The Russians are Coming!

A Rocky Start

The Livschiz visit had a bit of a rocky start. Due to events that no one could control their visit intersected with Glenn and Judi's so they had to wait for us in Sydney. To start with, there was a cyclone that changed the weather to rain and cold and by the time we saw them they were tired and sick of Sydney. It was a little bittersweet for me to see them, as seeing Lena and Lenya made me miss my parents even more. We had to have a late start leaving Sydney because we needed to do an oil change as a condition of our warranty and we didn't get on the road until about one in the afternoon. As we were driving through the city, a guy one car in front of us decided that he missed his exit and slammed on the brakes almost causing an accident and scaring the life out of us. It took several minutes for the situation to resolve itself and everyone in the car was on edge. We then got stuck in a tunnel where there was an accident and got to sit in a hot car with the windows up for a little while. The hits kept on coming as I got a massive migraine that evening and had to skip dinner, then we needed a jump to get the car started the next morning, and finally as we made it into Melbourne right before rush hour the motorway we had gotten on had to be closed down completely due to a gruesome accident there. It took us three extra hours to get out of the city. Not the best start to a trip :(

The Great Ocean Road

Our car failed to start for the second day in a row without a jump so we had a late morning because we had to get a new battery. It cold have been much worse than it was, but we could get to a mechanics and be seen right away. We had a new battery and were on the road faster than some of our gas station stops. After days of bullshit we were finally at our first road trip destination. The road kept getting more and beautiful as we started on the Great Ocean Road. According to one of the signs we saw along the way, The Great Ocean Road was built as a monument to the Australians from Victoria who died in WWI. The project started in 1919 and was only completed in 1936. It's the best war monument that I have ever seen, although I don't think Australia does a particularly good job advertising it as such. 

Our first stop was at "Separation Point Lighthouse" and that is what really made it feel like the "Great Ocean road" rather than just a "Good Ocean Road". Even with the crazy amount of tourists there it was still somehow peaceful and serene there. To me, going to the lighthouse was the real start of our journey. Even though we had a picnic by the lighthouse we had to make a u-turn and come back down the road when we saw a restaurant advertising fresh seafood on the pier. Those appetizers were absolutely delicious. We had oysters Kilpatrick (bacon over oysters with some amazing sauce on top), a crab bisque, and Thai style prawns. We polished everything off with a couple of beers and walked off our second lunch by a little mini hike to some falls we saw on the road. It was a very nice day and we stopped for the night right by the twelve apostles.

The 13th Apostle

The morning started rougher than our previous ones. It was our first day with the new battery and we decided to test starting the car before we left. Mike started the ignition without being in the car, and the car lurched and drove straight into the bushes before stalling out. Lenya made a run for it on the passenger side and tried to stop it by pulling on the frame while Mike threw down his coffee and actually managed to jump in. It turned out that even though the car was in park, it was in first gear rather than in neutral and so when we started it, it lurched forward against the parking break. All in all the only casualty was a bush and everyone got mild heart attacks. The park didn't even charge us for the damage to their shrubbery. Apparently no day can go by without some kind of bullshit. Mike and I started getting worried that the Livschiz visit is cursed.

Once everyone managed to slow down their pulse we made it to the Gibson Steps and took a walk in the sand. Originally we thought we had gotten to the 12 apostles, but later found that we didn't quite make it there yet. It was an amazingly beautiful place and a lovely walk after our morning ordeal. We walked around in the cold ocean water and took some pictures before heading to the real 12 apostles. The day was sunny and absolutely beautiful and we could see surfers nearby catching big waves. As we were coming up to the staircase to lead us back to the car park, Lena suddenly appeared behind us soaking wet. Apparently she found a shell and was trying to clean in the water when a wave came, knocked her down and started dragging her in. She managed to get back up, but was pretty shaken by the whole thing. The worst part was that none of us saw it because she was walking behind us. One second she was with us, and the next she was running up to us dripping water everywhere. Unfortunately she also took her purse and her camera with her so everything got ruined in the process. 

Thankfully that was our last unfortunate event of the day. Lena was OK once she changed and got her bearings again. We spent the rest of the day walking around an awesomely beautful place and taking in "The Twelve Apostles" and "The Loch Ard Gorge". We finished off the day by eating a delicious meal in Port Campbell at a restaurant called "The 12 Rocks" where the Livschizes finally tried some kangaroo. It turned out to be a very successful day even though it had all of the potential of ending up an absolute disaster. I will also add here that I was dealing with my Chicago renter who had not paid rent for April yet, so my spirits were slightly dampened, but I got a text the next day that my very stern email worked and this was just a temporary issue.

Grampians National Park

We woke up to rain and were already lamenting the weather, but the skies started clearing before 10 so we had some hope that the weather would hold. We started the car with no problems and just as Lenya commented that our luck had changed I slammed my thumb knuckle in the door. I saw more stars then there are in the outback on a clear night when that happened, but since I iced it right away I hardly felt it the next day. Our campground gave our visitors their encounter with kangaroos, because it was completely covered in roo shit :). They didn't seem to mind too much, and we joked about it on our way to the park. I did see and photograph a wallaby on our hike later in the day, but I was away from the group so no one else saw it. The little guy was so fast I didn't even know what it was until it stopped. It was just a grey blur of fur.

After dealing with my thumb and getting our bearings we went into the town of Hall's Gap, got maps for the Grampians National Park which Lena was very excited about, and went for our hike. The weather was perfect. Once in a while the sun came out and it was a cool breezy day, which is perfect for hiking. The place that we hiked was really beautiful. Our hike took us to the "Pinnacle" which gave us great views of the surrounding area from up above. My favorite view was actually right by a narrow stretch of the hike called "Silent Street". The rocks in the area look like boulders that have been stacked up on purpose and there is an area that looks like Mayan ruins that have been taken over by the jungle.  Mike told me that he had the same association and we both reminisced about our vacation in Guatemala when we went to Tical to see the   on the hike was called "The Great Canyon". I feel like there were come illusions of grandeur with the people naming this particular portion, but it was very nice and very beautiful. I must go to the real Grand Canyon someday to compare :)

Mayan ruins. Lena said that to her the rocks look like reptilian skin and some rocks looked like snakes and turtles. It's was a very different landscape for all of us. I was really happy when Lena and Lenya both commented on the fact that I was in great hiking shape because I love me some validation once in a while and they are seasoned hikers :) The other great place

The hike was a moderately challenging one and it took us 3.5 hours to hike 3.5 miles (with breaks of course). At the end of the day everyone was very happy and very very hungry. We ended up eating dinner in Hull's Gap and then driving out as far as we could to make the next day of driving easier on all of us.

The Unplanned Winery

We had a very pleasant morning where no one got hurt and there was no car trouble and then started on the long drive to White Cliffs. Mike was trying to break up the drive so we stopped at a national park and walked a 15 minute "Nature Walk" loop. It wasn't very exciting but it gave us a chance to stretch our legs. Once we started driving again we saw a sign informing us that there are wineries in the area and stopped so that I could Google what was available. Imagine our surprise and delight when we found that Lindeman's, Lenya's very favorite brand of Shiraz was a mere 10 minutes out of the way! We were a little concerned that the winery would be closed, but everything ended up working out and we were in and trying wines faster than you could say boo.

I have never been to a tasting so generous! I actually had to cut myself off before the lady poured me more wine because it was before lunch and I got really drunk on an empty stomach. Everyone had an absolutely amazing time at the tasting and it ended up being absolutely free. The lady doing the pouring was really nice and pleasant to talk to and we even took a picture with her. Between the four of us we ended up buying 9 bottles which were super reasonably priced. My parents will be getting the 2012 and the 2013 Shiraz personally delivered by Lena and Lenya in the very near future. I really liked the Merlot, so Lenya bought a case for us to drink in the remaining 10 days. I think I will be permanently hung over :)

The winery find was the stroke of luck Mike and I had been waiting for. The unplanned side trip always turns out amazing because there are no expectations, and this was no different. I don't think we could have planned it any better. Unfortunately for me, the restaurant in the winery was closed for Easter, so I embarrassed myself a little in front of my in-laws and sang some drunken songs until we found something for me to eat so that I could sober up. I don't think they will hold it against me ;)

White Cliffs (again)

This time as we made out way to White Cliffs there were very few kangaroos on the road. Our luck continued to hold as we managed to get two rooms at the Underground Hotel on Easter weekend. The one strange thing was that while we were talking about whether or not to drive out to White Cliffs Our phones showed that the time was 30 minutes earlier than what the clock in the car showed. This 30 minute difference made the Livschizes opt for the long drive and the stay in the hotel rather than stopping for the night in a different - but much less awesome town. I assumed that the problem was with the car clock, updated it, and made the reservations. As we started on our drive the time suddenly went forward by the half an hour on the phones and I again had to update the car clock. It's almost as if something wanted us to stay in White Cliffs. (My real explanation is that the phone company towers had the wrong time in the town that we were passing where I had enough reception to reserve the room, but isn't it more fun to think that it was meat to be?). Mike was really upset because  wanted his parents to experience the roo obstacle course, but a combination of heavy truck traffic and weather kept most of them out of the headlights. Lenya did count around 20 that he saw so it was't a total loss :). This time we saw a lot more foxes on the road though. Apparently the colder wetter weather suits them better then the roos. Lenya also saw some Emus so I feel like overall our start at the outback drive was pretty successful. We got in to the hotel late but it was really really nice to sleep in a big warm bed. Lena loves the hotel. She has compared it to Hobbitton and it's great to see her so excited. She has told me that she has photographed every portion of it, so I recommend tracking her down when she returns for detailed documentation of our stay. In the morning Mike took his parents opal mining, and I stayed in the hotel, relaxed, and caught up with the blog. It's still important to write it as often as possible, even though I can't really post anything for a while :( 

The Road to the Reef

We opted to drive through the outback with the  and saw all sorts of animals to their great delight. There were emus, kangaroos, wallabies, wild goats and black cows, foxes, eagles, and rabbits. As we drove closer to the coast we even saw read headed cranes and pelicans. The road brought all sorts of excitements as we knew it would so mostly it was very successful (I think). On our second day of driving I started the day by checking the oil and coolant in the car and topping off the oil, and later taking over as driver for a little while. This was my first time driving a stick left handed and I am proud to say that I did not stall out, although everyone in the car may have needed some fresh underwear by the time I was done. I originally wanted to avoid driving stick with while we had visitors, but the road forced my hand as it was either drive or stop and regain some semblance of normalcy from the car sickness. 

I have noticed a pleasant development that I am attributing to this trip, I am no longer as scared to fail which

makes learning new things, or doing something new much easier. Even with my in-laws in the car and the fact that I have never driven a stick shift minivan with no power steering on the left side of the road before, I was not as nervous as I thought I would be. I think that this travelling year has not only taught me that its OK to not be the best, and that it's OK to fail at first, but also to give me the confidence to do it in front of people that I want to like me (AKA my in-laws). I need to give them credit, they were very supportive of my efforts, and I hope that I didn't scare them too badly. I repeated the driving experiment the next day as well and this time there was a steep downgrade in a mountain range that I had to get through. We are all alive and that's what matters. Mike decided to let me know while I was driving that I didn't have to go own the slopes as slowly as I was going, and I told him that I knew that I didn't have to, but i wanted to. Take that husband! When he relieved me at the wheel I sucked down half a bottle of water, so it's not as f I'm completely at ease with everything, but I m getting better at this stick thing.

If me driving wasn't bad enough, towards the evening the GPS took us to a road that tapered into one lane in places and then became a dirt road periodically. Trucks have complete right of way on the road which meant that we would have to pull over to the grass and watch a truck speed by us. Lena and Lenya thought one of the trucks was a little close, so they had a little bit of a fright at some point. I will also confess that we met a suicidal rabbit on the road. We were trying our best to avoid him, but he rushed back under the wheels at the last moment and there was no time to do anything but run him over. I really hope that this is our one and only mammal kill. (there have already been a couple of frog casualties)

The Adventure of the Great Barrier Reef

We ended up going much further north this time around and Mike and Igot a chance to compare the reef tours. The Whitsundays tour had only a couple of  things against it - it added several hours to our already very very long drive and there were not as many different types of fish and no sea turtles. That is the only thing that I could put on the minus side. In the pro column were the following:

• It was a better boat - barf bags were not already folded into the seats
• It was a smoother ride - the reef protected us from a lot of the turbulance we experienced on the Lady Musgrove tour
• The reef itself was absolutely stunning - I don't think its even fair for the Lady Musgrove tour to say that they show the reef. Although technically that's true, its not the same as what we saw this time around. There was coral of all shapes and sizes and colors. My favorite were the corals that looked like underwater trees that had phosphorescent tips on the ends of each branch. Mike and I asked if we could swim right above the coral (the water is only a couple of feet deep - and it was amazing. I even saw that poisonous fish that looks like a rock while I was snorkeling. Once again I felt calm and
  
  happy. It was also really cool to snorkel in the rain. You can feel the drops hit your wetsuit and the water all around you, and the fish come out and frolic more. It was a lovely day. Nothing could be complete without some adventure, so on the way back we hit a storm and it felt like we were riding a mechanical bull rather than a small cruise boat. Mike was nice enough to pack extra slothes for me to wear so I wouldn't be cold, but he got completely soaked by the rain. We polished off our day with a nice thai takeout meal. Overall, it was a lovely lovely day

Noosa and Brisbane.

Our original plan was to drive to Noosa on Friday, drop the Livschizes off at the beach, and get our necessary oil change while they are splashing around - but we didn't know that Friday was ANZAC day and all of the mechanics are closed. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in case you are curious. Friday morning we had a flurry of morning activity trying to find ANYONE who would do the oil change - but no luck. I finally found someone in Brisbane who not only picked up the phone, but told me that he would do the oil change at some point on Saturday - but we would have to leave the car. 

On one hand this was great news because we wouldn't void the warranty, but on the other hand it could cut significantly into our busy day and potentially we would have to give up on something that we had planned on one of the remaining days of the trip. We took what we could get and drove to Noosa which reminded me a lot of Miami. The other awesome thing about driving to a resort town on a three day holiday weekend is the insanity once you get there. We dropped Lena and Lenya at the beach and then took forever to find parking a mile away. By the time we found parking it was time to get the Livschizes and continue to Brisbane, so Mike went to get them and I stayed int he car and read for a little bit. The day soured for me when I got another migrane as we pulled into our campground. According to Mike the rest of my companions made friends with a local couple who were staying there and were slightly too chatty. Perhaps the migraine was not so bad....

The next morning we got up at 6 and were at the mechanic's at 7:30 am. He told us he would do the best he can in terms of time and we went to a lovely cafe and had an amazingly delicious breakfast. The interior was very quirky cool and even though we were the first customers they filled up early and quickly early on a Saturday morning. The best news was that at 8:40 am the mechanic called and told us that the car was

ready! It basically meant that we were leaving Brisbane earlier than we have left anywhere else on the trip - no time was lost at all. The mechanic filled out the necessary paperwork and only charged us 50% of what we paid previously because he only did the basics and no other frills. This was the best luck we have had on the whole trip. We had a pleasant journey with a nice lunch on the road and stopped at Port Macquaire for the night. Right now everyone else is at the Billabong Koala Sanctuary petting cute animals and feeding roos and I am at a coffee shop finishing this blog. Life is good. I probably won't post this until we are back in Sydney so the blog continues for you, as for me - I will be finishing my soy latte and watching the rain from my table.

Goodbye
The last couple of days were pretty uneventful. We drove down to the Blue Mountains which looked absolutely beautiful with the colors changing, but didn't get there until very late at night. The next morning we attempted to do a proper hike, but the place we went to was closed for maintenance so we had to scramble at the last second and did a short walk in a different spot. The walk was nothing special and I think by this point everyone was just tired and ready for a break. We spent the last night with the Livschiz clan eating thai takeout in our hotel room and we saw them off at the Sydney airport the next morning. Thank you guys for coming and sharing our adventure with us. We miss you!!!!

Our First Visitors

Glenn and Judi came to visit us a week after we got the van, so our adventure could finally begin. Our plan was to make a big loop taking in the coast, Great Barrier Reef, the outback, an underground city, an aboriginal town, and a hike in the Blue Mountains - a busy two weeks. It has been a great adventure so far.

Glenn and Judi arrived with very little jet lag so we just took them around the big sights of Sydney. We had a big day where we hit Circular Quay, looked at the bridge, walked to the opera house, cut back through the Botanic Gardens and ended up in CBD. They were troopers and didn't really start getting tired until dinner time. We had them stay in Kirribilli - across the harbor from the CBD (central business district) and just had dinner there before leaving them to rest and spending our last night in the Lane Cove Campground. 

I don't think I really talked about the campground before, so let me just fill you in. The animals seem to rule the entire area, and I mean rule. There are very cute possums there (not the American rat looking kind, but the Australian marsupial kind) that have basically taken over the facilities. The kitchen is out in the open, just under the canopy, and they make themselves quite at home there. They climb up on tables, walk over the drying dish rag, the stove, the grill. Mike and I tried to have our dishes not touch anything once we washed them, especially the rack which the little critters like to lounge on. There is one possum that is not doing very well at the campsite, I'm not sure if he's been in a fight, or is very sick, but he is not like the furry cute possums that run around the place. I heard the ranger say that normally he would have died, but the backpackers, and the scavenged kitchen scraps keep him alive. The possums sometimes fight in the night, and have even jumped on top of our van at one point (we were parked under a tree). They have a very heavy step so it sounds like a person is walking on top of the van. We have also seen very colorful parakeets and parrots flying around, some kind of wild Australian turkeys walking around and a Kookaburra (I think that's the bird that repeats everything). We were not sad to leave the campground because the facilities were not that great and we could not wait for the real adventure to begin.

The Koala preserve

 We stopped at a campground after our first day of driving and I saw a brochure for a koala sanctuary in the office so we decided to swing by. It made for such an amazing day! We started with the koalas and got to pet the shit out of one. When we first came in to their area they were all sleeping and they sleep like they got drunk and just passed out in the trees. They started waking up just before the ranger came in and talked to us. The koala we got to pet was named Stony, and he definitely looked pretty stoned! The fur felt very woolly but soft to me and I loved watching Stony's little face as he was petted into oblivion. I had heard a lot about how smelly Koalas are, but I didn't think it was all that bad... Perhaps the cuteness factor trumps any olfactory negativity :)

Once we petted Stony we went to the kangaroo and wallaby area. We had all bought kangaroo food (aka dried corn) and proceeded to feed them. They were so much fun. The roos were very tame and friendly and would eat out of our hands. If we happened to have our hand up to high, the wallabies would pull on the hand with their cute little front paws. The roos also like to get their chests scratched and lean in like dogs do when you pet and scratch them. It was just a lovely lovely time!. For me nothing in the preserve beat the koalas and roos, but we also petted a small crocodile (the keepers put electrical tape around its jaws so that it wouldn't bite us. It was still a little unsettling to me because if that tape didn't hold I am sure we would have lost at least part of an arm to the beast. There were also dingos and wombats in the preserve. I was very excited to see the wombat poop which supposedly comes out in cubes, but I'm here to tell you friends that the Australian tame wombat poop is nothing special. For some unknown reason the preserve also had red pandas and snow leopards. We spend 4-5 hours looking at and petting different animals in the preserve. There were also a lot of interesting looking birds, but I'm not really bird person so I didn't care too much.

Australia - where you meet everyone you have met in NZ

we stopped off at another campsite that night and were in the process of making dinner when a guy came up to Mike and seemed very excited. We didn't recognize him right away without his beard, but we had met and chatted with him and his girlfriend (or wife) in Abel Tasman during the Great Walk. They were the Canadians that told us about the knife making class that we took on the South Island. We were so surprised and pleased to see them again. Their recommendations were really awesome and they were a really nice couple. What are the chances that we would run into them again in a different country and some random campground? The BM vibe continues to follow us in OZ and I like it!

The Great Barrier Reef

We ended up getting a package cruise out to the great barrier reef. Basically the cruise provides transportation to Lady Musgrove island, snorkeling, glass bottom boat, semi submarine, and a nature walk on the island itself. I love being on boats partially because I never get seasick and damn was I lucky that I never do! Part of the safety briefing talked about what to do with barf bags, which I thought was a little excessive, but I was wrong. Over the course of an hour and a half, many people around me needed to use those bags. The ride was very very bumpy and I think most of the people who did not end up loosing their breakfast to the ocean, barely hung on. We were told that the ride back will be a lot better because we would be going with the waves instead of into the waves and it was true to the great relief of the passengers.

The boat doesn't actually dock at the island, but at a pontoon that's pretty close by because the water there is really shallow. Glenn and Mike opted to do a SCUBA add-on, but I st opted for the snorkeling. I liked the snorkeling so much, that I didn't even do any of the other optional activities! It was so beautiful and peaceful to float around and see the beauty below. I saw starfish, sea cucumbers, colorful fish of all types, a manta ray and a whole tribe of sea turtles. The turtles were huge and they occupied what looked like a basin of coral. There were five turtles in the basin floating in the basin but all facing out in different directions. As I was floating by one of the turtles swam past me and so close that I could probably touch it if I wanted to. It was just so calm and serene and happy to be there. I'm not sorry that Mike and I have to come back there with his parents ;)

Mike and Glenn had their intro dive with a German instructor who used Australian sayings, but with a heavy German accent. Imagine the Terminator saying "No worries mate". It was super hard not to burst out laughing. I was a great day all in all. The town we stayed in that night is called 1770 because that's when captain cook landed there. How cool is it to live in a town that's a number. 

The Outback

The next leg of our journey went through the outback. It's kind of funny because at some point you just pass a sign on the highway that says "Welcome to the Outback". I didn't think that it was an official place, but apparently it has borders. The outback has a smell, and its the smell of decay and rot, the smell of roadkill. I am not being dramatic when I say that. It's a pretty constant stench of rotting hot kangaroo flesh. They are everywhere and they are very numerous. In the three days that it took us to drive from 1770 to the underground city of White Cliffs we saw cows, wild goats, emus, but more than anything else we saw kangaroos. They are nocturnal and even though you can see some in the daytime, the majority of them come out at dusk and take over the road. Driving becomes a different kind of an adventure. We drive about 20-30 kilometers under the speed limit and the whole car becomes kangaroo spotters. They dart across the road, they are constantly on the shoulders, they are in the middle of the lanes. They don't seem to run away until the van is within 10 feet of them. We love them and we hate them. They are really cute and really dangerous at the same time. 

Having read up a little beforehand and after talking to some locals we follow big semis down the road once the sun goes down. The roos seem to be weary of the trucks, and if not, the truck takes the hit. Some of the roos are over 6 feet tall and the resulting accident would be no joke. We try not to drive too much after dark, and once our guests are gone and we don't have a schedule to keep we will likely stop driving at night at all. It's strange that the kangaroos still own the roads to such an extent and by the smell and look of it they die in staggering numbers. Its not just the smell, you can see decomposing bodies and skeletons on the side of the road. I don't think anyone cleans up the roads... If the drive down the coast feels suburban, the Outback - although greener than I had anticipated still looks more or less like I had pictured with the red earth, the stunted trees, and the hundreds of hopping roos and wallabies. This is true adventure.

One of the nights, we were pretty far away from any caravan parks so we stopped at a free rest area type of place - basically a field with a public bathroom/shower building. This is the first time that we were introduced to the flies in the outback. I don't think I knew what a swarm was until now. The good thing - they don't bite, the bad thing - they are on you flying into your face, your mouth, your eyes, just everywhere. One day we stopped on the road to have a snack and I ate it while running around the van so that the flies don't interrupt me. Why do they swarm you might ask - they are looking for water. They want your sweat, they want to drink and they just keep coming. Construction workers wear nets over their hats and heads to protect them. I don't think you could stay sane for long standing still. If you stop moving you will easily get 30 flies to land on you in a minute, but back to the free campsite...

Once we understood the plight of the flies we set up for the night and I went to use the facilities. Say what you will, but I think that I have toughened up in the last couple of months and all I really want from a bathroom these days is to not have mosquitoes attack me when I'm on the toilet or any bugs to fly into the stall while I'm there. This bathroom did not fit these requirements. When I first came in, I could hear a scratching noise that I couldn't place for a little while, but I finally found the culprit - a giant beetle slipping around in the metal washbasin. It was so large that I could hear it's feet scrape on the metal. I pulled it together and marched into a stall where I saw another giant beetle swimming around in the toilet - I can do this I said to myself. I flushed and saw a frog almost fall from a place in the toilet basin where the water rushes out. That's when I lost it, screamed like a little girl, ran out of there, and peed outside where there was a smaller critters per square foot ratio. I will report that I did use those facilities in the morning when I didn't have the cover of darkness and the frog was still there. I tried not to pee on it :).

White Cliffs

After three days of driving and a whole lot of kangaroo spotting we made it to the town of White Cliffs. It's a small mining town, but a lot of people live in bunkers underground to get away from the heat. The last 200 kilometers of the drive was insane. We were warned by the hotel staff of White Cliffs that there is an insane amount of roos out on the road but we have never seen anything like it. There were portions of the drive where it looked like a kangaroo and wallaby obstacle course. We had to drive 20/30 km under the speed limit just to have enough time to stop when a kangaroo would hop onto the road in front of our car. Some were already on the road and would not be in a big hurry to move. You could have cut the tension in the car with a knife, but it was so incredibly exciting. We were also warned about goats (which we saw in great numbers) and black cows which you supposedly can't see at night until you are almost on top of them, but we have only seen them in the daytime.

We splurged and stayed at the largest underground hotel in the world (no supporting beams or anything but rock that was jackhammered into a labyrinth of rooms. The only natural light in the room comes from an air shaft in the ceiling. It's a really cool place to stay (literally and figuratively). The walls have been drilled into the hill, sealed with bondcrete and painted white. There is a staircase that you can take up to the top of the hill where you see all of the ventilation shafts for the rooms and the town below. The hotel started out at just a home for a miner. His son built his dug out right next to his and so several generations of a family lived in a large underground multi-room enclosure. The family extended and joined the two dwellings, and eventually converted it into a hotel.Not all of the buildings are underground, but some are. In the morning Glenn and Judi found a pilot that would let them fly their plane (they are both licensed pilots) and Mike went along with them. I decided to take some me time and read a book in the general store/post office/cafe/gas station. 

After everyone came back from their flight and the tour of the opal mine we ate at that same general store and proceeded to close out the towns only pub, at 10:23pm on a Wednesday :). We met some of the locals who were colorful characters. One told me about a snake he killed outside of the towns health clinic and the other told of a group of guys that had recently found opals worth 50 million dollars (I think this is just a story they tell people to add to their White Cliffs experience) The pub also had the town's notice board with the schedule of health professionals that will be coming in. In that town, everyone has a dentist appointment on April 23rd  and a podiatry appointment on May 6th :). They get their medical care via the Flying Doctor which is a big thing in the outback. The towns are really remote so there is a doctor who flies around to give medical assistance. The towns raise the airplane gas costs to help the Flying Doctor come in.

The next day we got up and went to look for opals. There is a public area here where visitors can look around. Of course all of the really big opals are got by digging in the ground, but there is enough on top for you to get a souvenir of your visit. We were warned to make sure that we don't cross over into private claims which are right next to the visitor area because some of the owners don't take too kindly to such things and could potentially shoot at you. Once in a great while a visitor can find something that is worth a couple of thousand dollars, but obviously that's rare. Mike told me that the mine tour is a Tom Sawyer kind of a setup. A man takes you to his mine, you dig where he tells you, anything you find is his, and you pay him for the privilege :) we found a couple of small opals and maybe I will make a ring out of them to remind me of this time forever more. If you are serious about the life of an opal miner you can get a claim out here for 200 a year and you can live there and work there. The night before at the pub a townie told me that most people out in White Cliffs go on unemployment while they are mining. They just tell the government that they are trying to find a job here and get money for quite a while which is more than enough to live on if you live cheaply and in your mine dugout (which most people would do anyway because of the heat). 

Western Plains Zoo

We were going to stop by an "aboriginal town", but it was just a small town with nothing really special about it other than that 75% of the population were aborigines. Instead we drove town to Dubbo to visit a zoo that was recommended by Frommer's. This turned out to be the most humane zoo that I have ever seen. There are no cages as there would be in an American Zoo, rather there are very large fields that is sectioned off by a fence where the animals live. For the animals that can't swim there are islands that they live on and no fences at all. The good part of the zoo is that the animals look much happier. They actually graze peacefully or frolic with each other instead of sadly looking out at the hundreds of people that are pointing at them and yelling (the lioness that we saw still paced, but in a very tiny part of her enclosure so I'm not really sure what her problem was). The bad part is that the zoo didn't actually think about how the visitors can see the animals better. I would expect that for the full price of the ticket, which is nearly 50 dollars, every visitor would get a pair of binoculars, but we didn't. We could barely see some of the animals they were so far away.  I fully support the idea of the zoo, but it was not well executed. The highlight of the zoo for me was seeing three different types of rhinos including the one that looks like it has plates of armor under it's skin. A second favorite was watching a family of monkeys interact on an island. Overall, after our other adventures everyone was pretty underwhelmed by the zoo. After the zoo we drove to Sydney and because we got too close to the city, ended up not finding a campsite and all 4 sleeping in the van. I kept waking up and hoping that it was morning, but seeing nothing but darkness. Glenn and Judi somehow rigged it so that they could both sleep horizontally in the back, but Mike and I just curled up in our seats up front and tried our best to get some form of rest. In the morning we just had enough time to get breakfast and get Glenn and Judi to the airport and checked in on time. It was sad to see them go, and we hope that they had a good time.