Round-Abouts and Tidy Towns

Now that we are back at home we've had time for reflection on some things that added meaning to our trip:

The friendliness of so many people... Lots of people recognized our accent as being US and asked where we were from (in the US). Some wondered if we were from Canada (close, eh?).

The young waitress in Cairns who was surprised to learn that we are from north of Seattle - she is from Federal Way! ...and working her way around the world.

Driving on the left side of the road - we left all of that to Bob and Cheryl, but it was still weird... especially when we came to round-abouts. And there are lots of them! Dave has enough heartburn with round-abouts in the US. Put us on the other side of the road and driving the circles in the opposite direction?... insane! Bob and Cheryl are good drivers and were most gracious to take us anywhere we wanted to go. BTW... Sometimes an Aussie would comment to us "Oh, you drive on the wrong side of the road." Good perspective.

Pickled beets are a common condiment on burgers and are a delicious addition, in our opinion at least. It would sometimes be listed on the menu as "beet root." Well... that's true.

Scones are lovely, but nothing like the sweet treats we are used to in the states. They are similar to baking powder biscuits and are served with jam and whipped cream. Yum! But please pronounce them sc.ah.ns when in Australia.

Tables are set with knives and forks. Teaspoons (small - holding a literal teaspoon or less) are served with coffee or tea for stirring. I'm sure those around us could immediately tell we were from some strange place by the way we held our utensils; forks are generally held "turned over" in one hand with the knife in the other used to push the food onto the back of the fork. What we do is called "parking the knife": laying it the edge of the plate and picking it up only to cut something.

Virtually all toilets have a dual flush system - a "half" flush when not much water is needed to clear the contents, and a full flush when... well, you get the picture. Both are commonly found as a round button on the top of the toilet. It is the law that all new construction or remodel must have this system.

Cricket (the game, not the insect)... With a little coaching from Bob during the Ashes - a hotly contested series of matches between Australia and England - Dave picked up the basic play and some of the strategy. As this year's contest was played in Britain, the Andrews household stayed up late to watch much of it. What's not to like about a game played over a maximum of 5 days, 6 hours per day with a break for lunch and another for tea?!
 
"How're you going?" Whenever we Americans might say "How's it coming?" Australians will always use the prior wording.

Pubs... the place where everyone eats. If you want a fine or fancy meal you can go to a restaurant, but pubs serve quality food for the Everyman along with varieties of live music or multiple sporting events to be seen on multiple screens. (Did we tell you that the Aussies really, really, REALLY love their sports!) Young adults can often be found jamming the pubs after a day at work. One well-known pub not far from the Andrew's home must cover 3-4 acres, indoor and "outdoor"... plus the parking! Weekend evenings will find that one huge pub overflowing with humanity.

Tidy Towns... We saw several towns of varying sizes proudly displaying a plaque proclaiming it to be a Tidy Town. Indeed, these towns were exceptionally neat, clean, parks and greenery well maintained, all projecting the sense that the leaders and citizens took great pride in their place, locally and nationally.

War memorials... in virtually every town we visited there was a memorial in a central park or along a main street listing the names of all the young men from that place or region who gave their lives in the many conflicts over the centuries, whether for the Commonwealth, the nation, or its allies. From the Boer War, to the Great War (WWI) and beyond, Aussies have become known for their toughness in battle... a part of their national psyche carried proudly, even as they gave essentially an entire generation of young men in the Great War defending Mother Britain.

And last, but certainly not least, the strong fellowship and friendships formed in our relatively brief time with friends of the Andrews family... folks we are happy now to call our friends, too!

Where has the time gone? . . .

It is now Sunday evening after a day with worship and a house full of friends and family noisily catching up on our travels and deepening our relationships before we jet off tomorrow for home in the northern hemisphere.  We've gotten to know some great people while we've been here and could be seeing some of them in the next year or two as we've invited many to stop in and use our guest room if they are ever coming through.  But for now, time is quickly slipping away.

We had spent Friday night at a nice hotel in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains and got up to make one more visit to the little Megalong Valley Tea Rooms for a delicious breakfast, or "brekkie" as the Aussie term goes.  We just couldn't stay away from the friendly comfort of the place and the people.  We then proceeded to squeeze in as much viewing of the beauty of the mountains and the valley as we could before making our way back down to a late dinner with the whole Andrews family, recapping some of our adventures and observations and having one more good family time together.

And now, as the song goes, our bags are packed (well, 98%) and we're ready to go... tired but full of joy and profoundly thankful for the opportunity to visit dear family and make wonderful new friends as well as to see and learn so much about this amazing land down under and the people who live here.  We have a pile of memories to unpack and savor for a long time to come.  We'll be writing one more post... this one just some reflections on some of the things and experiences that have made this whole trip so delightful along the way.

And, yes, it is a bit strange to be getting on the plane in Sydney at 1:40pm on Monday and, twenty-four hours later be getting off the connecting flight from LAX in SEATAC at only 4:50pm on the same Monday!

A few closing images...

A lovely breakfast in a lovely place near the fire to ward of the morning chill.

Picnic, anyone?  A great little shelter in the freshening wind.

I don't think I'll ever tire of the gum trees, especially the white ones...

. . . nor of the beautiful sandstone cliffs.

Bob and Cheryl, our intrepid hosts and guides in this wonderful adventure.

The Three Sisters... pillars of stone overlooking the Megalong Valley.
The Blue Mountains are a must-see if you ever visit this region.

And in the end, the mountains . . .

Becky again: This particular trip within our trip has involved a lot of sight-seeing in absolutely beautiful country. The Blue Mts. of Eastern Australia are known as the Great Dividing Range because they are the highest mountains between the east and west coasts of the continent. They are not the sharper peaks of the Cascades, but are flat-topped sandstone escarpments, somewhat resembling the Grand Canyon area. They are made up of sandstone cliffs, topped by flat table lands, with deep forest and meadow covered valleys.

We left Cheryl and Bob's house mid-morning yesterday (Thursday) for a sunny drive punctuated by stops at viewpoints overlooking ranches, waterfalls, and winding through small towns. Along the way we detoured down a narrow steep winding road into the Megalong Valley where we stopped for lunch at the Megalong Tearooms. It was a special place with charm, delicious food and the typical Aussie warmth and friendliness.

Bob was outstanding as a guide giving us historical tidbits about the region and particular towns and industries in this vast rolling rural countryside. We saw herds of cattle and sheep grazing, coal fired power plants fed by near-by mines, and vineyards and wineries. By dark we'd arrived in Mudgee where we settled into a nice clean motel and walked down the quiet streets of this little country town to a pub for dinner.

This morning after breakfast we got a good look at a bustling Mudgee in the sunshine. Mudgee is in the center of one of the key Australian wine-growing areas and the town has many good resturants, interesting shops, well-kept 19th century buildings, wide tree-lined streets, and at least three beautiful old brick and stone churches. After exploring downtown, we took a short walk through a park along a small river, then got back into the car and headed off to visit a couple of wineries. The second one we visited was on the side of a hill where after tasting some of the wines we had a lunch of locally made cheeses, honeycomb, and fig and walnut sweets and really good coffee. It was a liesurely lunch overlooking not only the vineyard but a small ranch with cattle and a mob of kangaroos feeding in one of the pastures. It was exciting to see several groups of kangaroos in the wild over the last couple of days.

This evening we've retraced our path from Mudgee back to Blackheath, one of the small mountain towns we drove through yesterday. Once again we're in a lovely motel room, having had another delicious pub meal, this one with a glass of warm mulled wine to help ward off the chill of the winter mountain air.

It's hard to believe that with tomorrow comes the end of our trips within this great adventure. We want to get this entry posted with some pictures before a busy day Sunday with worship, friends and family, and the all-important (and challenging) job of packing for the long flight home on Monday. We hope to write a bit more during the flight about our impressions and the wonderful time we've had on our first visit down under.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Bob and Cheryl not only for their hospitality, but for their hard work and thorough planning that has made this whole wonderful experience go so smoothly. Bob put in many hours making reservations and tracking details, carrying around the file folder with all the important documents so that we could get on the right planes and trains, and check into comfortable lodgings. In addition, he's filled us in on lots of fascinating and insightful information about what we were seeing and where we were going. Cheryl and I have had precious sister-time to remember and share stories of Hood River and college and our lives lived separated by many years and miles, yet always connected by love and understanding. It will be hard to say good-bye to them and Becky, Marcie, Geoff, Cami and Nathan, even though we know we'll see each other again.

This is enough for tonight.

At the neat, clean and very pretty city park in Mudgee.  We are admiring the old gum tree.

Admiring the Gardens of Stone from an overlook on the way back from Mudgee.

A portion of the Megalong Valley nearing sunset.

Returning on the uphill climb from a viewpoint overlooking Wentworth Falls... getting our exercise!

Another view of a portion of the Megalong Valley from another location.  A good deal of the forest below is made up of gum trees like the one by which Becky is standing, only many even larger.

We are making our way along a path on the ridgeline for another view of the valley.  The tea room at which we would eat breakfast again the next morning is at the north end of the meadow far below, just left of center in this photo.

The above-mentioned meadow as seen from the tea room.

Becky practicing her mountain goat skills.

Canberra - Day Two . . .

Becky here: Tuesday morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast in the hotel and then headed out to see Australia's lovely and unique Parliament House. It's a relatively new structure, completed in 1988 and built into a hill with striking modern architecture. We spent a couple of hours looking at the beautiful wood and marble entry and grand hall, exhibits (including one of the rare copies of the Magna Carta), and chambers of the House and Senate.

Leaving the Parliament House, we drove up to the top of Black Mt. and rode the lift to the top of the Telstra Tower. Telstra is an Australian telecommunications company which included a rotating restaurant and indoor and outdoor observation decks about 18 stories up on the tower rising up from the hill on which it sits. We enjoyed the 360 degree view of the city and bowl in which it's situated. Dave walked all the way around the viewing platform taking pictures that he plans to make into a continuous view of the city and surrounding countryside... kind of a poor man's IMAX.

Our final stop of the day was at the National Museum of Australia. This beautiful museum holds permanent and special exhibits and enough interesting information to engage one's senses mind for many hours. Since we only had a couple of hours before we needed to head back to Sydney, Dave and I had to choose just two of the galleries. The first, titled the Old New Land Gallery, examined Australia's diverse and unique species and environments in exhibits highlighting how people have responded and adapted to the land over time.

The second, titled Landmarks, included more than 1500 objects exploring Australian history since European settlement through places across the continent. The stories of these communities and the individuals and their families were fascinating and we were sorry we didn't have more time to read and learn.

It's now Wednesday night and after a day of doing laundry and taking a trip into the Westmead area of Sydney to see Cheryl's clinic, checking out Nathan's high-rise Sydney apartment with it's spectacular view of the Harbor Bridge and eating a delicious Italian dinner in the city, we're winding down and getting ready for our final trip-within-this-trip. We leave tomorrow morning for a couple of nights in and around the Blue Mts. at Mudgee and Blackheath. It's hard to believe that our time here is drawing to a close. We've got a few more sites to see before we hop on the plane next Monday, however.

The fourth floor view of the hotel lobby with its several informal meeting spaces for business people (to the right) and the stairs leading down to the restaurant (to the left and underneath the visible structure) which served a sumptuous buffet breakfast which we enjoyed on our last morning here.  There was a chef who cooks your eggs to order, even our omelettes!

One of the two large lawns leading up to the roof viewing area of the central spaces of the Parliament House. 
Note the massive flagpole rising above it all.

The entrance to the lobby and main public spaces of the Parliament House.  For perspective, can you see the woman in red?

The Australian crest at the top of the building façade, also located in each of the two houses of Parliament.

These massive grey marble columns in the lobby evoke the massive grey gum trees so prevalent throughout the land.
There are a great many such visual symbols, some obvious and some subtle throughout the building.

The beautiful grand room where formal balls and events are held. 
Again, the massive tapestry evokes many aspects of the land and it's people.
For perspective, see the smaller people-doors along the sides.

The bicycle of Ernie Old, my newest hero, who rode across the Australian continent to each of the state capitols in his 70's.  He was still riding long distances up to age 86!  That was in 1960!  Read the panel below for the amazing story.

Look at the map of his "capitol" rides and imagine that rugged and barren landscape in the 1940's and 50's!

Becky and Dave at windows of the Telstra Tower overlooking the core of the city of Canberra.

A few more images on the road southward

I'm adding a few more just to give you a bit more of the flavour of the town of Kangaroo Valley.

Yes, they also have a sense of humor.

"Southern," as in Australia, and "Pies" as in meat pies.  Yum!

Nothing like a good cup of coffee on a sunny café deck to get the morning started!

I could really get used to this retirement thing.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Going South . . .

. . . to the Kangaroo Valley and on to Canberra.

Saturday, July 27, we drove through Sydney and down more of the beautiful coastline, stopping to admire the many mountainous headlands and the surf crashing on large shelves of sandstone from which fishermen cast their baits into the sea. For all its beauty, that is a very dangerous place to fish! As we proceeded down the coast we passed through several beach towns stopping at one to eat our picnic lunch and watch the surfers catch a few waves. It was another beautiful sunny day gradually changing to broken clouds as we traveled southward. Along the way we also drove up to a very high escarpment to have coffee, tea and cake at a lovely little place called Cliffhangers. That name is descriptive of the location as the deck of the restaurant literally hangs over the cliff's edge with a dizzying view downward... if one cares to look.

Not long after, we took the fork in the road that began shifting us a bit more inland, terminating our day's travel with a winding road down into a beautiful green valley rimmed with sandstone cliffs that led us to the town with the valley name: Kangaroo Valley. It is a small but popular town for the travelers with a picturesque one-lane bridge and some very nice little shops and cafes including a woodcraft shop where the young wood-worker was selling hand-crafted toys and doll houses, bowls, clocks, housewares and the most beautifully carved rocking horses I've ever seen.

The next morning we drove out into the valley a ways to see the verdant forests and ranch-land before continuing on southward to Canberra, the capitol city of Australia. Bob and Cheryl had gotten us all a special rate on very lovely rooms in a fine hotel. We timed our arrival in order to participate in a special choral evensong at All Saints' Anglican Church, a beautiful little sandstone church building with a unique history. Wonderful music, song, and an excellent and timely homily by the Rev. Michael Faragher made it a very meaningful time of worship for us all.

Today, Monday, we spent the middle of the day at the Australian Museum of War, undertaking a 90 minute tour lead by a very knowledgeable volunteer guide who took care to remind us that the museum, while very much a part of the nation's history, is filled and focused particularly on the stories of the men and women who fought for and alongside their country. The wars and conflicts in which Australians have been engaged, even before officially becoming a nation in 1901, have been many and in places we may not have noticed.  We had people in our tour group from Australia, of course... including a father and son who had come to donate to the museum photos, equipment and medals of a father and grandfather who had fought in WWII and the Great War (WWI), respectively. We Americans, a couple from South Africa, and a couple of young men from Nepal rounded out our group. Our guide did a wonderful job of pointing out various portions and personal stories connecting all of our various nations to Australian wartime history. It is clear that these military struggles have been a strong factor in establishing the Australian national psyche and identity in the world today.

We'll be touring the National Museum of Australia before leaving Canberra and will have more to say about that, I'm sure.

The magnificent eastern coast of Australia.  We saw surfers at various small beaches all along the way.
Fishermen cast from shelves of sandstone rock over which waves wash depending on the tide.  Very dangerous!

Lunch while enjoying the view and watching surfers and families play on this nice sunny winter day.

Coffee and cake at Cliffhangers.  We had driven up from the beaches far below.
Bob and Becky had the lemon meringue.  Cheryl had scones and I had the black forest cake.  All to drool for!

The one-lane Hampden Bridge at one end of the town of Kangaroo Valley.

It was a very small town, but a great place to stop for the night. 
Be sure to check out the magnificent rocking horses at the Wood Gallery.  The ones you see here are the "lower end."

Fitzroy Falls at a roadside park along the way out of the Kangaroo Valley.

One of the farms on the floor of the Kangaroo Valley.  Lots of dairy, and even a vineyard!

The Kangaroo Valley is not all flat!  Note the sandstone cliffs at the valley rim.

 

All Saints' Anglican Church actually began life in 1863 as a mortuary in a different place.  When the mortuary was going to be razed, someone had the vision to see further use.  The building was deconstructed stone by stone and rebuilt at its current location in 1958.  The interior is lovely wood and stone.  The Even Song service was wonderful!

 

The park view from our room at the Royal Crowne Plaza.

From a high viewpoint one can see the purposeful design of the capitol city, Canberra.  The green-domed brown structure in the foreground is the Australia War Museum looking down the monument-lined avenue across the lake past the old parliament building to the new Parliament Building beyond.

The large valley around Canberra gives one the clear sense that Australia is a big land!

One of two long memorial walls (the other is to the right of the large patio below) listing the fallen in all the country's conflicts and wars since before Australia was a commonwealth nation. 
This was at the beginning of a very informative 90-minute tour.

Bondi on my mind . . .

Today was an "at home" day, so we drove through the city (Sydney) to Bondi (pr. bond.eye) Beach on the south coast.  There is a surfaced path all along the headlands of that area, so we set out to walk about 6 kilometres south to Coogee.  The views were some combination of spectacular, stunning, and just plain breath-taking.  Of course, the sun was shining in the clear blue sky and lots of walkers and runners were using the path, although not so many as will be on the weekend.

Every beach along the way had an ocean-side salt-water pool built at one end among the tidal rocks in such a way that the waves would keep washing "new" water into the pool where people were swimming.  One bay even had a natural long channel running inland about 100 yards where people were swimming in the swells generated by the tidal waves.  Some people were even swimming out in the open ocean and among the surfers waiting to catch a wave.

We actually walked through several communities on the way, each with its own shape of bay or beach that dictated the path and the amenities and activities that were available... and there were many very nice facilities and beaches.  One community of note is Waverley... due to its massive cemetery covering "quite a few acres" and coming right to the walkway above the beach.  This has got to be some of the most expensive real estate in Sydney.  And some of the graves looked to be pretty old.  There were even a few substantial above-ground family vaults near the beach, which caused my "Far Side" theological bent to wonder if they were all having a party in there.

As the Aussies would say, it was a brilliant day... with lots of sunshine, too!  If this keeps up, Becky and I will return home with far better tans from wintering in Australia than we've ever had from summers in the Pacific Northwest!

Unfortunately, we cannot show you many of the magnificent vistas we enjoyed throughout the walk because I forgot to charge the camera battery yesterday... way to go, Dave!  It died with the third picture of Bondi Beach at the beginning of the walk.  I tried using the photo function of our DV camera, but it only produces low resolution shots.  So, I am attaching only a small number of shots from the day.  Sorry about that. 

(I've also added some shots Bob took as we arrived at Coogee.  I know.  It's a tough life, but somebody has to do it!)

Whatever the case, please accept my strong recommendation that you be sure to do some of the Bondi Beach walking trail if you ever visit this area.

Bondi Beach on a beautiful winter day.

Looking down the length of Bondi Beach... lots of surfers out for a Friday. 
(The bad news: my camera battery died with this last shot, so I had to resort to low res shots with the video cam.)

 

It is a beautiful rocky sandstone coastline.
(This is a low resolution shot with the DV cam)

 

Becky looks out over the Pacific from the walkway high above the rocks and surf at Waverley.
Note the very large cemetery off to the right.  It extends back up the slope to the right for several acres.
(This is a low resolution shot with the DV cam)
 

Bob shot this from the beach at Coogee... if you look carefully at the two figures standing up in the park at the left center you will discover that they are Becky and me, just coming down the path and stopping to take a picture.

Arrival at Coogee!  What a beautiful day to walk the coastal pathway!

Nothing like a good lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel overlooking the beach.  Great burger and fish and chips!
Did I mention that this is winter in Australia?

Looking on down the beach at Coogee.  There were actually a lot more people around than this photo would indicate.