Journey to Australia for the Solar Eclipse
Oct 23-Nov 18, 2012: Sydney, Uluru, Alice Springs, Cairns, Daintree, Cooktown, Port Douglas

Destination: Gary and Monet are bound for TOTALITY awesome on November 14. The Land of Oz! A total eclipse of the sun! Down Under, mate!
Thursday, October 25— Sunday, October 28, 2012, Sydney
“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive” (thanks, RL Stevenson!)
October 25, 7:10 am. We prepare for landing in Sydney after our 15-hour flight from LAX. Before we landed, I ate the pomegranate that I brought from CA, because we couldn’t bring it Down Under. This is a mythological echo of the pomegranate seeds given to Persephone in the underworld. And on the cover of the Qantas in-flight menu: pomegranate seeds. Let those seeds sow serendipity on our journey (she said hopefully)!

While waiting for our room to become available at the Ibis Sydney King Street Wharf, we walked all over town. Speaking of ibis, flocks of them are marching around everywhere.

After a short nap, we took a train to the Opera House and walked through the Botanical Garden to Mrs. MacQuaries Chair.


Friday, October 26
Took a ferry to Manly Beach on this overcast day.

We took a bus up to North Head and sat in a café; had an Anzac cookie. Walked along a wall where Gary found the skeleton of an Eastern Water Lizard (?). It was about 14” long and they can grow to about 31 ½”.

Sheer cliffs. Climbed over a wall studded with broken glass atop it to keep people from climbing over. But we did anyway.

We walked about 8 miles around Manly and North Head, North Fort, Quarantine Point, and then took a ferry back to Wharf 3. Back Sydney-side, we walked around The Rocks, which is, so far, my favorite part of Sydney.




Monday, October 29 - Wednesday, October 31, 2012, Uluru
Flying to Uluru (Ayers Rock). Had to defuel a ton (literally) of gas at Sydney Airport in order to get 6 extra passengers on board. At first, the airlines removed baggage but then they opted to put the bags back on the plane and defuel so we wouldn’t be overweight. They prefer to load up on fuel in Sydney because it’s 3 or 4 times as expensive to buy at Uluru airport.
The terrain looks like aboriginal art in its kangaroo oranges and ochres. About an hour out of Sydney, we flew over a lovely beryl-colored lake. There are large patches of dry lakebeds and striated hills. During the flight, I napped briefly. Didn’t get enough sleep last night but hate to waste time napping at Ayers Rock with the full moon tonight! I could see Uluru as we approached the Uluru airport.

Uluru is 1 1/2 hours earlier than Sydney. After picking up our rental car, we checked in to the Outback Pioneer. We had lunch in their outdoor dining area. I got an “Outback Burger,” which is beef, bun, lettuce, beet slice, pineapple slice, fried egg, “bacon,” and cheese. Delicious, with coke and fries.

At 6:30, Gary went out with a walkie-talkie to watch the sunset and full moon rise. I bushwalked to meet him on a hill. Huge silver moon, soft red dirt, not hot, a nice evening. We walked over to Sails in the Desert, an upscale resort. There’s an amphitheatre and huge pool. Quiet. We stopped at a Shell station to buy a can of tuna and crackers for our car trip to Ayers Rock tomorrow. Gary had ice cream and I ordered fries at a stand-up counter, and I wound up with a boatload of “chips” and a good cold 4x beer.
Tuesday, October 30
Slept late. Had a great breakfast at Outback Pioneer and then drove to Uluru. It cost 25 Australian dollars (AUD) each to get in. We drove east (clockwise) and stopped at Kuniya Walk carpark. We started walking toward Mala carpark but decided to turn back and drive there because it was so hot. Parked at Mala and walked clockwise to Kantju Gorge. We had the gorge all to ourselves and I could feel the silent heavy heart of Uluru.


In the mid-afternoon heat, no animals or tourists were stirring. We retraced our steps back to Mala carpark (this is where the climb originates, but the climb was closed because of heat).


We headed for the Olgas (the Kata Tjuta formation) around 6 pm. We weren’t supposed to be out on the road after sunset, so by the time we got there, we had to literally turn around and drive back. We didn’t explore the Olgas at all. However, on the drive back we saw the most spectacular moonrise over the desert. Because of recent burnings and the dust in the air, the moon came up huge and orange. I wanted to stop and take a photo but Gary said we couldn’t capture it. I dunno.
Wednesday, Oct 31
We arose early and to return to Uluru and were treated to a spectacular sunrise over the mountain.

We had hit the road for Uluru at 5:40 am because Gary wanted to climb it. Not to be: it was closed because of windy conditions. (We suspect it’s always closed — penalties apply — I am glad because the Arunga people request you NOT climb Uluru — and 35 people have died doing so.) But we had the luxury once again of having the trails to ourselves. There were no other cars in the Mala carpark when we arrived, but it was full by the time we got back from our short walk toward Pujante. And we had the rare experience of seeing “our” orange moon of the night before set as a white moon that morning at the same time as a blazing red sun rose.

Then we went back to the Cultural Centre and I corrected the entry I’d made in the “I Did Not Climb Uluru” log. I had put the wrong date: “Oct 31 — Halloween.” So I changed it to “Oct 30 — Halloween Moon Rising.” And Gary signed the log saying “I did not climb the rock (because it was closed!!!).”
Wednesday, October 31
Screaming down the road at 130 km/h toward Alice Springs. It’s 200 miles from the turnoff at the Lasseter Hwy straight NE on the Stuart Hwy to Alice. We just stopped at Erldunda for gas, a piece of chicken breast, and a Lift soft drink. There’s hardly any traffic on this road. Every once in a while a HUGE 3-trailer truck will come at us. Fortunately, so far, none have been behind us, chafing to pass.

Did I mention it’s 40 degrees Celcius outside? (104 Fahrenheit).
We were driving East on Lasseter about an hour ago and there was an Aborigine man standing in the road. I stopped and he asked for petrol and water. Gary handed him a mostly empty water bottle.
At the next stop, Mt. Ebenezer Roadhouse, which turned out to be closed, I mentioned him to a coach driver and he said, “He’ll sort it out. He knows this country.” We later found that some Aborigines drink gasoline to get high.
There are carcasses of dead kangaroos and deer along the road every 20 km or so. And there are camels out there! Yesterday we saw a camel through binoculars when we stopped at an observation point atop a sand dune.

Thursday, November 1
7 am in Alice Springs. I wasn’t sure if this place would be arid or tropical. Answer: arid. But it appears they’re trying to make it tropical. Uluru was definitely arid. That soft red sand stains everything. Despite its aridity, we were told that Uluru sits atop a massive water table.
Gary and I walked into downtown Alice. Got a 4 MB memory card for the new camera. We climbed Anzac Hill, and saw a kangaroo hopping across the burned section of the hill as we were descending. Then we had Chinese food in the blissfully air conditioned Alice Plaza Shopping Centre. Went to Postal Centre and bought more postcards and stamps. Went to Royal Flying Doctor Service museum. Oh and before that, to Target and Woolworth’s where we bought fruit and seltzer and laundry detergent.

Friday, November 2
Waiting for Gary to get ready so we can drive east of Alice Springs on the Ross Highway to Trephina Gorge. We’re staying at the Ibis Oasis in Room 41, which is either the best or worst room, being right off reception and close to the laundry and bar/restaurant. We sat on our little terrace this morning and had good white coffee. Tried to glimpse a flock of parakeets (?) we heard wheeling by.
We hiked Trephina Gorge till my knees were pleading for mercy, and in the heat.

Saw black scat everywhere, bees, orb spider web, femur (?) bone, long-tailed lizard, and a flock of parakeets. We hiked along the top and then down through the sandy wash.

We stopped at Jessie Gap and saw some rock art. Bees were in the car when we got back, but we opened the windows and moved along to Emily Gap and saw more art.

We drove back to the hotel and I swam 6 circles around the little pool. This is the life I’ve seen on 1950’s movies about the life of the idle rich, but it’s never been for me, until now. Not that our day was the type that a pampered person would enjoy.
The kid from Thailand and the girl from Malaysia are hard-working in the Oasis restaurant. The indigenous sitting under trees, idle. It would have been daunting to be an Aborigine male in the old days, having to navigate this terrain to provide for the community. Frightening, exhausting. And now their livelihood has been taken from them. Diabetes is a problem in the community. The sign on the door to the restaurant here says “If your personal hygiene gives offence to other patrons, you will be asked to leave.”
At Trephina Gorge we were only a few kilometers from the Tropic of Capricorn. At the Alice Springs Oasis, even the cold water comes out of the tap hot. I don’t think those things are related. ; >
Tonight I called the Uzzell I found in the phone book. He was sober at 9 pm on a Friday, a good sign. Says he thinks family is from Wales; his grandfather came to Australia. So I still haven’t solved the mystery of the origin of my maiden name. He runs the grocery store in Hermannsburg and sounded like an alert and jovial fellow. It would have been interesting to go to Hermannsburg because it was an early Lutheran settlement. It had quite a history, and is now an aboriginal community. Wonder what life is like there.
Saturday, November 3
Today we are flying to Cairns. Gary and I had several hours to kill after we checked out of the Oasis, so we walked down to the Olive Pink Botanical Garden.


Gary was tired of the heat, so we walked back to get the car and drove to the Pioneer Women Museum, which also was the Old Gaol, where you could tour the cell blocks.

We drove downtown and had a hard time finding lunch, finally settling for Chinese beef noodles, which we sweated profusely over in the cramped little restaurant as we sat next to the gas wok. We left behind most of that meal, even though it was good.
Today I gave a little money to an Aborigine woman who asked for $5 for her daughter who “drinks.” The daughter was barefoot and I asked about her feet being hot and she nodded. Her legs were like sticks but she seemed alert. She was just a teenager. Maybe she was only a prop for her alcoholic mother/grandmother to solicit for herself.

Farewell, Alice Springs. Ascending from Alice airport, we could see the iron red MacDonnell range off to our left. Gary is looking out with binoculars at Emily Gap. I had the window seat flying from Sydney to Ayers Rock and saw the rock from the air. He gets the window now flying to Cairns.
Sunday, November 4
Oh Mi God — sunrise over the Coral Sea. It’s 6:20 am in Cairns (pronounced “cans”), and we are looking out our balcony over the Esplanade, listening to birdsong and to the city awakening. So far, this is the most upscale accommodation we’ve had.
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Cairns is one hour earlier than Sydney, which is sort of weird because you don’t think of it as being that much farther west. On the plane from Alice, the pilot said to set our time 30 minutes forward. When we get back to Sydney, we’ll set an hour forward.
Random observations at breakfast: flat white coffee is for me, my eyeglasses are perfectly in style here, there are lots of misspelled words on signage in Australia, print and broadcast media favor Obama. Gary and I are reading The Weekend Australian newspaper on a busy deck of Perrotta’s restaurant next to Cairns Regional Gallery art museum. I’m having a ricotta pancake and he’s having French Toast with roasted pears. We’re going to an exhibit at the museum of 80 satirical etchings, “Los Caprichos,” by Goya.
Monday, November 5
7:10 am, Room 405. This Mercure Cairns Harborside has been pretty much bliss. However, paradise is not without its dangers.

Last night I stood on our balcony with the binoculars and watched people in the park below, birds darting between the magnificent trees, listened to birdsong, marveled at the colors over the hillsides and ocean (so tropical!) and watched the synchronized blinking of the red and green lights of boats on the horizon. The cruise ship that was moored in the mouth of the harbor at sunset was not there this morning. I got up in the middle of the night last night and saw the waning moon shining behind low white clouds. Oops — Gary has come in from the balcony and says “there’s a cruise ship on the very horizon — quite spectacular!” So I guess the ship is still there after all.
So today we leave luxury and pick up our 4WD camper.
Meanwhile, we’re mindful of the clean-up in NY and NJ from Hurricane Sandy and of the election tomorrow. Daylight Savings Time ended last night in the States. BTW, Cairns is the only place I’ve been where my iPhone hasn’t updated the time. It’s bamboozled by the half hour time difference.
We watched The Simpsons and Futurama last night just as usual.
Tuesday, November 6
7 am. Camping at Ellis Beach just north of Cairns. On the one side of us is the sound of surf breaking; on the other, cars zipping along the Cook Highway.
We picked up the Britz 4-WD Toyota 8-cylinder diesel turbo BEAST yesterday.

Just heard another mango drop to the ground in the little jungle between where we’re parked and the highway. It poured rain during the night. Fortunately, we had taken everything in except the two rented camp chairs. Gary is making coffee at the rear of the vehicle now and I’m up in the pop-up loft, feeling like Heidi in my little hide-away.
So, we’ve gone from a delicious luxury swim at the Mercure yesterday to a campsite with tropical downpours and an ocean you can’t swim in — or even wade in — because of box jellyfish.

We decamped and did the Daintree canopy walk. On the drive north toward Cape Trib we saw a cassowary! These guys can be around 5' tall and have an unusual bony crest. Signs warn to “Be Cass-o-Wary” of these living dinosaurs. They can hurt you, especially if they kick you with their razor-sharp, 5" long claw.

Wednesday, November 7
Don’t know yet who won the election, Obama or Romney. We’re camped at Cape Tribulation campground.

Last night we cooked steak and potatoes and broccoli on the big grill in the open kitchen. We borrowed salt and pepper from two German guys. Our camping enclave consists of four other vehicles: Jake (out fishing today for barramundi), Nick and his kids, and another couple and their kids, all en route to the music festival in Laura for the eclipse. They live in Byron Bay on the Gold Coast. This morning I took a shower (no soap or shampoo) and then Gary and I waded into the shallow sea at low tide. On the sandbar, we rolled and elbow-walked toward shore.

Right now, we are lying in the shade on the soft sand of Cape Trib, tucked in behind the point.

The sound of surf and parakeets (?) and some worry on my part about crocodiles.

The tide is coming in; we might get marooned here. Feelin’ very lazy. Still don’t know who won the election, though it looks like Obama.
It’s cool here in the shade, no bugs biting. Wish I could spot these birds to identify them. Lying here still — hours later — and Gary sleeps on. It’s an exercise in patience and letting go for me. I’ve alternated from bliss to annoyance.

I got up and ate a mango and was going to walk down to the surf line, but I saw a couple there. The guy got down on his knees and held up something for the girl. She seemed surprised and I crouched down and stopped looking. I didn’t want to ruin the moment if they saw me. A half hour or so of talking went on, with some hugging and some tear-wiping (?) and ended with the guy gesticulating rather sharply and leaning into the girl’s face to tell her something. Then they walked back down the beach, with his arm around her shoulder. I think she declined him.
Thursday, November 8
OMG #2. Walked to beach this am when I got up. Sand soft underfoot. Palm trees swaying. Stood looking out at a rosy glow on the horizon. A beacon of light shone sharply across the flat sea. Boat? No, sunrise. The sun rose fast, with a flat metallic brilliance. It was about 5:40 am, I’d say. So if it’s like this 6 days from now in Port Douglas, we should see the eclipse.
Standing there on the beach, sort of feeling that Gary would walk toward me, I thought of the book Contact, and Ellie encountering eternity in just such a place.
As I write this while sipping coffee, I’m playing with a dark blue and gold moth. He has lost the end of one of his front legs. And fell into a small puddle of water on the awning, so is waiting for his wings to dry. Every now and then he will unfurl his proboscis or clean an antenna with his good front leg.


After decamping today, we headed up the Captain Cook Hwy. We had a delicious lunch at The Lion’s Den Hotel in Helenvalle. The young guy behind the counter unlocked the gas for some Aborigines who look more like Pacific Islanders than the central Aborigines. We watched a helicopter take off.
Today’s trip up the Captain Cook Highway was the reason for our 4WD. We stopped at Emmagen Creek — this is the barrier to going farther north in a regular vehicle — and took some photos that turned out looking surrealistic.

We skittered up steep graveled roads, passed Black Mountain and Pascoe Street, where workers were on a break on one lane bridges.
We enjoyed exploring the James Cook museum. It’s chock full of artifacts, including the anchor jettisoned by Capt Cook in 1770 from the HMB Endeavour and dredged up in the 1970's.

Friday, November 9
It’s 6:50 am and we’re camping in this somewhat creepy, deserted caravan park run by an old lady with dyed red hair. Last night for the first time I locked us inside our vehicle as we slept. However, this campground has amenities — we did our laundry — and the birdsong and wallabies and kookaburra more than make up for the mosquitoes.

Also, there’s a nice breeze and privacy. But there’s a foul-smelling, ant-covered bucket of something in a plastic bag that we walked by while picking a site yesterday, and I can’t get the scent of decay out of my nostrils. It permeates this place. Also, I found a broken owl or hawk feather. But the facilities are clean and we have internet access.
Cooktown has been our farthest point north. Today we plan to drive south and maybe do some more 4WD exploring.

1:15 in Lakeland — stopped at a dusty little out of the way café where a German girl served us excellent coffees.
On the first western third of our swing down from Cooktown, the road was littered with kangeroo (or wallaby) corpses. That was flat, arid cattle country with termite mounds and ghost gums (the white-trunked trees). Past Lakeland, the banana growing area, we headed due south. Here the termite mounds were fewer and we were in view of the Great Dividing Range. One mountain in particular was interesting because it had a nipple-like top from afar, which turned out to be a huge black monolith.

Then, as we tucked east to Mount Carbine, there were more creeks, more civilization.
On the long drive round the west coast of Africa (looks like on a map…but is actually Mulligan Hwy 81), we passed many vans heading north to the music festival in Laura. One unhappy foursome was trapped at Bob’s Lookout in an overheated old car.

Saturday, November 10
Julatten, 6:15 am. We are drinking coffee in this little enclave in the middle of the rain forest. It’s not swampy and hot because of the slight elevation. I dug out my sweater this morning. We’re at the Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge. Camping here ranges from $31 — $38 per vehicle per night, including power.

There are 3 other quiet campers and thousands of birds. Last night we walked through the orchard to Bushy Creek to look for platypus. This is the “wet tropics” and is host to some of the most unusual and ancient flora and fauna on earth.



Not sure where we’ll spend the night tonight but we’ll head toward Cairns to turn in our 4WD and pick up the economy car tomorrow.
We consider Julatten a real find after the crowded, free campground at Molloy; we decided to move on rather than camp there. (For the first time, we saw another Britz “Troopie” at that free campground.)
6:15 pm Saturday night We took the Black Mountain road south to Kuranda. More off-road driving, which I really enjoyed. Stopped at Barron Falls.

Then we drove into Kuranda where we bought meat pies, apples, and a drink. We sat on a bench in town to eat, then headed to Caravonia/Lake Placid to camp. I bought a sandalwood and acacia seed necklace from Spot, a woman who lives in a trailer there and who grew up in Sussex, England.
Sunday November 11
After leaving the Lake Placid campground, we picked up our economy car in Cairns and returned the Britz. During all that, I just about wiped us out by not looking right before I turned left an intersection. Actually, it wasn’t even close, but it’s a big heads-up to look in both directions.
Our friend Cornelia made contact. We might have dinner with Ed and her Tuesday night. They are sailing and are also here to see the eclipse.
From Cairns, we drove on up to Port Douglas where we plan to view the eclipse. We got there about 2:00 to check into The Queenslander.

When we got there, the reception was closed. There was an envelope for Robert Thomson, which I took, for Suite 11. We moved in with some sense of trespass and haste, lest The Real Robert Thomson show up to claim his flat. (He didn’t.)
Monday, November 12
7:30 am Sitting on our balcony at The Queenslander listening to the wind in the palms. It rained last night and is overcast this morning and humid. Oops — ¼ c of coffee later and it’s clearing — light blue sky and puffy white clouds.
This place is big: kitchen, bath/laundry room, living room, bedroom, balcony. I wish we had more belongings to take advantage of it. I was feeling spent and reclusive yesterday, so Gary walked to watch the sunset over the wharf area and to Macrossan St. for 2 hamburgers, a beer, and a ginger beer (4XXXX Gold and Bundaberg, respectively).
While he was gone, I sat on the balcony and watched and listened to huge flocks of birds wing by. Those grackle-type birds made such a racket that I thought the dark shapes hanging from the gum tree out to the north a few yards sway were their nests where they were roosting. I heard an owl and saw huge, bat-like shapes swooping over the roost. Lo and behold, this morning I see that the dark shapes hanging from the tree are not nests, but bats.

They hang tucked, with their furry brown heads down, swinging in the breeze. Do they all fly at night, en masse? Well, power to them: I am covered with bug bites, possibly from “midges” (no-see-ems).
It’s going to be a luxury to stay in one place, to cook, do laundry, be clean, have TV and AC. We probably won’t need to use our petite, bright blue Nissan Micra very much.
News flash: cloudburst dampens outlook for Wednesday eclipse viewing.
After breakfast today, we walked down to the wharf area and up to the lighthouse.

I collected over 50 sandalwood seeds from the ground.

After running some errands and doing laundry, Gary went downstairs to go online, and I booked our diving trip on the Poseidon for Wednesday from 8 am — 4:30 pm. We cooked a good pasta dinner, watched Big Bang on TV, and were asleep by 10:00 pm. (I burned the plastic knob of a saucepan while making the pasta and offered to pay the landlords for it: $24, a fair price, plus a bottle of Banrock white wine, plus chagrin.)
Tuesday, November 13
Gary got up at 6:00 am with a goal of walking down to 4-mile beach to check out the eclipse viewing from there. It will be perfect, but it also will be high tide so there won’t be much of a strand. Despite the hype and a marathon tomorrow, the town seems quiet. Maybe because we are up so early, maybe because of the sudden showers.
We aren’t trying to do much here. As I write this, I’m sitting barefoot in my bathing suit. Reminds me of a beach house in North Carolina because of the humidity. However, NC beaches are cleaner and nicer: whiter sand, more dunes, more seashells (there’s nothing but cuttlebone here, and not much of that), but NC beaches don’t have huge, furry-headed bats hanging from the trees. Or lorikeets. Or cane toads. Or netted swimming areas.
Tuesday afternoon: We shopped for barramundi and other groceries for dinner with Cornelia and Ed. They came over at 4:00 and we walked on 4-mile beach and picked out a place to meet the next morning for the eclipse.

We had a delicious dinner of pasta, asparagus, bread, salad, barramundi, dessert, wine and sparkling water. We just cooked the barramundi in butter with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. It was lightly crusted.
Wednesday, November 14, ECLIPSE DAY
We hurried to the beach. The sun had just risen. A crowd was already there. What a scene.

We walked south, Ed and Cornelia texting and emailing, and then we walked north again to connect with them. Their glasses were better than our cardboard glasses. The guy next to us in a welding mask.

The eclipse started at 5:44 am and nibbled away at the nascent daylight.






During totality, a white ring, the sun’s corona, surrounded the moon. Then a cloud moved over and partially obscured the 2-minute viewing. Still, the darkness and that crazy white ring — the cruise ship lights coming on — the flashes of cameras on the strand — the helicopter that flew along so low, filming the crowd — it all added up to a successful event. I whooped twice as I sat there, butt right on the sand, staring out over the sea: Yahoo! Woohoo!

I didn’t feel quite the same awe as during the 1998 eclipse in Antigua. Maybe because during that Caribbean eclipse I was in solitude looking out over the sea at Monserrat’s smoking volcano. Also, that eclipse occurred later in the day when the contrast between daylight and eerie afternoon darkness was more profound. And the sky was cloudless then.
We bid farewell to Cornelia and Ed and packed up to go diving. We arrived at the marina about 8 am.


We left our shoes in boxes on the dock and hopped aboard the Poseidon to head 26 miles out to the Agincourt Reef. Miraculously, my PADI certification was found online, so I prepped for scuba diving on the first of the 3 scheduled dives. There were only 4 women, including me, and one got seasick almost immediately. Kenny gave instructions hard and fast, but I realized I wasn’t even sure how to inflate the vest and use the regulator, mask, fins — so I got myself over to handsome Dutch Harold’s newbie group.

We dove in teams of four. Chad “walked” us down a line and we had to deflate vests, to clear our masks, clear our ears, take the regulator out of our mouth and blow bubbles, and then fling the regulator out of our hand and blow bubbles and put it back in. I swam separately from Caroline and her mom and friend Tommie. Had to maintain contact with Chad and give OK sign. The water seemed to have white sediment floating around but the fish were spectacular.

I snorkeled on the second and third dives and saw flounder on the bottom, sponge, and grouper. I vomited twice on the second dive because of surface chop, and saw the red watermelon slice I’d just eaten, so I didn’t eat any of the good lunch that was provided. Gary used a snorkel on the third dive, so we swam around together. We stayed in the water till I got cold in my lycra suit. After every dive, everyone had to sit still while they counted us.
It had taken about 2 hours to get out to Agincourt Reef up near Capetown and to motor between dive sites. So I felt wet, uncomfortable, and diesel-fumed out much of the time. I sat next to a couple from Antwerp (Flemish) Belgium on the way back to the marina. We were back by 4:30, right on schedule. When we got home, we both felt like we were still lurching through the rough seas. We ate leftover pasta, asparagus, and salad for dinner. We tried in vain to see some TV coverage of the eclipse.
Thursday, November 15
Left Port @ 10:00 am and drove south again through Julatten to Skybury Coffee Plantation in Mareeba in time for the 11:45 tour.

Skybury grows bananas, lychees, coffee, and papayas, which are a great cash crop, though prone to disease. Gary and I had a pancake lunch on the balcony and bought coffee. We stopped at The Peanut Place to buy peanut butter and jam, some fun coolers for beer and wine, and a handkerchief for Gary. This was in Tolga, south of Mareeba, in the Atherton Tablelands.

We really enjoyed that segment of the drive from Mount Molloy south to Mareeba: flat, scrubby savannah interspersed with white gum trees and termite mounds. The kind of country that would be fun to walk with sturdy boots and a good stick, and perhaps anti-venom. I looked for koala in the trees, but they would be hard to spot because they are so still. Rolling mountains framed the backdrop, with trees lacing the horizon. Beyond that, blue skies and puffy white clouds.

The Mareeba area is agricultural. Atherton is bigger, but still has the flavor of a wild west country town.

And now here we are at the Malanda Lodge Motel dining room having dinner. I ordered mushroom soup and salad and Gary got a Cajun pork filet with potatoes and vegetables. This place has a slight Bates Motel feel: it’s way too big for the amount of clientele it can serve, and sort of old and out of the way.

There’s a beautiful expanse of lawn behind it though, and friendly owners.

How can it keep the restaurant open and everything going? Maybe it does big business on weekends with locals, weddings, etc. Based on a brochure we’d seen at the coffee farm, we picked this hotel, which turned out to be a good choice. It’s really quiet and the dinner was delicious — I’ve never had such a tender pork — and the salad was fresh, the vegetables cooked perfectly, the mushroom soup rich and redolent.
After dinner, we went out on the patio and walked out to star gaze. So clear in this crisp air: Alpha Centari, twinkling red, green, and gold; and two Magellanic Clouds (galaxies) in the south. Sagittarius upside down in the NW; The Pleiades in the North. (“Seven Sisters” in Queensland also refers to a group of small mountains on the Atherton Tableland.) A bat winging overhead silently, its black stealth matched by the golden arcs of silent shooting stars.
Tomorrow we find our way back to Cairns, to an unknown as yet hotel. Saturday we return our car and fly to Sydney.
Friday, November 16
9:40 am Today we’re headed north from Malanda to Cairns. I’m waiting for Gary to take a shower and pack so we can leave. Earlier today I spotted a sweet, tightly knit bird’s nest after watching a small, phoebe-like bird defend it from a large magpie.

There’s nothing in the nest. It’s on a too-low branch. Trouble with proportions at this motel? But it’s been a lovely stay, with the delicious dinner, unharried pace (till this morning, when, as usual, I’m chafing at the bit to check out in time), star-gazing, and bird watching. Two bright lorikeets just flew over and Gary came out in time to see their rainbow colors.
On our trip north from Malanda to Cairns, this little guy approached our car.

We stopped at Neruda Tea for a sandwich and scone and pot of tea and bought two teacups.

We stopped and swam at Lake Eacham in Crater Lakes National Park. At the lake, we met a nice German woman named Gaby who is traveling on her own after quitting a corporate job and having to lay off 500 people. She can be in Australia for 12 months if she leaves every 3 months. Smart lady. I’m sunburned from swimming in the wonderful, clean, fresh water in the crater lake.

The road down the mountain from the crater lakes was pretty harrowing. The dairylands NE of pastoral Malanda gave way to a winding road with huge boulders that workers were shoring up in places. So it was with both relief and regret that we popped out on Hwy 1 in the SW suburbs of Cairns.
It is now 6 pm on Friday and we are staying at the Sheridan Plaza Hotel in Cairns. It’s in our old “neighborhood” of N. City Centre, but back from the beach, so it’s cheaper than Mercure Harbourside at $130. I think it’s the first place we’ve stayed in Australia that has a “puffy” bed. Most are hard and flat and give good sleep.

Sometimes I think we’re the only people in Australia. As our photos show, many places we stay are unpopulated. Or we see two or three other couples or families.
Saturday, November 17
11:50 am Sitting on a Boeing 767–338 awaiting departure from Cairns to Sydney. We turned in our blue Nissan Micra without incident. (Though I thought we’d be flattened or squeezed yesterday in passing a truck that had pulled off the side and kept going at a slow pace, as another car approached us on the right.)
As we packed to leave, I hated to jettison a 4X beer, cut lemon, parmesan cheese, and the TBS of detergent I’d carried so faithfully since Uluru. But they had served us well. I also jettisoned a broken plastic soap carrier and contact lens solution, and all the coffee and sugar packets we’d squirreled away. I reluctantly parted with the little stash of red seeds/beads. My conscience is clear, except for the seeds in 3 necklaces I’m smuggling in. Couldn’t part with my black flip flops just yet, so I changed my mind and fished them out of the trash.

I found a $2 coin after we went through security in Cairns. I think I’ve found about $4 on the ground on this trip. So far it’s been a charmed trip, but I can’t say that with confidence until we’re safely home.
This trip could have maybe been a day or two shorter, but maybe that would have made it too rushed. And that swim yesterday in the soft, refreshing, still waters of Eacham Lake certainly took the sting out of traveling, the stink out of driving.
Sat evening, 7:00 Sydney Now we are in a restaurant just under the Central Station Hotel. We’re trying to order cheap, but my goodness, prices are high all over Australia for food. We only have about $52 to last us through the train ride to the airport, breakfast, and dinner tonight. The hotel is nice and modern and maybe even hip — the rooms, that is. The exterior looks run down and faded. We are near Chinatown. I guess we’ll pay tonight’s bill with a VISA since it’ll come to about $50. I’m sleepy…hope we can get up early and do the town. Too tired to walk around tonight.
Sunday, November 18
We checked out of Central Station Hotel (“Your Place to be”) and found the clerk to be quite talkative, unlike his taciturn self of the night before. He riffed on America for awhile with Gary about wanting to go to the central US or to Maine — somewhere out of the rat race — if he ever visited the US. How regions are so different, unlike in Australia, and that’s probably because there are more separate states in the US, more cultural diversity. He had the idea that most are rednecks who like their guns. He is from New Zealand.
So we stored our luggage and walked up Pitt St. to Ted’s Camera to get Gary’s 8 MB memory card replaced. Had an omelette and pancakes. Picked up our luggage and walked to Central Station. Charged another $30.80 to get train tix to the Intl airport train stop. But it is easy to navigate from the train to the terminal, and pretty quick (15 min or so).
The Qantas terminal was 1 billion times easier to negotiate than the terminals in NYC or London! 1) Check our bags and get our boarding passes. 2) Fill out a declaration form about who we are and where we went in Australia and what flight we’re on, 3) go through security, 4) to to TRS in the duty free area to get the $62 in taxes that we paid refunded to our credit card. (You only use tax relief services if you’ve paid more than $300 for goods at any one stop.) 5) Find Gate 9. Three different flights were leaving from Sydney for LAX at these times: 2:40, 3:00, 3:40. We saw 4 pilots board this plane. I guess that’s so they can rest. OK, here we go — gonna take off. Wish us luck in this A380–800 Airbus behemoth. This plane is arranged 3–4–3 seats, and there’s an upstairs area. First/biz class is in the front of the plane. Time to bury my head in a book. Goodbye, dear diary, and thanks for playing. We can watch lift-off from the camera on the tail.

Oh, the turquoise sea!

Life is but a dream — a charmed one — until we reach our final destination.