In the 1950's, Mom used to take my sister Carol and I on nature
trips. This year we had a 12-day nature trip to Australia. The
odyssey began in Sydney
with an evening harbor cruise. We spent the second day across the harbor
at the Taronga Zoo and the third touring the Blue Mountains which
were scenic but not up to Sierra Nevada standards. We got to mingle
with wallabies
and
throw boomerangs in an open field.
Our next destination was Cairns
on the tropical northeast coast. The flowering trees around our
waterfront hotel had colorful nectar-eating lorikeets by day and
furry fruit-eating flying foxes by night. First we drove up the
coast to a bird sanctuary in Port Douglas. The next day was a
narrow-gauge railroad and aerial-tram
tour
of the rain forest around the mountain village of Kuranda. The
trip's high-point was a one-day cruise to the Great Barrier Reef
where Mom and Carol snorkeled and I took my first scuba dive.
The reef was a fantasy world; the fish were similar to Hawaiian fish but
our corals can't compete with the colors and forms found there.
Carol took this picture
with an underwater camera.
The journey's final leg was a drive from Melbourne along the scenic
Great Ocean Road past fern tree forests
and down to the majestic "Twelve Apostles"
cliff formations.
We saw two kangaroos and I got a picture
of Carol almost touching an echidna.
It has porcupine-like quills and doesn't worry much about strangers.