Great Ocean Walk to Remember

On the day after Christmas, after some more boogie boarding in the ocean, we went for a longer hike in the other direction on the Great Ocean Walk. It starts with walking the length of Johanna Beach. A light rain and some wind came through, so this part of the walk wasn't exactly our favorite. But there were tons of pretty little purple shells, so that was kind of neat.

It started to clear up as we reached the path at the end, and we got some nice views of the beach from the other side as we went higher.

The landscape soon turned from beach into rainforest. If you see Zack in the corner of the picture above, it gives you some sort of idea of the size of these trees. It was unbelievably green and beautiful with huge ferns and other plants. The coolest part was the amount of butterflies swarming around us as we walked. It was kind of surreal having up to ten at a time just flying around your head; I've never experienced that except in enclosed butterfly gardens.

We walked until we reached an outcropping where we could see the other side of the cove and get the view seen above. In the water, Zack spotted this animal which was doing flips. At various points we could see two fins. We can't figure out if it was a turtle or a dolphin. This picture looks more like a dolphin, but it stayed in one spot and played like a turtle. What do you think?

We headed back to our campsite as the sun was starting to set. There was a kangaroo in the woods, but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture. Overall, it was a gorgeous hike, and I imagine it's one of the prettiest ones on the Great Ocean Walk.

Zack did spot these three kangaroos in a field near the campground after dinner, so here's a shot of them hopping away after we scared them!

This was our last night at Johanna Beach, because we headed out the next morning to do some surfing at another beach. We enjoyed one last beautiful sunset, and we'll always remember the place where we spent our first Australian Christmas!

Kuranda by Train and Cableway

Barron Falls near Kuranda

Sorry for the lack of posting lately; Morgan and I have been in the Outback with no cell phone service and definitely no internet! Lots of catching up to do (with many stories). Anyway, this post actually should have come before the one about our flight over the reef. Oh well. My mom was nice enough to write some blog posts for me, so this one's in her words again...

Kuranda Scenic Railway

Wednesday, November 9 began early with a taxi ride to the Cairns Station to begin our Kuranda Scenic Railway train ride. We sat in comfortable restored passenger railcars, which rambled and wound their way through the city and forest to the tourist town of Kuranda.  Once there, we trekked a two-mile trail along the river and through the rainforest.  We had an adventurous lunch – crocodile, emu, and kangaroo burgers.  They actually were delicious!

Cindy shows off her kangaroo burger.

Aubree, Zack, Cindy, Justin, and Ray canvassed the souvenir shops. Justin, the expert on all things sweet, discovered and bought some taffy that even those of us who usually find taffy too sweet, found to be quite tasty.  Morgan and I went to the Kuranda Koala Gardens where Morgan officially and completely fulfilled her lifelong dream to hold a koala – it was an exciting moment to behold!

My mom crashes in on Morgan's koala picture.

Next we boarded the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, which looked like a ski gondola and traveled over and across the rainforest canopy.  Our trip included two stops that allowed us to walk down to and explore the rainforest floor. 

Just a little walk through the rainforest.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent casually walking the beach, reading, taking naps, cooking the “never ending pasta” meal and playing Uno at the mansion.  This relaxing family time is priceless!  -Sue

The Coral Sea looked beautiful from the Skyrail Cableway!

Blue Mountains

On Sunday we headed to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. They actually do look blue, apparently because of the eucalyptus oil combining with the atmosphere to create a blue haze. It was kind of a trek to get out there, because they were working on part of the train route, so we had to take a bus for about an hour, wait for awhile, and then take a train for over another hour. But it was worth it. We started by walking through town and checking out the Three Sisters. This is a famous rock formation, and all of the tourists were there.


Then we started our hike (or bushwalk as they would call it here), and it was quite the hike! We went down the Giant Steps (all 900 of them-seriously), walked through the oh-so-green rainforest, saw several waterfalls, heard lots of noisy birds, and went back up a trillion more steps as part of the loop. We only saw a few people once we got away from the big staircase down into the valley. The whole thing took us a few hours, and our legs felt the results of those darn stairs for several days afterward! We felt like we were climbing a 14er in Colorado, huffing and puffing and wondering when we would ever reach the top. Maybe we're just out of shape (quite possible).

 

On our long walk back through town to the train station, we stopped in a little place for some Chinese food. Much to our delight, the prices were completely reasonable, the quality of the food was excellent, and the portions were large. You don't find that winning combination in Australia very often! We both fell asleep on the train and bus ride back to town and woke up sore the next morning. I think the Blue Mountains are a pretty cool place to visit if you have a spare day while visiting Sydney. We're kind of spoiled brats because we compare everything to the mountains in Colorado (and not much compares), but we were impressed with the waterfalls and green plants growing everywhere. It was also nice to just get out of the city. We sure did miss Molly the Trail Dog though; she would have had a blast out there!