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Monday, 12 March... Another Flight (another day?) this time from Uluru, returning to Sydney...
Back in Sydney, we considered the train, but took a cab... With 4 of us traveling together it was much cheaper (but not necessarily faster). Back at the B&B... Then off to dinner, at the Australian Hotel, established 1889... So says the bar coaster... Sitting outside, drinking and eating pizza and beef pies... There were chips too...
Back to the hotel, to bed, a bit early, as our internal clocks are still not quite on local time... Which is a fluid concept... Uluru was an hour and a half ahead of Sydney... Sydney was 5 hours ahead of home when we arrived but is only 4 hours now due to daylight savings time changing....
Now Tuesday, 13, March... Up early, showered, then I took a walk in search of our ship... I found it in Darling Harbor... Returned to the B&B... For a wonderful breakfast, then repacking, hauling the bags down. We have luggage... It's a three week trip... Hot in Sydney and Uluru, then much cooler over the rest of the trip... Plus Formal wear for aboard... There are 4 of us... 3 of whom are women... We have more luggage than 18th century British Army general on campaign. (British Army generals were known having luggage caravans... Numerous wagons piled high with luggage). We do not have wagons loaded with luggage, but have a pile...
We hailed a taxi, a maxi taxi due to the volume of luggage, then off for a quick trip to the ship. Baggage checked, checked in, It took less than 5 minutes... Everyone was friendly... All is good... They are boarding early... At 11:30 rather than 1:00 as advertized... Now 11:35, and they are calling our boarding group... Onboard before noon. More later.
Now late... We were in our cabin by 11:50... Had a light lunch on the Lido, then having 5+ hours before we sailed, I disembarked, walked up Darling Harbor to the Australian Maritime museum... Toured a destroyer, a submarine and their galleries... One floor was,dedicated to the United States, particularly the "Great White Fleet" and it's visit to Australia in 1908... Walking back, I found an ATM and got money for Melbourne...
Back aboard, I took a quick shower, and we walked about, exploring the ship, killing time until the dreaded lifeboat drill... At least dreaded until the recent unpleasant experience of the Costa Concordia... Now people accept the drill as a necessary evil, rather than just torture. The names of each passenger, by cabin were read, and their presence recorded, along with an announcement that "Passengers who do not participate, will not be allowed to sail...". Tanya, one of Tina's sister wasn't feeling well, and needed it sit down during the drill... Which resulted in the ship's Dr. Checking her, and clearing her (at least as a threat to the other passenger's heath...)
Life boat drill completed, we stopped by our cabin, then went to the Crow's Nest ( a bar, high up, facing forward, great view) for the sail away... The ship had been docked in Darling Harbor, so to get to sea, we passed under the Sidney Bridge, past the circular quay and opera house, even then it was some miles before we reached the South Pacific...
Dinner followed at 8:00, (formerly known as the late seating), then, off to bed... We were all tired...
Ayers Rock - Uluru
Early Sunday, Sydney...
Up early (I awoke at the first signs of dawn, took a shower and headed out for a walk... Sydney does nor rise early, at least not in the Rocks on a Sunday morning. There were lots of people about, mostly public workers cleaning streets or getting the street market area ready, but no coffee in evidence, and no stray wifi hotspots...
I return to the B&B, where the ladies were more or less ready, for breakfast in their garden... The breakfast was wonderful, eggs cooked to order, bacon, tomatoes, plus toast, cereal, fruit and juice... Properly fortified, we grabbed our over night bags (we left most of our luggage at the B&B) hailed a cab and headed for the airport, and Ayers Rock...
We checked in, then headed for security... It was a bit different... Belts and shoes on, but iPad out, and a notably, no one checked ID... Once through, I was selected for pad rub down... They are looking for nitrate residue... I have seen it used in the US as well... Nitrates are a key component in most explosives, but also in fertilizer... I understand that walking across a recently treated lawn could set the thing off. I had not walked across a recently furtilized lawn, nor had I been playing with random explosives, and was allowed to continue.
Once at the gate, I pulled out my laptop, and found a free wifi connection, uploaded the blog entry from the flight, the first of the photos, and did a cursory check of my email accounts... They called our flight before I could finish my second blog post, (this being the third blog post) or tie the uploaded photos to the blog.
Now aboard Virgin Australia Flt 1167 headed towards a big red rock... It feels like a short commuter flight, but in fact is 2.5 hours and a time zone away.
I have a window seat, and get to watch a as first Sydeny, then the Blue Mountains fade into the red dirt of the outback. Now, a hour and a half or so into the flight, we are passing ( ) lake... A classic mostly dry dessert lake with no outflow... Strangely familiar to someone from the American southwest... as the lake passes below, it quickly becomes quite hazy, either clouds or fog... I can't really tell, and gets a bit rough. Now a half hour later... The sun is out although I can see clouds, both high and low about as well. Here the land is bright red, with little vegetation, and from the air, lots of dry water courses... Why is it the effects of water on land scape are most visible in an air landscape? We have now been in the air for 2 hours, (i think we just srarted our decent) and for the first and for the first time since the Blue Mtns, an hour and a half ago I saw a sign of human occupation... A small town... Likely less than 100 people... There have previously been the occasional track... The scar from a dirt road, but nothing else... This more than anything may define the outback.
Ayers rock now out the window below... As identifiable, as striking as expected... Electronics need to be off... Or as the cabin stewart said, "All electronic equipment must be touched off" .... More later...
We are now safely at Ayers Rock Resort... Not unlike what I would expect if you took Yosemite's Ahwahnee, the Yosemite Lodge, and Camp Curry, and transported them to the outback next to a big red rock placed on a big round about... (There is also "Longitude 131, The very exclusive resort, not on the loop, reportedly, $2,200 per night, 2 night minimum, and no, we didn' stay there, and oh, yes, it is a tent camp) It is all about the place, Uluru, and it's lesser known sister Kata Tjuta... But visitor come, and visitors must be accommodated. Accommodations are a bit sparse, and somewhat expensive... This is the price you pay to see the rock, this place. On the other hand, we have a bar here... A roof, with mostly no walls, pool tables, cook your own Barb-be... Strangely, it does not feel like a created place... But you do have to have a room key or drinking card to drink there... I have a drinking card, likely to become a treasured souvenir...
Tonight we (all 4 of us) will have a sunset meal in the outback, watch the rock turn bright red, and the sky fade to black in a place with no man made light, and all the stars in the world. It will be a tourist experience, but a tourist experience based on a place not created for tourists. Tomorrow, Tina and I will rise before dawn, and head our to the desert, for "Desert Awakenings", a 4 wheel drive into the park, to watch the sunrise, and have a breakfast cooked outside over a camp fire. This too a created tourist experience... Again, at a place not created for tourists... The sisters will sleep in rather than join us...
Tomorrow afternoon we will fly back to Sydney, to our B&B, where our luggage awaits... For another night... And day, before boarding the Volendam, our ship, for our cruise to Melbourne, Bourne, and New Zealand.
Late report... Our sunset experience, was wonderful... Bus ride to an overlook, champagne and hor de voids... Then down to dinner... Good food, free flowing wine, a star talk... Table talk... Then home... On the way there we saw ferel camels... On the way back we saw a dingo... We shared a table with an American couple, now living in Melbourne, an English woman, a gent off a cattle ranch, and two Chinese women from Melbourne... Talk was good...
And an even later report... Desert Awakenings was better than expected, and fully worth the effort of rising well before dawn... A small 4wd bus took 16 of out a dirt track to a private overlook where they served breakfast as the sun rose... Then back aboard for a trip around the rock, with several short hikes, then a visit to the Park's cultural center... The thing that made it was our driver/guide Melissa... her knowledge, her stories were great... The tour was about the aboriginal view, stories, and relationship with Uluru. It turned out Desert Awakenings is run by Longitude 131, and currently is the only tour offered to people not staying at their resort. Then back to the hotel for a ride to the airport, for the flight back to Sydney
PS... I am writing these posts faster than I am finding places to post them... the first 12 photos are up on Picasa at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108652524348276372534/Sidney12Photos?authuser=0&feat=directlink, but not yet linked to the blog
Up early (I awoke at the first signs of dawn, took a shower and headed out for a walk... Sydney does nor rise early, at least not in the Rocks on a Sunday morning. There were lots of people about, mostly public workers cleaning streets or getting the street market area ready, but no coffee in evidence, and no stray wifi hotspots...
I return to the B&B, where the ladies were more or less ready, for breakfast in their garden... The breakfast was wonderful, eggs cooked to order, bacon, tomatoes, plus toast, cereal, fruit and juice... Properly fortified, we grabbed our over night bags (we left most of our luggage at the B&B) hailed a cab and headed for the airport, and Ayers Rock...
We checked in, then headed for security... It was a bit different... Belts and shoes on, but iPad out, and a notably, no one checked ID... Once through, I was selected for pad rub down... They are looking for nitrate residue... I have seen it used in the US as well... Nitrates are a key component in most explosives, but also in fertilizer... I understand that walking across a recently treated lawn could set the thing off. I had not walked across a recently furtilized lawn, nor had I been playing with random explosives, and was allowed to continue.
Once at the gate, I pulled out my laptop, and found a free wifi connection, uploaded the blog entry from the flight, the first of the photos, and did a cursory check of my email accounts... They called our flight before I could finish my second blog post, (this being the third blog post) or tie the uploaded photos to the blog.
Now aboard Virgin Australia Flt 1167 headed towards a big red rock... It feels like a short commuter flight, but in fact is 2.5 hours and a time zone away.
I have a window seat, and get to watch a as first Sydeny, then the Blue Mountains fade into the red dirt of the outback. Now, a hour and a half or so into the flight, we are passing ( ) lake... A classic mostly dry dessert lake with no outflow... Strangely familiar to someone from the American southwest... as the lake passes below, it quickly becomes quite hazy, either clouds or fog... I can't really tell, and gets a bit rough. Now a half hour later... The sun is out although I can see clouds, both high and low about as well. Here the land is bright red, with little vegetation, and from the air, lots of dry water courses... Why is it the effects of water on land scape are most visible in an air landscape? We have now been in the air for 2 hours, (i think we just srarted our decent) and for the first and for the first time since the Blue Mtns, an hour and a half ago I saw a sign of human occupation... A small town... Likely less than 100 people... There have previously been the occasional track... The scar from a dirt road, but nothing else... This more than anything may define the outback.
Ayers rock now out the window below... As identifiable, as striking as expected... Electronics need to be off... Or as the cabin stewart said, "All electronic equipment must be touched off" .... More later...
We are now safely at Ayers Rock Resort... Not unlike what I would expect if you took Yosemite's Ahwahnee, the Yosemite Lodge, and Camp Curry, and transported them to the outback next to a big red rock placed on a big round about... (There is also "Longitude 131, The very exclusive resort, not on the loop, reportedly, $2,200 per night, 2 night minimum, and no, we didn' stay there, and oh, yes, it is a tent camp) It is all about the place, Uluru, and it's lesser known sister Kata Tjuta... But visitor come, and visitors must be accommodated. Accommodations are a bit sparse, and somewhat expensive... This is the price you pay to see the rock, this place. On the other hand, we have a bar here... A roof, with mostly no walls, pool tables, cook your own Barb-be... Strangely, it does not feel like a created place... But you do have to have a room key or drinking card to drink there... I have a drinking card, likely to become a treasured souvenir...
Tonight we (all 4 of us) will have a sunset meal in the outback, watch the rock turn bright red, and the sky fade to black in a place with no man made light, and all the stars in the world. It will be a tourist experience, but a tourist experience based on a place not created for tourists. Tomorrow, Tina and I will rise before dawn, and head our to the desert, for "Desert Awakenings", a 4 wheel drive into the park, to watch the sunrise, and have a breakfast cooked outside over a camp fire. This too a created tourist experience... Again, at a place not created for tourists... The sisters will sleep in rather than join us...
Tomorrow afternoon we will fly back to Sydney, to our B&B, where our luggage awaits... For another night... And day, before boarding the Volendam, our ship, for our cruise to Melbourne, Bourne, and New Zealand.
Late report... Our sunset experience, was wonderful... Bus ride to an overlook, champagne and hor de voids... Then down to dinner... Good food, free flowing wine, a star talk... Table talk... Then home... On the way there we saw ferel camels... On the way back we saw a dingo... We shared a table with an American couple, now living in Melbourne, an English woman, a gent off a cattle ranch, and two Chinese women from Melbourne... Talk was good...
And an even later report... Desert Awakenings was better than expected, and fully worth the effort of rising well before dawn... A small 4wd bus took 16 of out a dirt track to a private overlook where they served breakfast as the sun rose... Then back aboard for a trip around the rock, with several short hikes, then a visit to the Park's cultural center... The thing that made it was our driver/guide Melissa... her knowledge, her stories were great... The tour was about the aboriginal view, stories, and relationship with Uluru. It turned out Desert Awakenings is run by Longitude 131, and currently is the only tour offered to people not staying at their resort. Then back to the hotel for a ride to the airport, for the flight back to Sydney
PS... I am writing these posts faster than I am finding places to post them... the first 12 photos are up on Picasa at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108652524348276372534/Sidney12Photos?authuser=0&feat=directlink, but not yet linked to the blog
Sydney
We landed at dawn... Cleared immigration and customs quickly, then grabbing a cab for our B&B in the rocks... We were earlier that expected, but the we're able to leave our luggage before setting off on foot to explore.
We walked down towards the circular quay (we discovered some question about how to pronounce the term) in search of coffee, and found a Starbucks...
Now caffeinated we set out to explore... It was quite early... A good bit before 9:00 am... We had reservations for an opera house tour at 11:00... So we headed away from the opera house back towards The Rocks and Sydney bridge... DownTown Sydney, at least the popular tourist areas, is quite tiny, and very walk able.
From the quay to the bridge is hundreds of yards rather than kilometers or fractions there of... We found and explored the weekend street market. The rocks is touristy, but full of locals... The market was more for locals than a t-shirt emporium. We climbed to the base of the bridge (The Rocks are steep and full of stairs, but not uncomfortably so)
Walked from the bridge to the opera house, along the edge of Sydney Harbour arriving 45 minutes before our scheduled tour (we had made our reservations on line) but were able to change our tour time...
The opera house was impressive, Spectacular buildings, interesting designs, complicated and optimistic story. It is the only World Heritage building to be listed while the architect was still alive.
Ate lunch in the Opera cafe, (not your typical museum or "site" cafe, high end food, sitting over looking Sydney harbor...) explored the Botanical Garden, with its flying foxes, really large fruit bats, then worked our way back via the street market to the B&B...
As we climbed the steps back up the hill we encountered a photo showing the same street from the same place 120 years ago... One of the prominent but now missing buildings recreated with a life size screen... All part of the Sydney "Bid Dig".... An archeological project, which included peripherally a house museum... ( of course I run a house museum, so was intregued)
Back at the B&B, I took a quick shower, the set off by myself, while T and her sister relaxed... I fee turned to the museum a block away... Suzanna place, a set of four row houses, here called "Terrace houses" The houses were occupied from the mid 1830's until the 1880's... the tour and stories were good. The preservation plan was not expected... The are preserving them as is... Peeling paint, sagging ceilings, furnishing each room to support a specific moment in time and a story... The tour guide carried an IPad loaded with photos... I would recommend it highly.
Exiting said house museum, I continued my walk, down to the Sidney bridge, then, north and east along the water front, a neighborhood of gentrified docks, now condos, with an amusing street art project and a sign, "END OF ART" nearby... I never determined if the sign was in fact art... It felt like it might be, even if unintentenal.
Back to the B&B to collect the women, Tina having done some research on local food... The was a well regarded pizza place 3 doors down... It was next to the youth hostel, was quite the place, particulaly with the hostel crowd...with at least 2 bachelorette parties (this might have served as a warning for the rest of the evening). We continued, down the street looking for a well regarded Bristol with a roof top beer garden... Sadly it was closed for renovation... Our search for dinner continued... It was a little before 6 local time, but much later according to our internal clocks... But Sydney (particularly, "The Rocks") is a late night party town... And at 6:00, we are terrably, unfasionably early... The bar scene was in full swing, but the food service had not yet begun... we considered finding drinks and waiting for food to find us, which would have been culturally adventuresome thing to do, but would have resulted in 3 or 4 very drunk Americans... We continued our search...
What had begun was an assault by brides with photoghers and bridesmaids, and groomsmen, most with white limos, some with flower girls, parents and other supporters... They were bloody everywhere... In at least one case there we're 3 bridal parties (most with multiple photographers) waiting for a specific spot... I suggested s drinking game which required the participants to each drink a beer for each bride that passed... The downside would be that one would get drunk way to rapidly...
We found a nice Italian place, ate, retuned to the B$B, and went to bed a little after 8:00... Tomorrow we head to Ayers Rock.
Now after dark, I can see the opera house from our window
We walked down towards the circular quay (we discovered some question about how to pronounce the term) in search of coffee, and found a Starbucks...
Now caffeinated we set out to explore... It was quite early... A good bit before 9:00 am... We had reservations for an opera house tour at 11:00... So we headed away from the opera house back towards The Rocks and Sydney bridge... DownTown Sydney, at least the popular tourist areas, is quite tiny, and very walk able.
From the quay to the bridge is hundreds of yards rather than kilometers or fractions there of... We found and explored the weekend street market. The rocks is touristy, but full of locals... The market was more for locals than a t-shirt emporium. We climbed to the base of the bridge (The Rocks are steep and full of stairs, but not uncomfortably so)
Walked from the bridge to the opera house, along the edge of Sydney Harbour arriving 45 minutes before our scheduled tour (we had made our reservations on line) but were able to change our tour time...
The opera house was impressive, Spectacular buildings, interesting designs, complicated and optimistic story. It is the only World Heritage building to be listed while the architect was still alive.
Ate lunch in the Opera cafe, (not your typical museum or "site" cafe, high end food, sitting over looking Sydney harbor...) explored the Botanical Garden, with its flying foxes, really large fruit bats, then worked our way back via the street market to the B&B...
As we climbed the steps back up the hill we encountered a photo showing the same street from the same place 120 years ago... One of the prominent but now missing buildings recreated with a life size screen... All part of the Sydney "Bid Dig".... An archeological project, which included peripherally a house museum... ( of course I run a house museum, so was intregued)
Back at the B&B, I took a quick shower, the set off by myself, while T and her sister relaxed... I fee turned to the museum a block away... Suzanna place, a set of four row houses, here called "Terrace houses" The houses were occupied from the mid 1830's until the 1880's... the tour and stories were good. The preservation plan was not expected... The are preserving them as is... Peeling paint, sagging ceilings, furnishing each room to support a specific moment in time and a story... The tour guide carried an IPad loaded with photos... I would recommend it highly.
Exiting said house museum, I continued my walk, down to the Sidney bridge, then, north and east along the water front, a neighborhood of gentrified docks, now condos, with an amusing street art project and a sign, "END OF ART" nearby... I never determined if the sign was in fact art... It felt like it might be, even if unintentenal.
Back to the B&B to collect the women, Tina having done some research on local food... The was a well regarded pizza place 3 doors down... It was next to the youth hostel, was quite the place, particulaly with the hostel crowd...with at least 2 bachelorette parties (this might have served as a warning for the rest of the evening). We continued, down the street looking for a well regarded Bristol with a roof top beer garden... Sadly it was closed for renovation... Our search for dinner continued... It was a little before 6 local time, but much later according to our internal clocks... But Sydney (particularly, "The Rocks") is a late night party town... And at 6:00, we are terrably, unfasionably early... The bar scene was in full swing, but the food service had not yet begun... we considered finding drinks and waiting for food to find us, which would have been culturally adventuresome thing to do, but would have resulted in 3 or 4 very drunk Americans... We continued our search...
What had begun was an assault by brides with photoghers and bridesmaids, and groomsmen, most with white limos, some with flower girls, parents and other supporters... They were bloody everywhere... In at least one case there we're 3 bridal parties (most with multiple photographers) waiting for a specific spot... I suggested s drinking game which required the participants to each drink a beer for each bride that passed... The downside would be that one would get drunk way to rapidly...
We found a nice Italian place, ate, retuned to the B$B, and went to bed a little after 8:00... Tomorrow we head to Ayers Rock.
Now after dark, I can see the opera house from our window
Virgin Australia, Boeing 777, Flight 2
8:55 pm Thursday March 8
We have airborne for about 25 minutes... Maybe 150 miles out, only 7,600 miles or so to go. The fasten seat belt light is off, and they just played a video about how to survive (my term) including suggesting we walk around the cabin... They provide water bottles, which you refill at a water station... Encouraging us to move about the cabin.
Even before the water, they distributed the Australian immigration papers... Of course, in addition to spaces for name, passport number, and reason for my visit, after asking if I have tuberculosis, or a criminal record comes question No. 10, asking if I have had recent contact with with farm animals. I answered "no" to avoid any additional possibly difficult questions... I may have shared my office with a chicken as recently as this morning... I may have had an encounter with a sheep today... We have them at work, on the farm... I never imagined that this might be a problem...
The cabin crew is working their way through the cabin serving wine... This is not domestic air travel... Dinner is next... I am watching "The Descendants" There is music for later... The IPad is out... I am blogging (you may have figured that out by now, maybe not the IPad part, but likely the blogging thing)
The Descendants is set in Hawaii... The current scenes on Kauai... I have been there a couple of times, most recently last November, so the landscapes, are familiar... There are layered stories... One involving the sale of a large piece of Kauai... Members of the Patterson family sold their large family holding on Kauai in recent years... The details are different, but the story seems derivative.
By now it is 10:30 at least in California... Probably 9:30 here 30,000' over the North Pacific with 6,444 miles to go... We are racing time zones... If we reach the Date Line before local midnight we will lose Friday March 9th completely... It will be close, but I believe that we will have a few minutes of Friday, abet at 580 mph in a silver sausage... A nice silver sausage...
Now 7:44 Pacific (California) time... By now we have likely crossed the date line, and Friday has become Saturday... Probably 3:44 am... I have slept restlessly for just under 9 hours... Other passengers are starting to wake, their internal clock fighting with the darkness out side...
9::00 pst... 2 hours out of Sidney... We had a request for "any medical doctor or nurse" a bit ago... Now, at 4:00 am Sidney time the passengers are starting to stir, and they have announced meal service is starting...
11:05 pst... 6:05 local... Dawn is just breaking...We are on the ground... "Quentin Australia" is coming aboard to assess a passenger, likely related to the call of a Medical Doctor some 3 + hours ago... Once (if) they release us we will claim bags, clear customs and emigration and take a taxi to our B&B in The Rocks...
A quick note... I am posting this 18 hours after I finished it... the first time I had a good internet... the is another post nearly ready... If I find another internet hot spot... and photos... oh yes photos... it is all about the photos...
Randy
We have airborne for about 25 minutes... Maybe 150 miles out, only 7,600 miles or so to go. The fasten seat belt light is off, and they just played a video about how to survive (my term) including suggesting we walk around the cabin... They provide water bottles, which you refill at a water station... Encouraging us to move about the cabin.
Even before the water, they distributed the Australian immigration papers... Of course, in addition to spaces for name, passport number, and reason for my visit, after asking if I have tuberculosis, or a criminal record comes question No. 10, asking if I have had recent contact with with farm animals. I answered "no" to avoid any additional possibly difficult questions... I may have shared my office with a chicken as recently as this morning... I may have had an encounter with a sheep today... We have them at work, on the farm... I never imagined that this might be a problem...
The cabin crew is working their way through the cabin serving wine... This is not domestic air travel... Dinner is next... I am watching "The Descendants" There is music for later... The IPad is out... I am blogging (you may have figured that out by now, maybe not the IPad part, but likely the blogging thing)
The Descendants is set in Hawaii... The current scenes on Kauai... I have been there a couple of times, most recently last November, so the landscapes, are familiar... There are layered stories... One involving the sale of a large piece of Kauai... Members of the Patterson family sold their large family holding on Kauai in recent years... The details are different, but the story seems derivative.
By now it is 10:30 at least in California... Probably 9:30 here 30,000' over the North Pacific with 6,444 miles to go... We are racing time zones... If we reach the Date Line before local midnight we will lose Friday March 9th completely... It will be close, but I believe that we will have a few minutes of Friday, abet at 580 mph in a silver sausage... A nice silver sausage...
Now 7:44 Pacific (California) time... By now we have likely crossed the date line, and Friday has become Saturday... Probably 3:44 am... I have slept restlessly for just under 9 hours... Other passengers are starting to wake, their internal clock fighting with the darkness out side...
9::00 pst... 2 hours out of Sidney... We had a request for "any medical doctor or nurse" a bit ago... Now, at 4:00 am Sidney time the passengers are starting to stir, and they have announced meal service is starting...
11:05 pst... 6:05 local... Dawn is just breaking...We are on the ground... "Quentin Australia" is coming aboard to assess a passenger, likely related to the call of a Medical Doctor some 3 + hours ago... Once (if) they release us we will claim bags, clear customs and emigration and take a taxi to our B&B in The Rocks...
A quick note... I am posting this 18 hours after I finished it... the first time I had a good internet... the is another post nearly ready... If I find another internet hot spot... and photos... oh yes photos... it is all about the photos...
Randy
Australia here we come..
4:02 pm. gate 54B, SFO...
Bags checked, security cleared, boarding will commence in a few minutes... We are flying out of Terminal 2, once known as terminal 1, before known as THE terminal, when it was Mills Field... But that was a long time ago... Now it is Terminal 2, the new terminal, and home to my beloved Virgin America...
Virgin America will carry us to Los Angeles where we board a Virgin Australia to.... Australia... Who would have thought... We have about 17 hours of travel ahead... An hour to LA, a two hour layover followed by 14 hours to Sidney... Strangely, I am looking forward to it rather than dreading it... In LA we will meet Tina's sisters, Tanya and Karin...
The announcements start... If you gate check your carry ons you get priority
Boarding... If you are traveling light ( don't need to put anything in the overhead... ) Just a purse or a murse ( a man purse?) you can board...
We are seated in the emergency exit row with its extra leg room, but the seats don't recline... With the emergency exit row comes a list of no less than 10 " Emergency Exit Row Duties" of which No. 1 is "Locate the Emergency Exit"... IQ think I can handle that.
Outside it's hazy... The sun is starting to set... Tom Waits, Nirvana, Grateful Dead and Radio Head playing on Red... We are starting our decent...
Now, about 7:30, LAX... We should board the next flight in a minute... bye for now
Randy
Bags checked, security cleared, boarding will commence in a few minutes... We are flying out of Terminal 2, once known as terminal 1, before known as THE terminal, when it was Mills Field... But that was a long time ago... Now it is Terminal 2, the new terminal, and home to my beloved Virgin America...
Virgin America will carry us to Los Angeles where we board a Virgin Australia to.... Australia... Who would have thought... We have about 17 hours of travel ahead... An hour to LA, a two hour layover followed by 14 hours to Sidney... Strangely, I am looking forward to it rather than dreading it... In LA we will meet Tina's sisters, Tanya and Karin...
The announcements start... If you gate check your carry ons you get priority
Boarding... If you are traveling light ( don't need to put anything in the overhead... ) Just a purse or a murse ( a man purse?) you can board...
We are seated in the emergency exit row with its extra leg room, but the seats don't recline... With the emergency exit row comes a list of no less than 10 " Emergency Exit Row Duties" of which No. 1 is "Locate the Emergency Exit"... IQ think I can handle that.
Outside it's hazy... The sun is starting to set... Tom Waits, Nirvana, Grateful Dead and Radio Head playing on Red... We are starting our decent...
Now, about 7:30, LAX... We should board the next flight in a minute... bye for now
Randy
Getting closer…
My bags are packed, I ready to go… (for John Denver it was about leaving someone… I am taking the lovely Tina (and Sisters) with me… so it’s all about the Jet plane a Boeing 777… but there may be a taxi involved (I will avoid a reference and link to Harry Chapin, or not…)
As I said, my suitcase is packed… sitting at about 48 lbs… The limit is 52 lbs… left the white dinner jacket and accessories behind… my dark suit will have to suffice for the formal nights on the ship It is hard when packing for nearly 3 weeks… Too long for one set of clothing… not so long to need to regularly do laundry… We will need to do laundry once… maybe twice…
My yellow backpack is packed with cameras, batteries, 4 or 5 books (Bill Bryson’s Sunburned Country included), a fleece jacket, a sweater… Rotary pins…a GPS… I have used the same yellow backpack for the last 10 years or so… it, the yellow backpack, like my hat is becoming an old friend…
There is a computer bag too…packed except for the laptop… Its my “down” bag on the plane… with I pad, computer, books for the flight… The Ipad has Waifs and Men at Work, John Butler loaded… now nearly midnight, the laptop is currently attached to a portable hard drive, copying everything… archiving everything… the portable hard drive remaining home… my personal archive. As of 12:01 (a.m.) it has 3 hours to run… It has been running for an hour already…
I think home is under control… the birds (carrier pigeons, a gift from my father) are well, including the new baby… we have the beginnings of a garden planted… tomatoes (in Googlely primary color tomatoe cages) are planted…. Lettuce, parsley, and onions are in… There are potatoes, chard, and artichokes from last year growing…
On the dresser, in the bedroom, sit the clothing for the flight… including the hat, the precious hat… the oil cloth fedora… the current hat of record. Hats are important… I have too many… there may be a blog about hats… at least superficially… The last “special” hat was lost in a cab in Buenos Aries… This hat deserves better, But of course, Australia has hats of its own, and maybe… just maybe a new hat may be found while on vacation…
Tomorrow I will go to work… send out a docent newsletter, an agenda for a meeting when I get home… I might hire staff for spring break camps… then will sneak away an hour early to join with the lovely Tina for our appointment with the taxi, to the airport, for the big jet airplane, with packed bags, for our trip to Australia and OZ.
We fly to LAX, to join Tina’s sisters, and our flight to Australia… and our grand adventure….
I might find a bar (with the lovely Tina), and drink to a grand adventure while at LAX… It would seem right… at least they take US dollars at LAX…
Randy
Getting ready
A new trip is looming... Now days away… We (the lovely T and I) are starting to think about packing... We are not actually packing... Only thinking about it.
This is a big trip... A cruise (friends think we crazy for taking a cruise in the aftermath of the Costa Concordia sinking, and now the Costa Alure fire which has left it dead in the water off the Saycells, but I digress) A cruise from Sidney Australia, south to Melbourne and Tazmainia, then over to New Zealand, working our way up the east coast of the two islands, ending at Christchurch... Not quite... We get to fly home... Via Brisbane Australia... There is a land trip before the cruse to Uluru, Ayers Rock… there is time in Sidney afterwards... maybe time to climb the bridge...
The trip is nearly three weeks... Everything from Sidney (likely hot) to Uhuru (Aka Ayer's Rock, very hot) to Melbourne, and New Zealand where it is likely to be a bit cool. We need be able to dress for a variety of climates, and everything from formal night on the ship (suit or white dinner jacket, yes, I own a white dinner jacket… don’t you?) , to a hike in the outback... All within the airline luggage allowances.
Beyond thoughts of clothing and exactly how many pairs of socks I should pack comes a list of technology... I am taking a couple of cameras, plus batteries, memory cards, battery chargers, and such... I am taking my computer so I can down load and clear the memory cards, then fill them again and again, and again... We are considering if we need a phone, and if so what plan to add to make it affordable... I will take my I pad... (I am writing this on my I pad...) mostly for music on the airplane... but also for taking notes (did I say I am writing this on my I pad..l)...
Oh, yes... The airplane... the trip… Australia is a long way from California... It's a long way from most places... It is across the Date line..(at least from California) We leave SFO Thursday evening at 5:05 pm, for LAX to catch a 8:25 pm flight which doesn't arrive in Sidney until Saturday morning at 6:25 am... About 37 hours according to our watches, but in reality, the flight is about 14 hours... The remaining hours consumed by time changes. We gain 4 hours in time zones, lose 24 over the date line, and lose one hour for daylight savings time in Sidney…
The up side is the return flight is scheduled to leave Auckland at 6:45 am to Brisbane, to leave Brisbane at 11:15 am, arrive in Los Angeles at 7:30 am, 4 hours before we left, an hour so after we left New Zealand… (the flight(s) didn’t really an hour, our watches are confused) A 12;15 we arrive at SFO… in theory 5 hours and 50 minutes after we left New Zealand…Closer to 20 hours later…
At home we are now on daylight savings time… we were not when we left… A mior win for us…
At home, I will go to work… I have a meeting scheduled… I suspect the lovely Tina will not… but she might… who knows…
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