In 2000, I went to Australia. After leaving Eugene and many, long, uncomfortable hours in four airports and three airplanes (approximately 28 hours and 13,000 miles,) I once again stepped on solid ground, this time in the “Red Center” of Australia. After exploring the town of Alice Springs and Uluru and Olga Rocks, we bused north to Darwin, stopping at many natural wonders of the outback including the Ormiston and Katherine Gorges, and a swam in alligator infested pools. Our tour group left our old, decrepit bus in Darwin, and toured Kakadu National Park in air conditioned luxury. We then flew on to Port Douglas from which we visited the Great Barrier Reef, some of the nearby high country in Queensland and north into the tropical forests of the York Peninsula (where I saw a large cassowary crossing the road). After all of these incredible places, we flew to Sydney and its pleasures, among which was an Italian opera at the famed Sydney Opera House. My friends, Joan and Stan Cook and I, then broke free from the tour and drove to the Blue Mountains and the wine country of New South Wales. The highlight of this excursion was the Tomah Botanical Gardens, the richest array of native plants in Australia. Because it is fenced so well as to keep out feral cats and rabbits, birding was also extraordinarily good. The the modern survivors of ancient Gondwanaland flora were better seen here than those I saw at Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens near Cape Town, South Africa. Leaving my friends in Sydney, I continued on to Melbourne to meet a former student who then taught at Monash University. I went birding with him and his university colleagues and was shown the splendors of Melbourne.
Maybe the most unexpected surprise about Australia was the superb cuisine. I know of none better. The food was great, often an eclectic fusion of elements of Greek, Italian, Chinese, South Asian, and local dishes. I would match its quality to that of any other place in the world.
Because my photos of Australia are of poor quality, I have substituted several sketches that I made on the tour.
One of many varieties of Eucalyptus trees
Mt. Connor, south of Alice Springs
Ormiston Gorge
Sunrise in the Northern Territory
Sunset at Ubirr Rock overlooking a swamp in Kakadu N.P.
Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu N.P.
On the Great Barrier Reef,
Low Island, Port Douglas
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Uluru, inside a red, sandstone cave.