Australia, the Catlins today are home to fishing, farming and eco-tourism.
    The road forks at Fortrose. As we turned off there was a nice parking area and it was about lunch time so we pulled in and parked. I began looking at the many sea birds in the low tide mud flats. Some really large white birds attracted my attention first. In binoculars I could see that they had long bills which isn’t that unusual for birds making a living probing in the mud flats. I set up my tripod and spotting scope and was surprised to see a prominent spoonbill. These were Royal Spoonbills and quite a treat to see. There were dozens of them vigorously feasting upon whatever was in the mud. Occasionally the wind would catch some of the feathers near the crest of the head lifting them into the air. This was quite an impressive bird. Another interesting find was the white faced heron. We have spoonbills in the US but they are pink, the Roseate Spoonbill. We also have a number of herons but none have a white face.
    On down the road we stop at the Waipapa Point Lighthouse. The shore there is known for sea lions and we were rewarded with some close views of a small group of sea lions basking in the afternoon sun. Trying to keep cool by digging sand and throwing it over their backs, one finally began a slow crawl to the sea. Stopping for breaks and resting, he slowly worked his way to the surf. He lingered for a while as the surf pushed up the beach to wash his face. Tossing wet sand onto his back must have helped cool him but not enough to satisfy. He finally lifted himself and moved into the surf and then was gone. Sometimes you just need to go for a swim!
    Later we stopped at Curio Bay which is known as a fossil forest. The fossils were not spectacular but if you looked carefully there were stumps everywhere and many logs that could be seen. The fossils were on the beach and the fossil forest is being washed away by waves from the sea. While there we noticed that people were drawn to an area near the top of the beach. Two yellow-eyed penguins were lounging there. One was now standing and stretching. We watched them for a while. The beach was posted for unlimited access until 4:00 p.m. After that time, the adult penguins would be returning from the sea to feed their young chicks. The two penguins we saw were immature penguins. Yellow-eyed penguins are quite shy and won’t come onto the beach if there are crowds of people around. Thus after 4:00 p.m. people were restricted to a small area near where the stairs led down to the beach.
    We drove on almost to dusk, stopping to visit several other sites. We finally pulled up in Owaka for the night. There was no TOP 10 Holiday Park that we favored so we stopped at a Youth Hostels Association (YHA) facility. These are common here, places for the backpackers and bicyclists to stay if they aren’t camping. This one had sites for campervans so we decided to stay there. The owner took us through the building showing us the facilities, kitchen, shower, etc. In discussing the facilities we learned this building used to be a hospital. It was now a hostel and campground. There was a note in the restroom area that the boiler was wood fired and they had a fire at 6:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. and at other times the water would only be lukewarm. Clearly this was a little below the standard for the other parks we had stayed at. It was I’m sure a great spot for those who are backpacking or bicycling, being a very economical place to stay.
  18. tbutler
    Our wake-up call on Monday, March 3 was set for 6:00 a.m. so we could get a cab to the Spirit of Tasmania terminal by 6:30 a.m. Boarding would start shortly thereafter. Everything went on schedule and we were the first to board. The ride to Tasmania is scheduled for 9 hours and we arrived at 5:00 p.m. Avis Rental Cars has a facility in the terminal in Tasmania and we were second in line to get our car. The process went much faster than at an airport in the US. We were on our way by 5:30 p.m.
    The car was a Mitsubishi and had wipers on the left side of the steering wheel and turn signals on the right. Louise began counting how many times I turned on the windshield wipers when I wanted to turn. She thought it was hilarious, I had a different opinion. Roads in Tasmania are similar to the roads in New Zealand. We had been advised not to travel at night in Tasmania because of the wildlife; wallabies, kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, bandicoots and of course the Tasmanian devil. On our drive to our hotel we saw the evidence lying dead along the roadside. This made us extra cautious as we drove on.
    We arrived at our hotel, the Tamar Valley Hotel near Grindelwald. We checked in and asked about the restaurant which was about to close as we arrived. They called over to the restaurant and directed us how to get to the restaurant. We had a good meal and went to our room. We had reserved a cottage which had a kitchenette. The room was quite nice, actually a suite with two rooms plus a bath. On the back side is a deck the full width of the cottage. It was an ideal place to call home for our stay in Tasmania.
    There was abundant wildlife on the grounds of the resort. The night we pulled up to our cottage there was a wallaby female and a juvenile grazing on the grass. We could see several rabbits and some spur winged plovers which we had seen on the Coromandel Peninsula of the North Island on New Zealand. A chicken-like bird that we later identified as a Tasman hen was pecking at the ground. The next morning I got out the Birds of Australia book to identify several ducks. There were both Pacific black ducks and Australian wood ducks constantly roaming the grounds of the resort. Also in the morning I saw a number of black rabbits.
    Grindelwald is located along an ocean inlet which brings tides up the Tamar River all the way to Launceston, the second largest city on Tasmania. We were about 20 km north of Launceston which was a gateway to the east and west as well as roads to the south. The resort has a golf course and our first day we decided to play a round of golf. The course was interesting and playing with rented clubs made it especially challenging. Also challenging was the presence of the above mentioned wildlife and their accompanying droppings. On the course we saw most of the above mentioned wildlife including the wallaby which was in the woods adjacent to one tee box.
  19. tbutler

    Blogging

    By tbutler,

    BLOG is a contraction of the words weB LOG. Wikipedia says a BLOG is "regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video." According to Wikipedia, "As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs."
    So the idea here is to weave a continuous account of the events or activities of an individual, group or organization. Continuous is the tough part. We all have routine days when nothing seems extraordinary to us and so we don't think to mention what is going on. This describes our past month and thus I feel I haven't gathered enough to report on. While our life seems routine, it is far from that by any measure.
    I was on the phone talking to my insurance company today. A rock in the windshield brings a need for repair. In talking to the agent, I have to give my home address in South Dakota, my phone number from Missouri and my current location where the repair will be done here in Edinburg, Texas! I am so far outside the norm that I have to take charge of making sure that they understand all this. I've learned to do this over the last 8 years of living full time. Patience I tell myself, just explain it one more time. If I don't say it they'll schedule my repair for my home address in South Dakota... Who, after all wouldn't be at home in South Dakota? Have you looked at the weather there? This morning the temperature was zero, nada, zip, nothing, for the poor folks who live where my mail is collected and forwarded.
    I've played tennis Sunday morning and golf in the afternoon. Now I'm recovering from that burst of activity. Monday was cool and today we had a rainy day with temperatures in the 50's and we complain! We're looking forward to temperatures in the 70's on the last day of 2009 and slightly cooler to start 2010. At our park we'll dance until the bell tolls 12:00 p.m. then drink champagne with hugs all around. We are very much a family here at Sandpipers Resort. So much so that Louise and I are in the throe's of planning our residence here in the park. If all goes as planned, we'll have a grand mobile home (today they are called manufactured homes) set up ready for occupancy when we return in the fall. At that point I suppose we'll cease to be full timers in the strictest definition of the word. We'll still have the motor home and travel in the summers to escape the heat that no one who can afford to will flee. Someday when the motor home becomes more than we can handle we'll have to give up even that semblance of living on the road.
    And so my friends, I challenge you to take a minute to create another "regular entry" in your BLOG here on the FMCA web site. You are far from the ordinary person. You have discovered the lure of the road, the romance of travel, and you own a magical machine capable of transporting you in the comfort of home to the remote corners of our continent or beyond. What is your story? What have you done in 2009? Where are you going in 2010? So many BLOGS, so little activity. Let us resolve to change this in 2010.
  20. tbutler

    We Explore Tasmania

    By tbutler,

    Our second day we drove south to Hobart and Tasman National Park. There we saw interesting natural features, tessellated pavement, sea arches and a blowhole formed when waves cut a tunnel through the cliff front so that water comes bursting through with each wave. At Eaglehawk neck we walked from one shore to the other in five minutes. A low sandy neck of land connects the area to the south to the north mainland. On the southern peninsula lies the town of Port Arthur which was a penal colony in the early days of British occupation. Eaglehawk neck housed a security patrol which was responsible for catching any escaped prisoners. There are many sites to visit on the Convict Trail which looks at the history as a prison colony. We visited just the single site at Eaglehawk neck before turning back toward home. We ended up arriving after dark. As dark set in, I chose to follow a large tractor trailer truck into the outskirts of Launceston. I figured we could let him take care of any animals, clearing the road for us. Anyway, we arrived home without incident.
    On our third day we decided to take life a little easier and stay local. We drove into Launceston to the Cataract Gorge on the Esk River. The Esk drains a large area of upland Tasmania bringing the water to the Tasman River through a deep narrow gorge. Past floods have been as catastrophic as recent floods in Colorado on the Big Thompson River. A dam for a power station was significantly damaged several years ago in one of these floods. We walked the area and enjoyed the natural beauty and learning about the history. We visited with several people along the trail and at one viewpoint spent time visiting with a couple from mainland Australia. The man was a descendent of one of the convicts imprisoned at Port Arthur. They were visiting Tasmania for the first time and he was quite excited about his ancestor and learning about his life. Once released from prison he had made a nice livelihood in the oyster business.
    Our fourth day we drove east to Freycinet National Park. This park is the site of a famous beach at Wineglass Bay. We planned to hike to the beach. The trail took us up and over a mountain pass then down to the beach. There was a nice overlook on the Bay from just above the pass and we paused there to enjoy the view before descending to the beach. The descent was steep with uneven steps made of blocks of granite which were placed at intervals on the steep trail. We are especially slow and deliberate as we descend such trails as a slip means falling forward down the hill. Once we reached the beach, we stowed our gear on a large rock and went for a walk along the beach. There were a dozen or so other people on the beach enjoying the view, the breeze and the waves. One hardy soul waded out into the surf briefly and then returned. The weather was cool, ideal for hiking but not for swimming.
    Returning from the beach we encountered a wallaby with a young joey in its pouch. Both were grazing on grass, the joey was eating the tops of the grass while the mother was pulling up the grass and eating the base of the blades of grass. The joey never came out of the pouch while we watched it but did retreat into the pouch with a nose or a foot poking out at various times. It was a vigorous hike and well worth the effort. We returned home about dark.
    As a respite from the previous day hiking, we spent our fifth day exploring the Tamar Islands Wetlands. We anticipated a short walk on a boardwalk. It turned out to be a series of boardwalks and trails taking us across four islands in the Tamar River. The area was rich in water birds and we spent several happy hours identifying birds we had never seen before. The star of this area is the black swan. We saw hundreds of them in the water and surrounding dry land. We arrived at low tide and before we left, areas which were vast expanses of mud became covered with water. Wading birds and ducks were abundant in the shallow water of low tide. As the tide came in the cast of characters changed to the birds that feed in deep water. The islands provided us looks at birds that are land dwellers so we saw a nice variety of birds.
  21. tbutler

    Fleeing the Storm

    By tbutler,

    Returning from Mossman Gorge the night before I had listened to the news reports on the approaching cyclone (hurricane) Ita. The storm was gathering strength and was approaching the area north of Cairns. I got on the computer and checked the official Australian weather reports which had the storm at category 3 and expected to reach category 4 before coming ashore somewhere between Cooktown and Cairns. We made the decision to leave on Thursday morning. We needed to arrange a refund of our payment for the SCUBA course and check to see if we could get a refund for Thursday night from the campground. Both were accomplished easily and we were on our way out of town at 9:00 a.m.
    I had very mixed feelings about leaving. I knew without a doubt that the storm would affect the area and doubted that we would be able to complete the SCUBA course and that there would be no trips to the Great Barrier Reef in the next few days so we wouldn’t be able to do these things even if we stayed but it still was a great disappointment not to be able to see the Great Barrier Reef.
    To leave Cairns, we had to drive 380 kilometers south to the town of Townsville. We would then turn west into the Queensland outback. The road took us through a gap in the Great Dividing Range of mountains so we avoided the slow, climbing and descending curvy roads of the mountains and were rather quickly on the west side of the dividing range.
    As the afternoon wore on we were slowed by a series of road repairs, each with a series of stoplights that regulated the one way traffic. Being in the realm of the truck trains now, the lights were set for longer periods to allow these large trucks to accelerate and move though the construction zones. This made for very slow travel.
    Once clear of that construction, we found a place to stay for the night at Pentland, a small town. The park was quite old and wasn’t expensive, just $22 AUS. Most parks are charging fees around $30 to $35 with a few charging over $40. We have two discount plans which give 10% discounts at certain parks and the conversion from Australian dollars to US dollars is running about 8% to 10% in our favor.
    Louise found a bright green frog waiting outside the women’s restroom. This park suffered from a condition we have noticed at a few other parks, the restrooms harbored mosquitos. I suspect the frog was there to feast on the insects around the lights. There were no frogs around the mens restroom where the light was either burned out or turned off. Some parks have screened restrooms, others have open restrooms with no doors and no screens. This doesn’t seem to be a factor related to mosquitos. I believe it is a matter of having some mosquito control in the community. It also seems to help if the lights are on some kind of control to shut them off or at least shut off most of them once the evening activity wanes.
  22. tbutler
    We have been on the Olympic Peninsula for just over a month now. Starting on the east side of Olympic National Park and moving north, west and now south we have explored the fringes of this vast wilderness park. We have also explored the towns and villages surrounding the park. There are so many things we have seen and done that I won't even begin to write about all of them in one entry. I'm starting with nature because that is the focus of the national park.
    We have walked many miles of trails over the hills and through the forests of Olympic National Park. I always have my camera with me and I take pictures as if they were free because they actually are since the dawn of digital cameras. After you purchase the camera it costs you no more to take 10,000 pictures than it does to take one. So we return from an outing and I download two or three hundred pictures.
    We were walking a trail in the Hoh Rain Forest on the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains. Here rain falls in annual amounts in excess of 100 inches. Summer is the dry season so the trails were dusty and no water dripped from the leaves of the trees. By the end of September, this will end and rain will start to fall. Higher in the mountains it will be snow and there are active glaciers on the peaks of the Olympic Mountains. The Hoh River has a bluish color associated with the color of rock flour, formed as glaciers grind rock into a fine powder. This is released as the glacier melts during the summer.
    As I walked the trail and snapped picture after picture something dawned on me. I am constantly frustrated because my camera isn't large enough. The trees are up to 300 feet tall. It fascinates me to look up at these monsters towering far above my head. But it isn't just one tree, it is a whole forest of trees. I can turn left, right all the way around and I am surrounded by incredible scenery. With my little camera I get a bit here, a bit there. I can digitally stitch pictures together to get panoramic pictures. But there is no way that I can convey the splendor of what I am actually seeing. It is impossible to put nature in a box.
    I've seen the redwoods of Northern California and the sequoias of Sequoia National Park. The Douglas fir trees, Hemlocks, Sitka spruce, red alder and maple trees of the Olympic Peninsula are no less amazing. The forest here on the western slopes is known as the asbestos forest because it seldom burns. There is enough rain and moisture that the forest is very difficult to set on fire. Most of the trees in the national park are destroyed by wind. Hurricane Ridge in the park gets its name from the ferocious winds that blow here during winter storms. Winds in excess of 100 miles per hour bring down trees, laying them out across the forest floor. Root balls 20 feet tall are raised as a huge tree rips its roots from the ground. The forest floor is littered with monster logs piled up across other logs.
    With the wet conditions, every inch of the forest floor grows something. When a log falls to the forest floor, it becomes fair game. Mosses grow and cover the downed tree. Other trees sprout on top of the log. Such logs are known as nurse logs because they feed the life growing on them. Over time the roots of young trees grow down around the log into the ground. Over time the nurse log eventually rots away and leaves a void beneath the young tree. The roots that once framed the nurse log before it rotted away now are well above ground with a void beneath. The tree towers above these roots as if the tree is standing on its tip toes.
    So I have pictures of the roots of such trees. I have pictures of mosses draped from limbs of trees, covering logs, growing on the ground. I have pictures of streams, waterfalls, rapids. They can be 4 x 6 snapshots, 8 x 10 pictures, 20 x 30 posters or wall size murals Whatever they are, they are flat, two dimensional representations of nature, Putting nature in a box, no matter how pretty it looks, just doesn't convey anything close to the real experience. So enjoy the pictures but you really have to come see this for yourself.
  23. tbutler

    Our Trip Continues

    By tbutler,

    Our first stop on our way north was in San Antonio. I had an appointment at Iron Horse RV to have a new set of house batteries installed. We've always had good service experiences with them. This time was different. The LIfeline batteries we specified weren't there, they hadn't been ordered. The person who took the order didn't realize that Lifeline batteries were not the brand they carry and hadn't said anything to the parts department. They arranged to get the batteries the next day and we had the install done a day later than planned.
    We planned to spend the weekend in San Antonio and visit friends that live there. Friday night we went their home and had a nice visit. The last time we saw them they were living in a motor home at a park in Phoenix. He had secured a job in San Antonio and they were planning that move. It turns out he got the job but it was temporary so he had to find another. We had an evening of laughs and memories and then made arrangements to meet them on the Riverwalk Saturday afternoon for dinner.
    Louise and I had a leisurely morning and then caught a city bus downtown to the Riverwalk. We spent an hour walking around before settling down at the bar to meet our friends. They arrived shortly after and we enjoyed a nice meal overlooking the Riverwalk. It was Saturday night and the place was jumping. We had a nice visit and walked a bit before they drove us back to the RV park. Sunday was devoted to getting the motor home ready to leave first thing in the morning.
    Monday morning we set out for Austin. Louise had a meeting there in the afternoon. We arrived at McKinney Falls State Park about 10:00 a.m. and checked in. I unhooked the car and got it ready for travel while Louise got ready for her meeting. She got away in time to have lunch with the before meeting gossip group. She returned with stories to tell that evening. She had another meeting at the State Capital on Tuesday morning. I broke camp and drove to a nearby Home Depot store where she would meet me following her meeting. Everything went according to plan at her meeting and we were on the highway by 1:00 p.m.
    We headed north toward Dallas. The timing and our rate of travel suggested we would reach Dallas just about 5:00 p.m. We knew the trip out of town would be slow but manageable so we continued. Traffic in Dallas was as expected but by 6:00 p.m. we were in free flowing traffic again on our way up US 75 toward Oklahoma. Our stopping spot for the night would be at the KOA at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma.
  24. tbutler
    After a three week stay in eastern Missouri at my daughter's home we were preparing to leave. After unplugging the coach I started the generator. Just as it was switching the current over to the generator it died. The error code indicated an overheat condition. It was a very warm day but we could get by without the air conditioners running so I decided to let this ride for now and investigate at our next stop. While on the way to Independence, on the other side of the state, I pondered how the generator problem would affect our schedule. I discussed several options for making an appointment with Cummins to get the generator serviced. We pulled into the Campus RV Park in Independence in mid-afternoon and settled into our campsite. The purpose of our stop in Independence was to visit my sister and her family. We enjoyed an evening of visiting and feasting before turning in for the night.
    Sunday morning I was up early to wash the bugs off the windshield, I hate stale bugs so I try to wash them off while fresh besides, we have this huge windshield which gives us a great tour-bus view of the world as we drive so who wants to look at smashed bugs all day? I ran the generator out to check oil and water and added about a cup of water. We pulled off the campsite and hooked up the car. Once we were in our seats, seat belts fastened and ready to pull out I tried the generator. Surprise, it ran! All it took was one cup of water to take care of the overheat code. That is surprisingly sensitive. We enjoyed the roof air conditioner as we drove north on I-29 toward South Dakota on a warm August day.
    Our next stop was a visit with our friends in Yankton, South Dakota. We stayed from Sunday night to Saturday morning. We played cards and golf, then played more cards and more golf. Our Carefree of Colorado replacement awnings arrived on Monday but one was missing. So I got on the phone and talked to customer service who transferred me to the person in warranty service who was gone until Wednesday. So I called on Wednesday and found out that the person who was supposed to be handling the warranty replacement wasn't, it had been handed off to someone else. I was given a phone number of the supervisor. It took several calls but I finally got the supervisor on the phone. I explained the problem with the remaining awning and sent a photo to verify my claim. The replacement for that awning arrived on Thursday afternoon. Friday I started installing the replacements. The fabric is held in place with a crimp in the channel and that turned out to be a real challenge. The channel is aluminum but it is 1/8 inch thick and doesn't bend as easily as I had hoped. It took four hours and help from my friend to get all four awnings done. As we explained to the ladies, we were learning as we went.
    Friday afternoon I began putting away the tire covers and the sun screens. I got everything put away before the rainstorm hit. I had planned to unhook the utilities before the rain but didn't quite make that. After the rain stopped I dumped tanks (yes, they have full hookups in their driveway) and stowed the sewer hose. We had dinner, leftovers from a week of feasting on fine food, and played one last evening of cards before turning in for the night. Saturday morning we slept in, got up and ate breakfast next door with our friends. We pulled out about 10:00 with an uncertain route to Denver. We had about 600 miles to go but we had no campground to stay at until Monday afternoon, September 1. We could only find one campground that had a site available on that date.
  25. tbutler
    At 11:30 a.m. we left Monkey Mia on our way back south. Just 25 miles down the road is a beautiful little town, Denham. We stopped there to walk the main street along Denham Strait. Palm trees, green grass and brilliant green and blue ocean water provided a beautiful setting for this town. Louise was making one last attempt to find just the right pearl jewelry and found a necklace and earrings at a small shop on the waterfront. We enjoyed the walk, a cool breeze and bright sunshine made for perfect weather. Denham marked our western most point on our trip. In fact there was a hotel in town that had a banner saying it was the westernmost hotel in Australia.
    From Denham we are retracing our path up the peninsula. We stopped at a narrow point on the peninsula to walk on Shell Beach. Hamlin Pool is a very isolated part of Shark Bay. Sea water does not circulate freely in the Hamlin Pool so the water becomes almost twice as salty as normal sea water. Only a few organisms can live in this very salty water. This is the same body of water that had the stromatolites. Limpets are also able to live here and when they die their shells are left behind. These have accumulated for many thousands of years and form a thick layer at the bottom of the bay. These blow up on land forming dunes of shells. Shells in the water compact and form a kind of limestone called Coquina, the limestone is made almost entirely of shells. The beach here is brilliant white being made entirely of these white shells.
    We left Shell Beach about 2:30 and drove the 100 kilometers to the Overland Roadhouse where we fueled up again. Then we drove just another 50 kilometers to the Billabong Homestead and our camp for the night. We’ve been traveling in an area where drinking water is not available. That means that the water available at campsites is not for drinking. Since you can’t wash your car or camper, I don’t know why they have water at the campsites. Indeed, our campground for the night had no water available in the campground. We’re running on our second day of water with a tank that lasts us about three days so that means possibly running out tomorrow. The showers aren’t drinking water but the water was soft, plenty of suds. It isn’t fancy but they have electric and hot showers and we were ready for some rest.
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